Sin & Lightning (Demigods of San Francisco Book 5) Page 6

  As soon as Zorn darted forward, Kieran tore away the fog, revealing himself to the giant across the way, standing at the mouth of another tunnel. Aside from the rocks strewn across the ground, boulders of various sizes lined the three shelves built into the sloped walls of the tunnel, funneling down to the path.

  “You have granted your own demise,” the giant said, and the rocks rose from the ground. The ones stacked above the path pushed off their perches and sped down the sloped stone, curving in their trajectory toward him.

  Fire building within him, Kieran stalked forward and shoved with air, ripping the rocks back up the sides of the crevasse. He shoved again, the strain incredible, now fighting against this level five with a great mastery over his art. He thrust his hands into the sky, directing the air. The rocks cracked and splintered as they slid against each other. And then they soared up over the side of the mountain and away, falling down the steep slopes.

  The ground shook beneath Kieran, and the giant’s face, strangely blotchy—was it tear-streaked?—reddened with effort. He was trying to pull up more rocks, or maybe alter the landscape.

  He would have time for neither.

  Kieran was on him in a heartbeat, lifting him up by his neck and forcing him backward into his lair. He slammed the taller man against a polished rock wall and leaned in.

  “Where is she?” he demanded, voice laced with venom, feeling Zorn work deeper into the mountain. The giant’s eyes widened, but he didn’t answer. Kieran squeezed harder, digging his thumbs into the giant’s neck. “Where is she?”

  “You are here for her,” the giant wheezed out.

  “Of course I am here for her, you sack of shit. If you have harmed her, I will tear you apart so slowly that you will feel each piece of flesh I take from your miserable, worthless hide.”

  “You are the mark holder.”

  Kieran flung the giant around, bashing him against an adjacent wall before grabbing him again with two hands, silently threatening to do it again. “Tell me where she is. Now!”

  If the giant felt fear, he didn’t show it. Instead, respect lit his eyes. “You put that mark on her for love.”

  “A thousand times over. Where is Alexis? This is the last time I will ask.”

  “She and her companions are in my caverns, turned around. I did not have the energy to get them. Your man is showing them out now.”

  “Boman,” Kieran barked.

  Boman took off at a run, tracking the other members of the Six through the blood link they shared through Kieran.

  In no time, Kieran learned why Alexis had been so worried.

  “We’re okay!” Alexis said, running out of a room at the back. “Kieran, we’re okay. Don’t hurt him. We just got lost, that’s all. Let him go. He didn’t try to hurt us. Okay, I mean, he did, but that was before we came to an understanding. And also before Thane went Berserk.”

  Kieran felt the breath whoosh out of him.

  “Zorn,” he said. Zorn took Kieran’s place, pressing a knife against the giant’s jugular.

  Kieran wrapped Alexis in his arms, squeezing her tightly. “Are you hurt?”

  “No. I’m fine, honestly, Kieran. Thane got a bit beat up, and none of the cadavers made it, but we’re all good.”

  “Thank heavens.” Kieran buried his face into Alexis’s neck, rocking her back and forth. “You idiot. What were you thinking? You should be dead. He kills everyone that crosses his stoop.”

  “Did you really forgo binding her with a blood oath?” the giant asked, his tone indicating he was unworried about Zorn. “Or was she lying to me?”

  He ignored the giant for a moment longer, allowing his eyes to roam Alexis’s face and then settle on her lush lips. He shook his head again, the fear and worry for her slow to unravel while in this place.

  “How can I protect you if you do things like this?” he asked quietly, thinking about the option to meet Demigod Lydia. He could not have Lexi taking a different path than his plans, not with her. A Demigod was dangerous enough for Alexis, but a Hades Demigod was worse still. Kieran would have a hard time protecting Alexis if things went pear-shaped and he didn’t have complete control. There was plenty of wiggle room in the rules for Demigod Lydia if she decided to double-cross Kieran to get to Lexi.

  A thread of fear wormed through him, and he pushed the thought away. Now wasn’t the time. He’d contemplate the risk to Alexis with the possible reward of a Hades ally against a strangely idle Magnus soon enough. First he needed to deal with this giant.

  “How can you expect me to stand by and do nothing? Most of the danger you’re in is because you’re with me,” she replied, resting her hands on his chest, her eyes wide open all the way down to the soul that was connected to his own. “I love you, Kieran. I’ll fight to keep us in our bodies and on this earth together.”

  He ran his thumb across her chin and snuck a quick kiss. “I love you too. I’ll show you tonight.” He winked, and then let his feelings seep away so he could deal with the giant. They needed to get out of here before they lost the light. Even twilight would be treacherous on that mountain path. If he couldn’t enlist the giant or part ways with him amicably, things were about to get bloody.

  7

  Alexis

  I watched as Kieran’s face closed down into a hard mask. Time for business.

  He turned and motioned Zorn out of the way, pausing for a moment to take stock of Jerry. “Alexis never thinks to lie,” he said. “Anything she told you would be the truth as she knows it. I’m Demigod Kieran, the unofficial leader of magical San Francisco.”

  Which meant he led San Francisco by the will of the people but didn’t have the ability to vote on issues at the Magical Summit until he presented himself there officially.

  He stuck out a hand for Jerry.

  Jerry didn’t break eye contact with Kieran. After a tense beat, he took his hand. “You know me as Titus. But…” His gaze flicked my way. “My…fiancée introduced me by my given name. Jerry.”

  “Damn right it’s Jerry,” Donovan murmured from his spot near the wall.

  Thane, standing beside Donovan, said, “Jerry is right.”

  Zorn gave them a hard look, probably to shut them up.

  “They’re a little punch-drunk,” I explained.

  “Jerry, then.” Kieran looked around the space, his eyes lingering on the other spirits. They narrowed on Harding, who was still observing everything unobtrusively. It occurred to me that he probably could’ve helped us out of the caves and clearly hadn’t bothered. He was capricious like that.

  “What do you want, Demigod Drusus?” Jerry asked.

  My mouth bent into an upside-down smile. I’d never heard anyone use Kieran’s last name after his Demigod title, and I wasn’t sure if it was a slight or a form of respect.

  Kieran half turned to me. “How much does he know so far?”

  “I’d rather hear it from you,” Jerry said before I could answer. “I want to see how well your dad has trained you.”

  “Very well, I assure you.” Kieran’s gaze snagged on the single chair. “Do you have somewhere we can talk?”

  “Yes. Follow me.” Jerry pushed past Kieran without reservation. We walked through a room I hadn’t been in before, the others following behind, including the spirits. A kitchen table sat off to the side with two chairs, one of them broken. A horrible smell beyond the kitchen caught my attention, and I glanced into a connected room and saw the pile of bones John had discovered.

  “Had a nice wander around, huh, John?” I asked over my shoulder. “Checked out all the sights while we were having a standoff with a powerful, not-super-tall giant?”

  “I wanted to make sure he didn’t have friends,” John replied.

  “I would’ve felt any of his friends, John, you know that.”

  “Fine. I was curious.”

  “Finally. Honesty,” I muttered as we passed through the other end of the kitchen and entered a hall similar to the one on the other side, only this one was
higher and broader. Rooms branched off to the right, then left, but Jerry didn’t turn into any of them. We kept climbing ever higher and deeper into the mountain, until Jerry rounded a bend, took a turn, and led us out onto something sort of like a balcony—a little cutout with a rock wall blocking a dizzying fall. Two chairs were stationed in front of it, looking over the vast blue of Montana. I’d never been this high up before. It felt like the top of the world. I wondered if we could see the whole state. I also wondered if I could get an oxygen mask because of how thin the air was.

  “Please.” Jerry gestured at the chair before moving to stand near the rock equivalent of a railing, crossing his arms.

  Kieran motioned for me to sit down, taking a standing position at the other side of the rock railing. Bria took the other open seat without apology and everyone else fanned out, some on the patio, some tucked back into the cave.

  Silence stretched as Kieran and Jerry both stared out at the view. I had a feeling it was guy code of some sort so I just waited them out.

  “She was talking to a spirit back there, wasn’t she?” Jerry finally said, still looking out at the plateau that didn’t seem real.

  “Yes. They are around all the time,” Kieran answered.

  Jerry shivered. “Can you see them also?”

  “Yes. She initiated a soul link, allowing us to share a small portion of our magic with each other. The first morning with this new…insight was…disconcerting. The power that came with it, however, is fantastic. Very effective.”

  Jerry’s arms tightened over his chest. “You essentially stumbled upon a Soul Stealer, is that correct?”

  “Yes. The shock was great, I assure you. When I first met her—”

  “Stalked, met—similar, I guess,” Bria said.

  “—she had no idea who I was. She was utterly clueless about the magical hierarchy. She is as green as they get.”

  Jerry turned to me. “You weren’t lying. You weren’t brought up in the magical world?”

  Bria huffed out a laugh. “How dense are you? Even a reclusive nutcase who eats his kills can see that.”

  Jerry’s eyebrows lowered.

  “Yeah, Jerry,” Donovan said from within the mountain.

  “Duh, Jerry,” Thane said.

  “What the fuck is your problem?” Zorn asked them in a forceful hush, out of sight.

  “She battled my father only months after learning the true nature of her magic,” Kieran said, his gaze shifting to me. “Her first proper introduction to the magical world was on the news. I put her in incredible danger. You wonder why I’m here? For help. She will never be safe. Not as long as she lives. Someone will always be trying to take her, to use her. You should’ve seen the look on my father’s face when he realized what she was. He’d always told me it would be a foolish mistake to mark any woman in my life. He was so adamant that he never told me how to do it. But the second he saw the woman I had marked, his tune changed completely. He hoped I’d done it to claim her. They’ll all think like that. They’ll use it as an excuse to try to rip her from me, and they’ll try to kill me to make it easier. I’m doing everything in my power to give us some protection. Any protection.”

  Jerry grinned without humor. His bald head shone in the dying sun. “You are good, Demigod Drusus.”

  “That was the truth.”

  “Oh, I know it. And you knew exactly which truth to share with me.”

  Kieran let a moment pass, looking out at the incredible view. “Yes, I did.”

  “What makes you think you’re different from all the other Demigods?” Jerry asked, thick arms still crossed over his chest.

  “I grew up with impeccable training—training that’ll make me the best. It was hard-won. As my father prepared me for a magical life, my mother was suffering and fading away. Because of what he was doing to her. I didn’t battle my father for his territory, and if Alexis and her kids hadn’t made me want more from life, I wouldn’t have taken it—”

  Jerry’s gaze snapped to me. “You have kids?”

  “Wards, really,” I said. “They aren’t biologically mine. My mother saved them off the streets, and I took up the baton after she passed. One of my wards is non-magical, and the other was a shifter with Moonmoth disease, where the human side tries to fight the magical blood. Kieran saved Mordecai before he had any claim on me. He bought us food, too, and he and his guys even showed up to cook it. You asked what makes Kieran different? It’s that he is genuine when it counts. The first day he met me, when he thought I might have been hired to spy on him, he still went out of his way to buy a blanket for my very sick ward. He left it at the door without so much as a note. Kieran looks after his guys like they are family. He takes it in stride when Bria”—she raised her hand, eyes still closed—“talks back and drags me into terrible schemes, because she’s family, too. He hasn’t forgotten the lessons he learned from his mother.”

  “I probably would have,” Kieran murmured. “With enough time, I probably would’ve turned to the only thing I knew—my training. My father’s training. But Alexis keeps me level. She and her wards keep all of us sane. What makes me different? She does. She makes me a better man, and that makes me a better leader.”

  “Kumbaya, my lord,” Bria sang softly. “Kumbaya…”

  “Get the woman a lighter, Jerry,” Donovan called out.

  “Where’s the campfire, eh, Jerry?” Thane said.

  “This is unraveling fast.” I rubbed my eyes, swore, then remembered I hadn’t put on makeup that day. I rubbed them a little more. “We need to head down the mountain before dark. I am not staying in that cave with the poop and the bones.”

  “I don’t eat the trespassers,” Jerry said. “That’s a rumor. Those bones are from mountain goats and deer. I have a car around the other side of the mountain. I’ve always wondered who would be smart enough to grab me when I go down for supplies—vegetables and fruit. The people in the village at the base of the mountain are good people, though. They clearly haven’t told anyone about my habits.”

  Silence again fell over everyone as the sun kissed the horizon, Jerry looking out over the valley, Kieran letting him mull things over.

  The wait didn’t do kind things to the two punch-drunk members of the Six.

  “Join our party already, Jerry,” Donovan called out.

  “Sorry about throwing rocks at your head, Jerry, okay?” Thane said.

  “I don’t think Kieran realizes how different he is from other Demigods,” Bria said, pushing up to standing and taking a place at the stone rail. “I’ve worked for a few of them here and there, and seen even more in action. He’s the only one I like. Literally the only one. Regardless, hurry up and make a decision so we can get out of here. Your life right now sucks, bud. I don’t want to spend any more time in it.”

  Laughter shook Jerry’s shoulders, but it was short-lived. “If Miss…”

  “Just call her Alexis,” Bria said. “Formality makes my ass clench.”

  “If Alexis hadn’t spoken to Caily, we’d all be dead,” Jerry said. “I would’ve brought the mountain down on top of you, and she would’ve killed me in the process. I would be with my sweet rose right now. But I cannot ignore Caily’s wish for me to do more with my life. I will join you. I will take the oath. Most importantly, I will help protect Alexis so that Demigod Drusus never has to endure what I have.”

  “Thank fuck.” I heard a slow clap and some shuffling within the stone hallway. “Let’s get out of here,” Donovan said. “This place is doing my head in.”

  Jerry didn’t want to bring anything, maybe because all of his belongings had gone to seed, or maybe because they reminded him of the empty years he’d spent seeking revenge. Either way, he left everything behind. As we made our way out a side exit, a large cave used as a garage that was blocked off with a stone slab only the giant could move, Harding fell in beside me.

  “I am thoroughly impressed,” he said as the giant hopped into an old Subaru, the seat pushed back so far tha
t no one would be able to fit in the rear.

  “About which part?”

  “All of it. Everything. The way you all worked together, your collective courage in the face of danger, your ability to get the guy no one else was able to get—you pulled it off. I’m impressed. I’ve said it before, but this has cemented it in my mind—you and your Demigod are something special. Add in your team, and you’ve got something magical.”

  “Thanks.” We made our way down the road, no one riding with Jerry, who lead the way slowly, lifting the rocks out of the way. I suspected that was Kieran’s way of extending trust. If Jerry wanted to take off, he could. But if he chose to follow us back to our lodgings, his decision would be set in cement.

  At this point, after everything we’d been through, I couldn’t find the energy to care.

  “I will tell you a secret, but you can’t tell anyone it came from me,” Harding said, putting out his hand to slow me. Zorn, at the back of the group, gave me a hard stare, but let me fall behind him. “There is a recluse I know of with fantastic power. Most of the living world thinks he is dead. Like your new giant, this recluse is hiding in a mountain, but the mountain is not his protection. His ability to disappear and don a non-magical identity has kept him safe.”

  “What is his magic? Espionage?”

  “That’s not an actual magic. Have you ever heard the term”—Harding paused for dramatic effect—“Lightning Rod?”

  “No. I mean, I know what a lightning rod is, but not the magical kind.”

  His expectant expression fell. “No? You’ve never heard the term Lightning Rod? Really? Crack a book.” He sighed. “It’s like how they call you a Soul Stealer instead of your actual magical name. This magical worker is of Zeus’s line. He’s a level-five Thunderstroke. He entered into a blood oath with a Demigod of Zeus, Gianna. Rumor has it that he was then forced to be her sex pet, sometimes chained to the bed for days on end. She died of poisoning, and the world believes that he died right beside her. Though a few people prospered because of her death, your father included, it was never discovered who actually killed her. It couldn’t have been the Thunderstroke because of the blood oath. Regardless, he is not dead. He is not in the beyond. I wonder if he would be amenable to entering magical society again. Chester life can be so dull. It would do anyone’s head in. But he’d need magical protection. His power is nearly as rare as yours, though far less elusive and terrifying. All of Zeus’s line will want to have it, just like Hades’s heirs want you. Wouldn’t it be a grand joke if one of Poseidon’s line had the monopoly on rare, cool magic? That watery bastard doesn’t deserve it, but you’re shacked up with one of his kind, so here we are.”