Page 106 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

“I’m sorry about the mess in Havana,” I say right off the bat, even though technically the messy parts were mostly Jacob’s fault. But he was acting to protect me. “And, um, pissing off most of your crew.”

Rollick makes a dismissive sound. “Over the centuries, I’ve come to terms with the fact that most of my kind are very narrow-minded.”

Dominic is studying him, his eyes wary. “When the bunch of you first showed up, you sounded like you weren’t sure we were more than a liability.”

Zian’s brawn tenses at the reminder, but Rollick simply chuckles.

“It was a mess. I can’t say I appreciated needing to clean it up. But it became obvious in the confrontation that my people were at least as much to blame for that as you were.”

I can’t hold back my incredulous question. “The confrontation… where I killed one of them and nearly did the same to another?”

The demon cocks his head. “You enforced your authority when the people you cared about were threatened and reined yourself in before you went too far overboard. What more proof could I need that you can control yourself, if imperfectly? I can work with that. And I think you understand the necessity of said work now too.”

I swallow thickly. “I do.”

“Why do you want to work with us?” Jacob asks brusquely. “Why don’t you figure it’d be easier to destroy us like the others wanted to?”

Well, that’s one way to put it all on the table.

Rollick offers a slanted smile. “I have hundreds if not thousands of years more experience than most of my associates can draw on. And some very specific experiences that have suggested that the merging of human and shadowkind can save the world more often than ending it. It seems that the mortal side acts as a decent moderator for those talents… Possibly being so much closer to possible death makes you more inclined to prevent it on the whole.”

“You said you’d only met one other hybrid before,” Andreas says.

“Yes, well…” The demon’s voice softens slightly.

“The mortal I happen to love once wielded a power that was more threatening and horrifying to shadowkind than anything the bunch of you have, and she proved it could be used to boost us up rather than bind us. So I have learned not to make assumptions.”

He rocks back on his heels, scanning us with renewed analytical curiosity.

“And in general, I don’t believe in destroying potential resources.

I’d very much like to see what you shadowbloods can do given the freedom to make your abilities your own—and that includes your younger counterparts, if we can locate them. ”

I’m not sure how I feel about being considered a “resource,” but his last words capture my attention. “We’re going to break them out? You’re going to help us do it?”

“I think that course of action is the most likely to diminish your ‘guardians’ ability to track you, since none of our experiments have borne any fruit so far.” Rollick glances toward the dining room windows.

“My people in the cities along the southern coast have noticed some activity that suggests they’re aware that you’ve been at sea and are attempting to be prepared for your return. ”

My stomach knots. “So we’ll have to go through them to get to the younger shadowbloods?”

“If what you’ve said is true, I’d imagine most of their experimental subjects are still back in their facilities. We could start there. The more allies we have on our side, the greater our options.”

Zian perks up. “Torrent said he’d found a few facilities—or he thought he had.”

Rollick nods. “It would simply be a matter of determining which if any of those your counterparts are being held at and getting them out.”

Nothing in that statement sounded particularly simple, but my pulse kicks up a notch in anticipation.

“How are we going to figure out the first part?” Dominic asks. “Are your people going to sneak inside and scope things out?”

Rollick’s expression darkens a little. “Unfortunately, that’s impossible.

Your guardians are obviously familiar with shadowkind ways—and weaknesses.

One of the factors that helped Torrent identify the likely locations was the presence of a lot more silver and iron than most of us can easily tolerate.

Going straight in would likely be a suicide mission. ”

My spirits deflate. I guess the shadowkind could watch from afar, but who knows how long it’d taken them to confirm what’s going on in those places?

Whatever shadowbloods might be in the facilities, they’ll be locked away down in the depths like we were most of the time. Who knows how securely the guardians are holding them now?

At the new building where I found the guys after our first escape attempt, there wasn’t even a training field for a small break from captivity…

The answer hits me so squarely I could smack myself for not thinking of it right away.

“ We can find them,” I say. “It’s in our blood. We’ve lived the same lives as them. Maybe we don’t know their names or what most of them look like, but I think—if we focus on the parts we do have, the things we all would have gone through—I think our essence will lead us to them.”

Those experiences are imbedded deeper in us than anything you could see in a video recording. We know the other kids the guardians have held captive, better than anyone else could.

The guys all sit up a little straighter, their eyes flashing at my words. I can tell the idea feels as right to them as it does to me.

Rollick rubs his jaw. “We don’t know for sure that your blood play will work with impressions that vague.”

I raise my chin. “It’s worth a try. It’d be a hell of a lot faster than hoping your spies will spot something from outside the buildings.” I hesitate. “But we’d have to make sure the guardians don’t track us down while we’re following the trail.”

A small smile crosses Rollick’s lips. “That much I can help with.”

He leans forward with his hands braced against the top of the chair. “I’m willing to help you with this because it serves my purposes too. But most of the risk won’t be mine. As I’ve already mentioned, we won’t be able to go into the buildings with you.”

Andreas frowns. “You have some abilities you can use at a distance, don’t you?”

“To a small degree. Even with those… The helmets and vests these mortals wear will protect them from most influence we could exert from afar.”

So that was what the guardians’ strange uniforms had been about. They must have hoped the metals would give them some small bit of protection against our powers too.

But it hadn’t worked. We hybrids really are that much more powerful than the full shadowkind.

No wonder Engel was afraid of us. No wonder the shadowkind are too.

I inhale slowly to steady myself. “What does that mean for us, then?”

Rollick’s smile has turned grim. “My people would do what we can on the outside—to draw the mortals out and dispose of any who step beyond the stronger protections. We can be prepared to carry the young ones you rescue to safety as soon as they’re out.

But it’d be up to the five of you to handle everything inside the building, on your own. ”

A solemn silence descends over the table as we let that declaration sink in.

Just the five of us, unaffected by the guardians’ protective measures but with powers we’re still struggling to control, no ability to dart away into the shadows if the fight turns against us, no shadow realm we can turn to in order to repair our injuries.

The demon’s voice softens. “Do you really want to do this? We can hold off your pursuers from this ship for a long time. If you’d rather, I have no problem with simply continuing to cruise around while continuing our experiments. We may still find another way to cut off their ability to track you.”

The thought of sticking to the security of the yacht, of enjoying gourmet food and curling up in my cozy bedroom at night, wraps around me like a warm blanket. It’s so tempting.

But the next image that floats through my mind is of my cell in the facility.

The cramped space with its narrow, hard bed.

The plates of bland food delivered through a slot.

The barrage of orders, day in and day out.

All the hurt and destruction we carried out on the guardian’s whim.

All the pain they dealt out to us if we resisted.

The younger shadowbloods are living like that right now. If Engel’s notes were correct, their powers are weaker than ours.

They have no hope of escape unless we come for them. How could I sit on my ass in luxury while they’re being tormented?

And Rollick can’t be sure that we really will stay safe on this ship anyway. For now, the guardians are simply preparing for battle along the coast—but they’ve taken us by surprise before.

None of us—me and my men, our shadowkind allies, or the younger shadowbloods in captivity—will really be safe and free until the guardians can’t reach us any longer.

Glancing around the table, I see the same resolve forming in my men’s eyes. I feel it humming through my marks from Andreas and Dominic.

I broke in to rescue them all on my own. With the help of Rollick and other shadowkind, with the five of us working together, we have to be able to take on whatever the facility holds.

Or we’ll die trying.

I turn back to Rollick with a knot of apprehension forming in my gut but not a single trace of doubt.

“We need to get them out of there. Whatever it takes. As soon as we can find them.”