Page 75 of Another Damned Storm
The thought made me sick to my stomach.
“How did you not crush me like a bug when I was just a lowly human?” I asked, staring down at my hands.
“Would you believe me if I said I was tempted to, once or twice?” he asked.
It was meant to be a joke, but I couldn’t find it in me to smile. “So, what, you just have killer restraint?”
“That and lifetimes of experience wielding my power. It’s going to take time and effort to learn how to handle your newfound strength.”
I knew that. I did, but there was more to it. I pushed up off the ground and dusted off my hands, then held them out in front of me again, balling them up and extending them slowly. “I don’t feel like myself,” I confessed. “Not entirely, anyway.”
When I dared a glance up, he was studying me. Then his gaze shifted to the boarded up windows and the chained door. “I have somewhere else I’d like to take you to continue this conversation. It’s safe. Miles away from others.”
I shoved my hands in my back pockets because I couldn’t figure out what else to do with them. “Where?”
Hook tipped his head to one side. “A small cabin in the woods. Lily said it’s where she goes when she needs an escape.”
“And when she needs to let her tiger run wild, I bet.”
He held out his hand like he meant for me to take it, but again, I hesitated. If he was going to take me, I would have to touch him, but I still felt strange.
“You are not going to hurt me, Never.”
I chewed on my lip. “Our experience earlier begs to differ.”
“Then at least talk to me about it. Tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know what happened.” That was the truth. “Lapalmewas pissing me off, and the longer we stood there, the angrier I got. You heard what he was saying. This is the asshole who made us what we are, who damned me and Matt and Angie to the Alius. And now he’s trying to kill us off?” I took a deep breath, trying to calm the fury that was threatening to rise again just from thinking about it. “I just snapped.”
He nodded. “What were you feeling aside from the anger?”
Was there anything else? “Protective, I guess?” I pulled my hands from my pockets and dragged them down my face. “And just really, really fucking pissed.”
“And when you attacked me? What then?”
I looked him in the eyes. Honesty was the best policy, right? “Threatened.”
“You saw me as a threat?” he asked the question, but from the way it trailed off as he tipped his face to the sky, it didn’t feel like it was really directed at me. “And your eyes turned red.”
“What?” Did I hear that right? I still wasn’t used to the fact that they could glow amber like Hook’s.
He pinned me with a look I couldn’t read, and the next thing I knew, his big hand was wrapped around my neck, and we were surrounded by pine trees, fresh air, and the sounds of startled wildlife. He slammed me flat on my back and loomed over me without releasing my neck.
A jolt of panic rocked me. “Are you out of your fucking mind?” Because, one, that was a dick move. And two, he’d shut me out of his head. I grabbed his wrist and tried to break his hold. “What the hell are you doing?”
“What are you feeling now?” he asked, scowling down at me.
“Angry. And confused.”
“Am I a threat?”
“Yes.” I glared up at him. “To my sanity.”
The barest twitch lifted one side of his mouth. Then hestarted squeezing. At first, it was almost erotic. I mean, what girl doesn’t love a good hand necklace? But as the seconds ticked by without his grip easing, a new wave of anxiety grew.
I wrapped both of my hands around his wrist and tried to pry myself free, but it was like he was built out of stone. The pressure in my head built until black spots swam in my vision. Alarm raced up my spine.
I tried to yell at him to let go, but nothing came out. I dug my heels into the ground and bucked. He didn’t move an inch. And the smile that had ghosted his lips a few seconds earlier was gone, replaced with a determination that spiked my blood pressure.
