Sin & Salvation (Demigod of San Francisco #3)(47)

“You really shouldn’t date people you work with,” Mordecai said.

“No shit,” Jack muttered.

“I was confident she would keep the relationship with Demigod Kieran professional.”

“Kieran kept Bria at a distance, but Lexi reeled everyone in.” Jack smiled warmly at me. “Thanks for that, by the way. This setup is way more welcoming, not to mention entertaining, than the sausage fest we had going on. I mean, the amount of unabashed farting would have made your head spin. I missed having a pack with women and kids. It just…evens everything out.”

“Lexi doesn’t succumb to his power,” Mordecai said, understanding dawning in his eyes.

A wry grin twisted Zorn’s lips. “He found a woman he can’t control. Alexis is a strong leader in her own right, even if most of the time she’d rather not be bothered.”

“Yeah.” Jack nodded confidently. “My boy won’t step out of line. His days of fearing women are not over, but his days of avoiding them long-term are dead.”

Bria chewed her lip, her eyes on Zorn. “He did claim her, though.”

“Yeah, but…what’s a wedding ring, if not a claim on someone?” Jack put his hands out. “My boy is in it to win it, that’s all.”

Humor finally cracked Bria’s worried fa?ade as butterflies swarmed my belly at Jack’s words. Her eyebrows lifted in defeat and she threw up her hands. “Okay. You win.” She momentarily slipped back into seriousness and put two fingers to her eyes. “I will maintain my vigilance, but I guess we’ll wait and see if the house needs to get burned down.”

“Let’s hope not.” Daisy glanced around wistfully. “It’s really nice. My room is massive.”

“If he doesn’t know about the mark, can we risk taking her into public?” Zorn’s gaze drifted down my body. “Only a Demigod can leave a mark like that. Even if people don’t know what they’re looking at, she’ll stand out.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I put out my hands, suddenly anxious for a distraction. “I’m going to a forgotten part of nowhere. People make it a point not to notice each other in the dual-society zone. Unless you find a unicorn Burberry bag, no one so much as glances at you. I can travel under the radar, no problem.”

“Except now you are a glowing angel,” Bria said with a smirk.

“With a bitch face,” Daisy said.

“Thank you, Daisy,” I replied dryly. “But that’s a good point. Anyone who notices me will get one look at my mug and then look the other way.”

Zorn and Jack looked at each other, some silent understanding passing between them.

Jack shrugged. “If she gets undue attention, we’ll extract her,” he said.

“If Valens sends someone worthy to tail her, I’ll feel their soul,” Bria said. “If they try to nab her, we’ll make them disappear. The battle is coming, anyway—what’s one misplaced stalker?”

Zorn’s lips pressed together before he gave a curt nod.

“It’ll be fine,” I said, wishing I was a lot more excited about my chance to go spend money in my favorite stores. “I’m sure they’d go to my house first, anyway. There’s no way they’d know I’d take today to go shopping.”

Zorn nodded again. “Valens won’t spare the resources to cover the area so early in the game. Still, with that mark…”

I shook my head helplessly. “I wish I could see what you guys did. I still have no idea what you’re talking about…” Though something Kieran said tumbled through my mind.

There is no going back after this.

He’d meant that. He’d claimed me, as he’d promised, in a way he probably hadn’t even realized yet—and I’d claimed him, too. Through the soul connection that was now permanent, I could feel his warm, steady pulse in my middle.

He’d claimed my body. I had claimed his spirit.

We were now connected, body and soul.

I didn’t know if we had a future, given all we were up against, but I knew he was all I wanted in the present. He was my knight in shining armor even though I didn’t need to be saved. He was a prince, asking me to help him steal his throne.

I chuckled to myself.

Now that was something I could get behind.

“Let’s go shopping,” I said, wondering what I could use instead of my fabulous handbag. I didn’t need to draw notice. “If the worst thing that happens today is finding out a really hot Demigod wants to keep me around, I’d say I’m doing all right.”





20





Alexis





“I don’t understand why I have to go with you when Daisy gets to train,” Mordecai whined as we parked in my favorite dual-society zone shopping center. The location wasn’t San Francisco proper, but rather a couple of small towns east, along the ocean and still within the San Francisco Bay Area, where there was a larger allocation of space for big stores. The town had a different and uninterested non-magical mayor than San Francisco proper, and given it was in the dual-society zone, Valens had no interest in it whatsoever. It was why I liked it so much.

“Because Daisy is training in the art of stealth, and you are not,” I said, getting out of the car. Greedy anticipation ran through me. The rectangular piece of plastic burned hot against my upper thigh. I hadn’t even put the credit card in my threadbare wallet, not wanting to soil it. “A large wolf wandering around in the middle of town might be noticed. A teen chick dressed in mundane clothes will not. Hence, here you are, in human form and about to have the time of your life.”