Cryostorm (35 page)

More bullets pinged off my ice. Flames ignited one of the guys, and Georgia landed near me, a hand pointed outward. “Mandy!”

I threw an ice dagger at the remaining one and flopped to my back, beside Nate. Georgia stood over me and Nate, flamed and ready. “Heal up. I got Electro thawed, she’s on duty. I’ll cover you.”

Hudson’s voice came over my ears. “Clear inside. Coming out.”

I rested my head back as I reached for Nate’s hand and called my healing ice. His hand clenched around mine as the ice crept up my skin to his. Then he relaxed and I sagged against the cool ground beneath me.

Hudson had deemed this place cleared, so that must mean the other places hit at the same time were too. Might this nightmare finally be over? For real? I was afraid to hope, yet I wanted to.

I heard two clicks as the bullets plopped out of my skin and against my ice. I’d heard a few more clinks from all the metal in Nate. At the glance I’d taken, I’d seen at least six holes. What the hell happened to him?

I turned to my side and glanced up. Georgia stood near us, still flamed up. Hudson and the handful of our teammates hurried out from the building toward us. At least they were all mobile. Maybe Electro was the only one injured.

Leaning into Nate, I called back my ice from him. “Nate?”

His eyes flicked open, and the glowing red eye slapped me back into reality pretty quickly.

“No!” he yelled. “You can’t. I won’t—”

The light flickered out, then pulsed on again. Nate flinched. His back arched.

“Georgia!” I screamed.

She doused her flame and reached for him. “What’s happening? You heal him?”

“Yeah.”

Robo Nate’s eye flickered again, then the red disappeared.

“Nate? Nate?”

He sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “I’m gonna—” he gasped. “Try something.”

“What? Robo Nate don’t you hurt him.” I yelled.

The rest of the team huddled around us, guns up, watching the surrounding area.

“What’s the threat?” Hudson asked.

“We’re secure,” Georgia said. “Something’s up with Nate.”

Nate fixed his gaze on me. For once it was My Nate’s eyes looking at me. His nostrils flared. “Can’t. Remove. It.” Each word was clipped. Veins bulged at his temples.

“Nate. I love you. I’ll love you no matter what color your eye is. Please. What’s happening?”

The red pulsed into his eye again, and he flinched from my grip. “She is
mine
.”

Nate bellowed, and I grabbed his hand. Shit, Robo Nate was hurting My Nate. I squeezed tight. “Robo Nate. I’ll kill you if you hurt him. I’ll freeze you to the ice age. Let him go.”

My Nate’s eyes returned and focused on me. His nostrils flared. “Be. Ready.” He gasped. “To. Heal me.”

“I love you, Nate. I love you. I’m here. You can do it.” I squeezed his hand.

“Me too, Nate. Mandy’s so sad without you. She loves you. I love you, too. Come back.” Georgia grabbed his other hand.

I looked at my sister and tears sprung. And for the first time in a long time, I prayed.

Chapter 50

“W
hat the hell is going on?” Hudson yelled.

“Sir, the one called Nate has a chip in his brain controlling his behavior. The human, Nate, is fighting it. Surgery was not a success to remove it.” Someone answered, but I didn’t dare turn my head. I stared at My Nate. He kept his brown eyes focused on me.

“Then what—”

“He’s trying to bust that damn chip himself, from the inside. Sorry to say this, sir, but
shut up.
”

A collective gasp sounded, and I thought all the oxygen around us was sucked out of the atmosphere. I leaned over My Nate and cupped his cheek with my free hand. “Hold on, Nate.”

Blood trickled from his nose. His face reddened another shade of crimson. When was the last time he’d taken a breath? I squeezed his hand.

“Nate. Breathe. Come on,” I whispered against his cheek.

Then I saw blood trickle out from his ear. I sat up and leaned over. Blood on that side, too. “Shit. He’s bleeding. What do we do?” I said. “Nate.”

His head tilted slightly, and he pinned me with a brown-eyed look. “Love. You.”

He let all the air he’d had in his chest out with one long breath. Only thing—he didn’t take another one to fill his lungs.

“Nate!” I slapped his face. No movement. Eyes fixed on me. “Let go, Georgia.”

I straddled him and grabbed his jacket. One quick jerk, and I ripped it apart, then pressed my ear to his chest.

Nothing.

I leaned against him, wove my arms around his neck, and pressed my hands against the back of his skull. I felt his bare flesh so I knew I’d grabbed the right spot because they’d shaved him for the surgery. Burying my face against his neck, just below his ear, I threw up the fastest, most intense healing ice I ever have.

My heart hammered against my chest, my mind whirled, and my breath left me, it all happened so hard and fast. It pressed heavy against my back, molding me to Nate’s body.

Heal. Heal. Heal.
I kept saying it in my mind over and over.

“You can’t leave me,” I whispered as tears slid down my face. Ice crackled around me. Muffled voices surrounded us, but I couldn’t make any out. I didn’t want to. All I wanted was My Nate. I’d even take Robo Nate if it meant I could have some of my Nate. Why didn’t I tell him that sooner?

I touched kisses to his skin. “I love you. I love you.” Maybe if he heard it enough it would help. Help him fight his way back to me. Energy drained from me with each breath I took. A chill, not normal when it was my ice encompassing me, seeped into my bones. Each of my heartbeats drummed in my ear, but each one slower to ignite than the previous one. A little more faint, too.

“Mandy.” Georgia’s muffled voice filtered through my healing dome of ice.

“Come on, Nate. Please,” I whispered. My voice was raspy, and my throat scratched.

He was mine to save. Mine to love and protect. I touched a kiss to his neck again, willing my healing into him.

My eyelids were too heavy to keep open any longer. Took too much energy.

I felt a thump against my lips. It was subtle, but it was there. My heart kicked back to a rapid beat, hope fueling it. Another thump against my lips. I pried my eyelids open and pulled in a breath, waiting for the next thump.

Didn’t get one.

“Please, God,” I whispered. “Let him live.”

I fortified the healing ice around us as I kissed My Nate. My husband. Opening all my senses to him, I poured my power into him.

The edges of my vision curved, fading into black. Didn’t matter, though, because without Nate, I never wanted to wake again.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

Chapter 51

S
omething soft brushed against my neck, behind my ear. It drew me out of the deep sleep I was in. Wait, I was sleeping?
Nate.

I flinched awake.

“Shhh. It’s okay.” Warm breath breezed against my neck. It was Nate’s voice.

His arm around my waist pulled me closer to his body. Soft lips grazed my neck.

“Nate.” My throat scratched like sandpaper lined the walls. I swallowed, but it did nothing to alleviate the scratches. The body behind me leaned away, jiggled, then came back, just not as close. A gentle hand cupped my shoulder and pulled me back slightly.

Nate’s bright brown eyes peered down at me. No red. I sagged against him, not quite on my back, but leaning into him. I must have fallen into a dream, because the last thing I remembered was us in my healing ice, him with no pulse.

He pressed an ice chip to my lips. “Here,” he whispered.

I opened, it slid in, and coated my dry, scratchy mouth and throat. I watched his face, every movement, every wrinkle, every freckle. It was My Nate. No flicker of red in his left eye. Only the amber flecks I’d grown so accustomed to. He brushed his knuckles down my cheek. “More?”

I nodded. Maybe I was in heaven with him. That’d be awesome. Just me and him, together forever.

He leaned away from me again and reached behind him. I glanced around. Were we in a hotel room? No. We were lying atop a king-sized bed in a room I’d never seen before.

It had blue walls, a large dresser against one wall, a huge window filling another, and then a bathroom door propped open on the other side of the room.

I glanced at my clothes and didn’t find any white hospital garb. Instead, I was wearing a red tank top and boy shorts. So I wasn’t at The Center—wait, we destroyed it. Bev’s place? Shit, was I at GenCorp again?

Cool ice touched my lips. I looked back to Nate, and he slid the moisture into my mouth. Still no red. Was it a trick?

“Where?”

“Shhh, it’s okay. You’re safe. We’re safe.” He smiled, triggering more amber flecks in his chocolate eyes.

“You’re okay?”

“Better than okay, Mandy.”

Tears stung my eyes. “It worked?”

Another ice chip. With each one, my throat got less scratchy.

“You saved me.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine, then my eye and my cheek, then my lips again. “Thank you, Mandy.”

A tear spilled out from my eye and down my temple. “You busted through Robo Nate?”

“No way was I going to let him stay.” Nate kissed my earlobe. “He was planning on staying, Mandy. Never letting go. Guess he liked you as much as I do.” He pulled me against him again. I used his bicep as my pillow and eased his other arm around me, close to my chest and hugged it.

“You died,” I whispered.

“That chip was wicked.” He drew in a deep breath. “I had to die to beat it. But it’s gone. He’s gone.”

“How?”

“Not sure how to explain it. I fought through. Like I did before, remember? In the bedroom?”

I nodded into his bicep.

“And then, while driving here. I knew, then, that he had no intention of ever letting me through again. So, I kept pushing. Visualizing the chip in my brain and pounding it with mental fists and smashing it. It helped when I pictured you, too. Us together. Our memories. Drove him nuts. He wanted his own memories. The rate at which he learned and adapted was amazing. I could almost see him thinking things through. It was nothing short of amazing.”

“Yeah. Not so much.”

“I’m so sorry. I hurt you. He hurt you. I’m so sorry. He took you back there. To The Center—well—to Bev’s. The testing you had to go through.” He held me tight, tucking my head to his neck. “I could see most of it, at least get a sense of what was happening. You’re so strong, Mandy.”

“You sure Robo Nate’s gone? You don’t feel him in there?”

“Nothing. Not even a trace. It’s just me. I figured it out. While he was studying you, I was studying him. Learning from him like he was from you. Death. It finally dawned on me when I woke up in that hospital room.”

“Nate.”

“It’s okay. It was clear, I had to die. The chip couldn’t survive death. So intertwined with my living tissue, my death shorted it out.”

“So, it’s in there, just…dead.”

“Exactly.”

“What about when you first met me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did he force you into this? Into a relationship with me? What if it’s because of him that you care about me?”

“No way. That was all me. He was out of the picture until you said you loved me.” He pulled his arm out from my grasp and eased me onto my back so he could look down at me. “And Mandy…I love you.” He kissed my lips. “I love that you’re my wife. There’s no chip in my brain telling me to say that.”

“I love you, too,” I whispered, cupping the side of his face. “So much. I was so scared.”

“It’s over now. They’ve got a legal eagle on Bev. Charges are already being filed. A laundry list of felonies.”

“Already? How long have I been down?”

“Three days.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Three. Long. Days.”

“Took a lot to heal you.” I brushed my thumb over his bottom lip.

“I know. I was out for a whole day, but now I feel fine. Only you wouldn’t wake up. You shut down. Scared us all.” He pressed his hand against my chest, his fingers grazing my neck. “I’ve been lying here next to you, waiting.”

“I think I felt you.” I let my eyelids slide closed once again as I drank in his warmth. Strong, protective arms surrounded me. “Can we lay like this forever?”

“Deal.” He nestled against me, pulling me close and drew in a deep breath. “Are you okay otherwise? No injuries?” His bright eyes slid a lazy gaze over my body.

Taking a quick inventory, I really did feel fine. No aches or pains. Then again, I’d been in my healing ice for a long time working to heal Nate.

“I feel great. Strong.” I ran my palm over his big pecs, feeling the jagged scars beneath the cotton shirt he wore.

He leaned in and captured my mouth. The hand he’d had on my chest in his coined spot shifted, cupping my neck, and he angled in for a deeper kiss. His soft tongue stroked mine, and there was that familiar cinnamon taste.

“Remember… what I said about sex before marriage?” He nipped at my bottom lip then kissed the corner of my mouth.

“I do.”

He grinned. “Say that again.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “I do.”

“Just like at the altar back in Vegas.” He brought my left hand to his mouth. “Mrs. Ashcroft.”

“Mmm.” I closed my eyes and fell into the sensation of his lips against my finger, right at my wedding ring.

He shifted, and I felt his mouth brush along my neck, suckling and kissing a trail to my collarbone, while his hand glided down my side and burrowed beneath my butt. “Mandy.”

I yanked him on me and pushed up the back of his shirt. He leaned up enough to get the garment off. My turn to burrow my hands beneath his pants and cup that beautiful butt of his. He crushed his mouth to mine, diving in as he moved against me. If only I could wish his pants away.

Crackling beside me had me turning my head. White plumed from my mouth, and the glass of chipped ice froze over, frost climbing up the glass.

Must not have bothered Nate, because his steaming tongue licked a trail down my neck. He eased me up and made quick work of my shirt, then slid by bra straps down. “Okay?”