Page 365 of Shadowblood Souls
“I can’t see any of them to mess with their heads. I can’t project memories unless I’m looking at my target.”
Maybe it doesn’t matter. If the helicopters can’t land anywhere nearby, we’ll have a chance to make a run for it.
The thought has just passed through my mind when another earth-shakingboomreverberates from one of the choppers. With an unsettling creaking sound, several trees topple over farther along the crest of the hill, past Griffin’s position.
With another thunderous impact, the same thing happens beyond Celine. She teeters on her feet but spins toward the sound with a smile that looks like relief.
The helicopters descend in unison toward the makeshift landing pads they’ve apparently created for themselves. My pulse drums frantically in my veins.
The second they’re on the ground, who knows what else the guardians will throw at us.
We’re running out of time. I have to dosomething.
I’ve got to use the talentsIhave, however I can.
I haven’t formed more of a plan than that before I’m sprinting forward, charging toward Celine.
She brought them here. She’s loyal to Clancy.
If I’m going to take back some kind of leverage for us, who better than her?
My tentacles fling forward over my shoulders in anticipation—but before I’m close enough to touch her, Celine flinches.
In the same instant, a rush of thrilling energy smacks into me.
My steps stumble. Did I just suck away some of her life without even touching her?
If my powers work from a distance now… I don’t even know how to grapple with the mix of awe and revulsion that rises up at the possibility.
There isn’t time to mull it over now. I flick a tentacle in the helicopter’s direction but feel nothing at all.
It only worked across a distance of a couple of feet. Still not all that useful in a fight… except as I intended to use it anyway.
But taking a hostage only works if the threat is obvious.
As Celine sways on her feet, I hurtle the last few steps toward Celine and slam my tentacles around her.
One grips her by the throat. The other pins her arms to her sides.
I yank her toward me, staying in view of the closer helicopter that’s just touched down but partly sheltered by the trees. I’m not risking the chances that they have some way to fling one of those nets at me even from the ground.
Celine gasps and struggles in my hold. I tighten the tentacle around her neck enough to make it hard for her to speak, holding back the urge to drink in more of the energy my suckers can sense thrumming through her frame.
“Stay still, and we all get out of this,” I say in a low voice that’s more ragged than I’d like. Even going this far has made me queasy.
She might have betrayed us, but she’s really still a kid. I can’t totally blame her for being scared after everything she’s experienced.
But I can’t think of any other way to get us out of this standoff—or at least buy us enough time that one of the others can figure something out.
The roaring whir of the helicopter blades cuts out. I pitch my voice to carry as far as possible.
“Don’t come any closer! I’ll kill her if you try to take us.”
Celine starts to squirm again, and I drop my voice so only she can hear. “They don’t want any of us dead. If you decide to go back to them after the rest of us have gotten away, I won’t stop you.”
The guardians have always avoided any kind of attack that could kill us in the past. We’re valuable property, after all.
With so few of us shadowbloods, they wouldn’t want to lose any of us completely. Especially not one who’s both proven her loyalty to them and shown that her skills have a clear use in the field.
