Page 443 of Shadowblood Souls
Jacob stirs and starts to pace through the room. “He can’t send us on impossible jobs and then get mad that we couldn’t pull them off perfectly.”
“Maybe he’s not mad?” Zian says, his tone doubtful despite the hope in his words. “Maybe he’s just really busy.”
Andreas pushes himself up straighter in the chair. “Toni was upset. I don’t think that’s a good sign.”
I swallow hard. We all agreed, and I don’t think any of the guys even hesitated, but defying Balthazar wasmyidea.
We probably could have retrieved the briefcase if we’d given it our all. If Drey hadn’t sent more guards running out the moment we launched our assault.
Balthazar can’t know that. But if he even suspects it, does it make a difference whether he can prove his theory?
Do I wish I could go back and carry out his job properly?
No. I don’t know if that fact makes it better or worse, but the thought of having fulfilled his mission and presenting his prize to him makes the rage in my gut sear twice as hot.
We have to fight somehow. We have to be more than his slaves.
I drift over to Dominic’s bed and rest my hands against the transparent shell. The machines buzz and beep. His chest rises and falls with a halting breath.
How long can Balthazar keep him like this? In the soap opera I used to watch with avid attention, people would fall into comas for years—decades, even—and then wake up like they’d never been sick. Other than sometimes they’d lost all their memories.
But those were silly stories with only a loose connection to reality. I have no clue whether a human being really can survive unconscious for that long.
Is Dom at all aware in the cage Balthazar has made of his body? Can he hear us, think about us?
My lips part. I’m going to say something; I just haven’t decided what yet?—
A sharper beep blares from one of the machines. I flinch, and before my eyes, Dominic’s body seems to sag even more than it had before.
My heart leaps to my throat. “Dom!”
I’m smacking the shell that covers him before I’ve even thought about what I’m doing, as if the bang of the impact might wake him up.
It doesn’t, of course. He just lies there with more color leaching from beneath his light brown skin as the machine spews its frantic alarm into the air.
The other guys rush to join me. Jacob stares down at Dominic, his hands braced against the shell. “What happened?”
Zian’s eyes have gone wide. “Is he okay?”
The only answer I can give both of them tumbles from my lips like a moan of horror. “I don’t know.”
I spin around, searching the room I already know is empty. “Help! There’s a doctor around here somewhere, isn’t there? Someone needs to look after Dominic!”
My strained plea splits through the air… and is met only by the whir of the screen finally rising from the table in the middle of the room.
I dash over to it, my fingers curling into my palms, claws I can’t will back into my fingertips pricking my skin. Balthazar controls everything here—if Dominic has taken a turn for the worse, our captor can order someone to save him.
But when the screen flickers to reveal Balthazar’s bulky form, his expression is utterly detached.
Doesn’t he already know that something’s gone wrong? He’s got to have alerts connected to the medical equipment—hell, he’ll hear the shrill beeping through the transmission right now.
“Something’s happened to Dominic,” I burst out before he can say anything. “You need to send your doctor—now.”
Balthazar blinks at me languidly, showing no more concern than before. “I don’tneedto do anything simply because you say so. Haven’t you learned that by now?”
“He could be dying,” Jacob snaps where he’s hustled over beside me. “How does that help your master plan?”
Balthazar simply sets his broad hands on the desk in front of him, interlacing his thick fingers. “As far as I can tell, none of you are proving to be all that useful to my plans at the moment. Or you wouldn’t have returned empty-handed.”
