“Oh God, Kieran,” I moaned, his magic blazing under my clothes and across my skin. “Yes, Kieran.”

He grabbed my hips as he pulled out with deliberate slowness before ramming into me again. Aching pleasure coursed through me. I couldn’t get enough air. I couldn’t get enough of him.

He pulled out slowly again, but I couldn’t wait for the next thrust, wild with need. I jerked my hips forward and back, impaling myself, seeing stars from how good it felt. I swirled my hips and jerked forward and back again, shoving against the door to get more traction. His fingers tightened against my hips. His pace increased.

“Yes,” I whispered, repeatedly filled. Pounded with sensation. The pleasure built, filling every inch of me until it felt like my skin was stretched too tightly. The sensations were overwhelming. “Yes!”

I hit a peak and shattered around him. He shuddered against me, groaning my name.

Panting, love glowing within me, I leaned back against him. He circled me with his arms, holding me tightly.

“I needed that,” he said, his hot breath feathering my neck. He trailed his lips up the slope of my neck and along my jaw line. It was only then that I realized one of the bartenders was knocking softly on the door. She probably needed to get her stuff so she could go home.

“To be continued,” I said, and turned so I could kiss his full lips. “We’re holding people up.”

“Let them wait.” His kiss was deep and sensual.

I smiled against his lips. “My drink will get warm.”

He laughed softly. “To be continued, then.”

Hand in hand, we walked back to our places. I sat, and he stood by my side. The bar, once incredibly loud and obnoxious, now only held our crew, chatting and laughing together. Jack had joined us on an empty barstool, listening to the banter with a smile, although he couldn’t actually talk to anyone but me. Mick was also still there, minding his own business, exactly like any other day.

“I’ll join you,” Dylan said during a lull in the conversation. He didn’t look away from his beer.

“You’ll take a blood oath?” Kieran asked, his arm resting on my stool back, curved around me. “You’ll join my team?”

“Yes.” The word was so quiet that I almost didn’t hear it.

“What made you change your mind?” Bria asked.

Dylan shrugged, and it was clear he was struggling with some demons. “A lot of things. Most importantly, I trust this.” He waggled his finger, basically pointing down the bar and back. “I didn’t at first. I didn’t understand how a bunch of misfits, led by a green Demigod and backed by the magic of someone that doesn’t seem to understand the magical world, could be so incredibly effective. I figured I was missing something.”

“Nope. We’re just that screwed up,” Donovan said, sitting between Thane and Jack. I wondered if he knew his buddy was next to him—if maybe he’d sat on the end to leave a place for him, just in case.

“And I think what I was missing was the sense of family,” Dylan went on. “I’ve never really had one. My parents didn’t spare any time on my upbringing. Their pride was in producing my magic, not as parents. I doubt they cried at my funeral. I was raised by nannies until I was old enough to be tested, and then I went to boarding school to be trained. After that, Gianna got a hold of me. The mark applied to me was not my choice. My bed was a holding place and her bed was my cell. The horror of that existence gave me a very warped view of what it meant to pledge service to a Demigod. This is…night and day.” He shook his head, hunched over his beer. “I would rather die than be tied to someone like Gianna again. Heaven help me if I’m wrong, but this is probably my safest bet. It seems like it, anyway. It is at least very clear Alexis does want that mark. She looks ethereal, a woman in love. I trust that.”

Silence greeted his words until Mick said, “Jaysus. Talk about airing your dirty laundry. What da fook?”

The Six, Jack included, roared with laughter. Even Jerry chuckled helplessly.

“Well”—Donovan splayed his fingers across his chest—“I don’t want you in my bed. You’re safe there.”

“I’m a nope there, too, brother.” Thane raised his hands.

“No man meat in my sheets except mine,” Boman said.

“Man meat?” Thane turned so Boman could see his full scowl.

“Would you have preferred if I’d said dick?” Boman retorted.

“Not really, no.”

Zorn huffed. “I had to get saved, too. It’s hard on the ego.”

The guys laughed again, and in response to Dylan’s obvious confusion, Zorn stood and peeled off his jacket. “We all got shit in our pasts.” He unbuttoned his crisp white shirt and took it off. Silvery white lines crisscrossed his torso and back. Some scars were long and straight, possibly from lashings, and some were jagged and bent, as if a knife had slowly cut into his flesh.

Dylan’s eyes widened. “Did they douse you with some kind of magic that didn’t let you heal?”

“This was before the blood oath. I didn’t get the luxury of healing between sessions. I’d hang from the shackles for a month, drenched in spit, blood, and piss. It would’ve been easier just to die, but I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction. I wanted them to know that they could try as they might, but they weren’t going to get a word about the Drusus family out of me. I didn’t give a shit about Valens, but even then, I would’ve died ten times over for Kieran. You want to talk about dirty laundry? Being ignored by my parents would’ve been a luxury. I was beaten by them. Tossed downstairs. Blamed for their troubles. I can’t seem to maintain any sort of normal relationship—I drive everyone away.”

Bria picked up her drink and took a long sip. As far as I knew, they’d been on the outs lately, it having been just physical in the beginning, gotten confusing a couple months ago (Bria’s words at one point), and now it looked like Zorn was revealing what was going wrong. My heart squished for the guy.

“But fuck it,” Zorn went on. “You live, you learn, you keep going. It does no good to dwell on it. You will be safest in this team, that’s no lie. Even the dead watch our backs.”

Zorn shrugged back into his shirt, his expression flat.

“He wins,” Jerry said, his arms crossed against his chest. “He one-upped you, bud.”

“Way to kill a moment, Jerry,” Donovan said.

“If this shite keeps on, I’ll need to find a new bar,” Mick muttered.

Everyone erupted into laughter again, and I wished we could stay like this forever. But I couldn’t forget that danger awaited us outside this door. Now that we had Dylan, the Zeus Demigods would probably take a new interest in our team, just like the Hades Demigods. At this point, all someone had to do was kill Kieran and divvy up his team.

Then again, part of our job was to make sure that didn’t happen.

Regardless, one thing at a time. Next up was Demigod Lydia. Two weeks and counting.

24

Dylan

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Dylan turned away from the railing on Kieran’s back deck to find Daisy standing in the open sliding glass door, one hand on a slim hip and the other against the doorframe. Her expression wasn’t cross or even expectant, but her tone and words told a different story.