“You’re such an idiot,” I rolled my eyes, and he laughed.
My phone jingled the first three seconds of “Purple Rain,” and I leapt out of bed. For the majority of the trip, my phone had sat discarded on my dresser because I could never get any service.
The “Purple Rain” ringtone just meant that I had a voicemail, but that meant that it had connected with something long enough to register that. I rushed to grab it before the signal dropped.
“Who is it?” Bobby asked, jumping out of bed after me. We had been stranded without technology for so long that he was excited vicariously.
“I don’t know.” I tried to call my voicemail, but the call immediately dropped. “Damn!”
“Go over to the window!”
When I walked over to the window, a bar flashed on. The closer to the window, the brighter the signal. I was a little fanatical about having a chance to hear someone’s voice (in particular Jack’s), so I pushed the screen out of the window.
“What are you doing?” Bobby asked.
“Getting a signal!” I leaned out the window, and I finally managed to connect to my voicemail.
I had barely talked to Jack since I’d been here, and I hadn’t heard from anyone else at all. Leif didn’t have a phone. Olivia had tried to reach me, but we had never been able to get each other on the phone. Jane was supposed to get out of rehab sometime soon, so I expected to hear from her.
“You have one new voicemail,” the automated voice told me, and my heart raced.
“Hey, Alice, this is Jack.” My heart soared, but even with my happiness, I noticed something wrong with his voice. It sounded sad and faraway. “I’ve been trying to get you on the phone. I even tried Milo and Bobby, but…” He sighed, and my heart clenched. Something was very wrong.
“I didn’t want to do this over the phone. I mean, I knew I’d have to, but I didn’t want to leave it on a voicemail…” He trailed off, and Bobby asked something behind me, but I just waved my hand at him.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but… Jane’s dead. I am so sorry, Alice. Jane was murdered last night.”
3
The last time I saw Jane, she promised she would get out of this life.
Back in November, she had been seriously injured in the fight with the lycans and spent a month in the hospital recuperating. I hadn’t really talked to her much after that because I thought it would be better for her if we severed all ties. Besides that, there hadn’t really been that much keeping us together anymore.
We had been friends since we were seven, but the older we got, the clearer it became that our priorities were vastly different. Jane was addicted to partying, drinking, sex, and eventually, vampire bites. I didn’t want any part of that life, and she didn’t know how to stop.
I hadn’t heard from her for a long time, until a few nights before Christmas. Bobby had been working his ass off on some school project, and he aced it. To celebrate that, he wanted to go out. Milo, Bobby, Jack, and I headed out to V – the vampire club in downtown Minneapolis. I had been hanging out there more since I started training with Olivia, and despite myself, I kinda liked it.
After hearing a dance remix of “Jingle Bell Rock” far too many times, we decided to leave. It was snowing out, but in that nice way, like it does in movies, all magical and soft. With fresh snow, everything seems to look cleaner and brighter, and since it was after four in the morning, there weren’t many cars driving around to muck it up.
I was staring up at the sky, watching the snow fall down. The clouds seemed to glow from the city lights, and the skyscrapers towered above us. For one brief moment, the whole world fell silent, and I felt like I was living inside a snow globe.
The silence was broken by the sound of an erratic heartbeat, reminding me of a scared rabbit. My throat felt parched, a dull reminder that it had been almost a week since I’d eaten. But I didn’t go to the clubs looking for food. I didn’t even feed off humans. Bobby had been the only person I’d bitten, and I had no choice when I did that.
“Oh my god,” Milo said. He stood a few feet in front of me, holding Bobby’s hand, and he leaned forward to get a closer look. “Is that Jane?”
“What are you talking about?” I brushed past him to see what he was talking about. Jack followed behind me, in case trouble should arise, the way it always seemed to when Jane was around.
When I saw her, I stopped cold. She stood at the corner, waiting around the entrance of V. Her legs were spindle thin, jutting out from her short skirt. Her hair was longer than it had been before, but it hung limply around her gaunt face. Shivering like mad, her skin had a bluish tone to it, and her eyes darted all over.
“Jane?” I took a few uncertain steps over to her. Her eyes locked on mine for a split second, then quickly looked away. “Jane, what are you doing here?”