by K. F. Breene
Sin & Spirit
Demigods of San Francisco series
K.F. Breene
Thank you to all the readers that have made this series such a success. I’m so glad you like this misfit family as much as I do.
Copyright © 2019 by K.F. Breene
All rights reserved. The people, places and situations contained in this ebook are figments of the author’s insane imagination and in no way reflect real or true events.
Contents
1. Alexis
2. Alexis
3. Kieran
4. Alexis
5. Alexis
6. Kieran
7. Alexis
8. Alexis
9. Alexis
10. Alexis
11. Magnus
12. Alexis
13. Alexis
14. Kieran
15. Alexis
16. Alexis
17. Alexis
18. Kieran
19. Alexis
20. Kieran
21. Alexis
22. Alexis
23. Daisy
24. Alexis
25. Alexis
26. Kieran
27. Alexis
28. Daisy
29. Bria
30. Alexis
31. Alexis
32. Kieran
33. Alexis
34. Magnus
Sin & Lightning (book 5)
Try Born in Fire
Also by K.F. Breene
About the Author
1
Alexis
I woke up gasping for air.
The dreams had started after Valens’s death.
The details varied from dream to dream, but a few particulars remained the same. Each time, my soul was torn out of my body, dragged across the Line, and made to walk beside a shadowy creature into the bowels of the spirit world. Into a weightless place without substance, where time didn’t exist, my body wasn’t welcome, and my mind felt like it was swimming.
Even though I wasn’t corporeal in the dreams, it always felt like I was holding hands with my companion. Their touch lent me a comfort I couldn’t describe. It hinted at an intimacy I didn’t share with anyone, save Kieran. That strange, unwanted sense of connection was what made me fight to the surface of wakefulness, trying to get back to the guy who held my heart. The guy whose soul I was connected to in an unbreakable bond.
I would somersault, end over end, until I slammed back into my body.
When it first started, I used to wake Kieran with my thrashing. Sometimes I’d need to hold him afterward. To reassure myself that he was real, not the shadow being.
Although I was afraid to even think it, much less tell anyone, half of me wondered if they weren’t dreams at all. They felt strangely like the few times I’d been helped within the spirit world, tearing down Valens or learning about securing a soul in its spirit box. Similar…but not the same. The differences were enough to make me question if my subconscious was creating the dreams in remembrance.
Kieran didn’t budge this time, though, and I didn’t want to wake him. I trudged down to the kitchen puffy-eyed and half-asleep, trying to shake myself out of it.
As the cold tiles shocked into my bare feet, I registered Zorn’s soul in the house, intense and bright. He was nearly at the doorway leading to the formal dining room and the sitting room beyond it.
I frowned in the dim moonlight filtering in from the windows. What was Zorn doing back here? He’d left after dinner.
I nearly stopped to wait for him, feeling him moving in my direction. But I continued on to the refrigerator instead, desperately needing something to quench my cotton mouth. I had no idea why he’d returned, and frankly, I didn’t really care. My house had become the hub of the Six and Bria, Kieran’s close-knit staff. The family atmosphere appealed to them, and I enjoyed having them around. Not in the middle of the night, per se, but whatever. Zorn was strange. You had to take the good with the bad.
I grabbed hold of the fridge handle as Daisy’s soul caught my awareness. It wasn’t where it belonged—in her bedroom upstairs. Instead, she was skulking quickly through the sitting room, maybe sneaking up on Zorn, or possibly laying some sort of trap for Mordecai to unknowingly stumble into tomorrow morning. She’d really taken to Zorn’s training, and she, unfortunately, practiced her budding craft on us. A bucket of water splashing down over me as I left my bedroom was not awesome. A knife flung at my head from some sort of spring as I flicked on the coffee pot was downright terrible. I’d had to threaten her life to get her to stop. Since I was her kind-of parent who owned the roof over her head, she had to listen to me. But poor Mordecai hadn’t been so lucky. At least his shifter magic allowed him to one-up her in their combat training. That helped even the score.
Bright light from the fridge made me squint as I grabbed out a bottle of water. A flash of movement caught my eye. A tiny scuff announced Zorn rolling across the open area and ducking behind the island. Fridge door still open, I turned to see what he was doing when he popped up. His right hand was pulled back, ready to throw.
A knife!
Before I could shout no, a blur of movement came from the side. A projectile sped at Zorn as he was letting go of the knife. A book followed almost immediately, but the trajectory was different—it cut at a diagonal, through the empty air between Zorn and me.
I jolted, ready to duck, when the book knocked the knife out of the air!
“Holy—” My eyes widened in surprise at the excellent throw—and the fact that Zorn had hurled a knife at me—as Daisy exploded into the kitchen, dressed in black and holding a long dagger.
Zorn pushed toward Daisy, black paint on his face. Apparently he had a stash of daggers on him, because he already had another one in hand. Whatever Daisy had thrown hadn’t stuck in his body anywhere. She was clearly trying to remedy that as she moved forward with her dagger and struck. But it was a shallow, weak attempt. He blocked easily and quickly countered.
“Okay, come on, you guys. I’m tired. Can’t you do this somewhere else?” I whined, shutting the fridge door.
But Daisy was already slashing at him with her other hand, having pulled a knife from the heavens knew where. She’d set him up.
He smacked his forearm against hers at the last moment to block the thrust. She slid her arm off, knife pointed down, slicing his skin.
Zorn didn’t even suck in a pained or startled breath.
I leaned heavily against the island, tired, annoyed, and, honestly, a little fascinated. I never got to see them train anymore. These days I was always busy at the cursed government building, trying to find my place in this new life with Kieran. I wanted to contribute in some way, and the only alternative was wasting my days away as a socialite. No thanks. I didn’t really even know what that was.
Zorn stepped diagonally to the side, and a drop of liquid caught the moonlight as it fell to the ground. He healed faster than normal, thanks to his blood bond with Kieran, but it wasn’t immediate. He’d better clean the floor when they were done. He jabbed his blade at Daisy’s side.
She twisted away at the last moment, the strike too close for comfort. For my comfort, anyway. While he might heal quickly, Daisy was human. She possessed no such ability. Summoned by my anxiety, the Line pulsed in the room, a slash of black within a nest of bruise-like colors, the entranceway to the spirit world. Spirit blanketed the walls, covered the floor. It spread across the windows and wove into the ghost-repellent magic encasing the house. Power filled my body, ready for use.
I held it at bay, not wanting to interfere. Zorn knew what he was doing. He wouldn’t hurt her more than she could
tolerate.
Daisy brought her arms around, knocking Zorn’s hands away. Her blade passed across Zorn’s wrist. He gritted his teeth and spun, lashing out in retaliation.
She was already moving, crouching and bending, as graceful as a dancer. Her small stature didn’t hinder her from holding her own with six-foot-tall, well-built Zorn. If anything, it made her quicker. Harder to pin down.
I wondered why he didn’t just tackle her and be done with it. Mordecai certainly would have. Though Mordecai had been stabbed too many times to count. Thank heavens powerful shifters healed at lightning-fast rates.
Zorn swiped her right hand, opening up a line of red. Daisy did suck in a pained breath. Then the hilt of a throwing knife blossomed in Zorn’s side.
“Oh shi—” I backed away from the island. If knives were flying, I didn’t want to accidentally get a ricochet in the face.
Zorn’s arms moved faster. So much so that his limbs seemed to almost liquify. Two steps and he was next to her, his blade cutting the air millimeters from her arm. Next he slashed inches from her chest. She barely moved out of the way, playing defense now. Another slash and Zorn finally managed to nick her upper arm, angling the knife so it didn’t plunge down deep.
More power trickled into me. I gritted my teeth, fighting the desire to come to her aid and end this fight the easy way. My way.
She didn’t stop, merely changed stance. Someone flung another knife, but I didn’t see where it landed.
My attention was on a moving object behind them. Getting to a better vantage point, I could see Frank sprinting across the lawn in what I could only assume was terror.
What could make a ghost run like that?
“Wait. You guys. Stop.” I hastened toward the window, nearly getting a blade between the ribs for my efforts. I had a blood bond with Kieran, too, and healed just as quickly as Zorn, but I wasn’t nearly so stoic about pain. “Stop!”
With my magic I punched their spirit boxes, the hard crust surrounding their most precious possessions: their souls.
Zorn danced back a few steps, wiping at his chest, but Daisy didn’t let it slow her down an iota. She surged after Zorn and stabbed down with her blade, getting him in the shoulder. She could’ve had his heart, but he wouldn’t have come back from that one.
“I said wait!” I slashed through her middle this time. She grunted and bent, staggering to the side. Guilt squeezed me, but I ignored it. She might not be blood-related, but she was still my kid. I hated hurting her. “Your fault,” I mumbled. I also didn’t like taking blame.
I jumped over a tight-lipped Zorn, ran around the table, and made it to the window just as Frank disappeared into the trees lining the cliff at the end of the street. Spirit lit up the world. Power pulsed around me, through me. I turned my head to see what Frank had been running from.
A creature stood on my grass, roughly a human form. Blacker than midnight, it looked like a person-shaped hole punched through the fabric of the world. It stood ten feet tall, with shoulders wider than a shovel was long. Its robust chest cinched down into too-thin hips before exploding out into two enormous thighs. The thing was absurdly disproportionate.
Positioned in front of the house, it tilted its blank face up to look at the second-story windows. It started forward, stepping like it was walking on the grass, but its form hovered a foot off the ground.
I back-pedaled, my eyes feeling as big as saucers, my heart choking me.
“What’s happening?” Daisy asked, already by my side with her knives.
The creature reached the window, and Zorn stepped in front of me, cutting off my view.
“Damn it, Zorn—” I shoved him out of the way as the creature reached out a hand. My breath stuck in my throat.
Its hand curled into a fist, gripping the web of repellent magic coating the house, then tore it away with one quick yank. “Oh crap.” The words sounded more like a wheeze. My heart felt like it was punching holes through my ribcage.
Frozen in terror and indecision, I just stood there, struck dumb.
“What’s happening?” Daisy asked again, shaking me, trying to get me to snap out of it.
I needed to snap out of it.
The creature bent, then stared through the bared window, its curtains hanging to the sides. As the resident Demigod’s main squeeze, I’d never had a problem with Peeping Toms. Kieran was not brutal like Valens, but he also wasn’t entirely rational where my safety was concerned. If I was threatened, he got crazy in a hurry. People were smart enough to realize this.
This was not a person. And if it was, it clearly wasn’t a person under Kieran’s influence.
Shivers washed down my skin as the creature stared directly at me. It didn’t have a face, so I couldn’t see any eyes, but I knew I was its focus. I actually felt it studying me, peering down into my body and analyzing my soul. I stood, frozen, teeth clamped shut with an aching jaw, entirely vulnerable.
Snap out of it!
I reached for power, yanking it from the Line. Wind from the spirit world blew my hair back as I shoved my hands forward. My magic slammed into the creature, hard and rough. I kept pushing, shoving it toward the spirit world whence I knew it came.
The creature jolted backward. Its shock vibrated through me. Its delighted surprise. It seemed…proud, somehow.
That jolt was all I got. The creature bent over and buried its fists in my grass, resisting my magical thrust.
More shivers arrested me. I didn’t know how I could decipher its feelings, and I certainly didn’t understand why it would delight in my attack. But I did know this thing was powerful as all hell to withstand me.
A rumble shook the foundation of the house. The sea crashed against the cliffs beneath us.
Kieran was awake, and the Demigod knew his territory had been breached.
I entwined my magic with air, a gift from the soul link with Kieran, and whipped the creature. I dug into its chest, grasping for a soul and not finding one. I used spirit and air to tear at the shadowy form. To rip at it. To punch a hole through it.
It shook its head, fighting my efforts. It had more power than I did, even in this strange, non-human form. Or maybe because of the non-human form?
Kieran stalked into the kitchen like a commander joining the front line, muscles rippling along his bare torso. His fuzzy slippers did not take away from his ferocity. How could they, with his infallible confidence and the malice burning brightly in his hard eyes? Power built around him, the ocean now roaring not far from the house. Storm clouds gathered overhead, laden with heavy rain, and swirling fog engulfed the street. His power rolled across the grass where the creature knelt. The windows shook in their frames and the ground continued to tremor.
I sensed a pulse of uncertainty from the creature. It appeared to be having second thoughts now that Kieran was on scene. His power trumped mine, without question. It looked up, the plane of its face level with mine, its eyeless gaze digging down into my soul again.
And then it stood, faster than thought, and zipped beyond the fabric of the veil. Just like that, it was gone, disappearing into a place I didn’t know how to follow. Not that I would have tried. For a moment, all I could do was stare.
The Line still throbbed around me. Kieran came to a stop by my side, followed by Jack, whose turn it was to stay in the spare room for the night.
A huge wolf loped into the kitchen to join us.
“Always late to the party,” Daisy muttered. Mordecai replied with a snort. If Daisy had been afraid of the threat she couldn’t see, her voice didn’t show it.
I was terrified.
“What was it?” Jack asked, gripping a gun in one hand and a knife in the other. He was a Kraken—he had to fight with non-magical weapons outside of the water.
Kieran shook his head and looked down at me. Something in his eyes set me on edge.
“I don’t know,” I said softly. I tried to explain the creature I had seen. “It tore down my repellent magic like it was nothing. It with
stood my attempt to shove it back into the spirit world. I used everything I had, and it…”
“Had the power of a Demigod,” Kieran finished for me. “Given I can see ghosts, thanks to our soul link, but couldn’t see this and you could, it could only mean one thing.”
“One of those Hades bastards is paying house calls.” Daisy put her fisted hands on her hips, now gripping a knife tightly in each. She’d clearly intended to help fight. We needed to have a talk about that.
When my limbs stopped shaking.
“They can…travel through the spirit world,” I said, clearly late to the party in piecing it all together. “Someone was checking up on me.”
“That someone got a surprise, I’ll wager,” Zorn said. “He didn’t stay long.”
“I couldn’t see it, but I could feel the pulse of a Demigod’s magic. Must be the Hades Demigods’ power of invisibility.” Kieran wrapped an arm around me and directed me to a seat at the island. “Looks like they aren’t invisible to us all.”
I heard the pride in his voice, but it was misapplied. “It doesn’t matter that I can see them. I can’t do a damn thing to stop them. You saw what happened. It didn’t go anywhere until you showed up. Could it be…” I took a deep breath. “Could it be my father?”
Kieran had taken my DNA and compared it with other Hades Demigods, the only people that could sire a Spirit Walker as powerful as me. He’d found out that Magnus, a powerfully cunning Demigod who killed his kids, was my biological father. It had not been a welcome revelation, and after the battle with Valens, my identity was no longer hidden. Sooner or later, I would have daddy issues.
