Her narrowed eyes didn’t speak of a whole lot of trust about that, but she didn’t argue. “Should we discover this chocolate on Earth?” she asked, reminding me that she’d initially sought me out to try to get me away while Shadow was busy with Igorna. An opportunity I should have snatched up with both hands, but for some reason, I was still hesitating.
“Shadow is going up against a powerful creature,” I murmured, leaning in close. “It was stronger than any of the others we’ve rounded up. Should we check to make sure he’s okay?”
She pursed her lips, ignoring my question. “How did you get covered in blood?”
It just occurred to me that I’d been sitting here with her for twenty minutes, face smeared in blood, and she hadn’t asked until now. “Did you not notice I was bloodied up before now?”
“I noticed,” she replied quickly. “But I figured if you wanted me to know why, you would have brought it up. It’s polite not to ask.”
I gently shoved her. “You’ve clearly spent too much of your life around violence if you don’t blink an eye at someone casually eating lunch covered in blood.”
The emotional demons that plagued Angel flared in her expressive eyes. “Truer words were never spoken. Violence is in my blood, my family’s blood, and my past and future will be painted in shades of red.” She chuckled without humor. “Metaphorically speaking, since I don’t bleed in the same color as a human.”
Well, that was interesting. But there was no chance to ask her what color she did bleed because a roar split the air, with enough force to knock me to the ground. Angel caught me before I faceplanted, and as she hauled me up with the sort of strength I associated with Shadow Beast, we both faced off against whatever was coming our way.
Somehow, I felt a little more confident with my friend at my side.
45
“Stay behind me,” Angel hissed, arching her upper body forward in a pose designed for striking hard and fast. “It’s a shadow hunter.”
I’d never heard of a shadow hunter, but the tense undertones in her voice told me that they were bad news. They were also probably here because of me, and once again, I was proving that my stupid ass was too dangerous to be left alone.
This was really Shadow’s fault, with his insistence I connect to the Shadow Realm.
Yep, I was satisfied with ninety percent of the blame lying with him.
“Behind,” she said again when I started to sidle around her.
“Girl, I don’t roll that way,” I said to her back. “I’ve never relied on anyone to fight my battle before, and I’m not about to start with you. We stand together.”
It was fine to wait for a knight in shining armor to save you—that was many a young shifter’s dream, but not mine. My knight would have no doubt shown up in shit-covered, rusty metal and proceeded to let me down over and over again. Why wait for that? Why have hope when it was always proven to be worthless?
Angel just shook her head but didn’t argue. “Also,” I added, “I know and acknowledge that you’re ten times more badass than me. But I will still always stand with you.”
Before she could reply, more roars ripped the room apart, and my wolf stirred in my chest, trying to surge forward with a howl of her own. I had the sense that drawing attention to us was a bad idea, so I locked her down the best I could.
Two shadow hunters came into sight, shrouded head to toe in black, marching swiftly along the rows. My wolf’s restlessness grew even stronger and I had to wonder why the hell everything in the Shadow Realm made her react so violently. Could it just be about a Shadow Beast connection? Or was it something else?
And would I ever solve these mysteries before one of these creatures took me out?
“Two of them,” Angel hissed, and there was a quiver of light along her skin as her wings burst free, weapons appearing in both hands. They were curved blades, shimmering gold and silver, with wickedly sharp tips on the ends.
“What are they here for?” I whispered. “And how do we take them out?”
She leaned farther forward, those blades swinging around her hands with the sort of skill that I would never possess—if I even remotely attempted that, I’d cut my damn arms off.
Maybe she really didn’t need me at her side.
“I’ve never heard of them being outside the Shadow Realm,” she said, not bothering to hide her annoyance. “They’re used to round up any creatures that escape royal control. Like supernatural bounty hunters. What they’re doing here, I have no idea, but the fact that they’ve arrived while Shadow Beast is busy is bad news.”
On the almost certainty that this was my fault, I had to do everything in my power to ensure that no one got hurt. And I seriously had to figure out how to send them back because it was getting crowded on this side of the door now. Not to mention it was all making sense why that door had been barred in the first place. Shadow creatures were just like the Shadow Beast—dangerous and uncontrollable. One of him in the Solaris System was more than enough.
Another roar shattered the unnatural silence, followed by the sound of scrambling as everyone scattered from the dining room, trying to escape whatever fate these two had in mind.
“What’s under their cloaks?” I murmured. “I didn’t even see their heads move when they screamed.”
Angel shook her head, focus never wavering. “No one knows. They always wear the shrouds, and the screams are debilitating to anything weaker in energy than them. Which is almost everything.”
