Page 183 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Thirteen

Zian

R iva stalks back and forth over the patio, her sneakers scraping the stone tiles. A tremor runs through her tiny body.

With a sudden snarl, she lashes out at the nearest planter. With the supernatural strength we both possess, her foot connects and bashes a crack through the polished stone.

The sight of her anguished fury brings a helpless ache into my chest. I want to protect her from her frustration, but I have no idea how.

The other guys look just as worried.

“It could be a good thing,” Andreas says tentatively, his dark gray eyes as clouded as the sky overhead. “If the kids aren’t here, Balthazar can’t use them to punish us. Not the same way he did before.”

Riva grimaces. “For all we know, he already killed them. He didn’t think they’d be useful to him after all. Why keep them around?”

For a second, none of us speaks. We can’t prove what happened either way, and she has a point.

Then Jacob lets out a huff. “He wouldn’t do that. They could still be leverage down the line. That prick doesn’t seem like the type to waste anything he might be able to use later.”

I nod, glad to have an argument against the idea that all three of the remaining kids were murdered. “That’s true. He said he kept the rest of the kids too, just somewhere else, so why not them?”

“Maybe he was lying about all of it.” Riva resumes her pacing, her hands clenched at her sides. “He didn’t even give us a chance to talk to them before he did whatever he did with them. Dragging them off in the middle of the night…”

Griffin speaks up in a gentle tone. “I didn’t know the three of them well enough that I can pinpoint their presence at a distance.

But I had gotten a little friendly with them.

I think if Balthazar’s people did anything really horrible to them here at the villa, their emotions would have hit me hard enough to wake me up. ”

Riva swipes her hands through the air, her manacles flashing beneath the cuffs of her sweatshirt. “So, they weren’t in total agony when they left. Who knows what happened after—what could still be happening?”

The ache expands down to my gut. She isn’t even trying to hide her anger with Balthazar, even though she knows he could be listening to this entire conversation.

The aggression in her tone and movements resonates all too closely with my own mood. The thought of that asshole on the screen shoving the kids around after he already slaughtered two of them for no reason at all…

My fangs itch in my jaws. A wolfish growl lodges in my throat with a surge of feral rage.

But I don’t like who I am when I let out my beastly side. As much as I long to tear apart every person I can reach in the villa, I know going on a rampage against our captors isn’t going to solve anything.

I’ve done things I hate when I let the wolf-man take over. The last four years of my life have been shadowed by horror and guilt because of it.

If Riva is heading down the same path… That’s the last thing I want for the woman I love.

“We’ll find them again,” Andreas assures her. “I once looked in the head of a guy who finally reunited with his high school best friends after thirty years of losing touch and moving halfway across the world. If he could manage it, we will too.”

Riva snorts. “Somehow I don’t think his friends were also being imprisoned by a maniac.”

Jacob bares his teeth. “We’ve gotten free from maniacs before. There are always answers. We just have to find them.”

“You’re very upset,” Griffin adds in the same soothing tone as before. “It makes sense. But you’ll think more clearly if you give yourself a chance to cool down.”

Riva whirls toward him with a flash of her bright brown eyes. “Fuck cooling down. There’s nothing about this situation any of us should be cool about!”

Her anger reverberates through her words, sharp enough that I flinch inwardly.

This isn’t who Riva should be either. I know her—I know who she is when she’s not trapped like a wounded creature in a snare.

She had all the compassion in the world for me and the horrible things I’ve done. For Jake and his awful mistakes.

She considers every angle and tries to find the fixes that hurt the fewest people.

But not like this. Not when she’s practically vibrating with rage.

She’s been on edge since Sully died. How much longer can she go on like this before she really snaps?

The other guys shift uneasily on their feet, glances passing between us. And I realize that no one wants to say the thing that’s at the core of all our suggestions and assurances.

A sense of resolve stiffens my posture. What the hell. It might as well be me.

If she doesn’t like hearing it, I’m the one best equipped to receive her wrath, however she deals it out.

I clear the lump from my throat, but my voice still comes out rough. “We’re just—we’re scared for you, Riva. I’m scared that you’re going to do something you’ll regret when you’re this pissed off. Hell, I’m a little bit scared of you.”

Riva stares at me for a few beats. Tension lingers in her face, but her shoulders come down from their rigid position. “I—I wouldn’t do anything that would hurt any of you.”

“I know you wouldn’t on purpose,” I say quickly. “It’s just—I know from personal experience that when you’ve got anger driving you, sometimes you’re not even making the decisions yourself.”

She’s as aware as the guys how true that was for me. But her wince doesn’t make me feel any better than her rage did.

Maybe… maybe she needs me more than the other guys right now, because I can speak from my experience.

I hesitate for only a fraction of a second before holding out my hand to her, bracing myself against the jitter of my nerves at the idea of touching her. “Walk with me?”

Riva’s throat works, her expression softening. She’s also aware of how much the simple gesture means to me.

As she curls her fingers tentatively around mine, my gaze flicks to the other guys again. Jacob’s eyes are smoldering, but he tips his head as if encouraging me. Andreas offers a crooked smile, Griffin a milder one.

They’re okay with me taking the lead here. I hope I don’t screw this up, because I don’t really have any idea what I’m going to do once Riva and I start walking.

Riva manages to still give me some space, falling into step with me about a foot away from my much larger frame while holding my hand. Her compassion hasn’t gone anywhere.

The swell of affection around my heart blunts the edges of the gnawing ache. I grip her hand a little tighter and catch a hint of a smile as my reward.

We stroll across the patio and through one of the grassier stretches of garden, not speaking at first. I look down at our clasped hands with a slow breath to steady myself.

“You never got this upset before. Not when we were on the run or with Clancy.”

“I know.” Riva swipes her free hand over her face. “It’s just been so much, over and over. I’m tired of fighting, but I don’t know how else to get out of this. I want it to be done .”

“What if it can’t be yet?”

Her head droops. “Then I guess I have to live with that, huh?”

A different kind of ache spreads through my limbs—the urge to wrap my arm around her and tug her close, to offer every kind of reassurance. But I don’t want to fuck up whatever progress I’ve made with her by setting myself off into a panic.

My gaze snags on a row of smaller clay pots lined up along the outer wall of the grounds. The flowers that once sprouted from the soil have shriveled in the cooling weather.

A spark of inspiration lights in my head. I draw Riva over to them.

Picking up one of the pots, I aim a careful grin at her. “Maybe if we smash some things right now, it’ll be easier not to smash anything we really shouldn’t later?”

A startled laugh tumbles from Riva’s mouth. She considers the pots for a moment and grabs one of her own. “I definitely feel like breaking something.”

I hurl mine first, flinging it off into the vista beyond the wall. It careens out into the air and plummets beyond the cliff.

My supernaturally keen ears pick up the faint smash of the clay shattering on the ground far below.

Riva could throw just as far as I can, but I doubt she’d get the satisfaction of hearing the result that far away. With a hint of a smirk, she slams her pot toward the rocky outcropping just beyond the wall.

The smash reverberates through my bones with a weird sense of contentment. Hell, I might have needed this release too.

We both snatch up another of the pots and whip them at the edge of the cliff. Riva lets out another laugh, freer this time, a gleam coming back into her eyes.

A stern voice carries across the grounds. “What are you doing?”

We turn to see Toni marching over. She stops several feet away, taking in our stances and the missing pots.

“I don’t see what you think you’re going to accomplish like this,” she says flatly.

Riva cocks her head, a flicker of anger returning but not as wild as before. “We’re letting out some frustration. You should probably appreciate the fact that we found a method that doesn’t involve any bloodshed.”

I pick up another pot and toss it in my broad hand, watching the woman. “You could give it a try too if you’d like to try. Plenty of flowerpots to go around.”

I have to think anyone working under a boss like Balthazar has a little steam to blow off. But I’m not really surprised when Toni’s mouth tightens and she spins on her heel without taking me up on the offer.

She stalks away, not ordering us to stop either. I guess she figures it is better that we smash a few flowerpots than anything more important.

“More for us!” Riva declares, and snatches up one of the remaining pots.

We work our way through the entire row, cracking some right below the wall, launching others far out across the landscape. When there are none left, Riva gazes down at the browned strip of lawn where they were resting.

Her attention shifts to her empty hands. Her stance falters.

I’m not at all prepared for the tears that streak down her cheeks.

“Shit,” she mumbles immediately, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeves. “Sorry.” Her breath comes out in a hitch.

I don’t know what to do. I caused this. I started us smashing flowerpots and somehow that cracked open something in her.

My body moves on instinct. I step toward her and freeze, my nerves clanging with alarm.

But there’s nothing in the impulse that feels at all like the horrible moment years ago when I ripped the woman the guardians hired to pieces. All I want is to comfort this woman however I can.

My arms slip around her. Riva startles and then tips her head against my shoulder.

“I want him dead,” she murmurs in a watery voice, so quietly I don’t think anyone other than me would be able to hear her even this close. “I want that psychopath dead and gone so this can be finished.”

I hold her against my chest, so much love and worry flowing through me that it sweeps away every other consideration. “I know. I get it.”

There’s nothing else I can say, but it seems to be enough. Riva’s breaths start to even out.

She risks hugging me back, not too tight, and my pulse only stutters a little. But the softly sweet scent of her fills my nose, and the moment starts to feel dangerous.

Riva eases back before I have to and gives me a shaky smile. “Thank you. For everything.”

She’s obviously not okay , but I have the sense that I managed to settle down the storm in her a little bit.

I smile back. “Any time, Shrimp.”

As Riva guffaws, another chuckle tugs at my attention. I lift my head and realize the other guys have followed us over, watching from the edge of the garden.

Andreas’s smile is wider now, and Jacob looks almost pleased—as close as he ever gets, these days. We amble over to join them, my spirits lifting with a strange rush of relief.

I guess I’m more than just a raging brute, aren’t I? I’ve got compassion too—enough that I got through to Riva even in her own rage.

Is it possible I haven’t needed to be so scared of myself after all?

Griffin tilts his head toward the villa with a thoughtful expression. “She wanted to, you know. Just for a moment.”

It takes me a second to figure out what he’s talking about. He indicated the direction Toni stalked off in.

From what he picked up of her feelings, some part of her liked the idea of joining our smash-fest?

I look down at my wrists, wondering how much it’s safe to say in answer. And a fresh chill prickles through my veins, sharper than the breeze.

Riva wants to kill Balthazar. But the manacles he’s locked us up with will work even if he’s gone.

We won’t be able to leave the villa. Unless we can figure out how to access and alter his security system, we’ll still be just as trapped.

Which means we’re going to need someone else here on our side. Someone who can get them off.

It’s going to take a lot more than a brief interest in hurling pottery to manage that.

But I guess we have to start somewhere.

I’m not sure how to express those thoughts to the others either, not here. We’ll have to take another swim to talk properly as a group.

Before I can suggest that, Balthazar’s other top employee comes striding into view. Matteo rubs his hands together and fixes his piercing gaze on me.

“Zian. You’re due for a session.”

My body wants to balk, but I force it to relax. “All right.”

As I stroll over, I size him up, trying to think of anything I’ve noticed that might help me win him over. Because he’s not just an enemy but another opportunity, isn’t he?

Reaching him, I roll my shoulders as if eager to get started. “What are we working on today?”