the call. “Do what I told you. We’re coming right now. The police will be there any minute.”
She punched off and hit Brodie’s number, praying he would pick up. She was elated to hear his golden Elven voice. “Barrie. Is something wrong?”
“I just got a call from DJ,” she said in a rush. “We have to get over there right now. He thinks someone is in his house and coming after him, and I just lost phone contact with him.”
There was a short silence. “Are you sure this is for real?” he asked warily.
She thought of DJ’s terrified voice...and reminded herself that he was an award-winning actor.
“Brodie, I’m not sure of anything,” she said desperately. “But he did say that Johnny’s ghost had come to him to warn him, and he knew that we’d had a séance and summoned Johnny. I think it’s for real.”
Brodie’s voice was tense but calm. “I’m teleporting straight there, then. Do not go there, Barrie, do you hear me?”
“Yes, I hear you,” she said automatically.
“Good,” he said. “I’ll call you from the house as soon as I arrive.”
“Brodie, be careful,” she said, but he’d already hung up.
Barrie jumped up from the couch in a frenzy of anxiety and confusion. What was going on? Had the ghost of Johnny really visited DJ to warn him of danger? Was the killer about to try to kill one of the few remaining witnesses to Johnny Love’s murder?
Or was DJ trying to lure her back to his place to finish the job he’d started that afternoon? In which case, had she just put Brodie in mortal danger by sending him to the lair of a killer vampire?
She felt a jolt of adrenaline and fear at the thought. Elven could teleport and reach a location within seconds; it was one of their innate skills. The great danger was that teleporting weakened them. Once he’d teleported, Brodie would be in no shape to confront a crazed vampire.
And there was another horrifying possibility, the one that inner voice kept nudging her toward. Was Mick once again playing Johnny, appearing to DJ as Johnny for nefarious purposes of his own?
All the various possibilities were almost too much for her to bear. But at least she knew she wasn’t thinking entirely rationally.
I need help. I need Rhiannon and Sailor.
She grabbed her phone to call Rhiannon—and saw that she had recent texts from both her cousins, both marked with their code for “urgent.” She hadn’t been answering her phone for hours while she was with Mick.
She quickly read through the texts in increasing disbelief.
There had been an emergency Keeper call, a report of an Elven and a vampire in an armed standoff with human hostages. Both Rhiannon and Sailor had been summoned in response to the crisis.
“What the hell is happening tonight?” Barrie muttered. “It’s not even a full moon.” Then she read carefully through the texts again with increasing suspicion. What really were the chances that there would be a joint Elven/vampire emergency happening tonight along with everything else? There was something fishy about it. In fact, the whole situation smelled.
She punched Rhiannon’s number and got routed straight to voice mail.
“It’s me,” she blurted into the phone. “Where are you? I think that crisis call you two got was a trick. Be careful, and call me as soon as you get this.”
She called Sailor and got her voice mail, too, and left the same message. Then she checked her own messages and was dismayed to see that Brodie hadn’t called her yet.
But he said he’d call as soon as he was at the house.
What’s happening?
She called Brodie herself, but again got nothing but voice mail.
She threw the phone down on the couch and paced the living room, biting her nails.
Okay. Okay. I’m going to get in the car, and I’m going to drive toward Brentwood. Then at least I’ll be close by if Brodie needs help.
She couldn’t just sit there waiting to see what was happening. At least driving was doing something.
She picked up the phone again and ran for her bedroom to dress.
* * *
She wasn’t speeding—exactly—but it was after 3:00 a.m., and she made pretty good time on the 101 to the 405 toward Brentwood. Every minute that ticked by made her more nervous. It had been almost a half hour since she’d talked to Brodie, and he still hadn’t called her back. Teleporting was instant, that was the whole point, so he must have been at DJ’s house for all that