Phantom Pain (trilogy)

Coming Storm

Chapter 14: Coming Storm

The first thing I noticed in Detroit was the light drizzle. It was barely noticeable, more of a mist, but it made what was to come terrifyingly real.

The second thing I noticed was how many people there truly were. It had been a long time since I had been in a city this size. That scared me even more. The damage the last storm had done had been immense, but that had been mostly over open woods and mountains, with Los Angeles at the very edge. This city was in the very centre, and I was terrified for the people I saw outside the window.

Dez relaid the instructions Violet had given her to Kera, as she drove. We parked in the back lot of a rundown apartment building.

“We have to buzz up,” Dez said, as we stopped at the back door.

I was on edge as we waited. I couldn't help it. Just one look at the clouds and my stomach would plunge.

“The last storm came on quickly,” said Dez. “It was like the clouds appeared out of nowhere. There was no buildup like this.”

“Maybe Violet is wrong then,” said Kera.

I wanted to have hope, I really did, but the feeling creeping up my spinal cord begged to differ. We had been very out of the loop lately, and I needed to know what had happened in Italy. Even with Lucifer free, I doubted the demons had the power to maintain two storms at once.

The door was pulled open to reveal Dominic. The man was one of the younger specialists, he and Joel probably weren't much older than Dez. Of the two friends, Dominic was shorter and thicker built, with more obvious muscle tone.

“Thank God.” He motioned us inside. “There were rumours going around that you weren't coming.”

“We'd never leave you guys to face this alone,” said Dez. “So, who'd Violet assign? What's the team looking like?”

“Well,” we walked up the stairs as he talked, “there's you three, then me and Joel, and Fara, and Drake.”

I couldn't have asked for anything better. If I was going to be fighting through the storm with any group of humans, I wouldn't have chosen any different, except Gavyn. I would find him. We weren't out of options yet. Something like the cult couldn't go completely unnoticed, and once I found one of them I could find all of them. I was starting to regret leaving so quickly, and not taking the time to properly extract information from Ben. Of course, if I had stayed, I would have run the risk of Javan returning with the staff of Moses.

“Eleventh floor,” said Dominic. “Sorry about the walk, but the elevator's busted. A lot of mechanical stuff has been failing around the city. It's one of the things on the list Drake is making.” He gave us a quick once over, and his eyes landed on my sword. “You found it!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah.” I brushed my hand lovingly over the handle.

“That's going to be helpful,” he said.

The doors on the eleventh floor hallway were a fair distance apart, leading me to believe that the apartments were a good size. They were going to have to be, since there were seven of us. Dominic didn't have a key, but he knocked on the door. It was yanked open almost immediately, Fara looming in the frame. She wore a tank top, her toned muscles flexing under her dark skin. At her waist, a knife was strapped.