Sin & Salvation (Demigod of San Francisco #3)(56)

Nerves ate at me but I latched on to my determination

“Here we go.” I shoved the door open and stepped out into the bright day.

“She’s live, she’s live,” I heard Bria say as I finally pulled the phone from my ear.

“Here.” I handed it back to Mordecai. “Be the go-between.”

I stepped down the stairs one by one, not rushing, tapping into my power. Spirit crawled across the concrete and up along the buildings. Colors shifted as ultraviolet light filtered in around me. The Line materialized to the right and above me, its feeling comforting, its power infinite.

“Here we go,” I said again, reaching the ground.

Just as Bria had said, a group of men and women stood at the far corner, backed away from the building so they could see clearly. Three of them started and the rest slowly clued in. A hand went up to a head, probably someone calling the crew upfront.

A man stepped away from the rest, headed in my direction.

“They heard from Kieran. He says to go back inside and take them in smaller groups until he can get here,” Mordecai relayed. “But she says that if you do that, they’ll catch everything on camera. This is a chain store, so she’s not confident it’s a closed loop. We’d risk revealing your magic.” Mordecai audibly swallowed. “She said just to handle it.”

“The freight doors and back entrance will have security cameras, too,” I said, almost feeling the hard gaze of the man approaching us. His arms swung loose at his sides and his brick of a body swayed with each ground-pounding step. The rest of the pack followed behind him, power pulsing in their middles. Class threes and fours, all of them, and brick body was a lower class five.

Holy shit, they had a lot going for them.

“She says…you’re welcome,” Mordecai reiterated, having given her my message.

I spared a glance up at the freight doors, running my gaze along the top and then the sides. There had been three cameras, and now there were three fragments of cameras. Bria had prepared for an extraction.

I nodded as the shifters continued to stalk toward me. I knew it wouldn’t be long before they got a positive I.D. on us. When they did, the rest would come running.

Something zipped by out of the corner of my eye. I started and jerked my head, but saw nothing, including the dead. A trick of the mind, or something else? Regardless, I didn’t have time to worry about it.

The lead man kept reducing the space between us. His deep brown eyes came into focus, and then he nodded. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking over my shoulder.

“Turn him over, wench,” he said, slowing. “This is a pack matter. Our fight is not with you. You are free to go.”

“Wench? What is this, a pirate ship? This isn’t a pack matter. You fuckers killed a sick kid’s parents, then tossed that kid out onto the streets to die. You forfeited your right to make him a pack matter. Now it’s a bullshit matter…that I will be handling.”

The group slowed further, then stopped, all acting on the leader’s unspoken command. It was cool, I had to give them that, but it also made me want to start snapping my fingers and break into dance.

“Turn the Wolfram boy over, or die,” the man barked.

“We’ve got incoming,” Mordecai whispered behind me, his voice pinched with fear. “They’re changing. The others—the ones still at the front of the building. They’re changing.” He paused for a moment, and I could feel his arm trembling against my back. “Jack says they are getting into position for a kill.” His voice turned urgent. “Kieran is still too far away. We don’t have enough people, Lexi. Jack says to run.”

“It’s too late to run. Our only choice is to fight.”





24





Alexis





The lead man lunged forward, still in human form. I took a step back to give myself more space while blasting a heavy dose of spirit and a whole lot of power, grabbing his spirit box and squeezing. He yelped, like a dog, but his hand kept coming.

I unlocked the gale force of the Line’s icy wind, something I’d gotten better at directing since my last training. It blew through the group, flapping the shifters’ souls wildly. Gasps and shrieks shattered the quiet of the day. Many staggered. One bent to a knee.

The lead man kept coming, as though attacking on muscle memory. Before I could dodge away, a dark arm came around me and whipped me to the side. The man’s hand closed on empty air and his body kept going, staggering beyond me.

Mordecai released me, and despite my earlier instruction that he should do nothing and stay by my side, he stepped quickly after the man and elegantly wrapped an arm around his neck. He spun like a dancer before crashing two fast punches into the man’s face. Between his attack and the effects of my magic, the man went down hard and fast.

I surged with pride. That’s my boy.

Souls glittered and pulsed as they moved around the building. Two familiar souls followed them, one of which stole my breath.

“Goddamn that Daisy, she shouldn’t be anywhere near this,” I yelled.

A woman broke away from the others and ran at me. I punched her directly in the spirit box, making no attempt to ease her into it.

Her spirit box jolted back, dragging her body with it.

I widened my eyes. That was neat. I hadn’t even known that was possible.