Chapter Nineteen
Luis was halfway home Sunday when his phone started ringing. At a light he checked it, and then did a double take when he saw it was his mother.
He pulled over just in time to get the next call.
“Luis?” Her voice across the line was soft. Luis felt his chest squeeze.
He shouldn’t have answered. He knew it immediately. He was supposed to be closing this door, not leaving her a crack in which to hurt him again.
“Hi Mama.” His throat was dry.
“I thought we could talk. If you’re free?” She sounded careful, sweet. Luis hated the stupid hope that fluttered inside him. She was always sweeter after a fight. It was a honey to lure him back.
Hadn’t he and Cassie talked about this time and time again?
“Yeah, yeah I’m free,” The words slipped out before he could stop them. Part of his head was screaming at him not to do this.
But he had to know if she meant it. If this was just another manipulation or if she truly felt bad about what had happened.
If it was just a way to get him back and she wasn’t willing to change, Luis would just leave. Walk away.
“I’m finishing up at church, do you want to meet me here?” She asked. “We can get lunch, my treat.”
Luis didn’t want to trap them both in the same car, but he liked the idea of talking on neutral ground. Something civilized at a restaurant. There was no way she was going to throw a fit in public, she wasn’t that kind of person.
This was as safe as it was going to get.
“Okay, yeah, sure.” He was already putting the church’s name in his navigation. “I can be there in like fifteen.”
“Great,” he could hear her smile over the line, but couldn’t tell if it was authentic. “Just come in and get me when you arrive, I’m helping organize the backroom,” she said.
Luis had helped her a time or two with that. “Will do.”
Then the line clicked, and she was gone.
No I love you. Okay.
Luis drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. Was he doing this?
Cassie would tell him not to, but even if it was a guilt ambush, he needed to know. It would be closure, right? That he’d tried absolutely everything, given her every chance.
And then maybe the last of the guilt that had been dogging him would finally shake free.
Luis took a deep breath, meeting his eyes in the rearview mirror.
“You can do this,” he said. He tilted his head to look at his neck, but there’d been enough time and there was almost no evidence of the bites.
Still, Luis adjusted his hair and shirt to further hide it.
He was sure his mother would be looking.
Okay. He could do this.
Just one last time.
He clicked his signal to get back on the road.
Fifteen minutes later, Luis pulled into the church parking lot. There were a few other cars there, but it was quiet. The Sunday service had already come and gone.
The sunlight was bright as he made his way up to the church. He tried to be positive, to believe that they could find an understanding. That she wanted their relationship enough to come back to the table.
Luis stepped in the door with that cautious hope in his chest, and was temporarily blinded by how dark it was inside. The lights that were usually on, weren’t. He squinted, blinking as he tried to adjust to the low lighting.
He knew that the storage room was back and to the right, so he’d just head that way and–
The door slammed shut behind him, and something clicked. Luis jumped, went to whirl around, but someone grabbed him.
“Right on time,” came a voice in his ear. A man.
“What the fuck?” Luis tried to pull away, but the man was strong, his arms banding tight to immobilize. He was broader and taller than Luis. Out of his periphery Luis caught a glimpse of shaggy blonde hair and hipster glasses.
What?
“Fucking—let me go—!” He snarled.
“Calm down, struggling will only make this worse.” Then, to someone else, “I’ve got him, hurry up!”
Fear shot through Luis. The smell of the man’s cologne invaded his senses. It was disgustingly familiar. He was dragged back to that night at the bar, being led out the back, pushed into a car. The blonde hair and perfect smile above him.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. This couldn’t be happening.
Then there were more men and hands on him.
“Bring his wrists together,” someone said.
Eric loosened his hold to jerk Luis’s arms back behind him. Something hard and plastic slipped around his wrists roughly.
It was all happening so fast, Luis could barely focus. He was choking too on the memory, the man’s hands on him, caressing. The way he’d gotten Luis into his car–
“Move,” someone demanded, and then Luis was being shoved forward. He stumbled, almost fell.
“What’s going on?” He asked, and hated how his voice wavered.
No one answered. Luis tugged at his wrists, but they were bound tight, and four men were moving him toward the back of the church, toward the storage areas. Fear rattled through his body. He didn’t understand what was happening.
Then, at the opening to the hallway, was his mother.
“Mama!” He tried to lurch forward, but hands held him in place.
He noticed then the way her face was flat, solemn. “This is for your own good,” she said. Her eyes were full of malice.
Hatred.
He’d never seen it before, but there was no other word for it. The other shoe dropped.
She’d planned this. Lured him here. It was a trap, but even in his wildest fantasies he’d never come up with anything close to this.
“What’s–Mama, what’s going on?” He asked. His voice trembled like a child that didn’t understand what he’d done wrong.
There were tears burning the corners of his eyes, but she didn’t answer. She just stepped aside, and the men started to drag him down the dark hallway and away.
The fight went out of him. The men carried Luis down the stairs to the church basement, Luis slack and silent. The shock filled him, and he was unable to do anything but be dragged along.
Eventually the men sat him on a squeaky cot. Luis didn’t react as they checked his pockets and extracted his phone, wallet, and keys.
“You’re safe now,” one of the men said. His voice was pitched like he was trying to be soothing. “Your mother did this because she loves you. To save you.”
Luis heard the words through a daze, but they didn’t mean anything to him. There was bile in the back of his throat. When the hands let go of him, he just slumped sideways on the cot.
Footsteps went away and the door closed. A heavy lock clicked into place.
And Luis was alone.
##
The first real thought to permeate the fog of Luis’s betrayal was that meeting Eric at the bar had been no chance encounter. He’d been there at his mother’s request, and it hadn’t been a rape attempt, but an abduction attempt.
An abduction for what?
Luis looked around the space he’d been locked in. It was a basement storage room, cold and damp and dark. There were crumbling boxes with papers ready to spill out, cobwebs, and one barely working bulb hanging above.
That he’d been lured to the church did give him some clue.
But was it the vampire thing or the gay thing? It could be both.
Then again, he and his mother had only fought about one thing recently. Plus, Eric had come to the vampire bar, tried to take him directly from there.
That seemed to point more conclusively in that direction.
So… what? Was it an intervention? It felt like too much violence for an intervention. He’d been zip-tied and, previously in the bar, drugged. That spoke of a more serious sort of confrontation.
But what did they hope to achieve?
Eventually, when the ache in Luis’s shoulders and wrists moved from uncomfortable to painful, he heard the sound of the door being unlocked.
Two men came in. One Luis had seen before, a tall and balding man in his late fifties. He was a pastor here. The other man was clearly the muscle, huge and hulking, and he hung back by the door, arms crossed and looking annoyed.
“Here,” the pastor had a pair of scissors and leaned around Luis. Luis’s heartbeat shot up for one terrifying moment before he felt the pressure release on the zip ties.
His shoulders screamed at him when he rotated his arms forward again.
“And some water,” the man said, offering what looked like a sealed bottle.
Luis took it, but had no intention of drinking it. Eric had drugged his drink at the bar, and Luis wasn’t eager to repeat the experience.
“Luis,” the pastor stepped back, all smiles.
“I’m Pastor Baker, I know we’ve informally met a few times.
Your mother, Maria, came to me several months ago, concerned for you and the sorts of…
company you’ve been keeping. We agreed it would be in your best interest to put you through the Find Purity Again program. ”
Luis stared at the man. He was smiling like this was a great honor.
“What?” He asked.
“Have you not heard of the FPA?” Baker asked. Luis shook his head. “That’s okay. You’ll soon become familiar. We’ve contacted All Pure, that’s the camp we work with, and they have an opening for you, so tomorrow you’ll be taken there and they’ll explain everything.”
“Camp?” His anxiety spiked. That sounded like–like–
“Yes,” the man smiled. “All Pure has beautiful grounds and excellent counselors to get you the help you need. It’s a rigorous program, but considering how dire your situation is, we thought it best to act quickly before something happened–”
“Are you sending me to a fucking conversion camp?” Luis blurted out, horrified. “I’m an adult–you can’t–” His words stuttered in disbelief.
“It’s an adult camp,” the pastor said, voice low and soothing like he’d had this same conversation dozens of times before.
“It’s specifically designed for adults who’ve lost their way.
Your mother loves you very much and she’s paid for this opportunity for you to take your life back, to come back to God and–”
“You can’t do this,” Luis cut in. “I didn’t agree to this. This is kidnapping!”