Page 307 of Shadowblood Souls
And I have no idea how the hell we’re going to pull that off.
Clancy steps around the desk toward us. I brace myself for another attempt at justifying himself, but instead he cocks his head, his gaze skimming over our bodies.
“That’s not the only interesting thing that happened after you completed your part of the assignment, is it?”
My heart skips a beat. After Dominic’s report, I totally forgot to wonder how much the guardians might have realized about my and Jacob’s intimate activities.
“I don’t think anything happened that would be interesting toyou,” I shoot back.
Jacob steps closer to me in solidarity. “You’re just trying to change the subject from your shitty attitude.”
Clancy tsks his tongue. “Or maybe you’re trying to divertme. I did hear some very intriguing things while I was monitoring the missions.”
He reaches out, a gesture I wasn’t prepared for, and tugs down the collar of Jacob’s clean tee. Just far enough to reveal the dark spot that’s formed at the top of his sternum.
Jake is shoving him away a second later, but Clancy mostly dodges the blow with a backward step, anticipating it. He rocks on his feet, brushes himself off, and glances at me.
“I’m guessing you have a third of those now. A mark. We made note of them when you arrived, but I didn’t realize they were connected to your powers.”
My pulse thumps faster. “What are you talking about?” I blurt out, praying that there’s some chance he doesn’t really understand.
Griffin stands up. “You’re upsetting them,” he says, his voice as calm as ever but the furrow on his forehead deepening.
Clancy ignores him. “I suppose I didn’t mention that your tracking bands also transmit audio. I heard everything you said after your little interlude. Sex creates a connection between you? An extra awareness of each other? That’s fascinating. We didn’t anticipate anything like?—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Jacob snarls, and throws himself at the other man with a clench of his fist that I think is directing a smack of telekinetic force ahead of him.
But Clancy is ready for that assault too. His arm whips out, and Jacob’s body spasms with the crackle of a taser.
A cry bursts from my throat as Jake stumbles to his knees. “Stop!”
My claws spring out, but Clancy holds up his hand. “Let me remind you that you aren’t gambling only with your own well-being but his and your other friends’ as well.”
I stop, the vibration of a scream burning in my lungs, my fingers curling.
I want to slash his throat out like I did to the thugs in the mansion we just invaded. I want to shriek pain through his joints until they break.
But I don’t know what will happen to us—all of us—if I give in to that impulse. I don’t know how much worse things could get.
Taking in my stillness, Clancy rolls his shoulders, the taser still held between us. The door clicks as several more guardians enter the room to surround us.
“I think this conversation is over,” he says. “You’ve simply opened a new avenue of inquiry—a process I’ll need to study more closely to fully understand.”
Twelve
Riva
Nadia bobs on the balls of her feet in the grass, her latest neon T-shirt flashing under the sunlight in the yard. “I can’t wait until I can get out there on a mission. They only let the non-Firsts who’ve already done alotof fieldwork join in for that one.”
I look up at her from where I’ve been stretching out my legs on the grass. The morning’s exercise hasn’t done anything to loosen the knot in my gut that’s lingered since my talk with Clancy yesterday.
“You wouldn’t want to go until you’re definitely ready anyway,” I say, not knowing what else to tell her.
You shouldn’t want to go at all. Clancy’s just using us. And I don’t know how much worse it could get.
What would be the consequences of laying out the things I’ve discovered? Before I left Clancy’s office, he warned Jacob and me to keep what we’d learned to ourselves… or we wouldn’t get the chance to work with the other shadowbloods at all.
He’s got his guardians watching us, I’m sure. How much could I even tell Nadia or the rest of them before I got dragged away?
