Chapter One: Silent Frost
December 13, 1997
11:49 PM
San Antonio, Texas
WIND BEAT AGAINST the doors, rattling the old wood on its hinges. Ashley Baker crept across the icy floor of the living room, careful not to wake her Nana as she snored away in her blanket enchilada on the couch. How she could breathe wrapped in the blankets like that was a mystery, especially with the dogs piled all around and on top of her. Their eyes followed Ashley’s progress without so much as a whimper. Candlelight flickered, making the shadows dance with every step.
She shivered as a sharp wind slipped across the floor to her bare legs. Ashley ignored it, and the biting chill on her toes. Only one thing would bring her out of the warm nest of her bed and the feather blankets her grandmother had piled on top of her.
Snow.
In San Antonio.
Excitement roared like a storm inside Ashley. The back of her neck tingled, and she could swear the entire house could hear her heart thumping from both excitement and fear.
If she got caught sneaking out to look at the snow, Nana would have her hide.
Nana had boarded up the back windows, and tacked the curtains against the wall, so not a single glimmer of the outside world could make it in.
Ashley didn’t understand what her Nana was thinking. The weather man mentioned snow flurries. Every fourth grader knew you’d only get to see snow for a few hours before San Antonio’s hot breath melted it away.
Her grandmother was always doing things that didn’t make sense. Like refusing to allow them to have cable television or let Ashley go to a friend’s house. Ever.
If she didn’t go to school with at least one story about seeing snow, Ashley was sure she’d be made fun of for missing out on something awesome. Again.
A gust of wind tore through the cracks around the door. She snuck to the door jam and pressed her face against it. The frigid touch of metal against her skin was a shock, but she pushed as close as possible until her body hugged the line of the door.
The white moon bathed the frost-covered ground. Ashley squinted her eyes, hoping to see a few flakes.
“Please,” she whispered, “Please let me see something cool tonight.” She put one hand on the door knob, and another on the lock. Could she open it quietly without making the dogs bark or waking Nana?
A howl pierced the night and she hunched on herself, expecting the dogs to echo the sound.
Clouds slipped across the moon, dampening the light, and that tingling on the back of her neck raced down her spine in a sharp twinge of fear. Her stomach twisted with an uneasiness she couldn’t explain.
The wind banged against the windows and doors with a sudden fury. Cold stung Ashley’s eyes and she blinked away tears as she backed away from the entrance.
A steady warmth against her calf made Ashley look down. Casey, their old basset hound, stood at her side, body almost wrapped around Ashley’s leg, hair standing on end and teeth bared at the door. His silent snarl made that twist in her stomach grow worse.
The door rattled violently, and Ashley was vaguely aware of her Nana’s fingers biting into her arms. Something slammed against the solid frame, rattling the windows around it.
Outside a shrill scream lit up the night, and Ashley’s heart leapt into her throat.
“What didju do, Ashley?” Her thick accent rolled out, slurring the words together.
“Nothing,” she forced out in a hushed tone, gripping her Nana’s freezing hands. Guilt ate away at her nerves. All she did was touch the door!
A heavy weight landed on the porch, shaking the floorboards under Ashley’s feet. The beating grew louder, and the wood buckled, shattering around them.
Ashley saw the slit of narrowed ice blue eyes against a midnight black body. Claws. Fangs. Had a feral dog escaped from the pound down the road?
There was a wrongness to it. Huge, bulging muscles, no fur, only that dark shiny skin. Like the volcanic rock they’d studied in school.
It stepped into the house and sniffed. With each step, the clawed feet scraped against the wooden floor, and the sick, icy feeling in her stomach grew. Wind blew around it, howling into the living room, and snuffing out all the candles in the living room.
There was no way this was real. “Right now would be a good time to wake up,” Ashley muttered. Nightmare. It had to be a nightmare.
Nana stepped between them and flung a fluid at the beast’s face. It shrieked and smoke sizzled. Her grandmother shoved her back toward the couch and screamed something, but Ashley couldn’t hear anything past the roar of wind and the slamming of her own heartbeat in her ears.
Behind the monster was a man. A giant of a man with wings. His eyes glowed like the beast’s, and in his hand was a sword. Their gazes met in one instant. He was angry. Scary. Bare chested, with dark tattoos marking his upper chest and arms.
That sword was pretty cool, though.
What am I thinking? He’s going to murder us all!
And then the beast lunged at her. Its sharp nails pierced her biceps and she slammed into the ground. Pain rocked her body, and she couldn’t breathe.
Please, God, please I’ll never ignore Nana again. I’m sorry for trying to sneak out. Please.
The beast roared in her face, and Ashley dragged in a sobbing gasp.
Casey hit it from the side, teeth and nails scratching at it the only way a basset hound could. His claws made this weird scraping sound against its flesh. The beast threw Casey to the side with a thrust of one powerful forearm, and Ashley found the strength to scream.
Its breath was frigid. It blew across her mouth. Her lungs froze with the next scream frozen inside. Pain splintered inside her chest, and she realized her lips were stiff and frozen.
The winged man rose above the dog-thing. She saw the gleam of a blade before he plunged it down. Her shout came out in only a whisper, but the dog’s fetid breath roared into her face. Heat, blessed, painful heat smashed into her lungs. Pain exploded on her arms where the beast’s nails dug and tore.
Its eyes flared bright red before the giant body collapsed, knocking the last of the air out of her abused lungs. Its claws twitched in her arm and she fought to shove the weight off her.
Suddenly, the crushing weight was gone. Ashley gripped her chest and hugged her arms against her body. Bright green eyes stared down at her from a face that could have been carved from stone.
“Are you alright?” He held out a hand.
Ashley stared from it to his face and back again.
“What took you so long to get here?” Her Nana hit him with her fist. The tiny woman’s punch looked ridiculous against such a large man. She dropped to her knees and took Ashley into her arms. “Tell me where it hurts.”
Where it hurts? The first laugh bubbled up from Ashley’s abused throat. It hurts everywhere.
“Ashley?” Nana’s voice held an edge of panic, but all Ashley could see were the fierce green eyes staring at her.
Her laughter blurred into tears, and she started sobbing. Wind ripped through the room, freezing her tears on her cheeks.
Suddenly the winged man dropped to his knee and took her hand. It completely engulfed hers. Warmth traveled up her arm from his touch. “You saw something pretty scary, right?”
Ashley nodded. The tingling of her arms grew until it surrounded the burning gouges caused by the creature’s claws.
“I won’t let anything else harm you, but you need to be calm, okay?”
His voice calmed the storm raging inside her head, and she bit off another hysterical laugh before it escaped. The tingling in her arms moved to the rest of her body, and she knew he was magic. Like an angel. With those wings, what else could he be? Her chest pain eased, and breaths came in easier gasps.
“By the blessings. What are you doing to my granddaughter?”
His gaze narrowed at Ashley, and she wondered if she’d done something wrong.
“Nothing.” He kissed his thumb and brushed
on her forehead, whispering words in a language she didn’t understand. The urge to sleep climbed up her spine and wrapped around her head.
She fought it. Sleeping now was crazy. With the scary parts done, she wanted to ask a thousand questions. Her tongue, however, seemed stuck to the roof of her mouth.
An icy nose touched her cheek and she saw that Casey had limped up to her. His breath rattled in his chest like last Christmas when Ashley had pneumonia. She reached up to put her hands on his head and he collapsed against her, head laying against hers.
Something tickled the back of her hand and she opened her palm against his body. The basset hound’s labored breathing eased slightly. She stared at the angel kneeling in front of her. He was saving her dog too.
It seemed completely at odds, however, to the strange look of puzzlement on his face.
A soul-crawling howl tore into the night, louder than the shrill winds whistling through the room.
He pulled away from her and rose with a rustle of wings.
Pain echoed through her body and the connection she had with Casey severed. Her fingers dug into his wet fur, but his light snores told her he wasn’t dead.
Ashley watched the angel pick up the huge black dog, or whatever it was and turn toward the shattered door frame. The fog in her mind grew thicker. “You’re leaving?” The words were difficult to push out. It seemed like her mouth had forgotten how to speak.
He glanced back at her. “More of those bastards are coming, but we will meet again.”
Ashley’s brow furrowed. Angels didn’t cuss. “What’s your name?” Her voice was more of a croak than anything.
He stopped at the shattered remains of her door and only the slight gleam of his teeth told her he was smiling. “Stay out of trouble, Ashley Baker. When you wake up, this will have been just a dream.”
Chapter Two: Darkness Rises
18 Years Later
December 16
Alamo City Medical Center
San Antonio, Texas
ANGER RODE ASHLEY. Danny pulled loose the ties of her surgical gown. A raging headache was prancing right around the corner.
“Great job, doc.” Danny Hastings either didn’t sense her mood, or didn’t care.
Great job, my ass. Three mistakes. Her team made three mistakes that could have cost that kid his life. She peeled off the gown and shoved it into the linen hamper. Exhaustion rode her like a demon.
She dropped the mask in the waste bin. Her gloves came off next as the other three trudged out of the operating room. Rick and Angela passed the patient’s gurney off to Danny with a few quiet instructions. The new kid, Ashley couldn’t remember his name, looked green around the gills. He’d held up like a champ through the worst of it. Maybe he was one of those who freaked out later.
Ashley signaled for them to turn around and she undid their gowns one by one. Her first instinct was to chew their asses and spit them out.
The truth was, they were all exhausted.
Angela and Rick looked at each other as if waiting for the fall out. The four nights of hell had taken its toll, and all Ashley could work up was a simple statement. “Tell me what went wrong.” She said it quietly.
Angela took off her mask. “I didn’t catch the internal bleeding until it was almost too late.” Ashley knew Angela would follow up on the patient all the way to the ICU. The lady was a veteran nurse, and Ashley couldn’t remember the last time a mistake had happened at her hands.
“That was on me, too.” Rick peeled off his gloves.
“No, that was on all of us,” Ashley interjected.
“I fucked up everything,” the new kid blurted out as he took off his gloves.
Rick knee bumped the kid in the back of the legs. “Doctor Baker wants specifics. Be concise.”
In a ritual that had become entirely too common in the past few days, the team took turns washing up.
“I mixed up your instructions during the op, and didn’t have the prep ready when you came in.”
Ashley nodded. “Be ready to roll next time.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Get ready for shift change. Rick, hang back a moment.”
Angela and the new kid walked off. His shoulders were hunched and the dejection surrounding him was almost palpable.
“What’s up, doc?” He grinned at Ashley.
Ashley jerked her head toward Angela and the new kid. “What’s his name?”
“Mike Rogers.” Rick’s concentrated stare was making Ashley uncomfortable. “You don’t think he’ll make it.”
“What makes you think that?”
“You’ve worked with him for four days and still can’t remember his name.”
Ashley scrubbed a hand over her face. “Has it really been four days already?”
Rick snorted. “Your time sense is impeccable as always, so stop pretending like I don’t know you better than you know yourself.”
It was true. Rick had been the on her team for two years. The longest, it seemed, that anyone had been able to stand working with her. So far.
“He’s wearing his feelings too close to the surface. I need him to keep his cool, not get flustered. The first mistake would have been easy to deal with. He screwed up more than once in there, Rick.”
“I’ll take care of his training, Ash. We’re riding on fumes, and with the streets covered in ice every night during this freak cold front, we’re seeing more patients than ever at this time of year.”
The ache in her temples grew into a pounding headache. “I know.” The holidays brought out the crazy in people. Add icy roads to impatient Christmas shoppers and you were facing some of the worst traffic accidents she’d ever seen in San Antonio. “But we have a responsibility to our patients.”
“Hey.” Rick gripped her biceps. His killer smile did nothing for her, but the sympathy oozing out of him did. “If Mike doesn’t make it through my crash course mistake-free, I’ll axe him myself. Okay?”
Ashley waved her hand and Rick let her go. “Fine. Take care of it.” Rick knew what she needed in the OR, and he realized a long time ago how crappy she was at dealing with people in general. She glanced toward the recovery room. Her aching feet begged her to go change and get ready to hand off responsibility for the day.
“Your shift change needs to be done.”
Rick nodded and turned. He paused and looked back at Ashley. “Is there something else bothering you?”
Ashley shook her head.
“Got any plans for your next few days off?”
“Stay in my house and pretend I’m at a beach drinking mai tais?”
Rick chuckled. “I forgot how much you hate the cold.”
Yeah. The cold brought old nightmares to the surface of her memory. Ones that dragged her out of her bed with sharp talons and shrieking wind.
“That kid would have died if you hadn’t moved us to the OR when you did, Ash. There’s a point or two where I think you kept him alive through your will alone. You’re a miracle worker.”
Ashley pretended like she didn’t hear him, and Rick, knowing her the way he did, just walked away. Miracles. Ashley knew too many doctors who took that type of compliment straight to their over-inflated ego. What happened in that operating room wasn’t a miracle, it was training. And her team needed a lot more of it if they were going to make it through the holidays.
She looked down at her hands. The fingers tingled with warmth. Strange, since the OR is always so cold.
She needed to see the patient, fill out her shift reports, and update recovery before she left. Her shift replacement was probably already in surgery on another case.
Ashley congratulated herself just a tiny bit. Her patient had been a tough one. His information hummed in her brain, a swirl of knowledge that would lodge itself firmly in her memory. Chris Bonne. Age fifteen. A passenger in a car accident. She could list all his injuries one by one, his height, weight, blood type, the fact that he had a birthmark on his right hip, and for the rest of her life, she’d nev
er forget any of it. Every patient was like that for her. Colleagues, nursing staff, technicians, hell, even her own doctors’ names and lives were mysteries to her.
Being a trauma surgeon in a city with a rising subculture of street racing meant she’d seen some unbelievable wounds.
Not once had she ever seen a car accident cause deep lacerations in the back like the ones Chris Bonne suffered.
Three deep, parallel lines across his side and stomach. Almost like a giant cat had used him as a scratching post.
Or maybe a dog.
That thought rose up in her mind, and she fingered the part of her biceps where the memory of claws had dug into her flesh. Scars still marked her arms, but there was no permanent damage to the muscle or tendons beneath it. A miracle, she’d been told, to survive a dog attack.
Miracle. Why did people throw that word around so often, especially at this time of year?
No demon dog had attacked her, and there were no such things as tattooed shirtless angels with black wings and dirty mouths. It had to be the cold combined with the holiday season that triggered her old dreams.
She needed to get another look at those wounds on Chris Bonne. Without the worry that the kid was going to bleed out on her table, it would be easier try and figure out, objectively, what could have caused those lacerations.
The recovery room was as quiet and efficient as she’d come to expect. The charge nurse was a no-nonsense veteran of over twenty years. She nodded toward the back, and Ashley walked toward her patient.
Her stomach twisted. Several people, probably family members or friends based on their clothes, crowded around the kid.
Dammit.
Rick was at the center of their focus, likely explaining the patient’s recovery. He glanced up and waved her away. Interrupting the family to look at her handiwork wasn’t exactly a good idea. She waved at the charge nurse and then ducked into the locker room to get out of her scrubs.
Alphas Unwrapped: 21 New Steamy Paranormal Tales of Shifters, Vampires, Werewolves, Dragons, Witches, Angels, Demons, Fey, and More Page 99