Dark Ice (13 page)

Chapter Twelve

Lea continued to sit on the sofa, almost comatose, hugging a plush cushion to her body. She hardly moved a muscle since Dane walked out the door carrying the huge body of a wolf…Sebastian…across his broad shoulders, concealing his face from her.

Shock and disbelief numbed her body and mind. The hazy sunlight filtering in through the open door was the only indication of how much time had elapsed since he walked out. It had to be close to midday, though there was little warmth as a cool breeze tickled at her face and dried her tears.

A shadow darkened the doorway and Lea started as if waking from a dream.

“What the hell happened here?” The voice exploded into the solitary silence and Lea jumped to her feet, her heart beating a tattoo against her chest.

Brent stepped into the room and looked around at the mess in disbelief. “What happened to your house, Lea?” he asked, and Lea noted how his voice adopted the professional psychiatrist lilt, the one they were trained to use on the mentally disturbed or recent victims of violence. “And why are you still in your bathrobe?”

She pulled the garment across her tightly, suddenly feeling vulnerable. Dragging her gaze warily from Brent, Lea finally looked around at the room and realized she could very well be classed in both those categories, either insane or a victim of violence. Brown smudges were randomly splattered across the floor and furniture had been overturned, some of it smashed and splintered. Lea hopped Brent didn’t notice the dried brownish blood stains. It was going to be hard enough to explain already. Hell, she couldn’t even wrap her head around what was going on let alone make a convincing argument. Nor did she want to.

“Lea—” Brent started.

“Brent, don’t lecture me.” Lea held up a hand and stepped over a broken side table to stand in front of him. She noticed him pull out his phone, hit a few buttons and slide it back into his pocket.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“I actually came to apologize for the other day, my actions were very unprofessional.” He paused and looked around again and Lea could feel him taking in almost every detail of her ruined house. “I went over to see you at your office at the club. They say you haven’t been into work since the day the club reopened.”

There was a question in his statement, one she had no desire to answer. Truthfully she hadn’t even thought of work. Too much had happened. Dane had strode into her life and turned it upside down and then walked out. Pain clutched at her chest at the thought of him. Tears stung her eyes but she blinked them back, she didn’t want Brent to see any more of her tears. She wouldn’t leave herself vulnerable to him again.

“Listen Lea, I think we need to—”

“Don’t patronize me, Brent,” Lea snapped, as she recognized his professional voice again.

“I’m not patronizing you.” He stepped closer to her and she wanted to step back but wouldn’t allow herself to show weakness. “But you have been acting very strangely lately. These dreams, in my office the other day, not working. And now I come to check on you and your sitting practically comatose on a chair, your door wide open and your house trashed.”

He took a pause for dramatic effect before going on in that same calm melodic voice which was supposed to sooth her, but was only getting on her already frayed nerves.

“I’ve talked to a colleague of mine at the Psych section of the hospital and he says its quiet common for people to have a psychotic break caused by a traumatic event. Post traumatic stress can be even worse for people in our profession because we are so analytical.”

He put both hands on her shoulders and she felt a gush of ice cold air engulf her. She fought the repulsion of having Brent’s hands on her and tried to concentrate on the cold feeling consuming her. She looked around desperately. Was Dane here with her again? Was he still watching over her, protecting her? Hope grabbed at her heart; perhaps together they could work things out.

Lea glanced at Brent and noticed him watching her looking around wildly. There was fear in his eyes, just as there had been at his office when Dane warned her, but now there was also professional curiosity in his gaze and alarm bells went off in her brain.

“Now, Lea, I just called an ambulance and I have alerted the doctors there that you will be staying a while.”

“You’re having me admitted?” Lea baulked.

She pushed Brent away, he spun, tripping over an upturned chair and landed on the floor. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know that I’m not crazy.”

She advanced on him, towering over him still sprawled on the ground. “Now get the hell out of my house and take your diagnosis and your hospital with you.”

Brent scrambled to his feet, a cold steely look in his now determined eyes. “Lea, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You’re not the first person I’ve had to deal with resisting treatment.”

“Treatment,” she almost screamed at him. “Screw you and your treatment. You’re just pissed that I declined your slimy advances the other day.” She saw him wince. “How many other woman have you tried to seduce in your office?”

Brent stepped toward her, anger now permeating from him and Lea felt another rush of icy coldness sweep across her warning her of emanate danger. She steeled herself for what was to come.

“I’m going to have you drugged into a stupor. I’ll give you the strongest anti-psychosis drugs I can find. You’ll be so high you’ll be seeing shit that will fracture your mind, you smarmy bitch.”

Lea heard a low growl vibrate through her mind. This time she didn’t need the warning. She bunched up her fist and swung, her right hook hit Brent square in the face, she felt the impact run up her arm and into her body like the recoil of a shotgun. It almost knocked her back but she stepped forward and swung again. This time she connected with the side of his face and he went to the floor. A sickening crack told her she’d done some damage. The blood spewing from his nose spread across his face making him almost undetectable.

Brent hit the ground with a thump and clutched at his face. “You bitch,” he tried to say with as much venom in his voice as blood on his face.

Lea regarded him coldly and shook out her hand, the knuckles already bruised and swollen. Another movement blocked the light of day from the doorway. Lea snapped her head toward it.

“I can see you have it all under control. I shall leave you to it.” The Japanese venator who saved her from Sebastian stood tall and straight on the threshold of her home. He glanced down at Brent’s moaning form and raised an eyebrow before looking back at her. “If you require any assistance, please do not hesitate to call for me.”

He nodded curtly, turned, placed his hand on his sword and disappeared from view. Lea sighed with exhaustion, would this day ever end? It just kept getting stranger.

She peered down at Brent. “Perhaps you can use that ambulance now. Take your treatment and your ambulance and get the hell out of my house.” Her foot itched to kick him for good measure.

Finally he got up, but he didn’t look at her, and skulked to the door, all the while mumbling almost incoherently. Lea picked up words like ‘assault’, ‘insane’ and ‘bitch’.

Lea followed him across the room and slammed the door behind him. She should have closed it earlier but the situation with Dane that morning overrode everything else.

Dane. She could picture him in her mind. The way he’d barged into the hall and rescued her. The way he’d made love to her. The way he turned into a polar bear and ripped the throat out of a wolf.

Lea leaned against the door, exhausted and confused. Residual adrenaline from her encounter with Brent made her nerve endings tingle and left her trembling. Why the hell did he come here? She’d always believed he was a respectable colleague, someone to be trusted. A friend, perhaps even the kind of man she would end up with. Obviously she’d been very wrong, now it was clear how manipulative he had been. How cruel and sadistic, she’d seen a glimmer of pleasure that shrouded his eyes at the thought of her medicated and incarcerated, vulnerable to him.

She shuddered and closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them, she focused on a blood stain now dried and crusted into the carpet. Remembering what created those stains she continued to stare at it. Was it Dane’s blood smeared there or the wolf’s, she didn’t know. But she was certain that Dane had been badly injured as he defended her. He’d killed to protect her.

Bitter tears stung her tired eyes. Dane, the fierce protector, powerful and lethal, he’d looked on her with only kindness and love. Brent coveted her with deception and personal intent; perhaps he was more of an animal than Dane.

Lea laughed in amazement at the thought. Perhaps Brent wasn’t literally more of an animal than Dane, but in terms of her heart, she now realized the truth. Dane loved her, protected her the only way he knew how. If it wasn’t for him, she’d most likely be dead at the hands of the wolf.

That’s where her mind rebelled, the fact that Sebastian and the wolf were one in the same. Stepping over debris, she curled up on the sofa, hugging the pillow to her chest. She’d always known who Dane really was, but it was one thing to have niggling doubts about a dream and something entirely different to see a man transform in front of your eyes.

There was the truth and she couldn’t deny it any longer, nor could she deny her heart. She wanted Dane, yearned for him, needed to be with him. But where was he? Where did he go when he left this morning?

The answer hit her with a flash of inspiration. Excitedly, Lea rushed into the bedroom, trying to ignore the bed they shared together. Throwing off the dressing gown, she hurriedly changed into a button-down blouse and a full length skirt.
 

Knowing the only way to see him, Lea moved over to the bed and halted. The covers were strewn across the edge of the bed where Dane must have tossed them aside before he came out to confront Sebastian.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and lay across the cool sheets and closed her eyes. To dream of him was her only answer. She took a deep breath and tried to relax, nervous excitement bubbled within her. Would he want her after this morning?

Lea forced herself to relax, applying the techniques she taught her clients over the years. It was easier to relax physically as her mind still raced with images of the past few days. Slowly she drifted into darkness until the light and cold hit her.

Blinking, Lea shielded her eyes with her hands against the glare. Sunshine reflected off fields of snow and her heart gave a jolt of anticipation. Looking around she saw it, an anomaly in the expansive iced landscape. She started toward it, hoping her instincts were right and it was Dane’s den. Shivering, she crossed the ice, searching the horizons for Dane. The hairs on the nape of her neck tingled and she knew with certainty, someone was watching.

~* * *~

Darius moved with deadly silence, though every instinct screamed within him to move into the shadows, he strode with intent out in the open. His back itched between his shoulder blades and knew his every move was being monitored.

He bunched his fists at his side, determined to talk with the woman. Hours had passed since his cousin had left but daylight still warmed the air. He’d prefer to wait until dusk at the earliest to venture out into the city, evening and night time were his natural elements. But his cousin’s plight consumed his mind and reached his marred soul. It surprised him, hardly anything touched his soul these days. Most of the time, he doubted whether his soul was still intact. Or if he even had one.

Darius crossed the street with a cursory glance up and down the street. No cars sped down the quiet road, no people going about their daily business. Whoever watched didn’t want to be seen. Darius kept his gaze along the footpath as all his other senses went into high gear. He could feel them, smell them, knew someone was there.

A venator. Darius smiled curtly. The hunter was in front of him somewhere, unmoving, yet taking in all their surroundings. Was this the hunter Dane spoke of? The one who would watch his woman until Dane’s scent left her?

Hot bile twisted his stomach and he couldn’t stop the grimace that twisted his handsome features. A hunter protecting the woman of a versipellis, the thought disgusted him. And no matter what Dane believed, she was his woman. Darius knew it without a doubt.

He knew the consuming passion, the desire, the heartbreaking torment of love. The hope and fear were the hardest part, Dane had been right. Darius stopped mid-step as memories threatened to bring him to the ground. No, the violence and death were the worst part, the continuing unrequited love.

He wouldn’t allow his cousin to live with that for the rest of his life if he could help it. Gritting his teeth he continued along until he reached the woman’s house.

Darius stepped into the picturesque front garden and stopped half way up the path.

“I know you are there venator, show yourself.”

The venator he’d seen previously at the hall stepped out into the open. He stood next to a tall flowering bush, his stance rigid, his hand on his sword. Darius grinned.

“What are you doing here, dog?”

Darius growled at the rancor in the hunter’s voice, his natural animosity coming to the forefront.

“I am no dog, barbarian.”