Page 15 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Zian walks a little ahead of me all the way back to the townhouse, but I can tell from the tension in his muscles that he’s tracking every move I make. As he strides up the three steps to the front door, a voice calls out to us.

“Hey, neighbors!”

It’s the tall, redheaded girl from next door: Brooke. She’s sitting at the patio table set up in the lane between our townhouse and hers, a textbook open in front of her, but at the sight of us, she gets up, flashing a bright smile.

As she ambles over, I freeze in place and then propel myself on up to the door, taking the steps at a pace I hope looks casual. I push my mouth into my best distantly friendly smile. “Hi.”

Brooke comes to a stop beside our steps and sets her hands on her hips. “I realized I never got your names.”

Her gaze flicks to Zian but quickly comes back to me, as if it was mine she was most interested in.

My smile starts to feel stiff, but I hold it up anyway. One of the names I memorized to toss out easily, similar to my own but common enough not to make me stand out, tumbles automatically from my mouth. “Rita. Sorry.”

She laughs, but her attention still lingers on me. “It’s okay. You were busy moving in yesterday.”

“I’m Zack,” Zian says gruffly, giving his own alias.

“Nice to meet you both. Are you getting settled in all right?”

“Yep!” I say in an attempt at sounding cheerful. “Just had our first class.”

Brooke grins. “Looks like the prof didn’t go too hard on you. What’s your major?”

“Sociology.” It’s the only answer that makes sense, although I don’t know what other classes we might end up sitting in on.

Then it occurs to me that I should probably return the question, since that’s how small talk works. I’m so out of practice after getting nothing but grunts from my keepers at the fighting arena for four years. “How about you?”

“Double-major in History and Economics. You probably have some overlap! It’s pretty amazing looking at society as a whole and all the crazy things we get up to, huh?”

“Yeah,” I say, and wince inwardly with the suspicion that my agreement came out sounding weak. “It is,” I add with a little more oomph.

She’d probably have enjoyed that sociology lecture. Suddenly I find myself wondering what it’d have been like to be sitting next to her, sharing observations about the professor’s remarks.

Not that I could have shared with her even half of the things I’d have thought about.

Brooke tips her head to the side. “You know, Rita, a bunch of us are having a bit of a girl’s night at my place tonight if you want to stop by and get to know some more people on campus. It’ll be fun, nothing too crazy.”

My brain stalls for a second. I’ve never been in a position before where I had people giving me personal invitations—people I expected to see again after I talked to them now.

I don’t want to give any of the students here more chance to realize there’s something off about me. But will it look suspicious if I say no?

My mouth opens and closes as I grope for my answer—and then the door to our townhouse whips open.

Jacob stands on the threshold, his bright blue eyes searing into me. “Let’s get going,” he says to both me and Zian in a sharp voice. “We’ve got work to do. You’re holding us up.”

I restrain a flinch at his tone, but he’s given me the perfect exit. “Thanks, but sorry,” I say to Brooke. “I’ve got a bunch of catching up to get through, but maybe another time.”

I catch a glimpse of her brow knitting before I follow Zian inside.

The second the door thumps shut behind me, Jacob snatches my arm, his fingers digging in. “Don’t even fucking try it,” he snaps.

I stare at him. “What are you talking about? You asked me to come in, so I did.”

He jerks his hand toward the front steps. “That whole weirdo routine with the girl next door. I guess you’re trying to make her suspicious to sabotage our plans?”

I sputter a guffaw. “Are you fucking kidding me? I was trying not to make her suspicious. College students talk to each other.”

At least, they have in all the shows I’ve seen. Brooke seemed to think it’s normal.

Jacob scowls. “Not the talking. The awkward answers, the pointed hesitations.”

I grimace right back at him. “I’m doing my best. Forgive me for not having socialized with anyone in four years. It wasn’t by choice.”

“If you go on about that sob story with the?—”

“People!” Andreas breaks into our conversation with a brisk voice and a clap of his hands. When Jacob shuts up, he smiles and slings his arm around my shoulders.

It’s the first gesture of physical comradery the guys have offered me since I broke them out of the facility. The first time anyone has touched me in an affectionate way since Griffin, right before…

I tense up instinctively, even as the rush of heat through my body sends my thoughts into disarray. I almost miss the rest of Andreas’s comment.

“I’m glad you two enjoyed your class, but you haven’t even heard the good news yet.”

He lets go of me, just a brief, casual embrace, and I don’t have time to miss it anyway. My stomach is sinking.

Somehow I don’t think I’m necessarily going to agree about the “good” part of his news.

But Zian perks up. “What’s up?”

Dominic steps into view from the living room, his parka exchanged for his lighter trench coat. “We found out who Ursula is.”

Jacob nods, still scowling. “Ursula Engel. But we don’t know for sure. She just seems to be the most likely person.”

“There was a picture,” Andreas puts in. “Not the best quality and from twenty-five years ago, but she matched the impression of her I got from the few memories of her I nabbed from the guardians.”

“And she’s a biochemist who did a bunch of work in this state up until around the time the facility must have been founded,” Jacob continues.

“Some of it for private security companies—the kinds of people who’d know how to set up a facility like that.

But we couldn’t find anything more specific than that. ”

“So, now what?” I ask, resisting the urge to hug myself.

Andreas aims his warm smile at me. “While those two were busy putting those pieces together, I tracked down someone who can help us find out all the details that aren’t public on the internet.” He pauses. “But of course, that help comes at a price…”