Page 169 of Shadowblood Souls
“They might have just gotten lucky,” Dominic adds. “We managed to stay in one location for about a week earlier on. But we can’t know for sure.”
Rollick hums to himself. “Someplace to stay while staying on the move. I might have an idea how you can accomplish that too. But it’d be dependent on you staying close enough to stop by and meet with me every day. Could you accept those terms?”
Jacob lifts his chin, his jaw set at a firm angle. “I think that depends on what your idea is.”
The shadowkind man grins as if delighted by the answer. “They didn’t experiment all the brains out of your heads, I see. It just so happens that I met an odd bunch several years ago who had a very useful method of transportation…”
Thirteen
Dominic
Zian runs his hands over the granite countertops and shakes his head, still not over his amazement. “This has got to be the nicest place I’ve ever stayed in, and it’s a fuckingcar.”
“Recreational vehicle!” Andreas calls cheerily from the driver’s area up front. He’s enjoying our new ride too.
I take in the RV from where I’m sitting on the convertible sofa that served as one of our beds last night. It is hard to believe that what looks like a luxury apartment is on wheels, although the faint rumble of the engine and the occasional sway as Andreas eases us through a turn give it away.
This sofa and the one across from me boast soft, dove-gray leather. The cabinets in the kitchen and overhead gleam with dark wood, and the kitchen area comes with a full-sized fridge and microwave along with a stove top and small oven.
Between the king-sized bed in the official bedroom at the back, the bunks across from the bathroom, the pull-out sofa,and the loft over the driver’s seat, we even all get our own beds. The only possible comfort we could complain about missing is a bathtub, although we do have two separate bathrooms complete with glass shower stalls to make up for it—the one in the main space and the bedroom’s ensuite.
And somehow the mysterious Rollick produced this amazing home-slash-vehicle for our use in a couple of hours.
I shift in my seat, my extra appendages flexing uneasily against my back. “Are we sure it was a good idea to take a giftthisnice from a guy who openly admitted he’s a demon?” Whatever exactly that word means in real-world rather than movie terms.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it a ‘gift,’” Jacob says from where he’s poised in the seat next to Andreas’s, watching the Miami suburb pass by beyond the windshield. “He made it clear that if he doesn’t see us every day, he’ll have it confiscated.”
“Still, it’s awfully generous.”
Rollick didn’t just hand over the extravagant vehicle but a credit card to keep it gassed and us fed as well. Which I appreciate, because it meant that we could keep cruising around the outskirts of Miami all night, taking shifts while the rest slept, but it is a lot.
“I wonder how all this works,” Zian murmurs as he crouches down on the floor by the oven. I can tell from the tightening of his face that he’s using his X-ray vision to study the inner mechanisms, but he hasn’t completely zoned out of our conversation. “Rollick was pretty curious about us.”
“Or nervous,” Riva puts in as she emerges from the main bedroom, which we all agreed should be hers.
Out of all of us, she needs her privacy—and her distance from the rest of us—the most.
Her pale skin has a rosy glow from the shower she just took. She’s already wound her hair back into her usual braid, and she’s wearing a typical tank-and-cargos combo.
But I can’t stop the brief flash of memory that sends me back to seeing her wrapped in nothing but a towel a few nights ago.
At the twitch of my dick, I yank both my thoughts and my gaze away. With the way she flinched away from me after I healed her, she couldn’t have made it clearer that she doesn’t want methatway.
And why would she? Who the hell would want to make out—or anything more—with a guy who’s got two gruesome tentacles sprouting from his back?
Tentacles I admitted to her I’ve stolen lives with… and enjoyed it.
Jacob hums in response to Riva’s suggestion. “He definitely wants to know more about what we can do with our powers. Or to make sure we aren’t going to use them destroying his city.”
Andreas chuckles. “If he wasthatworried, I don’t think he’d have let us leave at all.”
Riva’s mouth twists at an uncomfortable angle. “I’m not sure he wanted to find out what might happen if he tried to stop us.”
She leans against the wall next to the bathroom, her eyes downcast. A different memory rises up: of her yesterday evening, setting her mouth in a flat line while Rollick cajoled her into demonstrating her most potent power.
He brought in a little rat-like creature from someplace, a beast the size of his hand with a strange mohawk of fur down the middle of its back and eyes that shone eerie green.
Just give it a little jolt. Shadowkind are awfully resilient. You’re not likely to kill it unless youreallytry, and it’ll heal quickly enough.
