Whispered Visions (Shifters & Seers Book 3) by Tammy Blackwell Read Free Book Online Page A

days.”
    Damn it. Why did he always have to say things the wrong way?
    “I’m just saying maybe you should go lay down or something.”
    “What? So you can keep trying to break down an unbreakable door? No thanks. Someone has to hear what we’re up against and come up with a solution a bit more thought out than, ‘Layne angry! Layne smash!’”
    This is how every conversation between them went. He would say something stupid, she would fire back with sarcasm. He would try to explain himself, and then she would cut him to the quick so badly he would want nothing more than to run away and find a nice quiet place to cry like the sniveling brat she reduced him to.
    Layne clenched and unclenched his fist a couple of times to work out some of his tension so he could actually speak again.
    “What about when you go on your missions or whatever?” he asked Pari once he was able. “They open the door and you walk out it then, right?”
    Pari shook her head. “Nope. As far as I know, I’ve never walked through that door.”
    “But I thought—“
    “I’m never conscious when I leave. They drug me, and I wake up in some random country with a headache the size of your ego and an assignment. Once I’ve completed it, they drug me again, and I wake up in my bed here. I don’t even really know where here is. England is as specific as I can give you. I don’t think we’re in the north, but I can’t be sure.”
    Hope was dwindling, but not completely gone.
    “On your missions, are you out in the big, wide world?”
    “Yes.”
    “Guarded?”
    “Yes.”
    “Heavily?”
    Her eyes darted to the left, and he knew he’d found the weak link.
    “Not heavily. No.”
    Of course she wasn’t. How else would she have managed to mail a letter to the Alpha Pack? And if they gave her enough breathing room to mail a letter, then they would have enough breathing room to escape.
    “What I don’t get,” Layne said, not bothering with explaining his train of thought, “is why you haven’t tried to escape before now.”
    Pari crossed her arms over her chest. “Besides the fact that my daughter remains here while I am out on assignment? Should I just leave her here then?”
    “You could come back here with reinforcements and save her. I might not really get the whole parenting thing since I don’t have any kids or parents of my own, but I’m pretty sure most moms don’t want to raise a child in captivity. Why haven’t you tried to escape for her sake?”
    “And bring them where? You forget, I have no idea where we are!”
    “Have you even tried to figure it out?”
    He’d meant his questions honestly, but somehow bitterness and judgement had slipped into his voice. Not surprisingly, Pari didn’t respond well to being accused of being a negligent mother. Her entire body went tense, and Layne braced himself for the coming blow. But when she uncrossed her arms, she didn’t send her hand on a collision course for his pretty face, but dropped it in defeat.
    “I tried,” she said, lowering her voice. “I tried to escape. Once I gave Alistair’s name to the authorities, they would be able to track him down, right? So, I gave my handler the slip and ran through the streets of Paris. I was standing in the police station when they found me. The man didn’t say anything. He just handed me his phone and—” She touched the corner of her eye with one finger, stopping the tear gathered there. “Have you stopped to wonder why you’re here, Layne? They want Lizzie. She’s the talented one. Why wouldn’t they just kill you and bring her alone? Why would they drag along a Shifter? You’re young, but still dangerous. They know that. It’s the whole basis of their belief that we’re too dangerous to live. So why are you here?”
    He hadn’t stopped to think about it. Granted, he’d only been fully conscious for about an hour, but still. It was an important question.
    “They want to see what he really is.” Lizzie’s eyes found