by K. F. Breene
“Control wouldn’t be a problem,” Kieran said, returning to his seat with steaming food. “As I said, my knee-jerk reaction is emotional. But it packs a helluva punch.”
“You won’t turn into your father just because you employ the same incredibly talented and uncomfortably sexy woman he did,” I said, stabbing down to the real problem.
“Right? Like…I think it’s lady wood,” Daisy said, frowning as she looked out the window.
Henry stalked back into the kitchen with his laptop open in front of him. “She made it easy to find that private dark board.” He sat down in an empty seat, ignoring his plate on the other side of the table. He whistled. “She’s worth a pretty penny. The highest bidder is offering half a million a year. What did your father pay her?”
Kieran shook his head. “I never heard.”
“I can look that up,” Henry muttered.
“Who’s the highest bidder?” Thane asked, standing with his empty plate. He eyed the plate I’d pushed away and grabbed it when I nodded.
“Give me a second.” Henry leaned closer to his keyboard.
“How would you feel about her coming in, Henry?” I asked, knowing being upstaged was never any fun.
“I wouldn’t mind learning from the best. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for Daisy, either. We’ll just have to make sure the little princess keeps her more…delicate sensibilities.” He grinned.
“When the time comes, she could teach Daisy things I can’t,” Zorn said, and it was entirely clear these guys would do whatever was best for Kieran and the group as a whole. They would shove aside their egos for a stronger team.
The way Jerry was analyzing the others said he recognized it, too.
“Fuck.” Henry blew out a breath. “Highest offer is Magnus.”
The air in my lungs dried up.
“You’re sure she didn’t construct that board to get what she wants?” Kieran asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Checking on that now. It is possible, but…given her talent, unlikely. She wasn’t kidding—she could work for anyone she wanted to. There are a lot of players on this board, only a few throwing around big money. Magnus looks like he has a few posts, each increasing in amount. I’m just checking who else is represented here. Bidders are anonymous, so I have to hack into each account…”
“Magnus is in it to win it,” Thane said, coming back for more plates. “She’d know we can’t allow Magnus to get her. That dame is good.”
“Yes, she is,” Henry murmured. “The fifth highest offer is from Demigod Aaron. Looks like that was as high as he could go.”
“Hence the kidnapping attempt,” Red said, helping Thane and now Boman clear dishes. Jerry stood with his own plate, looked around at the others, and then skulked toward the sink without them. He clearly didn’t feel like a part of the group yet.
“Demigod Zander of London is number two.” Henry’s brow furrowed. “Demigod Elise of France, Demigod Ruby of South Africa… All the big-money players are in.”
“It bodes well that she wants to work with you, Kieran,” Bria said, leaning on the island.
“Except for the fact that she likes a challenge,” Donovan said. “Her interest in working with Kieran means she thinks keeping Alexis alive will be more of a challenge than helping Magnus kill her.”
Everyone around the table nodded.
Kieran blew out a breath. “She is probably wondering if I’ll go with what I want, which is to turn her away, or go with what is best for this outfit.”
“And what will you do?” I asked.
His gaze on me was steady. “I will protect you at all costs. I’ll need to bring her on. I can’t risk Magnus getting his hands on her. She’s been watching me, as she said. She’ll already know a few of my weaknesses. She also did help design some of my training, so she’ll know how to work around some of my strengths, too. She’d be Magnus’s ace in the hole, and he probably knows it.”
I nodded, feeling the anxiety pooling in him. His greatest fear was turning into his father, and he worried that accepting someone his father had trusted into his fold was a step in that direction.
“Okay, then. Besides that, what’s next?” I asked.
“We reconvene at home, figure out where this Lightning Rod is hiding, and decide if we go after him or not. After that…we meet Demigod Lydia. It’s time to edge into the dark waters of Hades,” Kieran said, and a wave of foreboding rolled over me. “It’s time to stick our necks out a little and see if she is friend or foe.”
10
Kieran
Kieran stood at the window in the living room, looking out over the beautiful, sparkling water of the Pacific Ocean, tired down to his bones. It had been two weeks since they’d left Montana, and those two weeks had been a whirlwind of power and information. He’d accepted Amber into the fold the day she’d come by, settling on the same salary she had been getting from Kieran’s father—considerably less than Magnus’s offer—with the same bonus structure bent on performance. It was a system that she said kept her hungry.
She’d barely walked away with the blood oath—executed in Montana before the ink had dried on her contract—and she was already performing. She’d sent Henry a list of her five nominees for additions to Kieran’s team, all of whom had been on the list compiled by Bria and Red. But Bria and Red hadn’t detailed the candidates’ hideouts, complete with the traps they’d laid to protect themselves, or devised incredibly clever plans to infiltrate said hideouts. Amber had even suggested which talking points might hit the hardest.
Kieran had told her that he would not, under any circumstances, force anyone to accept a blood bond. If he’d expected a nod to his morality, or perhaps frustration that his way made things harder, he didn’t get either reaction. She took in the information and altered her strategies accordingly, without delay or emotion. She was a machine, a highly effective, incredibly intelligent machine, and Daisy had started watching everything she did. It remained unclear if that was good or bad.
Kieran had waited until they were back in San Francisco to give Jerry the blood oath. The giant had taken the whole situation stoically, barely speaking, and when it was over, he’d made his way to the back porch, sat, and looked out over the ocean.
Alexis walked in behind Kieran and slid her arms around his waist. He relished the feel of her warmth as she leaned against his back.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” she asked.
“The calm before the storm. Amber and Henry think they have a location for the Lightning Rod.” He heard Alexis’s release of breath and turned so he could fold her into his arms. “They are doing some risk assessment.”
“They work well together.”
“Very well. Amber pushes Henry to get better, and Henry has no problem stepping aside if she wants to take the lead. From a few remarks I’ve overheard in passing, Henry gets the feeling that she’s used to getting pushback from male colleagues.”
“Your guys aren’t like that.”
“I know. And I think it’s thawing Amber just a little. There might be a human in there yet.”
She braced her chin on his chest and looked up at him. “Did you set up the meeting with Demigod Lydia?”
He rubbed her back and kissed her forehead. Then, because he couldn’t stop himself, he kissed the tip of her nose and her full lips. “I’ve given her a tentative time period and laid down some ground rules. Obviously your safety is the most important consideration. I’m hoping she’s trying to set up an alliance against the other Hades Demigods. While most people in their right minds wouldn’t go in with her on it, most people aren’t hoping to marry the daughter of a kid killer.”
A flurry of excitement and nervousness bled through the soul link. A sweet smile curved her lips. She was trying to play it cool, but her emotions didn’t lie. Hope flowed like a spring within him. He had the ring, he had a plan, but he really, really didn’t want to get a no this time.
“And if your hope of an alliance is in vain?”
>
“My next best guess is that she’s luring us in to trap us, with the intention of delivering us to Magnus and gaining his favor. Either play would be a strong one. From our talks, it’s clear she is intelligent enough to think of, and plan for, either approach. I’m preparing for both.”
“Is Lydia the least politically powerful of the Hades Demigods?” she asked, gliding her palms over his chest.
“She and Aaron have about the same amount of territory and holdings. Magnus is one of the more powerful Demigods in the world. They have a subtle kind of feud, from what I’ve heard, but I couldn’t get any additional information on it. She would never want to take him on alone, but she might want to do it with help.” He kissed her again, flitting his tongue between her lips.
She slid her palms up his chest and then hooked her arms around his neck, mewing softly.
“Do you have a second?” she asked against his lips.
“I always have a second for you.” He ran his hands down her back and cupped her firm butt. “What do you need?”
“You. Inside of me.”
“Of course, milady.” He scooped her up, but rather than bother with the stairs, he crossed into the next room and clicked open the secret entranceway. One of the kittens that refused to be re-homed darted out, nearly as big as a cattle dog.
“Four-month-old cats shouldn’t be that big, should they?” He put Lexi down gently beside the door and leaned into her, pressing his pounding bulge against her.
“Hmm.” She pulled his lips down to hers. “I have no idea. Without the mother or father around, I’ve lost all concept of cat size. I wonder why they won’t let us find them homes.”
Kieran reached over and closed the door. “Light it up with spirit.”
Ultraviolet colors infused the air around them, visible to him only because of the soul link. The Line popped into view: a smear of black pulsing from within a starburst of bruise-like colors.
Her magic wound within him, through him, erotic and glorious. He undid her pants and then pushed her panties down with them, dropping to his knees to take a loving taste. She moaned, moving against his lips.
He sucked in her clit and threaded a finger, then two, into her wetness.
“Hmm, Kieran.” She raked her fingers through his hair, and her hips swirled uncontrollably.
The sight of her like that, so fired up, made it impossible to wait any longer. He stood in a rush, pushing his pants out of the way and letting his cock spring free. He hooked one of her knees over his hip, found purchase, and pushed into her in a single thrust.
“Oh! Hmmm.” She gripped his shoulders and swung her other leg up, wrapping them around his middle.
He let his Selkie magic from his mother’s side accentuate her pleasure as he pulled back and then plunged into her again, sheathing himself completely. Her breathing hitched, and he drew out before shoving in again, losing himself in the sweet slide of her body. In her tight embrace.
He amped up the Selkie magic, dipping into her secret places even as he rammed into her, teasing and hard at the same time. She moaned, her skin feverish against him, her breathing uneven and her lips on his, sharing the same heated air.
“Yes, Kieran. Oh God, yes.” She rolled her hips as he pumped into her, faster now. His Selkie magic tickled her nipples, vibrated her clit with pleasure, while he held her tightly, driving into her with manic desire.
Her legs tightened around him. Her core clenched. He teetered on the edge for one moment, and then an orgasm exploded through his body. He let her name fall from his lips, infused with love and longing and forever. She shook against him, crying out her pleasure, clutching him.
“Amber and Henry are waiting outside,” she said softly, lowering her legs.
“They can keep waiting,” he growled, soaking in her warmth, delighting in her kisses.
“Ask me, already,” she said after a moment, so soft that he thought he had imagined it.
But he wasn’t imagining the soft gleam in her eyes and the love pouring through the soul link.
He tried not to let his excitement show on his face. Or leak through the soul link. He surely failed on both fronts. “We’ll see.”
She laughed before kissing him. Then she sighed. “They’re still waiting. Can’t life just take a break for a while? Leave us alone?”
“It will. We have a hard road ahead of us, but once it levels out, we’ll be able to enjoy things a bit more. You’ll see.”
He pulled up her pants and fixed them before seeing to his own. When they were both ready, he twisted the handle and pushed open the door as Alexis said, “Oh, wait!” revealing Henry and Amber facing away with crossed arms, and Daisy darting through the room.
“Shit,” Kieran whispered as he saw Daisy, about to yank the door shut, but it was too late.
Daisy’s eyes widened and she came to a stop. “What the fuck is that?” She pointed at the secret passageway door.
“Daisy! Language! There goes your phone,” Lexi said, walking out with her head held high.
Other than Jerry and the kids, everyone in the crew knew about the secret hallways. Zorn had wanted Daisy to figure it out for herself. Mordecai hadn’t been told because Daisy could sniff out his lies immediately.
Cat was out of the bag.
“Sorry, sir, I didn’t know she’d be coming this way,” Henry said.
“Well, I wondered what you two were doing coming this way when you usually take the main hallway just so you can see the pinched look on Jeeves’s face when he’s reminded Amber is working for Kieran,” Daisy said, bracing her hands on her hips, a childlike expression of joy on her doll-like face. “Jeeves” was her name for Sodge, the old and wrinkled butler who’d served Kieran’s father for years and years. The man had been one of the few to mourn Valens’s passing, and although he hated that Kieran had moved into the house, he had nowhere else to go. While he did have to tolerate the new owners, his behavior toward Amber sent the message that he did not have to tolerate turncoats.
“Quite the payload I got,” Daisy said. “Imagine, all this talk about loyalty and honesty, and here you were, keeping this from me the whole time.”
“No one was talking about any of that,” Alexis said. “Go. Go up to your room. No free rides for you. You should’ve known about that entrance long before now.”
“You’re saying I should have been snooping more?” A wicked smile crossed Daisy’s face. “Challenge accepted. You brought this on yourself.”
When she’d left the room, Amber said, “Cute kid. She’s got potential. She’s not magical at all?”
“No,” Henry said. “Not even a little.”
“She’ll be better for it, mark my words.” Amber nodded at Henry, who handed the file under his arm to Kieran. “We are ninety percent sure we’ve got him,” she said. “It’s a tiny town in the Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia. The town experiences more than normal thunderstorms for the area. They go year-round, but while they are powerful and violent, they have never produced a fatality, unlike in other places with similar storm activity. From what we’ve read, it seems like a Chester town—they hate magic and all it stands for. To live there, you need a solid ID. Which our guy has.”
“What’s the risk factor?” Kieran asked, heading back to the living room. The risk factor was all he cared about right now.
“From what we’ve pulled up of his past, he’s a classic Lightning Rod,” Amber said, coming to stand in her spiked heels in the center of the room. Henry took a seat on the couch. “Immensely powerful and exceptional at his craft. He’s been hiding out for fifteen years, though, basically out of commission. Sure, he probably plays with his magic where he can, and he has explosive discharges once every month or two, but there is no regular practice for him there. He’ll be rusty.”
“He lives in a mountain area in a little cabin, we think,” Henry said, crossing his ankle over his knee. “He’s nestled in the trees. Google Maps doesn’t show much, but it looks like the nearest neighbo
r is half a mile away on one side and a quarter mile away on the other. Nothing behind him—it’s a national park.”
“He might hike up in that park and work on his magic,” Alexis said.
“And he probably does,” Amber replied. “But he’d have to do it rarely, or on a very small scale. Lightning is bright and loud, and people in that area love the outdoors—that means hikers. Given there hasn’t been any word on a magical person, he’s kept everything on the down-low.”
“He really doesn’t want to be found,” Kieran said.
“No, he does not,” Henry agreed. “I imagine he’ll blow like a top when he realizes it’s happened.”
“The risk factor is incredibly high with this one,” Amber said. “Even if he doesn’t kill us on the spot, there is ample room for him to kill us after the meeting. The only consolation is that he’s rusty with his magic. His margin for error can only help our situation.”
Amber shifted her weight as Sodge came down the stairs. Upon seeing her, he scowled, then about-faced and walked right back up.
“I will say this, sir,” Amber continued with a small smile. “This guy is better than anyone I have found. Acquiring his loyalty would set us up nicely for the Magical Summit, not to mention help shield you if the meeting with Lydia goes bad. We’d need less people around you for protection. I think we need to take a chance on this one.”
Kieran shook his head and looked at Alexis. Logically, he knew this was their best play for protecting her. If anyone could sway this guy, it was his people. Just like with the giant, they would find a way.
But the part of him not operating on logic took a strong stance against the plan. The risk seemed too great, the situation too dangerous. They’d gotten lucky with Jerry, but their luck was bound to run out. He said as much.