Page 25 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

It’s Zian, and yet it’s not—not any version of him I’ve ever seen before.

Coarse, dark fur has sprouted from his peachy golden skin all across his shoulders and down his arms to where his own vicious claws protrude from his fingertips.

His face is partly human but partly beastly, a stunted, wrinkled snout protruding where his nose and mouth used to be, huge fangs protruding over his wolfish jowls.

He slams straight into two attackers one after the other, bashing one’s head around so far the neck snaps, driving his claws into the other’s gut and ripping out a heap of intestines.

I catch a glimpse of Dominic farther away by the other end of the patio, silhouetted against the dim glow of the distant alley light. He’s pulled off his trench coat, and something long and sinewy is lashing out from his upper back toward the incoming attackers.

One of those snake-like tendrils stretches out and yanks a man toward him, close enough for him to wrench off the guy’s helmet and pummel him unconscious.

Andreas appears beside me out of thin air, panting. His voice comes out in a rasp. “Are you okay, Riva?”

Because I’ve been frozen in shock for the last several seconds. I heave myself out of my daze, toward the fray, making my actions an answer to his question.

The guys are fighting off a bunch of the guardians, but even more are converging on us. They knew this was going to be a tough fight.

Even as I throw myself at the nearest figure with my claws extended, I see another beyond her aiming a tranquilizer gun at Jacob.

“Jake!” I shout, tackling my target to the ground. The next second, Andreas is blinking into view behind the shooter and plunging a knife into the side of her neck.

He vanishes again an instant later like he was never there. I don’t know how to wrap my head around that, but there isn’t time to.

More footsteps are thumping toward us. More triggers are clicking with launched darts.

They aren’t going to be happy until they have us caged and ready for their tests and torture all over again.

The fury that sparked when I watched Brooke fall blazes through my body. The pressure of it reverberates through my chest and sears the base of my throat.

Something is swelling inside me, something that wants to burst free through my mouth. Something that wants to rend every asshole around me limb from limb and make them pay .

A chilling certainty grips me: I could demolish them all, wrench them apart until they’re made of nothing but pain—and then death. I could make them all fall.

They’d deserve it.

The vibration heightens to a caustic thrum resonating all through my body, condensing in my lungs. Fuck them. Fuck them all.

My lips part, but in the same instant, my gaze catches on Jacob. A fresh flare of anger rushes through me with the memories of all the shit he’s hurled at me, followed by an icy splash of fear.

The scene from the arena rushes through my mind. All that carnage, all that savage destruction.

Like some creature way more monstrous than Zian looks right now rampaged through. Do I want to find out if I’ll become that brutal beast?

I clamp my jaw shut. I can’t—I don’t know what I’d even do. I don’t know how much I can control it.

There are so many things and so many people that’ve infuriated me in the past several days. So much emotion churning inside me, more than I can grasp hold of.

I don’t know that my frustration wouldn’t get away from me and ruin the people I want to save too.

I suck in a breath, forcing down the rage resonating inside me, and dizziness whirls through my head. I push myself forward regardless.

Slash. Shred. Smash. Stop every one of the pricks who’re gunning for us until there’s no one left—in my usual way.

The safe way that doesn’t make my nerves wobble and my throat ache with a disturbingly potent hunger.

Bodies hurtle through the air. Flesh rips. Bones crack. My guys are a blur of motion around me.

The urge prickles up from my lungs again and again, and I shove it down harder each time.

And then there’s no one left in front of me.

I sway to a stop, my legs trembling, my gut knotted with queasiness and exhaustion. The alley and the patios are painted with blood and draped with bodies.

Far off, a siren is wailing.

“Come on!” Dominic hisses, yanking his trench coat back over his slim form before I get a closer look at the shapes protruding from his back. He pushes Jacob toward the lane, spurring the other guy into motion.

I stagger after them, and Zian catches me up like he did at the facility.

His face has morphed back to normal now other than a hint of fangs curling over his lower lips; the fur has vanished.

As he heaves me over his shoulder, I spot Andreas wavering in and out of sight, each time a few steps closer to the sidewalk.

Without another word to each other, we dive into the SUV. Zian looks at Jacob and then jumps into the driver’s seat. He starts the ignition with a roar of the engine.

We tear off into the cover of the night.