Sin & Chocolate (Demigod of San Francisco 1)

“Has she gone?” Sadness crossed his features before they snapped back to stony. His body tensed. “Did she ask you for your help?”

I let my eyebrows crawl up my forehead and lied like a thief. “Nope. No. She didn’t. Because I don’t have any experience in this stuff and couldn’t possibly help. So.” I stood so fast that the blood didn’t have time to get to my head, and I staggered a bit. “Come on, kids. Let’s pack up.”

He stood like a snake uncoiling, smooth and graceful. His hand dipped into his pocket, but before I could tell him not to pay, he nodded and turned. He stalked off through the crowd without a word. His men peeled off after him, a well-oiled machine.

“What the…” Daisy hopped up. “Did he just take off without paying?” She scoffed and stamped her foot. “What a cheap… After you did all that?” She shook her head. “Bitch better give us our money. I’ll knock on his damn door if I have to.”

“Leave it,” I said softly, ignoring the people pushing toward me. Clearly the stranger was an attraction all his own, and now they’d want in on it. No, thank you. “Let him go.”

I rolled up my rug, a very bad feeling lodging in the pit of my stomach.

“Unfortunately,” I muttered, “I have a feeling he’ll be back.”

23

Kieran

Kieran could hardly speak. He’d given powerful Ghost Whisperers ten times as much information as he’d just given Alexis. Uttering one word would’ve been more than he’d just given her. And yet she’d read the situation perfectly.

The others had tried to send his mother beyond the Line. They’d chimed their bells and fanned their candles, but in the end, he’d received only their condolences. They couldn’t force a spirit that did not want to go.

Alexis hadn’t even tried. She’d listened to the problem, directly from the source, and immediately tried to problem-solve. His stomach exploded in fireworks.

“She’s legit,” Zorn said, voicing Kieran’s thought. Zorn caught up to Kieran and kept pace. They walked along the sidewalk to a distant parking lot. People stopped to gawk, recognizing Kieran’s face. “I had my suspicions, but…”

“I’ve had people testing her all night. She has left them in complete awe.” Kieran shook his head and threw out his hand. Fog blasted down from the sky before swirling through the street, creating a thick white wall.

Drivers slammed on their brakes, squealing to a stop. He was already walking, crossing in front of them before waving his hand again and dissipating the weather effect.

“I’m in complete awe.” He stepped up onto the far curb. “Make sure she gets home okay.”

“Donovan is on it.”

“Tear down that fair. Make sure those beasts are placed in the magical reserves, and ensure the slaves have enough resources to start an independent life. Let the mayor know that I can be reasonable with regards to a magical fair, but it must be run correctly. What he allowed is appalling.”

“Of course, sir.” Zorn climbed the stairs of the parking garage behind him. “The standard letter, then?”

“Yes.” Kieran reached his car and paused, his mind and body both buzzing. “She didn’t slice down my chest once tonight.”

“Progress.”

“Was it? Or are there different magics at work?” He pulled his wallet from his pocket so he wouldn’t be sitting on it, then opened the car door. “Bring her in to be tested. I need to see what’s under the hood.”

“And the boy?”

Kieran stopped, having descended halfway into his car. He eyed Zorn in confusion. “What about him?”

“He has incredible potential, and he is one of the two things she cares about most in the world.”

Kieran had been so blinded by her incredible beauty, and the rich feel of her delicious magic, that he hadn’t noticed much else. She was becoming a weakness. A distraction. Something he craved when having spent too long without her quick wit and sparkling eyes.

Something he should cut out of his life immediately so as not to be consumed by her. But he needed her. He needed her magic.

He stilled for a moment, letting the rush of feeling course through him. Heavens, he wanted her. Like he’d never wanted any other woman. She was exciting and mysterious. The things she did for those kids would inspire saints, and she’d stood up to those beast handlers with unbelievable courage. She was strong and fierce, but soft-hearted. Utterly unique. If he wasn’t careful, she would become an obsession.

He gritted his teeth, forcing his thoughts away from her and focusing on the boy. The power within him was raw and mighty, throbbing with the need to break free. He was probably a class four now, but he’d see a huge power boost as he continued to go through puberty. He’d be a class five, easily, like his father before him.

“He should be dead,” Kieran said. “How has she kept him alive?”

“I think that is a mutual achievement. She and the girl ward fight to keep him alive as much as he fights through the pain out of his fear of hurting them, even in death.”

Guilt, sharp and hot, rose through him, riding the coattails of more memories of those sick kids in the hospital in Galway. Of their struggle to keep going, even though their bodies were riddled with cancer. Of the way he’d watched them, day after day, and done nothing. Not until the end, when half of them had been lost.

“Get him tested. See if he can be cured,” Kieran said, getting into his car.

Zorn nodded and turned away.

Kieran shut his door but didn’t turn on the car just yet. Guilt still tore at him.

Because he knew he wasn’t just doing this for the kid’s sake.

If he helped the boy, he’d reel in the woman. When it came to manipulating a situation, Demigods were in a league of their own, and he was better than most.

Of course, Alexis didn’t seem like a woman to let a stranger dictate her future.

A smile, unbidden, curled his lips. He looked forward to the fireworks.

24

Alexis

“Mail,” Daisy called from the front of the house.

I heard paper slap against wood and knew she’d thrown it down on the kitchen table.

I straightened up from the laptop and worked my knuckles into the knots in my back. I’d been bent over the thing all day, researching the situation regarding a selkie unable to obtain his or her skin in death. I hated not knowing things, and a part of me did feel bad for the stranger’s mom. Being stuck in the world of the living had to feel like purgatory. It was a crappy existence.

There wasn’t a whole lot of information, though. Apparently, it was widely known that if the holder of the selkie’s skin had any sort of respect for the selkie at all, he or she would return said skin to the selkie on their deathbed so that he or she might slip into the eternal waters upon their demise. In fact, in many places, it was regulated by law.

That failing, the holder of the skin would burn it so that the selkie could easily find the skin on the other side. That failing—because let’s face it, only an asshole would imprison another creature for their own benefit, and assholes didn’t give two shits about what was moral, in death or otherwise—it was widely believed the selkie could call the skin as a spirit, thus making it disappear.

Well, the stranger’s mom had clearly been calling the skin, and nothing was happening.

So what the fuck?

“Did you—”

I jumped at the sudden sound as Daisy poked her head into my room.

“Wow. Jumpy much?” She grinned. “Did you hear me? Mail.”

“Yes. Thank you for that pressing news. I haven’t been able to sit still out of anticipation. Now I can rest. Finally.”

“Ew.” She turned her eyes to the ceiling and disappeared. “One’s official looking, though.”

“Is it a bill?” I called.

“The house isn’t that big, you guys,” Mordecai said from his bedroom next door. “You don’t have to shout.”

“Go back to your trees, Treebeard,” Daisy shouted. “And I don’t know if it’s a bill. It’s from a magical committee of something-such.”

Frowning, I shut the laptop and pushed up from the bed. I stopped in Mordecai’s room and handed off the computer. “I’m finished.”

He looked up from his book before reaching for it. “Find out anything?”

“Nothing useful.”

“Did you hear from that guy?”

I leaned against his doorframe, thinking back two nights. After the stranger disappeared into the crowd, the kids and I had cleaned up as best we could and lugged all our stuff to the car, continually telling the onlookers that we were closed for business. One of the men who’d been on crowd control stood by the car, strong and stoic, his glare making everyone give the car a wide berth.

He’d gotten there a bit late, though, since a new key scratch adorned the right side. It had a few friends.

“No,” I said, “but it’s only been a couple days.”

“Yesterday was the only day he hasn’t stalked you since you two met,” Mordecai said, his eyes somber. He had not been taking this situation well. I couldn’t tell if it was his shifter traits coming through more strongly now, or just plain ol’ sense. “Something is up.”