Page 248 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Twenty-Six

Riva

T he fence with its barbed wire topping doesn’t look as intimidating as I remember. But then, it’s been nearly five years since I was last back here, and I’ve endured a lot in that time.

Andreas picks up a stick from the forest floor behind us and tosses it at the chain-link face. A brief crackle of electricity makes him grimace. “Still electrified.”

The guys around me all look as uncomfortable as I feel. They left this facility not long after I did, under equally traumatic circumstances.

Jacob folds his arms over his chest. “The guardians don’t want anyone stumbling on their secrets even if they’re not using the place anymore.”

Rollick shifts his weight on his feet, his stance all typical smooth confidence but the lines of his own face tauter than usual.

None of his shadowkind allies accompanied us this close to the guardians’ territory.

The silver and iron protections laid down around the facility are wearing even on the demon’s immense power.

“We haven’t seen any sign of mortals coming and going or patrolling around the place,” he says. “It appears to be abandoned. But I can’t say for sure that no one’s been working inside without leaving during the short time we’ve been able to monitor it.”

Griffin tilts toward the fence, his gaze sharpening with intentness. “I can’t sense any emotions from inside. But I don’t think we should go through with the plan without making sure.”

Rollick glances over at us. “This is the place where you were held for most of your lives.”

I nod. “There’s a lot more to the building than you can see. It goes at least a few floors underground.”

The demon’s tone turns dry. “Ideal for keeping shadowbloods contained. Even by other shadowbloods.”

“Yeah.” I hug myself, my nerves creeping just looking through the fence.

I can’t completely suppress the memories, as much as I’d like to.

The small concrete building stands in the middle of the fenced-off clearing, with the solid steel door Griffin and I burst out through when we made our escape attempt all those years ago.

The span of asphalt between the gate and the building holds no cars now, but it did back then.

Back then, when I pulled him into our first kiss under the star-flecked sky. When I watched his body jerk with the impact of a bullet from an unseen sniper.

When I thought I watched him die, bleeding out on the pavement while the guardians swarmed me and dragged me away.

Griffin’s memories will be similar to mine.

The other four guys have two. The version I told them about, and the one they saw on a tablet’s screen, doctored by the guardians to make it look as if I walked away from Griffin’s crumpled body willingly.

As if I’d set him up to die in exchange for my freedom.

The horror rolling through my gut is bad enough. I can’t imagine the clash of emotions that must be gripping them.

On the other side of the building sprawls the field where we had our occasional outdoor training sessions.

After so much time out of the guardians’ clutches, it’s strange remembering how much of a novelty it used to be to breathe this fresh air, to take in forest scents rather than the dull, heavily filtered air of the underground rooms.

Zian flexes his shoulders, looking both determined and uncertain. “We’ve got to go in, right? Make sure it’s empty so we can use it.”

I swallow thickly. “Yeah. Where are the controls for the electricity?”

Jacob makes a dismissive sound. “We don’t need to worry about the controls. All I need is the wire…”

He prowls along the edge of the fence with his gaze fixed on the ground. He must be prodding the earth below with his powers, because as he comes around the left side of the facility, he pauses and smiles. “There it is.”

Jake closes his eyes. His arms twitch with the invisible effort he’s extending.

A faint sputter is the only sign that anything has changed. But when he steps back with an air of satisfaction, the next twig Andreas tosses has no effect at all.

As Jacob stalks back to the gate to coax it open, I study Rollick. “Do you want to stay out here?”

His mouth tightens, but he shakes his head.

“If we’re going to use this place to make this our last stand, I want to know exactly what we’re working with—and be able to make suggestions to craft that plan as carefully as we can.

I think I’ll follow you from the shadows from here on unless I have something to say, though. ”

The gate glides open, and the demon fades into the patches of darkness at its foot. The six of us tramp inside, heading across the asphalt toward the sole part of the building above ground.

I’m doing my best to keep my mind entirely focused on the steel door and concrete wall ahead of me, but my pulse still hitches as we pass the exact spot where Griffin and I stood in our one fleeting minute of freedom.

I can’t hide the agony of that memory from him. He slips his hand around mine with a subtle squeeze that says more than any words could.

The guardians tore us apart, but we found our way back to each other. And now we’re going to make sure that their legacy of pain and destruction ends completely.

Zian scowls at the door. “I could bash it open or cut out the lock.”

Dominic cocks his head. “I think it’s better if we don’t leave too obvious a sign that we were here. They might not have the resources to pay much attention to this place anymore, but better safe than sorry.”

Jacob crouches down by the doorknob. “I think I can disengage this lock too. Let me just get the feel of it…”

There’s a grating sound and a sharp snap , and his mouth twists at a wry angle. “Well, I had to force the issue rather than leaving everything in one piece. But at least no one can see that it’s broken.”

“I’ll keep checking for any sign of emotional responses nearby,” Griffin says. “But there’s definitely no one on the ground level.”

Jacob grasps the knob and pulls the door open. As we step into the white-washed hall on the other side, the sense of history weighs down on me even more suffocatingly.

The lights were off, but they flicker on at our arrival, provoked by the movement. Dominic lets the door thump shut behind him as he brings up the rear.

There’s nothing on the first floor except a storage room on one side and what looks like a breakroom for the guards who’d have once cycled through patrols on the other.

The shelves in the former stand empty other than a few innocuous basics like a box of garbage bags and a few containers of sunscreen.

The breakroom doesn’t look as if anyone’s relaxed there in quite a while. A thick layer of dust coats the plain table and chairs. When we peek inside the cabinets, we find a couple of bags of coffee beans with a best before from years back and assorted sweetener packets.

Zian sucks in a breath. “They really just abandoned the place after they took us out.”

Dominic responds with a terse chuckle. “They must have figured that if we could almost escape, it wasn’t really secure. Better not to risk bringing any other shadowbloods here.”

The guardians wanted to imprison us forever, though. We only need to keep the rampaging shadowbloods contained for a matter of minutes.

My stomach knots tighter with each step we take down the stairs. On the next floor down, we find the door to the control room standing ajar.

The consoles Griffin and I manipulated to open the way for our escape hold just as much dust as the break-room table.

I swipe my finger along the corner of one screen.

“I don’t think anyone’s been in here in a long time.

They figured the fence was enough to make sure they didn’t need to worry about random hikers intruding. ”

Zian looks as if he’s suppressed a shudder. “Does that mean we don’t have to bother going farther down? I hate this place.”

The same resistance twines through my muscles. My nerves clang with alarm at the thought of walking down the hallway of cells where we lived for most of our lives, of stepping into the gymnasium where we spent so many days training.

But we need to do this right.

“Maybe we don’t have to right this moment,” I say. “We will need to see exactly what we’re working with eventually—what they left behind, what they might have dismantled after we were taken away.”

Andreas turns on his heel, scanning the control room with a frown. “It’s a secure building, as buildings go, with only one escape route and at least one big room we could direct the rogue shadowbloods into. But how are we going to convince them to come here—to come inside —in the first place?”

I worry at my lower lip with my teeth. I’ve been pondering that question since I first set us on this course of action. “We need to give them a really good reason to want to come in—and to think that we wouldn’t want them to, so of course it couldn’t be a trap.”

The fact that most of the shadowkind can’t tolerate the protections around the facility—and that those who can would still be severely weakened—is part of the reason I suggested it. Cutler, Nadia, and the others wouldn’t expect us to pick an ambush spot where most of our allies can’t back us up.

Dominic drifts through the room, his tentacles swaying against his back beneath his coat. “What would they want? They’ve already got all the power they need to attack the people they’re looking to hurt. Nothing’s really been able to get in their way for long.”

I think back to our past confrontations with the rampaging shadowbloods. The things they said, the ways they reacted.

The moments when they reacted the most.

“Maybe we need to focus on what they wouldn’t want,” I say slowly. “They hate the idea of us getting in their way, stopping them from getting the revenge they think they deserve. What if they started believing that there was something down here that could stop them?”

Jacob’s eyes light up. “Some kind of weapon designed to be used against shadowbloods. That would make sense. Why wouldn’t the guardians have something like that as a defensive tactic?”

Zian rubs his chin. “But why would the guardians be keeping it here when they’re not even using the building anymore?”

“The other shadowbloods don’t know that,” Griffin puts in quietly. “We were the only ones kept in this facility. They wouldn’t recognize it or have any idea of its significance.”

“Yeah.” I step back into the hall, taking in the dust and the stillness. “We’ll have to clean it up, make it look like it’s been in use.”

A sharper smile curves Jacob’s mouth. “Maybe even call in some guardians for the day of so it’ll look guarded when those lunatics show up.”

Andreas hums to himself. “Do you think the other shadowbloods will definitely fall for the trick? I’m not sure how we’ll pass on the message without them realizing it came from us. And they could just ignore the possibility.”

Griffin cocks his head. “I think there’s a good chance.

They’re driven so much by intense emotion rather than thinking clearly…

It’s made it impossible for me to have any sway over them, but that also means we can use the emotions they’re already feeling to drive them in the direction we want.

If they believe there’s a legitimate threat, and they’re angry about the idea of the guardians attacking them, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s enough. ”

Ignoring the growing queasiness pooling in my gut, I nod. “And if they don’t take the bait, fine. We try something else. We won’t have really lost anything.”

Rollick appears out of the shadows, standing in the doorway.

“My people might not be much use for any actual fighting in here, but they can help pass on the message. I’ll send a few shadowkind who haven’t been present for the previous fights—they can approach the shadowbloods, pretending to be on their side.

Claiming they support the killing of the mortals and want to give a warning about a possible threat. ”

“They’d have to be careful about it,” I say. “The rogues have killed shadowkind before. But I can see that trick working.”

I can see the whole plan coming together in my head while we stand in the building I thought I’d never have to set foot in again. Somehow feeling the path toward our goal solidifying doesn’t reassure me the way I’d like.

My queasiness remains as we walk back outside for a gulp of fresh air and to survey the grounds before we venture deeper inside.

Images flash by with each blink of my eyes: Tegan crumpling in Fang’s jaws, Lindsay’s wrists flayed open by Balthazar’s manacles, George lying dead at the edge of the desert town where Clancy sent us on our last mission.

There are so many shadowbloods dead already. By the time we’re finished here, there might be no one left at all except for us Firsts and the two we still have with us who weren’t affected too badly by Balthazar’s procedures.

As we fan out across the field, Andreas veers after me. He touches my arm with a gentle stroke of his fingers. “You look worried. If you think there’s a problem with the setup, we should deal with it now.”

“It’s not that.” My head droops. “When we found out about the younger shadowbloods, I promised myself—and them—that we’d help them too. Get them away from the guardians. And now…”

We slow as we reach the back fence. Andreas’s voice comes out rough. “And now we’re figuring out the easiest way to kill them.”

I shiver at his words, even though I was the one who set us on this course. “If I could see any other way—if we’d been able to get through to them at all… It isn’t fair . As if the guardians hadn’t fucked us up enough, Balthazar had to go and totally mess with their heads.”

Andreas grimaces. “Maybe I should have taken the chance when we killed him—when we were there with him, I could have erased his existence from everyone’s memories.”

As much as I’d like to erase everything Balthazar ever did, my mind recoils from Drey’s suggestion.

“No. Just wiping out the memories of him wouldn’t have been enough.

The shadowbloods he created and whose powers he beefed up would still have been crazed and angry about everything else.

And then we wouldn’t have remembered what he’d done. ”

“Okay, fair point.”

The memory of our fellow shadowbloods’ rage pricks at me as deeply as the emotions our past here stirs up. Nadia is so angry about so many things…

I pause, a few of my thoughts connecting in a way that takes my breath away. For a few seconds, I don’t dare to speak.

Andreas gives me a curious look. “What?”

I know better than to put too much stock in hope these days. But all the same, a flutter of it passes through my chest, raising my spirits just a little.

I turn to face Drey with a nervous thump of my heart. “What if there’s another way you could use your power to help set things right?”