Page 29 of Another Damned Storm
I was too stunned to react when the stranger—who bore way more than a passing resemblance to my kid brother—scooped me up in his arms and hugged me tight.
“Goddamn, Never. I was starting to think I’d never see you again.” His voice was gruff but still so familiar that I wanted to cry.
I didn’t know what to say or do. My gut was telling me this rough, scarred man was, in fact, my brother, but he’d been a lanky, baby-faced seventeen-year-old the last time I’d seen him.
A few short months ago, by my calendar.
“What happened to you?” he asked, setting me on my feet. “Where have you been all these years?”
All I could do was stare. He was about the right height, maybe an inch or two taller. His eyes were the same as my Matty’s. But this dude was stacked with muscle, and the beard was really throwing me.
“Never? Shit, are you okay? Did one of them get you?” He stepped back and gave me a once over.
“I’m fine,” I croaked, but that was so far from the truth it hurt to even say it.
I studied him, and I mean really studied him. His short, spiky hair glistened with moisture and all the youthful roundness was gone from his face.
“How…” I hesitated because I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear the truth on that just yet. “I have so many questions.”
His head quirked sideways. “Same here. Let’s get out of this rain first, then we’ll catch up.”
The authority in his voice caught me off guard, but I nodded anyway. “Should we help Kai?” I asked, casting a glance at the young man working his blade like a saw through the first demon’s thick neck.
Matty looked up to the sky and the sliver of sunshine breaking through the clouds. “Nah. My team can handle things from here.”
“What if there are more demons?”
He pointed up. “The sun’s coming back out. They’ll be fine. Just give me a sec.” He walked over to the woman and said something quietly.
I tried to hear what they were discussing, but I couldn’t make out a single word. It didn’t help that my brain was churning on the sun detail. Was he implying the demons came with the storm?
“Are you satisfied?” I swallowed back a startled yelp and wheeled around to read Tenebris the riot act for sneaking up on me. “Your brother is safe and sound.” He held up a finger. “And before you say anything, remember, they still cannot see me.”
“How convenient,” I growled under my breath.
“Now that you’ve seen him, we really should be going.”
“Not yet.” Matty was alive, and he might have become some kind of urban warrior, but he was years older now. Decades. And I definitely wasn’t convinced he was safe.
Then there was Lily. I would never forgive myself if I trudged off back to the Alius without finding her first.
“Never?” Matty’s voice was laced with concern. “Everything okay?”
“Yep.” I hit Tenebris with a sideways glare. “Just arguing with myself. No biggie.” Then I went to join my brother.
He led me down the street to an old warehouse that used to distribute and store floor mats for businesses. The company’s weathered green and white logo was still faintly visible on the cinderblock wall. Only now, a heavy steel fence topped with razor wire ran around the outside.
Inside that fence, the space was more like a compound than a defunct business. A man and woman dressed in black rain jackets stood guard at the gate. At least a dozen other people were walking between the buildings, and two more watched us enter from the highest rooftop, the barrels of their rifles winking over the ledge.
“What is this place?” I asked. It reminded me of a military base, except there were no matching uniforms and only a handful of people appeared to be armed.
“Officially, it’s known as Rutledge Compound. But I call it home, sweet home,” Matty said.
“You live here?”
He nodded. “A lot of what you see from out here was converted into living quarters a couple of years ago.” He opened a heavy steel door. “And this is our headquarters.”
“I feel like I’ve missed a lot,” I admitted. You know, like about twenty years of my little brother’s life. “How old are you now?”
