Page 87 of Another Damned Storm

“Seriously?” I glanced toward the shaft of light spilling through the window, and she followed my gaze. “Shit. We need to get up.” She wrenched herself into a sitting position.

It took a great deal of effort not to catch her around the waist and haul her right back down. “How are you feeling?” I asked.

She stood and stared down at her body. “Shiny and new.”

That was a relief. “I’m assuming you want to go see your brother.”

She nabbed her pants off the old dresser and shook them out. “Yeah. I was actually hoping to get back there earlier, before he has a chance to call a meeting with all of his people.”

I dragged myself up, letting my bare feet hit the intricately woven rug. “Are you expecting trouble?”

We both finished getting dressed as she filled me in on the conversation she’d had with Lily while I was flashing Matt and Angie back to their compound. His was a tragic story of losing the love of his life in one of the most horrible ways imaginable.

It certainly made it easier to sympathize with his dislike of magic. At the same point, it wasn’t something he would be able to ignore. If the girl’s mother was as gifted a witch as Lily said, she would begin presenting with her own powers before the year was out. Sooner if stress or fear pulled them to the surface.

If that weren’t complication enough, she also carried the same demon blood Never and Matt shared. Had he stopped to consider what that might mean for her magical abilities? Or for her… inclinations, so to speak.

Demon blood by itself didn’t guarantee that a person would turn out bad, but it did make it more likely for them to gravitate toward the darkness. For Never, she’d harnessed that impulse and turned it toward fighting demons at a young age. But for ayoung girl whose mother had died a violent death, who didn’t have a mentor to prepare her for what was coming, and who resented being caged and coddled… it was a recipe for trouble.

“His experience does explain some of the questions he had about our abilities,” I said.

Never checked to make sure her dagger was secure in her boot and straightened. “What did you tell him?”

“The basics. We are stronger and faster than humans, and I might be able to harness the power of the sea in the right situation.”

She opened her mouth to say something but closed it quickly. After a few seconds, she said, “Because the water here isn’t already all jacked up with magic, right?”

I smiled. “You do listen.”

She smacked my chest playfully. “I do, jerk. I just don’t always take advice when it's given.”

“Or follow orders.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I do so.”

“When it suits you.”

“Exactly.” She leaned up on her toes and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

We arrived in the room Matt had reserved for us, but as we moved through the corridors, they were eerily empty. Until we entered the one that funneled into the large community area. Low murmurs and a few angry shouts filtered through gaps around the heavy steel doors.

Never paused with her hand on the latch, peering through the small square of reinforced glass. Hesitation filtered through the link.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Just bracing for the crowd.”

She wasn’t the only one who had a dislike for large gatherings. “I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

She cast a grateful glance over her shoulder. “I know.”

Her confidence in me humbled me in ways I would never be able to explain. I reached around her and pressed the latch, letting the door swing open. The chaotic sound of a heated meeting flooded in around us, and at the center of it stood Matt and Lily, side by side.

29

NEVER