Vampire Redemption Read Free Page A

for violating censorship laws." Both of her parent's licenses appeared next to hers.
    "What?" Selah jolted forward. "Detained? You know where he is?"
    McKnight slid her eyes up to Selah, studied her for a moment, and then looked back down at her tablet. Selah sat back, euphoria rushing through her. He was alive! Sweet confirmation, a factual statement. Alive! She'd been right, he was out there--not dead, not killed, not gone forever. She smiled, eyes filling with tears, and looked at the ceiling, thrilled. Then the rest of it sank in. Violation of censorship laws?
    The Sergeant flicked her fingers again and a military court order appeared on the wall, replacing her driver's license and those of her parents. "You chose to be deported earlier this year to Miami after your father was arrested, instead of being placed in a foster home, and placed under the custody of your grandmother, Agatha Brown. Citizenship revoked, passport annulled, social security number cancelled." Each of those documents appeared on the wall. Selah blinked, and her happiness abated. Was she in trouble for crossing into the US illegally? She hadn't even considered that angle.
    McKnight wiped her hand across the screen and all the documents disappeared. She looked up at Selah again. "You claim to be human."
    "Yes. I mean, obviously. Look at my eyes. How could I be awake right now if I wasn't?"
    "Hmm," said McKnight, unimpressed. She touched something on her tablet and a video feed appeared on the wall.
    Selah stared at it and recognized it immediately. The interior of the Miami Arena. The image was frozen and showed the packed stadium seats, the great cage in the center of the floor, and Cloud on one knee as he looked up at the approaching fighter whose name Selah couldn't remember. The Sergeant pressed something on her tablet, and the feed came to life. The sound of cheering, an announcer's voice excitedly describing the anticipated last blow. Cloud forced himself to rise to his feet, shaking on unsteady legs.
    Then. There. Selah watched herself leap impossibly high over the heads of the men around the cage's perimeter to tear open the door and step inside. She was moving too fast to follow, but then the other fighter was down, collapsed against the far wall of the cage, and Selah was helping Cloud, holding him as he leaned down and kissed her.
    A knife twisted in her gut and she looked away.  Cloud .
    The Sergeant paused the video feed and set the tablet aside. "Later that night, Sawiskera was killed. The next time you show up is when you killed Colonel Caldwell. We don't need to watch that. So..." She laced her fingers on the table and leaned back. "Completely human? I don't think so."
    "I--I can explain. My blood, it's special, it has this unique property that when a vampire drinks it--"
    But McKnight cut her off with a wave of her hand. "These are the facts. You demonstrated vampiric abilities in Miami while your eyes were  human . You appeared in Los Angeles two weeks later and murdered Colonel Caldwell. Then, for reasons I don't claim to understand, you turn yourself in, believing we wouldn't put two and two together."
    "No. Listen. Please, just listen to me. There was another vampire here in LA, Arachne. She died last night, I killed her. She killed the Colonel. She looked exactly like me. I came to LA to find a cure for being infected with vampirism in Miami, and last night I found it. I'm cured--I'm totally human now. But there's more, my blood can be used to make a vampire vaccine. Please, you have to believe me."
    McKnight stared at her without expression, and then shook her head. "You realize that there's never been a case of being partially 'infected' with vampirism? And while I'm aware there was a vampire called Arachne in LA, your having her die so conveniently last night makes it a little tricky to verify your story."
    Selah shook her head. "My blood's really rare. I know it sounds strange, but the vampires told me that people like me only