“You and your pack of jackals can come to the blood bank like any other vampire,” she said, just as if she were in charge of the situation, even though Claire could see she was weak and exhausted. “All that’s stopping you is your own stubbornness.”

“I won’t bend my neck to the likes of you. I have my pride.”

“Then enjoy your rats,” Amelie said, and cast a commanding look at the rest of them. “We’re going.”

Morley laughed. “You really think so?”

“Oh yes.” Amelie smiled, and it felt like the temperature around them dropped by several degrees. “I really do. Because you may like your games and your displays, Morley, but you are hardly so stupid to think that crossing me comes without a price.”

This time, it wasn’t laughter coming from all around them; it was a low rumble of sound, picked up and carried all around the circle.

Growling.

“You’re threatening us,” the ragged vampire said, and leaned against the tomb behind him. “You, who reeks of your own blood and weakness. Who stands with a newborn vampire as your only ally, and three juicy snacks to defend. Truly? You’ve always been bold, my highborn lady, but there is a boundary between bold and foolhardy, and I think that if you look, you’ll find it’s just behind you.”

Amelie said nothing. She just stood there, silent and icy calm, and Morley finally straightened up.

“I’m not your vassal,” he said. “Turn over the prey, and I’ll let you and the boy walk away.”

Claire guessed, with a sick sensation, that the prey meant her, Eve, and Shane. Shane didn’t like it, either; she felt him tense at her side.

“Why would you think I’d do such a thing?” Amelie asked. She sounded only vaguely interested in the whole problem.

“You’re a chess master. You understand the sacrifice of pawns.” Morley smiled, revealing brown, crooked fangs that didn’t look any less lethal for never having seen a toothbrush. “It’s tactics, not strategy.”

“When I want to be lectured on strategy, I’ll consult someone who actually won battles,” Amelie said. “Not one who ran away from them.”

“Snap,” Eve said.

“You know what they’re talking about?” Shane asked.

“Don’t need to know to get that one. She smacked him so hard his momma felt it.”

Morley felt it, too; he took a step toward them, and this time when he bared his teeth, it wasn’t a smile. “Last chance,” he said. “Walk away, Amelie.”

“I can open a portal,” Claire whispered, trying to make it quiet enough that Morley, twenty feet away, couldn’t hear. Amelie shot her a look, one of those looks.

“If I simply leave in that fashion, even with all of you, he can claim to have driven me away in defeat,” she said. “It isn’t enough to simply escape.”