button.
“Who is it?” he asked, feeling her twitch next to him.
There was no reply.
“Claire?” he asked, sitting upright.
She was staring at her phone, eyes wide with fear.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Claire
She distantly heard Pietro calling her name, but she couldn’t respond.
“Hello, Claire,” the red-robed preacher from the Church of the Anti-Wyrm said. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Suddenly feeling vulnerable and exposed, she tilted the phone slightly so that only her face was visible.
“How did you get this number?” she asked as Pietro’s angry face loomed in front of her, on the other side of the phone.
He too must have recognized the voice, if nothing else, and knew who was calling her. How had they gotten her number? And why was he calling her now? They’d already had her. Were they calling to taunt her about it now?
“It doesn’t matter how we got the number,” the preacher replied with a smile that made Claire’s blood run cold.
The sheer evil it contained was palpable even through the phone. She wanted nothing more than to hang up, but the urgency with which he’d called her back three times already told Claire that this was a man not ready to back down.
“What do you want?” she snapped sharply.
“Why, I want to talk to you about something that does matter,” he said with a smile that did absolutely nothing to comfort her and everything to scare her stiff.
“Just cut the preachy bullshit and tell me why you called,” she said quietly.
“To talk to you. To help you,” the preacher said. “To show you that you still have a chance.”
“A chance to what?” she asked angrily, getting tired of all his crap.
“To save your eternal soul of course. The only thing that should matter to anyone. The thing that is in danger from your proximity to the Satan-spawn.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Goodbye. I’m done. I’m hanging up now.”
She reached for the button.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the preacher warned with a confident smile.
Claire’s hand froze. “Why not?” she asked, nervous trepidation betraying her, working its way into her voice.
“Well, for starters, doing so would damn you to hell for all eternity. However, I suspect at the moment that isn’t as high a concern for you as it should be, my child. So you may also wish to consider that you hanging up would not go well for some people you know.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?” she hissed, not appreciating the irony of her words until the preacher flinched at them.
“You must leave the Satan-spawn. Forever,” he informed her solemnly. “Come to the Church. Learn our ways. Become one with us.”
Claire’s heart was trying to pump, but her blood was so cold it was like trying to move ice.
“Meaning?” she asked hoarsely.
A figure moved over the preacher’s left shoulder—or maybe it was his right? Was the video flipped? It didn’t matter, she told herself sharply, focusing on what the preacher meant by the reveal.
His intent came clear as she saw the vampire come into focus, its fangs clearly visible. She couldn’t help it. She laughed.
“You can’t seriously expect me to come to you and willingly let you turn me into one of those…those things, can you? I mean come on. You had your chance. You had me. Hell, twice now those things have had me, and they didn’t turn me. Why would I now choose to do so?”
“There will be a difference this time,” the preacher began, but Claire cut him off with another barking laugh.
“I doubt it. Pietro handed those things their asses last time, and he was alone. I doubt anything will be different.”
“Of course it will, my child,” the preacher said, unfazed by her attitude. “Because this time, you will come willingly. You will agree to be changed. After all, that is the only way for the change to work. You must want it. You must agree to it. Otherwise, you will fight it, and it will kill you.”
Claire swallowed a lump, her swagger gone. He was planning something. Something horrible. She could feel it.
“I find it highly unlikely that I will just choose to come down there and let you turn me into a monster. I’m not an idiot. I’ll stay here, where I’m safe, and those things can’t get me. Thanks, but no thanks. I’m done. Take your offer and shove it,” she snapped with sudden defiance.
“If you refuse my offer, people will die,” the preacher said in a low tone. “You could save them, Claire Owens.