Page 155 of Shadowblood Souls
“We don’t really get it either,” Jacob says, sounding peeved. “We wouldn’t have ‘hassled’ anyone if we did.”
“But you’re part human, part shadowkind,” the beastly man clarifies. “The two mixed together?”
“Shadowkind?” I repeat, confused.
His gaze veers to me, and he flashes his fangs again. “That’s what we call ourselves. Maybe your makers called us ‘monsters.’ Most humans use that word.”
Gosh, I wonder why that would be.
But his words send a quiver of rightness through me at the same time. Shadowkind. Like the shadowy haze that seeps from our wounds.
I swallow thickly. “They called us shadowbloods.”
The monster—shadowkind—whatever he is—makes a sound like a snort. “And what do you bleed? Red liquid or black smoke?”
“Both.”
Somehow he manages to look even more upset about that fact than he already was. He draws back toward the door.
“I’m not interested in playing anyone’s mentor. I just look out for my city to make sure no one’s stirring up trouble.”
“We’d stir up a lot less trouble if any of you would actually talk to us,” Jacob mutters.
The beastly man glares at him. Then he pauses, a more pensive expression coming over his fearsome face.
“I have heard that there’s a powerful shadowkind down south who caters to odd ones. He has a hotel—in the city called Miami. You could go down there.”
I can’t tell how much he’s trying to help us and how much just hoping to get us out of his territory.
From the twist of Dominic’s mouth, he’s wondering the same thing. “How would we find the right hotel? Who is this guy?”
“I believe his name is Rollick. But I don’t promise anything.” The purple giant shoots us another glower. “Leave the shadowkind here alone and go ask your questions someplace else.”
His gaze falls on the small duffel full of our confiscated guns. His lips draw back in a silent snarl.
“You brought mortal weapons. Is theresilverin some of those?”
I have no idea why he’d object to silver—or whether we’ve got any fancy firearms. But the monster doesn’t wait for an answer.
“You’ll be a little less trouble without these.”
He whips the bag off the ground into his arms. Then he blinks out of existence just like the two monsters we tried to interrogate earlier did, taking our entire stash of guns with him.
“Shit,” I mumble.
The room’s ceiling fixtures are shining brightly. So much for my hope that light might help us keep the monsters in one place.
When he doesn’t reappear, the tension wound through me releases just a little. I pull my claws back into my fingertips and hug myself over the towel.
“Well,” Andreas says wryly, “that was a fun little visit. I guess bullets won’t do much against things like him anyway.”
Then his gaze slides toward me—and jars to a halt. The other guys glance over too, and suddenly a different sort of scent wafts through the air alongside the heat that’s sparked in their eyes.
I’m abruptly aware of my wet hair sending a trickle of water down my back… and of the fact that I really am wearingjusta towel. My body is totally naked underneath.
The towel only falls halfway down my thighs, and the two ends have opened to show a triangle of flesh almost to my hip. Damp patches cling to the sides of my breasts.
I try to tug the fabric over more of me without flashing any extra skin in the meantime. “I didn’t know what was going on—I didn’t have time to get dressed.”
