"Ah. Florentine. That suits me well enough."
They each took two swords, and as Claire and Eve retreated back to a bench in the rear of the room, Amelie and Oliver faced off. Amelie crossed her two swords in front of her face, and Oliver followed suit; the sound of four blades cutting the air in salute made Claire shiver. "What are they doing?" she whispered.
"Free fighting," Eve answered, keeping it quiet. "No rules. More like the old-style duels."
"Not quite," Amelie said. She was almostsmiling . "This likely won't end in death."
"But no guarantees," Oliver said. Hewas smiling, and not his usual eviler-than-you sort of twisted lips, either. He almost lookedhappy . "Ready?"
"Of course." Amelie didn't seem to be; she was holding her swords down, almost not seeming to know
what to do with them.
Oliver took one step toward her, and the weapons snapped up and targeted him so fast, Claire blinked. Oliver raised one over his head in a pose that made her think of a scorpion's stinger, and circled to the right. Amelie circled, too, keeping the distance between them...until suddenly she was moving, two light, quick steps, a sudden jump that ended in a sliding lunge, andboth her epees hit targets, one slicing across Oliver's leg, the other under his arm. He whirled and hit her in the back with an underhand stroke--or tried to. She must have known it was coming, because she bent forward, graceful as a willow, and rolled up on her knee to parry the next lunge.
And that was just thestart.
"You know," Eve said distantly, about five minutes later, as the two vampires were still circling, slashing, hacking, and scoring points on each other, "I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't ever piss him off. Or her. Again."
"You think?" Claire whispered back. "Jeez. It's likeThe Terminator meetsBuffy. "
"How do they decide who wins? I mean, clearly, they're hitting each other, but they don't even pretend those are going to hurt...."
"I don't think it matters," Claire said.
She was proven right just thirty seconds later, when Amelie reached down and tapped the point of one epee three times on the floor. Oliver, moving in for a lunge, veered off at the last second and went to a neutral position.
"Done?" he asked.
"Most enjoyable," she said. "Thirty-two mortal touches for you; thirty-one for me. But I don't mind losing to a master, Oliver." She bowed slightly, swords down.
He bowed back, a little more deeply. "Nor do I," he said. "But winning is always better. You're favoring your right again, you know."
"I noticed. We can't all overcome nature's disadvantages so easily."
They exchanged a smile, a real one, and Claire exchanged a look with Eve. Eve cleared her throat.
"Are you still here?" Oliver asked without changing his expression. He didn't look away from Amelie. "Leave."
"Right," Claire said. "Going."
She picked up Eve's stuff and walked with her to one of the small changing rooms to strip off the sweat-damp uniforms. Eve stuffed hers into the bag and stripped off her pink shirt. Claire gasped at the forming bruise, which was at least three inches across and looked very painful.
"Dammit," Eve said. "That's going to show over my bra. Got to rethink the wardrobe for the next few days." She probed at the bruise with a fingertip and winced. "Nothing broken, just a nice reminder not to screw around with Ollie on the pointy-object dance floor."
"I can't believe you fought him."
"Fought him? Damn, girlfriend, I got atouch on him. You know how difficult that is? I've been a serious fencer for years, but I never even got close to a touch on anybody without a pulse. He used to duel for real, you know. Without the safety tips on the blades."
Claire could believe it. What she couldn't get her head around was that Eve thought that was cool.
Maybe,she thought,fencing isn't my sport after all.
FOUR
Michael was home when they arrived, and surprisingly, he wasn't playing guitar. He was sitting on the couch in Shane's customary spot, playing a game. "Hey," he said as Claire and Eve entered. "Nobody made dinner."
"Nobody but you was home to eat it," Eve said. "And I'm taking a wild guess that you didn't make it, either."