Page 28 of New Nebraska Home

“Miles, it’s Callum. I just have a quick question for you.”

“Okay…” He sounded hesitant, like he wasn’t sure if you wanted to help me or not. I didn’t blame him. If I were in his shoes, I’m not sure I’d have helped me either.

“Have you heard rumors about any mythical creatures showing up in New Nebraska?”

“Mythical?”

“Mythical,” I confirmed. “Or are there any extremely rare creatures in New Nebraska?”

“Well, several Fae and more halflings than originally thought existed are in New Nebraska. And we’re getting some weird shifters. If I’m not mistaken, a family of gator shifters from Louisiana has moved in. But nothing about unicorns or a flock of phoenix, if that is what you mean.”

“Okay.” That wasn’t helpful. I sat down on a fallen tree and leaned against another. “How about this? What about creatures we previously thought to be extinct?”

“Are you asking about extinct creatures in New Nebraska? That kind of defeats the definition of extinct.”

“Humor me, in general, what kinds of supernatural creatures do we know to be extinct?”

“Well, the last of the Tasmanian devil shifters died out a few decades ago. Pretty sure the snow leopards are, if not extinct, extremely endangered. And of course there’re the Daughters of Salem. But I’m not entirely sure they ever really existed.”

“What are the Daughters of Salem?” I had never heard of the term before.

“You know, the daughters of the witches in Salem, Massachusetts, before the whole hanging, drowning and burning thing.”

“I thought that was humans killing other humans?”

“It was, but there was a coven of witches in Salem that were supposedly not entirely human. There was something about them that was weird. Some people said it was a gift from the Fae, others a curse, blah blah blah blah. They had this weird thing where they never actually got powers until they found their circle.”

“Circle?”

“Yeah, some texts refer to their circle as their family. Other texts refer to it as their mating partners. I don’t know exactly what the thing is, but they were never really that powerful. When they found their circle, they would get some abilities that would be impressive by human standards but inconsequential by our standards. That wasn’t what made them weird.”

I sat in silence for a moment, waiting for him to continue. Then I remembered I was talking to Miles, and he had to be prompted for everything.

“Okay, what made them weird?”

“Their circles comprised supernaturals, all different types, and when the circle was complete, the circle got stronger. Some sources refer to it as having new abilities, others talk about an enhancement for abilities they already had. Who knows. But the coven disbanded in the 1800s and bred strictly with humans, so they bred themselves out of existence.”

“You’re right, that is weird, but not the type of weird I’m looking for,” I said, pinching my brow, trying to release some of the tension.

“Well, how am I supposed to know what you’re looking for? You haven’t asked a direct question yet. Tell me what you’re looking for.”

I almost screamed dragons into the phone until I realized how absolutely ridiculous that was. But was it ridiculous? There was a tiny dragon currently on Liz’s shoulders. Also, I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone else to know about him. Supernaturals thought dragons were mythological, or if they had once existed, they were extinct now. And maybe there was a reason for that. It wasn’t really my place to go spreading Malik’s secret. At least not until I knew what his intentions were. I had to remember he’d saved Liz from a pack of feral wolves, and he’d made sure that little brick thrower would never come back. I wasn’t sure if I trusted him, but for the moment, it was enough.

My fangs started aching, and I realized I had put off drinking far too long. The hunger came back with an intensity and I wasn’t sure it was safe for me to go to a diner. The risk of murdering some poor girl was just far too high. Instead, there was a bottle of O Negative in the refrigerator back in the house. I would down that to see if it sated my thirst enough to make feeding from a source safer.

Part of me ached to go to sink my fangs into Brock instead, but I wasn’t sure what had happened earlier and what it meant. Hell, I was so hungry I wasn’t even sure if I’d glamoured my friend. That was something he and I were going to have to talk about, but not while I was running on an empty stomach.

I ran back to the house, not slowing down until I was approaching the back door. When I opened it, Brock and Malik were gone, and Liz was sitting alone at the kitchen table with a large glass of water in front of her.

“I convinced Brock and Malik to take Leif to the movies,” she said.

“They left you here all alone, after everything?”

She smiled up at me, “It was hard to convince them, but I told them I needed to ask you some stuff, and Leif insisted.”

“He can be persuasive. What do you need to talk about?” I went to the fridge and found the bottle. I hated this stuff. It had the nutrients I required, but it just tasted dead. It didn’t satisfy in the same way blood from the source did.

“Before, we were talking about the blood diners?”

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