Page 153 of Shadowblood Souls
“Yeah.” I might actually like that, even if I don’t feel like telling him so right now.
He pauses, his gaze searching mine, and his voice drops. “You know if there’s anything you think of that I could do—that would make you happier or feel safer oranything—you only have to tell me, and I’ll make it happen. Whatever it takes.”
The tightness in my stomach climbs up my chest to squeeze my throat. When he looks at me like that, talks to me like that, I can’t totally suppress the memory of the night when everything went so horribly wrong.
Of the part before everything went wrong, when he made me feel like I was someone worthy of being cherished rather than punished. When he told me he loved me in the same voice he used just now.
And then I found out he’d beenpretendingto support me from the start just to see if I’d betray some secret evil agenda.
The boy I knew before, the one who could always find the right wry remark to break a sour mood, the one who’d enrapture us with dramatic retellings of tales he’d read and movies we’d watched—or, once we started our missions, true stories pulled right from the minds of people he’d crossed paths with… He would never have been that callous and calculating with his charm.
I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t entirely know who these men actually are anymore.
My teeth set on edge. “I don’t know what it would take for me to totally trust you again. I don’t know if I ever will. But me telling you to do something and having no idea if you’re just going through the motions definitely isn’t going to work.”
Andreas winces. “Fair. But the offer still stands, whether it helps you trust me or not. I won’t try to rush you.”
He steps back, and I slip into the bedroom.
The moment the door closes behind me, my breath rushes out of me. I toss my backpack on the bed and peel off my sweater.
Lifting the hem of my tank top, I find that a little blood has seeped through my latest bandage. Thankfully I grabbed some gauze when the guys weren’t looking at one of the stores we stopped at for supplies, so I can re-dress it.
After that bath.
The wafts of steam that rise from the running water settle my nerves. I let the sensation carry my mind away from everything but the scratched-up but deep tub.
I hadn’t been sure I’d actually enjoy baths, considering anything more than a brief swim is about as much water as I can generally appreciate. But anytime I’ve been dunked before, it’s been in water with at least a bit of a chill.
Turns out even the cat-girl can find an approximation of a hot tub relaxing, at least in small doses.
I still have some of the bath stuff Andreas bought for me, so I toss the plain kind of salts in as well. Then I sink into the hot water.
It encloses my limbs in warmth and licks around my neck. I slide down until the back of my head is completely submerged. Then I loosen my braid and let my hair flow out around my shoulders.
My hand moves to my cat-and-yarn necklace, nestled against my sternum, making sure it’s still holding together. I haven’t taken it off since Jacob gave it back to me.
Then my fingers drift lower to trail over the tattoo of the crescent moon on my outer thigh. The moon with the dark droplet dangling from its upper tip—the one all the guys have too.
Shadowbloods, Ursula Engel called us. Because we were made with essence from the things she saw as monsters woven into our DNA, and we can see it in the smoky stuff that wisps from our veins when we bleed.
Maybe it’s fitting that the full monsters seem to somehow merge into the shadows when we try to confront them. Would it be easier to restrain them by daylight?
My mind lingers over that idea, contemplating scenarios. The heat of the water lulls me into a mild daze.
But when a thud and a shout carry through the walls from downstairs, I spring to my feet in an instant.
“Back off!” Zian growls, and there’s a smash that could be from either my guys or some unknown intruder.
My heart thudding against my ribs, I snatch the towel and wrap it around me as I race through my bedroom. I burst into the hall, charge down the stairs to the living room—and jerk to a halt on the bottom step.
All four of my guys are poised there in defensive stances, staring at the new fifth figure in the room.
A figure that’s eight feet tall with horns poking from its purple skin and menace glowing in its ruddy eyes.
Nine
Riva
