Page 165 of Shadowblood Souls
There are a lot of hotels in Miami, and none of them come with signs announcing “Get your monsters here!” So we figure our best shot of finding the one we want is hitting up the local potential clientele.
Hopefully at least one of them will be a little more open to answering questions when that question is a simple, “Do you know where we can find a guy named Rollick?” But in the four hours since we crossed the city limits, Zian has spotted one woman who gave us the monster vibe, and she took off on us before we could even get the whole question out.
“We could go down to the beach,” Zian suggests with an unmistakably hopeful note in his voice.
Jacob kicks the back of his seat. “We’re not here to sunbathe. If the guardians have some way of getting the younger shadowbloods to track us, we can’t stick around here any longer than we absolutely have to.”
Zian lowers his head, abashed. “I know. But maybe monsters like the beach too.”
He pauses. “It’s supposed to be that in the ocean you can float no matter how heavy you are—because of all the salt. I never had the chance to try that.”
Andreas lifts his right hand from the steering wheel to tap Zian’s arm with his knuckles. “We’ll get you some beach time in there somewhere.”
At the obvious fondness in his voice and the fact that he wanted to reassure Zian at all, a twinge runs through my gut. That’s Andreas for you, always keeping his friends’ spirits up.
When he talks like that with Zian, he totally means it, no hidden agenda. Not like all those words of encouragement and reassurance he offered me in the first couple of weeks.
“After we’ve made some progress,” Jacob grumbles.
I jerk my mind back to the present and frown at the high rises we’re passing by. “We might have better luck after it gets darker. We only found the two monsters in Toronto when it was getting on into the evening.”
“Shadowkind sticking to the shadows,” Dominic murmurs from beside me. He’s been looking even more pensive than usual since we left Toronto.
He’s going to be uncomfortable even in his thinner trench coat anyplace without air conditioning. When we stopped to approach that one woman, he stayed in the car.
Maybe the creatures that call themselves shadowkind can teach him something to help with that problem too. Even if he can’t get rid of the tentacles, it’s possible there are other techniques for hiding or distracting attention from them that we simply haven’t discovered.
We leave behind the commercial strip for a row of ritzy-looking condo buildings, stark white against the deepening blue of the sky. As Andreas flicks on the turn signal to head back downtown, my gaze slides over the front courtyards—and stalls on two kids playing on a tiled walkway.
There shouldn’t be anything remarkable about them. It’s a boy and a girl, both of them I’d estimate around seven years old.
At least, that’s how old theyappearto be. Because when my attention halts on them at the first niggling awareness, the now familiar tingle of recognition shivers through me.
It hits me twice, as I study each of them.
“Wait!” I call out.
Andreas takes the turn he already committed to but pulls over to the curb just a few car-lengths down the intersecting street. “What’s up? Did you see something?”
He twists in his seat to meet my eyes as the other guys watch me too.
I motion over my shoulder toward the condo buildings. “I know it’s going to sound ridiculous, but there were a couple of kids back there, hanging out in front of a building. They both gave off that shadowkind feeling.”
Zian’s forehead furrows. “Kids?”
Andreas cocks his head. “They might not actually be young. It could be some kind of illusion or other supernatural effect they’re putting on.”
Jacob tilts forward to get a full look at my face. “It was definitely them you got the vibe from?” he asks, with no sign of dismissiveness, only concern.
I nod. “I did a double-take after I got the first impression. It didn’t make sense to me either.”
“Let’s see what the kiddies have to say for themselves, then.” He glances at Zian. “Maybe you’d better hang back with Dominic, Zee. We don’t want to look like we’re ganging up on a couple of children.”
Zian grunts but stays put while Jacob, Andreas, and I climb out of the car. At the corner, I tip my head toward the two kids who are giggling as they poke at something on the ground with sticks.
They still look exactly like real, human kids. But I can’t ignore the jittering awareness that something isn’t quite right about them.
Something a lot like what isn’t quite right about me.
