Chapter Thirty-Seven: Benjamin
"Are you comfortable?" Alice said, again. Like a few cushions and a soft sofa would make me any less nervous. I was sitting with a vampire, about to ring a vampire.
I shook my head and passed her the phone. "I can't do it, I just can't. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize to me, Ben. I'm not the one who's gonna die or be changed."
Yes, those same words, again. 'I'm going to die.' Easy for her to say, seeing as she had defeated her grim reaper some time ago. If only there was a way to soften it. Perhaps by saying 'you might die' or 'but you won't feel a thing', would make it sound better. Actually, neither of those phrases did. It was still a horrible ending to my painfully short, uneventful life.
"Why can't you call him?" I said. "You know Felix. You've met him before. You'll be able to level with him more that I ever could."
"And spoil the only advantage you've got going for you right now?" She said, eyebrows arched above a serious frown. "Come on, we've practiced it. You introduce yourself, scare him a bit, and then drive it home."
"You don't think I should tell him I'll call him back later once he's thought about it?"
"Nope, he's a vampire, he can think on his feet. Besides you wouldn't have foreseen the Volturi palace phone number if you weren't meant to do something with it. Now is your chance."
I scrunched up my face. Alice was getting impatient with me. She thrust the phone in my hand with the telephone number already entered. I took a deep breath and pressed the call button.
There was a long pause, three long beeps, then the sound of a woman who was definitely not Italian; the one I have seen in a vision.
"Hello?" She said, her tone clipped. The same woman from my vision.
I introduced myself and asked to speak with Felix.
She was either trying to be unhelpful or struggling with the language barrier. Either way she sounded perplexed to transfer the call to the ballroom, and even more so to have to fetch Felix personally.
By the length of time she was gone, I guessed the palace was enormous.
"Why the ballroom?" I whispered to Alice.
"It's a separate line; the only extension that can't be interfered with or listened in on from other parts of the palace."
"Oh."
I didn't hear the woman again. Instead a deep male voice came on. Showtime.
"This is Felix," he said.
Petrified, I slammed the phone down.