Sin & Salvation (Demigod of San Francisco #3)(59)

I staggered back, startled…and accidentally yanked Will’s soul with me.

“Uh-oh,” I said.





25





Kieran





Heart in his throat, Kieran took a chance and bolted through the last few rows of the shopping complex parking lot to get around to Alexis. Using the service entrance would’ve drawn too much notice. All of his Six, other than Henry, should already be there, Henry having been the farthest away and the hardest to extract.

They must have arrived in time to help Alexis. They must have, or he would’ve gotten a call. He would’ve felt it through the soul connection.

Just like he’d felt her drift away earlier. He’d already been on his way to the shopping complex, racing through the hidden passageway behind her house to get to the dual-society zone, when a strange loss had niggled his awareness. It had felt as though Alexis had disappeared from this world. As though she’d died. If the feeling hadn’t resolved quickly, he would have completely lost his composure.

Screams and yells sent cold trickles down his spine as he raced around the corner. The cloud that was Zorn drifted not far away and Thane stood idle a few steps beyond him. Disbelief ran through Kieran. What the hell were these guys doing so far from the fight?

In a moment, he understood.

Furry bodies rolled around on the concrete, whimpering or howling. Human forms thrashed on the ground or bent over, clutching their middles.

In the middle of it all, her hair blown by some unseen force, cloaked in glowing white, stood Alexis, facing off against a badass shifter. She looked like a rampaging angel claiming her vengeance on anyone foolish enough to threaten her brood.

She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever witnessed in his entire life.

He jogged to a stop next to Zorn, his fear for Alexis dissipated like rain drops on hot cement.

“What happened?” he asked as Zorn materialized next to him.

“She’s using her magic,” Zorn said quietly, his voice somber.

“Yes, she is.” Thane joined them, grinning. The glory of battle burned in his eyes. His Berserker side felt Alexis’s call to arms and yearned to join her. It spoke to his unbelievable control that he had not. “I have been fucking vindicated for my reaction to her the other day. Fucking vindicated. I might’ve changed, but at least I wasn’t reduced to this.”

“She has a shaky handle on the situation, at best,” Zorn said, his mind as quick and calculating as ever. “I have no doubt she can keep them down, but not long ago she asked what she should do next. If she releases her hold, more than half of them will take off running. There aren’t enough of us to snatch them up before they escape. We need an end game.”

Will Green spat a series of disgusting remarks about Mordecai’s family, and the boy launched forward, throwing a well-placed and powerful punch at the older alpha.

“The kid was exceptional in the thick of it, sir—”

Zorn cut off as Alexis flinched back.

“Uh-oh,” she said loudly.

Green collapsed. It wasn’t from the punch.

Through his soul connection with Alexis, Kieran saw what happened next.

Confused and disoriented, Green’s spirit form stood outside of his body, twice as muscular as his physical form and taller. Clearly he saw himself differently than he actually appeared.

Alexis had learned how to rip a soul out of a body, and she’d done it on accident.

“Sir—”

Zorn didn’t need to finish his sentence—Kieran was already on it. He sent a thick blast of power into the scene, swirling around Alexis and Mordecai and rolling over the enemy. Their agonized screams and shrieks turned into squeals and grunts of pain. She might be able to frighten to the point of hysteria, but he could inflict pain to the point of unconsciousness or death. This time he aimed for the former. He needed to figure out what to do with all these shifters, and death was the last option.

He lifted his hand and called the fog, bringing it down in thick, fluffy sheets, a fog bank settling inland. It wouldn’t be an abnormal occurrence out here.

Once visibility cut down, he wove air and dropped a thicker layer of fog beyond the small battle. That would keep people from wandering in and catching an eyeful, or worse, taking video.

If they hadn’t already.

Mordecai stepped away from the limp body of Green, his eyes huge. “Did I do that?”

“No. I did that,” Alexis said with a pale face. “I’m going to try and stuff him back in.”

Green’s spirit shook before reaching forward and grabbed an invisible line connecting him to Alexis. His spirit turned more translucent as he jutted toward her.

“Ew, no!” She waved her hands in the air before shivering. His spirit went flying, as though she’d flung him through the air. He landed on two wolves’ bodies before rolling to a stop.

“I said not to latch on to the connection!” she yelled after him, her face screwed up in disgust. “That was your fault, and now look. You’re all the way over there, wasting precious time.”

“What’s happening?” Mordecai and Thane asked at the same time.

“Growing pains,” Kieran said, and started forward. Bria was already moving.

“Did you rip his soul out of his body?” Bria unslung a camo backpack from her shoulder, tiptoed through the downed bodies, and knelt by Alexis’s side. “’Cause we can just shove him back in. Remember me teaching you that? No problem, remember?”