Free Destroyed by Kimberly Loth Page B

She can drain anyone of their power.”
    “Shit, Kai, if she can do that then why are you still having problems controlling the Destroyers?”
    “I can only use her in emergencies. You can’t tell anyone. If any rumors fly, you’ll both be out of the running to replace me. Do I make myself clear?”
    I didn’t hear their response. But Kai continued.
    “You have enough evidence to arrest him, right? If you can lock him up, Jason and I can take care of the animals.”
    “Yes, sir. We’ll meet Saturday?”
    “At seven. If you want to talk about Naomi, come early. I don’t want the rest of the council knowing.”
    I didn’t look up, but after a few minutes, I heard an engine start. The screams were still loud in my head.
    Once the car was out of sight, Kai knelt in front of me again. His hands found my face and he forced me to look at him. His lips met mine and immediately my mind calmed.
    I was so grateful, that I kissed him back hard, knocking him over in the grass. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me with him. He brushed my hair out of my eyes and looked at me, concerned.
    “Are you okay?”
    I nodded. “But I gotta release his power as soon as possible.”
    “We have to take care of the animals first.”
    Of course, the animals. How could I be so thoughtless?
    “What are we going to do?”
    “We’re going to have to put them out of their misery. They are all in serious pain and torment. He did more than just torture them physically. When I first came here, he didn’t know I’d abhor it so much. He was so proud of what he could do. He wanted a place among my leadership. I was mortified.”
    My dad stood over us. “We’re not killing all of them.”
    Kai stood up and helped me up. “It’s the humane thing to do.”
    “I’m a vet. I’ll take care of them, I just need supplies from my clinic. Some of the animals will have to be put down, but I’ll save as many as I can.”
    Jason stood outside the barn. “This is gruesome.”
    “Naomi, can you and Kai go to my clinic and bring some supplies? It shouldn't take long. I want to stay here and see how I can help in the meantime. Also, you’ll need to hook the trailer up to the truck so we can haul back as many animals as we can.”
    Kai shook his head.
    “I need to stay here. Jason can go with Naomi. He’s better at driving a truck anyway.”
    Oh, no way. But this was not the time to be a baby about Jason, so I didn’t say anything. Dad dug around the car and found a napkin and a pen. He wrote out a list and handed it to me. Even after he went crazy, he sometimes still asked me to help in the clinic so I was pretty familiar with the supplies.
    I climbed into the passenger seat of Jason’s truck.
    “That was some scary shit back there, huh?” He drove out the driveway.
    I didn’t even look at him. “Let’s not talk.”
    “Come on, Naomi. Do you want me to tell Puck what you did back there?”
    “Drop the act.” I turned and faced him. “Seriously, what is your game? I can’t figure this out.”
    He smirked. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
    “How come you aren’t on Kai’s council? He told me you were his best friend, but he obviously doesn’t trust you.”
    He scowled and shut up. Thank goodness. I stared out the window. I couldn’t get the image of the mutilated cat out of my head. In spite of all my father did to me, at least I’d never suffered like that. These Destroyers were sick.
    Dad’s clinic was on our property, but in a separate building. Jason hooked up the trailer and I gathered all the things my dad needed. It made me sad to take so many vials of pentobarbital, which my dad used to euthanize animals. I knew there were many that couldn’t be saved, but still.
    We made it back to the farm twenty minutes later and loaded up the animals. My dad examined all of them and did what he could to make them comfortable for the ride. It was nice to see him working on something useful again.
    Loading up all the