Page 1 of Another Damned Storm (Another Damned #3)

NEVER

Damp leaves slapped my face. Branches clawed at my clothes and scraped against my skin as I ran for all I was worth. My heart was beating so hard I could feel it in my throat, in my fingers, in the tips of my ears.

When I thought I’d run far enough, I paused and held my breath, ignoring my screaming lungs as I listened for any sign of my pursuer. Did I finally lose him?

A twig snapped in the darkness of the cursed tropical forest.

Fuck.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus my attention and energy on the beach. “Come on,” I panted. “I can do this.”

A split second later, the air around me changed. Success!

I opened my eyes, and sure enough, I’d managed to flash, just not far enough to escape. My footprints where I’d stopped were right there, a few worthless yards away.

The hair on the back of my neck shot to attention, but it was already too late. A big hand landed on my shoulder, pulling an involuntary yelp out of me. I wrenched free and flashed again, the wild power leaking out of me without any direction.

A silent sigh of relief slipped out when I realized I’d landed just a few yards away again. Rather than waiting to see if he spotted me, I flashed again and again, each time inching further and further from him.

I had no idea where I was. No way to get my bearings without revealing my location. But if I could get to the beach and reorient myself, I might stand a chance.

When the flashing created too much of a drain on my power, I ran, racing through the trees in the general direction of the beach. At least, that was the direction my gut was telling me to run.

The sound of boots thumping against the damp ground behind me chased me every step of the way.

How the hell does he keep finding me?

I ducked behind a large yellow fern and pictured the beach. The white sand, the gently lapping waves. I tried to imagine the feel of the cool breeze on my heated skin. Then I gathered the energy inside me and flashed again.

When I opened my eyes, I almost let out a whoop. I didn’t quite make it to my goal, technically, but I could see it from where I was crouched in the shadows of the foliage. A second later, Hook appeared, his boots sinking into the sand as he scanned the beach and the tree line.

The moment his eyes met mine, even in the shadows, I forgot how to breathe. Despite the blinding light of the midday sun, it was all too easy to see the ring of amber light rimming his irises.

He couldn’t possibly see me from there, could he?

His eyes narrowed, kicking my pulse up a notch. Which was saying something since I already felt like I might die of a heart attack.

I blinked. That was all. A nanosecond delay, but it was enough. Hook’s arms wrapped around me from behind like steel bands. I bucked and twisted, but damn him, he didn’t give me an inch.

So, I did the only thing I could and flashed again. I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that I needed to break free of his hold.

Shade engulfed me again, but he was still there, still holding me tight. “Nice try,” he whispered in my ear. “You should know by now that there’s nowhere you can run that I won’t find you.”

“Yeah?” I panted, fighting to ignore the shiver those threatening words sent tearing through me. “Well, try this on for size.” I flashed once more, imagining someplace cold.

Did I think it would work? Not a chance. Apparently, neither did Hook, because when the ground beneath our feet morphed into a snowy hillside, we both went down.

His grip loosened as we tumbled through soft white powder.

Down. Down. I slid the last few feet and scrambled for purchase, only to get yanked backward by an iron grip on my ankle.

Hook somehow managed to haul me under him and flip me at the same time, and when my head stopped spinning, he was straddling my hips with that gorgeous, irresistible smirk looming over me.

He licked his lips like a predator getting ready to devour its dinner. “Do you yield?”

I shook my head, and his responding growl reverberated in my bones.

“Then tell me, love: How do you plan on getting out of this little predicament?”

Could he tell how tired I was? This much flashing, then dragging him along for two of those short trips, was eating up my energy fast. But I still had something left in the reserve tank.

I leaned up and planted a hard kiss on his lips.

He kissed me back just as hard, our teeth clashing as his hand came up and cupped the side of my face to hold me in place .

Damned if he didn’t know just how to get to me.

Desire rose up inside me like a power of its own, almost drowning out the other thought I was struggling to keep in my head. But I couldn’t think about what I needed to do too hard or he would sense it. Luckily, if I was fighting this hard to not get lost in the moment, so was he.

That was one thing I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Hook wanted me.

It was all too easy to let myself sink into him, into the taste of him and the weight of his body on mine. His other arm wrapped around my waist, and he rolled to his back, dragging me on top of him as he went.

That was my opening. Despite the fire burning through me, I cupped his face in my hands, kissed him once more, and then somersaulted over his head and out of reach. The second I was on my feet, I flashed again.

I wasn’t oblivious to how dangerous this little game was, and not just because it riled the predatory side of my broody pirate every time we played.

The island was riddled with traps left over from Petra and her Lost. The band of soulless young men she’d collected over the centuries—what was left of them anyway—must have found some dark hole to hide in, because I hadn’t seen any sign of them since we’d trapped the demon at the bottom of the sea.

The entire realm was one big, beautiful nightmare. And yeah, there were probably safer ways for me to learn how to use my fancy new ability than a heated game of hide and seek, but there was something about the thrill of the chase I couldn’t deny.

And being hunted definitely wasn’t something I ever expected to enjoy quite so much.

Darkness swallowed me whole back in the forest. Humid air clung to me like a warm, wet blanket.

I glanced at my surroundings, searching for a hiding place.

Hook had the ability to follow me when I flashed.

An ability that sharing his power should have given me in return, logically, but that handy skill had only manifested in fits and starts.

“Now you’re just taunting me,” Hook said from behind me, his voice dipping low.

I whipped around to fight off his attack, but he was fast. He caught me by the waist and shoved me against a nearby tree. Despite my fucking killer ability to heal, he still cushioned the crush, bringing his hand up to cradle the back of my head before he planted another hard kiss on my lips.

And that wasn’t the only thing that was hard. He pressed into me, rolling his hips, showing me exactly how much this little game was getting to him. It was a special kind of torture, considering he wasn’t the only one affected by the primal hunt.

His heat, his scent, his hot breath on my neck... it all worked together to steal my focus.

“Do you yield?” he whispered in my ear.

God, I wanted to. A groan slipped out of me, and I stretched my neck to one side to give him better access.

“That wasn’t an answer.”

No, it wasn’t. It was an involuntary reaction to his proximity. I thought my attraction to him was bad when I first met him, but his pull was so much stronger now. Like gravity.

He gripped my hair and tugged hard enough to send a few little stings zinging across my scalp. “Say it, Never.”

It took far more effort than it should have to find my voice. “No.”

“Then fight,” he growled. The eerie amber glow in his irises shined even brighter in the darkness of the forest, and frustrated energy spilled through our connection. I just couldn’t tell how much of that frustration was sexual and how much was tied to my refusal to give in .

The dirty fighter in me was tempted to knee him in the balls. If he’d been anyone else pinning me to a tree the way he was, I would have done just that. But I couldn’t bring myself to inflict that kind of damage on him.

“Ah, ah,” he chided. “No going soft on me. This is training, remember? In a real chase, you won’t be running from me .”

Right. I could feel his frustration, which meant he could feel my hesitation. I slammed the door between us, reducing the emotional bleed to a trickle, and without weighing the pros and cons, brought my knee up hard.

A pained grunt exploded out of him, and his grip loosened. Guilt swarmed me. At the same time, though, a sense of satisfaction slipped through the cracks in my mental door.

“I didn’t think you would do it,” he wheezed.

Yeah, well, neither did I. And I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it either.

Before I could second guess myself, I thought of the beach on the far side of the island. I pictured staring out across the expanse of deep blue water with my feet sinking into the black sand.

The next thing I knew, I was there, but instead of watching the waves wash lazily over the sand a few yards away, they lapped at my boots.

The tide was far higher than it should have been in the middle of the day.

The reason, no doubt, had everything to do with the thick gray clouds lumbering through the sky toward the island.

Lightning struck in the distance. Once, twice. Then it lit up the sky like one of the fireworks shows Matty and I used to watch from the roof of our apartment building, alongside all the other poor souls who couldn’t afford tickets to see them fired off from the stadium.

The storm was miles away. It took several seconds for the muffled thunder to reach me, but something about that storm still managed to put my hackles up.

I turned toward the island and looked at the blue sky. It was like night and day. The sun shone brightly, and the brilliant colors of the surrounding plant life were a vivid reminder of how beautiful the island could be.

When it wasn’t trying to kill me.

Turning back toward the storm, a fresh chill washed over me. “That’s kind of creepy.” I needed to remember to talk to Hook about this. Then again, if I didn’t get my ass moving, he would catch up with me in time to have that conversation right there on the beach.

But there was no way in hell I was letting him win this game. The only problem was I was struggling with deciding on the next place to go. Where could I flash to where Hook might not find me right away? Preferably somewhere that didn’t take a shit ton of energy because I was dragging.

My thoughts were interrupted when the ground beneath me began to shake. “What the fuck?” I put my arms out to steady myself, trying to convince myself the wobble in my voice had nothing to do with fear.

I’d never been in an earthquake before, but if that was how it felt, count me out. The shaking churned my stomach and gave me that half-drunk, woozy feeling I got when I’d had one too many shots of tequila. The same feeling that pretty much guaranteed I’d be nursing a hangover the next morning.

That was what finally made up my mind. “Back,” I breathed. I needed to go back to the spot where I last saw Hook.

I tried to focus my mind and energy on that dark spot in the forest and the tree he pushed me up against. On the warmth of his body. “Please still be there,” I whispered, closing my eyes.

The next instant, searing heat washed over me. Sulfur filled my lungs. The ground beneath my boots crumbled, and my eyes flew open as I let out an involuntary scream.

Panic smashed into me like an out-of-control semi hitting one of those runaway truck ramps in the mountains. It burrowed through skin and muscle right to the heart of one of my worst fears.

“Shit!” I was teetering on the edge of a crater. And what was glowing in the bottom of that scary ass, oversized pothole?

Glowing hot lava.

“Mother shit fucker!” I’d had too many nightmares of being burned alive when I was a kid to think clearly. I fell on my ass and shuffled backward. The only problem was, the more I dug my heels in, the faster the ground gave out beneath me.