Claire:
Eventually, the buzzing of her cell phone became too much. Claire Danvers groaned and slowly removed the pillow from over her ears. The light from her alarm clock shone in the darkness. She blinked at it blearily as her fingers swept over the bedside table for her phone. Three am.
Claire silently cursed herself for not switching it off before she'd gone to bed.
"Myrnin," she snapped. Of course it would be her crazy vampire boss. Everyone else Claire knew was sane enough to call at a decent hour. Myrnin, not so much.
"That is a polite way to speak to your employer, Claire," he replied coolly.
Since he couldn't see her, Claire rolled her eyes at the phone. Things had been pretty awkward between her and Myrnin recently, but Claire was secretly relieved to have another reason to be mad at him. In the aftermath of her showdown with Magnus, she'd promised she'd never forgive her boss. He'd tied her to a chair to use as bait for god's sake! And whatever his emergency was, it wasn't Claire's concern. No, it wasn't. She'd cared about him, she really had, but he'd let her down so many times.
Like the last time, when he'd tried to convince her to leave Shane behind.
Claire remembered how different Shane had been after they'd rescued him from Magnus's blood-garden. Sure, some of the changes had been glaringly obvious, like how patches of his skin still appeared faintly pink. Those made Claire feel guilty enough. But then Shane would look at her in that way again, with a horrible, haunted, lost expression, like he couldn't remember where he was. It only flickered for a moment, and never lasted longer than it took for him to blink, but it made Claire's heart ache with remorse.
She could never forgive Myrnin for that. Not ever.
He may have done loads of stupid stuff in the past, but convincing Claire her boyfriend was dead turned out to be the final straw.
"Claire, are you there?" Myrnin's voice barked, loud enough that Claire had to cover the phone with her hand so it didn't wake everyone else in the Glass House. None of her housemates were exactly morning people. Well, Michael technically couldn't be, being dead and all. Claire sighed and removed her hand from her cell-phone.
"I'm here," she said, pleased at how cold her voice sounded.
No reply for a second. Claire could imagine Myrnin pacing his lab, holding his phone to his ear. She couldn't see him right now, but she could picture his hurt expression clearly. And she knew he would be hurt.
Good, she tried to tell herself, but her heart wasn't in it. Not really. That worried her, just a little bit.
"I need you to come into the lab. Now, preferably. We have a small emergency on our hands."
Claire groaned and turned to stare reproachfully at her alarm clock. She could hear nothing from Myrnin, not even the soft sound of him breathing. Clearly, he was doing that creepy thing all vampires did when they were afraid, the one where they could just…stop. It brought on a whole new level of musical statues.
"Please, Claire."
She closed her eyes for a moment. She hated it when Myrnin tried to sound helpless and needy. It usually meant he was about to go into a manic state and do something stupid. Something Claire would have to put right, once he returned back to sanity. Stupid vampire bosses. Stupid bi-polar vampire bosses.
"Open a portal, and I'll be there in a minute."
"Done," Myrnin whispered. Claire heard a small intake of breath on his end of the conversation and guessed he was about to say something else. Judging from his current mood, it might have even been an apology. She pressed a button on the phone and the call was disconnected. Claire just wished it could be as easy getting rid of her crazy boss.
The portal opened. A big black hole sizzled against the wall of her bedroom like a dark fire, swallowing everything. Claire grabbed for her backpack, the one with all the pointy weapon-y things inside. She never left home without it, not anymore. You couldn't be too careful.
That was her final thought as she stepped through the portal. And after a horrible stomach-wrenching moment of being thrown into Myrnin's lab, she wished she hadn't thought it.
Because there was Myrnin, standing in front of her. Eyes all dark and apologetic, desperate almost. And beside him was Naomi, holding a silver dagger to his throat.