Page 574 of Shadowblood Souls
“Well, the Highest are even less fond of hybrids than any shadowkind you’ve met before. They spent a few decades trying to track down Sorsha and exterminate her before she managed to convince them that she was a greater help against potential threats than one herself. And they don’t like any disruptions in the mortal realm that could draw attention to our existence.”
My heart sinks. “Crap. That ship has already sailed.”
Rollick gives a curt nod. “It seems word has finally reached them that something has gone amiss over here. I had one of their errand beings approach me earlier this morning wanting to know if I had any information about the current turmoil.”
Zian turns a bit green. “What did you tell them?”
The demon shrugs. “That it appeared to be a bunch of mortals playing at being monsters, and I was working on dealing with it. But I’m not sure if that lie will cut it for very long.”
I swallow thickly. “And what happens if the Highest decide to intervene?”
Rollick meets my eyes with an apology in his gaze. “Extermination is their usual go-to strategy.”
A groan of frustration escapes me. I rub my temples as if I can jostle a useful thought out of the turmoil that’s going on in my own head.
After a moment, I glance up at Rollick again. “How do you handle it? There are destructive shadowkind, and ones who act out for good reason. You don’t like seeing your own kind destroyed, do you?”
He makes an awkward gesture, and I can’t help remembering that I’ve seen him threaten and maim beings who betrayed him before. For all I know, he kills other shadowkind on a regular basis.
But even if he does, from what I’ve seen of the demon, I don’t think he’s happy about it.
“I have to be firm,” he says finally. “I can’t maintain authority if the beings who deal with me don’t believe there’ll be consequences for stepping out of line. But I do try to adjust those consequences depending on the circumstances and motivations of those involved. I understand why you want to simply rein your fellow shadowbloods in rather than outright murdering them.”
Something about those words,rein them in, sparks the inspiration I was searching for. I sit up a little straighter. “That’s it.”
Andreas shoots me a curious look. “What?”
“We can’t get the other shadowbloods to listen to us when they’re roaming around, and as long as they’re on the loose, they’ll keep attacking people. So we’ll just have to restrain them. Capture them and hold them someplace where they can’t do any more damage while we figure out how to get through to them.”
Jacob frowns. “Stick them in a sort-of prison. Like the guardians were always doing. Like Balthazar did.”
The truth of his words makes my stomach churn, but I barrel onward. “It isn’t the same. We’d be doing it so that we cansavethem, not to use them. And the fact that the guardians could do it without any powers of their own proves that we should be able to round the rogue shadowbloods up too, especially with help from the shadowkind.”
And it’s a lot better than asking Sorsha to simply incinerate them all.
Dominic nods slowly. “We’ll need to figure out a place where we can catch them where we shouldn’t be interrupted like last night. And we’d need to go in looking to disable them or knock them out right from the start, no trying to talk and giving them the chance to prepare for an attack.”
“Howarewe going to capture them?” Zian asks. “They’re pretty good at fighting back. Even if we can surprise them…”
I turn back to Rollick. “We’ll need to come up with a plan with any shadowkind allies who have abilities that would allow them to overpower people without doing major damage.”
The demon rubs his chin. “I can think of a few already who’d be well-suited to that task.”
I glance around at the guys. “I’m not sure how useful the rest of us will be toward that goal… Andreas could confuse them with projected memories, but Griffin hasn’t been able to impose any emotions on them before. I guess Zian and Jacob and I could slow them down by breaking bones, but… that’ll just make them angrier, and it won’t get in the way of a lot of their powers.”
“There are a lot of them,” Griffin points out. “It’ll be difficult to tackle them all at once effectively.”
“Yeah.” I hesitate, my mind spinning, and then the idea hits me like a punch to the chest. “Balthazar managed it, though. He stopped all of us and Sorsha when we came after him at his mountain base—with the device that made that awful sound. It was impossible to concentrate enough to aim our talents. That should work on the other shadowbloods too.”
Zian cocks his head. “And the rest of us… wear earplugs?”
I can’t restrain a laugh. “Whatever works. They’ll need to be really good earplugs, but we already thought of that when we were worried about Balthazar trying it on us again.”
A pleased gleam has come into Rollick’s eyes as he watches us pull our scheme together. He motions toward the TV. “You’ll also need a means of determining where your fellow shadowbloods might go next—and I think we may have that right here.”
A group of silver-helmed figures have appeared on the screen. As I shift my attention to the interview being conducted, one of them pumps his fist in the air.
“We won’t be knocked down, no matter what those fiends try to throw at us! Just let them try any of that BS in Chicago.”
