Sin & Lightning (Demigods of San Francisco Book 5) Read online

  “Daisy, Zorn, Henry, scan for electronic surveillance,” Kieran said.

  The three moved off, Daisy doing a bad job of hiding her delight at being included.

  “That was…” Donovan burst out in laughter. “There are no words.”

  “Lexi, Lexi, Lexi,” Thane said, his eyes sparkling. He shook his head. “Only you.”

  “It isn’t uncommon for the resident Demigod to overtly proposition the staff of a lesser Demigod,” Bria said, laughter riding her words. “Or to assign them menial chores. Shining shoes or doing laundry. The resident Demigod is basically making a statement. They hold the power, they hold the status, and the staff of the visiting Demigod are no better than playthings or hired hands. That’s the message, anyway. Usually the visiting Demigod just handles the taunting in silence.”

  “Usually the visiting Demigod doesn’t bite back and make the resident Demigod look about two inches tall.” Boman laughed. “What happened on the walk in here? Did you do something, Lexi?”

  I paused behind a chair in the middle of the table. “This won’t be poisoned, will it?”

  “This meal? No,” Donovan said, his smile stretching across his face. “The next one? Probably.” He started laughing again.

  “We have a few mediocre surveillance devices,” Henry said, setting his laptop down in the corner. “For now, I’ve simply hacked into their system and disabled their audio. Like most of the older Demigods, she hasn’t gotten with the times technologically. Tomorrow, I’ll have Amber do it remotely. They’ll know we’re messing with their systems, but given we’ll only affect the surveillance spying on us directly, there isn’t much she can say about our interference.”

  “And if she tries, we’ll just have Lexi deal with it,” Bria said, pulling out a chair on the other side of the table. The guys all laughed.

  Kieran pulled out a chair for me and motioned for me to sit down. “She won’t poison our meals because in inviting us here and offering us a place to stay, she is putting us under her protection.” He toggled his hand back and forth. “For the most part. Something ‘beyond her control’ might befall us if we were to leave the compound, but a Demigod in her standing cannot afford to have something happen to us here. She’d look incompetent. It would lower her status.”

  “Well…except you don’t officially have any status, so you’re in a bit of a gray area,” Bria said, looking over the food options.

  “I doubt she’d risk attacking another Demigod, especially one with an actual territory, even if that position hasn’t yet been sanctioned by the Magical Summit.” Kieran shook his head. “Not unless she had help and an elaborate plan.”

  Shivers slid across my skin. Magnus would be plenty helpful, not to mention great at coming up with an elaborate plan. I didn’t voice that thought, though. I knew Kieran had already pondered it.

  “You are safe, but not all of us are safe, especially those without a blood oath.” Bria picked up a cube of cheese and popped it into her mouth. “Most Demigods don’t care about their people as much as you do. The replaceable ones, I mean.”

  “It would be in bad form,” Kieran replied, taking his seat. “Like I said, she will be concerned about her status. It would be easy for me to turn any hiccup here into a reason why she cannot be trusted by other leaders.”

  “You’d need to come out of the Magical Summit with a good status of your own to make that stick,” Zorn said.

  “I will.” Kieran’s confidence left no room for argument.

  I sank into the bright red velvet chair, weariness settling into my bones. Traveling by private jet was a luxury I’d probably never get used to, but it had been a long flight and my body was feeling it. Kieran sat beside me and everyone else filled in around us, all of us in a cluster at the top of the table.

  I told them what had happened with the spirits arrayed in the corridor, my explanation cut short when servants streamed into the room with colorful jackets, white wigs to match their gloves, and important expressions.

  “I don’t know that I’ve seen one woman working here,” I whispered to Kieran as the staff positioned themselves around us.

  “I noticed the same thing,” he replied. “I wonder why.”

  “First the chairs, and now this getup?” Daisy was looking at the servants. “It’s like the leftovers of a circus.”

  Boman started chuckling, hiding his smile behind his hand.

  When we’d been given drinks and our plates were loaded up, Kieran excused the servants.

  “Alexis was tested first thing, and I assume that’s just the beginning. Tomorrow, we will be split up. I’ll talk politics and my plans for San Francisco with Lydia while Alexis gets to wander the grounds with her wards and ‘experience the delights of the palace.’ Lydia’s words, not mine. Given Lydia will be entertaining me, it will be up to her people to test you, Alexis. Go ahead and give as good as you get. Remember what I said about staying on the grounds—Lydia will not allow herself to look incompetent, so no”—he did quotation marks with his fingers—“‘freak accidents’ will happen if you stick close. Bria, guide Alexis in protocol. Let’s not pour salt in any wounds. Okay?” Kieran squeezed my thigh. “I will be shortening our trip by a couple of days. Urgent business will call me away. We got this. On the other side of this meeting, I have every reason to believe we’ll have a Hades Demigod in our court.”

  I smiled with him, willing myself to believe his positive outlook. But all I could think about was that hall filled with hungry, eager spirits, groping for energy. Their mistress had known I could see them, but she’d given them free rein.

  I wasn’t sure Kieran was reading Lydia right. I wondered who else she would allow free rein. What other horrors awaited me in this place?

  26

  Alexis

  The next morning I sat in what I could only call the living room in Kieran’s and my elaborate suite, the place nearly the size of our entire bottom floor in San Francisco. Breakfast had been served in the suite’s dining room, the table large enough to fit six, and I’d been waited on by Lydia’s very colorfully dressed service staff. Daisy didn’t have enough terrible things to say.

  I’d dressed in what Aubri had chosen for the day and tried to do my makeup and hair like she would’ve, but her written instructions were crazy and I’d lost interest halfway through.

  Now it was ten o’clock and I could think of nothing else to keep me in the suite. With me were Jerry, Bria, Red, and the kids, my crew for the day.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” I whined, strapping a knife to my inner thigh so it wouldn’t make a bulge in the side of the loose, flowing dress. I had a pair of kick pants on under the dress in case I had to grapple with someone, and a tiny tank top in case I had to rip the dress off altogether. The shoes were the only problem. The heels were three inches of impractical and the straps would be a time waster to undo. “Kieran is here to talk politics. He’s doing that with Lydia. Fantastic. Why do I have to wander around and pretend to have a good time when we all know that’s not what’s happening? Why can’t I just stay in the room and read until Kieran is done?”

  Bria adjusted the throwing knives hugging her hips. She and Red hadn’t even pretended to hide their dangerousness. Given the state of my makeup and hair, they weren’t pretending to be my fashion consultants, either.

  “This is how things are done,” Bria said. “I wouldn’t even hide in my room. I’d wander around, staring at people and checking out the wealth on display. That’s what’s expected when you’re in a place like this. You’re paying homage to Demigod Lydia. The fact that you’ve been hiding in your room until now sends a clear enough message. We don’t want to push it.”

  “What message is that?” I asked, adjusting my cleavage and the knife tucked within it.

  “You do not give a shit about Lydia’s wealth or her furnishings,” Red said, waiting by the door. “Not like your constant grimace last night didn’t make that message clear. Or the mutterings of your wards.”

&nbs
p; “But, like…it’s gaudy,” Daisy said. “It’s super gross. All this money, and this is what she does with it?”

  Bria lifted her eyebrows and put out her hands. “I know, right? Haven’t I always said that? They’re all like this. They don’t seem to understand that fine things actually come in palatable colors. Valens’s taste was just as bad. Kieran did well, asking my advice.”

  “We need to go,” Jerry said, standing from a dainty wooden chair with gold trim. The contrast between him and his seat was comical.

  “Here.” Red dug something out of her back pocket and handed it to Bria. “Items of interest around the palace. There’s an itinerary, but we’ve already blown that to hell.”

  “Any Demigod’s girlfriend would’ve done the same. That’s nothing.” Bria looked down the list as she walked toward the door. “Okay, here’s something. The skull room. That sounds rad. Let’s check that out.” She turned the paper over, then back again. “Map?”

  “Oh.” Jerry patted his pockets.

  Bria rolled her eyes. “Hunt and walk. We probably have miles of hallways to go.”

  Two people were in the hallway outside of the door, a man with a utility belt and a woman wearing an apron, probably getting ready to straighten the quarters of some of our crew. Everyone besides us and the kids had junior suites down the hall.

  “At least there are finally some female staff members,” I murmured as Jerry directed us. “Last night it was all men.”

  “Yeah. That’s because Lydia is notoriously horny and diddles the help,” Bria replied, not keeping her voice down. “She likes a good selection.”

  I couldn’t tell if she was joking. I decided not to ask.

  We stayed on the second floor and traversed several wide hallways and rooms with gold plating, many of them adorned with those large, hanging chandeliers. I couldn’t tell the various rooms apart by their décor alone. There were probably some subtle differences I should’ve noticed within all the awfulness, but honestly, I was too bored to hunt for the clues.

  Servants tilted their heads with respect or bowed as we approached. Some stepped to the side and clasped their hands, holding the bow until we passed.

  “She has been placed on a very high pedestal,” Red said, her lips barely moving. She analyzed the people we passed. “Something is wrong here. Alexis is being treated like a high-standing Demigod.”

  “Or maybe a high-standing Demigod’s prized possession.” Bria’s words and tone sent shivers racing down my spine. Although Kieran wanted and deserved a high position within the community, he did not yet have one. “Something smells fishy.”

  “Voices down,” Jerry said from behind us, guarding the rear.

  A soul caught my awareness, moving a little faster than we were, coming up from behind.

  “Watch your six,” I whispered.

  A moment later, Jerry said, “Nothing is there.”

  I chanced a look back, greeted by empty air. Until I lowered my eyes. A tiny white mouse ran along the spotless white baseboards, given away by its feet and nose. Well, that and the human soul occupying its body. That mouse looked alive, but there was no mousy soul in there. It must’ve been killed moments before a human soul was shoved into it.

  I wasted no time in yanking the soul out of the body. The mouse dropped and a gaunt woman popped loose, blinking in confusion at the change in perspective. A meager presence drifted away from her soul, as though someone were still trying to hold on. I waved it away, brought forth the Line, and shoved the woman across.

  “Necromancy,” I told the others, starting forward again.

  “Must’ve been a weak soul. I didn’t feel it,” Bria said.

  “The spirits here all look like they’re starved,” I said. “Their bodies look starved, I mean. Spirits can take any form they want, so why would they choose to look gaunt and half-dead?”

  “Maybe Demigod Lydia keeps them in her service even though they’d rather move on, and that’s how they feel about their lot in life at this point?” Bria offered as Red motioned for us to turn right, having overtaken the guide duties from Jerry. With his size, he was better off at our backs.

  “You said the spirits in the hall last night were desperate for energy—do spirits lacking in energy look like that?” Mordecai asked.

  I shook my head. “Usually they just get wispier or disappear altogether. I don’t feel any traps keeping people here, either,” I whispered, taking yet another set of stairs. I hadn’t realized this place had four stories. “Red, you’re on our side, right? You’re not taking us into a dark corner so someone can attack us?”

  “I’m not the one that chose to go to the skull room,” Red replied, not really answering my question.

  “Lydia is a Demigod of Hades,” Bria said as Red slowed, looking at a nondescript closed door. She glanced down the hall, eyeing the next door down, clearly unsure which one led to our destination. “She doesn’t need to trap the spirits. She can hold them, just like you can. I wonder if she didn’t realize you could send spirits across the Line—the spirits she is holding, I mean. That would explain the setup in the hall.”

  “It wouldn’t explain the ghosts,” Red said, trying the nearest handle. It clicked and stopped, locked.

  “I got this.” Daisy stepped forward, digging into a little pouch at her waist.

  “Wait, wait, wait.” I held up my hands. “No. We’re not going to break into the skull room. Or any room. We’re supposed to be sightseeing guests. Let’s not piss anyone off.”

  “You mean, let’s not piss anyone else off, right?” Bria’s lips curved into a sly grin. “Besides the resident Demigod you openly dissed last night?”

  I ignored her as Red tried the next door down, finding it locked as well.

  “Why would they put the room on the map if it isn’t open for business?” Bria asked, clearly disappointed.

  “Why would they have a skull room in the first place?” Mordecai gave her a bewildered look. “Why would anyone want to look at skulls?”

  Bria tsked. “You just don’t get it.”

  “No. I don’t.”

  Uncertainty filtered through the soul link, followed by wariness. Something was bothering Kieran.

  My own uncertainty pooled in my gut. “Let’s head for something we’re supposed to be interested in.”

  “You and I are people of Hades—we’re supposed to be interested in skulls,” Bria said.

  We headed back down to the second floor, to the middle of the house, where a gallery was supposedly to die for. I didn’t miss the pun. As before, staff greeted me like someone of note, stopping and bowing respectfully, some murmuring “ma’am” and some “miss.” An older gentleman in a blindingly colorful jacket told me I was “supremely welcome.”

  “Something is definitely off,” Bria said, pushed in close to me. “They shouldn’t be greeting you like that. They’re treating you like one of Lydia’s top staff.”

  “What’s your theory?” Red asked as Bria tapped the screen of her phone and put it to her ear.

  “I don’t know. Is Lydia going to make a play for Lexi?” Bria replied.

  “No way. She’d have to kill Kieran to do it, any fool can see that,” Jerry said. “She’s probably using the servants to mock Alexis behind Kieran’s back. Their pandering is making Alexis uncomfortable, which in turn makes it clearer that she was not raised like the rest of us. She was raised poor.”

  “Yes, giant, we get it,” Red growled. “You don’t need to rub her nose in her own shit. She knows where she came from.”

  I could feel my expression souring at their conversation.

  “Yeah, hey. How are people greeting Kieran?” Bria asked whoever was on the other line. She listened for a moment, and her lips tightened. “They’re giving Lexi the preferential treatment. Something is amiss.” She listened for a moment longer before nodding and hanging up.

  “What’d he say?” Red asked.

  “What I thought he’d say: Kieran is being treated how he should
. Lydia knows the right etiquette; she’s just not using it with Lexi. The question remains…why?”

  “She’s not making a play for Lexi,” Red said, once again barely moving her mouth. If we hadn’t been standing so close to her, I wouldn’t have even known she was talking. “She can’t be that stupid. If she didn’t know Kieran would defend Lexi with his life before yesterday, she does now. He was very clear in his possessive mannerisms last night. Lydia wouldn’t dare take him out, either. The magical rulers wouldn’t let that slide, because it would open the door for the other Demigods to do something just as crazy to make a play for half a dozen other rare talents around the world that are currently securely locked down. The magical world would be plunged into magical mayhem as fast as you could blink, which would then affect the Chesters. Setting up the rules we currently have in place stopped all that Dark Ages crap. No, Jerry is right. She’s mocking Alexis to make her look stupid. Alexis is gorgeous, but she cannot hide her roots. When she gets flustered with the servants, it reveals her poor bumpkin roots—Cinderella without the elegance. Lydia has all the cameras watching to make sure it’s caught digitally, too. Thank heavens Amber is at the other end of that noise.”

  “Now who’s rubbing her face in shit?” Jerry asked.

  “I really wish you’d both stop,” I grumbled, trying not to sink into myself.

  “What a fart-box-licking piece of crap,” Daisy spat, and I couldn’t do more than stare. She’d managed a really foul cutdown without any technically bad words.

  “Right, fine, whatever,” I said, trying to get this situation back on track. “She’s trying to make me look like I don’t belong. It wouldn’t be the first time. Let’s just look at…whatever is next on the list and hope this day doesn’t drag on forever.”

  “I’ve got bad news,” Jerry said, almost like it was an afterthought.