Page 287 of Shadowblood Souls
As we turned, we put our backs to the younger shadowbloods with a sway of Dominic’s tentacles. A shocked gasp carries after us, followed by nervous giggles and a muffled “What thehell?”
Dom’s fingers tense momentarily in mine.
“Ignore them,” I say under my breath. “They’ll get used to it.”
They’d better.
Dominic’s grip has already relaxed again. “I know. And I do look strange. It’s worth the trade-off.”
He told me the first night we got together that he’d never want to try to remove the tentacles because then he might not be able to heal me properly if I needed his help in the future.
I raise his hand in mine to press a kiss to his knuckles, and then to the back of his tentacle still tucked around my wrist. Dominic beams at me, and I don’t give a shit that the guardian who’s following us clears his throat as if to remind us to stay focused.
Jacob shoots a death glare over his shoulder at my critic, so that helps too.
The guardian veers away from us toward the other orange marker that I can now make out through the trees. “Get ready and wait for my signal.”
We spread ourselves out in a reasonably straight line in front of the tree that has the first marker, my hand parting from Dominic’s reluctantly. I drop into a sprinter’s starting stance.
The guardian gives the standard “Ready, set, go!” and I launch myself forward alongside the other guys.
Between the three of us, it’s no real contest. I could probably outrun even Zian’s similarly super-powered strength here in the forest, where my small size makes it easier for me to slip between the tree trunks and through the underbrush.
My feet thump over the uneven ground in a swift rhythm, finding their balance instinctively. I fly past bushes and low branches and skid to a stop just past the second marker, barely winded.
Jacob charges after me, hurtling forward as fast as his muscular legs can propel him. Dominic follows several paces behind him with his tentacles coiled close to his back.
But even though Dom’s always been the least coordinated of us, all our past training has still served him well. He reaches the two of us just seconds behind Jacob.
The guardian gives his timer a third click and studies the results. “Better than you were looking for,” he shouts back to Clancy.
“Then we can move on,” Clancy says. “Come on back, you three.”
When we tramp over to him, he motions Jacob toward another of the guardians. “Lin has some models for you to work your powers on. We want you honing that telekinetic accuracy so you can dispatch enemy combatants with no chance for them to sound a warning.”
Clancy turns to me. “I’d like to see if your claws can let you climb up a brick wall without the need for a harness. We’ve got a setup for that over here.”
Then he beckons over the last of the guardians who’ve stayed with us, who’s been lugging a large sack. The man peels it off to reveal a short, dense shrub in a thin plastic pot that’s trailing fabric straps.
“You,” Clancy says to Dominic, “need a guaranteed energy source if you’re going to be healing on the fly. So we’re going tosee about making an effective harness for you, with the largest plants you can carry that won’t interfere with your movements.”
Dominic studies the shrub with a slight rise of his eyebrows. “I’m going to be porting bushes around like a baby in a carrier?”
I can’t stop a short laugh from slipping out at the image that forms in my mind. “Whatever works, right?”
It’s actually a pretty smart idea, even if it’ll look funny.
Clancy and the guardian who handled our race lead me over to a section of layered bricks they’ve set up in another clear patch of forest. I flex my claws out far enough that tufts of fur spring across the shell of my ears too and launch myself at the mottled surface.
After a few tries, I figure out the trick for sinking the tips far enough into the mortar between the rough blocks at the right angle to hold my weight. I can’t hold myself in one spot for more than a few seconds, but by quickly jerking my hands upward one by one and scrambling with my feet catching on whatever small notches they can find, I make it to the top of the ten-foot structure in the space of a few breaths.
I push myself off and land on my feet on the ground.
Clancy nods with a satisfied air. “Give that at least ten run-throughs until you’re totally comfortable, and then we’re going to work on refining your other supernatural talent.”
My pulse hiccups at the thought of bringing out my fatal shriek. I glance toward Jacob, his pale hair partly visible through the trees, and think of the task he was sent to do.
By “dispatch,” Clancy meant “kill.”
