Page 69 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

All at once he jerks back from me, his shoulder slamming against the car door hard enough to dent it. “Dom, you have to help her—you have to—I didn’t mean?—"

The warbled words make no sense until I follow his gaze, looking down at myself. I’m drenched in blood and gore—does he think some of it is mine ?

You’d think he’d be able to tell from my face that I’m not in the middle of death spasms, but he’s gripped by some response beyond logic.

Dominic has reached over from my other side to clasp Zian’s shoulder.

“Hey,” he says in a gentle but nervous tone. “Zee, we got away from the guardians. Riva isn’t hurt. Everything’s all right.”

But Zian’s attention is fixed completely on me. His breath is coming in hoarse pants. He shakes his head frantically.

I’ve only seen him close to this panicked once—almost ten years ago, when the guardians took us out to some lake for swimming practice.

I plunged in right to the silty bottom and glided around seeing how long I could hold my breath, and when I surfaced Zee was crashing through the water shouting my name.

But that time, he calmed down pretty quickly as soon as he saw my apologetic smile. I don’t know what’s wrenching so badly at him now.

With a stutter of my pulse at the memory of his reactions to my touch before, I move my free hand to curl my fingers around his, squeezing tight when he tries to jerk it away.

I’m not letting him this time. I don’t understand his reactions, but my instincts propel me onward.

He needs to know I’m okay.

I hold his gaze and manage a smile. “I’m good, Zee. Nothing’s wrong. Just the blood of our enemies—like it’s meant to be, huh?”

I stroke my thumb over his palm. He blinks at me, his head twitching.

His posture starts to relax. I carefully pull at the wet fabric of my open hoodie and the tank top beneath so he can see there are no tears.

“I’m totally fine. Not hurt at all. Only the ones who deserved it are.”

A long, shaky breath rushes out of Zian. His wolfish features fully contract, leaving him as the gorgeous man he normally is, if slightly sickly looking at the moment.

His fingers twist against mine—and squeeze back, just for a second.

He doesn’t always hate my touch.

“You’re all right?” he croaks, scanning my face.

“Absolutely, one hundred percent all right,” I assure him. “Other than being annoyed that those assholes ruined my new favorite hoodie.”

He lets out a startled guffaw and then pulls his hand from mine. This time I let him go.

His head droops. “I’m sorry. I just—I got so worried?—”

“It’s okay,” Dominic says before I can figure out how to answer. “It could have happened to any of us.”

Zian shoots him a look as if he’s thinking that it really couldn’t, but he sags deeper into his seat rather than arguing. I ease away from him onto the middle seat and tug off my backpack.

At least those made it with us through the fray.

“I am going to need to get changed soon,” I announce to the car at large.

Zian isn’t coated with gore. Benefits of being bigger than most of your opponents so they aren’t bleeding all over you as they die.

The thought of the battle we just fled surges back into my mind, and my stomach lurches.

“Did you see them?” I add. “The teenagers who were there?”

Dominic knits his brow. “Teenagers?” He mustn’t have heard Zian’s comment.

“Around the building. I saw one with the guardians, watching from farther away, and Zian did too.”

As Zian dips his head in acknowledgment, Andreas lets out a rough sound. “I did see a high-school age kid watching from a window on one of the other buildings with a weird expression. I thought he was just watching the fight as a startled bystander…”

“Something tripped me and Jacob,” I say. “And there was the fire that started out of the blue, and the vines that were only an illusion. Things like what we can do.”

Dominic sucks in a sharp breath. “That’s right. You said something about shadowbloods—I was so focused on getting out of there.”

“We all were,” Jacob says. “And it doesn’t matter anyway. We’re heading to Miami now.”

I scowl. “Of course it matters. We can’t just— If they have other kids they’re torturing like they did to us, we have to help them.”

“Why? If you’re right, then those kids just helped attack us.”

“They might not have had a choice,” Zian says, his voice still ragged. “Or they might have thought that we were the real problem. We know what kinds of tactics the guardians use.”

If they could turn the guys I grew up with against me, it would be pretty easy to convince a bunch of strangers who have no idea who we are that we were a greater enemy.

“We don’t have to figure it out yet,” Andreas says. “It’s not like we’re in a position to stage a prison break right now anyway.”

He pauses. “But I agree with Riva. When we do have the chance… we can’t let them keep doing to other people what they did to us.”

I manage a tight smile in gratitude, and then another unnerving thought hits me. “What if that’s how they found us? What if the other shadowbloods can use their talents to track us down?”

An uneasy silence settles over the car. Jacob’s voice breaks it, even grimmer than before.

“Then we’ll just have to keep on moving so they never have the chance to catch up.”