Page 173 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

“No.” Inspiration sparks in my chest, and I jump on the chance before thinking it through. Before taking long enough that our captor might realize it’s a strategy rather than an answer. “We carried it with us the whole time. Until Clancy’s people caught us again.”

“You brought it into the facility with you when you attempted to break out the shadowbloods there?”

This time, I hesitate on purpose. I want him to think I’m avoiding telling him the truth.

Balthazar narrows his eyes at me. “Riva, you know the consequences of defying me.”

I do. I swallow thickly and glance toward Dominic, only partly for show.

When I answer, I keep my voice quiet, as if I’d rather not say it at all. “No. Our packs were in the vehicles we came in.”

“The vehicles the monsters you worked with brought you in.”

“Yes,” I bite out, noting as I do that whether he employs the shadowkind or not, he does still call them monsters like the rest of the guardians do.

He rubs his chin. “Then it stands to reason that they’d still have it.”

I shrug. “If they didn’t throw it out. Maybe Rollick took it back to his stupid hotel.”

The second after I’ve spoken, I clamp my lips together as if upset I revealed that much.

Balthazar eyes me for a moment. “A hotel, hmm. And where was that?”

When I keep my mouth shut, his gaze flicks toward Dominic’s bed. I tense my shoulders.

“Miami,” I say flatly. “So take it up with him if it’s so important to you.”

If he sends people out to Rollick’s hotel looking for the laptop and they’re caught at it, Rollick will realize they’ve got something to do with us. They might give him a trail back here.

If the demon cares at all about getting us free. Which isn’t a given. But it’s the closest thing to a way of reaching out to him that we’ve gotten so far.

I don’t think the man on the other side of this screen has any hope of coming out on top against the ancient being whose true form could make my knees wobble just with the power emanating off him. At least not on Rollick’s home turf.

“Did he know why the computer was important?” Balthazar asks.

I can answer that question honestly too. “I can’t remember how much we told him about it. But he could probably figure out that we wouldn’t have been lugging around the thing if it was just dead weight.”

Our captor hums to himself—almost a leonine purr. Then he tips his head to me. “That’s all I need at the moment. I’ll have a job for you soon.”

With that, the screen goes black. I stare at it for a few seconds longer as if he might reappear.

A job? What kind of job is this psychopath going to send me on?

I realize abruptly that Toni has left. I’m alone in the drawing room—other than Dominic.

I should mention to the others what Balthazar was asking about. The more information we all have about his interests, the more easily we can find a weak spot.

As I step out into the hall, Nadia eases to a halt just beyond the doorway. She was heading over to see if I was done with Balthazar, from the looks of things.

Her mouth is tight, her Amazonian stature diminished by the hunching of her shoulders. The sight wrenches at me.

I step closer, not sure what would help. “Are you all right?”

The girl ducks her head. “Yeah. I guess. They took Booker—for that whole ability-enhancing procedure they’re doing.”

A shiver runs through her body with a waft of anxious pheromones. She lifts her gaze again. “Does it hurt?”

At least I can reassure her on that point. “No. Not at all.”

Not that I enjoyed what I was made to do while under the influence of Matteo’s drug.

“Okay.” Nadia doesn’t sound all that comforted. She hugs herself, still deflated.

I grope for the right words. “Is anything else bothering you? I mean, other than the general suckiness of this entire situation?”

I’m aiming for a dry tone to match her usual attitude, but the corner of her mouth only twitches slightly. “I just… It’s going to sound stupid. You can handle anything…”

“Hey.” I push myself forward and rest a hand on her shoulder. When Nadia leans toward me, I tuck my arm right around her, wishing she wasn’t so much taller than me so the gesture would feel more big-sisterly. “I get scared too. If you need to get it out, I’d want you to tell me.”

She exhales raggedly. “Ever since we got here… Ever since he talked to us, and made me faint… He doesn’t even think I’d be useful. I’m just here so he can threaten the rest of you.”

I swallow thickly. I can’t deny anything she just said.

Nadia goes on, her voice turning ragged. “Any moment if he gets upset, he could knock me out again. Or blast out my wrists like he did to Lindsay. I might not even know it’s coming.”

I grope for words, but nothing I could say feels adequate. I have no idea what it must be like to have that fatal uncertainty hanging over her.

I pull her into a full hug. “I’m sorry. None of us wants to risk you—or anyone else—getting hurt. We’re not going to take any unnecessary chances. I promise we’ll do everything we can to make sure we all get through this mess like the ones we have before.”

Nadia hugs me back. “I know. It isn’t your fault.”

But it is. Before she met me, the teenage girl I’m trying to console was all wry smiles and flippant remarks, highlighting her presence with neon shirts. After all the trouble I’ve dragged her into, she’s really just a shadow of herself.

My fingers curl toward my palms where they’re braced behind her back, a prick of my claws digging into my palms.

I have to make sure all this agony is worth it.