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

his. “I Saw it when he touched me. I don’t know exactly what they have in mind, but I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”
    “Of course it isn’t. Nothing here is,” Pari said before waving them down the hall. “Come with me. I want you to see what they’re capable of.”
    He and Lizzie followed her down the hall. Lizzie was stumbling. He wanted to reach over and support her as she walked, but he stuffed his hands into his pockets instead.
    When they neared the room they had originally been in, Pari paused outside one of the doors and tapped on it gently before slowly opening it.
    “Hey, Caroline of mine, what are you doing?”
    The room was similar to the one they had been in before. Hardwood floors with threadbare rugs. Faded wallpaper. Mismatched antique furniture. It was like the set of some creepy-ass horror movie with ghost children dressed in Victorian garb.
    “Mum!” Caroline abandoned her coloring to fling herself into her mother’s arms. “I made you a picture!”
    “Oh, thank you,” Pari said, scooping Caroline up and settling her on her hip. “You always make me the prettiest pictures.” Pari took one of Caroline’s hands and held it up. “Do you know what this is?” she asked Layne. “This is the hand of an artist.”
    He spent a good five seconds in complete and utter confusion before he saw it. Where the kid’s pinkie finger should have been was nothing more than a little nub.
    Layne’s eyes burned, and he thought he might puke up what little food he had in his stomach. Lizzie made a strangled noise in the back of her throat. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her sit down. Her face shouldn’t have been able to get even paler, but it did.
    “They seem to have an unlimited supply of drugs here, but they didn’t use any. She was awake the whole time. I know, because they showed me a video.”
    His stomach was getting serious about this whole puking thing.
    “They assured me next time it will not be something so insignificant as a finger.”
    Lizzie was staring at the floor as if she needed it to keep her grounded in the here and now. “But she’s a baby,” she whispered. “Who does that to a baby?”
    “These people,” Pari said. “The ones who brought you here against your will. The ones who will use us until we can no longer serve their needs, then toss us in the rubbish bin. These are men and women fueled by hate. They’re not going to let you walk away.”
    It seemed hopeless. They were unequipped to fight their way out of the house, and to run off during a mission meant sacrificing whoever was left behind. But the SHP had made one fatal error. Layne might not be walking out of here, but Lizzie would. All he had to do was convince her to do it.

Chapter 6
     
    In the grand scheme of things, taking a bath and getting a few hours sleep didn’t actually do Lizzie much good. She was still being held captive by people who wanted to exploit her Sight to rid the world of Shifters and Seers, but at least now she was clean and didn’t feel like she was going to fall over.
    Pari had given them a brief tour of their prison and outlined some rules that basically boiled down to “do what we say and don’t try to escape,” but Lizzie had been so exhausted, she’d barely noticed anything other than the bed. Her room was off the sitting room where she first regained consciousness. Unlike the sitting room, her bedroom still held a bit of its former splendor. The walls were papered with a delicate rose pattern. The floor was the same worn wood from the other room, but the lack of old, matted rugs made it look more rustic than shabby. Her bed was small, but tall. So tall, in fact, that she had to use a step stool to get into it. It was a good thing she didn’t move a lot in her sleep. If she fell from that height she might break an arm.
    A bathroom was just off her bedroom. It was small, and the fixtures were rusted with age, but the water coming out of the faucet was clean and