Page 58 of Another Damned Storm
I could feel her bristle even from a few feet away.
He must have picked up on the hostility pouring off her because he added, “By which I mean you have your own problems to deal with.”
He wasn’t wrong there. “How much do you know about the rise in demon activity over the last few years?” I asked.
He arched a brow. “Straight to the point, eh, Never?”
“Some things don’t change,” I answered.
Emerson nodded. “All I can tell you at this point is that the increase in demons crossing over into this realm appears to be localized to the Charleston area.”
Well, that was a relief. Kind of. “Any theories on why it might be happening?”
“I could give you a thousand potential reasons, but I would be shooting in the dark. However, while the demon summonings are confined to your city, other strange things have been popping up here and there.” He paused to watch an older couple walk by hand-in-hand. They were trying awfully hard to make it look like they hadn’t noticed us.
“Like what?” Lily asked, her voice carrying a note of impatience I wasn’t used to hearing from her.
“Small things mostly.” He shrugged. “The Brethren tracks the use of dark magic, and we’ve been seeing an increase in some of the more dangerous spells. We’ve seen a rise in lesser demons acting up, and we’ve identified a few areas where the barriers between worlds have thinned considerably. Like here.” He motioned to the park.
Which meant the locals were probably pretending not to see us because they’d seen too much weird shit recently. Cool. I couldn’t blame them. The universe was a strange place.
What I didn’t know was why he would ask us to meet him here of all places. Unless the barrier that was breaking down was between the human world and the Alius. The Brethren dealt with demonic threats in the human realm, and if a person wanted to split hairs, I could fall into that category.
Fuck me. “You’re not going to try to shove me back through into the Alius, are you?”
Surprise lifted his brow. “No.”
“Good, because I would find my way back here.”
He shot Hook a look that I couldn’t quite decipher. “And how would you do that?”
I did like Lily and Hook suggested and tried to let my power rise to the surface. All I wanted to do was make my eyes glow. You know, give him a glimpse like I did with my brother. What I got was a wave of anticipation rolling through me, a barely there tingle that lifted the hair on my arms, almost like I was amping myself up for a fight.
I didn’t even know the trick had worked until Emerson smiled. It transformed his scowly good looks into something genuinely handsome. “I thought there was something different about you.”
20
HOOK
“Enough with the show and tell,” I cut in. “Can you help?”
Emerson’s reluctant smile disappeared, and he was all business again. “I’ve told you what we know. In truth, we weren’t aware the situation in Charleston had gotten as bad as you say.”
“How is that possible?” Lily asked. “You and the others have your finger on the demon pulse in this realm, don’t you?”
He nodded. “But our attention has been pulled in many directions lately.”
“So, the storms and the demons aren’t limited to Charleston?”
“Yes and no.”
I glared at him. “That isn’t an answer.”
Emerson tipped his head back and stared up at the sky for a beat. “The storms weren’t registering as an odd phenomenon to our systems, but there are many areas where demons that have been in this world for lifetimes have started acting up.”
Lily shook her head. “The storms and the demons are happening at the same time in Charleston, but it’s not every time. When a storm manifests out of the blue, I can guaranteeyou we’ll see at least one or two demons coming out of that park. But if a storm rolls in the old-fashioned way, nada.”
He studied her before taking a seat on the bench, spreading his arms across the back. “That is unusual. If the veil between the human realm and the Alius is weakening and weather is the trigger, I would expect to see more demon activity with each storm.”
