The four of them, in the spirit of solidarity, trudged upstairs to the hidden room. The Tiffany lamps—minus that one pole lamp casualty—were blazing, filling the walls with color and light, but somehow none of it fell on Amelie, who looked pale as bone and just as hard. She was wearing pure, cold white, and her lips seemed almost blue. Her eyes looked more silver than gray, but maybe that was because of the metallic shine of her shirt under the tailored jacket.

Claire wondered why she bothered with the meticulous dressing, when Amelie rarely seemed to leave her home these days; she supposed that growing up as royalty in the distant past had made looking perfect a habit she couldn’t seem to shake.

Amelie received the news of the gangs beating up on her vampires without much shock, Claire thought; she sat there looking cool and calm, hands folded, and listened to Shane and Claire’s experience without any flicker of expression. There was something in her face when Claire described the handful of pulled vampire fangs that she’d seen, but what it was, Claire couldn’t guess. Disgust, maybe, or pain. “Is that all?” Amelie asked. She sounded way too distant. “What of Morley? Did you see where he went?”

“We don’t know,” Claire said. “He looked—hurt. A lot hurt, maybe.”

“I was afraid of this,” Amelie said, and got up to pace the floor.

“Afraid of what?” Michael asked. He was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, looking very serious. “Losing control?”

Amelie stopped to frown at the broken pole lamp, trailing pale fingers over the neat slice through the metal. “Afraid that humans might lose their fear of reprisals if I offered too much leniency,” she said. “The rules of Morganville existed for a reason. They were meant to protect the strong few from the fragile many. Even a giant may be destroyed by the stings of insects, if there are enough of them.”

“That’s not what your rules did,” Shane said. “They just made it easier for vampires to kill us without letting humans hit them back.”

Amelie sent him a cool glance, but didn’t otherwise react. “I’ve received reports of other incidents, less serious than this. It seems these gangs of thugs are growing bolder, and that must be stopped.”

“They said something about Morley killing a kid,” Shane said. “Anything to that?”

“I doubt it.” Amelie met his eyes for a few seconds, then continued to pace. “I’ve had no reports of children being victimized. As you know, that is strictly against all our laws, human or vampire. I can’t say it never happens, but it happens in human society, as well. Yes?”