Page 92 of Another Damned Storm
She pulled back, tears streaming down her face. “No.”
The tremor in that single syllable cut me open inside. I mayas well have carved out my still beating heart and strapped it on my sleeve for all to see.
She shook her head like she couldn’t believe what was happening. “The witch who was handling the radios on our side was killed in the attack. We haven’t been able to reach anyone since.”
Sonofabitch.
A jolt of pain shot through my link with Hook, followed quickly by a surge of anger. He had our connection throttled, giving me just a trickle, and to be honest, I was grateful for it. I needed to know he was alright, but I was barely holding my own seething thoughts and emotions in check as it was.
“Ang, listen to me. I need you to go to Lily and help her until I get back. Okay?”
Alarm colored her expression. “Where are you going?”
“To find your dad.” Then to find the demons who did this and make them pay.
Her fingers were talons when she latched onto my wrists. “I’m going with you.”
I shook my head. “You’re needed here.” And I wasn’t about to test whether I could flash with a passenger on my only niece. If anything went wrong, my brother would never forgive me. “I promise, as soon as I find him, I’ll come back here and tell you he’s okay.”
She held on tight, her short, painted nails digging into my skin. Her honey brown gaze searched mine desperately, but she must have found whatever she was looking for because she let go after a moment. “Thesecondyou find him.”
I traced an ‘X’ over my chest. “Cross my heart.”
I didn’t bother trying to find a quiet place to flash. The time for hiding what I had become was long past. Instead, I just focused on my brother, let my power rise, and boom, there Iwas—right smack in the middle of a whole different shit show on the other side of the park.
It took me a minute to realize there were no demons in this fight. This was straight up human on human. Well, and the few magical creatures that had been staying at Rutledge waiting for this showdown.
What the fuck were they doing? We were supposed to be working together.
“Enough!” I bellowed, letting my rising power bleed into the command. I didn’t really expect it to work, but enough people were startled that the fighting came to a quick end. “What the hell is happening here?”
The few people pinned to the ground fought to get free, but for each of them at least three others held them down. Several others backed away looking terrified, but that just made it easier to spot Matt peeling out of the crowd and working his way toward me.
“You have to get to Salus,” he said when he was closer. His voice had the calm, clear cadence of a battle-tested leader, but his eyes gave away the panic hiding beneath the surface.
“I was just there.”
He swallowed hard. “Angie?”
“She’s fine. Lily too. But not everyone was so lucky.”
He closed his eyes. “Son of a bitch.” When he opened them, he was nearly shaking with anger. He turned to the crowd. “Throw them all in the cells. Check them for weapons and anything they might be able to use to escape and give them nothing until I say so. No food, no water. I mean nothing.”
“What are you doing?” I asked, a little horrified by his order.
“We were betrayed. Thrain’s followers knew we were coming, and they attacked Salus.”
I looked at the faces of the people who were being hauled off. “Humans did this?”
He nodded. “I’m not sure who all among them was involved, which is the only reason they’re still breathing.”
Fuck it. Kill them all.
I balled my hands into fists and shoved the dark thought back down. There would be time for vengeance. Maybe there was a way I could latch onto the turncoats and take their worthless asses to the Alius with me, so their souls would be trapped in a place where they would be torn apart by monsters over and over, every day for eternity.
That seemed a fitting punishment.
I looked down at my hands, zeroing in on the one stained with Thrain’s blood, and I had the sudden, clawing need to scrub it with searing hot water until my skin was raw. I didn’t want even a drop of that asshole’s blood touching me.
