Going Under Read Online Free Page A

fascist.
    “Well yes, Bridget. We love
everyone
of course. But that doesn’t mean we have to tolerate their behavior, or let them
     threaten our families.”
    “Heard that one before,” her mother muttered.
    “A few million times.” Eliza reached out to take Molly’s hand.
    Bridget Patterson, the local network anchor, frowned. “Mr. Powers, there are those
     who say your group’s weekly outing of different paranormals is only adding to the
     increase in violence in communities across the country. They say outing is dangerous
     for those you’ve exposed. Others have been fired as a result of your show. Attacked
     in some cases. How do you respond to that?”
    He cocked his head, the mean shining in his eyes briefly. “These paranormals are abominations.
     They’ve lived among us for all this time secretly. They can’t be trusted. Can you
     blame decent Americans for wanting to defend themselves against that?”
    Molly’s stomach heaved.
    “This man is dangerous, Molly.”
    “No shit. Um, no crap.” She grimaced. “Sorry.”
    “You get to use all the curse words for this sorry excuse for a human being. I’ll
     write you a note.”
    On the television, Bridget soldiered on. “Is that what you call it? Defense? Yesterday
     in Kentucky a couple’s store was burned to the ground. They lived above it and the
     doors were blocked from the outside so they couldn’t get out. They managed to escape
     only because they jumped from a second-story window.”
    He spread his hands, still wearing that smile. “Of course that’s wrong, Bridget. We
     at PURITY don’t condone that sort of violence. I’m just saying that I’m siding with
     decent human beings who feel threatened by these creatures. Decent Americans,
human beings
who want to protect their children against monsters like werewolves. We dealt with
     them a few times in our history, it’s only reasonable to expect we will again.”
    Loathing made Molly’s lip curl. “Yeah, by drowning us or burning. Is he aiming for
     a new Inquisition?”
    Eliza squeezed Molly’s hand. “Don’t joke. This guy is dangerous.”
    And he’d been the one who outed her. This filth sat there with his smile talking about
     decency this and that and he’d been personally responsible for the loss of her job.
     Clearly they owned two different dictionaries when his definition of
decent
meant people got killed and had their businesses burned down.
    It went on like this for another minute or two before the interview was over and Molly
     sat back, finishing her wine in one gulp.
    Her mother shook her head. “You can’t stay at your house anymore. Stay here with me.
     It’s too dangerous now.”
    “I’d say the same of you. It’s not just Others being targeted.” Molly flipped the
     channel and paused on a different news show. “Isn’t that the witch who runs Clan Owen?”
    The interviewer tapped a pen on his knee a moment. “There are those who say the paranormals
     are dangerous. That you’ve kept hidden because you have an agenda.”
    The Owen, as the witch who led Clan Owen was called, took a deep breath and maintained
     her calm. “I can’t speak for all Others, any more than you can speak for all humans,
     but I can tell you most of us kept our identities secret in fear of this exact reaction.
     If protecting my people is an agenda, I suppose those making such claims are right.”
    The interviewer smirked. “Meriel, if I can call you that, werewolves came out several
     years ago. Some of the other shifters have been making that slow process. They’ve
     been all right.”
    “Ms. Owen is fine.” Meriel smiled and Molly snorted a laugh. “
All right
is a relative term. While there haven’t been the same sorts of murders we’ve seen
     recently, they’ve faced job, health care and housing discrimination. Unfortunately
     they’ve also been the targets of hate groups like PURITY as well. The shifters who
     led the original coming out have been a model of how to