Page 397 of Shadowblood Souls
What crazy dream have I stumbled into? I shake my head and am considering outright slapping myself to make sure I’m not hallucinating when one of the other doors squeaks open.
Zian edges into the hallway, looking as dazed as I feel. As a rush of relief washes over me at seeing him alive and well, he swipes his hand through his short black hair and swings his brawny frame toward me.
I can’t throw myself at him with a massive hug the way I itch to, because getting too up close and personal with Zee could trigger the traumatic memories he doesn’t know how to control. I settle for hurrying over to him with an anxious smile.
Zian’s dark brown eyes light up with matching relief. His arms rise and then stiffen, locking before he can offer an embrace.
I stop a couple of feet away from him, and with deliberate care, he rests his hands on my shoulders. His gaze searches mine. “You’re okay?”
His rumbly voice is strung with worry beneath the typical gruffness. I nod, glancing over him in turn.
Our new captors have dressed him similarly to me, in khakis and a plain T-shirt—and with the same metal bracelets at his wrists. The edge of a bandage pokes from beneath the neckline of his tee, and bruises like mine darken the peachy-brown skin of his arms. Another shows on his jaw.
“You?” I ask, just to be sure.
His mouth twists. “As much as I can be. Where the hell are we? What happened?”
His hands slip from my shoulders as he turns to take in the hall again. Before I can tell him that I don’t have any more clue than he does, more doors start to open up and down the hall.
Nadia slips out first, her steps a little wobbly and her black pixie cut slicked to the side around a bandage on her temple. Her uneasy gaze meets mine, and she dashes over.
I catch her in the hug I couldn’t give Zian, hoping it gives a little reassurance to the teenaged shadowblood girl who’s become something like a friend. Her statuesque frame is several inches taller than mine, but she clings to me like she needs me to hold her steady.
My gut twists. Nadia has always seemed like one of the most resilient of the younger shadowbloods.
I’m not sure how well I can help her regain her footing when I’m so shaken myself.
As I ease back from her, a face as dark as midnight pokes from another doorway. Ajax, the younger teen who can pick up fragments of people’s thoughts, creeps out slowly.
“This is crazy,” Nadia says in a rough voice, her head swiveling to take in the hall. “Do you?—”
She cuts off her own question when a tall guy with rumpled blond hair emerges farther down. A smile flashes across her face brighter than the supernatural glow she can emit at will. “Booker!”
Nadia flings her arms around the guy who I think has become more than a friend to her over the past few weeks. The awed grin that stretches across his face, giving him the surfer dude impression he has at more relaxed times, seems to confirm my suspicion.
The need to find the rest of the menIlove hums through me. I spin around and hustle down the hall, sensing that both Andreas and Jacob are in that direction.
As if drawn by my approach, they push their doors open before I’ve even reached their rooms, Drey just a couple of seconds ahead of Jake.
Andreas takes advantage of his small lead to sweep me up in his lean brown arms and press a giddy kiss to my mouth. I grip the back of his neck and stroke my fingers over his tight curls, clinging to this one moment of joy.
A hand comes to rest on my back, and Drey releases me. Jacob wastes no time pulling me into his own embrace.
He leaves my feet on the floor, gathering me against his muscular frame with his chin tucked over the top of my head. His warmth and the steel-solid feel of his body surround me.
Jake said he’d be my armor when I needed it. He feels like armor now, holding firm against whatever this place is going to throw at us.
“Wildcat,” he murmurs, the two syllables of the old nickname managing to contain relief, anguish, and devotion all twined together.
I nestle closer against him, absorbing as much of the strength and determination radiating off him as I can. Knowing that whatever respite we’re getting now is temporary.
He might act asmyarmor, but the other shadowbloods, especially the kids, need me to fight for them. The powers the younger ones can wield are much weaker than ours—the original six, the ones they call Firsts.
A gentle but hesitant voice reaches my ears. “Jake—Riva. We’re all… Where’s Dominic?”
I ease back from Jacob to see that his twin has joined us. Griffin’s softer but otherwise identical sky-blue gaze considers the hallway from beneath the sweep of his slightly longer golden hair.
He looks more alert than he did the last time I encountered him in an unfamiliar building—the first time any of us had spoken to him after four years of believing he was dead. Four years in which the guardians tortured his own emotions out of him, a loss he’s only just started to recover from.
