Page 61 of New Nebraska Home

He was right. Our priority needed to be getting Malik back. I didn’t feel as strong if he wasn’t here, and with the threats in place, I wanted as many strong, able men protecting this house as possible. A fire-breathing dragon on the roof couldn’t hurt.

Eventually Liz’s exhaustion hit and she fell asleep. I managed to convince Brock to stay at the house and keep an eye on Liz and Leif. He wasn’t happy about me going out alone, but when I showed him how I could stay invisible for longer periods of time now, he finally agreed.

I started off in a jog toward the town center, then picked it up to a run. Before I knew it, my legs were a blur under my body, propelling me along the sidewalk. My vamp speed had always been fast, but never over such a sustained distance. I could have given a Ferrari a fair challenge, the way my legs were pumping. What the hell?

When I rounded the corner that would take me to the police station, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. The Temple had taken over the town square. They had signs proudly identifying themselves, and had lined the square with massive shipping containers that were being used as makeshift prisons. What the fuck. People were being handcuffed and thrown into these ramshackle cages.

I shifted to invisible, not wanting anyone to see me or recognize me. I was careful not to touch anyone as I slowly moved through the crowd and tried to figure out what was happening.

There were townspeople wandering around with literal torches in their hands and malice in their eyes. This was not the tiny, peaceful town that Brock and I had chosen to start our lives over again in.

It didn’t take me long to realize that the people who were zip-tied and tossed into the containers were all halflings or in interspecies relationships.

“What are we going to do with all the filthy sinners?” one wolf shifter asked, with way too much excitement in her voice. I was sure her name was Karen, and she lived down the street from the house.What a bitch.

I moved closer to see who she was talking to, and it was none other than Zmei himself. He looked a little too smug, and that was when I noticed something was wrong with Karen. Other than the obvious mental illness, her eyes looked… wrong. Her pupils were tiny, and it looked like she couldn’t focus on a single thing, her gaze bouncing all around her.

“Well, you’ve done a fine job rounding up the first batch. I think they would make a fantastic sacrifice. At first light, they burn.”

“Burn?” The excitement in Karen’s eyes made my heart freeze. They were going to burn innocent people for no real reason. They hadn’t broken any laws, they hadn’t got a trial. This was a witch hunt. No, worse than that. Witches had trials, even if they were fake.

This was going to be a massacre if we couldn’t stop it.

As quickly as I could slink through unnoticed, I moved through the crowd to the large shipping containers. Holes were cut in the sides towards the top for ventilation. So, as quiet as a cat burglar, I climbed up to look. The thin metal cut into my hands, but I shrugged off the pain, desperate to help in any way possible.

The first container had over a dozen children, several looked like regular humans but they were probably part shifter and on looking closer I saw several had light pink rings around their eyes.

Halflings.

The following shipping container had couples, most of whom were clinging to each other and paired off in couples of different species or human and paranormal.

Several of them had tears streaming down their faces, and I was willing to bet the children in the next group belonged to them. What I didn’t see was Malik.

He wasn’t here, but he wasn’t a halfling, nor was he in a committed inter-species relationship. I jumped down, making a silent promise to come back and do my best to free these poor people.

Malik had to be my first priority, not just for Liz, but if I was going to save these people, I would need his help.

The police station was all but abandoned. A few cops sat at their desks around the precinct, but they were more absorbed into whatever they were reading on their computers. It was simple for me to stay invisible and sneak into the holding cell area.

Malik was there, sitting on the floor. His legs stretched out in front of him, and his head tilted back against the wall, eyes closed.

“You ready to get out of here?” I asked, making him jump.

He looked around with wild eyes, and that was when I noticed the bruises on his jaw. Someone had managed to get a few good punches in.

I made myself visible, and the look of relief on his face was almost palpable.

“Is Liz okay?”

“No,” I said honestly. “She isn’t going to be okay until we are back with her and her brother is safe.”

“I don’t know if these freaks are ever going to let that little boy, or anyone else, be safe. These organization people are fuckin’ crazy.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“Let’s deal with one thing at a time,” I said. “Where are the keys?”

“It’s the twenty-first century.” Malik deadpanned. “They are electronic locks. You need the right code and fingerprint.”

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