Page 510 of Shadowblood Souls
I stare at her, momentarily struck dumb.
Rollick steps between us and the fiery woman with a wry grin. “Sorsha, these are the shadowbloods. At least, the oldest of them. Shadowbloods, this is Sorsha—the one other hybrid being I’m aware of in existence.”
I manage to reel my jaw back in. “You said you couldn’t get in contact with her.”
The demon arches his eyebrows. “You’ve been gone a while. I kept trying.”
He tips his head toward her. “Like all of you, she isn’t bothered by inconveniences like iron and silver protections. That’s why we went with fire as our weapon of choice.”
Sorsha laughs. “That’s me, phoenix for hire. Not that I’ve ever bothered to charge you for these epic battles you keep roping me into.” She taps her lips. “Come to think of it, I probably should. You’ve got plenty of dough to cough up.”
Rollick rolls his eyes at her. “If you find yourself low on funds, I definitely owe you a few favors.”
“Oh, where would the fun be in cashing those in just yet?”
She ambles closer to us, scanning us with open curiosity. “So much for hybrids being the rarest beings in existence. How many of youarethere altogether? Rollick said there were younger ones too. What?—”
The demon clears his throat. “I think we should probably get these kids all the way to safety before we get into any long interrogations.”
I would bristle at being called a “kid” if Rollick hadn’t mentioned at some point that he’s thousands of years old. It’s hard to take the label as an insult in that context.
Sorsha bobs her head apologetically. “Right, right. To the Everymobile we go!”
Before I can wonder what the heck an Everymobile is, Dominic gestures to Rollick. “I’m not sure how much farther we should go without getting rid of these.” He taps one of his manacles. “The man who trapped us was using them to control us. It’s possible he has a way to reactivate the system somewhere else. There’s some kind of trigger in them that’s supposed to hurt us if we try to break them?—”
Sorsha is already reaching for his wrist. “I bet I can take care of that lickety-split.”
It actually takes her a few minutes of studying the metal band before her expression firms with certainty. Then there’s a flare in her eyes and a faint hiss, and a pleased smirk crosses her lips.
She lets loose another, slightly larger surge of her phoenix fire, and the band completely disintegrates. The dust falls fromDominic’s wrist, leaving only a smudge where it used to be—and him completely unharmed.
Once Sorsha knows the part she has to destroy before removing the rest of the manacle, she makes short work of the rest of ours. I’d gotten so used to having them clamped against my skin that I’d barely registered their slim weight unless I was thinking about it. But rubbing my wrists after they’re gone, I feel as if someone has lifted an anvil off my heart.
With her on our side, we shouldn’t have any trouble finishing the battle we’ve started today.
Wrists freed, we tramp across the hill and find ourselves faced with a parked RV.
It isn’t like the fancy ride Rollick hooked us up with back in Miami. The siding is dented and smudged, the fixtures look like they’re from some decade past, and weird protrusions poke from its sides and top: a crooked satellite dish, a propeller, and an assortment of streamers that flutter even while the RV is stopped.
But Sorsha pats the side of the vehicle like you might a horse and beckons us toward the doorway. “Everyone on board!”
I guess a lot of the shadowkind still lurking in the darkness will slip onto the vehicle too. Who knows how many it can hold when they aren’t taking physical form?
Rollick, Pearl, Billy, Sorsha, and us six shadowbloods clamber into the cramped retro interior. Zian immediately eyeballs the motor area, maybe using his X-ray vision to compare it to the posh luxury RV we had before.
“We’ve been getting organized in a rented villa not too far from here,” Rollick says, sprawling on the worn but comfy-looking leather seats of the C-like seating area. The layout is pretty similar to his RV even if the styling doesn’t match. “We can stop there briefly to get you all patched up and decide on our next steps.”
My thoughts dart off into the future. “Balthazar grabbed all the younger shadowbloods too, but he sent them someplace else. We have to get them away from him.” My stomach lurches. “Any of them that he hasn’t?—”
Sorsha interrupts with an urgent sound from the driver’s seat. “Thorn and Crag grabbed someone.”
We all rush to the front of the RV to peer through the windshield alongside her.
There’s no way I could have anticipated the sight that meets my eyes. Two huge, winged men, both even bigger and brawnier than Zian, are soaring toward us, restraining a woman between them.
The shadowkind on the left flaps broad, black-feathered wings, his silver-blond hair streaming behind him like he’s some kind of dark angel. He’s clamped one hand, the knuckles glinting like crystals, around the woman’s wrists, the other arm slung around her shoulders to hold her steady.
His companion appears to be made out of stone, all sharp-edged gray planes. His batlike wings sweep through the air as he holds the woman’s lower legs secure.
