Page 63 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

I’ve witnessed the kind of interest these guys get from women before—at the dance club where I had that one drink. It’s not really surprising considering how stunningly handsome they are.

And I don’t even want Jacob, any way at all.

But the second she touches him, a growl catches in my throat and my claws itch to spring from my fingertips.

Last time he got this kind of attention, he didn’t seem to mind. Tonight, he pulls his arm smoothly but firmly away and steps to the side.

His pale blue eyes turn icy cold. “Not interested,” he says in a voice that could slice through glass.

The woman winces, clearly startled by his forceful rejection, and Andreas steps in. He holds up his hands in a placating gesture, keeping his own tone mild. “Sorry. We’re taken.”

They are?

The woman’s gaze darts to me, and my cheeks flare twice as hot as they did just checking Zian out.

Oh. Er.

I kind of want to shout that I’m not taking any of them, let alone all of them, but that would send all hope of keeping a low profile right out the window.

It’s better if the guys stay focused on our current mission anyway, right? No matter what excuses they give to explain it.

I march on to the table we were heading for without commenting on the situation. By the time the guys have followed me a few moments later, I’ve willed my blush to retreat.

“No green dress,” Andreas comments in a low voice for just us to hear.

“There are two more. I think,” I say. “That guy by himself over in the corner and the chubby one with the big crowd around his table.”

Zian nods. “That’s what I’m sensing too. Can you look into their memories, Drey?”

Andreas turns the glass he hasn’t actually drunk from between his hands, considering his potential targets. “I’m a little concerned that they’ll notice if I use my power on them. We don’t want to put them on the defensive right away.”

“It’s not their memories we need anyway,” Jacob puts in. “We want to know their basic supernatural tactics. But once we have one of them ready for interrogation, you might as well take a peek then. It could be useful to know what they’re up to in general.”

I study the two men as subtly as I can manage. “How do we get them ‘ready’? We wouldn’t want to get aggressive up front when we’re not sure what they’re capable of.”

Zian follows my gaze and frowns. “The loner seems like he’d be easier. We’d want to get him outside where no one else is going to interfere, right?”

Jacob hums thoughtfully and brings his drink to his lips, but I can tell he doesn’t actually sip the amber liquid.

“Let’s do a bit of a test run. Zee, you’re the most intimidating out of the four of us.

Take a walk around the tables, going past both of them, and we’ll see if there are any interesting reactions.

Could be the loner is way more dangerous. ”

If Zian minds being put forward as bait, he doesn’t show it. He picks up his own drink and immediately sets off to navigate the room.

He keeps a casual pace and doesn’t linger anywhere for too long, but it’s impossible for him to be completely unnoticeable. He’s got to be the tallest and brawniest guy in the lounge, and gorgeous on top of that.

He brushes past the loner’s table without looking at the guy. The slim man’s gaze only rests on Zian for a moment before it returns to the other patrons. I don’t catch any hint of supernatural talent.

The popular man glances over his shoulder before Zian has even reached him, as if sensing some kind of approaching threat. I think I glimpse a brief yellowish sheen passing over his eyes before he returns his attention to his fan club.

Jacob tenses at the same moment. He saw the reaction too.

As Zian circles back toward us, a woman who’s been giggling with a few friends spins away from her table. The wobble of her legs suggests she’s had a few too many of those martinis.

But I don’t think her stumble is entirely accidental. She falls right into Zian, grabbing the front of his shirt and already aiming a sly smile up at him.

I yank my hands below the level of the table just in time to hide the instinctive spring of my claws before I can will them back into my fingertips. At the same moment, eyelashes fluttering, the woman parts her lips as if to make some coy remark.

But Zian shoves away from her.

His mouth clamps tight as if he’s bitten back a yell. His eyes have gone wild and his muscles rigid, as if she attacked him rather than making a pass—albeit a forceful one.

“No,” he says with a tremor in his voice that he masters a second later. His arms had come up as if to ward her off and now sink to his sides.

“Are you okay?” he adds gruffly, his stance still tensed.

The woman blinks at him, looking totally bewildered, and then sways back to her friends, who are all giving Zian the stink-eye. He hustles back to us with his head low.

My stomach has knotted. I’ve seen women fawn over Zian before, but not quite so aggressively.

It isn’t just me he doesn’t want touching him. The flash of emotion that contorted his face in that first instant—it looked like panic .

I’m obviously not the only one who noticed. Andreas has knit his brow.

“Zee,” he starts when the other guy reaches us.

Zian shakes his head brusquely. “I’m fine. Who are we going for?”

Jacob waits for a beat as if checking to confirm Zian really is fine and then tilts his head toward the loner. “The guy in the corner didn’t show any sign of powers or seem to notice anything unusual about you. I think your first instinct was right—we go for him.”

Well, if we’re all going to pretend nothing weird just happened, it’s easiest to play along.

I raise my eyebrows. “So now we just have to convince the monster-dude to leave the lounge without looking like we’re harassing him. So simple.”

A small smile crosses Andreas’s lips. “Maybe it’s time I took a little risk and peeked inside his head, then.”

His eyes flare briefly with a ruddy light. Then he motions to us. “I’ve got something I can use. Come on.”

Jacob lets Andreas take the lead this once. We weave our way over to the loner’s table as a group.

With all four of us in front of him, the slim man can’t really look anywhere else. He cocks his head. “Can I do something for you?”

“We’ve got a message for you from Frond,” Andreas says.

Whatever he saw in the possible-monster’s head, it delivers. The man twitches straighter, his nonchalance fading away. “About what?”

Andreas jerks his thumb toward the lounge’s back door. “I think it’s better if we discussed it with fewer people around, yeah?”

The man nods slowly, casting another wary glance over us before moving from his table. We all tramp out of the lounge and into the wide, shadowy lane out back.

There, the slim man turns to us and crosses his arms over his chest. “All right, let’s hear it.”

The words have barely left his mouth before he’s slammed back into the opposite wall by an invisible force. Jacob strides forward in the wake of his power and adds his hand to the man’s throat.

Apparently he’s decided there’s no point in even pretending this could be a friendly conversation. To be fair, he might not be wrong about that.

As we all stalk closer, Jacob fixes the monster-man with his icy stare. “We have some questions. It shouldn’t take too long if you answer quickly.”

The man sputters a choked guffaw. “Who do you think you are?” His eyes narrow, and all at once, his face goes sallow. “What the fuck are you?”

“None of your fucking business. Now, we can?—”

Jacob isn’t even finished saying the first part of his threat when the man simply… vanishes.

One second he’s there, shoved up against the wall, and then next, Jacob is lurching forward with his hand smacking into the bricks. He whirls around with an angry grunt.

I spin on my feet, craning my neck to scan the alley, but I can’t see the slightest hint of our target.

“What the hell?” Zian says, his muscles flexing.

Andreas wets his lips, his expression tense. “It looks like the real monsters have more tricks up their sleeves than we realized.”