Free Omega by Susannah Sandlin

was her family now, and she wouldn’t leave them.
    She shook off the worry and returned to her seat, sliding the Hello Kitty bag across the table to Hannah. The girl was staring at the clasped hands resting in her lap and seemed still and closed off. Cage looked at Randa and shook his head.
    “What’s up?” Aidan came into the room but stood in the doorway instead of sitting. Things with Mark must have been bad. His injury during the attack on Penton had at least spared him the sight of watching Melissa die. Things were grim for Penton, and she wasn’t sure Aidan could convince Mark that living here was worth slogging through.
    Like quite a few of Penton’s humans, Mark had struggled with drug addiction before meeting Aidan. The scathe leader took hard cases from the Atlanta shelters, many of whom were unvaccinated, and helped them through withdrawal with acombination of enthrallment and counseling. They were clean by the time he told them what he was and gave them the option of coming to Penton or trying to forge their old lives back together on their own. There was a no-relapse policy, though. Anyone who slipped got their memories wiped and a trip back to Atlanta.
    Randa was pretty sure Aidan wouldn’t let Mark return to that life, even if he didn’t believe in keeping people in Penton against their will. If he had doubts, Hannah’s insight into Mark’s future would convince him.
    After a quick update on Mark, Aidan turned his attention to Will. “Tell me what’s going on.” Will gave a concise account of the dogs and what he’d tried to do to mask the scents, but Aidan was frowning by the time he finished.
    “Closing up that exit has to be first priority. Mirren, I know you don’t like leaving us with a single exit, so get to work figuring out how to get the manpower to create a new one.”
    Mirren leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “I’m on it. Until we do fill that exit in, we need to keep armed guards there night and day. I’ll round up human guards for tomorrow’s day shift.”
    Randa saw the opening she’d wanted. “I’ll take tonight’s watch.”
    Aidan nodded. “You and Will both guard the church exit, I’ll take the back hatch. Cage, you ready to meet Matthias? The sooner we can get info on what he knows and what he has planned, the better. We’ll have to break your bonds to me so Matthias won’t scent you as mine.”
    Cage was laser focused, and Randa wondered if she’d ever see him again. Even the least suspicion that he was a plant and Matthias would kill him.
    He gave a grim nod. “Ready and steady.”

C age slung his hastily stuffed backpack over his shoulder, took a deep breath, and walked into downtown Penton. He’d approached from the east side, as if hiking all the way in from Atlanta with nothing to hide.
    He’d been doing patrols outside of town, so this was his first postattack look at the little community he’d come to love. Now it reminded him of the bombed European villages he’d seen after World War II, piles of rubble alongside burned shells of buildings, punctuated by an occasional storefront left inexplicably whole and untouched but for broken windows. Looking at it hurt. Everything these people built had been honest and good.
    He made himself a promise. If he survived this, he’d help rebuild Penton. He had an obligation to go back to England and try to replicate this place, but not until the original town was whole again.
    He’d hoped to take a look in the Baptist church before being spotted, but no such luck. The door to the church opened, and a tall, thin man stood in dark silhouette against the interiorlantern light. Cage could feel the weight of examination from a block away. He lifted his arm in a wave and angled toward the church. Time for his opening performance.
    From Will’s description, Cage thought the vampire he was about to meet had to be the infamous Shelton Porterfield. Tall, thin, with washed-out blue eyes silvered