Page 255 of Shadowblood Souls
A small smile crosses Rollick’s lips. “That much I can help with.”
He leans forward with his hands braced against the top of the chair. “I’m willing to help you with this because it serves my purposes too. But most of the risk won’t be mine. As I’ve already mentioned, we won’t be able to go into the buildings with you.”
Andreas frowns. “You have some abilities you can use at a distance, don’t you?”
“To a small degree. Even with those… The helmets and vests these mortals wear will protect them from most influence we could exert from afar.”
So that was what the guardians’ strange uniforms had been about. They must have hoped the metals would give them some small bit of protection against our powers too.
But it hadn’t worked. We hybrids really are that much more powerful than the full shadowkind.
No wonder Engel was afraid of us. No wonder the shadowkind are too.
I inhale slowly to steady myself. “What does that mean for us, then?”
Rollick’s smile has turned grim. “My people would do what we can on the outside—to draw the mortals out and dispose of any who step beyond the stronger protections. We can be prepared to carry the young ones you rescue to safety as soon as they’re out. But it’d be up to the five of you to handle everything inside the building, on your own.”
A solemn silence descends over the table as we let that declaration sink in.
Just the five of us, unaffected by the guardians’ protective measures but with powers we’re still struggling to control, no ability to dart away into the shadows if the fight turns against us, no shadow realm we can turn to in order to repair our injuries.
The demon’s voice softens. “Do you really want to do this? We can hold off your pursuers from this ship for a long time. If you’d rather, I have no problem with simply continuing to cruise around while continuing our experiments. We may still find another way to cut off their ability to track you.”
The thought of sticking to the security of the yacht, of enjoying gourmet food and curling up in my cozy bedroom at night, wraps around me like a warm blanket. It’s so tempting.
But the next image that floats through my mind is of my cell in the facility.
The cramped space with its narrow, hard bed.
The plates of bland food delivered through a slot.
The barrage of orders, day in and day out.
All the hurt and destruction we carried out on the guardian’s whim.
All the pain they dealt out to us if we resisted.
The younger shadowbloods are living like that right now. If Engel’s notes were correct, their powers are weaker than ours.
They have no hope of escape unless we come for them. How could I sit on my ass in luxury while they’re being tormented?
And Rollick can’t be sure that we really will stay safe on this ship anyway. For now, the guardians are simply preparing for battle along the coast—but they’ve taken us by surprise before.
None of us—me and my men, our shadowkind allies, or the younger shadowbloods in captivity—will really be safe and free until the guardians can’t reach us any longer.
Glancing around the table, I see the same resolve forming in my men’s eyes. I feel it humming through my marks from Andreas and Dominic.
I broke in to rescue them all on my own. With the help of Rollick and other shadowkind, with the five of us working together, we have to be able to take on whatever the facility holds.
Or we’ll die trying.
I turn back to Rollick with a knot of apprehension forming in my gut but not a single trace of doubt.
“We need to get them out of there. Whatever it takes. As soon as we can find them.”
Thirty-Three
Zian
