Page 216 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Two

Riva

A s the group Rollick has called together takes seats around the long table in his Spanish mansion’s vast dining room, I can’t suppress a prickle of apprehension.

It’s not our surroundings that unnerve me. The house’s interior is reassuringly different from our previous digs, the walls the same stark white as the outer ones and the furniture sleekly modern.

My concern is more about the company we’re keeping. All of the shadowkind joining us were vetted by our demonic host… but beings working under him have attacked us before.

Some of the faces are familiar. Sorsha sits partway down the table with two of her regular companions at her sides: Thorn, the massive, crystal-knuckled man who can sprout dark angelic wings, and a tall, slim man with brilliant green eyes and golden curls, whose shadowkind powers I’m not sure of.

He keeps one hand resting on Sorsha’s arm where it leans against the table as if he thinks she needs protection.

I’m pretty sure she could burn down the entire estate in a matter of seconds if she wanted to. Having seen what she did to Balthazar’s villa, I’m not totally surprised that most of the shadowkind are wary of hybrids.

Pearl has joined us too, perched in the chair next to Rollick with an air of delighted triumph at having earned that choice spot.

The succubus was instrumental in Rollick’s scheme to rescue us, using her seductive skills to cajole the secrets of the hill’s hidden passage out of one of Balthazar’s staff.

Her friend Billy the faun isn’t around anywhere I can see, and neither is Ruse, who also tends to stick close to Sorsha. I’m guessing they’re watching from the shadows. There simply aren’t that many chairs around the table, especially with us shadowbloods and Toni taking up seven.

Rollick’s newer companions make me the most uneasy. There’s the guy whose jumble of wild curls falls across his glinting violet eyes, who’s smirking to himself as he carves lines into the tabletop with his terrifying three-inch claws.

My cat claws, barely a quarter as long, make me feel like a kitten in comparison. Those must be the one monstrous feature he can’t will away even in human guise, like all shadowkind have.

Somehow I don’t think he gets invited to many parties.

Beside him sits the bulky, stubble-haired man with a square stone jaw, which I know reflects his shadowkind nature. He can shift into a totally stony gargoyle, bat-like wings and all.

Then there’s a woman who looks totally human except for the deep blue hue of her cascading hair—and the ominous atmosphere that seems to hover around her, giving me the sense of an impending thunderstorm. And a squat but muscular man with shiny metallic scales dappling his forehead.

And finally, definitely not getting invited to parties, is the burly dude with a scruffy brown pelt on his head and a pair of incisors so thick they jut against his lips. Appropriately, I heard Rollick call him “Fang.”

I’m not sure what abilities the bunch of them bring to the table, both metaphorically and literally, but I doubt their powers have anything to do with sunshine and roses.

From the whiffs of uneasy pheromones my guys are giving off, I don’t think I’m alone in my wariness. My fingers curl around my newly restored cat-and-yarn charm, but I resist the urge to give in to my nervous habit of clicking it open and shut.

We’re here together. Completely united in ways we hadn’t even imagined.

We’ll get through this like we have so much else.

As one more shadowkind flickers into being in the last of the chairs, Rollick lifts his chin where he’s poised at the head of the table. “All right. Let’s get down to business.”

The blue-haired woman drums her fingers on the tabletop. Her voice comes out both melodic and low with displeasure. “There are more of these shadowbloods being made? It seems to me that’s the big problem.”

The demon’s gaze flicks to her. “Let’s keep a respectful tone when it comes to our guests, Shanty.”

I feel like there are a few things we current shadowbloods should make clear right away.

I draw up my slight frame as tall as I can manage. “No, we agree that it’s a problem. We already are the way we are, and we can’t do anything about that. But we wouldn’t have chosen this. Balthazar needs to be stopped as soon as possible, before he warps more people than he already has.”

Sorsha shifts her gaze to Toni. “You’re the one who worked with this man. What exactly do you know about his plans from here forward? Where is he finding people to transform? What is he going to ask them to do?”

Toni looks as if she’s suppressing a wince. “Mr. Balthazar has enough sway that he’s been able to arrange access to incarcerated criminals from various prisons. People who don’t have families checking up on them so they won’t be missed.”

Around me, my guys’ faces have darkened. “People who won’t have reservations about throwing their powers around, no matter who gets hurt?” Dominic suggests.

Toni dips her head, her expression turning even more pained. “And who would be grateful to him for giving them their freedom. He’ll ensure their obedience to him the same way he did with you, with the metal bracelets that can knock them out or kill them if need be.”

“Criminals,” the stout guy with the scaly forehead mutters. “On top of their wild powers. Just great.”

I swallow thickly and raise my voice again. “Those aren’t the only shadowbloods he has. He’s also been holding a bunch of the kids the guardians brought up—like us, but none of them are older than seventeen, and their powers are a lot weaker. We have to find and rescue them too.”

Lord only knows what the younger shadowbloods are going through now. When I remember how downcast even neon-loving Nadia became in the last few days before Balthazar wrenched them all away from us, my heart sinks.

We don’t even know for sure if all of the others are still alive. At the villa, our former captor murdered two of the kids before our eyes, just to make a point.

“I don’t know where they’re being held,” Toni says. “He split them up across several different properties and kept that information to himself. But I do know where a lot of his properties across North America and Europe are , so that could be a start in our search.”

At Sorsha’s side, Thorn lets out a deep rumble of a grunt. “It sounds as though we should end this villain’s life first and worry about rescue attempts afterward. Once he’s gone, he won’t be able to harm them further.”

As anxious as I am to get my friends and the other kids out of Balthazar’s clutches, I can’t deny that the hulking angel has a point.

Jacob thumps his fist on the table. “We destroy him and any of the criminals working with him. Sounds good to me.”

Fang turns his unnerving face toward Rollick. “How hard could it be to kill one mortal man? He is mortal, isn’t he?”

“Mr. Balthazar had no interest in becoming at all like the shadowkind himself,” Toni confirms.

Rollick grimaces. “He has proven to be particularly adept at evading our attacks, though. He doesn’t skimp on his silver and iron protections, and he leaves himself plenty of escape routes while preventing even his captives from getting within close enough range to unleash their talents on him.

I don’t think we can count on the battle being easy, especially with an unknown number of shadowbloods in the mix. ”

“We’ve got to find him first,” Andreas points out, and motions to Toni. “Where would he want to go next? You haven’t said what the next steps in his plans were going to be.”

She exhales raggedly. “I don’t know the specifics.

I didn’t even know he and Matteo had finalized the procedure for transforming people into shadowbloods until that last night.

But… the first stage he always talked about, when he had the manpower to move forward, was giving the world motivation to go on the attack against shadowkind. ”

Zian frowns. “And how was he going to do that? No one believes monsters really exist.”

Toni meets his gaze, her dark eyes solemn. “He was going to prove it. By having his new shadowbloods rain down destruction with their powers, and then claiming they’re the monsters that need to be stamped out.”

A chill floods me from the inside out. “They’re going to go around attacking people.”

“Something like that. But I don’t know where he’ll start. Or when. I can’t imagine he’ll wait long, though. He’s been desperate to get started.”

My hands ball into fists, my claws tingling at my fingertips with the urge to strike out. But the man I want to tackle is nowhere within reach.

“We have to find him. Fast.” I look down at my arms and rub the skin of my wrist, the bruising there nearly faded already thanks to our swift shadowkind healing. “I wish we had a manacle on him so we could track him down. He could be anywhere in the world!”

There’s a momentary silence. Then Dominic clears his throat and glances across the table. “Griffin tracked us all across the continent back when we were on the run—without needing any tracking devices.”

Every pair of eyes around the table jerks to the subdued guy who’s simply been sitting with us taking in the conversation—and the emotions we’re all giving off.

Only the briefest flicker of surprise passes through Griffin’s light blue eyes. Then he nods. “I did. But only because of the history between us. I’ve never even seen Balthazar in person. I don’t have a strong enough sense of him that I could home in on his location.”

Zian lets out a growl of frustration. I slump in my seat, the momentary sense of hope deflating.

Jacob turns toward his twin. “You could try .”

Griffin pauses. “No. I can already tell it wouldn’t work. But…”

His gaze slides to me, intent and a little sad. Enough that I tense up before he even starts to speak.

“Riva, you share his DNA. You’ve seen him, using Zian’s power. If you borrowed that talent of mine, you might be able to find him.”