Page 227 of Shadowblood Souls
I spin to catch my fall against the stone building beside me—and gape as the far end of that building comes crumbling down over the man who shot me like a landslide.
It’s Jacob. He’s lifted his blood-drenched hand alongside the other, the muscles flexing through his arms as he hauls the entire three-story structures on either side of the alley off their foundations.
Chunks of stone roar down into the narrow lane. In a matter of seconds, the alley is blocked off as high as the second-floor windows still standing on the opposite side.
I get a glimpse of the wreckage, and then Zian’s arm is whipping around me. He scoops me up against his brawny frame and hauls Jacob off the ground too.
“I’ve got them!” he shouts to Dominic, and heaves us through the remains of the fence.
Zian is supernaturally strong, but even I wouldn’t have thought he could carry both me and Jacob at a sprint. Either I didn’t give him enough credit, or I should be incredibly grateful for the effects of adrenaline.
I can’t focus well enough to really think about it. The pain of my failing lung radiates through my body and my mind, and thenext span of time fades into nothing but ragged gasps for breath and the caustic throbbing.
I’m vaguely aware of a cool breeze lapping over my face. My ass hits the ground, and a tendril it takes me a moment to recognize as one of Dominic’s tentacles wraps around my torso.
“Bring him over here!” he shouts out.
Warmth washes through my chest. The pain jabs deeper—and then starts to melt away.
My wheezing smooths out. Air flows into both lungs with a renewed pang of pain, but also the relief of oxygen.
I open my eyes. We’re sprawled under a short stretch of trees.
The one right over me is starting to sag, its leaves shriveling.
There’s a creaking sound, and a crash. I jolt upright to see a car rocking where it’s tipped on its side.
“Jake!” Zian snaps, grasping the other guy’s shoulder.
Jacob has sat up too, his face so wan you’d think all the blood from it had drained into the splotch soaking his shirt. No fresh blood streams from his side now, but his face is frozen in a mask of tension, his eyes both dazed and fiercely frantic.
“They shot her!” he rasps out. “They fucking shot her.”
Another car flips off its tires.
Andreas swears and waves his hand in front of Jacob’s face. “We got away. We’re all okay now. But we won’t stay that way if you make it obvious where we’ve ended up.”
“Fucking—asshole—pricks—I’ll kill—every one—of them.”
The words grate out in anguished hitches. A telephone pole snaps off its base like a twig.
I’ve seen Jacob like this before—not this bad, but the same basic state. After the guardians ambushed us on the university campus.
Ignoring the splinters of pain lingering in my lungs, I shove myself toward him. I can take the same tactic that brought him back to reality then.
Straddling his sprawled legs, I smack my palms against the sides of his face and yank it toward me. “We’re out. You stopped them. It’s done.”
Jacob’s pupils jitter in his eyes. His hands snatch at the air.
“Riva—they shot her—the fucking bastards—they tried tokillher?—”
This time, one of the trees crashes over. My gut twists into a ball.
It’s me he’s so agonized about. Me he’s still fighting for in whatever battle he’s gotten trapped in inside his mind.
I shake him. “I’m right here. Dom healed me. I’m okay.”
His twitching eyes don’t see me. His body shudders in my grasp.
