Sin & Spirit (Demigod of San Francisco #4)(51)

I imparted my will onto my troops, forcing them to lurch after Bria’s well-organized group. Their souls, like little ribbons gathered in my hand, strained to break free. I relayed this to Bria.

“All spirits try to break free. Yours were all level fives in life that didn’t die too long ago,” she said. “Real nasty people. There are only a handful of people on this great green earth who could control them all. Welcome to the elite. Now hurry up and get them doing their magic.”

A black stick swung through the murky white, and I realized too late it was a sword. It sliced through the arm of one of Bria’s zombies. The creature jerked, outraged, and I heard its spirit yelling obscenities from within the rotting corpse. The disembodied limb fell to the ground and a ball of fire exploded from its remaining arm. More shapes pushed through a slice of one of the still-glowing streetlights. Three of them in a row. More followed in the murk.

I cursed myself for forgetting that I didn’t need my eyes to see. I opened myself up, feeling the souls. Dozens of enemy troops bleeped onto my radar. Kieran and the guys were a ways behind me, standing together on my house’s side of the street. They were taking on the Hades Demigod, I knew, keeping him or her busy until I could join them. Or maybe keeping him busy so he wouldn’t know I was right here, fully exposed, ripe for the taking.

The Line appeared beside me, but before I could draw power from it, someone slapped me in the face.

“No Soul Stealer magic yet,” Bria hissed. Someone screamed ahead of us. Then another. Her zombies were doing magic. “That Demigod would be down on you in a minute.”

I gritted my teeth, not arguing. She was right. Instead, I bore down, forcing my zombies to do as Bria had said. Use their magic. Help us fight.

Lightning rained from the sky.

“Oh shi…” I couldn’t even finish my thought because the next bit of magic took my breath away.

Zigs and zags of electrical current ran through the fog like a living thing. Kieran had clearly used precipitation from the ocean—the salt with the moisture a great electrical conductor—in preparation for this spirit-zombie’s magic. Somehow, he’d been ready for an oncoming battle. He’d made preparations.

“He was worthy of the divine hand,” the cat said quietly beside me.

A glow preceded a flailing man running. The fireball zombie had sent out another one, and it cut through the air around the man, sending out forks of fire as it touched down on his skin. He screamed, the top of his body already consumed in fire and now convulsing, his legs somehow kept running, shaking but determined. Right at me.

I back-pedaled to buy time, sucking in a startled breath, but the body wouldn’t go down. Without thinking, I yanked the man’s spirit out, injected it with my desires, and shoved it back in, locking it into place. All in the space of seconds.

Fire spat at me from two feet away. The guy jerked to a halting stop. He’d gone from dying to dead to zombified with head-spinning speed, and clearly had no idea what the hell was going on. Without hesitation, I gave him a little nudge. I didn’t even feel bad about the situation, the bastard.

He turned around, smoother than any zombie because of the familiarity of his body. He faced the shapes moving through the darkness. Faced the screams, zombie and enemy both. Faced the carnage.

And then he started running right back the way he’d come.

A glowing ball of flame slammed into the enemy troops, knocking into them. More lightning rained down, too. Souls bleeped out as our enemies took down the spirit-controlled bodies and vice versa.

“And now we see what you can really do,” the cat said as Bria said, “You’ve done it now. Might as well just go whole hog.”

A shock of spirit pulsed through the air, freezing my blood with fear. Bria screamed and ducked, clutching her head. More screams rose from the enemy.

And then Kieran was running my way, the others behind him.

The fog lifted in an instant, pulled up high overhead. Suddenly the moon was free to rain down on the battle. The street lamps could brighten small pockets of action.

A quarter of the enemy force lay on the street. Half of the zombies. The battle raged on.

The soulless Demigod of Hades stood back where Kieran had been, its full focus on me. Its shadowy form had grown to a height of twenty feet, its muscles popping out like a Berserker’s.

“It literally thought I was in the house,” I said quietly, my heart ricocheting around my ribs from the magically induced fear. Spirit wrapped around my insides so tightly that I didn’t know if I could move.

“Without fear, there can be no courage,” Bria said. She straightened in strained, jerky movements. “Fear does not rule me. Fear will not control me. Fear is but a speed bump on my journey to victory.”

The Demigod took a step toward me, and power boomed out from it. But not the power strength of Kieran or Valens. Leaving the body behind lessened the spirit. It was as true for a living Demigod as it was for the dead.

He was still more powerful than me.

“Fight back,” Kieran yelled, nearly to me. “Fight back, Alexis.”

The fear in his voice shocked me. The fear in the blood and soul connection. I was a part of this equation. I was a part of this plan. I needed to show up and own my position.

Another wave of heady spirit pounded into me, trying to force me to submit.

I gritted my teeth and called forth buckets full of power from the Line. I’d taken my brief training earlier to heart. When it came down to survival, I remembered what I learned.