"Why do there have to be sides? We're people, Hannah."
She shook her head. "You were people. You like to think you still are, but you're a kil er at heart. And there are always sides. If you can't give her up just because you love her, then you're selfish, and you're the one putting her more at risk every day-from your own kind."
"So what am I supposed to do?" It burst out of me in anger, and allof a sudden I was on my feet, eyes blazing, rage bringing out my fangs and my fury. "She's my wife! This isn't you, Hannah. It's not like you at all, bringing innocent people into this, getting them hurt, maybe killed!"
Hannah didn't move, and she didn't reach for a weapon. Enrique pushed off the wal , and so did Shane in a match move, but I was the only one showing any threat.
Hannah said, "Gentlemen-could you leave me, Naomi, and Michael alone, please?"
The Morganville businessmen allgot up and left the room without argument. Enrique stuck around.
"I wil if he wil ," Enrique said, and nodded toward Shane, who nodded right back.
"Maybe you guys can go have a stare-off in the other room," I said, and got a chal enging frown from Shane. "If something was going to go sideways, it already would have happened. Right?"
"Probably," Shane said. "But I don't like this."
"It's better if we do this alone," Hannah said. "You, me, and Naomi. There are things we need to keep private, even from our advisers."
I studied them, then jerked my head at Shane. He made an after-you motion to Enrique, then followed the other man out of the room.
The door to the kitchen shut tightly behind them.
From the moment the door closed, Hannah said nothing. It was as if she'd just...powered off. It was Naomi who stood up and walked the perimeter of the kitchen, apparently fascinated by the countertops, the appliances, the drawer pul s.
"The solution to your problem is perfectly commonplace," Naomi said finally. "Let Eve think you have ceased to care for her, and her safety will be assured. Your marriage is the problem, and it's the marriage that must be ended. You may choose the timing of the legal actions, of course, but it's imperative that you make her leave you now."
"I can't do that." The anger wasn't helping me, and alltoo soon, it drained away, leaving me feeling empty and hol ow. "I can't just push her away. Hannah-"
Hannah wasn't looking at me, or at anything. I had a visceral sense of sudden danger, and I turned on Naomi. "Why are you here? You're not Captain Obvious; you can't be. How did you get them to even let you in the door?"
"I was wondering when you'd ask that," she said, and smiled at me from under her long eyelashes. "I can be very persuasive. It's been my strength. Once I realized that Hannah Moses made such an excel ent leader for the human resistance, it was clear I should ally myself to it. How else am I to bring down my sister?"
I glanced at Hannah again, eyes widening, because it wasn't right that she was sitting so quietly, like a dol that had been switched off...or a puppet.
The distraction was allNaomi needed. If my nerves hadn't been strung guitar-tight, I'd never have seen her move; even with that much warning, though I didn't understand what she was going to do. I thought she was going to stake me, and I raised my hands in defense, but she darted past me, behind me, grabbed me, and pulled me off-balance. I felt her hands snaking cold around my chest, then pushing my chin high-
And then she bit me before I could yel for help.
Her fangs slid into my throat, and it felt like being stabbed with ice; allthe warmth began to flood away from me, into her, and in its place I felt a terrible dark influence sliding through my veins. Naomi, like Bishop, her vampire father, had the power to subvert other vampires-and now, she had me. Just as she'd taken control of Hannah, and through Hannah, the entire human resistance.
We were alljust puppets now.
It didn't take long, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to fight it. When she let me go, I col apsed to my hands and knees on the tile, mouth open, fangs extended, and Naomi walked calmly back to take her seat again at the table. She looked at Hannah. "Then that's finished," she said, and tapped her fingers on the wood of the table in a complex, musical rhythm. "Michael. Stand."
I did. I wanted to lunge at her, kil her, rip her apart, but I knew that none of it was showing on my face or in my body language. Just as nothing showed in Hannah's. The reason it hadn't fit for Hannah to have put Eve at such deadly risk was that it hadn't been her choice. It was Naomi's decision-al of it, tracing back to Naomi. And it was way too late for me to do anything about it. I couldn't even try to warn people.
"This is what you wil do, Michael," Naomi said. "You wil go back to see your lovely wife and tel her you've had second thoughts. You'l do whatever is necessary to destroy alltrust between you. And then you wil pack your things and come back here, to me. You'l make an excel ent soldier. Best of all, no one wil suspect you. Amelie's bloodchild? You are a perfect little assassin."
"Yes," I said. No, no, no, I was screaming, but I couldn't do anything at allto stop myself. "What should I do about Shane? And Claire?"
"Shane's of no consequence, and neither is the girl, except as a tool to be used. I've taken Myrnin out of play; without the protection of her black knight, she is no more than a pawn. But..." She tapped pale fingers to her lips, looking momentarily thoughtful. "You make a good point. What of Claire? Even a pawn may take a queen, if played properly...."
She rose to her feet and paced for a moment, arms folded, head down. Hannah and I stared at each other. Her heart was hammering, and I recognized now that it wasn't fear she felt but rage. She was just as trapped as I was. If Myrnin's black knight was off the table, Hannah was Naomi's white castle, hiding secrets. And what was I?
"Ah," Naomi said, and turned back toward me, eyes shining in unholy delight. "I know how to play Claire. So, this is what you wil do, and what you wil tel her...."
I listened. I hated her with every fiber of my being and every tiny bit of my soul.
But I knew I'd do what she said, even though it was going to destroy every good thing in my life.
Because I didn't have a choice.
Chapter SEVENTEEN
CLAIRE
Michael looked like the walking dead when he arrived back in the waiting room, where Claire was getting coffee for the eleven-mil ionth time from the machine; it ate her quarters, again, but she'd learned from one of the nurses-not the one who'd threatened Eve, thank God-how to kick the side of the dispenser in just the right spot to get the container to drop and produce about a half cup of oily, disgusting swil that kind of tasted like coffee.
It was better than nothing. But not much better.
She almost dropped the cup when she saw the boys arrive. Shane had a guarded, solemn expression, but Michael looked as though he'd been to the gates of hel and back and returned without the souvenir T-shirt.
"She's sleeping," Claire said, before either of them could speak. "Hey, are you all right? Michael?"
"Fine," he said. His blue eyes looked oddly stark and empty, and there were dark smudges under them, as if he'd been robbed of a week's sleep in just the past few hours. "I need to see her."
"Just be careful not to wake her," Claire said. "She's pretty woozy, and in some pain. The doctor said she'l probably be better in the morning.
They're going to let her go then, so we can take her home. She just can't do much for a while."
"Good," he said. He hardly even glanced her way, but he took the coffee cup out of her hand and tossed back the near-boiling contents in a single gulp, crushed the paper, and dropped it on the floor as he stalked off, heading for Eve's room. Claire bent and picked up the trash.
"Wow," she said, looking after him. "What the hel , Shane?"
"Wish I knew," he said. "That was the weirdest couple of hours I've ever had. Roy-that was okay, fine, I get it. But then we went to see Cap-"
By which she understood Captain Obvious, without it being spel ed out. "They made me wait outside toward the end. Whatever they said in there, it was bad. He's looked like that ever since. Like somebody cut his guts out and made him swal ow them."
"So you know who it is? Cap, I mean?" She kept it in a bare whisper, glancing around at the empty waiting room. Shane nodded. "Who?"