Page 56 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Three

Andreas

I grip the handle of the door between our motel room and the adjoining one, and catch Dominic’s eyes where he’s sitting cross-legged on the bed. He looks a little bizarre, slouched there in his parka that disguises the bulge of his extra appendages.

He doesn’t like any of us seeing his tentacles more than we have to. As if hiding them will make them less real.

“All good?” I mouth at him.

He nods, our phone pressed to his ear and his other hand resting on the laptop’s keyboard. Then his attention veers back to the computer.

“Okay,” he says to the woman on the other end as he taps a few keys.

The hacker I managed to connect with—by searching the right kinds of online forums for the telltale signals I’ve learned—is theoretically going to walk Dominic through the process of cracking the laptop’s password from a distance.

We decided Dom was the best choice for that job since he’s definitely got the rest of us beat when it comes to staying calm and focused.

I don’t want to see what Jacob or Zian would do to the computer after a few frustrating failures.

Me, I’d probably get distracted wondering about the hacker’s other exploits and wishing I could peek inside her memories from over the phone.

I slip into the other room and shut the door with a click. When I turn around, I find Jacob perched on the edge of one of the double beds.

He hasn’t got anywhere to go, but he’s poised like he’s about to charge into battle. Typical.

The muffled sound of sloshing water filters through the bathroom door. Jake notices my glance.

“Zee wanted to take a bath ,” he mutters with a combination of derision and bafflement that’s almost funny.

My mouth twitches into a smile. “This is the first time he’s really had a chance in ages. Might as well.”

Even when we commandeered the townhouse on the college campus right after our escape, all its tiny bathrooms had were shower stalls.

And I have a hazy recollection from the swimming lessons the guardians insisted on when we were kids: Zian stopping to simply float on the surface of the water in the big glass tank they used.

It might feel pretty incredible having that huge body buoyed up. Taking all the weight off.

Of course, I don’t know how much water he can actually fit in the motel tub around all those muscles of his.

I make a mental note, adding to the long, invisible list I’ve been keeping in my head: We’ll find a place with a proper swimming pool.

Eventually. When the guardians are no longer at our heels.

If that day ever comes.

Jacob jerks his head toward the door to my and Dominic’s room. “You’re sure this computer guru is going to come through?”

I shrug. “She only gets the rest of the money if she does. I didn’t get the impression it’d be that hard for her.”

“How long are we going to be waiting while she holds Dom’s hand?”

I resist the urge to grimace at him. He doesn’t really mean to be insulting, even if he sounds like it.

I know from experience and observation that the vast majority of the bitterness that spills out of Jake is actually directed at himself.

“She said it depends on the exact firmware on the laptop. A simple one could take just a few minutes. A more secure setup, she figured two to three hours. Shouldn’t be more than that.”

Jacob lets out a huff. “Engel would have had plenty of fucking security.”

No doubt. But I’m not sure taking a few hours to unwind is a bad thing—for any of us.

My gaze darts to the door at the other end of the space. The one that leads into Riva’s room.

A soft tingle ripples through the spot at the top of my chest where our interlude in the farmhouse marked me. I can sense her on the other side of the door, still there.

She looked so surprised when Jacob pointed out the room that was hers, without messing with the locks or posting a guard outside. So fucking surprised it kills me.

The ache reverberates through my chest alongside the urge I’ve been fighting ever since that night at the farmhouse. Every particle in my body wants to go to her, to wrap her up in my arms, to tell her I’ve got her, I love her, it’ll all be okay.

But it isn’t okay. She thinks I betrayed her.

Because I did betray her… just not quite as badly as she believes.

Riva doesn’t want me touching her. She barely wants to talk to me.

And maybe she isn’t entirely wrong, because the other image that flashes through my mind when I think of her is from Engel’s cottage.

Jaw stretched open impossibly wide. Every plane of her face gone taut. Her eyes hazed white.

And the little quivers that passed through her body with each pulse of her scream—eager, almost giddy . Like twisting and snapping those bodies while they cried out in agony was a thrill.

I swallow, ignoring the twinge of nausea that ripples through my stomach at the memory. She called on that power to save us—and however she felt about it in the moment, there was no mistaking the horror and revulsion in her expression when we prodded her about it after.

She didn’t ask for her new talent any more than Zian asked for his feral rages or Dominic his growing tentacles.

I have to show her I understand that too.

I turn back to Jacob. “I’m going to take Riva to go pick up supplies at the mall. We need to replace what we lost at the townhouse now that we have a chance.”

Jacob springs to his feet, his gaze immediately twice as intense. “I’ll come with you.”

I hold up my hand, not at all surprised by his declaration. “It’s better if you stay here. Dom’s occupied, and Zian obviously needs a break. Someone needs to be standing guard, right?”

Jacob’s eyes narrow. “The mall is more exposure. If they find you there?—”

I raise my eyebrows. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, four train hops and a drive from the last place the guardians could locate us. And if they find us anyway, Riva can look after herself.”

“But—”

“Jake,” I say, and he stops at the firmness of my tone.

I hesitate, because this isn’t the kind of thing we’ve normally talked about. It isn’t the kind of thing we’ve normally been able to talk about with the guardians watching over us in the facility and charting every weakness.

But I suspect it’d be good if we were all a little more honest about how we feel.

“I screwed up with her,” I say quietly. “In some ways worse than you did. I need to take my chances to make it up to her when I can get them.”

Jacob’s jaw tightens, but he lowers his eyes at the same time, looking vaguely abashed.

“Fine,” he mutters. “Get more phones too. If we’re going to be splitting up sometimes, we need to be able to reach each other.”

I nod. “Totally agreed. Thank you.”

His gaze flicks back to me, his pale blue eyes now stormy. “Just don’t be gone too long.”

I grab some of the money from our stash and knock on the door to Riva’s room. My gut clenches in apprehension about her response before her voice calls out, clear but hesitant. “You can come in.”

She can probably sense that it’s me just like I’m aware of her presence beyond the door. I ease it open to see her setting down the TV remote next to her where she’s poised in the middle of the bed.

I felt her there and she’s been at the forefront of my mind for days, but seeing her directly sends an extra jolt of anguished affection through my heart.

She looks so small and delicate with her hoodie hugged tight around her and her shoulders warily hunched. Her skin shines nearly as pale as the silvery strands of her hair that twine with the darker gray underneath.

She flips her braid over her shoulder and studies me with her bright brown eyes. They gleam with feline alertness even when she’s in fully human form.

Riva isn’t weak or fragile, not really. I’ve seen so many times how much strength her tiny frame contains.

But somehow that knowledge makes it worse. She endured so much from us, took the accusations and the venom—both metaphorical and literal—and even when she finally cracked, her first instinct was to sacrifice herself to save us.

It’s hard to imagine how we let ourselves question her devotion. I have to find a way to show just how devoted to her I can be.

I don’t care how vicious her new abilities are or how well she can control them. It doesn’t matter if she ends up hurting me by accident.

Anything she could deal out would be worth it just to stand by her side like I should have to begin with.

“I’m going to that mall we passed to pick up some changes of clothes for all of us and a few other things,” I say. “Do you want to come along? I figured you might like getting to choose your own outfits this time.”

Riva blinks, and that flash of startled emotion flits across her face again. The last time we bought new clothes, Jacob forced her to stay back in the car under guard.

And I let him get away with it.

She unfolds her limbs with her usual careful grace and pushes herself off the bed. “All right. I would like that.”

We leave through her outer door, Riva stepping close enough to me that I catch a whiff of her sweetly metallic scent. My fingers itch to stroke over her hair or trail along her jaw, but I curl them into my palms.

She’d only flinch away.

She tucks herself into the passenger seat of the sedan we made off with—clunky but functional enough. I let her sit in silence as I start the engine and turn onto the country highway toward the suburban mall about ten minutes down the road, nestled between a couple of minor towns.

There isn’t a whole lot else on the highway other than a diner that looks like it caters mostly to truckers and a building that’s not much more than a shack with granite lawn ornaments poised for sale out front. Just after noon on a weekday, the mall’s parking lot is pretty desolate too.

That suits our preferences just fine.

Riva tugs her hood up over her distinctive hair before we get out of the car. I run my hand over my tight coils and hope that they and my brown skin won’t stand out too much in small-town Manitoba.