Page 24 of Another Damned Storm (Another Damned #3)

HOOK

“We need to go,” Never said.

I caught her by the wrist. “Wait.” While I had no reason to doubt Criton was telling the truth about Thrain’s presence in the human realm, that wasn’t the deal we’d made.

“I believe you misunderstood the arrangement, Criton. I don’t simply want to know that he’s in this world.

I was clear about being alerted the moment he steps foot in it.

Telling me he’s here now and has been since you dropped in does little to help me. ”

Never started to protest but stopped when I squeezed her wrist, despite the need to argue bubbling through our connection.

He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t misunderstand anything. I was just hoping to move things along. Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

“I mean it, Criton. Timing is important.”

Never tugged free of my grip. “Which is why we need to get back. If he’s already there, that means he’s raining demons down on that park again.”

I wasn’t sure that was quite how the storms worked, but rather than respond to the worry coursing through her, I squared my attention on Criton.

“Watch him. The next time he leaves Othrys, find out exactly where he goes and come find me.” I tipped my face toward the sky.

“Until then, it’s probably best if you keep a low profile. ”

“I always do,” he replied. “But you do know I can only find you if I can, well, find you.”

Translation: I would have to remain unwarded for the duration. It wasn’t ideal, but so few things were in reality. “I will make myself available.”

With that, he vanished in his unique way.

“If you aren’t protected, there’s no point in draining your energy keeping these wards charged,” Never said, starting to slide the bracelet off her wrist.

I reached out to stop her. “Leave it on.”

“Why?”

“The council may or may not know we’re here, and if they don’t, I’d prefer not to tip our hand just yet.”

“Can one of you take me back?” Lily asked, looking expectantly between us. “If there’s a storm brewing, I need to be there to help my people.”

Never nodded. “And I want to go check on Matt and Angie.”

“Do you want me to take you?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I think I can get there. I’m starting to get a handle on how things feel different here.”

“Very well. I’ll take you, Lily.” I turned to Never.

“And I’ll come find you shortly, but please, love, leave the bracelet on.

” I could see the wheels in her mind turning.

She wanted the council to see her. And me.

She wanted them to know exactly what we were up to because then they would see what Thrain and possibly Lapalme were up to.

What she didn’t understand was that justice amongst gods didn’t work the way it did with humans. No matter how right we might be about this one thing, we were both still breaking the rules just by being here .

“Promise me, Never.”

She rubbed her lips together. “I’ll keep it on.”

The relief that trickled through my veins was minimal, but it was something. “Thank you.”

I waited for her to make the trip, ensuring she made it safely out of the tiny town with its withering barriers before holding my hand out to Lily. “Shall we?”

She slapped her hand into mine. “Giddy up.”

If our situation had been even slightly less stressful, I might have smiled at that. Instead, I set my mind on Salus and flashed.

The moment we arrived, it was obvious something was wrong.

Electricity saturated the air making every hair on my body stand on end.

I’d intentionally flashed us to the roof of the main building to keep us out of sight of any non-pack looky-loos, and the view of the storm from that vantage point was like something out of the old days.

Lightning touched down in the dying park over and over again. The bone-numbing thunder from one blast would still be rumbling when another strike would send up a shower of sparks. And another. But there was no rain to speak of.

“Is this how the storms always are on this side?” I yelled, fighting to be heard over the deafening roar.

Lily’s tigress eyes reflected each of those strikes. She shook her head. “You should go find Never.”

Everything inside me wanted to do just that. Thrain’s power was obviously growing, and quickly it would seem, but I didn’t relish the idea of leaving Lily to fend for herself.

I leaned out over the edge of the roof and peered down. “Where are your people?”

Crash. More lightning, this strike hitting the faded yellow upright on the far side of an overgrown field.

“They should be inside,” she hollered back.

A barely audible scream cut through the noise, and that was when we spotted the two figures racing through the field.

The woman was throwing terrified glances over her shoulder as she all but dragged a young boy through the tall grass.

The second time the little one fell, the woman swung him up into her arms and tried to carry him.

Half a breath later, two vicious, snapping demons burst through the fence surrounding the sanctuary hot on their heels.

“Mina!” Lily backed up a few paces and took a running leap off the roof. The move was a thing of beauty, because not only did she manage to shift fully into her tiger in midair, she also hit the ground from a twenty-five foot drop, rolled once, and launched into a dead run.

Rather than give chase, I flashed myself in the path of the oncoming demons, but in the second it took me to make that trip, one of them had already caught up with the woman and ripped her off her feet. The boy, however, was nowhere to be seen.

One thing at a time.

Lily and I worked together to dispatch the two demons, me slicing with my blade and battling with my strength, her using her teeth and claws to inflict an impressive amount of damage.

The whole fight lasted less than a minute, and by the time it was over, the towering clouds birthing the brutal electrical storm had begun to dissipate.

The demons were relatively weak compared to the few Never and I had fought earlier. There was one oddity, though, in the way they kept fighting to get back to the woman’s bloody body. Almost as though they were too hungry to focus on the fight through their bloodlust.

Lily’s tiger prowled through the thigh-high grass, letting out a roar filled with a mixture of concern and undeniable authority as she combed the area searching for the boy.

Despite the clawing need to be at Never’s side, I helped with the search. My connection with her was open enough that I could tell she wasn’t in danger. There was some concern and frustration bleeding through, but nothing to indicate she’d seen the kind of excitement Lily and I had.

Before long, we were joined by a handful of others, some in human form, some shifted into their various animals, but it was Lily who found the boy. He was fully shifted into a small copper-furred fox cub, curled around a trembling branch high up in a tree.

It took some coaxing to get him down, but she managed it.

It wasn’t until a little later, as I watched her giving orders to the others and coordinating how to handle the young mother’s remains, all while comforting the traumatized child who refused to leave her side, that I realized she was doing the job she’d been born to do.

Lilith Shere, daughter of Luther and princess of the Shere pack. She was meant to take over as alpha of that noble pack someday, but now that she’d created a pack of her own, it was unlikely she would ever return to her old life.

“What’s got that big brain of yours spinning, Atlas?” she asked quietly, stroking the boy’s unruly hair as he clung to her leg.

I offered her my most sincere smile. “Your father would be proud of the leader you’ve become.”

She just stared at me, a hint of tears shining before she blinked them away. “I’m doing what anyone else would have done. Nothing more.”

“And modest to boot.” It was one thing to take in your own kind as a shifter. Taking in strays regardless of breed, banding them together, protecting them, and fostering the kind of loyalty she’d so clearly earned amongst her people? That was unheard of .

She shook her head. “Tough times, Atlas. They have a way of bringing people together.”

“That they do.” They also had a way of turning people against each other. It all depended on who was leading the charge. “Can I ask you about Matt?”

Her expression hardened ever so slightly. “Simon, sweetie, I need to have a chat with my friend here. So, I’m going to have?—”

He clung tighter to her leg and shook his head furiously. The easy thing would have been to give in to the boy’s silent demand and have the conversation. At his age and with what he’d just witnessed, it was unlikely he would retain much of it in the long run.

Not Lily. She gently peeled his hands away and kneeled until she was eye-to-eye with him. “Simon,” she said softly. “It’s going to be okay.” She motioned to someone behind me, and another woman hustled over. “I want you to go with Carmella.”

“No,” he whined. “I want to stay with you.”

She took his chin between her index finger and thumb, so all his attention was on her. “Go with Carmella. I promise I will come find you when I’m done.”

Even from a few feet away, and even though that quiet exchange wasn’t meant for me, I could feel the gentle power in the command. Luther would most certainly be proud of his daughter.

The boy blinked at her before nodding. Then he looked up at the other woman, took her hand, and toddled off like a good boy. Lily watched him go until he was well out of earshot, then turned back toward the field and the section of fence the demons had smashed through. “Are you up for a walk?”

“Indeed.” I waited until we were in the shade of the trees to ask my first question. “How close are you and Matt?”

Lily seemed to consider that for a moment.

“After you and Never disappeared back to the Nassa, I basically took over the big sister role. I helped him through high school and college. Helped him find his first job. Hell, I was even the best woman at his wedding,” she said, a note of sadness coloring the memory.

“And now?”

“Not so much.”

“Can I ask what happened to drive a wedge between the two of you?”

She motioned to the trees. “The storms. The demons. The hate and mistrust that tore through our community when people realized how much of their own world had been hidden from them.”

“Hidden? How?”

“Maybe that’s not the best way to put it.

A lot of humans fantasize about magic and shifters and demons and gods, but when they’re faced with the reality that they already live in a world teeming with those things, it’s like their brains reject the idea.

” She shook her head. “Only it’s more than just rejection.

There's hostility there. A kind of entitlement, like this is their world alone and they shouldn’t have to share it. ”

“That is remarkably short-sighted.” Especially considering shifters had wandered the realm long before humans existed.

She let out a huff. “It’s tough to see the long view when you only live eighty years.”

She had a point there.

“I take it you and Matt had a falling out then?”

Lily ran her hand along a stretch of chain-link fence. “There wasn’t one thing, if that’s what you mean. We just grew apart. We still work together and share intel when we have it, but it’s nothing like it was.”

“You miss him.”

She cast me a sidelong glance. “Of course, I do. And Angie. That girl is as smart as Never was at her age, with an attitude to match.”

The thought made me smile. “Never must have been a handful at that age.”

She paused to kneel and examine a section of fence that had been torn away. “You have no idea. Her mom was a piece of work, but Never gave as good as she got. The difference was she was always looking out for Matt.”

And that was where I feared Never wasn’t seeing clearly. “Do you trust him?”

She glanced up, a warning glittering in her eyes. “Careful, Atlas. We might not be as close as we used to be, but I still love the kid. I was there the day their mom brought him home, and I’ve been there every day since.” She let out a tired breath. “At least I was, until all of this started.”

I held up my hands. “No disrespect intended.”

She stood and scrutinized me for several seconds before resuming her inspection. “To answer your question: push come to shove? Yeah, I would still trust Matt with my life.”

“And Never’s?”

“Yes.” She shook her head as though it was a ridiculous question. “Matt adored—adores—his big sister. I’m sure seeing her like this after so much time has passed is throwing him for a bit of a loop, but he’s still her little brother.”

“Then why did I sense so much animosity from him?”

Lily let out a bark of laughter. “Seriously? He just got her back. After everything he’s lost…”

“And what is that?”

“His wife, for starters. His home.” She turned to face me. “The love of his life was killed in a demon attack three years ago, making him a widow and a single dad trying to survive in this nightmare.”

Ah. I could see how that would change a person. “Why didn’t he take his daughter and leave Charleston? He has to know there are safer places in the world.”

“Maybe he stuck around because Charleston is all he really knows. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that stubbornness runs in their genes.” She shrugged. “He refused to accept that Never might be dead. Maybe he stayed in the hope that he would see her again.”