Page 56 of Outnumbered

When it was time for me to leave, I hugged each of them, saving Caleb for last. As my arms wrapped around his shoulders, he pulled me down onto his lap, slid his hand around the back of my head, and kissed me deeply.

Someone gasped and I saw a few flashes of light from people taking pictures, but didn’t care.

When he finally pulled back, he traced a finger over my swollen lower lip and said, “I’ll be there as soon as you call.”

Giving him a warm smile, I said, “I know.” Pressing one more kiss to his lips, I stood and walked to the back where the restrooms were and the back door I was using to leave. The meeting was taking place in a warehouse district four blocks away. Since it was mainly used for storage, there wouldn’t be very many people walking about, which meant I would need to get close, then shift into my rabbit form and slowly hop my way through the yards to the right warehouse.

The entire trip took me thirty minutes due to how slow I was in rabbit form, but I made it to the warehouse finally. Hiding beneath a rusted truck, I watched the people on watch walking around the perimeter and surveyed the layout. There were four of them, spread out and moving in a continual circle. Along the side of the warehouse was a variety of items like wooden pallets, large metal trash cans, and broken machines and parts. There were windows along the side of the building I could see and a door on the front where a few people had gone inside a couple of minutes ago. To the right of the warehouse was a large building with roll up doors that appeared to be a vehicle repair or storage place. The guards weren’t going down the alleyway between the buildings, but I wasn’t sure where the meeting would take place to know if I could use the alleyway.

Timing it just right, I waited for one guard to walk by my hiding spot, then hopped as fast as I could, galloping until I reached the closest side of the building, and hid between the building and a wooden pallet leaned against it. My heart hammered from the run, but after staying perfectly still long enough to see the next guard pass by, it slowed as I confirmed I had made it without detection.

Step one, infiltrate the perimeter, complete.

Making my ears bigger, I focused my power on my ears to increase their hearing. The window I sat under had no voices, but I could hear some deeper in the building. Hopping around the side of the building, hugging the edge, I followed the voices down the alleyway to the opposite corner from where I started. The voices converged in that corner, at least a dozen of them from what I could tell.

In front of me was a large metal dumpster with the two lids closed, to the right of it a broken ladder rested against it. Due to the location, being in the alleyway, the perimeter guards wouldn’t look down this way on their rounds, so I should be able to peek into the window for at least a second to confirm this was the meeting room.

Hopping onto the first step of the ladder, I froze as it wobbled. When it didn’t fall over or make a noise that would alert the guards, I exhaled a shaky breath and hopped up to the next step, continuing until I hopped onto the lid of the trash bin. The window was covered by newspapers, making it hard to see inside, but there was a corner torn by the edge. Being careful, I peered inside.

Confirmed, there were over a dozen people inside, and sitting at the front of the room were my adoptive parents. They sat with angry scowls on their faces while the people milled about and talked.

Looking around the room more, I noticed there were pictures on one of the walls. Pictures of Caleb, Riddick, Branson, Triston, me, and several other people I didn’t recognize. Were they other hybrids? Ones they were going to go after?

My adoptive dad stood and people immediately stopped talking, heading to sit in chairs that were arranged facing him.

“Let’s get this meeting started. We don’t have much time and don’t want to risk detection. The recent failures and captures of some of our members has increased the need for discretion,” Dad said gruffly.

“What positive news do you have for us?” Mom asked.

A tall, thin woman with a scar on her chin walked up to the wall of pictures, grabbed one, and tore it in half. “We killed this hybrid last night.”

My chest tightened and with it came both sadness and fury.

“Has the investigation into the prince’s weaknesses garnered anything?” Mom asked.

A man with long, silver hair that hung to his belt stood. “One thing is clear, he prioritizes the girl’s safety over his own and others. She would be perfect bait to take him out.”

“We’ve known that since we first saw them together,” Mom scoffed.

“As a true hybrid, he doesn’t have many weaknesses. Only emotional ones that we’ve found so far, but we do know that whenever he is training they are focusing on him fighting multiple opponents and he seems to struggle with that,” the man added.

“So we need to overwhelm them with numbers, separate the girl from him, and then we’ll be able to defeat him,” Dad said and nodded.

“To pull off an attack of that scale, we’ll need to call in our fringe members and to get the hybrid scum somewhere his family won’t be able to show up quickly to jump in to help.”

Mom waved the concern away. “We’ll figure that out after this. What other news do you have?”

“We’ve located this hybrid,” a short, petite woman said as she limped over to the pictures and pointed at one of the people I didn’t know. “We’re surveilling them now to determine the best time to attack them and should have an attack ready to go by next week at the latest.”

“Wonderful,” Dad said. “We look forward to hearing about your success.”

Success in murdering someone. They were truly horrendous people.

“How is the weapon progressing?” Mom asked.

A large, man with a bushy beard covering his face stood and said, “We used it on the hybrid that we killed last week and it cut through their dragon scales like butter. It is ready to be used against the prince without issue. It will kill him even if he tries to use scales to protect himself.”

A sword that could cut through dragon scales? That was impossible! How had they developed something like that?

---