Page 41 of Another Damned Storm

“The infamous Atlas, I presume?” A man said, stepping out from behind a towering longleaf pine tree.

I was on my feet in a blink, blocking his view of Never with my dagger in hand. His blue gaze struck me as vaguely familiar as it raked up and down my frame. To further my confusion, the chief emotion coming from Never was annoyance.

“I cannot believe you followed me,” she said, brushing brittle leaves and pine needles from her clothes.

The man didn’t advance, but I pointed the blade to keep him back all the same. “Who are you?”

Never reached out and guided my hand down. “This is Matty,” she said, looking as though she didn’t entirely believe it herself.

“Matt,” he corrected.

She rolled her eyes. “You’re going to have to give me more than a few hours to make that adjustment.”

His attention shifted, roaming the forest around us. “You got what you came for, right?”

Never looked up at me and nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then we need to go.” He didn’t explain and didn’t wait to see if we followed.

I was still trying to grasp the situation as Never marched ahead of me trying to catch up to him.

“Is that truly your brother?”

She turned and pressed a finger to her lips. “It surprised the shit out of me too,” she whispered back.

Why would she be whispering? Who were we hiding from?

A rustle in the brush to our left brought us all to a stop. Tension crackled in the air. Never pulled her dagger from her boot as Matt unsheathed a thin sword from the scabbard slung across his back. I weighed the unfamiliar blade in my hand, scanning the winking shadows around us.

“Demons?” she asked quietly.

“Probably,” her brother replied.

I inhaled deeply, scenting the air. It was filled with the sickly-sweet perfume of decay, but layered over top of that was the scent of… “Strawberries?” I asked.

Matt whipped around with a fearsome glare. “What did you say?”

I inhaled again and tapped the side of my nose. “Strawberries and cream.”

His expression turned positively furious. “Angela Never Hinkins,” he fumed. “Get your ass out here this minute.”

15

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.