Read Taken By Storm for Free Online Page B

where you were born? To your mothers, or anything. Did the place feel familiar?"
    I'm assuming they were pretty disoriented when they busted into the world, but I can't comb the entire city limits of Hopkinsville looking for this missing man, and I don't even know how I'd find a place that was important to him, but I have to try. He's two months in, therefore about to burst. Literally.
    Evis's face is blank, but Jax gives me a slow nod.  
    "I remember — he remembered — going camping in the forest near where I was born."  
    It's probably worth noting that shades' mothers can be male, female, or any other gender. The shades call them mothers anyway, which I suppose makes sense.  
    "Evis?" I try to slow my breathing when I meet my brother's eyes, knowing that whatever he remembers is connected to both of us.  
    "It was her parents' house," he says. "They were there when she came. They died. She watched."
    My breathing stops.  
    My brother might as well be made of wood for how much he's moving. His eyes, though, in them I can tell he's hundreds of miles away. Our grandparents. Our mother went to her parents' home and let demons kill them. Or let Evis kill them. I can't bring myself to ask him. They were probably long dead when he was born, knowing demons. But he remembers seeing them die, and that's enough.
    "It wasn't your fault," I say. "You didn't ask for this."
    Even if he did it, fresh out in the world and surrounded by demons — I believe what I said.  
    Jax gently touches Evis's shoulder, repurposing the greeting to simply communicate to my brother that he's safe. Evis jumps at the touch, and a moment later returns it, but his eyes don't leave mine.
    I get up and sit between them on the couch, moving the controllers. Taking Evis's hand in mine, I squeeze it tight. "I'm sorry I brought it up."
    "Did it help?" he asks.
    "Yes, it helps. It tells me that they take the hosts somewhere meaningful to them." Part of me wants to ask Saturn to confirm it, but from even the little I know of Lena Saturn, his mother, I can imagine her in Percy Warner in that clearing. Listening to music. Maybe practicing her bass. Did she know she would die there?  
    "Then don't be sorry." Evis squeezes my hand back, picks up his controller, and unpauses the game. Three enemies take head shots in the next five seconds.
    Jax gives me a tight smile, and I plant a friendly peck on his shoulder.  
    When Carrick returns a few minutes later, I tell him to switch seats and hop in the driver's side. He got the car detailed — none of the sludge from Evis's and my adventure remains. And Carrick's wearing clothes, which means I am not sitting in his butt sweat.
    Bonus.
    "His name is Nik Edison," says Carrick as I pull out of the driveway.
    "Doesn't matter anymore." I wish I didn't mean it. "He's dead meat."

    Nik "Dead Meat" Edison lives in a nice, middle class neighborhood with a landscaped pond in his front yard and a hideous frog statue the size of a small pig beside it.  
    I will never understand people.
    Carrick picks the lock on the door. If I weren't censured, a quick call to the police would have gotten us in here, but as it is I don't think they want to hear from me. There's a very short list of people who want to hear from me these days.  
    Inside, the house is coated with a layer of dust. There's a nice bookshelf with no books (all vinyl) and a massive television occupying one wall in the living room, and the kitchen looks straight out of one of those quasi-designer catalogs for people who wish they made more money. The walls hold pictures of football plays that somehow manage to look tasteful.  
    There's nothing personal on the walls. No family photos, no pets that I can see, no evidence of small critters or children running amok.  
    "Did this guy live alone?" I ask.
    "Yes." Carrick jerks his head toward the hall. "Everyone said he kept to himself."
    "They always say that, even if it's not true," I mutter.
    Down the hall are two