Page 154 of Shadowblood Souls
The purple, horned man—I assume, because he looks more male than female with that square jaw and those bulging pecs—glowers at the five of us. He’s standing just a few feet from the apartment’s front entrance, but I know none of the guys would have opened the door for him.
He got inside without them needing to.
A shiver runs through my ears as they sharpen into furred points. My hand that’s holding the towel closed around my torso clenches tighter. Claws prick through the nubby fabric and spring from my free hand.
Those are the only weapons I have. My knives are in my discarded cargo pants upstairs, and all our guns are piled in the duffel bag near the intruder’s feet.
If a blade or a bullet could do anything against a creature like this anyway.
I slide one foot back, bracing in case I need to spring. All my attention remains on the intruder.
His horns, glowing eyes, and purple skin aren’t his only inhuman features. All he’s wearing is a black strip of fabric like a loincloth around his hips, and a short tail with a devilish tip protrudes from a gap in it.
The tail lashes back and forth like he’s a pissed-off cat. And as I watch, his immense form rises several inches off the floor.
He’s hovering in mid-air. A ripple of energy washes over me, jangling through my nerves.
I don’t need to strain any of my senses to recognize this man as a monster.
“What do you want?” Jacob demands, his voice taut enough that I can tell he’s nervous. One of the dining-room chairs floats next to him as if he’s readying it to hurl at the intruder.
I’m guessing he was responsible for the smashing sound I heard, via the vase now lying in pieces on the floor a few feet from the purple beast.
The monster bares his teeth in what could maybe be considered a grin if it wasn’t full of so many sharp, ominous fangs.
“I came here to askyouexactly that question,” he says in a guttural rumble of a voice that shakes up my insides even more. “I heard you’ve been hassling beings who’d rather be left alone.”
His gaze slides over us again, and his mouth curves into what is definitely a frown. He adjusts his pose in the air with a twitch of his muscles.
As if he’s preparinghimselfin case he needs to go on the defensive. A strange wobbly sensation travels down the center of me.
Nervous pheromones lace the air, but I think most if not all of those are from my men. Maybe monsters don’t give off the same kinds of chemicals humans do.
But I can see that this beastly man is definitely a little afraid… of us. What the hell?
Andreas’s eyes have flared with their own reddish glow, but it fades as he focuses back on the present. “We didn’t mean to bother anyone. We were just hoping to ask a few simple questions.”
The creature lets out a derisive sound. “Your approach hasn’t sounded all that peaceful to me. Whatareyou? Where did you come from?”
Zian folds his brawny arms over his chest. The wolfish hair that’s sprung from his neck and the tops of his shoulders ruffles with a flex of his muscles, but he’s managed to keep the full wolfman face under wraps.
“How’s that any of your business?” he asks with strained bravado. “We didn’t go breaking into anyone’s apartment like you just did.”
“Unexpected situations call for unexpected measures,” the monster retorts. “You want to ask some questions? Answer mine, and maybe I’ll have a little advice for you.”
There’s a sneering note to those last words, but his stance remains wary. What exactly is he afraid thatwemight do?
The guys hesitate, but I don’t see any point in drawing out this confrontation longer than we need to. It’s not as if we need to worry about this beast reporting what we tell him back to the guardians—and anyway, I wouldn’t be sharing anything they don’t already know.
I lift my chin a little higher, tucking the ends of my towel under my armpit to free both hands. “We were being held captive by people who made us… kind of like you. We managed to get away from them, but there are a lot of things we don’t understand about our powers.”
Dominic speaks up in his usual softly even voice. “The people we ran from don’t want to tell us anything. Mostly we’d like to get better control over our abilities.”
“People,” the purple giant says. “You mean humans?”
The five of us exchange a glance. “As far as we know,” Andreas says.
The monster’s lips curl with what looks like disgust. “And theymadeyou? From…” He shakes his head as if he doesn’t even want to consider the possibilities.
