Feral Ice: Paranormal Fantasy (Ice Dragons Book 1)

by Ann Gimpel

  “Where are the closest of our kin?” he asked Katya.

  “The Fleisher group of borderworlds.”

  “What are they?” Erin directed the question at Johan, but he shook his head.

  “Not part of anything I’ve read,” he answered her.

  “It’s a constellation of a dozen separate worlds, perhaps a day’s journey from here. Most are inhabited, but if I remember correctly two don’t have a breathable atmosphere,” Konstantin replied.

  “Can we come with you?” Johan leaned forward. Clearly, the adventure part of things appealed to him.

  “I’m not thinking we’ll have a choice,” Erin muttered. “Konstantin said we all have to stick together from now on.”

  Konstantin still had his hand on the flask. He set it down. They’d reached a crux point, and he needed Erin and Johan to agree with how he wanted to proceed. He was certain of Johan, but Erin might balk.

  “What is it?” she pressed. “I’m coming to know that look you get when you’re figuring out how to take something I’ll recoil from and dress it up to make it more palatable.”

  He nodded. “Right you are. While Katya and I don’t think twice about employing magic to travel from world to world or for other reasons, the places we go are not nearly as safe for individuals without magic.”

  “Can you include us in a long teleport spell?” She arched a brow.

  “Yes, but you’d be vulnerable the entire time, and even more defenseless once we arrived at our destination. In this instance, there will be multiple destinations, which amplifies the risk factors.”

  “I’ll take my chances.” She smiled gamely.

  “It’s a bad idea, one which puts the rest of us at risk—” he began.

  “Then I’ll remain here,” she said.

  “Also not a good choice,” Katya said.

  “We need to hear them out, consider their advice,” Johan spoke up.

  “What? You’re ganging up on me?” Erin pushed back from the table and got to her feet.

  Before she could walk out of the room, Konstantin snagged her with a spell and snatched her up in his arms. Once he had a good grip on her, he carried her toward the steps, kicking and screaming at him to put her down.

  Johan hurried toward them. “Is that really necessary?”

  “I won’t hurt her.” Annoyed at having to explain himself, Konstantin opened his mouth to order Johan back to his chair, but Katya saved him from saying something he might end up regretting.

  Sliding in next to Johan, she hooked an arm beneath his. “Come with me. We shall talk. Erin is safe with my brother.”

  Konstantin felt subtle magic woven in with her words. Johan turned toward her and murmured, “Of course. Where would you like us to sit?”

  “Can’t you see what he’s doing?” Erin squawked. “Whatever he left out, we all need to hear it. Together. In the same room.”

  Firmly captured by Katya’s magic, Johan didn’t even turn around.

  Konstantin added compulsion to the command. “You will hear me out. For that, we require privacy.”

  “I won’t listen. Put me down, you fucking—fucking pirate.”

  He wanted to laugh, but it would be a mistake. He’d been called far worse over the long years of his life. Adding a touch of directional magic, he brought them out in his small library off the downstairs great room.

  As soon as the book-and-scroll-filled walls formed around them, he did, indeed set her on her feet still hissing epithets at him. He took a few steps back and crossed his arms over his chest. “We will be here as long as it takes. Let me know when you’re ready to talk with me.”

  She launched herself at him, but he held her at bay with magic. Sooner or later, she’d get past this outlandish display of emotion and settle down. The sea-serpents must have spooked her, but babying her was the wrong thing to do. She needed to tap into strength, not weakness.

  And he was just the dragon to help her do that. Gods she was gorgeous when she was mad. Color was high in her face, and her chest heaved with anger. What he wouldn’t give to see her naked, her skin rosy from passion rather than rage. Deep within, his dragon cheered him on, and his cock rose to attention.

  If this had been a few hundred years before, he’d have simply taken her. Maids liked a forceful man, then, but times had changed. He’d have to make himself so irresistible, she threw herself into his arms.

  But first, she had to stop ranting and stomping around. He paid out the subtle threads of a calming spell. It might be cheating, but he’d never been patient when he wanted something as badly as he wanted Erin.

  Chapter 12

  “Put me down, you cretin. Put me down! Fucker! Bastard!” Wriggling and kicking did absolutely no good. It was like being chained to a boulder. If boulders had muscles that rippled against me, warm and tempting.

  Consumed by disbelief that Konstantin had picked me up as if I were a misbehaving puppy, I bypassed how delicious it felt to be in his arms and substituted far worse words, but he ignored me.

  When I stopped screeching—and to catch my breath—I stole a glance behind me. I had no idea where we were. A rounded room with floor-to-ceiling shelves curved around us. Books sporting cracked, peeling bindings, and scrolls that looked as if they might be made out of vellum, spilled from the shelves, creating stacks on the floor in spots.

  If I weren’t so put out at being dumped here as casually as if he’d taken out the trash, I would have wanted to examine the materials more closely. Always a sucker for old things, I recognized antiquities when I saw them.

  Not expecting it to work, I launched myself at him again. No dice. He’d erected some kind of shielding. I couldn’t scratch his eyes out—or get close enough to do anything. He just stood and watched me with a kind of long-suffering expression. No. I didn’t get it exactly right. If he’d been human, I’d have nailed it, but his expressions had a layered aspect. As I’d spent more time around him, I’d gotten better at reading him.

  He did feel aggravated, perhaps because I’d been ready to walk out of the room. And I would have if he hadn’t stopped me. Beneath the irritation, though, sat a host of other less obvious emotions. He wanted something from me, wanted it badly enough to force his will onto me. My hands had curled into fists. I stretched out my fingers and rolled my shoulders back to release the tension sitting between them.

  I wished he weren’t so beautiful. It was hard to stay mad at the best looking man I’d ever seen. No exaggeration. Beyond his thick, shiny copper hair and magical eyes, he glowed with a kind of inner light that made him irresistible. Made me want to run my fingers over the defined muscles slabbing his chest and arms. Him being naked only made things worse, and I forced my eyes away from acres of rose-gold skin.

  The direction of my thoughts made me shiver with longing, but I refused to ogle his cock.

  What the fuck was wrong with me? I should be angry. Frightened. Outraged. Was this some weird variation of Stockholm syndrome where I was bonding with my captor as a hedge against being stuck here?

  I blew out a tight breath and flexed my fingers a few more times. My old life was dead. Dead. Never to be resurrected. Refocusing on his face, I said, “All right. Why am I here?”

  “I already told you. We need to talk.”

  “What couldn’t have been said in front of your sister and Johan?” I tilted my chin to project a defiance I was far from feeling.

  He perched on the edge of a desk. Carved out of what might have been driftwood, it was the only piece of furniture beyond the shelves. “Do I have your word you won’t bolt until we’re done?”

  I scanned the room. No windows. No doors. I lifted my lip in a sneer. “The odds are good, Dragon-boy. You put me in a spot I can’t escape from.”

  He grimaced. Me mocking him was a bad idea, but I wasn’t at my best when I felt cornered. I steeled myself for a rebuke, but instead he said, “That was the general idea.” He dropped his hands, and something changed. Whatever had surrounded me dissipa
ted.

  I shook myself and hunted for the calm center I’d always laid claim to when in rough spots. I’d begun honing it as a child. After a gazillion foster homes, I’d perfected my go-to haven, one that shielded me from the worst life could throw at me.

  “All right.” He rested his hands on his thighs. At least, it’s where I think they were since letting my gaze roam below his waist was a very bad idea.

  “Some of what I have to say will be a repeat of what you’ve heard before. It’s difficult for me to sort out what I’ve told Katya from what I’ve said to you and Johan. Had I realized the breadth of the sea-serpent problem, I would never have intervened in your initial self-rescue attempt. You would have finished climbing out of the upper cavern. Johan’s broken leg would eventually have killed him.”

  “You don’t know that,” I broke in, defensiveness having gotten the better of me. “I’m an excellent doctor. If I’d managed to secure help, moved him to warmth and safety, he’d have recovered.”

  Konstantin eyed me from beneath well-formed brown brows. “Do you really believe help would have been available? At that point, your ship had been commandeered by the Russians who boarded it. You would have been more likely to run into them than anyone else, and they would have killed you. Finishing the business they’d begun earlier.”

  I closed my teeth over my lower lip and looked away. What he’d said was true enough, but it still stung. Never mind it was the same conclusion I’d drawn not all that long ago. As a physician, I’d come to view death as a worthy adversary, and I didn’t like losing. Once I laid hands on someone, I developed a proprietary interest in their recovery, and I’d stabilized Johan so he could live. Not so some Russian could club him in the head. Or shoot him.

  Konstantin narrowed his eyes and kept talking. “Regardless, when I spirited you and Johan into my realm, I had no idea Earth was about to turn into a supernatural battleground.”

  “Neither did the sea-serpents,” I muttered.

  He lunged off the desk, hand raised as if to strike me, but I refused to cower. “What?” I demanded. “We’re into honesty here, no matter how inconvenient it is. My take-home message is the serpents chose Earth because they assumed they’d be undisturbed.”

  “True enough.” Konstantin didn’t return to his seat, but he did drop his hand to his side. “Apologies. What you said angered me. The serpents may not have anticipated finding dragons here, but their plan certainly included a war. They presumed they’d regain full use of their magic and then begin slaughtering humans. Because they feed on their victims, each death would make them stronger until they could simply cast a magical net wide enough to wipe out whoever was left.”

  “Do you have any idea what weakened them?”

  “No.” He hesitated long enough to draw a breath and blow it out. “Never, never underestimate them. When Y Ddraigh Goch banished them, he did so for good reasons. The serpents are nothing like us. I’m not sure they ever were. But do not waste a moment feeling sorry for them. They don’t deserve air to breathe.”

  “I wasn’t feeling sorry for them. Far from it. Leaving serpents out of the equation, you’re saying, if you hadn’t intervened, Johan and I would be dead.”

  He nodded. “You would be, probably at the hands of the Russians. The ones on the beach were intent on revenge for the man I killed in the upper cavern. It was why they detonated explosives.”

  I considered pointing out if he’d left us alone, the Russian relocating my dead crew members might still be alive, but then I remembered Johan’s plan to blast him to smithereens. Johan had been hale and hearty then, though, not languishing with a broken femur. The more I sorted through differing timelines, the more confusing things grew. Rather like an infinite set of algorithms where each choice activated several paths but closed off other ones.

  The Russian corpse-squad had tossed grenades into the chromium dig site after Konstantin killed their companion, but more had shown up. They’d certainly have polished off Johan once they figured out he was still alive. Except he wouldn’t have been. The grenades would almost certainly had killed him before anyone else had a chance.

  Even if I’d been successful hiding from them, it would have left me in an impossible spot. I had water, but no food and no warmth. Eventually, I’d have died too.

  I folded my hands in front of me. “I accept your premise, but I’d come to the same conclusion even before our little talk.”

  He tilted his head to one side. “No more arguments.”

  “Not about that. But you didn’t drag me here to make sure I agreed with your assessment of Johan’s and my chances of remaining alive absent your intervention.”

  “No. I did not.”

  He pressed his mouth into a thin line, and a muscle danced beneath one eye. “Part of our covenant as magic-wielders is we do not intervene in human affairs. It is forbidden, and I broke our laws. There’s no one to censure me, but I understand what I’ve done.

  “Please. Don’t interrupt for the next portion of what I wish to impart. The last time it arose, you became upset.”

  I’m good at reading people. Not that he was human, but he appeared genuinely concerned. I nodded. “All right.”

  “When I intruded into your sphere, you and Johan became my responsibility. It was one thing when the biggest problem we faced was Katya and I thinking it would be lovely if there were more dragon shifters. We’ve moved beyond that. Far beyond.”

  He took another measured breath. “It isn’t safe for you anywhere. If I return you to one of the research installations, you’ll die at sea-serpent hands. If you travel with us to other worlds, there are many threats that could also mean your death.”

  Konstantin shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he said, “I am asking you to embrace magic, to open your heart and mind to becoming a dragon shifter. Before you answer me, you must know nothing is certain. Legends suggest such a transformation is possible, but I’ve never seen one.”

  I had questions, but he’d asked me to remain quiet, so I did. The thing that amazed—and bothered—me was why I wasn’t shrieking, “Oh hell, no,” in his face.

  He scanned me in obvious appraisal. Maybe he’d figured out I wasn’t about to run screaming from the room—if it had been a place that actually had an exit point.

  “How are you doing so far?” he asked.

  “All right. You haven’t told me anything I hadn’t already figured out. Except maybe the part about it not being safe to be human even if I’m with you.”

  “It’s worse than not safe. Assuming we can talk other dragons into joining us, and I’m confident they won’t turn us down, we will be engaged in a battle to save your world. Even if we win, Earth will be forever changed. If we lose, the serpents will claim it as theirs and bar any but their own kind from entry.”

  I searched his statements for weak places, logical flaws, but didn’t find any. For one thing, I didn’t understand magical creatures, but films and television and fiction had promulgated plenty of alien war scenarios. Usually, humans came out on top, but that was because humans were the authors and script writers and actors.

  I stood straighter. He was walking around something he hadn’t yet said. “You’re going to offer me a choice.”

  “Very good. I am, indeed. Either do your damnedest to become like me, or I shall return you to the Polish base where you can take your chances with the humans.”

  My eyes widened. I hadn’t expected that. “Would Johan go to Arctowski too?”

  “Not if he accepts Katya’s offer to transform himself.”

  “What about both of us having to make the same decision?”

  He shrugged. “My reasons for insisting on that went away. In view of the serpents, my demand was misguided.”

  I inhaled, surprised how shaky I felt. “What if one or both of us can’t become dragon shifters?”

  He opened his mouth, closed it, and tried again. “I don’t know. We’ll address the topic if we need to.”

&
nbsp; Before I could stop myself, I’d taken a step toward him. I wanted his arms around me, but it was stupid. I wasn’t a child in need of comfort. I was a woman faced with an impossible choice. If Konstantin was to be believed—and I had no reason to doubt him—it came down to certain death at Arctowski versus God only knew what as a dragon shifter.

  “I don’t understand how any of this would work.” My voice sounded thin and broken to me. “Even if I turned into…something like you, wouldn’t it take years to learn how to use magic?”

  “Yes, but your dragon would help.” A complex array of emotion washed over his face. Relief. Worry. Hope. Fear. And probably others I missed in between. When he opened his arms, I was ashamed how little I hesitated before I walked into them. I’d gotten by without comfort or approval most of my life. Why did I suddenly need them now?

  He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and just held me. One hand cradled my head. The other splayed across my back. “I know how frightened you must be.” His deep voice rumbled near where my ear pressed against his chest.

  I started to protest but shut up fast. I was terrified, and I’d be a fool not to admit it. I tilted my head back so I could look at him. “If I decide to do this, how would it happen?”

  Nooooooo, an inner voice screamed, followed by, Go to Arctowski and take your chances.

  He furled his brows, regarding me. “You need to be of one mind, or the transformation, which is far from a sure thing, will not be possible.”

  I’d noticed he seemed to know what I was thinking before, but this time it was so obvious I couldn’t shove it aside. “Can you read my thoughts?”

  “Of course. It’s one of the lesser magics.”

  He still held the back of my head, and his fingers trailed across my back. Where he touched me, sparks ignited. I should wriggle out of his grasp, but I craved the support he offered and couldn’t force myself to step away.

  “You never told me the steps in the process.” Cranking the words out was hard. I was afraid once I knew, there’d be no going back.

  “You must want this, body and soul, with every fiber of your being. It means severing your connections with the human world forever. Not just for a short time. Your life will change in ways that are impossible to predict. It’s a lot to take in. A lot to accept. Until you’re certain, I can’t answer your question about the steps in the process.”