by Elise Jae
“I can pay you what you spent.” The agency paid us handsomely for agreeing to leave Earth behind.
“No. You’ll pay in other ways.”
He steps forward, and I step back, and the snow shifts beneath my shoes.
It’s like one of those moments… the kind where everything moves a little slower than you expect, but you can’t stop anything.
And then I’m falling.
The snow is soft, but cold, and I roll further than I realized I could.
I’m fifty feet below Victor in a valley of white.
He glared down at me from the top of the hill. “Enjoy what little of your life remains.”
His words were swept away by the wind as soon as I heard them.
“If I were you, I’d pray the cold kills you before they get to you.” He paused, shook his, and then disappeared.
The sound of a motor echoed off the white landscape.
The ice wasn’t as cold as I expected. But it still stung at my face, burned my eyes.
Pulling the coat more tightly around me, I knew it would only help for so long.
Still, Victor’s narrative required that I had it, and I was grateful he’d thought that far into his plan… though I knew it wouldn’t help me for long.
RICHTER
I’m antsy, and I can’t figure out why.
That same low-grade anxiety buzzes through me. It’s been there on some level since Laurel confessed her previous occupation. But it’s different now.
My skin hurts, like it’s hypersensitized.
“She’s got you tied up good, doesn’t she?” Arc is smirking at me from across the room, but I don’t rise to his bait.
“Something’s wrong.”
Core sits up, too sharply. Anyone who wasn’t paying attention before has their sights on me now.
“I have to go. Whatever else is on the agenda, it’ll have to wait, or you’ll have to fill me in la--”
It’s like a punch to the gut. Like ice water dumped on me while out in the wastes.
I’m not sure my heart is still beating.
Pushing to my feet, I’m not sure how I manage to stand, let alone run. But I’m in my car, racing home before I realize I’ve made it out of Drift’s house.
I barely register the others peeling in behind me as I throw open the door and rush to the security system.
Her car is gone, that’s the first thing I check.
But my adrenaline is too high. I don’t manage to stop the garage feed when I see her, and it stops, nearly an hour before she leaves….
But the garage isn’t empty.
I have no idea who the man is, but he slides out from underneath her car and gives the barest glance in either direction before slipping back out again.
I can’t see his face.
But if I’m right…..
“What’s going on?” Drift asks as he and the others pile in through the front door.
“She went to see Cindy.” It’s the only explanation for why she’d drive off while I was gone. “But someone’s messed with her car.”
No one says a word as I trace back through the days of footage. Not even Arc has something stupid to say.
I find him… days sooner than I thought I would.
He came back and she didn’t mention it. It has to be him.
Throwing the still onto another screen, I point Drift toward it. “I need to know who he is.”
And Drift, head of the Shadow Zone Brotherhood, has the clearance to use facial recognition software I shouldn’t even know about.
While Drift works, I stare at the man who probably doesn’t know how close he is to death. Because as soon as I find him, I’m going to kill him.
He’s a normal, rather nondescript guy. If I’d seen him in a crowd, I’d never have remembered him. Now, his face is going to be burned into my brain.
From beside me, Drift finishes tapping in commands, and I have to close my eyes, clench my fists to keep from tearing the room apart.
“Shit.”
My eyes snap open and I push Drift out of the way. But there’s nothing there.
“He’s not in the database?”
“Not in the criminal one. We have to hope he’s in a position to be catalogued but searching through the full record could take hours.”
“So, what are you waiting for?”
“It’s already running.”
Again, I have to close my eyes. This time to keep from punching someone.
I’m not dressed for what I know I’m going to need to do.
Leaving them, I suit up and grab the knife I forgot to put away last time.
I’m halfway back down the hall when Trench yells out. “Found him.”
“Looks like you took the wrong human from the docks.”
Lauren.
It made sense now… but there was no way in hell I was giving her back.
“And it’s weirder than you think.” Drift dragged the image across the screen and threw it onto the wall so everyone could see. “That is Victor, a salesman of some sort who lives smack dab in the center of town…. He was supposed to be Laurel’s bondmate.
Trench is scrolling through the data when I come back. “Victor, Richter… someone was sloppy when handing out bondmates. Looks like you were supposed to end up with a Lauren.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck who she was supposed to be with. She’s mine and I don’t have any intention of letting someone take her from me.”
“Well I doubt he’s taken her home.” Arc is scowling at the man’s face. “So how do we find her?”
Glaring out the window, I clench my teeth. “She’s out there.”
The room goes utterly silent.
“She’s too cold to be anywhere else.”
“You are the only one who can find her.”
“How am I supposed to sniff her out in several tons of snow?”
No one else speaks. They all know the same likelihood I do.
But that silence is broken by the sharp chirp of my phone. Core.
“What is it?”
“I found her car. It’s in an embankment about two thirds of the way to my place. She’s not in it.”
SEVENTEEN
LAUREL
Everything is white.
And cold.
And terribly loud.
There’s no difference between the sky and the ground, and every step I take feels like I'm sinking further into some white hell.
I thought I was going the right direction to get back to the road at first. Now… I might be walking in circles for all I know.
The wind shrieks at me from every side, and throws snow in my face, and only makes it more confusing.
It’s a relief when the howling finally stops.
When the sharp cries of the blustering gales cease, and the snow stops swirling.
It’s also the only reason I move in time.
A low grumble makes me flinch away, I turn, and it jumps past me.
A monster.
The exact thing Victor hoped would find me.
Nothing in those shadow boxes prepared me for seeing one in real life.
The creature’s jaw lower jaw is cleft, teeth sprouting from both sides of a hard, beak-like structure.
Its skin is dark, with icy blue spines protruding as though it is covered in glass porcupine spines. And it runs on four legs, but as it shifts in front of me, pacing as it plans its attack, it’s clearly comfortable moving around on just two.
If Richter hadn’t told me anything about them, I might have been terrified… or at least more than I actually am.
Telling myself that makes it true, right?
I wrack my brain, trying to remember what to do in a dog attack, or bear attack or…
Don’t run.
That’s the first thing that pops into my mind. It was on a nature documentary about wolves. Run and they chase. They like tearing their prey apart.
I put my arms out…. Not to look bigger. I don’t think that mat
ters, but to steady myself because I have no idea what’s under this snow, and the last thing I want to do is wind up on my back.
The monster watches me, tilting its head back and forth as it weaves on its oddly long legs.
It's the oddity of those legs that keep me from being monster food. They tense a moment before it springs, and I manage to throw myself out of the way.
I throw the only thing I have at it.
The handful of snow hits it square in the snout, but it shakes it off.
And I would swear it was laughing at me.
This time, when it lunges, I don’t move fast enough. It snags my jacket and the sound of ripping fabric tears at my senses.
But it doesn’t go in for the kill.
It hops back, and… it’s laughing at me.
Toying with me because it knows I’m not a threat.
Hopping forward again, it knocks me into the snow, like I’m some sort of weeble wobble that it expects to bounce right back up.
But I don’t.
I can’t.
And when it stalks over me, it looks disappointed.
Growling, it moves that ugly four-piece mouth until it’s inches from my face.
I don’t think. I kick.
The thing is heavy, but I shove both feet up, into its chest, and it knocks backward as I twist, scramble to get away.
This time when it pounces, its teeth are what snag in my jacket. And I yank the zipper down, pulling my arms free.
The coat is tangled in those strange star shaped teeth, and I see my chance. Possibly the only chance I’ll have.
It’s my turn to lunge. I grab hold of its jaw, wrapping around it with both hands and swing myself up.
I never thought the mechanical bull from college would be a life skill I needed.
Too bad I sucked at it.
It threw me off and I land in a drift that sends ice flying.
It stalks forward, and now, I can tell, it’s not going to be content playing with me anymore.
A blur knocks the thing away from me, and I hear a sharp cry over the shrill wind.
Richter stands from where he’d tackled the monster. A knife buried in its skull.
He’s between me and the corpse. A looming shadow under the moonlight, and I’m no longer shivering simply because of the cold.
He takes hold of my shoulders, blocking the corpse. “Are you hurt?”
I shake my head. It’s a jittery movement, one I’m not quite in control of.
“We have to take a little walk. Can you manage that?”
“I’ll try.”
We start down the snowy embankment, and I stumble.
Whatever Richter says, I don’t hear it. He scoops me up, and we’re moving faster than I thought possible--or maybe it just feels that way because I’m not in control of my legs.
When he sets me down again, it’s in front of a massive, vault-like door.
“It’s an old base. We use it if we have to. Keep it maintained for emergencies.”
I barely hear him over the chattering of my teeth.
But warm air washes over me as he drags the door open and guides me inside.
He’s talking again, but I know it’s not to me, so I focus on trying to get myself warm. Rubbing at my torso doesn’t do much, but it’s better than nothing, and my fingers aren’t working well enough to get my clothes off…
Stumbling further into the space, past a mess of computer equipment, I stop, blinking at deep black pools of steaming liquid. Water, I think.
Richter pulls me close, works to scrub at me, to help warm me….
RICHTER
“Yeah, I’ve got her. We’re at Northeast Thermal Compound. My bike is trashed, can you send someone to pick us up?” Glancing at her, I have to close my eyes. “We’ll need clothes too.”
The warmth of the thermal springs has barely started to seep into me, and I’m able to sustain lower temperatures than she can. I have to stop myself from hauling her bodily off the ground and throwing her into the pools.
These ones aren’t tempered, and I have no idea what they’d do to her skin.
She’s soaked to the bone, and shivering.
“Come on. Let’s get you warm.”
It’s an agonizingly long walk to get from the front of the compound to the bathing room.
I try to distract her as we go, but nothing that pops into my mind is tame enough conversation for what she needs right now.
Her nails are blue when I pull the gloves off, her fingers, icicles. She’s started to warm in the heat the building has supplied so far, but I hate that I have to take her clothes off to get her warm.
It’s why I stop.
Just long enough to pull my mangled suit off first.
The water is hot.
I have to ignore the part of my brain that says it’s not hot enough.
It is.
“Thermal springs,” I say, lowering her in with me. “Let’s thaw you out, then take you home.”
She nods, and I can tell she’s keeping her teeth clenched to stop them from chattering.
She managed to kick off her shoes, but I pull her in with her remaining clothes. They’re already wet enough pulling them off was going to be a struggle. If I can get her closer to warm as I strip her bare, all the better.
She winces, and I start to lift her back out, but she shakes her head. “No.”
“If it’s hurting you--”
“It’s just the temperature change. My nerves are trying to convince me there’s ice stabbing into me. It’ll pass.”
“Are you sure?”
She nods and sinks against me as I free her arm from the final sleeve it had been wrapped in. “Ski trip in high school.”
“You’ll have to tell me about it some time.”
With her sodden and torn clothes flung halfway across the room, I pull her tightly against me and move to the center of the pool. Her feet don’t touch here--mine barely do, but we’re submerged up to our chins.
She’s finally stopped shivering.
Her eyes are closed, but I know she’s not sleeping, know I can’t let her sleep yet.
“How long do we have before they get here?”
“Twenty minutes or so?”
She nods and leans back do dip her hair in the water. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
“Letting you die would be suicide.”
Her eyes open. Her gaze is soft.
I voice a fear “For a moment, I thought… knowing what I am, you might have run.”
“I know exactly what you are, Richter. And it has nothing to do with what some asshole did to you when you were a child.” She kissed the tip of my nose. “It has everything to do with what you’ve done as the man I’ve come to love.”
She slings her leg up and over my hip, opening herself to me and I slid into her as if it’s the only place I was ever meant to be.
And here, in this place so removed from everything….
A sharp sound at the front of the compound is the only reason I know we’re not alone.
Luckily, the one--and there are many--closest is someone almost as familiar to me as Laurel.
He turns the corner and stops, blinking.
I pull her to me, making sure Drift can’t see anything.
“Sorry. I see I got here sooner than you expected. Carry on.”
He placed the clothes on the bench and left.
Peeking over her shoulder, Laurel turned back, pressing her forehead to my shoulder. That’s when she started laughing. “The one time I’m being quiet when I shouldn’t have been.”
“I don’t know how many of them are out there.” Just that there are more than three.
She nodded. “Which means now I do need to be quiet.”
Shrugging, I moved her, so I was fully within her again. “Or, you could be as loud as you want. They know what we’re doing… there’s no reason to hold back.”
“You’re mine.” I leaned down and nipped her shoulder. “I don’t thin
k any of them have delusions about you sleeping in the guest room.”
“Only you made that mistake.”
“Reminding me of my flaws is so mean.”
I decided to remind her of one of my strengths, and set to driving her wild.
Each thrust drove a gasp from her lips.
Each gasp grew a little louder.
Water sloshed over the side of the pool….
And she broke on a shattered cry.
Even muted as it was, there was no chance the rest of the brotherhood didn’t hear that.
Face still buried in the crook of my neck, she laughs and slides onto me once more before she pulls away.
It takes all I have in me to let her go.
Somehow… in this pool, in this place, it feels like we can put the consequences of what’s happened on hold. Push them back in perpetuity.
But we can’t.
And I think she’s got a better handle on that than I do at this point.
Leaving me with one, long, lingering kiss, she climbs from the pool and wraps a towel tightly around her.
I follow, keeping enough distance between us I’m not tempted to reach out and drag her back into the water. But close enough I can be sure I’ll be there to catch her if she’s not as steady as I thought.
Despite there being more of me, I manage to dry myself off and get into the clothes Drift brought first.
But my hair was still wet as I stepped out to join them.
Only Core was absent--for obvious reasons.
Two of them looked embarrassed. The rest looked envious… except Drift.
He looked oddly proud.
“I’m going to go find the man who tried to kill her. Are you coming with me, or am I doing this alone?”
Trench snorts from the far side of the room. “Why do you always ask stupid questions?”
EIGHTEEN
RICHTER
Laurel won’t let me leave her behind.
The need to get to him, to deal with him, is strong. And the warring desires to lock her away at home, and also keep her with me so no one else can even think about touching her has my skin crawling.
But she’s determined, and the Earth weapon Drift gave her reassures her. That surety, leaking through our bond, is the real reason she’s here.