Page 516 of Shadowblood Souls
Some of the faces are familiar. Sorsha sits partway down the table with two of her regular companions at her sides: Thorn, the massive, crystal-knuckled man who can sprout dark angelic wings, and a tall, slim man with brilliant green eyes and golden curls, whose shadowkind powers I’m not sure of. He keeps one hand resting on Sorsha’s arm where it leans against the table as if he thinkssheneeds protection.
I’m pretty sure she could burn down the entire estate in a matter of seconds if she wanted to. Having seen what she did to Balthazar’s villa, I’m not totally surprised that most of the shadowkind are wary of hybrids.
Pearl has joined us too, perched in the chair next to Rollick with an air of delighted triumph at having earned that choice spot. The succubus was instrumental in Rollick’s scheme to rescue us, using her seductive skills to cajole the secrets of the hill’s hidden passage out of one of Balthazar’s staff.
Her friend Billy the faun isn’t around anywhere I can see, and neither is Ruse, who also tends to stick close to Sorsha. I’m guessing they’re watching from the shadows. There simply aren’t that many chairs around the table, especially with us shadowbloods and Toni taking up seven.
Rollick’s newer companions make me the most uneasy. There’s the guy whose jumble of wild curls falls across his glinting violet eyes, who’s smirking to himself as he carves lines into the tabletop with his terrifying three-inch claws.
My cat claws, barely a quarter as long, make me feel like a kitten in comparison. Those must be the one monstrous feature he can’t will away even in human guise, like all shadowkind have.
Somehow I don’t think he gets invited to many parties.
Beside him sits the bulky, stubble-haired man with a square stone jaw, which I know reflects his shadowkind nature. He can shift into a totally stony gargoyle, bat-like wings and all.
Then there’s a woman who looks totally human except for the deep blue hue of her cascading hair—and the ominous atmosphere that seems to hover around her, giving me the sense of an impending thunderstorm. And a squat but muscular man with shiny metallic scales dappling his forehead.
And finally, definitely not getting invited to parties, is the burly dude with a scruffy brown pelt on his head and a pair ofincisors so thick they jut against his lips. Appropriately, I heard Rollick call him “Fang.”
I’m not sure what abilities the bunch of them bring to the table, both metaphorically and literally, but I doubt their powers have anything to do with sunshine and roses.
From the whiffs of uneasy pheromones my guys are giving off, I don’t think I’m alone in my wariness. My fingers curl around my newly restored cat-and-yarn charm, but I resist the urge to give in to my nervous habit of clicking it open and shut.
We’re here together. Completely united in ways we hadn’t even imagined.
We’ll get through this like we have so much else.
As one more shadowkind flickers into being in the last of the chairs, Rollick lifts his chin where he’s poised at the head of the table. “All right. Let’s get down to business.”
The blue-haired woman drums her fingers on the tabletop. Her voice comes out both melodic and low with displeasure. “There aremoreof these shadowbloods being made? It seems to me that’s the big problem.”
The demon’s gaze flicks to her. “Let’s keep a respectful tone when it comes to our guests, Shanty.”
I feel like there are a few things we current shadowbloods should make clear right away.
I draw up my slight frame as tall as I can manage. “No, we agree that it’s a problem. We already are the way we are, and we can’t do anything about that. But we wouldn’t have chosen this. Balthazar needs to be stopped as soon as possible, before he warps more people than he already has.”
Sorsha shifts her gaze to Toni. “You’re the one who worked with this man. What exactly do you know about his plans from here forward? Where is he finding people to transform? What is he going to ask them to do?”
Toni looks as if she’s suppressing a wince. “Mr. Balthazar has enough sway that he’s been able to arrange access to incarcerated criminals from various prisons. People who don’t have families checking up on them so they won’t be missed.”
Around me, my guys’ faces have darkened. “People who won’t have reservations about throwing their powers around, no matter who gets hurt?” Dominic suggests.
Toni dips her head, her expression turning even more pained. “And who would be grateful to him for giving them their freedom. He’ll ensure their obedience to him the same way he did with you, with the metal bracelets that can knock them out or kill them if need be.”
“Criminals,” the stout guy with the scaly forehead mutters. “On top of their wild powers. Just great.”
I swallow thickly and raise my voice again. “Those aren’t the only shadowbloods he has. He’s also been holding a bunch of the kids the guardians brought up—like us, but none of them are older than seventeen, and their powers are a lot weaker. We have to find and rescue them too.”
Lord only knows what the younger shadowbloods are going through now. When I remember how downcast even neon-loving Nadia became in the last few days before Balthazar wrenched them all away from us, my heart sinks.
We don’t even know for sure if all of the others are still alive. At the villa, our former captor murdered two of the kids before our eyes, just to make a point.
“I don’t know where they’re being held,” Toni says. “He split them up across several different properties and kept that information to himself. But I do know where a lot of his properties across North America and Europeare, so that could be a start in our search.”
At Sorsha’s side, Thorn lets out a deep rumble of a grunt. “It sounds as though we should end this villain’s life first and worryabout rescue attempts afterward. Once he’s gone, he won’t be able to harm them further.”
As anxious as I am to get my friends and the other kids out of Balthazar’s clutches, I can’t deny that the hulking angel has a point.
