Page 57 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

The guardians always sent us to decently big cities for our missions. I’ve gotten more uneasy glances roaming across the more out-of-the-way parts of the continent in the past couple of weeks than in my whole life beforehand.

Before we reach the mall doors, I pass several bills to Riva. “Grab whatever you want, wherever you want.”

Another flicker of surprise passes through her eyes. “You want me to go off on my own?”

As we push inside, I offer her a crooked smile. “As much as I’d like to offer my services as bodyguard, I know you can kick a hell of a lot more ass than I can.”

We both know that’s not what she meant, but she ducks her head in acknowledgment. As she takes in the sprawl of shops ahead of us, just a hint of a smile touches her lips.

I spot a clock mounted near the entrance and point to it. “We’ll meet back here in an hour?”

“Sounds good.”

Riva sets off at a more energetic pace, making a beeline for a store with sporty tank tops and sweats in the display window. I watch her go for a few seconds before propelling myself in my own direction.

I don’t actually like leaving her to her own devices, but only because I won’t immediately know if she’s under threat.

There isn’t a whole lot I’d be able to do that she couldn’t. What I said to her about our relative self-defense skills was accurate, though.

And there’s no denying how much the freedom meant to her.

I’ve tried apologizing for my epic screw-up with my words, and that hasn’t been enough, understandably. So I’ll just have to prove how much I trust her—how much she matters to me—with how I act as well.

It’s not as if I’ve completely lost track of her anyway.

As I move briskly through the men’s section of the one department store grabbing the shirts and pants I know the other guys will want that aren’t too pricy, as I pick up cheap but sturdy looking backpacks at a luggage shop and four more prepaid phones at an electronics kiosk, I’m constantly aware of Riva’s position relative to me in the building.

But I can’t sense anything other than where she is—no emotions, no other impressions. If she was in distress, I’d have no idea.

I work through my mental shopping list so quickly that I still have plenty of time left when I reach the end. I pause by a store directory and scan the other options.

What else could I offer Riva as a gift of sorts? A token of my affection?

I riffle through my large collection of captured stories—from other people’s memories, from TV shows and movies and books. How do you pamper the woman you love?

I’ve never had the chance to before. I doubt Riva’s ever been pampered enough to have any idea how she’d like it to happen.

Which only makes it more important that someone start doing it now.

She’s already getting whatever clothes she likes. I can’t imagine her wanting any jewelry other than the necklace from Griffin that I’ve never seen her take off except that one night when everything went to hell.

My gaze settles on a bath and body shop. If even Zian can appreciate a nice soak in the tub, why wouldn’t Riva?

It seems like as good a place to start as any.

I pop into the shop, the mingling floral perfumes flooding my nose, and try to pick out something to Riva’s tastes. I don’t think she wants to smell like a rose garden—but then, what do I know?

In the end, I grab a selection of different options and stuff the bag into one of the backpacks so I can keep it sort of a surprise.

When I make it back to the front entrance with ten minutes to spare, Riva is already waiting there. The jeans she’s wearing look the same as before, but they’re tucked into a pair of lace-up leather boots totally ready for ass-kicking.

She waggles one foot at me with a slightly larger smile than I saw before. “I figured I should be prepared for more forest hikes. And snow. If we keep ahead of the guardians for much longer, we’ll be dealing with winter weather too.”

“Very wise,” I say casually, like my heart hasn’t skipped a beat taking in the rest of her. She’s swapped her old navy hoodie for a deep maroon one that brings out the gold tones in her vibrant eyes.

A couple of plastic shopping bags dangle from her arms, so obviously she hasn’t held back. Good.

A little of her previous uncertainty returns as we head across the parking lot. “Do you need the cash I didn’t use back?”

I shake my head immediately. “We should all have at least a little money on us in case we get separated. Oh, and I got a phone for you. We’ll have to program in each other’s numbers once we’re back at the motel.”

She takes the package from me and holds it tightly for a second before slipping it into her bag. “We’re really getting our act together this time.”

“It should have been like this from the start.” I open the trunk and toss my bags inside, then glance back toward the mall. “We should probably do a little grocery shopping too. Non-perishables. The money’ll go a lot farther that way than with restaurants.”

“Good point.” Riva rubs her hands together as if she’s already envisioning the meals to come.

The supermarket attached to the mall contrasts starkly with the rest of the space, a chill in the air and the overhead lights twice as harsh. I can’t help noticing one of the clerks drifting along behind me while supposedly checking that the shelves are properly organized.

Does he think I’m going to rob the soup and sauces aisle?

I fill the basket I picked up hastily, including a box of cookies and a tray of tarts in recollection of Dominic’s sweet tooth. I rejoin Riva in the fruits and vegetables section, where she’s contemplating bags of lemons.

“Looking for something to stuff down Jacob’s throat?” I ask wryly.

The corner of Riva’s mouth quirks upward, and she shakes her head. “I was thinking that I kind of liked that drink I got… with Brooke… at the club. It was kind of citrusy and sour. But I’d rather have it without the alcohol.”

Brooke—who lived in the townhouse next to the one we were squatting in on campus. Who died when the guardians ambushed us there.

I wince inwardly at the memory and motion to the lemons. “You should get them, then. Experiment. Why not?”

“Yeah. There’s no one to tell us what to do now. Why not.”

I wouldn’t call her peppy, but by the time we return to the car for a second time, her stance has definitely gotten looser. So when we reach the motel and I’m sorting out her bags from mine, I only feel a little awkward getting out the bath and body stuff.

“I bought something else for you,” I say, handing it over. “In case you want to just chill out for a bit while we can. There’s regular salts and a bunch of different scented stuff…”

Riva peeks inside with a trace of confusion and lifts out one bottle full of pearly blue liquid. “Bubble bath?”

I grin and spread my hands. “Maybe you want to relive the childhood we never got.”

When she gives me a pensive look, I let my hands fall back to my sides. “You’ve been through a lot, in general and recently… and a lot of it is because of us. You deserve a chance to relax.”

I can’t read her expression, but at least she doesn’t appear to be pissed off. She glances into the bag again and cocks her head.

“Maybe I will.”

She goes in through her door and I knock on Jacob and Zian’s, not wanting to disturb Dominic if he’s still deep in hacker-consultation mode.

Jake flings the door open as if he thinks I’ve come to warn him of the impending apocalypse. Zee only pauses briefly where he’s pacing the room, his hair still damp from his own earlier bath.

“No emergency.” I hold up the bags. “I’ve got clothes, phones, and food—and packs to stash them in so we can keep everything with us wherever we go.”

Naturally, Jacob grabs the bags from me and immediately starts sorting the clothes into their respective backpacks, deciding without asking what belongs to who. But he knows us—it’s not like I can say he’s wrong.

“Is Dominic still on the call?” I ask Zian.

The big guy nods and resumes his pacing. He’s only crossed the floor a few times before he pauses to contemplate the grocery bags. “What did you get to eat?”

I suppress a laugh. “Mostly stuff we don’t have to worry about going bad anytime soon, like protein bars and dried fruit. But for tonight I did find some premade subs. Yours is meatball.”

Despite his obvious tension, his eyes light up. I pick up that bag and stick the subs in the fridge before he gets any ideas about having that dinner just a couple of hours after the drive-through lunch we gulped down on the way here.

At his frown, I toss him an apple. “You do need a few nutrients other than protein.”

He glowers at my teasing tone but takes a bite as he goes back to his pacing.

Jacob carries one fresh change of clothes into the bathroom and takes the world’s fastest shower, probably worried we’ll somehow descend into catastrophe if he leaves us alone for more than a few minutes. The hiss of the running water tugs my thoughts back to Riva in the other room.

Is she soaking in her bathtub right now? My mind conjures the image of her small but soft curves, the pert nipples I stroked my fingers over, the slim hips that rose to meet me…

Heat floods my body. Now I need a shower—a cold one.

Maybe one day she’ll trust me enough to invite me into a bath with her.

That idea sets my mind down on another dangerous path. I borrow Jacob’s tactic and start pacing to distract myself.

Jake stalks out of the bathroom with a flick of his gaze toward the door to Riva’s room. I can tell from the momentary tensing of his expression that he wants to go check on her and is holding himself back.

He looks at me next, and the heat that filled me earlier fades away under his scrutiny.

I’m not totally sure if Zee and Dom realize just how close Riva and I got the other night, but Jacob has definitely guessed. Knowing that sends a weird pang of guilt through me.

As far as I know, I’m the only one of us who’s experienced sex once, let alone twice. Even if the first time wasn’t by choice, some part of me enjoyed it by the end.

It’s pretty hard for a teenage boy to convince his body not to react to certain kinds of stimulation.

I sure as hell hope the other guys don’t envy me that first time. The suffocating agony of fighting against your physical reactions with all your willpower and still losing… I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

They might envy me about Riva, though.

She turned to me out of the four of us because I was the one who was there for her. But the allegiance I offered her was partly under false pretenses.

I’m not sure I really deserved to get to know her that way first. She admitted she had feelings for all of us.

There’s nothing I can do about it now, though.

I hold up another apple. “Hungry?”

Jacob is just tossing the gnawed core into the trash bin when Dominic shoves open the adjoining door, the laptop clutched in his hands. We all freeze.

“I’m in,” he says breathlessly, his hazel eyes unusually wild. “And I found something—we had no idea?—“

Riva nudges open the door opposite, obviously having heard him. She’s rebraided her hair, but a few strands stick damply to the sides of her pretty face, and I can’t repress a shiver of satisfaction that she used my gift.

“What?” she demands. “What have you got?”

Dominic motions us over and sits on the end of one of the beds where we can easily gather around him. The open folds of his parka pool around him.

He points to a file open on the screen. A tremor runs through his hand.

“There could be others,” he says. “Other shadowbloods like us.”