Page 160 of Shadowblood Souls
He looks as pensively handsome as usual, his face just inches from mine.
He doesn’t draw back. He lifts his other hand to touch my cheek, and our gazes lock together.
“Thank you,” he says softly, as if I’ve donehima favor.
My pulse skitters. I want to lean into his touch—but the longing brings a jolt of panic.
The last time I let one of the guys get this close to me, my heart ended up torn in two.
Before I can clamp down on my nerves, my body is jerking away, taking a few steps back.
Dominic stays where he was, his fingers curling toward his palm. His face has shadowed again.
But this is for the best, isn’t it?
I shouldn’t be letting myself get distracted from the larger mission. I shouldn’t be indulging in my teenage fantasies of some kind of epic romance anyway.
“Thank you,” I say, because I definitely owe him that much. “We should get packed up before Jacob starts cracking the whip.”
Dominic manages another little smile, although it’s tighter than before. “Right. I’ll see you downstairs.”
After he’s left, I don’t actually have much to do. I wash up in the bathroom, not bothering with a shower after my soak in the tub last night, and stuff a few lingering odds and ends into my backpack.
When I tramp down to the lower floor, I find the guys gathered in the living room already, packs slung over their shoulders. I guess we’re heading out a little early.
Jacob motions us toward the front door wordlessly. As we follow him, Zian’s head snaps to the side as if he’s tracking a sudden sound. He halts in his tracks.
“Wait,” he mutters, and moves to the window.
He scans the street outside, holding perfectly still, his eyes narrowing. His broad shoulders tense.
He glances back at us, wide-eyed. “There are guardians out there, staked out around the building. They’ve found us.”
Eleven
Riva
“Are you sure?” Jacob asks as he edges toward the window. As if Zian would make up an invasion of guardians.
Zian is staring at the street outside again. He nods.
“There’s this clinking sound their stupid armor makes… It’s not very loud so I almost didn’t hear it, but I’d know that noise anywhere.”
His muscles twitch with restrained power.
My own body has gone rigid with alarm. “How many are there?”
“I’ve only seen two.” He tips his head toward the window. “There’s one around the corner of a building across the street, and another ducked next to a car.”
Dominic frowns. “I doubt they’d only send a squad of two to try to take us down. There are probably others too far out of view for even your X-ray vision to catch them.”
Zian lets out a faint growl. “Yeah.”
“At least you caught on so you could warn us,” Andreas says in a typical attempt at optimism, though he looks as unnerved as the rest of us. He grips the strap of his backpack against his shoulder and jerks his chin toward the door. “We’ve got to get to the car.”
Jacob lets out his breath in a huff. “Yeah. No good waiting here for them to finish ambushing us. If that fucker yesterday hadn’t taken our guns…”
Zian draws back from the window. “We managed without shooting anyone before. Out in public, and in daylight too, they’ll have to be careful how they attack us, right?”
