“But you didn’t end up in his bed?”

“No!” It wasn’t lying, simply omitting that I’d ended up against his wall.

Heat washed through me. That situation had been so incredibly hot that now I was pretty sure beds were overrated. I might never want to bang in a bed again. Not when a wall was present, teamed with a man strong enough to hold my weight and then some.

Bria shook her head. “Dare I ask how you ended up in his room in the first place?”

I followed her down the hall, flustered. “That ghost from earlier got me into a secret hallway, and I ended up in Kieran’s room. His room takes up half the top floor of the house.”

“Uh-huh. So he found you in his cavernous room and then happily showed you your drawer?”

“Not happily. He tried to push his weight around, and I gave him a piece of my mind.”

“Uh-huh.” I could tell by her tone that she knew exactly what had happened.

I clenched my fists. “And then I had sex with him. Okay? Happy? I slapped him across the face, then gave in and banged him.”

“Well. You sure showed him.” She raised her hand and grabbed something imaginary. “Toot, toot.”

“What are you doing?”

“All aboard for the train of bad decisions.” She tugged what I now realized was a chain again. “Toot, toot.”

“It was just this once,” I said, trying really hard to believe it. Maybe if I said it enough, it would be true. “Now I know what it was like, the question was answered, and I’m done. It’s out of my system. Besides…” I wiped my hand across my suddenly flushed face. “Guys like him just want the conquest. He got it, and now he’ll get bored. It’s finished.”

“Guys expecting to get bored don’t give a woman her own drawer.” She glanced back at the large canvas sack I’d stolen from his closet and stuffed nearly full. I dragged it along the hall behind me. “And they surely wouldn’t expect the object of their affection to then steal everything out of said drawer and take off.”

“That’s his fault. Clearly he doesn’t know me very well.”

“Clearly.” She stopped at a double door, one of the doors slightly cracked.

“Wait…” I blinked and looked around. In my Kieran-induced haze, I’d shut off my survival instinct, thinking wrongly that Bria would lead me out of the house. Kieran had texted her the instructions, after all.

Stupid me.

“Where are we?” I asked in hush.

“Valens’s room. Probably. Come on, let’s have a quick look.”

“Wait, what? No!” I looked down the empty hall, half expecting Valens to come strolling along at any moment. “We need to get out of here.”

“We will. Right after we have a look.”

“Bria, no. Wait.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her back, rougher than I’d intended. “We just had a narrow miss. We can’t chance another run-in.”

Bria faced me, her bearing confident and mood calm. I had no idea how she did it. Or how she was still alive.

“We’ve been through all this…to give up in the final hour?” she asked, her tone disappointed. “We’re right here, Alexis. We’re right outside his door, and we’ve got time. Time that we’re wasting right now. That trophy room gave us a couple great clues. Maybe this room will give us another. Or hell, maybe he’s got the skin in there. I wouldn’t doubt it, as fucking nutty as he clearly is. You think a drawer is a bit much? This guy built a fountain. A fucking fountain, Alexis. It would stand to reason that his room would have something of interest. And if it doesn’t, I bet his office would…”

I held up a finger while pressing my lips together, matching her disapproval. “I might be convinced to duck into this room for a moment, but I am not going into his office. I am drawing a hard line on that one.”

A smile spread across her face and she winked. “I figured that would work. Come on.”

She pushed open the door and dashed into the room.

She’d just played me. I needed to stop being so damn gullible.

Light greeted me as I stepped into the large room, a tiny bit smaller than Kieran’s, but twice as plush. Half of the view was a sparkling blue expanse, and the other half appeared to be the corner of the neighbor’s beautifully cultivated yard and the glittering orange of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. In keeping with the rest of the house, a cream rug spread across the hardwood floor and a gaudy mirror and some crappy abstract paintings decorated the walls. An enormous bed jutted out in the middle of the room, and a little sitting area comprised of a cream couch and a white-topped coffee table had been arranged beside the windows. An uncomfortable looking chair pushed back against the wall next to the dresser.

“Clearly someone was just trying to fill the room,” Bria said, already scanning the bookcase in the far corner. “What stupid little knick knacks in front of a useless shelf of books. I mean, if he’s some great reader and didn’t want to walk down the hall to get—”

I let her words drift away as I closed my eyes, slipping smoothly into that light trance. The more I did it, the more natural it felt.

No magic buzzed through my body. No vibration beckoned to me. The room was clear.

“Nothing,” I said, opening my eyes as disappointment dragged at me. It would’ve been so much easier if he’d been keeping the skin in his closet. Or under the bed. But he wouldn’t have stowed it somewhere and left it unprotected.

“Are you sure?” Bria asked, moving toward the closet as though she’d heard my thoughts.

I nodded, looking over a weird statue on the dresser, and then a picture of a little boy, four or five, with a tiny fish on the end of his fishing pole. Wild weather whipped the boy’s hair and boiled in the sky. White points capped the waves in the body of water behind the boy—a lake or a bay. The bow of a simple wooden boat could be seen in the corner of the frame.

“Kieran,” I said, leaning closer. I could see the resemblance of this little face to the man he was today, his triumphant smile making those stormy blue eyes glitter with pride. His cheeks and the tip of his nose were red, the biting cold leaving its effect. “Kieran in Ireland. Must be. We don’t get weather that extreme here, not even in the magical zone when Valens is in a bad mood.”

Bria stopped behind me. “You must be right. Wow. I wouldn’t expect Valens to be a proud papa.”

“Me neither. But then, I wouldn’t have expected him to have a big fountain of his dead wife, whom he basically tortured. Just goes to show…”

“That he’s a nutter, I know.” Bria nodded as I moved away. “Jump off that train, lady. This isn’t a family you want to join.”

I did a quick scan of the other surfaces. I didn’t really know what I was looking for… until I found it.

On his nightstand, the last thing he saw before he rolled over and closed his eyes, was a photo of the subject of the fountain.

“Where is this?” I pointed at the photo of Kieran’s mother on a beach, her raven hair ripped to the right by a gust of wind, her smile wide and gorgeous on her beautiful face. Her cream dress billowed, alive and electric. She looked young and free and without any worries. White foam crawled up the wet sand behind her, a wave coming in and reaching for her bare feet. Far in the background, a violent wave had just crashed against a jagged cliff, throwing spray into the air. The effect framed the photo, setting her off perfectly.

The photo was stunning. She was mesmerizing.

“Where is this?” I repeated, tapping the glass with my finger.

Bria leaned in and an oh shit expression crossed her face. “It’s the edge of Ocean Beach. Just down the way.” She grinned triumphantly. “You were right all along. Look at you, reading people. Come on! Let’s unleash the Kraken.”

25

Alexis

Mordecai jumped out at us as we ran across the front yard of a neighbor’s house down the street from Valens’s. Kieran told us to hop fences until we reached the blue house, and then go out through the side of their yard—they were rarely home.

“I was worried sick,” Mordecai said, his eyebrows lowering in confusion as his eyes shot from my attire to the sack I lugged behind me. “Did you steal something?”

“Is it stealing if it was bought for you by a misguided Demigod who wants his way?” I returned.

“No, it is not. It is reclaiming what is yours. You are totally in the right.” Bria stopped up short when she noticed the Mercedes was gone. “Well shit. We have to hoof it.”

Without skipping a beat, she pointed down the hill and picked up the pace.

“No, no. Wait—” Mordecai cut off as a black BMW rolled toward us from the opposite direction, stopping by the curb. The tinted window lowered, revealing an angry-faced Jack.

“Good thing he holds grudges,” Bria said, changing direction. “He’s the one we need.”

We climbed into the car, Bria sitting in the front passenger seat to take the brunt of Jack’s anger. I’d already been yelled at by Kieran—it was her turn to take some heat. Besides, she was the one who’d actually dosed him.

Jack slammed the car into gear before easing pressure onto the gas pedal. If it had been a different situation, I was sure he would’ve stomped on it and peeled out. But we had to maintain a low profile.

“What happened to the Mercedes?” Bria said, pulling out her phone.

“Zorn dropped it in another part of town,” Jack said, fury simmering just below the surface. Either he was terrible at hiding his anger, or he didn’t want to. “Kieran didn’t want it drawing attention up here.”

“Cool,” she said, not affected by the intensity of the large man next to her. “We need to head to the top of Ocean Beach by the cliffs.” She showed him a picture. “This end. Just down the hill.”

He didn’t glance over. “Like hell we do. I’m taking those two home, and you—”