Page 163 of Shadowblood Souls
As the car lurches around and races onto the road ahead, I crash into Zian’s lap with the turn. He grasps my arm to help right me, and his posture goes abruptly taut.
“Riva!” he cries out, half protest, half groan.
When my head snaps up, his expression is frozen in an expression of horror, his face caught halfway between its fully human and wolfman forms. His wrinkled jowls draw back from uneven fangs; the whites of his eyes gleam with apparent panic.
A howl bursts from his lips, one so agonized that my heart nearly stops. At the same time, it raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
Any guardians out there trying to follow us won’t miss that sound.
“Zee!” I hiss, trying to push myself away in case our closeness is the problem. But he keeps clutching my arm, his gaze raking down over me.
His whole massive frame shudders. “No, Riva, no, no.”
All at once he jerks back from me, his shoulder slamming against the car door hard enough to dent it. “Dom, you have to help her—you have to—I didn’t mean?—"
The warbled words make no sense until I follow his gaze, looking down at myself. I’m drenched in blood and gore—does he think some of it ismine?
You’d think he’d be able to tell from my face that I’m not in the middle of death spasms, but he’s gripped by some response beyond logic.
Dominic has reached over from my other side to clasp Zian’s shoulder.
“Hey,” he says in a gentle but nervous tone. “Zee, we got away from the guardians. Riva isn’t hurt. Everything’s all right.”
But Zian’s attention is fixed completely on me. His breath is coming in hoarse pants. He shakes his head frantically.
I’ve only seen him close to this panicked once—almost ten years ago, when the guardians took us out to some lake for swimming practice. I plunged in right to the silty bottom and glided around seeing how long I could hold my breath, and when I surfaced Zee was crashing through the water shouting my name.
But that time, he calmed down pretty quickly as soon as he saw my apologetic smile. I don’t know what’s wrenching so badly at him now.
With a stutter of my pulse at the memory of his reactions to my touch before, I move my free hand to curl my fingers around his, squeezing tight when he tries to jerk it away.
I’m not letting him this time. I don’t understand his reactions, but my instincts propel me onward.
He needs to know I’m okay.
I hold his gaze and manage a smile. “I’m good, Zee. Nothing’s wrong. Just the blood of our enemies—like it’s meant to be, huh?”
I stroke my thumb over his palm. He blinks at me, his head twitching.
His posture starts to relax. I carefully pull at the wet fabric of my open hoodie and the tank top beneath so he can see there are no tears.
“I’m totally fine. Not hurt at all. Only the ones who deserved it are.”
A long, shaky breath rushes out of Zian. His wolfish features fully contract, leaving him as the gorgeous man he normally is, if slightly sickly looking at the moment.
His fingers twist against mine—and squeeze back, just for a second.
He doesn’t always hate my touch.
“You’re all right?” he croaks, scanning my face.
“Absolutely, one hundred percent all right,” I assure him. “Other than being annoyed that those assholes ruined my new favorite hoodie.”
He lets out a startled guffaw and then pulls his hand from mine. This time I let him go.
His head droops. “I’m sorry. I just—I got so worried?—”
“It’s okay,” Dominic says before I can figure out how to answer. “It could have happened to any of us.”
