Page 561 of Shadowblood Souls
They had the worst of both words, too monstrous to be normal but not monstrous enough to fight their way free, and Balthazar gave them a little flame of hope.
I’d like to think that his manipulations wouldn’t have worked on the kids I knew back on the island. But Ajax told me that the process for bringing out their stronger talents has riled up something else in the younger shadowbloods.
Has Balthazar not just expanded their powers but made them as insane as he was too?
Not all of them. Ajax sounded normal.
And another familiar voice, if a little hoarse, carries from the other side of the clearing. “You’ve got to know that’s not true, Nadia.”
I yank my gaze in the opposite direction. Booker stands tensed near the tree line, his shaggy blond hair damp with sweat and maybe a little blood, no sign of carefree surfer dude attitude in him now.
His supernatural ability was reading auras. I have no idea how Balthazar’s treatment might have warped that talent.
“The Firsts always looked out for us,” he adds. “They did everything they could to get us away from the guardians. Of course they’d do the same with Balthazar.”
Nadia’s eyes flick to her boyfriend—if they still have that kind of relationship—but only for a second. Her expression tightens.
“He could have given us more,” she says, her voice rising. “He found ways of making us better that no one else managed to. They took that chance away from us.”
Sorsha folds her arms in front of her with a skeptical glance. “From what I’ve seen, this Balthazar guy didn’t give you anything except a whole lot of crap to weigh on your conscience. If he wasn’t sending you kids out to destroy and murder already, he would have soon.”
The tattooed man with the bladed shoulders snorts. “There’s nothing wrong with teaching a lesson to the people who never thought we’d amount to anything anyway.”
Tegan glares at Sorsha. “We don’t even know who you are. What does it matter what you think?”
I summon all the patience I can. “Sorsha’s with us. She’s as close to blood as anyone who wasn’t created by the guardians can get, and she wants what’s best for you too. If we could just talk this through, I’m sure we could figure out a way to go forward that?—”
“They’re going to try to take our powers away!” a youthful voice cries out from closer to the helicopter. “They want to crush us like they did to the boss.”
“No!” My jaw clenches for a moment before I can speak through my frustration. “We’re looking out for you just like Booker said. We can set up new lives free from anyone ordering us around or forcing us into awful situations.”
The tattooed man who appears to be the most outspoken of the criminal shadowbloods sputters with derisive laughter and starts striding toward us again. “I don’t think so. Sounds like youpipsqueaks figureyoucan give the orders now. No fucking thank you. Get out of my way. We’ve got so much more to do.”
I don’t like the awful implications of his statement—and obviously neither does Sorsha. She steps forward to meet him, her wings flaring brighter. “Stop right there.”
His face flushes with anger. “I’m getting back on that chopper to go where I feel like, and I’m taking whoever wants to come with me. Unless you really are trying to call the shots for us now.”
“You can’t just take off,” I protest. Not to do whatever it is he and the other shadowbloods are planning—we can’t leave these super-powered criminals running rampant.
“Oh, I think we can,” the tattooed man growls, and springs forward to lunge past Sorsha toward the helicopter.
A yelp of dismay breaks from my throat. Sorsha spins, her hand whipping back to fling fire toward him—and a streak of blinding light sears from Nadia’s hands straight into the phoenix’s eyes.
Sorsha gasps, and her spurt of fire flies wide, singeing the back of the tattooed guy’s coat before smacking into a nearby tree. The flames roar up the trunk with a wash of heat.
Suddenly, everyone seems to be yelling. I whirl around, reaching out toward Nadia and Tegan, but the two girls dash toward the helicopter. Other shadowbloods race off into the forest or follow them to the chopper.
Zian looms over me, his head swiveling as if he’s hoping to protect me from all sides. My throat aches with a futile scream I don’t know how to let out.
Who should I be attacking here, if anyone? Technically Sorsha attacked them first; Nadia was only defending someone she apparently sees as a friend.
Jacob charges toward the helicopter too, lifting his hands. One of the propeller blades is already bending with a metallic groan when a shadowblood thug hurtles into Jake.
They thump to the ground and roll on the concrete. Barbs jut from the older man’s hand and wrist, and he rakes them across Jacob’s face.
As I scramble to help, my lips parting with a shriek I might emit after all, the thug shoves himself away from Jacob with a stomp of a foot that’s grown abnormally large and a crack of Jacob’s forearm.
The first squeak of sound breaks from my lips, and another body slams into me from behind. I topple face-first toward the pavement, only just throwing out my hands in time to catch myself with a scrape down to my elbows.
