Page 21 of New Nebraska Home

Especially since I wasn’t sure where we stood.

Malik stood by the doorway, looking confused. His fists opened and clenched as he looked around, trying to figure out what he could do and how to help. That same restless irritation was clawing at my chest too.

“You got her?” I asked.

Callum nodded as he stroked her hair and gave her a curious look. His brow furrowed as he looked at her like she was a puzzle.

I assumed it was because Pandora, Callum’s last girlfriend, didn’t show vulnerability. She didn’t show emotions to those she didn’t trust, and even if she had, I doubted hysterical laughter would be how she did it. Judging by the look on Malik’s face, I would say we were all out of our depth.

Still, I had to do something. I walked into the kitchen, waving Malik to come with me, and I poured Liz a tall glass of the iced tea she had in the fridge.

“Can you grab the broom and dustpan?” I asked Malik. “I think they’re in that closet over there.”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice gruff as he rubbed that same spot on the back of his neck.

“Cool, let’s get this drink to Liz. Then I’ll help, and we’ll clean up the glass so she can at least walk around her living room.”

“Good idea,” Malik said with a nod. “Do you think she’s going to be okay?”

I had no idea what to say, so I gave him a helpless look and shrugged.

When we got back to the living room, Liz was at least sitting up next to Callum, her feet tucked under her, and taking deep breaths as he gently wiped a tear from her cheek.

I handed her the glass of iced tea, and she gave me a smile as she took it.

Malik and I started working on the glass. She tried to object a few times, saying she could get it, but we ignored her. This wasn’t her fault. We weren’t going to make her clean up a bunch of broken glass with bare feet. Even if it were her fault, I still wouldn’t have left her to clean it up.

“Do you hear—” Callum started, but then his voice trailed off. He moved at top vampire speed, a speed I didn’t think he had the strength for, not if his need to feed was as high as I thought. In a blink, he had run out of the back door.

“What the hell?” Liz asked, her eyes wide, and a little terrified.

“Vamps, when they run, they all go blurry,” I said. “It freaks me out, too.”

She didn’t say anything, but nodded and focused on her drink. Malik let out a dismissive huff. He may not have been a wolf, but there was still some animosity there for vampires.

“Are you okay now?” Malik asked Liz.

“Yeah, it’s just the way you guys were acting. I thought something terrible happened, something to do with… I don’t know what I thought, but when it was just the brick that came through the message with a little bit of hate speech on it, I lost it.”

“Just a brick with a little bit of hate speech?” I asked, my jaw falling open. “Not only was that vandalism, but someone could have been hurt. What if you were in the living room and the brick hit you? What if it had hit Leif?”

“But it didn’t,” she said, like that made it okay. “It happens, and as long as no one was hurt…”

“How often do you get bricks tossed through your window?” Malik asked as he bent down and held the dustpan, ready for me to sweep the glass into it.

“This is the first,” she admitted. “But no one got hurt.”

“And that is what made you break into hysterical laughter?” I asked, cocking my eyebrow. “I’m not going to lie. We were a little afraid your brain broke for a minute.”

“Yes, well, no. It just struck me that nothing has changed. New Nebraska was supposed to be all new neighborhoods, and I thought the place would change with people coming from all over, having different life experiences, and being different species. I thought there would be more tolerance of people and their differences.”

“There isn’t?” Malik asked.

“Not really,” she said, and I took a seat next to her, holding her hand and using my water magic to dry her tears from her skin.

“I mean, y’all might look a little different, and there might be a few subtle changes, but this town still attracted the same small-minded, ignorant bullshit as before.”

The hysterical laughter was gone now, and she was getting mad. She stood up and started pacing on the freshly swept floor. I still didn’t like it. I would have preferred to mop first, and I itched to pick her up again, but I didn’t think she was in the mood to be coddled.

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