Page 6 of Another Damned Storm
The experience stole the air from my lungs, but not because of what she was doing. I could feel what she was feeling in that vision. She was barely holding on, fighting for her life while clinging desperately to what remained of her humanity.
3
NEVER
Leo’s home was hidden in the shade of a dense cluster of dwarf palms in the hills beyond the ivory beach of Nidus Island. For a guy who looked like a model-turned-surfer, I still hadn’t figured out why he chose to live so far away from the water.
His small hut was simple, rustic, and inviting in a casual way. There was no porch, just an eave overhanging his front door. Off to the side I spotted three surfboards stacked against the wall, which made his choice to live up here all the more perplexing.
I knew from what Hook and Lily had told me that Leo had once held a position of power in his pack, but I didn’t really understand the structure. At least, not beyond the fact that Lily’s father—Leo’s uncle—was the pack alpha and had been for centuries.
“Leo?” I called out. It was probably safe to knock. The door might have been made of hollow bamboo poles woven together, but it seemed sturdy enough. It just didn’t really matter because the guy never closed his windows.
“Out back,” he answered.
I circled around the adorable home, with its thick thatchroof and earthen walls, to find him shoveling dirt into a shallow hole. Shirtless, as usual, with a sheen of sweat clinging to his golden skin.
When he spotted me, his tight smile had me pulling up short. “Hey, Never.”
“Hey,” I said uneasily. This wasn’t the first time I’d dropped in on him, but it was the first time I’d received a frosty welcome. Normally, my Adonis was all warm smiles that lit up his entire face and the kind of hugs that left a mark. “Everything okay?”
He glanced down at the freshly turned dirt. “I’ve been better.”
“Want some help?” I had no idea what he was burying, or how long Hook and Rue would need to talk, but I figured I had at least a little time.
Leo shook his head. “Nah. Just about done here.”
I wanted to make a joke about what he was burying, like maybe he was laying his last surviving shirt to rest, but given his mood, I figured it was safer to keep my mouth shut. It only took him a few minutes to finish filling in the hole, then he grabbed a weathered rug and spread it out over the top.
“Buried treasure?” What else would warrant him hiding the evidence that he’d buried something?
He walked over and hung the shovel next to the other tools lining the back wall of his home. “Something like that.” When he turned, a little of the tension faded from his features. “What brings you to my island on such a fine day?”
I glanced up to the sky, forgetting for a second how dense the canopy was around Leo’s place. “Was that sarcasm?”
“Ifyouhave to ask, one of us is slipping.”
Maybe I was. I hadn’t felt quite like myself since the whole waking up with godly powers thing. I mean, I was still me, and I was, like, ninety-five percent the same. That other five percent, though? That shit was something else.
I eyed him, then the muggy forest surrounding us. Screw it. I had to ask. “Why are you living all the way up here? Shouldn’t you be enjoying the good life closer to the beach, especially since you were the one who sacrificed decades of your life to find the beloved princess of your pack?”
He rolled his eyes and dropped into one of the weathered Adirondack-style chairs circling his firepit. “I’ve been told a real hero would have brought her back.”
“Who the hell fed you that line of crap? Because they deserve a swift kick to the nuts, and I just happen to be wearing my nut-kicking boots.”
He folded his arms over his broad chest, which made him look even bigger. “Do you really think I need your help defending myself?”
“No, but I’m not the one hiding in the woods.”
He tipped his head to the side. “My pack knows where to find me. I’m just not earning any points with them living up here.”
“So, youarebeing deliberately anti-social.” I could understand that desire, at least.
He leaned his head back against the wooden planks and pulled in a deep breath, showing off the cords of muscle lining his neck in the process. “Pretty much.”
“Because you spent too many years around a horrible, psycho demon and her soulless hordes?” I asked, moving to stand in front of him.
He was being evasive. Which, fine, whatever. It was his right. I just thought we’d built the kind of friendship where we could talk about real things back when we were in my world. Sure, he’d almost killed me, and Petra’s shadow had almost killed him while it was taking my body for one of the worst test drives in history, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be friends, did it?
