A Taste of Ice (36 page)

“Lea’s ours. So is Sean.”

Jase’s knees buckled. He caught himself, straightened. “Are you serious? You got them?”

“Yeah. The two Ofarians are unconscious in the basement. Sean gave a half-assed attempt to kill them but it looks like they’ll live.”

But Jase wasn’t listening. He was staring somewhere beyond Xavier, a dazed look completely transforming his face. The rigid set to his torso and shoulders shattered, and when he exhaled, it seemed like he’d been holding his breath for years. Maybe he had been. “You get Lea’s phone? That’s her lifeline, man. If she presses any one of those numbers, I’m screwed. The Ofarians, too.”

Xavier remembered hearing a clatter as he’d chased Lea through the hall. The phone had fallen off the desk. It should still be there. “I know where it is. We’ll get it. It’ll be taken care of.”

“Where?”

Xavier told him and Jase dashed into the house before he even finished. Xavier followed. Jase found Lea and Sean first, prone and helpless on the couch. He stood over the Ofarian woman with fists balled. She glared up at him.

“Strange,” Jase murmured to her, “but I feel like I should be thanking you. For all you did for her, how you saved her.” Then his voice changed, darkening. His mouth twisted. “But
I’m not yours to order around anymore, so it looks like she and I both win.”

Lea’s eyes narrowed. A million questions perched on Xavier’s tongue, but he was too entranced by the scene, too mesmerized by the massive, complicated web Lea had woven.

Jase swiveled away, heading for the hallway. He scooped up the phone where Xavier had told him it was. As his arm fell back, Xavier knew what was about to happen.

“Wait!” Xavier dove for Jase. “We might need that—”

But the phone was already exploding into tiny pieces against the wall. Jase picked them up, dumped them in the sink and turned on the water, then flicked on the garbage disposal. The jangling screech and grind of metal and plastic made Lea flinch.

“You might need it,” Jase shot over his shoulder, “but I don’t. I’m sure she’s got a fail-safe somewhere. That one’s for you. This one was for me. And the others.” Then he headed for the front door.

“Jase.” Xavier went after him. “There’s still a lot of loose ends. We’ve called the Ofarian leaders and they’re sending a team our way for cleanup. We just need to sit tight—”

“Fuck
that
.” Jase threw open the front door and the wind rushed inside. He lifted his face to the snow for a brief moment, then bounded down the front steps.

Xavier stood in the doorway, knowing he had no say over what Jase did or did not do.

The air elemental just stood there in the driveway, then lifted his arms and turned around to face Xavier. He was smiling. “Well, goddamn. I’m free.”

He was, and it showed. The Jase Xavier had been introduced to was not the same man who stood before him now.

“So long, Xavier.” Another tip of the invisible cowboy hat. Jase turned. Sprinted down the driveway.

Where the hell did he think he was going in the middle of the night, no car, trapped high up in the mountains, dressed in nothing but—

A great gust of wind barreled down and lifted Jase clean off his feet.

He threw his arms out, head tossed back. Spinning, spinning like a corkscrew, he rose into the night sky. Breathless,
frozen by more than just the weather, Xavier watched him fly—higher and higher, the snow eddying around his diminishing body. Jase soared over the road and disappeared into the blackness above the evergreens.

Even though the air elemental was no longer visible, Xavier heard Jase laugh. Joyous, relieved, anticipatory laughter. The sound drifted over the mountainside, mingling with the snowflakes. And then Jase was gone.

Xavier was standing there, staring into the sky, when a scream ripped through the night.

Cat’s scream. From inside the garage.

Xavier whipped around and charged toward it. He grabbed the garage door handle, found a little strength left in his shoulders and legs, and pulled with everything he had. It didn’t budge. Not a centimeter.

“Cat!” he roared. “I’m coming!”

He sprinted for the front door and ran back through the house. As he careened through the great room, Lea was laughing behind her gag. He burst into the garage.

Cat cowered in the far corner. A naked woman, dark in both hair and skin, stood in front of her, flames licking up one arm. As Xavier watched, the woman drew a deep breath, opened her mouth and blew another coating of flame over her opposite arm.

Xavier lunged for her, blinded by the need to get Cat away. The fire elemental tossed a fireball at his feet. He skidded backward, heat searing his face.

“That’s far enough,” she said.

“Don’t you fucking dare hurt her.”

At least he had known Michael’s intentions. He’d wanted Cat alive. This…this
thing
, he knew nothing about.

His eyes watered, his lungs burned. Through the haze, he saw Cat coughing, her eyes red and tearing.

“I’m so sorry,” Cat said.

He knew she was. She’d just come out here to help someone she’d thought was trapped like her.

The lingering smoke swirled in carefully controlled spirals, racing inward toward the fire elemental. The place between her ribs collapsed into an unnatural concave shape. She sucked in her cheeks and drew in the coils of smoke between her lips.
When the smoke was gone, the fire elemental smacked her lips like she’d just drank ambrosia.

She turned a wicked grin toward Xavier. “And who would you be?”

“Let Cat go.”

“No.”

“She took down Michael. She just came in here to free you.”

“And now she’s my barter,” the fire elemental said. “My ticket out of this alive.”

“Your life is not in danger. You’re free. You can walk away.”

She put a hand on her hip, and Xavier was suddenly acutely aware of her nakedness. “In the middle of a snowstorm. On a mountaintop. With no car or clothes. Oh, and here’s the kicker, the
Ofarians
are coming.” She came forward, fire still dancing over one arm. “It’s very clear what’s going on here.”

Maybe to her. Xavier didn’t back away. Let her come. “What do you
think
is going on?”

“You must not be Ofarian,” she said. “Otherwise you’d be a little smarter, a little more egotistical.”

Fire, apparently, had no love for water.

“This Ofarian, however,” she nodded at Cat, “has the humble and almighty act down pat. Bravo, by the way. You’ll fit right in.”

“Kekona, I told you,” Cat said, “I don’t know them at all.”

Xavier had lost his patience about five seconds ago, and he growled,
“What do you think is going on?”

Kekona moved to the side, giving Xavier a straight line of sight to Cat. It was a sickening tease.

Kekona said, “I came to the mainland to advance the next Senatus meeting, set up security. Which means the Ofarians had a pretty good idea where I was. They’re not part of the Senatus but they know when and where the meetings take place. Two Ofarians, one of them Lea, got past my guards, and snatched me in my sleep. The male Ofarian used his water magic. Caged me here. Lea told me I was a present for Michael, but now he’s conveniently gone. Next thing I know, Cat tells me Griffin Aames and Gwen Carroway are headed here? To set me free?” She laughed, shaking her head. “No way. Nuh-uh. There’s only one reason the two of them are coming. And that’s to pick up what their little kidnapper Lea gathered for them.
They’ll dangle me in front of the Senatus and bribe their way into the leadership.”

Xavier remembered Gwen mentioning something like that. About some big misunderstanding that had led to bad relations between the Ofarians and the Senatus. Gwen had also said that she’d wanted to find the missing Secondaries with the hope it would buy them some brownie points with the Senatus. Kidnapping and bribery were hardly the Ofarian style, especially given Gwen’s bleak history. They wouldn’t anonymously steal Secondaries, “rescue” them, then try to wedge their way into power. Would they?

“You’re wrong,” Xavier said.

Kekona moved closer to Cat. “Then this should be a no-brainer. If they don’t want me, they shouldn’t have any problem letting me go. But I still need some reassurance. I’m going to keep Freckle Princess close to me until they get here. I’m sure they’ll want one of their own back, so we’ll make an exchange: her for my freedom.”

There were so many things wrong with this situation, not the least of which being: what on earth had Lea been playing with, taking this creature?

“A fair exchange,” he told Kekona, knowing that Griffin would want nothing to do with this woman.

Hurry, Gwen
.

Flame rolled over Kekona’a eyes. Actual petals of fire. “Then I guess all we have left to do is wait.”

Xavier saw a lawn chair and went over to it. Sat down. If he kept calm, maybe Kekona would be, too. He found Cat’s eyes and stared into them. Kekona’s nakedness faded into the distance, became white noise. All he wanted was to focus on Cat. Most of her fear had worn away and now she just looked pissed off and cold.

This will be over soon, sweetheart. Soon.

Cat fell asleep sometime in the small hours of the morning.
Xavier went back into the house and brought her a blanket, which Kekona took from him and draped over her. The chill in the garage kept him awake. There was no way in hell he was going to sleep until the Ofarians got there. And neither was Kekona.

To get out from under Kekona’s silent scrutiny—because she refused to answer anything he asked—he made the rounds in the house. Lea had fallen asleep on the couch, and Sean had transitioned from fight-induced unconsciousness into sleep. He checked their restraints and went upstairs to Michael.

The bedroom stank of old blood and sweat and damp carpet. The top of the bloodied rug had started to crust over. Michael’s eyes had straightened out, and they eerily followed Xavier as he went toward the bed. Xavier stood over him for a moment. Michael’s mouth opened but the only sound that came out was a low, garbled mumble. When Xavier untied him from the bed there was no resistance in his body. However, when Xavier tossed him over his shoulder, Michael’s arms shifted all on their own. If his sight was coming back, it was possible mobility couldn’t be too far behind. The question was: how much?

Xavier lay Michael on the floor between Sean and Lea. Sean awoke, saw Michael, gave a good struggle and tried to
split.
But two tied-up and gagged Seans weren’t any better than one.

When Xavier went into the basement, Robert and Shelby were conscious and talking. Their plastic restraints still tightly clamped their wrists and ankles, which meant that Sean had
succeeded in dosing them with enough
nelicoda
to destroy their water magic. Otherwise they’d have gone liquid and flowed right out of there. The twinge of sadness Xavier felt over that took him completely by surprise.

He told them everything that had happened, and instead of looking overjoyed at being freed, they exchanged shameful, worried glances. Whatever Lea had been holding over their heads was about to come out. In front of Griffin and Gwen, no less. They were glad to be free of Lea, though, and offered to stand guard over their former captors.

Xavier gestured to Shelby’s neck. “I’m sorry about that.”

“I’m sorry, too,” she replied.

Exhausted, Xavier went back to his lawn chair in the garage.

Cat woke up when the sun rose and a line of light appeared under the garage door. Xavier leaned forward on his chair. “Hey,” he said, his voice sounding too loud in the garage. When Cat gave him a weak smile, he asked Kekona, “Can I get her something to drink and eat?”

Kekona relented, but refused all food for herself. As Cat sipped water and ate a hard-boiled egg, Xavier crouched as close to her as Kekona would allow.

“It’s not going to end like this,” Xavier told Cat. “Gwen isn’t going to let anything happen to you. Neither will I.”

Cat stared right into him, and even with the deep smudges below her eyes, her gaze still had the power to level him. “I know you won’t. Just as I won’t let anything happen to you.”

He couldn’t help it. He smiled.

Kekona made a sound of disgust. “Love is so stupid.”

Love
. A warmth settled into his body, spreading out and chasing away the chill.

Cat turned to the other woman. “You say that because I bet it’s never happened to you.”

Kekona was sitting against the garage door and she rolled her head on the metal, staring someplace far away. “It has. That’s why I think it’s stupid.”

Several times during the night, vehicles had chugged up the road, their lower gears kicking in with a whine as they negotiated the curve up the mountain. None had stopped. Until just then, when one vehicle, then another, turned off the road and sped toward the house.

Kekona kicked off that weird coat of melancholy, hoisted Cat to her feet, and ushered her to the back of the garage. Xavier jumped up and slapped a silver button on the wall. The white garage door rolled up, admitting a gust of arctic air and a swirl of snow. The door rose and rose, revealing a boxy, blue van and a small, white SUV careening up the curved driveway. Xavier rushed outside, lifting a hand. The SUV flashed its lights in acknowledgement.

He never thought he’d be so relieved to be surrounded by Ofarians again.

The van braked hard, sliding on the fresh, six-inch layer of snow. The doors flew open, and Ofarian soldiers poured out. It had been five years but Xavier remembered the way they moved, the way they took over an area like water gushing into a canyon after spring thaw. Like they were in charge. Two soldiers broke off and went for the front door. Three others circled around back.

The SUV came to a stop. Gwen Carroway stepped from the front passenger seat wearing the same all-black uniform as her soldiers, minus the weapons. Her blond hair was pulled into a tight ponytail. She looked the same—still gorgeous, still highly focused—maybe even more so, on both accounts. Her long legs ate up the ground between them, and he found himself moving toward her, too.