Page 17 of Another Damned Storm (Another Damned #3)

NEVER

“Shit.” The muttered curse filtered through the tangles of yellowing vines as Angie pushed her way through.

“Like father, like daughter?” I whispered in Matty’s—Matt’s—direction.

If he heard me, he didn’t bother looking my way, and I couldn’t blame him. This was exactly the kind of stunt he would have pulled when he was younger. Only the park was safer then.

I couldn’t imagine what he was feeling seeing his teenage daughter risking life and limb to follow us, especially after the nasties I’d seen lumbering out of these woods earlier. Then again, I still didn’t know just how dangerous the park was when a storm wasn’t looming overhead.

If his reaction was anything to go by, it was still the last place he wanted to find his daughter.

Hook shot me a look with one expressive brow arched. All I could do was shake my head. This was one of those things that could be explained later. You know, when we weren’t all creeping through demon central.

Matt tried to lead, but I maneuvered around him with a glare, and he eventually settled into a position behind Angie, with Hook taking up the rear.

I was still on the fence about whether to fill my brother in on the whole immortality thing.

Partly because I wasn’t entirely convinced I was immortal in the human realm.

Shit was weird here, right down to how I was being pulled in a few different directions at once. I came here to check on my brother, and I’d found him caught up in a world where demons and destruction were the new norm. That was one.

There was also Hook. And damn, that man had a strong fucking pull. Even quietly working our way out of the park, I could feel his eyes on me. His anger and relief and desire all pulsed through our connection.

Beneath that, the Alius was calling to me too. That dark lure was a different beast altogether. I’d gotten just a taste of what my power could do in that realm, and I’d liked it a little too much. But the realm had gotten a taste of me too, and that greedy bitch wanted me back.

And, finally, there was another tug, this one tied to a certain broody pirate but separate from him.

I couldn’t begin to explain how I knew it was the Nassa drawing me back—through him—but I knew.

It had been nagging at me since the moment Tenebris swept me through space to the Alius, and it was only getting stronger.

They all were.

Once we made it through a small break in the fence surrounding the park, Matty—Matt—placed a firm hand on Angie’s shoulder. “You, young lady, are in a heap of trouble.”

She shook her head. “But nothing happened!”

“Thank the stars for that favor.” His stance softened a touch. “We got lucky. What if something had happened, Ang?”

“I would have fought, just like you and Never and this guy.” She gave Hook a little wave. “Hi. ”

His scowl turned into a devilish smirk, and he dipped his head. “Hello, young lady.”

Matt glared daggers at him before turning back to Angie. “You are fifteen years old. That is too young to be fighting demons.”

I bit my tongue to the point of pain to keep my retort from slipping out. I’d started hunting demons with my mom when I was ten. By fifteen, I was doing it on my own more often than not.

Granted, I’d tried harder to shelter Matt when he was younger. I wanted him to have a normal life. So, he’d only been on a few daytime hunts with me by the time he was seventeen. But there was a mountain of difference in maturity between fifteen and seventeen.

Not to mention, back then, we’d been the only ones who could see the demons. At least that I knew of. That was something I needed to remember to ask him about later.

“I’ve been training with Aunt Lily,” she countered.

He was unimpressed. “You are not to step a single foot—a single toe—in that park. You got it?” When she opened her mouth to argue, he shook his head. “This is not a democracy. Just nod.”

She didn’t. Instead, she glared up, her feisty brown eyes daring him.

“Or you can spend the rest of your natural life locked in the compound,” he offered.

Angie’s defiant expression faltered. “You wouldn’t.”

Matt ducked down until he was eye level with her. “There is nothing I won’t do to keep you safe.”

“Including making me a prisoner?”

He laughed, but it was a humorless sound. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg, sweetheart.”

She huffed, turned on her heel, and mumbled something under her breath as she stomped across the street toward Rutledge Compound.

“What was that?” he called after her.

She whipped around and yelled, “Mom never would have treated me like this!”

Matt winced. It was obvious that Angie’s teenage emotions had gotten the better of her. I’d lashed out like that once or twice when I was her age, but even I felt the sting of that comment.

I braced for my brother to yell something back, but he didn’t. He just watched her stalk off and kept watching until she was past the guards and inside the gate.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean that,” I offered.

“I know.” He closed his eyes for a second and pinched the bridge of his nose. “She is my daughter, after all.”

Ooo, was that a little snark? “I was just trying to help. I was a teenage girl once.”

He let his hand fall. “Yeah? Well, when I was a teenager my only real family was ripped out of my world with a demonic shadow inside her. Believe me, I know what it feels like to let my emotions run my mouth.”

“I take it you gave Lily a tongue-lashing once or twice?” I asked, trying to shift the conversation.

He rolled his eyes. “She gave it right back.”

I bet she did.

“But that’s in the past,” Matt said, rolling his shoulders back. “Just like this disagreement will be, soon enough. In the meantime, we should get the introductions out of the way.” He stretched out a hand to Hook. “I’m Matt, Never’s brother.”

Hook took his hand and shook it firmly. “Atlas, Never’s…” he let the statement drift.

“Mate,” I supplied .

“Mate,” Hook echoed, with satisfaction surging through our connection.

They broke apart, and Matt glanced between us. “If your name is Atlas, why does she call you Hook?”

“Because he’s a pirate,” I said, remembering the day I blinked awake on the beach to see him looming over me. His whole get up was something straight out of a pirate movie.

“And a god?” Matt asked. “Because I have to say, you don’t look like I would imagine a god looking.”

“How should a god look?” he asked.

“Bigger, for one,” Matt said. From the lift of his brow and the curve of his lips, he was baiting him for fun.

“I see. Would it be better if I were in a flowing robe and with a long beard too?”

“And maybe a magical staff.”

Hook chuckled. “If all gods looked like that, how would we ever tell each other apart?”

That piqued my brother’s interest. “How many gods are there?”

“Hundreds.”

“Seriously?”

“Indeed,” Hook confirmed.

Matt glanced toward the park before turning back to Hook. “I thought you were cursed to that other realm. How did you get here?”

Now that was a good question. I’d only been in the park for a few minutes, and I was still trying to find the best place to summon him when he’d materialized right in front of me.

“I found a way around the rules.” Hook gave me a look that said we’d be having that discussion later, when we were alone.

“How did you know how to find Never?” Matt asked.

“I followed my heart,” he said quietly. Warmth and affection washed over me, but it was clear my brother wanted a better explanation. “What matters is that I am here, she is here, and you are… much older than I remember.”

“Twenty-six years,” I said. Hook just nodded as if that were totally normal. “I know you said time moves differently between realms, but jumping decades in a few months? That seems a bit extreme.”

“It slips and slides, love. There’s no predicting it.”

My stomach sank. “How long ago did I leave?” I almost added ‘you’ but clipped the question short. It wasn’t like I’d had any desire to leave him. Between needing to make sure my brother was okay and my love for Hook, my heart was slowly being torn in two.

“A matter of days,” he said. A flutter of relief loosened the vice squeezing my chest before he added. “And every one felt like an eternity.”

Damn him. He knew just how to make it hurt, always in the best way.

“Is there somewhere Hook and I can go to talk privately?” I asked Matt.

He pursed his lips, but a crack of thunder drowned out his response. We all looked to the sky.

“Again?” I asked. The clouds were building right above us, and fast. I’d seen something similar in the last few weeks in the Nassa, but we’d always had time to get back to the ship and batten everything down.

“Everybody inside, now!” Matt bellowed. People down the street ran for cover, but I didn’t move.

“You go,” I insisted. “I want to see what the hell is going on here.”

He grabbed me by the shoulders. “I just got you back, Never. You’re not dying on my watch.”

It took some internal wrestling, but I managed to pull Hook’s magic to the surface. The amber glow of my own irises shone bright in the reflection from my brother’s wide eyes. “I’ll be fine. But you and the others should find a safe place to hunker down.”

When I shot a glance at Hook, his attention was on the park. Deep growls and snarls carried on the building wind.

I shrugged out of his grip. “Go, Matty. Really. I’ll be fine.”

Uncertainty swam in his eyes, but he gave me a firm nod. Then he was running, yelling orders. I had a feeling with the attack earlier, the only reason they’d stayed outside the compound walls to fight was because of me.

They’d thought I was the one who was in danger.

Boom.

Blinding light exploded all around us, the lightning striking a half-second before the air and ground shook with thunder. Another strike followed, then another, like a barrage of mortars assaulting the park. That was when I smelled it: sulfur and smoke.

“Shit,” I said under my breath.

Where the fuck is the rain when a girl needs it?

I’d just spotted yellow flames licking the darkening sky in the middle of the park when another bolt of lightning struck the fence in front of us. We were standing too close, and the force of the blast threw us both backward.

I scrambled to my feet. “You okay?” I asked, looking Hook over.

“I’m fine. You?”

I shook out my arms. “Good.”

At least until I realized the flimsy chain link standing between us and the park was now a melted mass of indeterminate metal.

And what did wild things do when their habitat caught fire?

Demons streamed out of the trees, at least a dozen of them, in all shapes and sizes. I glanced down at the dagger in my hand. It wasn’t much, but it was still better than nothing.

“Stay behind me,” Hook ordered.

“Not a chance.”

Frustration bled through our connection as he shifted his stance. “Do you recall how long it took me to heal after the explosion at that dead witch’s lair.”

I did. Several excruciating hours that I would rather not relive. “You’re not helping your case here, pirate.”

It didn’t matter anyway. The first of the demons charged through the opening. We slashed and fought, working together to take them down one at a time. When one caught my thigh, tearing it open with three wide gashes, I couldn’t help but scream.

Hook was right there, making the bastard pay for hurting me.

Much to my surprise—and relief—the wounds healed themselves quickly. The only downfall was that the repair drained my energy noticeably.

So, not quite invincible.

I swiped my blade at a massive monster with two heads and arms the size of tree trunks. It knocked me out of the way like I was nothing, sending me tumbling across the ground as it swept back and snatched up Hook in its deadly grip.

A jolt of anticipation shot through the link, then it went dead.

“No!” I screamed, dragging myself to my feet and barreling toward the beast. In the back of my mind, I knew Hook would be fine. A broken back or neck, or whatever the fuck was wrong with him, wasn’t enough to take him out permanently, but feeling that abrupt loss shook me.

Only he wasn’t lying limp on the ground. He was fighting to break free of the creature’s hold .

Had he cut me off on purpose?

I bolted forward, ducking when its tail whipped around. It smashed into another demon, and in the space of a few seconds, the fight turned from an us against them situation to an all-out brawl. Demons fighting demons worked to our advantage, but it didn’t make sense.

Confusion and chaos slipped through me like a ghost, coupled with a powerful desire to return.

But to return where?

On instinct, I pulled myself to my full height. “Stop!” I let every ounce of power I could muster infuse the command, and sure as shit, the demons responded. It was just for a second, mind you, but it got their attention.

Hook shot me a shocked look, until a growl and snap set the whole demonic brawl back in action.

The sky opened up again a minute later, dumping cool rain down on us. A few of the demons took that as a sign to dash back into the park, but one or two tried to make a run for it down the street.

I gave chase, using my fancy new powers to run faster than I ever had before. It was like I was flying across the ground before I collided with a green slime-colored demon.

Another whisper of emotion had me pausing before I brought my blade down across the creature’s neck. It wasn’t coming from Hook. He’d cut me off cold. But it also wasn’t coming from me.

With my blade to the demon’s neck, I looked it square in the eyes, and what I saw sent a shiver through me. It was lost and confused.

And afraid?

I got the very real sense that this demon, and possibly some of the others, didn’t know where they were.

What if they didn’t come to our world willingly ?

Pulling back, I eased off him and pointed to the park. “Go,” I ordered.

The thing blinked at me, two sets of eyelids closing and opening twice. Then it was scrambling to its clawed feet and racing for the opening in the fence.

The other demon doubled back, and I braced for an attack, but it too gave me a wide berth.

When I turned to see Hook, he was watching intently, his blade slick with demon blood. If either looked like it was going to make a move for him, I would have zero mercy, but they both slipped through the fence and disappeared back into the dead trees.

Hook made his way to me, using the rain to rinse his blade before slipping it back in the sheath on his hip.

I thought for sure he would ask me what the hell I was doing letting two demons get away, but he just cupped my face in his hands and kissed me until I forgot all about the demons and the rain and everything except the taste of his lips.