Redlisted by Sara Beaman Read Free Book Online

severed
head?!
    “Yes. It,
er... belonged to Julian’s mother.”
    What the fuck
are you fighting over a severed head for?
    “It’s
actually a powerful artifact,” he says. “Julian’s
mother was called Mnemosyne, and she was—still is, in a
sense—the oldest of us, or at least the oldest one we know of.”
    The oldest
revenant?
    He nods. “And
arguably the most powerful. And now, even though she’s—”
he makes a slashing motion across his neck—“members of
our line can still communicate with her, channel her power, even
learn some of her... techniques from her.”
    And you didn’t
want Mirabel to be able to do that.
    “Exactly.”
    That’s all
he says. The waitress is coming with my food.
    Adam sits quietly
as I eat. At first I feel so hungry I intend on finishing the entire
spread of eggs, bacon, pancakes and hash browns the waitress sets in
front of me, but after just a few bites my hunger fades, and before
long I feel like I’m stuffing myself. I keep picking at my
eggs long after they’ve gone cold, taking tiny bites, but
eventually I give up. I’m not going to be able to finish even
half of it.
    Do
you want any? I think at Adam.
    He shakes his head
no. “Are you sure you’re done?”
    I nod and put my
napkin on top of the plate. You
don’t eat food, I guess?
    “I could if
I wanted to, but... well, it’s a waste.”
    After a few
minutes the waitress returns with our check. Adam hands her a
twenty-dollar bill and stands to leave.
    We walk out to the
car. I take shotgun; he gets back in the driver’s seat.
    What’s
it like? I ask as we roll back to the supermarket.
    “What?”
he asks. “Being a vampire?”
    I nod.
    He thinks about it
for a moment.
    “It sucks,”
he eventually concludes.
    I snort. You’re
hilarious.
    He smiles.
    ///
    The back entrance
to the supermarket is a dingy white door labeled only with a street
number. Adam knocks on it twice. After a minute Haruko pulls it open
and gives the two of us a look I can’t decipher.
    The darkness
inside is unwelcoming. The high shelves of the stock room have been
cleared out, but the interior still smells of rotten food. The air is
heavy with dust and mildew.
    Aya is leaning
against the exterior wall of a meat locker, holding a flashlight
under her chin. As she sees me, she smiles pleasantly. “I made
you up a place to sleep,” she says. “We found the old
store manager’s office. I set up a sleeping bag for you in
there.”
    I follow her down
a narrow corridor to the office. It’s empty, save for a pillow
and an unrolled sleeping bag she’s placed in the middle of the
floor. A single window outfitted with Venetian blinds allows tiny
slivers of lamplight to filter in from outside.
    “I wish I
could stay in here,” she says. “Do you think it will be
okay for you?”
    I nod, smiling
through tight lips.
    “Do you just
want to go to sleep now?”
    I keep nodding.
    “Okay. You
know where we are if you need anything.” She hands me the
flashlight and slips out of the room, closing the door behind her.
    Alone. Finally. I
sit down with my back to the wall and pull off Haruko’s
sneakers and socks, recalling the conversation I overheard between
Haruko and Adam back in the cabin. One minute she was saying I was a
liability, the next she was throwing me a change of clothes. I guess
they decided not to kill me. I mean, they probably would have done it
by now otherwise. I hope.
    Someone knocks at
the door.
    I pull myself back
to my feet and open the door. It’s Adam. Holding a knife in his
hand.
    I slam the door
closed and scramble to lock it from the inside.
    “No!”
he shouts. “Jesus Christ. I’m not going to hurt you, I
swear.”
    Then what do
you want with that knife?
    “Remember
back in the woods, when you took the blood from my neck—“
    Yeah. I’d
rather not think about it.
    “Right,
well... you had a flashback, didn’t you? A memory vision.”
    I frown. I guess I
did. Although I only really remembered things I