Page 263 of Shadowblood Souls
“I—I—” the guardian stutters, and then squares his shoulders, his mouth clamping tight.
Jacob raises his hand, his fingers curling toward his palm, and I have a sudden vision of what he means to do. How he could strangle the life out of this man as easily as clenching a fist.
But we don’t need to. The guy is unarmed, defenseless—and I’d like to leave one person here knowing that we’re so much more than monsters.
“Wait,” I say, quiet but firm.
Jake grimaces but eases to the side as I prowl forward.
What I can see of the guardian’s face around the plates of his helmet pales. He swallows audibly, but he still doesn’t speak.
I pin him with my stare, every muscle braced for action. “I don’t want to?—”
I cut myself off, realizing what I was going to say isn’t true. And maybe the truth will mean more, even if it’s not as pretty.
“No,” I correct myself. “Idowant to hurt you. A whole lot of me would like to make you feel just a fraction of what you and the people you work with put us through.”
I flex my claws for emphasis. A shriek tremors in my chest, eager to feed off the pain I’ve denied it so far in this battle.
The man remains silent, but his jaw ticks with a restrained flinch.
I take another step closer to where I could scrape my claws across his face if I decided to.
“I want you to know that. I want you to know that I’m holding myself back from what I’d like to do right now, because no matter what you people put in me or did to me, I’m not a monster. I can believe there are people out there who’d care if you died, who don’t deserve that pain. I can have compassion even foryou.”
“I’m not going to help you,” the guardian rasps out.
I shrug, staying tensed. “That’s up to you. We’ve broken out of places like this twice before. We can manage it again without you. We know to leave your eyes and your hands and your faceintact in case we need those to unlock the system. The rest of you…”
Leaning in, I hook one claw under his helmet and flip it right off his head. His fear saturates the air, so pungent I wouldn’t be surprised if the others can smell it now too.
“I’m giving you the option,” I say. “If you want to survive another day to see those people who care about you, who maybe you care about too, you can show us how to find and open the cells. Or we can kill you and then figure it out anyway. The only thing that changes is whether you live. That’s your choice.”
Jacob inhales roughly behind me but doesn’t argue with the bargain I’m attempting to strike.
I don’t know if it’s going to work. The man’s posture has gone even more rigid in his chair.
But then Andreas speaks up from the doorway, even but with a hint of his cajoling tone.
“Chloe would miss you an awful lot, don’t you think? And what would she tell Ava? Is this job really worth losingthem—leaving them alone?”
The man can’t suppress his wince this time at the names Drey has pulled from his memories. His face turns an even more sickly shade.
“Do whatever you’re going to do to me,” he spits out. “But don’t—don’t touch them. They had nothing to do with this.”
He spins his chair toward the console. My teeth grit at the thought that he’s only acting because he thinks we were threatening his family—but he’s doing something.
I really shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, should I? I’m getting what I wanted even if not exactly the way I wanted it.
And he’ll know that I meant my promise when he walks out of this building alive.
His hands dart over the controls. He points to one of the screens—a blue-print style rendering of a hall lined with small rooms on either side.
Uncomfortably familiar.
“That’s where they are. Three floors down, past the training complex.”
“And unlocking the doors?” Dominic asks.
