Sin & Surrender (Demigods of San Francisco Book 6) Read online

  “What’s wrong?” Kieran asked after I answered. He’d felt my turmoil through our soul link.

  The limo rolled down the highway beside the beach where we’d battled his father. We’d gone into that fight not knowing if we’d see another dawn. And yet the prospect of becoming Kieran’s co-ruler frightened me more than facing down the former Demigod of magical San Francisco. Doing so without the lifeline of the guy who was an expert in my magic…

  “We’re not in danger,” I said, swallowing down the lump in my throat. “I was just thinking about the future.”

  “Everything is going to be fine.” His deep voice trickled through my anxiety, soothing me. “Not as many people die at the Summit as everyone seems to think. It’s really just the weak who get picked off. We don’t have any of those. There is nothing to worry about.”

  Another wave of fear washed through me. As a teen who lacked magic, Daisy would surely be targeted as one of the weak ones. It would be clear to everyone that she was an outcast, and more, that she didn’t belong.

  “Maybe we should leave Daisy behind,” I murmured, turning away from her.

  “I’m going,” Daisy said.

  “She doesn’t belong there. She doesn’t have the tools to properly defend herself,” I continued.

  “I’m going,” she repeated. “I have the paperwork and enough money to get myself there if you try to leave me behind. I’m part of this family too. I—”

  “If we leave her behind, she won’t be acknowledged as one of my house,” Kieran said. We pulled up in front of our house, completely renovated since Valens had lived there. “She needs to be officially recognized as a special case and allowed in the magical areas, and for that, she has to show up in person. I know it’s hard to accept, but our hands are tied on this one.”

  We’d had this conversation a few times already. I’d spoken about it with Zorn and Amber too, and with Daisy many, many times. I knew they were all right, but damned if I didn’t want to find a way around it.

  “It’ll be okay,” Kieran said softly as I climbed out of the limo, and I knew he was reacting to my emotions again. “We’ve planned for this. We’re preparing her. Zorn says she is exceptional for her age, magical or not, and passable competition for an adult magical fighting person. She can handle her own already, but she won’t have to, okay? One of my people will be with her at all times.”

  I nodded as Bria pushed open the front door and stood back. The two enormous cats, which had thankfully stopped growing, met me at the door. They were as big as Great Danes, their heads to my waist, and just as sturdy. Also somehow magical. Harding, the (dead) Spirit Walker who was training me, pleaded ignorance as to how they’d gotten some spirit-type powers, but I knew he must’ve done something. These snow-white devils were in no way the offspring of two normal, non-magical cats.

  Chaos, the male cat, with his luminous green eyes, rubbed against my leg in greeting. I staggered to the side. He hadn’t yet figured out his own strength. Havoc, the female, purred softly, sitting in the middle of the entryway so I’d have no choice but to greet her or go around. She slowly blinked her bronze eyes, burning brightly with intelligence.

  No, they were not ordinary cats. Not by a long shot. They’d helped us battle Demigod Lydia, who, last I heard, still had nasty scars from Chaos’s claws.

  “Okay,” I said into the phone as I dropped my hand to rub Havoc’s head. Only then did she move out of the way.

  Kieran stepped into the hallway as I approached the living room overlooking the ocean. I dropped the phone from my ear, my chest tightening. He always did this to me. It didn’t matter if I hadn’t seen him for a day or an hour, when we reconnected, my heart surged.

  He stood framed by the hallway, his shoulders broad and body corded with muscle, cinching down into trim hips. A plain white T-shirt hugged his defined chest and faded blue jeans adorned his powerful legs. Shiny black dress shoes looked out of place, and I knew he must’ve just finished a fitting. His stormy blue eyes regarded me, supportive and understanding, from his incredibly handsome face.

  I focused on his full, shapely lips, and when I neared him, I slipped my phone into my pocket and hooked my arms around his neck.

  “Hi,” I said, my voice breathy, pushing my body against his.

  “Hey.” He brushed my lips with his. “I will protect you and the kids, Alexis. I’ve been planning for it. I won’t let anything happen to you. My job is just that—a job. You are my family. I will always choose you first.”

  I tasted his sweet lips and soaked in his heat. “I just spend a lot of time worrying these days, that’s all.”

  “I know,” he whispered. “We all have our doubts. Sometimes the scariest thing is the unknown.” He kissed me again, languid and sensual, before stepping back and taking my hand. He walked me to the living room. “How’d the fitting go? Did you like what she came up with?”

  I grimaced. “Daisy fired her.”

  A grin pulled at Kieran’s lips. “Oh?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Aubri already called you, didn’t she?”

  His grin turned into a gleaming smile. “She called my assistant, yes. I haven’t returned her call yet, but I got the gist of the problem.”

  I tried to step toward the couch and ran into Chaos, who always seemed to be in the way. He was much slower than his sister, who tended to pick a position that would give her a good view of the entire room. If Chaos was the brawn of the operation, Havoc was clearly the brains.

  “Move.” I shoved him with my knee, and he jumped into the air, not unlike a normal cat. With a mewrr sound, he darted toward the far doorway and into the next room. His tail thwapped a vase on the way. Porcelain clicked on the glass tabletop as it rocked, threatening to fall over. “He’s a menace,” I said, sinking onto the couch. “Two kids, and now two cats? This house is turning into a zoo!”

  “So what happened?” Kieran must’ve had a million things to do, but he sat down beside me, his fingers still entwined with mine. “The dresses were too flashy?”

  I glanced at the doorway, wondering if Daisy would come in to defend her case, but no one had followed us. They were giving us some alone time, something we didn’t get enough of as we prepared for the Summit.

  “If I’m being honest, they looked like a cheaper rendition of something Lydia would wear,” I said. I dropped my head onto his hard shoulder. “They were really nice on their own, and I’d probably look the part, but Daisy thinks I need to look more natural. A less is more kind of situation.” I ran my lip over my teeth. “Like Magnus.”

  Kieran tensed for a moment, his uncertainty filtering through the links we shared. “What about Magnus?”

  I went over what Daisy and the others had said, and outlined Daisy’s plan for me. At the end, Kieran was nodding, his eyes far away. “She’s exactly right about Magnus. That’s an interesting take.”

  “Jerry helped make her case.”

  “Jerry?” Kieran was back to smiling. “Hidden talents, Jerry,” he said softly, mimicking the accusatory tone the guys used when they picked on him.

  Harding popped up outside the window, hovering in midair. My spirit-repellent magic kept him from getting too close to the glass. He could have found a new cat to host his spirit, which was, in a roundabout way, how we’d ended up with Chaos and Havoc, but instead he’d resorted to this kind of behavior.

  “I think Daisy has the right approach,” Kieran said, noticing Harding. “You’re gorgeous in anything you put on, or nothing at all”—he turned his head my way, and desire pooled in my core—“but if I were forced to choose, I’d pick your natural beauty. I’d choose you just how you are, sweet and sensual and fierce and powerful. You don’t need glitter or gold to stand out. You just need to show up.”

  I laid my free hand against his strong jaw and pulled his face closer so I could kiss him again, letting my desire flower and grow. Letting heat sizzle across my skin.

  “We can’t right now,” he said against my lips, his brea
thing uneven. “You need Harding’s training. But the second he leaves…”

  I smiled, stealing another kiss. “I’ll dress down to my birthday suit and climb you like a tree.”

  “Yes, please.” He chuckled. “I love you. Everything is going to be okay next month, you’ll see. We’ll be ready.”

  I stood from him and headed out to Harding, who wore a firm mask of uncharacteristic seriousness. He looked this way more and more when we trained. I had a feeling Kieran wasn’t going to be as ready as he thought.

  I didn’t think any of us were prepared for what was coming.

  2

  Alexis

  Our train of limos wound along the gorgeous coastline of the remote tropical island that housed the Magical Summit. The small landing strip that played host to the various officials’ private jets lay behind us. Each jet was allowed a certain amount of time to land, unload its cargo, and leave again. With no boats in the harbor, we were, in essence, trapped here with the most metaphysically powerful people in the world.

  “No one told me about the island situation,” I murmured, seeing something emerge from the sparkling blue waters. A tentacle? It slapped down, spraying water into the air before the swell of a wave covered it.

  “This location has been used for hundreds of years.” Kieran sipped his whiskey. The kids sat at the other end of the limo, dressed nicely, as befitted people of their status within Kieran’s company. The rest of the team, including the cats, followed in the other limos. It seemed wasteful, but I knew it was the first of many shows of strength. “It is large enough for all the gathered leaders and most if not all of their magical crew, it has access to all the elements, and there’s ample space for any visiting magical beasts to roam, which matters in the offseason when they have the magical beast convention.”

  “There’s also no way in or out.”

  “Thus ensuring our privacy.”

  “Thus ensuring our vulnerability. If this situation goes tits up, we’ve got nowhere to go.”

  Kieran took my hand, entwining our fingers. “Don’t think that hasn’t been brought up multiple times, especially by the non-Demigod leaders. We’re all in the same boat, though. No one can easily come and go. Greed and alliances keep people safe here. Everyone watches everyone else to make sure no one steps over the line. The art is in walking the line, and my father was one of those who did it exceedingly well.”

  I chewed my lip, seeing another tentacle splash down—clearly someone was watching the coastline—and prevented myself from pointing out the obvious: Kieran didn’t have any alliances, and he was short on greed. While everyone had to start somewhere, most people came to the Summit for the first time with tiny territories and budding teams. Not Kieran. He had a prosperous territory that he’d taken by force, a Spirit Walker by his side, and a team with some serious power players. We would stand out, and we had no one to guard our backs.

  “It’ll be okay,” Kieran said softly, and squeezed my hand. The kids looked my way, and I could see the uncertainty on their faces. Zorn and the guys had trained them well—they knew the challenges that lay ahead as well as I did. “I’m sure I can get Dara. A handful of others have been watching me—they want to see if I’m as good as they hear. They’ll see that I am better. By the time we walk out of here, we’ll be in good shape.”

  “Just like you thought Lydia would be an ally?” Daisy murmured.

  “I’m not one to ignore my mistakes,” Kieran replied, a note of gruff disapproval in his voice.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Mordecai said, his body tense and his hands clasped in his lap. “We have all week as the new kids on the block. We’ll take a beating. The other teams will want a go at us.”

  “Today we’ll set up the lodge and take a stroll as a unit.” Kieran checked his watch. “It’s standard protocol. The crew will be with you the whole time. All of them.”

  The crew was what we’d taken to calling the Six (minus Jack, who’d stayed home, like Harding) and Bria, plus the new additions who hung around as family. Jerry and Dylan had become part of our unit, eating with us, helping to cook and clean up, and training the kids. Amber hung around, too, but there was a certain awkwardness to her involvement. She kept silent more often than not. At first we’d tried to weave her in more, but everyone had accepted her as a living ghost around the house, there to help Daisy and soak in the community but not quite comfortable enough to blend in. Unbeknownst to her, she was usually close to Jack, who also hung out on the outskirts of the party.

  “I’ll take the new people you guys don’t know very well,” Kieran went on, stroking my hand with his thumb. It wasn’t just for my benefit—I could feel the turmoil rolling through him like a brewing storm.

  “If you don’t take any of the crew, you’ll look as green as you are,” Daisy said. “The other Demigods might send most of their best people off to challenge the other crews, but you can be sure they keep a few for themselves.”

  “I want to alert people to who I think is most important—not me, but my future wife and her children.”

  “Significant others don’t usually get that sort of high-level treatment.” Daisy crossed her arms over her chest. “They’ll think she’s the most important because you want to protect your assets. You have what everyone else wants, and you’ve affixed your mark to it. Na-na-na-na-na. That sort of thing.”

  Kieran’s eyebrows shot up. “Zorn said you’d soaked up all his and Amber’s teachings like a sponge. He was right.” He sighed. “That is partially true, yes. Only partially because other Demigod’s partners aren’t in danger. They have protection…which Lexi won’t have until the judgment committee approves my mark on her. They could call that meeting tomorrow, or they could wait until the end of the week, I can’t say.

  “In the meantime, I intend to keep the best together to combat the assault that is sure to come. Everyone at this Summit knows my name. What I bring to the table, out of the gate, is unprecedented. I have two rare magics on my crew, neither of them from Poseidon’s lineage, which give us representation from the three most powerful gods. I’ve battled and beaten two established Demigods. My team brought the giant down from the mountain, something many others tried and failed to do, and found a Lightning Rod the world had presumed dead. We travel with two magical cats with strange though extremely potent abilities. Most importantly, I found a Soul Stealer off the street and sizzled my mark across her body. I’ve turned heads without officially establishing myself, and everyone will want to see what my staff can do. Mordecai’s right—they will come at you.”

  “Finally! The truth.” Daisy threw up her hands. “How long have I been asking questions to get you to admit all that, and you’ve been all ‘Oh, I’m Demigod Kieran the Magnificent, everything will be fine, I’ve got everything covered, want to shake hands with my colossal ego?’”

  “Everything will be fine,” he said, a smile wrestling with his lips, “everything is covered, thanks for the new nickname, and don’t bother getting up—my ego can reach you from here.”

  Mordecai huffed out a laugh that melted away quickly as he looked out the window. The landscape was changing, from white, sandy beaches pounded by sparkling surf to rocky ground and a few small, shedlike structures.

  “This isn’t anything like I thought it’d be,” he said.

  “Because they decided to keep the details from Lexi and everyone knows you have a big mouth,” Daisy said with a smirk.

  Fair point.

  We passed the first large building, a structure similar to a warehouse. Soon we were winding through more of them, some alive with activity—suitcases being emptied from other limos and staff rushing into the large front entrances. “At least if the shit hits the fan, we know where to find a few limos,” I said. “How many people can say they’ve been in a limo chase?”

  “I bet Bria has.” Daisy bent over her phone.

  “It’ll be okay, Lexi,” Mordecai said, and I could hear the urgency in his voice. “We always come out ahea
d when we stick together. Always.”

  His eyes implored me to see the truth in that statement. To be at ease so he could be at ease. He didn’t have Daisy’s iron resolve, her instinct for individual survival. He worried more about his family—his pack. He felt everyone’s distress as though it were his own, and he worked to make everyone comfortable. He’d be an excellent leader someday, especially if he followed Kieran’s example.

  “It’ll be fine,” I mumbled to myself as the limo slowed and turned into a small driveway.

  “Yup, I figured.” Daisy lowered her phone as she peered out the window. “She’s been in a limo chase. She said there are different rules for limo chases than regular car chases. It is essential to be drinking champagne through the danger, apparently. Maybe a little cheese and crackers or caviar, depending on who has stocked the refreshment area.”

  “Sure, yeah, only logical,” I mumbled. “We’ll remember that.”

  “We’re in closer than I expected.” Kieran pulled up a map on his phone. “I should have zero status going into this Summit. I have no established political ties. We should have been relegated to the outskirts of the living area, with the smallest, least luxurious accommodations. This is…”

  From the few specifics I’d been told, the living area was a collection of individual buildings (clearly huge warehouses) that surrounded the hub of the Magical Summit in a crescent. The Summit itself was held in a large business park pressed up against a wide beach, with conference rooms, lounges, nooks and crannies for small gatherings, restaurants and eateries, and places for servants to gather supplies.

  The challenges between the teams took place in three areas, ranked from easiest to hardest—the wooded paths outside the Summit, a few inner courtyards designed for public challenges, and a maze of halls for private duels. A team’s success, or lack thereof, reflected on their leader.

  I had two goals in this place—give Kieran a leg up and protect my kids. If I needed to meander through those halls, yanking out some souls, so be it.