Page 174 of Shadowblood Souls
“If he is, then it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Jacob grumbles.
“It doesn’t.”
Andreas’s eyes flare ruddy. After a minute, he shakes his head. “I’m not seeing anything that would connect these jerks to the guardians.”
Jacob grimaces. “I guess you’d better wipeallof us from their memories then.”
He turns to glower at the injured men. “You’re going to walk us over to your car, give us the pictures and the cash, and then we’ll let you drive off to the hospital like none of this ever happened. Or we can kill you right now and take all your stuff anyway. It’s up to you.”
“We’ll give you what you want,” rasps one of the other guys.
I rub my arms, my nerves still clanging with uneasiness. I don’t like this at all.
“After that,” I say, “I think we’d better have our next chat with Rollick sooner than we’d planned.”
If I had any doubts that the self-proclaimed demon took the threat of the guardians seriously, the fact that he’s left behind the comforts of his hotel to meet with us elsewhere erased them. I don’t know how much we can actually trust him to haveourbest interests at heart, but he seems awfully practical when it comes to his own security.
We drive into the immense underground parking garage he directed us to with our eyes peeled, but there’s no sign of any danger within. After we’ve parked not far from the exit ramp and eased out into the cool, dim space, Rollick wavers into being near a concrete column several feet away without warning.
All of us flinch, our hands jerking up defensively.
Rollick chuckles, the corners of his eyes crinkling with well-worn smile lines. “I didn’t mean to startle you. If you’re going to be keeping much shadowkind company, you’d better get used to abrupt comings and goings.”
Jacob studies him intently. “How do you do that? The shadowkind we tried to talk to before—some of them just vanished, as fast as you appeared right now.”
Rollick raises his eyebrows. “There’s a reason we got our name. The realm we came from is made mostly of shadow, and that’s our natural home. We can meld into and out of the darkness of your world whenever we want.”
Zian looks down at himself as if expecting to see his own body blending into shadow. “Wecan’t do that.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. The only other hybrid I’ve ever met needed a lot of practice to tap into that particular skill, from what I hear.”
Curiosity jolts through me. “You know another hybrid like us?”
“Not exactly like you,” Rollick says with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. “She came by her combined nature through more natural processes, no experimentations by nosy humans.”
Andreas has perked up too. “Where is she? Maybe we could talk with?—”
Rollick gives a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’ve already attempted to reach out to her and gotten no reply. She’s kind of a flighty being, in more ways than one. But also prone to taking on projects of various sorts. No telling how long she might have dropped off the grid this particular time. But I did bring a few other associates for you to meet.”
He makes another motion, and three more figures solidify into sight in a semi-circle facing us.
Like Rollick, they look human as far as I can tell, but they give off an obvious vibe of supernatural energy. My muscles tense.
Is this some kind of ambush?
But Rollick goes on talking without any hint of aggression. “I thought these three might be of some use if your ‘guardians’ come calling again. Cinder can manipulate electricity.”
The wiry-thin woman at his left snaps her tan fingers, and sparks shoot up. More dance in her pale eyes.
Rollick indicates the stockier man with a head of thick, chocolate-brown curls next to her. “Slick has a knack for tracking down objects and coaxing them into his possession.”
The man tips his head toward us with a blink of his heavy-lidded eyes.
“And I insisted on coming along because you all seem so interesting!” the woman at Rollick’s right pipes up.
She grins at us with no sign of self-consciousness. Her hourglass figure in its silk dress gives her a sultry look that’s offset by her dimpled cheeks and the youthful glow in her smooth face.
Rollick clears his throat. “Pearl was watching from the shadows during our first meeting. But she’s selling herself short. As a succubus, she can persuade most mortals to do just about anything.”
