Sin & Spirit (Demigod of San Francisco #4)(63)

Memories jostled for position. Dreams and the feeling of intimacy. Of lust. The feeling of a shadowy hand holding mine, escorting me across the Line. Showing me the other plane.

“A body and a bed, indeed,” I said, my breath catching in my throat.

“What does that mean?” Jack asked, stepping forward. Frank shadowed him, clearly with no clue why.

A sly smile curled the Spirit Walker’s lips. “Well. Maybe I don’t always need a body, no. What can I say? When I got word there was another Spirit Walker roaming around, I had to have a closer look. I liked what I found.”

I remembered the feeling of being helped when working on Will Green’s spirit box, of the shadowy form that helped with Valens. I hadn’t felt the same intimacy with those. If anything, the spirit guide in those situations had been gruff, pushy but acting in my best interest, mostly non-violent. They didn’t seem like this guy at all.

I shook my head. None of this felt like it was adding up. “I had to travel really far across the Line to make contact with you.”

“I know, right? Without any training. That was truly exemplary.”

“And you attacked me.”

He shrugged. “What can I say? I wanted to make you earn it. I wanted to see how determined you were.”

His grin pissed me off. I pushed it aside as Bria stood, expressionless. It meant she was trying to keep from influencing me. She was out of her depth.

That makes two of us.

“What if I can’t figure out where she is from the setting?” I asked. “Is there another way to get her location?”

“Eventually you’ll develop a sort of inner guidance. A spirit GPS, if you will. For now, however, you’ll have to look for street signs. Peek in mailboxes—whatever you can do to tack the location on a map. It’s not like this is in the Beyond, which is much more complex. That will take a lot more training. A lot of late-night walks, hand in hand.”

Which, apparently, we’d already done.

“Can I rip someone’s arms off in spirit land?” Jack asked, taking a big step toward me. Frank followed, scowling.

“My, my, you do have a lot of bodyguards.” It didn’t seem to bother the Spirit Walker. “Rest assured, with guidance, this will be easier than leaving your body to cross the Line.”

“So why didn’t you take this approach before?”

He shrugged. “The Beyond is more intimate in certain ways. I wanted to see how attached you are to your Demigod. Annoyingly so, I found out.”

“What’s going on?” Bria asked, walking closer.

I quickly explained what the Spirit Walker had said, what I would probably do, and who had been behind those walks in spirit, which were apparently not dreams at all.

She sat down cross-legged next to me. “With enough time, Kieran and his team will find her. Of that, I have no doubt. With enough time, Zorn will pull her out of whatever situation she is in. He’s not holding together much better than you are; he just doesn’t show it. He feels responsible.”

We all did, so I didn’t argue.

“But with enough time, she could be dead,” Bria finished, hitting the nail on the head. “I should mention that Kieran would be against you doing this on your own with a guide like that.”

“Yes, he would,” the Spirit Walker said, clearly tickled.

“He certainly would,” Jack agreed.

“Young women shouldn’t be discussing their bodies like they’re sacks of skin,” Frank mused. “It’s unseemly.”

“Thanks, Frank,” I said dryly. “But it’s not like Kieran can chaperone, so I don’t know what other choice we have.”

“To not go right now, and to train in smaller increments,” the Spirit Walker said, completely at ease. He clearly didn’t care one way or the other. That actually made me feel better about the situation.

“Could I get lost?” I asked him, adrenaline coursing through my body.

“On your own, yes,” he answered, and his smile dripped off. “Your Demigod is your anchor. That’s part of what a soul link does. You latched on to him when there was a fear of you getting lost in the Beyond. Your connection was strong enough to pull you toward the world of the living, and you found your way from there. But this time you’ll already be in the world of the living, so if you get lost, you’ll pull yourself right back to him. Directly to him. If he is not next to your body, there’s a good chance you’ll just get yourself turned around and lost again. Enough time passes, and your body will die without its soul.

“In this situation, however, I’ll be guiding you. There is no fear of me getting lost.” Absolute certainty rang through his tone. His body, still loose and relaxed, somehow conveyed his unyielding confidence. “You will get us to your ward, and I can easily get us back. Hopefully in time to meet that cat and hitch a ride again.”

I blew out a breath, trying to stay cautious, to remember that I didn’t really know this guy, and now I had proof he wasn’t trustworthy. He’d been hanging around a while, and at any time he could’ve been training me. At any time he could’ve made a real impact in my life. Instead, he’d chosen to play mind games.

He still might be playing mind games.

The smart thing to do would be to wait for my anchor, ensure Kieran was waiting beside my body.