Page 114 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Two

Riva

T o make the entire world a better place.

James Clancy says the words with total confidence, as if he’s presenting me with an award or something. As if I should be fucking honored that he’s chosen me to be trapped in a dentist’s chair and half-strangled.

I glower at him. “What are you even talking about? I thought that was already the idea: we protect the world by fighting the ‘monsters.’”

Not that the shadowkind—as I’ve learned those monsters prefer to be called—act beastlier than the guardians do, at least not the ones I met. But I don’t see the point in rubbing that fact in just yet.

Clancy shakes his head. A gleam of enthusiasm has come into his eyes.

“The three founding families believed hunting monsters should be your purpose. But I’ve seen a lot over the years. I know you could accomplish so much more than that. You should have the chance to become more than monsters yourselves.”

Griffin nods along, and I can’t stop a flutter of hope from passing through my chest despite my wariness.

I don’t want to like what my new captor is saying. But to be more than what the guardians made us and expected from us—that’s a dream I’ve been chasing from the moment I fled the cage-fighting arena.

On the other hand, this asshole does still have me locked in a chair.

Clancy starts to pace, but it isn’t an anxious motion. I don’t pick up the slightest hint of nervous pheromones in the air.

He strolls back and forth in front of me like he’s gathering momentum, pulling out a phone as he does.

“You must have some idea of the larger problems we face from the media you were allowed to consume. There are totally human horrors that run rampant around the globe. Children dragged into slavery. Terrorists killing thousands. Cartels spreading violence and addiction. Extremists carrying out genocide.”

He halts and holds out his phone so I can see the screen. His thumb swipes through images that wrench at my gut almost as much as my blood-soaked memories do.

Wide-eyed little kids holding guns. Bombed out buildings. Fields mottled with broken bodies.

So much more devastation than I’ve ever caused… so far.

I lift my gaze from the screen to Clancy. “And you think we could do something about this?”

His little smile comes back. “I know you could. If you have the skills to battle literal monsters, why couldn’t you take down the worst of humanity?

You shadowbloods have the ability to turn the tide against the evil forces in this world, to save the innocents they’re harming, the lives being destroyed every day…

Bring something good to society on a massive scale. Wouldn’t you like that?”

The truth is, part of me would. If I had the opportunity to prevent even one of those images from becoming real, I’d jump at it.

But I don’t trust the man in front of me.

“And I’m going to do all of that while shackled to a chair?” I say pointedly.

The corner of Clancy’s mouth twitches. I think he suppressed a larger smile.

Does he find me amusing ? My teeth set on edge.

The next thing I know, he’s walking over to me and pressing buttons on the side of the chair.

The cuffs click open from my neck, wrists, and ankles. A breath of relief rushes into me.

I sit up straighter, rubbing my wrists, fully registering my clothing for the first time. I’ve lost my mock turtleneck with its Kevlar protection, but given the amount of blood splattered on it during our raid of the facility, it’d probably be rank by now anyway.

I’ve been left in the wide-strapped black tank top I had on underneath, my pendant necklace tucked beneath the neckline, and a new pair of black sweats. I run my finger along the waistband just enough to confirm that I’ve got on the same panties as before.

They invaded my privacy, but I can admit it could have been a lot worse.

I glance up at Clancy again. My captor doesn’t look frightened of me, and I’m still not picking up any whiffs of anxiety.

He has Griffin monitoring my emotions. Griffin knows I’m not angry enough to go on the attack just yet.

I have the other guys to think about. What happens to them if I let loose my claws and slice open this man’s throat?

What if this is the best opportunity we’re ever going to get, and reacting with violence would mean consigning us all to a lifetime of total imprisonment and torture instead?

Clancy tilts his head toward the door. “Come with me.”

Cautiously, I peel myself out of the chair and follow him.

Griffin trails along behind. As we step out past the steel door into a hallway that I realize looks as if it’s roughly carved into stone, I glance back at him.

He offers me a smile of his own, but it’s the same stiff kind he gave me right before the gas knocked me out in the facility. Not the way he used to smile, the expression lighting his whole face up.

Did Clancy do this to him, or was it the other guardians? Because if the man giving me this grandiose talk was responsible for killing the light in the boy I loved, he’s going to end up with his throat severed eventually, one way or another.

As soon as I can figure out how to do it without screwing things up for the rest of my guys.

Panels on the ceiling send an artificial glow over the hallway. More steel doors are imbedded in the rocky walls, labeled with numbers.

I peer at them as we pass. The faint tingle in my marks tells me Dominic and Andreas, at least, are farther behind me.

My claws itch at my fingertips. “Where are my friends? When do I get to see them?”

Clancy casts his voice over his shoulder.

“Like I said before, the bunch of you make a lot of trouble when you’re all together.

I don’t think we’ll be arranging a full group reunion until you’re more settled in.

But you’ll have the chance to see them one or two at a time once I know where you stand. Assuming you’re on board.”

“On board with saving the world?” I mutter.

“Something like that.”

We turn a corner into a wider hallway with a set of double doors just ahead. Clancy presses his thumb against a panel at waist height while offering his face to another scanner higher up.

The steel slabs whir apart. Daylight and a warm breeze spill through the opening.

My heart lifts of its own accord.

I hadn’t realized how dim and cool the rocky interior was until now, as I stepped out onto a stone platform under the bright sun. I stall in my tracks just beyond the entrance, my jaw going slack at the scene before me.

The walls of the building I’ve just exited are rock because it’s carved right into the face of a mountain. A mountain that’s part of a range looming in craggy peaks all around a small but lush valley spread out some fifty feet below our vantage point.

Immediately in front of us, water burbles in a crystalline spring. A few acres of cleared land gleam with vibrantly green grass.

Some of that area has been left as a totally open field. Other parts have been set up for training activities: an elaborate jungle gym-slash-obstacle course, shooting or throwing targets, a trampled track.

A couple of running trails veer off into the tropical forest that fills the rest of the valley. I can’t make out much through the dense canopy of leaves.

Bird song trills through the air. A flash of red-and-yellow feathers darts through the branches.

A faint perfume drifts on the breeze to my nose, sweet florals with a mossy undertone.

“The Guardianship owns this island,” Clancy says, gazing out over the valley with a satisfied expression. “A long time ago, this spot was a crater smashed into the mountains by a meteor. Now it’s become a place where life can thrive.”

He shoots a pointed look my way. “Even the most desolate things can transform into something spectacular.”

I’d wrinkle my nose at the blatant insinuation about my own usefulness, but my attention has been drawn to the figures who are moving amid the training equipment.

My pulse stutters at the thought that I might see my guys among them, but I don’t recognize any of the current trainees. They’re all young, I determine after studying them for a minute. Mid to late teens.

As that thought passes through my head, one of the guys slips on the climbing ropes. The girl ahead of him jerks around at his yelp and flings out her arm—and an invisible force shoves him back into balance.

My mouth goes dry. “They’re shadowbloods. You’re training them here now?”

Clancy nods. “I’ve gathered as many of our subjects as I can at this facility. Those who were away from their facilities—in the interests of tracking your group down—are on their way now. That will be all of them… except the six you led to the monsters.”

The six we helped escape from imprisonment, he means.

My mouth tightens, my appreciation of the gorgeous setting fading. I turn toward him, the words to tell him off rising up my throat, and find him already watching me.

“Do you want to know what the creatures who pretended to be your allies did to those children?” he asks in a low voice.

An uneasy prickle ripples over my skin. “What do you mean?”

Clancy takes out his phone. “Some of them can be very persuasive… but we consider them monsters for a reason.”

When he points the screen toward me again, my stomach flips over.

It’s a photograph of four bodies sprawled on the forest floor under muted daylight. I can’t see much of the two farther figures other than that there’s blood splashed across them.

The closer two are clearly dead. Eyes staring vacantly, flesh drained to white. Scarlet flecks dapple their cheeks.

I know the girl. She’s one of the two I led out of the facility.

Clancy gives me several seconds to take the image in and then slides to another, showing the other two forms. There’s the boy I escorted out, equally limp, his arm torn right from its socket.

In my shock, my voice breaks. “But— How did that happen? Who?—”