Page 571 of Shadowblood Souls
It isn’t difficult to believe.
Fire streaks through the air. The ground shakes with a monstrous roar—and a different kind of roar reaches my ears from behind.
Engines. Several vehicles are racing toward us from the opposite direction. Are there more shadowbloods who split off from the first bunch?
No. As the vehicles screech to a halt and their doors fly open, the figures that charge out are holding weaponsIrecognize from the newscasts—crossbows and odd guns and eerily glinting knives.
We caught the rogue shadowbloods by tracking them to where they were looking for the hunters. And now the monster hunters have found us. Shit.
With shouts that sound a little panicky, the hunters hurtle into the fray. Bullets and crossbow bolts zing through the air.
A few shadowkind who were focusing their attention on rounding up the rogue shadowbloods cry out when the weapons puncture their conjured flesh. As they spin around to face the new threat, streams of smoky essence trickle up toward the sky.
My gut lurches. Somewhere to my left, Jacob lets out an epic string of curses.
Supernatural light blazes across the street, hazing my vision. I stagger, and my brother catches my arm.
“Those idiots are ruining everything.” He swipes at his eyes, which must be just as spotty as mine are right now. “Damn it.”
More yells and yelps cut through the night. I stumble toward the SUV, knowing I’m a liability out in the open rather than a help.
Then Zian’s holler cuts through the rest of the chaos. “I hear sirens coming! Someone called the cops.”
At the urgency in his voice, I hustle faster toward the car.
Riva catches up with me after a few steps, grabbing my arm. Her voice is raw with frustration. “There’s nothing else we can do. We’ve got to get out of here.”
“What happened to the other shadowbloods?” I ask as we scramble into the back of the SUV, the others clambering in around us.
Dominic crashes into the seat just in front of us and peers past it as whoever grabbed the driver’s seat guns the engine. “The other shadowbloods stole some cars farther down the street. A couple of them must have talents that let them hotwire the things easily.”
“And one of the vans took off before we could get to it.” Riva sighs and slumps in her seat, deflated. “Jacob managed to shatter one of the new shadowblood’s skulls, and Sorsha torched at least one. I think the other shadowkind killed a couple of the criminals. But I don’t know if it’ll make any difference. The rest of them are going to be even more pissed off at us.”
As the van lurches around, I debate with myself. But I don’t want to keep any more secrets from the woman I love or the brother I nearly lost.
“I don’t know if we should want all of the criminal shadowbloods dead either,” I say quietly. “The one guy who ran my way—he said something, he wasfeelingsomething…”
Jacob raises his eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”
I grimace. “I think he had a personal reason to want to attack the hunters here. I think he’d actually seen that at least one of them had hurt a lot of people in the past—not monsters, onlytroubled kids. He wanted to protect everyone from that guy, not just kill for the sake of killing. I don’t know about all of the inmates Balthazar picked out, but they’re still human. They’re not only out to do evil.”
Jake scoffs. “That one wasn’t, maybe.”
But Riva’s brow has knit. “We really don’t know about any of them—what they’ve been through, what they’d really want if they thought they had a real choice.” She tips her head back against the seat. “Fuck!”
I scoot closer to her and slip my arm around her waist. She leans her head against my shoulder. “I wish it wasn’t so complicated,” she murmurs.
I kiss her forehead, reveling in the ease with which she relaxes into my embrace. “People are complicated. We’re trying. At least we gave them something to think about tonight. Maybe some of them will decide to back off once the things we said sink in.”
“Maybe.” Riva sounds as doubtful as I have to admit I feel too. She tucks her head right against the crook of my neck. “Stay right there. Don’t let me go.”
A lump rises in my throat, all affection and agony for the woman I love. “Never.”
After a while, with the rumble of the engine and the gentle rocking once we get onto the highway, Riva’s breaths slow into a doze. I think Jacob drifts off too where he’s leaned his head against the window. Next to him, Andreas leans forward to carry out a hushed conversation with Zian up front.
My own eyelids are sinking when Billy emerges from the shadows, perched on the seat next to me.
He peers at me and Riva with his wide eyes and scratches at his head just below one of his horns. His voice comes out in a whisper. “You two are very close.”
