Sin & Surrender (Demigods of San Francisco Book 6) Page 8

  “I know. Kieran reminded me this morning.”

  “You have good instincts.” Her gaze was intense. “Use them. Use everything you’ve got. This place takes some getting used to, and Demigod Kieran will have it harder than he realizes in the political arena. He’ll need a win outside of politics. If you shine, it’ll up his status.”

  Kieran had told me the exact opposite, but he was motivated by keeping me safe. I was inclined to believe her.

  “Okay, we need to dominate. No problem.” I rubbed my hands together for a little friction. My stomach rolled and churned with nervousness.

  “We got this, Lexi,” Thane said, stepping up to put a hand on my shoulder. “We pulled a lawless giant off a mountain. We can handle a few measly teams trying to poke us with sticks.”

  “Agreed,” Jerry said, and he would know, given he was the giant. The rest murmured their agreement as well, and I felt the group’s expectations rise. Just like when we’d gone to that mountain, we were championing Kieran.

  “Fine, then. Here we go.” I passed Amber, taking the lead. The monstrous Summit building mostly blocked out the view of the ocean, but I could just see a corner of white, sandy beach and the sparkling azure beyond it. “Where to first? The halls? The grounds?”

  “The grounds,” Bria said, pulling her cart of dead bodies. “Doesn’t matter what Magnus’s doll said. Let’s start small, work out the kinks, and work our way up. The halls are the last place we should go. That’s where the most people die.” The cats bounded out in front of us, each taking a side. Daisy and Mordecai filed in behind me with the rest enclosing them in a protective bubble. They would be my main concern, obviously. I would make it incredibly clear to anyone who attacked us that if they aimed for my kids, they’d walk the line of death.

  “Grounds it is. Let’s get our feet wet.” I paused. “Where are the grounds?”

  “This way.” Donovan pointed, looking down at the map on his phone. “This place is huge.”

  Bria fell back, needing more room for her pallet of dead bodies.

  “Don’t get too far back,” Thane said. “We have a bet going to see how long it’ll take Jerry to blow chunks.”

  “It’s a disgusting type of magic,” Jerry murmured.

  “What are you going to use for ammunition, Jerry?” I asked as Donovan pointed me toward an intersecting path to the left. Another group clad in leather and thick boots walked up ahead, various weapons hanging off them. I made a point of noticing each of their souls. They were too far away for me to sense their magic, something I could do because of my soul connection to Kieran.

  “There are decorative rocks all over the gardens,” Jerry answered. “I’ll roll some along with us when we head inside.”

  I nodded as the group in front of us noticed our presence.

  “The thing about Amber is, she is familiar with a lot of people at this thing,” Donovan muttered, watching them.

  “She doesn’t handle things the way we handle things,” Bria said from the back. “She would confuse the situation with her logic and superior strategy.”

  “I don’t have logic and superior strategy?” Henry asked, and I couldn’t tell whether he was joking.

  “There is nothing superior about you, Henry,” Jerry said, and Donovan spat out laughter.

  “Says the guy used to living with a pile of bones,” Henry replied.

  Once we made it around the building, a lovely garden scape greeted us, not unlike that of the promenade. Weeping trees dusted the ground beside quaint stone benches. Pockets of carefully tended flowers provided pops of color and fragrance. Purple tulips lined the path and tall sunflowers pointed at the sun.

  The team in front of us, twenty strong, drifted to the right, but when we got there, they were gone, having clearly darted into the trees.

  Shivers crawled across my skin. No one lingered on the benches or walked along the path. Everyone was playing an adult game of hide-and-seek. When we least expected it, they would emerge and attack.

  “I changed my mind.” I stopped dead, not able to will myself forward. “I want to take that out Kieran offered me a long time ago. You know the one—where my kids and I could escape the danger of the magical world and live in peace? Do you think that offer is still valid?”

  “Don’t be dramatic.” Daisy patted the dagger at her side.

  “Really? I shouldn’t be dramatic?” I scowled at her. She scowled back, and hers had way more attitude.

  “What’s our strategy?” Donovan asked, putting his phone away. “Split you and Dylan up, or keep you together?”

  “Together,” Dylan said immediately. “Doesn’t matter what Magnus’s team leader told us. We’re stronger together.”

  I nodded, watching the trees shiver in the breeze.

  “We’re all stronger together.” Mordecai shed his clothes and handed them to Bria. She stuffed them in a bag and tossed it onto the pile of dead. Jerry’s face lost a little more color. “We eat together, we hang out together, we laugh together. We are a pack, and as a pack we excel. The total is greater than the sum of its parts.”

  “Frodo is right, though he got that cliché wrong,” Daisy said, and it was a nice little trip down memory lane to hear her throw Lord of the Rings insults at Mordie. “We do everything together, including training. We aren’t organized at all, but that seems to work for us. It always has in the past, anyway.”

  “Agreed,” Jerry said.

  “We stick together.” Zorn adjusted the machete strapped to his back. I wasn’t sure he’d gotten the memo that we weren’t supposed to kill people.

  I stared down the empty path. “Okay.” Chaos stood in the middle of the walkway, stock-still, staring at something to the side. His tail twitched, and then he pounced, two front paws smashing into the bushes. Havoc sat behind him, watching. Nothing scurried away. “Do we take the walkway or go guerilla style through the trees?”

  Silence greeted my answer. No one wanted to weigh in on that one.

  “Fuck ’em. Let them come to us,” I finally said, starting forward. “Let them think they’re being sneaky and hiding. I’ll feel them before they can see me.”

  “Beware the more open areas,” Dylan said. “You don’t have the farthest reach.”

  “I have a much farther reach, and there are plenty of rocks in this lackluster garden. We’re good.” Jerry’s tone held both confidence and disgust, and I remembered his fiancée used to have plant magic. Apparently her gardens had far exceeded this one, which was hard for me to imagine.

  “Speaking of a good reach, do you feel anyone?” I started forward, my heart beating faster than normal, pumping adrenaline through my body. I did better in the thick of things—this slow burn of anticipation was eating me alive.

  “Yes. Many. They are mostly in clusters with ample space between them. The clusters are moving slowly, almost like they are scared to engage.”

  “They probably are. I’m scared to engage,” I mumbled.

  The second Mordecai shifted into his wolf form, the cats turned to stare, their glowing eyes eerie in this beautiful place. He trotted out to meet them, playing sentinel. I let him, since he was well within my range and I’d feel someone before they happened upon him.

  A few minutes trickled by, then several more. Nothing happened as we walked. No one emerged or even moved in our direction. The clusters Jerry could feel continued to slowly move through the trees, avoiding conflict.

  As we approached a bend, though, my senses went on high alert. A group of souls were lying in wait in the trees and bushes ahead of us. They were completely hidden from view, and it would’ve been an excellent surprise attack if I hadn’t felt their souls burning brightly.

  Jerry must’ve sensed them, too, and slid a look my way, probably making sure I had.

  “Up ahead,” I whispered, trying not to move my mouth.

  “What?” Donovan asked, leaning closer. Clearly I needed to work on the subtlety thing.

  The cats slowed and Mordecai j
ogged back to us, his hazel eyes on me.

  “Anyone speak shifter?” I asked, wishing Jack were here.

  “He’s alerting you that someone is in those trees,” Daisy whispered, her voice as strong as iron. If she were in any way nervous, she did not show it.

  “And the cats are alerting the people in those trees that we know about them,” Zorn growled.

  One of the souls shifted, the rustle giving them away. So they were better at hiding than stalking.

  A little closer and I could tell they were mostly weak level fives and high level fours. Which meant they didn’t belong to any high-status Demigods—or if they did, these were considered lackeys.

  “I’ll make us disappear.” Boman pushed up through the group and took Donovan’s position. His Light Bender magic wrapped around us like a curtain, hazing our view. The cats had been left out, still standing and looking at the hiding enemy.

  They could defend themselves.

  “What should we do, just walk along until they jump out?” The Line throbbed just off to my side. I could make them run, easily enough, but I wanted to keep my magic under wraps. People knew, broadly, what I could do, but some of my abilities would come as a surprise. I wanted to preserve that element of surprise for when the more advanced teams came at us.

  “I can break a leg with a rock, if you want,” Jerry whispered.

  “I can break a branch off and take out a mouthful of teeth,” Donovan murmured.

  “I can go stick knives in all of them,” offered Red, who’d remained silent up until now.

  “Red, you go.” I motioned her on. “Boman, cover her until she’s out of sight.”

  In a flash, Red was running to the side, slipping into the trees under Boman’s Light Bender magic. We walked along a little more, and another soul shifted position, edging closer to the path. I heard a scrape of a shoe.

  “They’re useless,” Zorn said. “They shouldn’t be in this place. They’ll be killed in no time.”

  “Or maybe we shouldn’t be in this garden with all the kindergartners,” Daisy said, tapping her fingers against the throwing knives strapped to her left leg.

  “That’s probably more like it.” Donovan cracked his neck, his eyes hard, preparing for battle.

  I felt Red moving around the others, coming at them from behind. In a moment, she burst into their cluster.

  The leaves and bushes shook. Screaming drifted out through the trees. Someone yelled for them to flee. Another asked where the onslaught was coming from. These people clearly had zero experience.

  “Havoc, Chaos, Mordecai, help send them on their way,” I shouted, walking faster now, my blood pumping in my ears like a battle drum. “Remember. No killing.”

  Havoc launched forward, and then the screams increased in pitch. Chaos bounded into the greenery with a deep growl that did not match his cute, fluffy exterior. Mordecai darted in at the side, taking the flank as the cats assaulted our would-be attackers head-on. Red whirled in the middle, barely visible in the thick foliage, looking like a tornado in the trees.

  A man stumbled out of the melee and onto the walkway. The sun sparkled along the glistening blood running down his temple. He staggered and then his legs buckled, dumping him onto the concrete. A woman ran past, bleeding from three different locations. She didn’t so much as look at her fallen teammate. The others scattered deeper into the garden, all different directions, no two people sticking together, until they were out of my range.

  Red strolled out of the trees, wiping her blade on a black rag before tucking the dirty cloth into her belt. She stopped beside the man cowering on the ground. The cats and Mordecai slunk out from the greenery next, surrounding the man.

  Boman pulled our cover away. Zorn shoved me forward so I was in the lead.

  “Pl-please.” The man looked around wildly, his eyes rounded. Havoc stopped near his feet and lowered her head, crimson splattered across her furry, snow-white face. He yanked his feet in tighter to his body. “Please do-don’t hurt me.”

  Zorn shoved me forward again, and I took the hint, walking toward the man, no idea what I was supposed to do when I got there.

  The man caught my movement, contorted so he could look my way, and started to shake. “Pl-please, I’m sor-sorry. Please don’t hurt me.”

  “What in the ever-loving hell…” Jerry’s confused muttering drifted away.

  “He’s begging,” Boman said. “This dude does not belong at this summit.”

  Taking a page out of Mick’s book from the bar back home, I flung my hand like an old man trying to get kids or dogs off his lawn. “Git! Begone! I don’t want to see you here again.”

  “Y-yes, ma’am. Thank you. Th-thank you, ma’am.” The guy struggled to get up and groaned, clutching his side.

  “This is hard to watch,” Thane whispered. “It’s a bit much.”

  Blood gushed from the man’s side and ran over his hip. He doubled over, clearly in pain, and only managed two small steps before the strength went out of him again. He collapsed, whimpering, and curled up in a bleeding ball on the concrete.

  “What’s with the dramatics?” Daisy asked.

  “Are we sure he has a blood oath and can heal?” I asked, worried we may have accidentally killed him.

  Boman grimaced. The others shifted uncertainly.

  I’d be damned if the very first battle ended in a death. “Havoc, Chaos, Mordecai—go round up one of his teammates. He needs to be taken to get medical attention. Zorn, go with them in gas form. If they can’t corral someone, force them back, understood? We’ll stay here and wait. Don’t take long.”

  The cats wasted no time, able to understand me as well as Mordecai could, something I’d learned not to question. They bounded into the trees, Mordecai on their heels, and Zorn poofed into nothing.

  “I mean…or we could just walk on. Nobody would blink about a guy bleeding out,” Bria said, eyeing her hand trailer. “Everyone knows the risks when you bring someone without an oath.”

  “Don’t you dare call dibs on him,” Jerry ground out. Donovan and Boman snickered.

  I rounded on her, incredulous. “Then why the hell are you here?”

  She palmed her chest. “I’m a Necromancer. We play with spirits and cadavers. It’s like I said, we’re usually left alone. Red is probably fucked, though.”

  “I’m good.” Red tucked away her cleaned knife. “This place is less dangerous than anything we’ve done as a group so far.”

  “True,” Bria said as souls entered my radar again. “Though you had a helluva time healing after Lydia’s thing.”

  Largely because she’d fought Thane in his Berserker state.

  “I don’t know how many times I can say sorry for that.” He frowned. “I sent flowers. Chocolates. I gave massages, even. What else can I do?”

  “Shut up about it, maybe,” Red responded. “She wasn’t talking to you.”

  Zorn emerged from the trees, dragging a couple of terrified level fours, a man and a woman, by their upper arms. Mordie and the cats trailed behind him.

  “The Soul Stealer is too sweet by half. She is sparing this waste of flesh.” Zorn pushed the people at the cowering man. The injured man whimpered, his face ashen. “Get this sad sack some help. Looks like he’s about to bleed out.”

  The guy’s teammates stared at him for a moment, wide-eyed. Their gazes found me a moment later.

  “Well?” I motioned at him. “You’d really run off and leave one of your own behind? Help him out, for God’s sake! Hurry up.”

  The woman blinked slowly. She nudged the man beside her. “Thank you,” she murmured, and grabbed the fallen guy roughly.

  The other man bent to help, no gentler.

  “Ow,” the cowering man bleated, then followed it up with a long groan as the second man slung him over his wide shoulder.

  “How deep did you stab that guy, Red?” Bria asked with a crooked grin.

  She stared after them, disappearing into the trees. “I mean…pretty deep,
but it wasn’t worth all that agony. That guy is as green as they come. Or a pet of some sort. He shouldn’t be out here.”

  “He doesn’t have a choice.” Zorn straightened his shirt over his broad chest. “If you are brought as part of a crew, you have no choice but to fight. That’s how it goes. Those who cower in their living quarters will lower the status of their leader and pay the price for doing so. Come on, this garden is ridiculous. Let’s check out the main building.”

  I didn’t budge from my spot. “Upping the challenge is also upping the danger. Let’s meet a couple of other groups first. We can cut through the trees and seek them out to get the show on the road.”

  “You’re just putting off the inevitable, Lexi,” Bria said.

  “I agree,” Boman said, his hands on his hips. “This isn’t the right place for us. Now we know. We need to move up a level and reassess. It’s inevitable we’ll end up there anyway. Let’s not drain our energy first.”

  I gave the trees a longing look and then heaved a sigh, knowing he was right.

  “Fine. But just one step up. I’m not ready to face the halls yet.”

  8

  Kieran

  “As easy as you thought it would be?” Dara grinned at Kieran as they broke for lunch. The meeting hall was decked out in finery, from the plush velvet seats to the glittering chandelier hanging down the middle. But he’d been too busy soaking everything in to notice the details of his surroundings. His empty coffee cup sat at the edge of his desk space beside his open laptop, already running low on battery. Five pages of single-spaced notes, haphazardly organized with slashes and bullet points, filled his screen.

  He pushed the laptop closed and tucked it into his backpack. He’d need to plug it in when they reconvened for another grueling session.

  “Just as, yeah.” Kieran allowed himself a sigh and rolled his shoulders, something he knew he could get away with, given he’d seen Magnus and Zander both do it.

  “You didn’t say too much.” She jerked her head to get him walking.