Vampire Miami Read Online Free Page B

that had held them all
together. For a time at least. After the War ended, the arguments
had started up again, and Mama B had finally left them both to help
the people trapped in Miami. Selah had been fourteen at the time,
and it just hadn’t made sense: why would somebody quit their family
for a bunch of strangers?
    Selah took a deep breath and buried those
memories. “I’m here because I chose to be here. I asked to be
deported and be put in your custody. I wanted to come.”
    “Did you, now,” said Mama B. She took a moment
to process that, and Selah watched her move preconceptions and
assumptions around in her mind. “I’m missing some pieces of this
story. Why don’t we start from the beginning. You’re saying you
wanted to come?”
    Selah moved forward and sat in a wooden chair
across from Mama B. Her grandma was watching her with sharp
scrutiny, mouth pursed, leaning forward and intent. Selah tried to
marshal her thoughts. “You know how you always said dad’s stories
would never change the world? Well, I think you were wrong. He was
working on an investigation before he disappeared. A big one. He
told me that it went pretty deep, and would cause a lot of trouble
when he published it. Then he disappeared—but he left his Omni
behind in a place he knew only I’d find it. So I read his files. He
was investigating this new drug called Blood Dust. You heard of
it?”
    Selah struggled for calm as she spoke. To not
let the pain claw its way out of the box in which it was tightly
hidden. Mama B shook her head, and then Selah realized she wasn’t
answering her question but rather responding to the pain in Selah’s
eyes.
    “Oh baby. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Mama B rose
and walked over to envelop her in a hug. “Can you forgive me? I’m a
foolish old woman. Here I thought you were going to show up a
spoiled young girl, mad at the world and mad at me.” Mama B pulled
back and studied Selah’s face. “Instead I find you all grown up.
And you’re telling me you came down here on purpose?” She hugged
Selah tightly once more. It was too much. Selah tried to hold back
the tears, but Mama B’s embrace brought back memories, old memories
of home and better days, which combined with fear and exhaustion
wore down the last of her defenses. Selah felt her eyes burn, and
she pressed her face hard against Mama B’s shoulder. She clenched
her jaw and willed herself not to cry, but her father’s face came
to her and with it all the misery of the past two months. She bit
down on her sobs, but still her shoulders shook each time one
fought to escape her chest.
    Mama B held her for as long as she cried, and
then wiped her face and kissed her forehead. “You’re with me now,”
she said, voice stern and loving at the same time. “I’m going to
take care of you. We’re family. We’re all we got. Now tell me what
you were saying about your daddy. What have you learned?”
    Selah wiped her face with her sleeve and then
nodded. “I think he’s alive. I think somebody took him, arrested
him maybe for what he was going to publish. But nobody will say
anything. I can’t get anybody to admit anything. He’s just missing,
but I think he saw it coming. Like I said, he left me his Omni, and
I read his notes. You heard about Blood Dust?”
    Mama returned to her armchair and nodded. “Yes,
a little. The new drug. The vampires here in Miami don’t like it.
Anybody caught using it gets killed.”
    “Really?” That was news. “They don’t allow
it?”
    “Not that I’ve heard. Doesn’t stop fools from
using it though. Why?”
    Selah rubbed at her eyes one last time then
dropped her hands in her lap. “It’s what he was investigating. Most
of his notes were missing, but there was stuff there about the
government or the military being involved. It’s why he got
taken.”
    “So wait. What’s his investigation got to do
with your being here?”
    “Well.” Selah straightened her back. “Blood Dust
is supposed