Free From Fear to Eternity: An Immortality Bites Mystery by Michelle Rowen

whispered.
    “You can hear me!” There was a note of triumph in the voice now, as well as a large helping of desperation. “Oh, please, you have to help me. I don’t know what’s going on. This has been a very bad night! I think. But I don’t really remember! I don’t even know where I am. Where am I? What is this place?”
    Again, I turned in my seat, trying to pinpoint the owner of the voice. He sounded vaguely familiar. “Who is that?”
    Thierry eyed me with concern. “What’s wrong?”
    Good question. What was wrong? I didn’t know for sure, but something was.
    “I’m hearing something,” I said. “Something . . . strange. Somebody’s talking to me.”
    “You seem so familiar to me,” the voice said.
    “Who are you?” I said louder, feeling breathless and tense. I’d gained the attention of many people, who now looked at me with growing alarm.
    “Wait. I know you! You’re the one I spoke to earlier! I recognize your voice!”
    I’d spoken to him earlier? Wouldn’t I remember something like that?
    Just then the realization hit me like a bucket of cold water right in my face.
    I shot straight up from my chair, which clattered backward, hitting the gentleman behind me in his knees. Everyone in the room stared at me with shock.
    “Holy crap!” I exclaimed, making a jabby gesturein the general direction of the kitchen. “The head! There was a talking head!”
    The gavel slammed down, its crack echoing through the room.
    Sebastien pointed at me. “Sold to Sarah Dearly for seventeen milliondollars.”

Chapter 6
    “W ait! That’s not fair!” Atticus leapt to his feet, his face red with outrage. “You didn’t even give me a chance to counterbid!”
    “Sorry. My auction, my rules.” Sebastien turned to the rest of the audience. “Thank you all for coming. For those of you with the winning bids, please see Thomas to arrange payment and claim your item.”
    I couldn’t process what he was saying. I was too busy trying to scoot out of my row, blocked by all of the other guests who now wanted to leave the salon.
    “Sarah, what is going on?” Thierry asked, his hands firmly on my shoulders. “What do you mean by a talking head?”
    My thoughts were a jumble, but at least my memories were working properly again. “I saw it, and then . . . then what? I just forgot? Why did I forget?” I felt ill. The voice I’d heard had disappeared, but the memory was now scorched into my brain. “I need to get to the kitchen.”
    “Sarah, are you all right?” Tasha asked as I slipped past her toward the exit.
    “Nope! Not really!”
    Thierry kept pace with me, turning his back on theamulet to follow me out of the room. I made a beeline to the kitchen, where I’d gone earlier to get ice.
    I’d seen him, and then I’d forgotten him—like, it had just vanished from my head. Even still, all evening it was as if there was something on the tip of my tongue. Something just out of reach.
    He’d asked for my help and I’d forgotten he even existed. Now I could hear him without seeing him.
    What in the world was going on here tonight?
    “I know it sounds hard to believe, Thierry,” I said, not taking my eyes off my target. “But there’s a severed head in the freezer. One that spoke to me, told me he’d been
murdered
. I don’t know why I forgot about him, but something very strange is going on here. Stranger than . . . well, the strangeness this evening already had.”
    He raised his eyebrows. “A talking severed head.”
    “You must think I’m nuts, but just wait.” My heels clicked as I pushed open the door to the kitchen. Melanie the server trailed after us.
    “Can I help you find something?” she asked.
    “I can’t believe you didn’t notice anything strange.” I looked at her with accusation. “You’re the only server on duty tonight other than Thomas.”
    She placed a hand on her chest as if taken aback by my words. “I don’t know what you mean. Strange in what