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All they see are a bunch of unauthorized strangers, poking around where a bunch ofotherstrangers just caused this whole mess.
“We’re just trying to help!” I call out. “There’s a little boy stuck here. He—”
“Back away from any injured parties,” the loudspeaker interrupts. “Walk to clear ground and wait for questioning.”
Shit. My gaze darts to Jacob, whose hands have clenched into fists, but we aren’t here to cause more damage ourselves.
“We have to leave,” I say quietly. “No fighting.”
He exhales in a rush, but his shoulders come down from their tensed position. Zian nods with a grimace.
Rather than walking to the nearest edge of the rubble, we head back to the helicopter. Dominic has already moved that way, and I spot Andreas weaving through the people on the fringes to join us there.
Several of the police officers jog over to intercept us. Rollick shoots me a glance through the helicopter’s windshield that feels like anI told you so.
“Stop right there!” one of them hollers.
A growl comes into Zian’s voice. “We’re leaving like you wanted us to.”
The cop’s attention slides to Dominic, with a twitch of his eyes as he takes in the dangling tentacles. “Bloody hell. Whatareyou?”
The guys hop into the helicopter. I brace myself to spring after them and fix the cop with my firmest gaze. “That doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that the person who destroyed everything here was Otto Balthazar.”
Five
Zian
Riva slumps back in her chair and rubs her forehead. “I hate this map. No, I hateallmaps.”
She’s been sitting at the elegant white desk for the better part of half an hour, moving between a printed atlas Rollick dug up and a tablet. The late-morning sunshine and warmth stream through the row of tall windows that give a view of the atrium garden, but Riva doesn’t look as if she’s been able to appreciate either.
I set down the glass of lemonade I brought her, hesitate, and set my hand carefully on her shoulder. We’ve come a long way from the days when I was afraid of any physical contact with her at all, but I still don’t totally trust my instinctive reactions.
When no jolt of panic shoots through me at the touch, I let myself increase the pressure, rubbing my thumb into the tendons of her shoulder in a slow massage. “You could take a break. You’ve already figured out where some of the kids are at—he hasn’t moved them, right?”
The sigh Riva lets out as she relaxes against my hand sends all kinds of emotions racing through my nerves—a little nervousness, sure, but mostly joy and relief… and enough desire to form an ache in my groin.
I thought it was hard wanting her when I didn’t believe I could have her. Wanting her now that I know that Icanis a challenge on a totally different level.
I don’t think she’s in a mood for me to sweep her out of the chair and charge off to whatever of the guest bedrooms in Rollick’s mansion is closest, even if I was comfortable doing that. So I settle for moving behind her where I can rub both of her shoulders at once.
Riva’s eyes drift shut. “The younger shadowbloods are still where I found them before. I wish they weren’t scattered across different hideouts, but we figured they would be. It’s Balthazar who keeps moving around.”
Rollick materializes out of the shadows next to us, already in one of his casually confident stances as if he’s been standing there all along. “You could leave him be and check back later,” he says. “He’ll have to pause somewhere eventually.”
“He always does,” I agree.
Riva grimaces at us and reaches for the glass of lemonade. “He’s heading back toward that spot where he seems to have set up a fortress in the Carpathians in Romania. We decided if he stops there a third time that we should focus on it for our first strike. If I’m right, I should know in another twenty minutes or so. And I’d rather know as soon as possible. With all the reports coming in… who knows what they’ll destroy next?”
According to the news we’ve seen on TV and the internet, Balthazar’s shadowbloods hit four more cities last night. Major landmarks destroyed, dozens of people dead. My muscles tighten at the memory of the brutal images.
The demon nods. “I think at this point we can assume that mountain base is his main hub of operations, at least for the moment. I’ve gotten a couple more reports back from local scouts of his activities there.”
“I don’t want to assume anything when it comes to Balthazar.” Riva takes a gulp of lemonade and leans back over the tablet. “If you want to go on with planning the attack, I’ve already given my opinion before. And you know what I can do. I’ll join the discussion again when I’ve confirmed his destination.”
My chest tightens with the futile urge to take this weight off her shoulders. She’s the only one who’s gotten close enough to Balthazar that she can do this—and I know she hates it.
Both the fact that she has that kind of tie to him and the constant reaching out toward his presence, becoming more familiar with it every time.
