Page 72 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Thirteen

Dominic

Z ian runs his hands over the granite countertops and shakes his head, still not over his amazement. “This has got to be the nicest place I’ve ever stayed in, and it’s a fucking car. ”

“Recreational vehicle!” Andreas calls cheerily from the driver’s area up front. He’s enjoying our new ride too.

I take in the RV from where I’m sitting on the convertible sofa that served as one of our beds last night. It is hard to believe that what looks like a luxury apartment is on wheels, although the faint rumble of the engine and the occasional sway as Andreas eases us through a turn give it away.

This sofa and the one across from me boast soft, dove-gray leather. The cabinets in the kitchen and overhead gleam with dark wood, and the kitchen area comes with a full-sized fridge and microwave along with a stove top and small oven.

Between the king-sized bed in the official bedroom at the back, the bunks across from the bathroom, the pull-out sofa, and the loft over the driver’s seat, we even all get our own beds.

The only possible comfort we could complain about missing is a bathtub, although we do have two separate bathrooms complete with glass shower stalls to make up for it—the one in the main space and the bedroom’s ensuite.

And somehow the mysterious Rollick produced this amazing home-slash-vehicle for our use in a couple of hours.

I shift in my seat, my extra appendages flexing uneasily against my back. “Are we sure it was a good idea to take a gift this nice from a guy who openly admitted he’s a demon?” Whatever exactly that word means in real-world rather than movie terms.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a ‘gift,’” Jacob says from where he’s poised in the seat next to Andreas’s, watching the Miami suburb pass by beyond the windshield. “He made it clear that if he doesn’t see us every day, he’ll have it confiscated.”

“Still, it’s awfully generous.”

Rollick didn’t just hand over the extravagant vehicle but a credit card to keep it gassed and us fed as well. Which I appreciate, because it meant that we could keep cruising around the outskirts of Miami all night, taking shifts while the rest slept, but it is a lot.

“I wonder how all this works,” Zian murmurs as he crouches down on the floor by the oven. I can tell from the tightening of his face that he’s using his X-ray vision to study the inner mechanisms, but he hasn’t completely zoned out of our conversation. “Rollick was pretty curious about us.”

“Or nervous,” Riva puts in as she emerges from the main bedroom, which we all agreed should be hers.

Out of all of us, she needs her privacy—and her distance from the rest of us—the most.

Her pale skin has a rosy glow from the shower she just took. She’s already wound her hair back into her usual braid, and she’s wearing a typical tank-and-cargos combo.

But I can’t stop the brief flash of memory that sends me back to seeing her wrapped in nothing but a towel a few nights ago.

At the twitch of my dick, I yank both my thoughts and my gaze away. With the way she flinched away from me after I healed her, she couldn’t have made it clearer that she doesn’t want me that way.

And why would she? Who the hell would want to make out—or anything more—with a guy who’s got two gruesome tentacles sprouting from his back?

Tentacles I admitted to her I’ve stolen lives with… and enjoyed it.

Jacob hums in response to Riva’s suggestion. “He definitely wants to know more about what we can do with our powers. Or to make sure we aren’t going to use them destroying his city.”

Andreas chuckles. “If he was that worried, I don’t think he’d have let us leave at all.”

Riva’s mouth twists at an uncomfortable angle. “I’m not sure he wanted to find out what might happen if he tried to stop us.”

She leans against the wall next to the bathroom, her eyes downcast. A different memory rises up: of her yesterday evening, setting her mouth in a flat line while Rollick cajoled her into demonstrating her most potent power.

He brought in a little rat-like creature from someplace, a beast the size of his hand with a strange mohawk of fur down the middle of its back and eyes that shone eerie green.

Just give it a little jolt. Shadowkind are awfully resilient. You’re not likely to kill it unless you really try, and it’ll heal quickly enough.

I suspect the only reason she forced herself to go along with the request was her hope that Rollick would know how she could keep a tighter grip on that particular talent. Finally, she fixed her gaze on the creature, her body tensing, and seemed to work up to the brief shriek she pushed out.

It wasn’t much more than a squeak, but the rat-thing squealed as one of its legs dislocated from its hip.

That’s not the problem , she told Rollick after, when he commented that she’d restrained herself just fine. The problem is when I’m upset. It gets so much harder to rein the… the hunger in.

But Rollick hadn’t looked as if her clarification was a deal-breaker. He gave us all a homework assignment for today that we’re off to complete now before checking in with him later on.

Now we know that our talents—and Riva’s in particular— can work on monsters as well as regular men, though.

What would it feel like to drag the life energy out of one of those unnerving creatures? Out of a demon like Rollick, who made the air quiver around him with all the power he contains?

I suppress a shudder and yank my attention back to the present. “We don’t know much about the shadowkind. What they want. How they think. The guardians obviously have mixed up priorities, but that doesn’t mean they’re totally wrong to see what they call monsters as… well, monsters.”

“And that’s why we’re going in with eyes wide open and ears pricked for any sign of trouble,” Andreas says, and pauses.

“We definitely should stay cautious around Rollick, generous or not. I managed to sneak a few peeks inside his memories, and… he’s bashed some creatures up pretty badly at least once himself, for reasons I couldn’t tell. ”

An uneasy shiver travels through my gut. “Then he doesn’t have too many qualms about resorting to violence to get his way.”

“We don’t trust him,” Jacob agrees. “But I’ll point out that for all we know, the things in that memory deserved it.”

“True.” Andreas hauls on the wheel. “Here, this looks like a good spot.”

We’ve ended up in an industrial zone on the edges of the city along the coast. Drey pulls into a vast shipping yard where a few pieces of steel machinery stand derelict.

The concrete storage building attached to this yard appears to be vacant. A grimy FOR LEASE sign hangs crookedly in one dim window.

The back of another long, low building stretches along the far side of the shipping yard, and a line of tall metal fencing creates a barrier to our left. A few narrower buildings stand across the street, with little visible activity, though I see a truck rumble toward them as Andreas parks.

Nice and secluded. No one nearby enough to see us flex our talents.

Andreas has brought the RV all the way over to the unused building, as far from any potential passersby as possible. We step out one by one into the warm fall air.

It only takes a matter of seconds for humidity to start building beneath my trench coat, even though Andreas picked up one about as light as they get. But I’m not risking flashing my monstrous extras around in plain view, no matter how isolated this spot is.

Jacob draws himself into a commanding stance. “All right. Everyone ready for this assignment?”

I think his gaze lingers a little longer on Riva than the rest of us. If she notices, she pretends not to.

Zian rubs the knuckles of one hand with the other. “We’re just trying to bring out a little of our power and use it without going overboard, right?”

Andreas nods. “Yeah. Get a feel for it, seeing how gradually you can extend it bit by bit. It makes sense. If we get more comfortable with our abilities, they shouldn’t get quite so overwhelming even when we’re under attack.”

He smiles easily at all of us, but I know he’s worried about his own talents and how they affect him. I saw him struggle to make his body completely solid again after he blinked in and out of visibility too many times in a row not that long ago.

How can I resent the things growing out of my back when Drey has to face the possibility of literally disappearing ?

Zian glances toward the RV. “I guess I’d better stay totally out of view if I’m going at all wolf-man.”

He’s trying to sound blasé about it, but his muscles tense as he strides around the vehicle so he’s sheltered between it and the vacant building.

Jacob swipes his hands against each other. “We should spread out some so we’re not feeling observed and self-conscious.”

I don’t know how self-conscious he ever feels about his powers, but I can appreciate what he’s saying for Zian’s benefit. “Good idea.”

He strides off to the left toward one of the looming machines, which maybe he’s planning on manipulating with his telekinetic powers. I’m not sure if he’s planning on bringing out his poison spines today too.

“I’d better pick a spot pretty far out of the way too if I’m going to be dipping in and out of visibility,” Andreas says with a crooked smile, and heads to the right where there’s a shadowed alcove in the side of the building.

Riva lets out a huff, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “I guess I need to look for something alive. Do bugs feel pain?”

A little shiver passes through her body, and she catches my eye just for a second. “I don’t really want to torment even them.”

I offer what I hope is a reassuring smile. “I guess it’s worth it in the long run if it makes sure you don’t torment anyone you really don’t want to hurt later?”

“Yeah.” She bites her lip and then wanders off across the grit-strewn yard, scanning the ground.

I have a similar task ahead of me. I need to see if I can just kind-of kill something… get the high of stealing its energy without sucking it dry.