Page 447 of Shadowblood Souls
By the time the last of the structures falls away behind us, leaving only forest outside the window, my pulse is thumping at a brisk rhythm. I focus on that beat and the love that’s keeping me anchored.
“Let’s move.”
This time, we all pull on thin masks—even Andreas, in case he needs to blink back into visibility in front of our adversaries.
We already identified the secure car in the line of more typical freight cars before we got on the train. When we ease out into the night, one after the other, and haul ourselves onto the top of ours, I can see the darker, flatter armored surface three cars up.
We don’t know exactly how much manpower is stationed around and inside it, though. Or how many other precautions the owners of the apparently very valuable hard drive may have taken against theft.
A twinge of curiosity tugs at me—why does Balthazar want the contents of this drive so much anyway?—but I can’t jeopardize the job and Dominic’s recovery with a search for answers.
We slink along the top of the car and spring from ours to the next roof. It’s an easy jump for me and Zian. Zee holds out his arms to help catch the others and make sure they don’t lose their balance.
We repeat the process at the next car, but stay at the far end. Griffin cocks his head, his eyes going distant as he feels out the additional human presence nearby.
“They’re all in pretty similar moods,” he says after a moment. “A little bored, but still alert and determined to see through their jobs. It’s hard to distinguish all of them, but I think there are six. I can’t tell you exactly where.”
Jacob claps his brother on the shoulder. “That’s plenty. Zian, you can figure out more.”
Zee crouches down and creeps toward the secure car on all fours, staying low so his form blends into the shadowed roof. He narrows his eyes at the back wall.
There’s no door or window there, but Zian’s vision can pierce right through when he exerts his power. He stares at it for several seconds and then crawls back to us.
“There are some inner walls too,” he says. “It was hard to see through all of them. It looks like there’s an outer area and then a smaller room inside the car that’s secure too. Four men in the outer area: two right by the door on the side of the car and the other two spread out a little more by the edges. Two more inside the smaller room.”
I make a face. “Armed?”
He nods. “Semi-automatic rifles. We don’t want to be caught in that fire.”
Not without Dominic to set us right again.
Andreas glances at me. “You can freeze them with a scream without seeing them, right? If we want to paralyze everyone in the car.”
“I think so.” I swipe at my mouth nervously. “I haven’t tried quite like that before. And I don’t know what’ll happen once any of you go inside too.”
Jacob cracks his knuckles. “We’ll just have to find out. You lock them down, Zee and I will wrench the outer door open, and we take it from there.”
I restrain a shiver. “I’m coming with you. If I need to adjust my power, I want to be able to do it with the targets in sight.”
“I’ll be there too,” Andreas puts in with a crooked grin. “It never hurts to have an invisible ally on your side. I wish I could pass on the ability to you too.”
We talked about that potential strategy when we were first discussing the job, but while Drey’s ability to make objects he’s touching disappear might extend to human bodies as well, so far he has to be touching them to hold them like that. We can’t compromise our maneuverability that much.
And it’s not like the guards will somehow fail to notice us busting our way in through the door, no matter what they can see of our bodies.
It’s on me to go first, to clear the way. I slink to the front of the roof like Zian did and brace my hands against the ridge at its edge.
Six men. Six human figures within the boxy shape right in front of me. I need to pin them all with my scream.
I fix my gaze on the dark shape of the train car and let a vibration of my anger ripple through the softer emotions that’ve grounded me. My lips part automatically.
The nearly silent shriek warbles up my throat and rushes out into the air. It whips through the steel walls of the secure car.
My heightened senses spark with the awareness of the three—now five—now all six of the bodies my power latches on to. A tremor of pain careens back into me before I clamp down my self-control.
I hurt one of them—snapped his shin bone. Through the knot of guilt in my gut, I remind myself that it could have been worse.
I can’t talk to the guys while I’m emitting my banshee scream, so I simply dip my head to let them know it’s done. They all file past me except for Griffin, who crouches down at my side.
