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

way?”
    “My dear, what on earth is happening?” Veronique also joined us in the kitchen, and Tasha was right behind her.
    “Here’s what’s happening.” I took a position directly in front of the freezer. “Take a look at this!”
    I swung open the freezer door expecting to hear gasps of horror from those gathered in front of me.
    Instead, I got blank looks.
    I turned to see that the freezer was empty, apart from several ice cube trays. Peering closer at the inside, I could confirm that nothing else was in there. No bloodstains, no drool, no messages scratched by a desperate tooth. Nothing at all that would show that there had been a head in there.
    But there
was
a head in there.
    Wasn’t there?
    “Sarah . . .” Thierry’s voice was as gentle and supportive as I’d ever heard it, which wasn’t necessarily a good sign. “Do you see a severed head in the freezer right now?”
    Great. He really did think I was crazy.
    “No, there is no head.”
    “But there was before.”
    “Yes.”
    “Are you absolutely certain about that?”
    “Yes! I’m absolutely certain!”
    “You said you forgot about it until just a little while ago when you heard . . . a voice.” At my bleak look, he spread his hands. “I’m not doubting you. I’m simply trying to understand.”
    I racked my brain for answers. “Maybe it was a ghost. A ghost head.”
    “You are able to see ghosts?” Veronique asked, brightening. “Vampiric clairvoyance is a skill I’ve always envied.”
    I shot her a look. “Don’t envy it. It hasn’t been a lot of fun so far.”
    “I suppose it’s all in how you look at it, isn’t it? Thierry, you’ve had that ability as well from time to time. You didn’t see anything? Hear anything?”
    “No.” His jaw tensed. “However, I have discoveredrecently that Sarah’s skills at clairvoyance may be superior to my own. In the recent past, she’s seen things that I have not.”
    “Great. Just what I always want to excel at.” I sighed, and then looked in the freezer again as if I might have missed a human head sitting in there. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
    Had I imagined it? That would explain the first sighting, but not the talking in my head. I’d been known to have long conversations with myself sometimes, but not usually with an imaginary friend.
    “What did this . . . head . . . say to you?” Thierry asked.
    “Not much. He sounded confused, but he was certain he’d been murdered. Which isn’t much of a stretch. There aren’t too many decapitated heads walking around from self-inflicted wounds.”
    “Or walking around at all,” Veronique added unhelpfully. “Since it would have no legs.”
    “Maybe something was put in Sarah’s drink that might make her hallucinate,” Tasha suggested. “Recreational drugs are everywhere and if you’re not used to them they can pack a punch, even for a vampire.”
    “Drugs might affect Sarah more than the rest of us,” Veronique agreed. “She is, after all, a mere fledgling.”
    “It wasn’t drugs,” I said, choosing to ignore the “mere fledgling” remark. “I—I don’t know what happened, but he’s gone now.”
    “What did he look like?” Tasha asked. “Any discerning features?”
    “He looked . . . normal, I guess. Nothing weird. Just a guy. Brown hair, brown eyes.”
    “A ghost,” Thierry said, nodding. “It must be.Many of these old mansions are rumored to be haunted. I think this would be the most likely explanation.”
    “Perhaps he was murdered decades ago,” Tasha said. “And he’s been haunting this place every day since.”
    “I don’t know.” After the initial shock at remembering the head, I’d started to calm down and think a bit more rationally. Emphasis on
a bit
. “I guess that’s possible. And if so, I don’t think there’s much I can do to help him.”
    “We should leave,” Thierry said.
    Even though that was all I’d wanted to do since we first arrived, the thought of