Page 600 of Shadowblood Souls
But the building itself isn’t feeling particularly settled. Even as my chest loosens a bit, the floor shudders beneath my feet.
All of our heads jerk toward the door. I can sense Riva’s presence in the gymnasium behind it—I know she’s still inside that vast room, moving around.
What the hell is going on over there?
We can’t let ourselves get distracted. We have to focus on getting our part of this mission done.
Andreas moves from Devon to the man I toppled last. As he leans over the former inmate, the man jerks upright, aiming a wobbly but swift fist at Drey’s invisible head.
Shit! I leap forward, my mind scrambling—he must have only pretended to completely faint.
As Drey reels backward through the clouds of gas, I wrench both of my tentacles forward and catch hold of the man’s life force across the short distance. With a yank, I drain a gulp of his energy straight from his spirit.
The man mumbles a swear word, but he’s already slumping. My nerves jitter with the urge to drain even more. To add to the heady power coursing through me.
No. That’s not what I’m here for.
But I am going to siphon off just alittlemore, until his pulse is clearly sluggish. I don’t want to take any chances after he’s already fooled us once.
Andreas lets out a rough chuckle. “Thanks, Dom. Fuck, he almost broke my mask.”
His invisible form pushes through the gas to lean over the newly unconscious man. As he reaches for the guy’s forehead, a tremor passes through the haze around him.
My pulse hiccups. “Are you sure you’re okay, Drey?”
Even through the mask, I can hear a rasp in his voice. “Yeah. It’s not the punch—memory-wiping takes a lot out of me. But I expected that.”
If Drey faints or worse before we’re done here, we’ll be screwed.
“You should let yourself turn visible again,” I say. “It takes more energy keeping the effect in place, right?”
“Good point. I guess it doesn’t matter if these guys see me now.”
The haze shudders again, and Andreas’s body swims into view, gradually turning more solid amid the haze. The bow of his shoulders still looks weary to me.
I look over at Griffin again. “Do you think we should clear the gas? Give Drey more air? Rollick said that once the effect took hold, it should last at least an hour.”
Griffin hesitates as he thinks it over. “If I switch the flow, the fans will just suck it all back in. We can always dose them again if we need to.”
He must flick the switch, because there’s a hitch to the faint whir that lingered in the air. The billows of gas start to fade, wafting toward the vents they poured out of.
As the air clears, I study each of the slumped bodies carefully. No one so much as twitches. They’re all out cold for the moment.
But if I catch any sign of movement, I want to intervene before it becomes a real problem.
Another shudder ripples across the floor, with aboomloud enough that it resonates faintly even through the thick walls. My stomach lurches.
A waft of frustration prickles through my chest from the mark that connects me to Riva. Whatever the shadowbloods they tried to trap are doing, it isn’t going smoothly.
I start to pace the room and force myself to stop. Acting anxious is only going to unsettle my friends.
I really can’t see Griffin now, but I know what he’s doing when one of the boxes opens and he retrieves the supplies we stashed inside. He kneels down next to Devon and fixes the bindings into place around his wrists and ankles.
We have to be careful, just in case our test didn’t totally separate out the shadowbloods who can be rehabilitated from the ones too far gone to adjust to normal life even with their memories wiped. If they’re like the boy back at the hotel, we won’t have to leave the restraints on for very long.
Keith’s been doing well over the past day he’s been with us in his memory-wiped state. I found him laughing with Ajax while they dug into leftover takeout this morning before we left.
Bethany… well, we’re not totally sure what to do with her yet. She’s still lashing out any time Lull lets her wake up.
