Page 293 of Shadowblood Souls
Jacob must recognize him too, because his mouth twists into a grim smile. He catches my gaze again as if to check that I’m still good and returns to the doorway.
The hall outside is empty now. We slip along the thick rug, finding the spots where we can set our weight without provoking creaks of our own, to a room farther down that voices are filtering from.
With my ears pricked, I decipher three different voices. I don’t think Jake will be able to drop all of them before the last can sound an alarm.
He’s going to need me too.
I touch his arm to catch his attention and hold up three fingers followed by a gesture toward myself. Jacob grimaces, but he nods in reluctant acknowledgment.
He isn’t going to gamble both our lives by overestimating his abilities.
To my surprise, instead of leaping straight in, he reaches to me and clasps my hand. Tentatively at first, as if he’s afraid I’ll yank away—like I probably would have a couple of weeks ago.
But I squeeze his fingers in return with a strange wobble through my pulse.
We’re going to do this together. We’regoodtogether when all the other shit is out of the way.
We position ourselves in front of the door. My muscles coil.
Then Jacob flings it open in one brisk motion.
I don’t pause for even an instant to make sure he’s handling his part of the problem. I spring straight at the man who’s standing the farthest on my side of the room, my claws slashing out to strike his throat.
As I catch his fall while blood gurgles out of him, two more bodies slump at my right. One sways in Jacob’s hold, but he manages to push it toward an armchair that muffles the impact.
I scan the faces in the lamplight and swallow a twinge of disappointment. All three were in Clancy’s file, but none of these are the man in charge either.
He’s the most important one. If we don’t get him, he could just start his business all over again once he’s hired more people.
Thumps carry up the stairs from outside the room, a voice rising alongside them. The words are in a language I don’t know, but they have the cadence of a question.
Jacob and I fall into position silently.
The door still stands partly open. The moment the newcomer is close enough, Jacob grabs him with his power, snaps his neck, and drags him inside with the others.
We shut the door behind us and pause to listen in the hall. No other sounds of human presence reach our ears from the rooms around us, but more remarks travel up from the first floor, along with a tinkling of music.
We have to hurry. Who knows how soon the rest of the inhabitants might start to think it’s strange that their companions upstairs have been so quiet?
The banister on the broad staircase only offers partial shelter. I spot a couple more men and a woman—one of the two women included in Clancy’s photos—sitting on a leather sofa in a huge living room, laughing at something on the TV.
This time, I don’t even need to look at Jacob. He reaches back and rests his hand on my foot, nudging me ahead of him.
He can do his work from here. I need to get closer if I’m going to be speedy enough.
I dart the rest of the way down the stairs and flatten myself against the wall by the living room entrance. When I’m ready, I make a quick gesture to Jacob without shifting my attention from the room’s inhabitants.
I trust that he’ll act the moment I signal him. And as I hurtle into the room, the first of the men is already crumpling.
The second man starts to yelp, but I cut off the sound with a swift slash, tearing open the woman’s throat as well before she can do more than flinch. Blood spurts out over their sagging bodies and splatters my black clothes.
We still haven’t found the boss. Is he not even home right now?
Clancy wouldn’t have sent us in unless he was sure we’d find our main target, would he?
Jacob descends the stairs. We creep through an empty dining room and out into a wide hall that leads to a kitchen and a few other closed rooms.
The clink of dishes carries from the kitchen. We venture closer, our eyes peeled.
