Sin & Spirit (Demigods of San Francisco Book 4)
Page 26
Kieran’s smile spread. “So I guess that’s a yes.”
I laughed and let him lead me into the house. The interior was painted a modern gray and all the floors had been changed out to hardwood. No more white carpet. My smile stretched as I took in the beautiful chandeliers that fit the rooms just right, and the shabby chic furniture that apparently matched my whole look. It was perfect. It was all perfect.
“Did you take out the hidden passageways?” I asked, leaning against him.
“Of course not. Zorn is wondering how long it will take Daisy to find them, map them all out, and get grounded for whatever she gets up to in them.” He pulled me toward the wall at the corner of the sitting room, where I’d seen the ghost of the old butler on my last visit to this house. Kieran knelt beside the fireplace, stuck his finger in a groove, and popped open a little hatch to the side. The entryway was small, but even Kieran could get in if he stooped.
Light from the now-open doorway illuminated a slowly moving, furry white creature. On top of a furry black creature.
“Oh my God, what the hell? Harding, are you in there?” I gasped.
The cat kept at it. “Yup.”
“That’s… Dude, that’s not right.”
“It’s not me trying to procreate with this other cat. I’m just along for the ride. I think he’s a virgin, though, because he doesn’t seem to be figuring this out. Hole confusion, maybe.”
My mouth dropped open. “Why are you in there? Why is it in there?”
“Apparently this other cat is in heat, and someone must’ve missed it slipping in here when they were working on these tunnels. Your Demigod thinks of everything, Lexi, except chummy cats sneaking into his home. So my stallion of a cat meets this cat, and ba-da-bing. Here we are.”
I averted my eyes. “But why didn’t you leave the cat body? There’s no repellent up yet. You don’t need it.”
“I’m not gonna lie: I wanted to see how all this played out. When in Rome…”
“You’re not in Rome. You’re in a cat!”
“Right, well…when in cat.”
“Ugh!” Valens’s old butler stopped amid strolling through, peering into the passageway with disgust. “What is…” He gave Kieran a condescending look. “I wondered how you would change things, but allowing this?” His nose curled. “Times have certainly changed. It’s true what they say—youth ruins everything. What are you doing to my house?” He shook his head and resumed his slow walk out of the room.
I slammed the door shut and stared at a blank-faced Kieran. There were no words.
We moved away as a howl from the hidden passages made me grimace. “That is so gross,” I said, shivering.
“It’s nature.”
“Not when a human spirit is in on it. That guy is absolutely cracked!”
He led me to the back living room, and we came to a stop in front of the view that had stolen my breath the first time I’d seen it. Blue ocean, graced by fingers of light. The orange of the Golden Gate contrasted the surrounding gold and green hillsides.
“This is so beautiful,” I said, tears in my eyes. “Everything. What you’ve done with this place, the view…”
“You,” he said softly, nuzzling my neck. “I love you, Alexis. I’ll sign your name to this house, right beside mine, if you’ll let me. Anything you want to change or redecorate is totally up to you. I don’t care what you do with it, as long as you’re happy. As long as you and the kids are living under the same roof I am. There’s plenty of space in the garage if you want a different car. You can pick out whatever you want. My father had an extensive collection if you’d rather pick out one of those. He has a hangar full of them.” He turned me so he was looking down into my eyes. “I know my life is crazy, which has made your life crazy, but if I can ease that for you in any way, I will.”
“You think a life of luxury is going to make up for showing my magic to the world?” I asked, my expression not selling my words, largely due to the way my tears were wreaking hell on my makeup.
“I sure hope so, or I’m screwed.” His smile took my breath away. His handsome face was better than any scenic view. “But there is one thing.” He grazed his lips across mine. “The butler comes with the house…and he’s not overly fond of me or change.”
I laughed, deepening our kiss. “Just wait until you meet the spirits in the secret passages. When they aren’t…occupied. Speaking of which, did you get rid of the sex room? And that gross trophy room library?”
“Both, definitely. The sex room is a stylish guest room now. I figure Jack can hang out there until he figures out what he wants to do. The library was revamped.”
I smiled and let my hands trail down his body, letting everything else—the danger, the uncertainty, the animal kingdom situation I’d unfortunately stumbled upon—fall away.
I cupped his massive erection. “Where’s our room?”
He groaned against my lips. “I gutted my father’s old room. I didn’t grow up here, so it isn’t weird for me, and it has a fantastic view. I figured you’d be happiest with that. We can always change to—”
I stroked him through his pants. “That’s perfect. Maybe we could see that now and tour the rest of the house later?”
“With pleasure.” He whisked me up into his arms. “So living here is a yes, then?”
“Yes.” I caressed his soul through our connection. “It will always be a yes.”
34
Magnus
“Sir, a package for you.”
Magnus glanced up, annoyed by the distraction from his work. Why had an import he’d been buying for years suddenly doubled in cost? Gracie held a square box, its size about that of her chest. She set it on his desk.
“It was delivered to your decompression chamber.”
Magnus dropped his pen slowly and sat back, his hands on the chair arms.
His decompression chamber was where he sat when he went into the spirit world. It was fortified to protect his vulnerable body while he was away. Only a select few people knew about it, and he’d trusted those people for hundreds of years. He had a blood oath to keep their silence.
“We’ve tested the package for explosives or anything dangerous.” She looked down at the top. It didn’t say who it was from. “We couldn’t determine what exactly was in it from an ultrasound.”
He read her face and knew she wasn’t lying. He checked their blood link to confirm it. She was anxious and curious and unsettled. Good. So was he.
He pulled the coarse brown string at the top. The thick brown paper reminded him of an old-timey parcel. The plain cardboard box inside wasn’t taped shut.
Gracie scooped out the packing peanuts, letting them bounce across his desk and onto the floor. She looked in and paused before stepping back. “Looks like a chessboard, sir.”
Bewildered, he stood and leaned over the package, hovering his hands at the top of the box. A strange feeling seeped down through his middle.
He delicately removed what was, indeed, a chessboard. The squares were translucent gray and clear. They overlaid a picture of Amos’s severed head.
Magnus hadn’t been able to track Amos down, either in life or in spirit. Now he knew why. The child knew of Magnus’s involvement.
Underneath the board was a plain white envelope. A few carefully folded papers were tucked inside. He skimmed the contents. His stomach dropped to his feet.
He held a list of the various export items from the greater San Francisco Bay Area, a few select trade agreements recently secured by San Francisco that gave Magnus the import answer he’d been looking for, and more information on Magnus’s operation than had ever, ever been made public. To get his records, someone would’ve had to hack into his systems. Except no breaches had been reported. No breaches had ever been reported. How could this have happened?
Magnus glanced back at his computer and the unexplained cost discrepancy he’d noticed earlier. The child was sitting on top of a healthy exporting territory. Vegetables, fruits,
tech—their goods were plentiful. Clearly the child knew it, and he was hitting Magnus in a place that made him financially helpless—one of the only places Magnus was helpless.
Valens had always boasted about his son’s knack for the job, about how easily he took to training. Valens had been absolutely right. He had created a nightmare worse than he had ever been.
One last sheet fluttered back into the box as Magnus sifted through the papers. He picked it up and read. Fire rose through his middle, and he gritted his teeth.
He held his private DNA records. With them were the findings that Alexis Price was his biological daughter.
The child had known all along.
And he’d taken Magnus’s involvement in this last skirmish personally. He also must’ve known about Magnus’s propensity for killing his kids. That would make him more territorial toward Alexis, and more dangerous.
And now the child was preparing for war.
Good. Magnus would be more than ready.
Want to see what happens next? Grab Sin & Lightning! Swipe for more details.
Want newsletter only bonus content? Sign up now!
It’s good to be on the inside…
Click here to sign up.
Reviews are like hugs - sometimes awkward, but always appreciated <3
Sin & Lightning (book 5)
Grab the fifth installment of the internationally bestselling Demigods of San Francisco series!
Preorder now!
Try Born in Fire
Check out the exciting #1 Amazon worldwide bestseller by USA Today Bestselling author, K.F. Breene!
Audio Listener’s Choice Awards winner!
Supernatural Bounty Hunter isn’t the sort of thing you see on LinkedIn. But with a rare type of magic like mine, I don’t have many options.
So dangerous or not, the job is mine. And it was going fine, until an old as sin vampire stole my mark, and with it, my pay day.
Knowing I’m poor and desperate, he has offered me a job. I’ll have to work by his side to help solve a top secret case.
Everyone knows not to trust vampires. Especially a hot elder vampire. But without any other jobs coming up, I’m stuck. As I uncover a web of lies and treachery, revealing an enemy I didn’t know existed, the truth of my identity is threatened. I might make it out alive, only to end up in a gilded cage.
Read it here!
Also by K.F. Breene
Demigods of San Francisco
Sin & Chocolate
Sin & Magic
Sin & Salvation
Sin & Spirit
Sin & Lightning - preorder now
Fire and Ice Trilogy (DDVN World)
Born in Fire
Raised in Fire
Fused in Fire
Magical Mayhem Trilogy (DDVN World)
Natural Witch
Natural Mage
Natural Dual-Mage
Warrior Fae Duet (DDVN World)
Trapped
Princess
Warrior Chronicles
Chosen
Hunted
Shadow Lands
Invasion
Siege
Overtaken
Darkness Series
Into the Darkness
Braving the Elements
On a Razor’s Edge
Demons
The Council
Shadow Watcher
Jonas
Charles
Jameson
Stand Alone
Secret of McKinley’s Mansion
Finding Paradise
Fate of Perfection
Fate of Devotion
Want to stay in the loop?
Sign up to be the FIRST to learn about new releases. Plus get newsletter only bonus content for FREE. Click here to sign up.
About the Author
K.F. Breene is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Amazon Most Sold and #1 Kindle Store bestselling author of paranormal romance, urban fantasy and fantasy novels. With over three million books sold, when she's not penning stories about magic and what goes bump in the night, she's sipping wine and planning shenanigans. She lives in Northern California with her husband, two children, weird dog and out of work treadmill.
Never miss the news! Sign up here!
Join the Facebook reader group to chat with her personally: Book Group
Find her posts on Instagram: #kfbreene
Contact info:
www.kfbreene.com
kfbreene@gmail.com