Page 127 of Shadowblood Souls
I only came this far with them to get answers… and while we got plenty of those from Engel, what she told us only spawned new questions. I need to know more, and whatever Engel kept on her devices could be the key.
So I guess I’m sticking with them for now, at least during this brief reprieve while we save our skins. But who knows what horrible thoughts about me are winding through the guys’ heads as we clamber into the vehicle.
This could be the very last ride we share.
Two
Riva
The glow of the laptop screen turns Jacob’s face an even eerier pale than usual in the darkness of the train car. He glares at it and lets out a string of colorful curses before shoving it away.
Andreas glances over at him from where he’s sitting by the wall and raises his eyebrows. “You didn’t really think the genius scientist would forget to put password protection on her devices, did you?”
Jacob scowls. “It didn’t seem like she got a whole lot of visitors she’d need to worry about prying into her stuff. There was hope.”
He leans back against the stack of crates behind him, swaying a little with a bump on the tracks, and folds his muscular arms over his chest. “You’ll just have to scrounge up another hacker for us.”
Andreas tugs at the length of rope he picked up in the train yard and has been winding into knots to pass the time. “I can do that, as soon as we figure out where we’re landing.”
The smell of sawdust itches at my nose. I draw my knees up to my chest where I’m sitting across from Andreas and risk a question.
“Do you figure we should stay in Canada for now or head back to the States?”
We decided before we hitched our ride that it was better not to try to cross the border right away, not when we’re so close to where the guardians may already realize we’ve come over. But we haven’t picked a final destination yet.
Dominic stirs where he’s been slouched near the car door. During our short wait for the train, he drained some of the life from a towering pine tree to heal up the other guys’ wounds a little better, but the effort seems to have exhausted him.
His voice comes out steady enough, if typically quiet. “The guardians never sent us on any missions outside of the country. They’d probably expect us to cross back to more familiar territory.”
Zian lifts his head from where he’s been sorting through our collection of firearms, consolidating ammo where he can. “As far as we know, all of the facilities were in the States, right? The guardians probably know their way around better down there too.”
Jacob nods. “I think we should stay up north while we regroup, until we’ve decided on our next steps.”
His cool blue gaze slides to me, as if he wants my approval of the plan. As if my opinion suddenly matters to him after weeks of sneering at any suggestion I made.
He admitted to being an asshole and an idiot, with something like an apology… after he tore into me so brutally I had to runstraight at a speeding train to make sure I didn’t unleash my shrieking power on him. That was only a couple of days ago.
I don’t know what to believe. Especially now that they know just how brutalIcan be.
I press my elbow against the wound on my side—starting to seal on its own with the heightened ability to recover that all our bodies have, but still sore when I prod it. The pain lances through my torso, grounding me.
As I open my mouth to make a brief comment of agreement, the train car lurches. My arm bumps my side harder than before, and what comes out instead is a strained squeak.
All four of the guys sitting around me stiffen. A whiff of nervous pheromones reaches me.
I snap my mouth shut, my stomach flipping over. But I knew we weren’t going to avoid this subject forever.
There’s a moment of silence other than the rattle of the train over the tracks. Then Andreas speaks up, with a weird mix of wariness and concern in his tone.
“What happened at Engel’s house—you didn’t tell us you’d developed new abilities too.”
I drop my chin to my knees, staring at the scuffed floor rather than holding his gaze. “It’d only… come out once before. I didn’t want to think it would happen again.”
I close my eyes and add, “I didn’t want to think I’d done it in the first place.”
I hadn’t wanted my guys to realize I had something so horrifying in me. So much for that.
There’s a rustle as Dominic pulls his parka closer around him in the cooling evening air. “It didn’t look like you just killed them,” he ventures.
