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whim.”
    “Is that what your father told you?” David asked, sounding sarcastic. “Is that why he didn’t erase Pia’s father’s memories of her abilities before the monster cut out her tongue? Would that have been a whim or a kindness? For both of them?”
    Micah’s jaw firmed. “It would have been the behavior of a tyrant, who believes his choices are the only ones. Only a tyrant or a power-hungry dictator deploys the Memory Eater indiscriminately on impulse, on slim suspicion. These are people’s lives we’re dealing with, David. They deserve a chance before we rape their memories. In either way, yours or my father’s, mistakes can be made. My father believed the future would be better if we tried to break from the old ways. That the mistakes would be fewer. I’m honoring his vision.”
    Whoa. They both had great points. I didn’t know whose side I was on. Could I be on both?
    YOU NEED TO MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND ABOUT RIGHT AND WRONG, Fang said. I BROUGHT YOU HERE SO YOU’D HAVE ALL THE FACTS.
    Micah continued. “Once I start using her whenever there’s even the smallest threat of exposure, where do I stop?” He shook his head. “And do you really want me—or anyone—to have that kind of unbridled power?”
    David looked unmoved. “What I want is for you to protect your own kind.”
    “I know my job,” Micah said softly. “But I never forget that I’m dealing with people’s lives, and that the Memory Eater is a person too. She doesn’t really enjoy this, you know. Do you think this is what she wanted in life?”
    I looked at the poor creature in a different light. If I’d eaten all those memories, maybe I’d be insane, too. She just stood there, her arms limp at her sides, her head lolling on her chest, as if she’d been hanged by the neck until dead, then stood upright.
    “What’s her name?” I asked.
    Micah shook his head. “I don’t know. She won’t tell me.”
    How strange. Wouldn’t she want him to know?
    MAYBE SHE DOESN’T REMEMBER, Fang said sadly.
    Maybe, but it made me wonder. “Why do you keep her locked up in an empty, dark cell?”
    “I don’t. There’s a door in the back of the cell that leads to her apartment. She has all the comforts of home there. But sometimes, when the madness takes her, she prefers to stay in the cell.”
    PLUS, WHEN HE NEEDS TO BRING SOMEONE TO MEET HER, THE ATMOSPHERE OUT HERE SCARES THE BEJEEZUS OUT OF THEM, Fang said in a sardonic tone.
    No kidding.
    Micah shook his head, his expression sad. “We can’t let her out into the world, and to tell the truth, she prefers it down here.”
    I glanced at her once again. She hadn’t moved from that strange position. “What’s your name?” I asked her.
    She looked up. The madness in her eyes had dimmed, replaced by the murky light of understanding. “I am the Memory Eater,” she said, her voice raspy. “It is who I am, what I do, until you release me from this existence.” She sounded more sane now.
    “Why me?” I asked.
    “Because the soothsayer promised me.”
    “Which soothsayer?” I pressed. Maybe there’d be a record of it or something.
    “In Ausssstin,” she said vaguely.
    I was beginning to get that uneasy feeling again. The one in which your life begins to unfold and force you into your destiny. You might still have a choice, but only after you were firmly on the path. I hated that feeling.
    Before I could ask another question, her eyes unfocused again. We’d lost her to that world inside her head. I could only imagine what it was like to live with all of those memories fighting in her mind.
    “There’s a Demon Underground in Austin?” I asked Micah.
    He nodded. “I was going to suggest you contact them when you get there.”
    Pia made rapid movements with her hands—sign language—and David translated. “You’re still going to go with the vampires, after everything we’ve told you?”
    “I have to. I gave my word.” At their annoyed looks, I added, “That doesn’t