Page 188 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Seventeen

Riva

I ’m expecting a brutal welcoming party when we arrive at the villa. Balthazar must already know that he isn’t getting his prize as easily as he hoped.

But no one is waiting to intimidate us into submission. When the drawbridge rumbles to a halt at the top of its raised position, the courtyard stands eerily silent.

Somehow that’s worse than if a brigade of goons had marched out to meet us. Like our keeper is still perfectly content to wait for us to come to him.

Like nothing we’ve done actually matters.

As we head into the villa, Jacob catches my hand. Griffin takes the other, while Andreas shoots me a reassuring glance and Zian lets out a protective growl.

We’ll meet whatever’s waiting for us together. We all made it back in one piece, and that’s what matters the most.

I only dozed on the flight and drive back, nothing that I could call real sleep. My weary legs would like to walk me right into my bedroom and toss me onto the bed.

But I can’t rest until Dominic is returned to us. And that means confronting the man holding him captive in his own body.

We stride through the dawn-lit halls together, the twist of tension in my gut contrasting with the delicate frescos painted on the walls we’re passing. This place should be beautiful, but to us it’s only become more horrifying with each passing day.

Balthazar clearly knows we’ve arrived. When we file into the drawing room, the screen is already raised from the tabletop, though it’s currently dark.

The machine by Dominic’s bed continues its shrill, faster beeping. Does his skin look even more washed out than before?

I mean to watch him for a breath—to count how long he’s taking between them—but then the screen blinks to a view of our captor.

Balthazar peers out at us, looking even more the predatory lion than usual. A few locks of his graying tawny hair shade his penetrating eyes. “It appears you’ve failed in your mission.”

My spine stiffens. I glower back at him. “We didn’t fail. We got the hard drive you wanted.”

“Then where is it?”

The twins tighten their grip on my hands. Jacob speaks before I can, even though this gambit was my idea. “You’re not getting it until Dominic is awake. Otherwise how are we supposed to believe that you’re actually going to pay us back for the job?”

Balthazar lets out a low huff. “If you’ve left the device somewhere it’ll be damaged, it isn’t worth the sweat on your skin.”

I resist the urge to clench my jaw. “We made sure it was safe. And that it’s somewhere you’re never going to find on your own. It was a long walk between the train tracks and the pickup car.”

A hint of a smirk touches Andreas’s lips. “And something that small is very easy to hide when you’ve got an entire forest to work with.”

A growl ripples through Balthazar’s otherwise even tone. “It doesn’t do me any good if you can’t even find it again either.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Zian insists. “We’re not stupid.”

“I don’t see how I have any guarantees of your good faith.”

I slip my hands from the guys’ grasp to take a determined step toward the screen.

“Why are you trying so hard not to give us what you promised? If we can’t give your people directions to find your prize, then it’s not as if you can’t knock Dom out—or worse—all over again.

Do you think we could possibly not realize that, after everything you’ve already done?

That we’d risk losing him right after we’ve gotten him back? ”

Balthazar studies me through the screen with an unreadable expression that sends alarm clanging through my nerves. “I could simply start cutting down your remaining companions until you cough up the information.”

I hold myself steady against the hitch of my pulse, my glower sharpening into a glare. “Try me. If you do that, then we know you’re never going to be good to your word. There’s no point in us giving you anything if we’re all going to end up as worm food before long anyway.”

A few days ago, I’d have meant those words whole-heartedly. Now, with the promise of Dominic’s restoration dangling over me and the warmth of affection soothing the worse of my hopeless anger, the idea of giving up sends an ache through every part of my body.

But what I said is true regardless. I want to live and love however I can.

If I can’t , if this man is going to make it impossible, then it would be better to die on our own terms.

My skin continues to creep under our captor’s intense attention, but I don’t break from his gaze. After another moment, the corners of his lips lift—is that the start of a smile ?

It remains so subtle and vanishes so quickly I’m not sure if I only imagined it. He reaches toward something out of view on his desk. “You are a force to be reckoned with, aren’t you, Riva? Let’s see if we can’t come out of this deal with both of us satisfied rather than disappointed.”

My spirits lift. Does he really mean…?

I don’t quite believe it until two figures hustle into the room: a plump woman and her scrawny male assistant who walk straight past us to Dominic’s bed. They don’t even bother to look at us.

As the woman unlocks the case over Dominic’s limp body, Zian moves as if to barge over. I catch his arm, just for long enough to stop him before yanking my fingers away.

When he glances at me, I shake my head. We can’t risk interfering with anything they’re doing.

I want them to give Dom their full concentration.

After lifting the case, the woman adjusts several controls on the machines while her assistant prepares a couple of syringes. My stomach knots at the sight of the vicious needles, but I hold my own defensive urges in check too.

We made our bargain. Now we have to give it a chance to be fulfilled.

The woman takes one syringe, injects it into Dominic’s neck, and monitors the display on the machines for an endless minute before holding her hand out for the second needle. This one, she applies to his wrist.

The machine’s beeping has slowly eased back to its normal pace. Gingerly, the woman removes the tubes and wires that encircled Dominic’s form, and then shuts off the machines completely.

She gives us one brief look. “Give him a few more minutes.”

Then the two of them sweep out of the room so quickly that in a matter of seconds it’s as if they were never here.

All five of us venture closer to Dominic’s bed. His breath is coming in what looks like a more regular rhythm now.

But his eyes remain closed, his expression slack.

What if it doesn’t work? What if Balthazar miscalculated, and Dom was too far gone already?

Even as a pang of fear reverberates through my chest, Dominic’s eyelashes twitch. I’m just sucking in a gasp when his eyelids lift.

He blinks a few times, staring up at the ceiling. A flinch runs through his frame that isn’t provoked by anything I can see—maybe a memory flashing through his mind.

I can’t bear to hang back any longer. I dart forward to rest a tentative hand on his arm, leaning over him.

Dom stares up at me. His lips part, and for a stutter of my heart, I think he’s going to knit his brow in confusion.

“Riva?” he croaks.

My face splits with the widest smile I’ve ever made. I tip farther to hug him, just as carefully as my initial touch. “How do you feel? You’ve been… out for a long time.”

He coughs and flexes his muscles. The next second, Zian is there at his other side, sliding a strong hand under Dom’s shoulders to help him sit up.

All of the other guys cluster tighter around the hospital bed as Dominic finds his balance. He slings a wobbly arm around me and gives me an equally wobbly smile.

“You don’t have to look so worried, Sugar,” he says softly though hoarsely. “There isn’t much that’ll knock me and my tentacles down for good.”

As I choke back a startled laugh, he loops one of those tentacles around my waist. Then his gaze drifts from me to the other guys and to the room beyond us.

At the scene he takes in, his brow does knit. He studies our surroundings for several breaths before returning his attention to us. “Where the hell have we ended up now?”

The laugh I sputter at his question holds no humor at all. “It’s a long story. And most of it isn’t good. I’m just glad you’re back with us.”

Glad is the understatement of the year. The glow of joy lighting me up at his embrace and his words could power an entire city.

“Let’s get you up,” Jacob says, a little gruffly, and holds out his arm. “I don’t know how well those assholes actually healed you. If you need to draw energy from someone?—”

Andreas knocks Jacob’s ribs with his elbow. “You don’t have to go all self-sacrificing, Jake. There are plenty of shrubs and hedges outside that’ll do the trick.”

Jacob makes a face as if he was actually looking forward to offering himself up—which knowing him he might have been—but he doesn’t argue.

I help Dominic off the bed. Zian quickly comes around to join us, but Dom manages to walk with only a little extra support keeping him steady.

His head swings one way and another on our tramp down the hall to one of the outer doors. He manages a weak whistle. “This is definitely our fanciest prison yet.”

I guess it’s not hard for him to figure out that we’re not exactly free here. Not just from the way we’re acting, but from the metal bands that bind his wrists just like all of ours.

I brush a kiss to his shoulder. “You could say that. This one holds us with a different kind of chains.”

To my surprise, none of Balthazar’s underlings rush over to demand the location of his prize. We meander out into the chilly early morning air unimpeded.

Dominic’s feet stall under him while he takes in the mountain vista surrounding us. “Well, that’s… that’s something,” he manages to mumble.

We help him over to a stone bench near a couple of particularly vibrant shrubs… which might not remain that way for long.

Jacob jerks his head toward one of the bushes. “Heal up anything that’s still not quite right inside you. Who knows how much damage the prick who’s keeping us here actually did to you?”

Dom stretches his back and snakes one of his tentacles over to the shrub. “I don’t feel bad , exactly, just worn out and a little sore.”

“You should do what you can, just to be sure,” I say, my throat constricting.

What if Balthazar’s doctors only healed him enough to make him look okay, and he’ll collapse again tomorrow?

Dominic’s monstrous appendage twines around the shrub’s bristly branches. He closes his eyes and relaxes against the back of the bench.

Before my eyes, the shrub’s thin evergreen leaves turn brown around the spot where Dominic’s tentacle rests. The closest branches shrivel and sag.

But when he releases the plant, he’s only left a dull patch on the larger form. As far as I can tell, not being a gardener, it should survive with a bit of pruning.

A more vibrant color has come back into Dom’s face, a brighter light in his eyes. When he smiles at us now, my heart lifts.

“I think that’ll do it,” he says. “How about you show me around and fill me in now?”

I lift one arm to indicate my manacle. “As much as we can.”

Dominic’s mouth slants. He’s been through enough troubles with us to understand my implication.

“Let’s get you to the kitchen,” Zian suggests. “You haven’t eaten in more than a week—you’ve got to be starving!”

Dom chuckles in agreement and ambles back to the villa with us without any support needed. I can’t tear my eyes off him, as if, if I glance away for a second, his recovery might reverse itself.

We really did it. We bargained with Balthazar… and got what we wanted.

Of course, he still needs to get what he wanted. We’ve just stepped inside when Toni appears in the shadowed hallway.

“The boss will have your directions now,” she says brusquely.

Andreas steps forward. “I can project my memory of the landmarks you need to look for to whoever you want to send for it. I can come along too, if you want that extra confirmation.”

She lets out a grunt that doesn’t sound entirely pleased but motions for him to follow her. As I watch him walk away, my heart wrenches even though this was always part of the plan.

I have to believe that Drey will come back to us like Dominic did. I have to believe that we can find our way out of this mess with our wits rather than by tearing everything apart.

All the anger that fueled me before didn’t get me anywhere except close to getting torn apart myself… and if I’d given in to that impulse, Dominic wouldn’t be standing here next to me.

We don’t need Balthazar dead. We don’t need revenge for the murders he’s committed or the torments he’s inflicted, as much as I’d still like to have those things.

All that matters is getting away. Rescuing the younger shadowbloods who are counting on us.

And then finding the freedom I’ve always dreamed of with the men I love.

We’ve just learned that we can negotiate at least part of our progress along that journey. There has to be a smart way of navigating this prison that’ll work better than the brutal method I imagined but couldn’t carry out.

Shoring up my resolve inside me and swathing it in the glow of joy and love sparked by Dom’s presence, I grab his hand and stride on.