Page 22 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Fifteen

Riva

W ith every passing minute of the drive, watching the terrain that reminds me of the forests around the facility, my skin creeps more. It’s like we’re going backward, heading closer to the people we should be running away from.

The information Andreas got from the hacker didn’t show any reason to believe the company that owns this property is associated with the guardians or the facility we broke out of.

Ursula Engel was only employed there until twenty-four years ago, definitely at least a couple of years before we could have been conceived.

But that doesn’t mean there is no connection, or that the guardians are unaware of their former colleague’s past work and that we might seek her out. We have no idea how much they know or don’t.

Just this once, I wish Jacob was right that I was privy to a whole bunch of their inside info.

Andreas is driving while Jacob consults the GPS on the phone they’ve been sharing. In a particularly dense section of forest, he holds up his hand. “We’re almost there. A couple of miles northeast of here.”

Zian leans forward from the middle seat. “We should go through the brush, right? We don’t know how closely they’re monitoring the area.”

Jacob nods. “Let’s find a good spot to pull over, and we’ll cover the rest of the distance on foot. Stay alert for any sign of guards.”

He glances back at me pointedly, although in the middle of the woods, Zian’s ears are going to pick up anyone patrolling faster than my enhanced senses. Especially since as far as we know, anyone patrolling around this building has no reason to be stressed out just yet.

I can’t help thinking it’s an understated jab about my becoming the opposite to alert the other night in the club. It’s all a blur in my mind, nothing horrendously shameful sticking out, but he’s made it clear that I both embarrassed myself and nearly jeopardized our mission.

Willing back a blush at the memory, I tip my head in acknowledgment. I’m here—he should know I’m going to help any way I can.

Even if I don’t really think we should be sticking our necks out like this at all.

About a minute later, the shoulder widens enough that Andreas can pull the SUV all the way off the road. We ease out of the car, shutting the doors as softly as we can, and set off through the forest with Jacob and his phone map in the lead.

All of us know how to move quietly across any kind of terrain when we’re not running for our lives. The faint rustling of our clothes and rasps of our footfalls blend into the wild sounds of the forest.

The fresh pine scent carrying on the lightly cool breeze puts me a little more at ease. We’re not under the guardians’ thumbs anymore; we’re walking free.

I just hope that we’re not currently walking straight back into our cages.

As we come up on the coordinates, Jacob slows even more, and the rest of us follow suit. We slink between the trees until we come within view of a cleared area up ahead.

It isn’t like the facility, not really. There’s no fence at all, let alone one beefed up with electricity and barbed wire.

The structure standing in the middle of the grassy clearing is plain brown brick with a slanted roof, looking more like a bungalow than a place of industry.

It’s maybe twice the size of a typical single-story house, although for all we know there’s more underneath.

A man in a gray uniform stands near the edge of the clearing toward the front of the structure, a few paces from where a narrow driveway leads into a small parking lot that holds two vehicles: a sedan and a jeep.

He has his hands slung in his pockets in a casual pose, although I bet he knows how to use the gun holstered at his hip just fine.

No metal helmet or armor. Nothing on him that reminds me of how the guardians dressed. I relax a little more.

These people could still be dangerous, but at least they’re not the exact same kind of people we fled from.

At Jacob’s gesture, we prowl farther around the clearing until we determine that there’s only one other guard on duty, strolling back and forth behind the building. From his bored expression, I don’t think he’s anticipating any significant trouble either.

Somehow I can’t find it in me to feel particularly sorry for him. This company may not be affiliated with our facility, but if they employed someone who ended up helping run that facility, I doubt they’re the most wonderful folks in the universe either.

We pull back deeper into the woods to confer.

“Since we have time and they’re stationed where they can’t see each other, I can knock the guards out one after the other,” Jacob murmurs. “Then we tie them up and gag them so they can’t get in our way once they come to.”

He glances at Zian, who’s got a bag with the lengths of cord we brought along as well as other equipment the guys felt was necessary. Andreas has already stolen one of the cords, twisting it around his hands with a knot tied in the middle.

We return to the edge of the clearing, standing in the shadows out of view. I’m not totally sure what Jacob means about knocking the guards out, figuring he’s going to hurl a rock at their heads with his telekinesis or something, until his face goes rigid with concentration.

The guard’s mouth clamps shut. As his lips twitch with a muffled grunt of surprise, his eyes widen.

His hands jerk to his throat. He gropes at his neck, the suppressed sounds he’s making turning thinner, his cheeks turning bluish… like he’s being strangled.

I can’t see any marks against his throat, but understanding jolts through me. Jacob is using his talent in a much more subtle way. He’s either compressing the man’s airway right inside his body or willing the air not to move in and out of his lungs.

Both will have the same effect.

The guard tries to run for help, but his legs wobble. He sways and staggers toward the windowless back of the building.

My pulse lurches with sudden recognition. He’s trying to throw himself against the wall so he can make a loud enough sound to alert the other guard—or whoever’s inside—that way.

The threat of being discovered propels me into action without another thought. I hurl myself forward, racing across the short span of grass and yanking the man away from the building just as his legs give completely.

Zian catches the guard with me as the man slumps down unconscious, not that I need the help supporting a single ordinary person’s weight. We lay him down on the grass carefully, and Zian fixes the cords in place. Then we carry the man into the shelter of the trees.

Jacob watches us return, his expression unreadable. His gaze lingers on me for a second. He dips his head, just for an instant, and stalks on around the clearing toward the other guard.

Well, I guess that’s better than him spitting venom at me as if I sabotaged him rather than saving his ass.

With the other guard, Jacob nudges him toward the edge of the forest while he cuts off the guy’s air, so we have no repeat of the last potential disaster. We leave that man hidden among the trees and walk over to the building’s front door.

Zian peers at it with a momentary distant expression. “There’s no one right on the other side,” he says quietly.

“Be ready just in case.” Jacob twists his hand by the door handle, and the lock disengages.

We brace ourselves. We discussed during the long drive out here that we wanted to question the people working here, which means we need them alive. But I know all of us are prepared to kill if it comes down to us or them.

An image of twisted bodies and splatters of blood flashes through my mind, and my stomach clenches.

Jacob eases the door open. The hall beyond with its light gray walls is empty, as Zian said, no one rushing out to confront us. A faint clicking sound carries from farther within, like someone tapping on a computer mouse.

We creep inside: Jacob and Zian in the lead, me in the middle, Andreas and Dominic behind me. The guys never leave me unobserved even when we’ve got much bigger fish to fry.

Zian stares at each of the doors we pass before giving an all-clear motion.

The first rooms we peek into aren’t even locked.

They open to what look like studio apartments with a twin bed, a love seat facing a TV, and a kitchenette with a tiny table, all close to identical except for a few personal belongings and decorations scattered around.

“The employees must live here at least part of the time,” Dominic says under his breath.

The work rooms appear to be at the windowless back of the building. We pass a storage room full of boxes of test tubes and latex gloves and reach the doorway the clicks are emanating from.

Zian scans the wall and holds up his hand with two fingers raised. “Scientists,” he murmurs, so low the word is barely more than a breath.

Probably not also fighters, then.

Jacob glances at all of us as if to check that we’re ready. He hovers his hand over the door handle, but it must be unlocked too, because I don’t hear any sound before he’s shoving it open.

We barge into a lab room with sleek black countertops set up with microscopes and other scientific equipment I don’t recognize. Two figures in lab coats and protective goggles freeze at their workstations—and then an instant later, both whip their hands toward their pockets.

The gesture sets off an alarm inside me before I even see the shape of pistols emerging. Zian springs at the man who’s a little farther away, and I leap right over the protruding counter to pounce on the woman who’s closer.

She hits the floor with a soft grunt and a wince when I smack the pistol away. Andreas is already there, snatching the weapon up as well as the one Zian freed from his scientist. He hands one gun to Dominic and then peers down at our captives.

The woman beneath me is giving off whiffs of fear. “Who the hell are you—what are you doing here?”