Redlisted (9 page)

I accept the
device, blushing. I punch the word
Thanks
into the miniature keypad on screen and hit Enter. A tinny android
voice reads the word aloud.

“No
problem.” She stops in front of a rack of acrylic sweaters.
“What are we looking for, exactly? What’s your personal
style?”

I blink, shake my
head, shrug.

She starts
throwing garments into the cart. “Okay. I’ll find you
some jeans and stuff.”

OK,
I type. Then:
I’m
going to go get underwear.

“Don’t
go too far.”

I wander into the
intimates section and start collecting value packs of boyshorts and
socks, shoving them under my armpits. I look at the underwire bras
for a little while, trying to remember what size I wear. I give up
and grab two size medium sports bras instead.

I look back to the
women’s clothing section, trying to find Haruko, but I don’t
see her. I duck behind a rack full of socks. If I lose her, maybe I
can try to hitch a ride with someone in the parking lot and get away
from the three of them. The thought seems desperate and reckless, but
could it really be any worse than being stuck in a car with three
vampires? Probably not.

I shove my hands
in all four pockets of her jeans, hoping I’ll find some loose
change. Nothing, not even any receipts or lint. Fuck it. It doesn’t
matter. I need to suck it up and run.

Just as I emerge
from behind the rack of socks, there’s Haruko, pushing the cart
towards me.

Shit.

“Do you want
to try any of this on?” she asks, barely looking up.

I shrug and shake
my head no, then unload my finds into the cart.

“Well, if
we’re done here, let’s get you some shoes.”

I drag my feet as
I follow her to the shoe department. She peruses a rack of boots
while I stare at her smartphone and try to think. If only I knew a
phone number to call. I guess I could call 911, but—oh, who am
I kidding! I’m mute!

Haruko picks up a
pair of shoes, inspects the soles, and puts them back on the shelf.
“Everything all right?”

I shrug.

She grabs another
pair of hiking boots off the rack and hands them to me. “Here.
Try these on.”

I sit down on a
bench and wedge the sneakers off my feet. I pull on the boots, lacing
them up; they fit all right.

“Those look
like they’ll work.”

I nod, pull them
off and throw them in the cart. I shove Haruko’s tiny sneakers
back on my feet and follow behind her as she pushes the cart towards
the back of the store.

I’m not
going be able to get away from her. At least not yet, not the way
things are going. Maybe if I distract her somehow? Get her talking?

Slowly I type out
a question into the text-to-voice application:
How
do you become a...?

“A
revenant?”

I nod.

“Well, first
off, you have to be dead. There’s a three-day window between
when the heart stops beating and when the soul departs,” she
says in a tone one might use to discuss car maintenance or personal
finance. “During that time, if a revenant gives you three drops
of their blood, it might—
might
—revive
you, turn you into something like us. But usually it doesn’t
work.” She pulls a large black backpack off a hanger and throws
it in the cart.

I type out my next
question.
What
happens then?

“If the
initiation doesn’t work, two things can happen. The first is
nothing—the corpse stays dead. That’s how things normally
turn out. The second is worse.” She lowers her voice. “See,
sometimes the corpse re-animates, but something is wrong with the
link to their soul, and then... they come back as something kind of
like a zombie, mindless and violent, but instead of brains they seek
blood. We call them ghouls.” She throws a canteen into the
cart.

Putting that image
to the back of my mind as quickly as I can, I type out another
question.
What’s
it like to be you?

She pauses for a
moment. “That’s an interesting question.” She
pushes the cart back into the aisle and starts walking towards the
front of the store. “I suppose I’m proud to be what I am.
I’m a Warden; that’s why I don’t have any flashy
powers like the other two. Wardens nullify supernatural power. And we
work to protect humanity from... well, the rest of us. If it weren’t
for us, the others would run rampant. They’d keep all of
mankind under their heel. That’s actually how things were up
until a few hundred years ago, back when the House of Mnemosyne was
in charge.”

I hang back a
little, then a little more. Haruko keeps walking and talking.

“But yeah, I
chose to become what I am. That’s how it works in my line. I
actually grew up with Wardens, out in the Pacific Ocean on an island
near Hawaii. My, you know, ‘real’ family has served my
Warden family for generations. Some of my natural relatives are
Wardens as well. I started training for my initiation when I was
eight. The training takes fourteen years, usually...”

She’s yards
ahead of me now, still chatting with herself, oblivious. I duck into
a row full of action figures and Legos. If I can make my way to the
back of the store, I can try to go through the employee area and out
the back entrance. Or maybe there’s a side entrance somewhere.

I rush to the
aisle on the other side of the row, preparing to sprint, and then I
round the corner, and there she is again.

“Hello
again,” she says. “Just so you know, I can track you. I
can track anyone with even a drop of revenant blood in their veins.”

I look at my feet.

“Give me my
phone back.”

I hand it over
without looking up.

Feeling like an
idiot, I follow Haruko to the grocery section. She starts picking up
the kind of food you’d take on a hike: energy bars, some little
pop-top cans of fruit, saltine crackers, beef jerky. I pull a box of
strawberry Pop-Tarts off the shelf and throw them in the cart. If I’m
going to be stuck with these people I’ll at least make them buy
food I like.

“Those are
bad for you,” she says.

I consider giving
her the finger.

We find the
personal care section. I grab a toothbrush, a hairbrush and a bunch
of hair elastics. I look down for a second as we near a corner; when
I look up, Adam is standing in front of me, carrying a first-aid kit.
I jump, my heart fluttering inside my chest.

“What’s
wrong?” he asks.

Haruko looks at
me, then at him. “Well, you did shoot her...”

“Can we not
talk about that in public?”

“Sorry.
You’re right. Well, uh, are we ready to check out?”

He throws the kit
into the cart. “I got what I needed.”

“Let’s
go, then.”

We walk towards
the front of the store. Now that we’re done here, we’ll
be going back out to the car, back out on the road, and from there...
I don’t know. I don’t think they’d be buying all
this stuff for me if they were still planning to kill me, but I still
don’t think I can trust them, not once we’re alone.

I gnaw on a
fingernail as we stand in the checkout line. If I run now, I might
make it. We’re surrounded by people; there’s even a
police officer by the exit. Haruko and Adam would have to try to
chase me down with everyone watching. There’s a complication,
though—I still need vampire blood. I know I need it, deep down
in my gut.

Wait. That was
what I was going to the third sub-basement to do. To get blood. If I
can make it back there, I should be fine—

Adam grabs my
wrist.

“That’s
not an option,” he says in a low, calm tone that makes the hair
on the back of my neck stand on end.

He turns to
Haruko. “We’ll meet you out at the car.”

Adam drags me out
to the parking lot. I try to wriggle away, but I can’t get my
hand free from his grasp. He’s stronger than me, and I’m
exhausted just from walking around the store. Eventually I give up
and let my wrist go limp in his hand.

Let
go,
I implore him.
I’m
not going to run.

He doesn’t
answer.

I couldn’t
run if I wanted to. You know that.

He releases me. I
clutch my bruised wrist, nursing it.

“I’m
sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Whatever. You
made your point.

“You can’t
go back to Atlanta. You saw what they did to you.”

What do you
mean?

“That ritual
they did in the interrogation room? I’m sure that’s why
you’re mute. And that recovery tank thing with the blood?”

You saw all of
that?

“Yes.”

The thought makes
my skin crawl.

“Look, I
know...” He sighs. “I know you’d rather I hadn’t
seen any of it. And I can’t blame you for that. But I want to
help you. I don’t want to force you to come with us, but...”

Isn’t
that exactly what you’re doing?

“I suppose
that's fair,” he says. “Listen. I know someone in
Kentucky who should be able to help with your voice. At least come
with us that far, all right?”

Fine. Whatever.

We find Aya and
the car. Adam gets back into the driver’s seat and stares out
into space as we wait. Five minutes later, Haruko returns, carrying
several bags. She tosses them all into the middle of the back seat.
Soon, we’re back on the highway, heading north into the
wilderness. In the dark, the route is virtually featureless. Endless
hills full of endless trees lie for miles and miles before and behind
us.

“Where are
we stopping next?” Aya asks.

“We should
be able to make it to Blacksburg,” Haruko says. “Desmond
owns a house with a basement near Virginia Tech. It’s only
about three hours from here.”

“Actually, I
was thinking we could head north to Lexington,” Adam says.

Haruko frowns.
“Lexington? You mean Kentucky? Why?”

“I know
someone there. A friend of Julian’s. Someone who might be able
to help her with her voice issue,” he says. “A daughter
of Coventina. Her name is Tara—“

“Adam, no.
That’s a terrible idea.”

“Think about
it,” he says. “She can’t testify if her voice is
shot. And it doesn’t seem to be healing along with her other
injuries. I think she’s cursed.”

I curl into myself
and stare out the window. If they’re going to talk about me
like I’m not here, I guess I’ll pretend not to listen.

“Yeah... I
don’t know,” Haruko says.

“It’s
not that far out of our way,” Adam says.

“That’s
not it. We shouldn’t be making contact with any other revenants
before we get to Red Hook.”

“It won’t
be a problem,” Adam assures her. “Tara hates Mirabel, and
she’s practically a hermit in any case. She doesn’t even
talk to her family.”

Haruko frowns. She
starts packing the contents of the plastic bags into the black
backpack. I nurse a bottle of water she bought me at checkout. I’m
exhausted. I wish I’d thought to buy some coffee.

“Have you
heard anything from Desmond yet?” Aya asks.

“I haven’t,
but that’s probably a good sign.”

Adam, who is
Desmond?

“He’s
Haruko’s uncle. We’re bringing him the head,” Adam
says.

“She knows
about the head?”

“Yes,”
he says. “Is that a problem?”