—I’ll come get you, wait!
My phone rang. Caller ID said Jack. Which was weird, because he never called. In all the years we’d been living together, I couldn’t remember him ever calling.
“Jack?” I said. I couldn’t decide if I was happy or angry. I had no idea what he’d been up to the last couple of days. I supposed I was happy he was still alive. Undead. Whatever. But was he still one of us? “Jack, what’s going on?”
“We have a problem.”
“Problem? What problem?”
“They’re trying to kill me!”
“Woah, who’s trying to kill you?”
He took a breath—he was forgetting to breathe. “I wasn’t totally honest with you, Sam. Carter—she made me an offer. She said she could make me Master of Denver.”
“You can’t challenge Rick, he’d
eat you alive! He could destroy you without even blinking. He’d snap his fingers and you’d be a puddle on the floor—”
“I know that! That’s why Carter said she’d help—she’s got vampires working for her, some really badass guys—if I agreed to be her ally when it was all over.”
“Oh, my God,” I could help but exclaim. “Were you really going to do it?”
“No! Well. I don’t know. I’ve just been lost, I was looking for something, Carter saw it… I listened, for just a minute, you know?”
Ginny. I went back to typing. —I’m on the phone with Jack, are you still okay?
—I don’t know.
“Jack,” I said. “It’s Ginny, she’s out there. She wanted to check them out, they might have found her—where are you?”
“Heading home from the Brown Palace. Don’t worry, Sam, I’ll find her. We’ll figure something out, I guess.”
That was not a good plan.
I couldn’t type fast enough. —Jack’s out there, he’s coming to help, okay?
—OK.
Jack said, “I don’t know if I can do this. There’s five of them, and they have weapons, and they’re definitely following me—”
“Jack. Think a minute. You’re a vampire. You have super speed and strength. You can hide in shadows. I know you can do it because I’ve seen you do it at clubs!”
“But they’re vampires!”
“Well, so are you!” That was as much pep talk as I could manage.
“I think I found Ginny… I can smell her… hanging up now.”
No, don’t get off the phone, how would I know everything was all right?
I desperately wanted to text Ginny but I didn’t dare. I didn’t want to distract her. And I sure hoped this wasn’t some elaborate deception, either Jack or Ginny or both working for Carter, all of them trying to get rid of us on their way to getting rid of Rick—
No. Everything was going to be fine.
Aaron was at the kitchen counter, staring at me. He’d heard everything.
“Aaron?” I said. “Do we have any weapons?”