The office looked eerily the same: high bookcases, big picture windows treated with anti-UV tinting to reduce damage from the sunlight, candles burning here and there. Amelie's desk was massive and orderly, and behind it, the Founder of Morganville sat with her hands folded on the leather blotter.
Behind her stood Oliver.
The two vampires couldn't have been more different. Amelie was polished, silky, pale haired, every inch a born ruler. Oliver, on the other hand, had the angular toughness of a warrior, and with his graying hair and ruthless smile, he might as well have been wearing armor as a turtleneck and jacket. Amelie's pantsuit was a pristine white silk, and it contrasted completely with his all-black-deliberately; Claire was certain of it.
Amelie was also wearing her hair down in flowing, gorgeous waves. Very not the old Founder.
Oliver had his hand on Amelie's shoulder, a gesture of easy familiarity that would have been odd in the time before the arrival, battle, and defeat of the draug. He and Amelie had been enemies, then unwil ing allies, and then, finally-something else.
Something more dangerous, obviously.
Claire looked around, but the chairs that had once been in front of Amelie's desk, the ones for visitors, were gone. She and Michael would be expected to stand.
But first, apparently, they were expected to do something else, because Oliver watched the two of them for a moment, then frowned and said, "Pay proper respect, if you wish to speak with the Founder."
Amelie said nothing. She'd always been a bit of an ice queen, but now she was unreadable, allpale, perfect skin and cool, assessing eyes.
There was no tel ing what she felt, if she felt anything at all.
Michael inclined his head. "Founder."
"I see you've been recently injured," she said. "How?"
"It's nothing."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"It's my problem. I'll handle it."
Amelie sat back in her chair and cast a glance upward at Oliver. "See to it that Henrik understands I do not condone this kind of behavior within these wal s. Michael, you'd do well to answer my questions when I ask them next time."
"Since you already knew the answer, I don't see the point." He was almost as good at hiding emotions as Amelie. "If you really cared about stopping him and the others like him, you'd publicly acknowledge our marriage and put a stop to it."
"You didn't obtain permission from me, and it's my right as your blood sire to give or withhold it," she said. "I don't have to acknowledge anything you do without my blessing. And we've traveled this road before, to no good purpose. What brings you here, then?"
Claire cleared her throat and took a step forward. "I-"
Oliver interrupted her. "Greet the Founder properly, or you'l not utter another word."
Amelie could have quel ed that; she could have just waved it away as she normally would have...but she didn't. She waited, her gaze on Claire's face, until Claire swal owed hard and bent her head forward just a little. "Founder," she said.
"You may speak, Claire."
Gee, thanks, Claire wanted to say with a liberal dose of sarcasm, but she managed to choke it back. Shane would have said it, which was why she hadn't let him come along on this little venture. "Thank you," she said, and tried to make herself sound truly grateful. "I came to talk to you about the identification cards."
Amelie's face did show emotion after all-anger. "I have heard allof the arguments that I am prepared to endure," she said. "The measure ensures that allMorganville residents have proper care in case of emergency, that their Protectors are properly identified, that they can be found in case they go missing. Whatever resentments you have come from a false sense that you are free to do as you wil . You are not, Claire. No one is in this world."
"I thought you took Sam's goals seriously. You told me you'd make humans equal partners in Morganville, that we had rights just like vampires.
You told me that!"
"I did," Amelie said. "And yet I find that where humans are allowed a little freedom, they wil take more, until their very freedom destroys our way of life. If it comes to a choice, I must choose the survival of my own. Yours are certainly far too numerous as it stands. What is the count now, seven bil ion? You'l excuse me if I believe we might be at a slight numerical disadvantage."
"Is that why you're allowing hunting again?"
Oliver laughed. "A tempting side benefit, but no. Hunting is buried as deep in the vampire nature as the need to reproduce is in humans. It is not simply a thing we can turn off. For some, hunting allows them to control a dark and violent side that would be much more damaging. Think of a dammed-up river, with a flaw in the structure. Sooner or later, that torrent of water wil break free, and the damage it does wil be considerably worse than a slow and control ed release."
"You're talking about water! I'm talking about people's lives!"