Free Whispered Visions (Shifters & Seers Book 3) by Tammy Blackwell Page B

kick everyone’s ass, and then take us out for ice cream while yelling at us for going and getting our fool-selves kidnapped in the first place?”
    “So you’ve been in contact with Scout? They’re coming?”
    “Well, no. Something is wrong with the brain-to-brain network, but it’s the Alpha Pack. They’re coming.”
    Sadness. Dread. Hopelessness.
    The emotions rolling off Layne forced Lizzie into a chair. Her own heart was aching, and she didn’t even know what the killing blow was yet.
    “They’re not coming,” he said, fishing a folded up piece of paper out of the back pocket of his pants. He worried the corner of it for a long moment before handing it over. “This was sitting on the desk in my room.”
    It was a print-out of their local newspaper’s website. The headline screamed, “Two Local Teens Killed In Illinois Accident,” and the picture was of the SUV they had been driving when Psycho Soccer Mom ran them off the road. It was mostly charred, but that wasn’t the part of the picture that caught Lizzie’s attention. Instead, her focus was snagged by the blond girl barely visible in the background. Even with a bad printer and pixilation Lizzie could recognize Scout and the defeated angle of her shoulders.
    No. No no no no no no no.
    “They think we’re dead,” she said through numb lips as she quickly scanned the article. “They’re not coming because they think we’re dead.”
    “Where did the bodies come from?” she asked. The article said their remains had been found inside the vehicle, burned beyond recognition.
    “Does it matter?”
    “Of course it matters. Whoever those people were had lives. Friends and families who will miss them.” Friends and family who would never know where their loved ones had gone. Did they already know they were missing? Were they looking for them? Would they look for years and years, never quite believing the worst was true? Lizzie didn’t know what would be worse - the uncertainty or knowing you would never see someone you cared about again. “They killed two people, Layne. It matters.”
    Layne dropped down next to her. “How much do you want to bet SHP sent a nice little note to the Den taking responsibility for our deaths?” He scrubbed a hand over his face and let his head fall into the crook of the high back chair. He looked much older than his seventeen years. “They’ve cut us off completely.”
    “They think we’re dead,” she said again because it still didn’t feel like a real, actual thing.
    “Yes.”
    “No one is coming for us.”
    “No.”
    “Then we’re screwed. ”

Chapter 8
     
    They were screwed.
    An hour after Lord Fancypants’s visit, a woman with no neck and bloodhound jowls came and removed all pre-packaged food from their set of rooms, which Layne had begun to think of as their apartment. An hour after that, Caroline started begging for something to eat. Since they had no way of knowing what they’d doused the food with or what effect it would have on a toddler, Pari refused to feed her. Fifteen hours after that, he and Lizzie held up a sign to the cameras agreeing to take whatever meds they gave them if they would bring the sobbing Caroline some clean food. Thirty minutes after that, Jowls returned their granola bars, gave Caroline a ham sandwich, and watched as Lizzie swallowed down a little blue pill.
    “It was Paxil,” she told him. “They must have figured out that when you mess with a Seer’s brain chemistry, you mess with her ability to communicate telepathically.”
    Which meant not only did the SHP know they existed, but they also knew about the brain-to-brain network and how it got totally screwed up by anti-depressants.
    Awesome.
    At least they finally knew why Lizzie hadn’t been able to connect to Scout.
    “We’re going back to Plan A,” he said as if shooting their way out with guns they didn’t have was an actual plan.
    “No. No killing.” Lizzie pulled her legs up into the chair and hugged