Neophyte / Adept by T.D. McMichael Read Free Book Online Page A

assume Lennox would just make it. I worried about him,
now more than ever. And had Dallace just said that he wanted to turn me into an
immortal, a vampire, just like him?
    Was that what this was all about? Was I to become one of
them?
    “I do not claim to see the future; but it would not be so
bad. I can think of worse things than having my family whole and complete. We
take you as you are, Halsey Rookmaaker,” he said.
    The train shot us through the two-hundred-fifty-mile trip,
with various stoppages, so that it was almost morning when we arrived; I had
slept intermittently; the jostling of the cabin kept any nightmares at bay. We
arrived at Termini Station at first light.
    “I leave you here, but we will meet again. Goodbye, Halsey
Rookmaaker.”
    I thanked Dallace for accompanying me, and wished him well.
Where he would go, I had no idea; I couldn’t exactly invite him to come stay
with me. He flew off, and that was it. The Gathering would be taking place in
three days’ time. I would see him again.
    What to do now? I stood outside the station, clutching my
diary, and just began to walk. It was a mile or so to my apartment on Via dei Condotti . The minicab operators
were nowhere to be seen.
    When I got there, flushed from my walk in the mist and
monuments, my landlady buzzed me up. She had still not learned how to stop
disliking me so much. She had a very disapproving look upon her face. Amazed,
no doubt, that I had still not managed to get myself killed. I nodded. “There’s
still tomorrow,” I said, bidding her goodnight.
    Her eyes glinted. “This is tomorrow,” she said, in her
broken English. She jabbed at me with her fingertips.
    Let her think I don’t
know what she’s saying.
    I nodded and smiled. “Lovely to see you,” I said. I meant
it, too. But her face distorted into a thousand ugly creases. “You. Be. Careful,” she said to me.
    I promised her that I would be; and then I ran. My room
looked exactly as it always did; with the bed and the whatnot and the candles
and the tub. There was a map of Rome on the wall, but I almost never looked at
it. The idiosyncratic layout of the city was becoming second nature to me. I
had been looking through it for so long, trying to find my past, that now I
knew it better than I knew myself.
    This must change.
    It was too early to even think of going back to sleep; once
I’m awake I go until I’m dead. This helps when you have a vampire throwing you
off your sleeping patterns, not that we ever have.
    I booted up my laptop, and checked Gmail. There was a
message from Becca, my old best friend from Massachusetts.

 
    From
    To

 
    Like hey!

 
    ------------

 
    From
    To

 
    Stop avoiding me!

 
    ------------

 
    From
    To

 
    Avoiding me makes an ass out of you and me. I have
news.

 
    ------------

 
    From
    To

 
    This isn’t funny!!

 
    ------------

 
    From
    To

 
    Relax, Becca, I’m here! What is it?

 
    I sent that real quick, and then hopped out in the hallway
to get a pick-me-up––an energy drink from the vending machine.
While I was here, I lived on stale snack food and Red Bull. I threw the locks
real quick. Crazy obsessed staring lady was still giving me the what-for down
the hall. I could feel her presence.
Becca responded almost immediately.

 
    From
    To

 
    Where the heck have you been? I’m practically going
crazy without anyone to talk to. It’s been three weeks!

 
    Never mind that. You’ll never guess what’s been
going on. Mistress Genevieve and the other teachers got us all together, those
who graduated. (Hey! She says it’s not too late for you. I talked with her. She
says that she’s