Page 232 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Fifteen

Dominic

I ’m just adjusting my tentacles around the collar of a fresh long-sleeved tee when a knock rattles against my door. I open it expecting to see one of my friends, not paying enough attention to my sense of our talents to realize that’s unlikely.

Instead, I find myself looking at the wild-haired, viciously clawed shadowkind man who’s one of Rollick’s closer companions. I dredge his name up from my memory: Lance.

“The boss thinks you should do some practice before the big day,” the unnerving guy announces with a wide grin.

I hesitate, my fingers curling around the doorknob. “Practice what?”

Lance twitches his claws toward my tentacles. “You suck the life out of things, right? Getting better at it? We want to see how good.”

A trickle of nausea winds through my gut. I guess I should have expected this development. Rollick insisted on Riva testing her killing power, after all.

I just do my best to forget I even have a killing power when there’s no desperate need for it. I’d rather think of myself as only a healer.

We’re not likely to have a more desperate need than taking down Balthazar ASAP, though.

I peel my hand off the doorknob and ease out of the room. “All right. Where’s Rollick?”

Lance beckons me to follow him. “He thought outside would be good for this. Lots of plants for you to work with.”

Plants? Okay, I can deal with that. I don’t love destroying them either—something inside me always shrivels a little watching the leaves curl and the stems crumple—but it’s a much lesser guilt. No big deal.

The clawed shadowkind leads me out the front door and across the grounds to a stretch of trees. In a clearing up ahead, the sunlight shines off Rollick’s tawny hair.

And not just his hair. Red and silver gleam on either side of him. We emerge from the thicker patch of trees to find the demon flanked by Sorsha the phoenix and Riva.

Riva moves to join me, automatically reaching for my hand. Her bright brown gaze searches mine. “You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. You don’t have to use this part of your ability at all if you don’t want to.”

The fierceness of her tone makes me wonder if she’s argued with Rollick on my behalf. This is obviously about more than just offing some vegetation.

But what can I say? That one of the other guys should borrow my murderous talent so that I don’t have to carry the burden of the guilt?

We’ve all got our own shit to deal with. We all need to carry our own weight. There’ve been a lot of times in the past when I felt like I couldn’t contribute anywhere close to enough, and that was bad enough without backing away when I actually can.

I give Riva’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “It’s fine.” My gaze slides past her to Rollick. “What exactly are you going to ask me to do?”

Rollick’s slanted smile holds a trace of an apology. “I thought we’d start with plants first, to get you warmed up. We should see just how far you can extend your abilities now. Once we’re clear on that… Have you ever siphoned energy from a shadowkind or your fellow shadowbloods?”

Somehow, as obvious as the question sounds once he’s said it, I hadn’t considered it as the logical focus of this training. It’s what he wanted to know with Riva too.

My insides recoil so abruptly that my tentacles quiver in turn. I have the urge to spit out an automatic denial, but I hold myself back and think through all the times I’ve needed to use my power so I can be absolutely sure of my answer.

It remains the same. “Not that I’m sure of.

I’ve mostly relied on plants. The guardians and Balthazar’s people made me experiment on animals.

And a few times I’ve drained regular human beings when I had to.

Once I took one of the younger shadowbloods hostage, and I think I might have absorbed a little of her energy without meaning to, but it was hard to tell at the time and I didn’t take any on purpose. ”

That moment with Celine during our failed escape from Clancy’s island facility was the first time I realized that my powers might be starting to work from a distance. Back then, I got the impression from only a few feet away.

After all Matteo’s procedures at Balthazar’s command, how much farther has my ability expanded? Under Matteo’s supervision, I never revealed the new dimension I’d discovered to my talent, and he never stumbled on it.

“I can’t use my powers to heal shadowkind,” I add. “Not totally. When Billy… was hurt, I could patch him up a little, but that’s it. It felt completely different from healing a person—or a shadowblood.”

Rollick nods. “I suspect melding someone back together properly would be significantly more complex than unraveling them. But it will be good to determine your limits regardless. For this next and hopefully final scheme against Balthazar, disabling beings of various sorts from a distance may be the key.”

I roll my shoulders, attempting to loosen both my muscles and the ball of tension in my stomach. “It makes sense. I probably should have tested myself sooner so that we’d know.”

Riva hooks her arm right around mine. “I know how much you hate this part of your powers. No one’s going to blame you for not pushing yourself to use it more.”

The smile I manage to offer her is tight. “I’d blame me. Let’s get this over with.”

Riva steps back, and my four observers drift to the side of the clearing under the shade of the trees.

Rollick points to the other side, where orange ribbons catch my eyes in stark contrast with the green vegetation.

“I’ve marked bushes at three-foot intervals going as far as thirty feet.

If you can make it farther than that, I’ll add some more.

I’d suggest starting with the closest and moving on from there. ”

That sounds like a reasonable strategy. I drag in a breath and focus on the nearest marked bush, more relieved than I’m comfortable with at the temporary reprieve from using my talents on actual people.

My tentacles snake around my arms and extend toward the line of bushes. The warm breeze tingles over the suckers.

A quiver of the life energy in the nearby plants touches my awareness. I hone my attention to that—and pull.

It’s more of an effort than I’m used to, a jerk of my own energy before a flow rushes into me from the shrub. But once I’m locked on to the target, I drink its life force in as easily as if I had my tentacles wrapped around it.

The bush sags, its leaves browning. A heady thrill courses through my veins with the extra energy, and hunger for more coils in my chest.

I yank my focus away, sweat breaking out on the back of my neck that has nothing to do with physical strain. My skin tingles where my tentacles stretch a fraction of an inch farther from my back.

It isn’t the ability itself that I really hate. It’s the temptation that always grips me when I activate this particular talent.

But I didn’t kill even the shrub. I held myself back. Whether because the distance slowed the flow enough that I couldn’t get too caught up in it or because I’m actually getting better at moderating myself is a question I can’t bring myself to look at too closely.

One by one, I work my way down the line. Each greater distance requires a bigger initial jolt to latch on to the target, but nothing I can’t handle.

It’s not until the seventh bush, a little over twenty feet away, that I fling my power forward and grasp nothing.

I steady myself, refocus, and lash out again. This time, I manage to snag hold of the bush’s energy enough to start draining it, but a prickling ache forms in the back of my skull at the same time.

After what amounts to a few sips, I let go and turn to my audience. “I almost couldn’t reach that one. I don’t think it’d be worth trying to go any farther—it’ll take more out of me than I’m getting back.”

Rollick rubs his hands together. “Still, a reach of twenty feet—that’s not bad at all. Especially when you started out needing direct physical contact.”

“Yeah.” And the last time I stretched my abilities, I’m not sure I could have grasped on to energy more than a quarter that distance away.

Balthazar does excel at turning people more monstrous than they already were.

Lance clicks his claws together. “Is it my turn now?”

Rollick chuckles. “Are you really that eager to lose a little essence?”

“If he can steal it.” The shadowkind man grins at me in challenge.

This is the part of the test that I was least looking forward to.

I swallow hard. “I wouldn’t have to take very much, right? Just enough to know whether I can take any at all. If I can absorb some energy, then there’s no reason to think I’d run into any obstacles taking a larger portion later.”

“I definitely don’t want you draining my associates to oblivion,” Rollick says dryly. “Have a little taste—see how quickly you can take hold. That should tell us plenty.”

Lance positions himself several feet away and watches me expectantly, his striking violet eyes looking more amused than anything. “Ready when you are.”

Careful and controlled. I’m the best at those virtues out of all of us shadowbloods—at least, among the Firsts.

I inhale slowly and aim my tentacles toward Lance. The hum of energy that emanates from his body gives a different sensation from what I’m used to from plants, animals, or humans. It’s a little airier, wispier, like the haze that spills from their bodies instead of blood.

I have to concentrate harder to latch on to the ephemeral impression. My tentacles sway in the air, my nerves jitter—and there, I’ve got it.

A waft of life force, ten times as giddying as what the plants can offer, sweeps into me. A shiver runs through my body, welcoming it.

Lance shivers too, his jaw flexing. The subtle signal of discomfort chills me.

I let go with a jerk of my tentacles back toward my body as they emerge another tiny bit farther. The extra energy dances through my chest and limbs, but I feel sick at the same time.