Page 265 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

We meet up with the couple dozen other volunteers in the park near the stretch of beach they’re targeting. Poking at trash and shoving it into a bag doesn’t sound like a very thrilling way to spend one’s time, but Drey has his ways of enhancing the experience.

As we walk close together, he tips his head toward a woman who’s maybe in her fifties, her graying hair tinted with streaks of blue.

His voice drops low so only I can hear him.

“She was in a punk band a few decades ago. One time they managed to climb onto the roof of a church and play a whole set leaning against the steeples. Drew a pretty big crowd too, until the police finally showed up.”

A smile springs to my lips. “I’d have loved to see that.”

“It was pretty amazing, at least in her mind.”

Andreas’s gaze slides over the other volunteers and lands on a gangly guy who I don’t think is out of his teens.

“That kid was conscribed to help out as his mandated community service. The most he’ll tell anyone is he was caught carrying out vandalism.

But what that actually means is he graffitied caricatures showing how much of an asshole one of his teachers is all over the side of his school. Hilarious and humiliating.”

I peer at the guy. “Do you think it made any difference at the school?”

Drey raises a shoulder in a partial shrug. “I haven’t caught enough of the right memories to tell, but it definitely generated a lot of buzz with the students. I’d bet it gave at least a few more of them the courage to speak up.”

I jab at a stray chocolate-bar wrapper and shake it into our trash bag. “How do you work all this stuff into your books? Don’t you worry that people will notice you borrowed pieces of their lives?”

“Nah. I change plenty of details.” He taps his chest over his heart. “It’s the feeling of the situation that matters the most. As long as I stay true to that part, the story works.”

“Are you still thinking you might write a details-changed version of our story someday?”

A sly smile curves Drey’s lips. “Who says I haven’t already?”

When I elbow him, he only laughs.

We get back to the apartment to find Jacob prowling through the space, gnawing on one of the protein bars that often replace his meals. Snowball trots behind him, determined as ever to soften up the twin who’s harder around the edges.

Jake glances over at us, his pale blue eyes lingering on my face. “You’re hanging out with everyone except me these days, huh?”

His tone is dry, but I know him well enough to taste the actual insecurity behind it, even if he’s not upset enough for any emotion to blare through our bond. Even after all this time, a little part of him hasn’t totally forgiven himself for how he treated me when we were first reunited.

That knowledge squeezes my heart. I go over to him and slip my arms around his waist while I gaze up at him. “Who says I wasn’t saving the best for last?”

“Hey!” Andreas says in mock protest, but he’s grinning.

A flicker of the heat I love so much in Jacob lights in his gaze. He dips his head to claim a kiss that feels like a question and a demand wrapped together.

When our lips part, I slide my hands down his chest over his shirt. “Are you going out on the hunt tonight?”

“I mean, I could be persuaded to stay in…”

I touch his cheek, the tension I’ve been carrying quivering with a twinge I can’t explain. “No, I want to go out with you too. See how it’s going these days. Bring down a few baddies?”

Jake’s smile softens. “Sounds like a good time.”

It isn’t the first time we’ve gone out together for one of his vigilante shifts, though it’s been a while. I dress all in black, hiding my silvery hair under my sweatshirt’s hoodie, and wave good-bye to the other guys before we head out into the night.

Zian’s outfitted Jacob with a higher-tech set-up since the last time I joined him.

The device in his pocket transmits the police chatter to a wireless earphone.

As we amble through the streets in one of the city’s more questionable neighborhoods, he flips through the few main channels, pausing and cocking his head when he needs to listen more closely.

He keeps one hand clasped around mine and stares daggers at anyone who passes by and glances at me. I restrain myself from rolling my eyes.

Jake knows perfectly well that I could eviscerate anyone who hassled me. I won’t criticize his protective instincts when I know how much love they’re driven by.

We’ve been making the rounds for almost an hour when Jacob’s posture stiffens. His expression hardens with concentration as he listens to the radio. Then he tugs me around a corner.

“There was a drive-by shooting at the other end of the neighborhood. Police are giving chase—the car’s heading this way. If we’re fast, we might be able to intercept them before they hurt anyone else…”

We dash together down one alley and a second, through an intersection and around another corner. The blare of sirens reaches my ears, distant but getting louder.

The culprit appears to be on the verge of getting away. I can’t even see the flashing lights of the police cruisers yet, but a beat-up sports car careens into view. As Jacob motions toward it to indicate it is the one we’re looking for, the driver swerves around a bend up ahead.

Jake curses and doubles back the way we came. I run alongside him, pushing my legs to supernatural speed, my heart thumping hard with the rush of adrenaline.

There’s nothing like the exhilaration of pushing myself to my physical limits—especially when it’s for a good cause.

The roar of an engine tells me the car is about to pass our cross-street faster than we can reach it—if I keep holding myself back so I don’t leave Jacob behind.

With a split-second decision, I hurl myself forward even faster. The wind bites at my eyes, and the buildings blur around me.

I burst into the next intersection just as the car zooms into view. Instinct propels me forward.

I leap cat-like onto the hood. The driver jerks the wheel in surprise, and I sway with the car’s sudden movement like I’m surfing.

My position is precarious, but the gambit worked. The car slows now that the driver can’t see where he’s going.

“Riva!” Jacob hollers with an edge of panic, reaching the street. He whips his arm around, and the spines he can exude spring free from his arm.

The moment I hear them slam into one tire with a squeak of deflating rubber, I hurl myself back to the sidewalk. The car screeches on down the street, but it’s slowing even more now that one of its back wheels is going flat.

Jacob jogs closer with a few sharp gestures of his hand. His telekinetic power dents the doors—and I’m guessing breaks the locking mechanism so the handles won’t work.

The shooter won’t be able to get out and run for it.

A police car speeds into view at the far end of the street. Jacob grabs my arm, and we dash away.

When we stop in an alley several blocks over, I’m panting but smiling. “Not bad for my first night on the job in ages.”

“That was kind of crazy,” Jake grumbles, but then he kisses me so hard electricity crackles through my veins. He murmurs against my lips. “You’re fucking incredible.”

It feels like this should be enough. I know my guys inside and out, and they know me. I can join in their work more often, entwine our lives even more fully, and what more could we need than that?

But back at the apartment, Rollick’s words won’t leave me. They seem to seep even more deeply into my head as I try to sleep.

Hold on to what you have while you have it.

I drag myself out of bed later than usual in a partly zombified state. As I dig into a bowl of cereal, I flop down on the sofa and find myself flipping through the various daytime programming on offer. Snowball tucks herself next to me, but even her emphatic purring doesn’t raise my spirits.

Nothing currently airing catches my interest, but the guys got me a streaming package last Christmas that includes every episode of my favorite soap opera. I click through to that and pick an episode at random.

The familiar theme song sends a bittersweet pang through my chest, but in a matter of minutes, I’m absorbed in the melodramatics. I scoot to the edge of the sofa cushions, watching the characters’ expressions as they launch into their arguments and confessions.

I don’t notice that Andreas has come up by the side of the sofa until he speaks. “What’s everyone all upset about in this episode?”

My lips twitch. “Well, Carmen slept with her sister’s husband, except she didn’t realize it because he was wearing a mask at this exclusive club, but if I remember right it’s going to turn out that it wasn’t him anyway but his best friend, who’s had a thing for her for years but is getting blackmailed by her mother… ”

I trail off at Drey’s chuckle. He holds up his hands. “I didn’t mean to interrupt! They really do know how to weave a complicated storyline. I wouldn’t attempt anything that complex in any of my books.”

My gaze slides back to the TV with a prickle of embarrassment. “I know it’s kind of silly. But when something goes right, however long that’s going to last, it feels pretty amazing.”

“I get that.” He leans over to caress my cheek before going off to his desk for a writing session.

The episode ends with Carmen sneaking into her sister’s house with a knife, which I’m pretty sure is not one of the scenarios that’s going to go right. My finger hovers over the button to go to the next episode, but instead I get up and walk to the mantle over our fireplace.

It’s still hard to believe we have a fireplace. That we have this sanctuary at all, all to ourselves, in the middle of the city where we can each find pursuits we find fulfilling. Like the cabin in the woods I used to dream of, but somehow even better.