Page 300 of Shadowblood Souls
In any case, all the stranger can see is that my back is oddly shaped. I’ve been holding the tentacles still—holding my wholeself pretty much still as we wait to see if I’ll be called in to save any of my fellow shadowbloods.
He rubs his hand across his chapped lips and shoots me another glance. “Do you want something to drink? I have water bottles up here.”
His accented voice should give me a clue about where Clancy has sent us, but all I can tell for sure is his native tongue isn’t Spanish or anything in that family of languages. Maybe German? Or some variation of Eastern European?
Hell, it could be Swedish or Turkish and I’m not sure I’d know the difference. I don’t even know if he’s a long-time local to this place or a more recent transplant from abroad.
“That’s okay.” I pat the knapsack resting on the thinly carpeted floor next to me. “I’ve got a canteen.”
He grunts in acceptance and goes back to gazing through the windows, though there isn’t much to see out there in the night. With the van’s overhead light on at its dimmest setting, the world beyond the windshield looks totally black to me.
I understand why Clancy arranged for his man as my sort-of guide. The de facto leader of the guardians needed to be in touch with people on the ground to find out exactly what we’d be dealing with.
If there’s a problem, this guy will know the roads and the rules of them better than any of the guardians would. He’ll get me straight to my friends if they need help.
He’ll recognize the signs of trouble faster.
But I can’t help wishing, for the first time in my life, that I had a guardian for company instead. Someone who already knew about my strangeness and wasn’t fazed by it.
What have they told this guy? What is he going to think if I do have to rush in and whip out my tentacles to pour healing power into one of the other shadowbloods?
God forbid.
I shift my weight, my pulse picking up a faster beat. Will Riva and Jacob already be inside the house?
How long will it take them to carry out their first part of the mission—the most dangerous part?
Has the man sitting with me and whatever colleagues he’s had helping Clancy given us all the information we needed to keep them safe?
I brush my fingertips over the thin leaves of the shrub that’s poised on the floor next to me, its harness ready to fling onto my back in a matter of seconds. The tingle of energy I can sense within them settles my nerves just a little.
I gave the plant a bit of water from my canteen right after we hunkered down here, about a mile from the house—not close enough to draw attention but not too far to cross the distance quickly if I have to rush in. Its crisp herbal scent tickles my nose.
Please, don’t let me have to kill it. For all our sakes.
I’d rather not have to destroy any more life. Even a plant’s.
The screen on the van’s dashboard stays empty. No news so far.
I close my eyes, inhaling the smell of the shrub. My mind strays back to my new room at the island facility.
After our first training session for his assignment, I asked Clancy if I could have some potted plants in my bedroom. I told him it’d help me feel more at home, since that seems to be what he wants.
I didn’t really think he’d go along with it anyway, but by the evening, he’d come to escort me to a different room that must be near the face of the mountainside. My old one had no windows, but this one came with a skylight where one wall slanted into the ceiling.
Three potted shrubs of different types and an assortment of flowers waited for me, right where the sunlight would hit them best. A whole garden.
Just remembering it sends a little thrill through me. This isn’t the life I expected to be living, and I’m not done sorting out how I feel about Clancy and his plans… but is it possible this new facilitycouldbe a real kind of home, eventually?
It already feels more mine than any other place I’ve stayed, both at past facilities and when we were on the run.
My guide is peering at me again. He lifts his chin toward the shrub.
“Your special power—you can make injuries better? But you need the plant?”
I brush my fingers over the leaves again. “If it’s a big injury, I need to draw the energy to heal it from something else. Plants are… easiest.”
They make me feel the least guilty about the life I’ve stolen. But I don’t want this guy thinking about what else I might suck the energy out of.
