He sat at the kitchen table as Mordecai made a disgruntled sound and pushed to standing. Apparently the whole crew would be eating at this residence, taking a break from ruling Magical San Francisco for the day.
“It’s fine,” Mordecai said testily. He gave Daisy a hard look. “It’s none of your business. Justleaveit.”
She put her hands on her hips as she watched him walk from the room.
“I don’t blame him,” Jerry said in his deep baritone,resting his forearms on the table. “What that lady did would crush any man’s ego.”
Daisy turned toward Jerry slowly.
“You weren’t supposed to say anything,Jerry,” Jack said, emphasizing his name. It was a joking sort of mocking they’d been doing since they met the giant a handful of years before. Jerry, alone and lonely on his solitary mountain, had been an instant addition to their crew, belonging with the rest of the misfits.
“Yeah,Jerry,” Donovan intoned, chuckling. “We aren’t supposed to let the angry little gremlin know the situation for fear of her retaliation. Mordecai and his broken heart said so.”
Jerry’s eyebrows slowly lifted. “Oops,” he said unapologetically.
He clearly wanted revenge for Mordecai, and the others knew she would get it for him. No one fucked with her family and got away with it.
“Spill, Giant,” Daisy demanded as Zorn slipped into another seat at the table. “Tell me everything.”
2
Cold rage slithered within Daisy as she moved through the darkness. Zorn drifted just behind, down the deserted alleyway. The cobblestones shone in the low light, wet with moisture from the heavy fog. Golden-yellow street lamps glowed with diffused halos. Somewhere a cat screeched before a garbage can rattled and a glass bottle rolled across cement.
With Zorn’s help, it hadn’t taken long to formulate a plan. Half a day only. All the information they needed on her target, Mordecai’s snake of an ex-girlfriend, was right at their fingertips. Daisy even had a picture so she could identify the woman easily. Tonight, slightly more than twenty-four hours later, she would take out the trash.
Near the end of the alleyway, Daisy paused and glanced around. Not a soul in sight.
Respectable people didn’t come to this corner of the dual-society zone. There was nothing but crime and criminals hiding from the law.
Her target was three floors up in the corner apartment. A known criminal’s apartment.
Turned out, Mordecai’s ex-woman dabbled in stolen antiques and collectibles. Her fuck-buddy on the side did, at any rate. Given it was the dual-society zone, this area wasn’t subject to Demigod Kieran and Lexi’s jurisdiction. They weren’t responsible for policing this area, and neither was the non-magical government. These people slipped through the cracks in this world and hoped no one bigger and stronger took notice.
Well. Now someone had. The woman deserved Zorn and Daisy coming after her, and the criminals she hung out with deserved to go dark. Permanently. Given the area, no one would give two shits about it. Kill or be killed. The nature of the game.
Daisy jumped up and grabbed the top of the fence. In a second she’d pulled herself over and landed almost silently on the other side. Zorn was at her side in a moment, making scaling a fence look graceful and easy. Garbage littered the walkway behind the building. She watched where she stepped and ducked under a lit window.
The fire escape barely hung down past the bottom of the second floor. She paused under it and waited. Zorn grabbed her thighs. She squatted and thenjumped. He lifted, hoisting her up so she could grab the bottom rung. He guided her back down to a soft landing and access to the higher levels. Easy-peasy.
On the second-floor landing, it was a cinch to then get up to the correct floor and step out onto the wide ledge. With light, confident steps, she made it around the corner of the building. Light spilled onto the ledge from a window up ahead. Just beyond, voices drifted out through an open window.
She slowed and glanced back at Zorn. His piercing eyes shifted down to her. Very little expression showed on his face. She knew very little emotion bubbled under the surface, either. At just over six feet and with a medium build, it was easy to underestimate the absolute beast he became in a fight. He’d imparted that knowledge to her early, starting when she was just fourteen. He’d taken her under his wing when usually he didn’t have time for anyone.
She tensed a little, and he nodded. After five years of training together, fighting together, doing jobs together, and getting into a hairy situation or two, they didn’t need words to communicate. He wasn’t much of a talker, anyway.
He fell back a bit. For the first time, she was taking point on a job. It was her right as Mordecai's sister and backup. Adrenaline and pride surged through her, along with an antsy feeling, like standing at a starting line, waiting for the pop of the gun.
She took a deep, steadying breath as she pulled aswitchblade out of her pocket. The bladesnickedas it sprang up. She stopped at the first window and tried it. Unlocked, as expected for a residence this high up and housing the people it did. Derelicts crashed here. They met their employer’s buyers, they partied, and they lounged around. That was the sum total of their existence. Or so it seemed on paper. Mordecai never should’ve gotten involved with people like this. He had a huge heart and he always wanted to help—people like this took advantage of guys like him.Hadtaken advantage.
Would die for taking advantage.
Daisy didn’t sense any souls in this room, so she lifted the window slowly.
Lexi’s blood magic gift had given her the usual perks—enhanced strength, speed, healing, and the ability to understand any language anywhere. But each Demigod also passed down something relative to their specific type of magic. In the case of Lexi, a Demigod of Hades, she’d passed on the ability to feel and identify souls, the thing Hades snatched as a person died and shed their skin. Or some such thing—she’d never been very interested in how it worked. Ghosts freaked her out.
Thankfully, she could only sense the souls of the living. Unlike Lexi, she wasn’t plagued with feeling or seeing the dead.
She climbed over the pane. A waft offunkassaulted her. She screwed up her nose in disgust. Itwas like someone had put dirty socks and a wet dog in a bowl and heated it up. Laundry lay strewn across all available surfaces. Soda cans and wrappers littered the ground. She had to watch her step to avoid stepping on anything and alerting the residents of her arrival.
