Page 219 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Five

Zian

R iva slumps back in her chair and rubs her forehead. “I hate this map. No, I hate all maps.”

She’s been sitting at the elegant white desk for the better part of half an hour, moving between a printed atlas Rollick dug up and a tablet.

The late-morning sunshine and warmth stream through the row of tall windows that give a view of the atrium garden, but Riva doesn’t look as if she’s been able to appreciate either.

I set down the glass of lemonade I brought her, hesitate, and set my hand carefully on her shoulder. We’ve come a long way from the days when I was afraid of any physical contact with her at all, but I still don’t totally trust my instinctive reactions.

When no jolt of panic shoots through me at the touch, I let myself increase the pressure, rubbing my thumb into the tendons of her shoulder in a slow massage. “You could take a break. You’ve already figured out where some of the kids are at—he hasn’t moved them, right?”

The sigh Riva lets out as she relaxes against my hand sends all kinds of emotions racing through my nerves—a little nervousness, sure, but mostly joy and relief… and enough desire to form an ache in my groin.

I thought it was hard wanting her when I didn’t believe I could have her. Wanting her now that I know that I can is a challenge on a totally different level.

I don’t think she’s in a mood for me to sweep her out of the chair and charge off to whatever of the guest bedrooms in Rollick’s mansion is closest, even if I was comfortable doing that. So I settle for moving behind her where I can rub both of her shoulders at once.

Riva’s eyes drift shut. “The younger shadowbloods are still where I found them before. I wish they weren’t scattered across different hideouts, but we figured they would be. It’s Balthazar who keeps moving around.”

Rollick materializes out of the shadows next to us, already in one of his casually confident stances as if he’s been standing there all along. “You could leave him be and check back later,” he says. “He’ll have to pause somewhere eventually.”

“He always does,” I agree.

Riva grimaces at us and reaches for the glass of lemonade.

“He’s heading back toward that spot where he seems to have set up a fortress in the Carpathians in Romania.

We decided if he stops there a third time that we should focus on it for our first strike.

If I’m right, I should know in another twenty minutes or so.

And I’d rather know as soon as possible.

With all the reports coming in… who knows what they’ll destroy next? ”

According to the news we’ve seen on TV and the internet, Balthazar’s shadowbloods hit four more cities last night. Major landmarks destroyed, dozens of people dead. My muscles tighten at the memory of the brutal images.

The demon nods. “I think at this point we can assume that mountain base is his main hub of operations, at least for the moment. I’ve gotten a couple more reports back from local scouts of his activities there.”

“I don’t want to assume anything when it comes to Balthazar.

” Riva takes a gulp of lemonade and leans back over the tablet.

“If you want to go on with planning the attack, I’ve already given my opinion before.

And you know what I can do. I’ll join the discussion again when I’ve confirmed his destination. ”

My chest tightens with the futile urge to take this weight off her shoulders. She’s the only one who’s gotten close enough to Balthazar that she can do this—and I know she hates it.

Both the fact that she has that kind of tie to him and the constant reaching out toward his presence, becoming more familiar with it every time.

I give her shoulder one last squeeze. “We’re going to take him down. It won’t be too much longer.”

Riva shoots me a smile that looks too weary to really be reassuring, but I don’t know what else I can do except follow Rollick to the dining room that’s become our command center.

The other guys are sitting around the table—well, other than Jacob, who’s pacing with typical agitation. Toni, several of our shadowkind allies, and the other hybrid, Sorsha, have gathered there too.

Billy stands in one corner with his pipes, playing a softly lilting tune. If it’s meant to both soothe and bolster our spirits, I can feel it working a little. I dip my head to the faun with a smile as I sit down.

One of the shadowkind men who seems particularly close to Sorsha, the guy named Thorn who’s so massive he makes even me feel a bit small, is pointing to something on a topographical map of the mountain region.

He speaks firmly but with a gloomy expression as if he’d rather not be here planning a war, even if he’s the best guy for the job.

“We shadowkind will need to focus mainly on deterring reinforcements from coming to Balthazar’s aid. The protections he has embedded in the rocks around his fortress would weaken even the strongest of us to a concerning point if we ventured beyond them.”

I frown, peering at the map even though I don’t have the slightest idea how to decipher the markings. The guardians expected to send us to attack shadowkind in or around areas where lots of people lived—preparing us for vast mountain ranges wasn’t high on their list of priorities.

But I know my strengths. The one good thing that came out of Balthazar’s manipulations was that I can help in more ways than I could before.

“My X-ray vision can cut through rock now,” I say. “Maybe I could carve out some of the protections to give you a way through.”

Rollick rubs his chin. “They’re deeply embedded and there are a lot of them. And chunks of rock crumbling away would draw attention rather quickly when we’re hoping to keep some element of surprise. I’m not sure that’ll be the best use of your talents.”

I glance at Jacob, who’s paused to listen to our exchange. “Maybe if Jake and I worked together, we could do it quickly. He’s shaken up mountains before. And Dominic could feed us extra power to help too.”

Sorsha taps part of the map. “It does seem like the lower face holds a lot of the toxic metals. If they could chop away that whole section, the more powerful shadowkind could probably tolerate the effects of the other surrounding protections.”

Toni leans forward with her hands clasped in front of her. “I don’t know how deeply the layers of protective metal go. Balthazar has always been very careful about warding his territories.”

The broad, scaled shadowkind named Steel lets out a grunt. “This is mainly the shadowbloods’ battle anyway. Are they so worried about handling the brunt of it?”

My hackles rise automatically, but I will down my temper. “It’s not that we don’t want to fight. We’ll be right in there. But we’re a lot more likely to get rid of Balthazar the more of us can attack at once.”

“Which is good for all of you too, considering he wants to exterminate you,” Andreas puts in, keeping his tone lighter than I managed to.

He wets his lips. “Maybe if any of the shadowkind are good with illusions, they could keep up the appearance that everything’s fine down below until we’re all ready to barge in. ”

Rollick hums to himself. “I have a couple of potential allies I could put out feelers to. But let’s not count on that aspect.”

Then he claps his hands with a definitive air.

“You’ve all been straining your heads over this for a while.

Take a breather, get refreshments if you need them, and we’ll reconvene in half an hour—at which point we should have final confirmation that this is definitely the location we’ll focus our first attack on. ”

A few grumbles pass through the gathered shadowkind as they drift off—either visibly or vanishing into the shadows. My friends head out of the room too, but I take the opportunity to move closer to the table so I can study the map up close.

Even if Balthazar is arriving at this mountain base now, he’s never stayed there for very long the other two times Riva traced his presence there. But he seems to stop by once every couple of days.

When we have a solid plan, we’ll stake out the place and simply wait for him to return. If we’re really lucky, Sorsha will be able to blast him away with her phoenix fire before he even touches down—if he’s arriving by something as obvious as a helicopter.

But somehow, knowing Balthazar—and knowing that he’s seen the kind of firepower our new friends are capable of—I doubt it’ll be that easy.

A figure pops out of the shadows next to me with a wisp of a crisp floral scent, like roses that’ve been singed. Pearl clucks her tongue as she takes in the map. “This maniac really likes his mountains, huh?”

I automatically take a step to the side to give myself a little more room. But the succubus has a decent sense of personal space despite her methods of feeding—she doesn’t show any sign of offense about the distance I’ve added between us.

With her bouncy curls and bubbly personality, it’s hard to think of her as part of the same crew as Rollick’s other shadowkind allies. I do my best to keep my tone neutral. “Are you going to be joining in the attack too?”

She shrugs carelessly and grins at me. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ve already been prowling around the towns closest to the mountain to see if I can find any employees to seduce some secrets out of, but no luck so far.”

As she looks at me, a sly gleam comes into her eyes. “So, you finally sorted out your issues with Riva, huh?”

My face flushes so hot my cheeks must be blazing scarlet. “I, um— We’re getting there.”

Are we that obvious? But then, this is a being whose life revolves around sex—I guess it makes sense that she’d pick up on a shift in that part of our dynamic pretty easily.

Pearl’s smile is all eager approval. “That’s great.

I know that the physical part of human relationships isn’t quite as essential as it is for me, but most people do seem happier when it’s working out.

And you all deserve to be happy.” The gleam turns even slyer.

“If you need any tips for continuing to ‘get there,’ feel free to hit me up. You guys should be treating Riva right.”

At her offer, I think my face might burn right off. My gaze darts around the room, which to my relief appears to be empty. Hopefully we don’t have a whole audience of hidden shadowkind listening in.

As I grapple with my embarrassment, it occurs to me that there is one thing maybe I should ask Pearl about. If anyone would have a clue what the hell was going on with my anatomy during the act, it’s a shadowkind with her level of experience.

I stare down at the map, feeling too awkward to meet her eyes. “There was one thing that was kind of confusing when we… actually got together.”

The succubus props herself against the side of the table and cocks her head. “Tell me about it, and I’ll see if I can shed some light.”

I’ve gotten started on this path now—might as well dive all the way in. “When I was… finishing, I partly shifted, and my, um…” I motion hastily toward my groin. “It got this bulge right at the base of the shaft. For a minute or two it was like I was stuck inside.”

I brace myself in case I keel over from the horror of saying that out loud, but I seem to have survived the admission.

Pearl taps her finger against her lips. “Hmm. I have heard of that sort of thing before. You’ve got a wolfish thing going on when you shift, right?”

I grimace. “Yeah. Not like an actual wolf, more like a wolf-man in a movie. I’ve still got the human body, but my face gets all wolfish with the muzzle and fangs and stuff, and I sprout fur there and on my neck and arms.”

Pearl nods with a knowing air. “That’s probably it. There’s this canine thing—comes with the territory for werewolves and so on. Happens with actual dogs too, I think. You get that knot there so that you stay in place for a good long while. To increase chances of the mating being successful.”

I’m puzzled enough that I manage to look at her again, blinking. “Successful?” Getting intimate with Riva felt like a pretty huge success even before that happened.

Pearl’s current smile is definitely more of a smirk. “For making babies. At least, when it comes to the actual animals. Shadowkind can’t have kids anyway.” Her forehead furrows slightly. “I guess we don’t know about shadow bloods yet.”

I open and close my mouth a few times before I recover my voice. “Um, we definitely weren’t trying—that wasn’t something?—”

Thankfully, my heightened hearing still works even in my flustered state. I pick up on the footsteps heading our way in time to clamp my jaw shut, moments before Riva steps into the room.

She takes in me, Pearl, and the otherwise empty room. “Where did everyone go?”

Pearl pushes off the table to amble over to Riva. “Rollick called for a refreshment break. They’ll be back in a few minutes. Your wolf-man and I were just having a little strategy chat.”

The succubus shoots me a wink over her shoulder and slips out the door.

Riva raises her eyebrows at me. “Are you okay? She always seems to mean well, even if she can be a bit over-the-top about it.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” I run my hand through my hair, hoping I don’t look half as unbalanced as I feel. “It was fine.”

With Riva right in front of me after the conversation I just had, I can’t help thinking back to that evening when we hooked up. All those thrilling sensations now paired with the idea that some part of my body was trying to get her?—

I can’t even think it. Fucking hell, I only just managed to get that close with her at all—one time, with Dominic there in case my instincts went haywire.

Whether it’s possible for us to have kids, whether it’s something we’d want to try for down the road, is so far outside my ability to imagine that it just about short-circuits my brain.

But Riva knows me well enough not to push. She just sidles over, gratifyingly near but not enough to make my nerves jump, and gingerly tucks her hand around mine, reminding me of why I love her so much.

Whatever futures we could dream of, she’s always been willing to wait for me.

Twining her fingers with mine, she traces her other hand over the ridges marked on the map. “He came back again. If we’re going to take him down anywhere, it’ll be here.”