Hideaway (Devil's Night 2)

So beautiful and…familiar.

Who—

Her hair whipped around her, and I caught sight of her face, an aching sensation instantly covering my heart. I lost every ounce of air in my lungs.

Oh, my God. No.

The music. Night Mist. I’d heard this before.

I shrunk back behind the curtains.

It couldn’t be her.

“I thought it was just a story,” Kai said in a low voice, still watching her dip her head and move her arms and feet with weightless grace. She flew. She always floated and flew, like gravity wasn’t part of her reality. Still so exquisite.

“Do you know who she is?” he asked.

My eyes darted up to see him looking at me, his eyebrows etched in concern.

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I nodded once. My stomach rolled, and I was too horrified to come up with a lie. “It’s Natalya Torrance. Damon’s mother.”

“His mother?” Confusion spread across his face as he turned to her again. “But…”

But nothing. She disappeared three years ago when Damon had finally suffered enough. He had hurt himself, made me hurt him, and retreated into the horror show of his own head until one night she came for him one too many times.

I watched Natalya, her long, silky black hair floating around her in waves. I didn’t know her well, but we’d lived in the same house for a couple years—before she escaped Damon’s rage that night and fled.

She’d been gone ever since.

She was still beautiful, though. Of course, she would be. She’d only be about thirty-four years old by now. Gabriel first saw her in a ballet in St. Petersburg when she was thirteen. He immediately coveted her. By the time she was sixteen she was his wife and had already given birth to Damon. She was closer in age to her son than she was to her husband.

I doubt she took the effort to know much about me, though. I was a non-entity to her. She knew who I was and what I was to Gabriel, but she never seemed to care, and I may as well have been a speck of dust under her bathroom sink for all she seemed to notice of me. She lived in a world all her own.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Kai studied her, finally recognizing her. “She left a few years ago, though? What’s she doing here?”

I shook my head to myself. God, I have no idea. And I didn’t know what would happen if Damon saw her here. She wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near him.

This was her husband’s hotel, though—she and Gabriel were still married, as far as I knew—but Damon had ordered her away. He’d said he would kill her if he ever saw her again.

I needed to get him out of here before he did.

“Should we tell him?” Kai asked.

“No,” I shot out quickly, taking his hand. “No, he won’t want to see her.”

Or he shouldn’t see her. I just needed to get to him and find some reason to get him out of the hotel. My father could deal with her without Damon ever finding out.

I pulled Kai out of the drapes and moved along the wall, quickly and quietly walking toward the doors.

“Oh.” I heard her say.

And I stopped, closing my eyes. Shit.

“I didn’t know anyone was in here,” she said. “What are you kids doing?”

I released Kai’s hand and slowly turned my head toward her. She stood there, in the middle of the dance floor, paused as if in the middle of a twirl with her arms slightly outstretched.