Dead of Winter (24 page)

As the air grew thick with the smell of roses, I raised my purple claws. Reaching for the nearby breaker box, I slashed the metal door like it was paper. Gasps sounded.

With a chuckle, Aric headed back inside, and I followed.

I heard Jack tell the men, “Anybody not a fan of his balls, try something with that one. Anybody else, know that we're goan to be building a haven in Louisiana, a place called New Acadiana, for white hats only. If you fit the bill, you got something mighty fine to look forward to.”

By the time Jack locked the garage door and joined me and Aric in the living room, Rodrigo had returned, dressed, armed, and holding a two-way radio.

When Aric strode toward the fire, spurs clinking, Rodrigo stared after him with a blend of awe and fear.

Jack snapped his fingers at the man. “You heard anything?”

“Meeting's tonight. They're sending a truck here.” He stepped on one of the new carpet stains, and blood splashed up around his boot. “I'm heading outside to flag them down. ETA fifteen.”

Jack told him, “I'm bringing my girl with me.”

Aric slowly shook his head. “Do you truly think I'll allow you to take her out of my reach? Straight into a meeting with soldiers? You're deluded in your young age.”

Rodrigo said, “Uh, the conditions of the meet are that you come alone and unarmed, with no Arcana.”

Once the man had left, I told Jack, “I don't like you going by yourself. Much less with no weapons. Let us follow you.”

“Tonight's important,
peekôn
. You got to trust that I know what I'm doing.”

“In other words, the Empress should trust that you know who to trust,” Aric said. “If your co-conspirators betray you, our element of surprise will be gone. Surely Milovníci put a price on your head.”

“He did. I'm the general's most wanted, and he ain't dicking around. The bounty's a woman, free and clear.”

My claws sharpened at the threat to Jack—and at the idea of a woman being passed around like that.

“You bade the Empress flaunt her abilities, but not just to frighten those slavers,” Aric said. “You're using us to secure power. Once freed, those men will disseminate information—that you shaped.”

Jack nodded. “There'll come a time when soldiers are more afraid of us than of the general.”

“Wars
are
won by perception.” Aric stroked his golden stubble. “Again and again, I've witnessed this.”

“I let that rumor grow about me and the Bagmen because people want to believe that something like that can actually happen. They
need
to believe it.” A new story to tell. “Like they need to believe there's a girl out there who can seed the ground, if they could just ease her wrath enough.”

“You're turning her into a nature deity. With her own fables.” Aric's tone wasn't disapproving, more contemplative.

“
Ouais.
Right now I want as many people as possible to think I'm riding the countryside with life and death—”

Aric bit out, “You
are
.”

“—and that the two of them demand order.”

Headlights glared through the windows. Jack glanced past a curtain then back at me. “It's them. Before I leave out, I'll get you settled in a room.” He clasped my hand, leading me up the stairs. Over his shoulder, he enunciated to Aric, “Get her settled upstairs in a room—
to herself
. ”

On the second floor, Jack headed toward a back bedroom. Blue walls with race-car wallpaper. “You stay in here with the door locked till I get back. Try to get some rest.”

“This is so important that you'll let me stay here with Aric?”

“J'ai les mains amarrées.”
My hands are tied. “You can't imagine what's on the line. Short of this, I'd never leave you. I trust you, but him? I put nothing past that Reaper.”

“I'm nervous about you going alone.”

“Tracasse-toi pas pour moi.”
Don't worry about me. “Are you goan to be safe here with him?”

I removed my pack and coat, tossing them on the bed. “You saw how he fights.”

“No, I mean safe
from
him. He woan try to steal you away?”

“He can't, and he won't. Remember what I did to the plague colony?” How could we ever forget?

Jack exhaled. “Promise me you woan let him guilt you into anything. It's goan to be you and me, Evie. Just . . . just doan give me anything else to hurt on.”

In other words, don't get with Aric. “I haven't made any decisions. And until I do, I'm not doing anything—with anybody.”

“You mean that bastard's still in the running?” Jack swiped his palm over his face. “I ain't hearing this.”

“I can't deny that I have a history with him.” And an Arcana connection.

The truck driver laid on the horn. No concern about attracting Bagmen?

“I got to go. But we
will
finish this later.” With a wince, Jack shrugged from his bug-out bag. He placed his bow on the bed and removed the guns from his holster. At least he still had his vest on. “Keep this transceiver.” He handed me the two-way radio. “I'll take another one, so you can call me for any reason.”

I clipped it to my jeans pocket. “
Reviens back sain et sauve. T 'entends?”
Come back safe to me. You hear me?

My use of French made his brows draw together. As if he couldn't help himself, he gripped my nape and kissed me. Short. Heated.

He drew back just before I broke away. “Doan want to leave you. After tonight, I doan plan to ever again.” As he left the room, he murmured, “Nothing to hurt on,
bébé
.”

When Jack reached the first floor, I heard Aric say, “Rest assured, mortal. I'll keep her safeguarded—and warm.”

“My gun. Your skull. Think about it.” The front door opened. Closed.

I locked myself in, then crossed to the window. An army convoy truck awaited. Two guys with machine guns hung off the sides, outriders ready to blow away anything that neared.

What was Jack heading into? Shoulders back, he strode past the array of bodies. With exaggerated movements, he opened one side of his jacket, then the other. To show them he was weaponless?

As he climbed into the cab, he gazed up at the window, giving me a chin jerk in farewell. I kept the truck in sight until the fog swallowed the taillights.

How could I not worry? Add it to my ongoing apprehension about Selena and Matthew. I fought the urge to reach out to him, to check on him. But if Matthew needed a break from me, I'd respect that.

I unzipped my pack and pulled out my sleeping bag, unrolling it against the wall. I'd just wondered what Aric was up to when he called from downstairs.

“Come to me, Empress.” I could hear the grin in his voice. “Why fight temptation?”

Curiosity seized me. But joining him would be a mistake. When he turned on his charm, he was seduction personified. The last time I'd been alone with him, he'd touched me with reverence, murmuring,
This is joy I feel, is it not?

I called back, “Going to sleep.”

“Hmm. Your loss . . .”

I exhaled a huff of breath. Damn it.

Aric waited at the foot of the stairs, broad shoulders back, blond hair drying. The golden stubble on his chiseled jawline glinted in the firelight.

Too gorgeous for his own good.

“We're in a house with electricity and food. If you don't take advantage of all its offerings, someone less worthy will.” He had his helmet under one arm and a leather saddlebag slung over a shoulder. His version of a bug-out bag. What would a man like him pack?

With my own bag in hand, I joined him. “What do you suggest?”

“You could have a hot meal. Come,
sievā
, unless you eat more, you can't continue to ride as you have been.”

The idea of downing another energy bar made me queasy. The pantry here had been stocked.

“Afterward, you could have a long, hot shower.” When I faltered, Aric pulled off his gauntlets and reached for me. He laid a bare hand on my lower back, ushering me into the kitchen. Before he released me, his fingertips dug in a little, as if he battled with himself to let me go.

“We should prepare a feast.” He placed his helmet, swords, and gauntlets on a counter, his bag on the floor.

He motioned for me to give him my pack, but I wasn't sold on staying. “You expect us to fire up the stove in a slave boss's house and cook?”

“Let's.” His amber eyes were playful. “And if we get thirsty from our labors . . .” He opened the refrigerator with the toe of his armor-covered boot, revealing a twelve-pack of bottled beer. “Not as bracing as the vodka we always share, but we'll manage.”

“Even with the bodies out there, shouldn't we be anxious about more slavers coming? Or the men in the garage getting free? Or Bagmen? It's A.F., we should be anxious about something.”

“If for some reason I don't hear a threat, Thanatos is right out back. He's quite territorial.” To put it mildly.

I sidled over to the pantry. Among the offerings was a jar of maraschino cherries, just like Jack and I had found at Selena's.

When I was with Aric, things reminded me of Jack. And the opposite was true as well. Which meant I was forever screwed. If I chose one, I'd never stop thinking about the other.

Pain awaited me, no matter what I did. The idea couldn't be more depressing. . . .

My foraging turned up a family-size lasagna in the freezer. The package didn't even have ice on the edges. The meal wouldn't be gourmet, but it'd be hot and cheesy.

Game. Set. Match. I dropped my bag. “Fine. We'll eat. Just so no one else can have it.” I tossed it in the microwave, then hopped up on the counter to sit, my transceiver within reach.

Aric opened two beers—pop-tops with his fist—handing me one.

The same reasons for drinking still applied:
possible imminent demise
plus
severe mental confusion
equaled
to hell with it
.

He leaned one broad shoulder against the kitchen doorway. He was so tall, he barely cleared the frame.
“Uz veselibu.”

“What does that mean?”

“Cheers.” We both took a swig. “The mortal's meeting must have been dire for him to leave us together.”

“Jack trusts me.”

“If only you could return that trust.”

I frowned. “Why do you have to taunt him so much?”

“Because he gives me much fodder.” Aric took a long draw from his bottle.

“You called him a drunkard, but we're drinking right now. You like your vodka well enough.”

“Yet I didn't bring a liter of it in my valise.”

“No. But you smoked opium for centuries straight.”

Lips curving, he said, “And this is why I should never tell you anything.”

“Like who my sworn enemies are?”

His grin deepened. “Am I to get away with nothing, little wife?”

“Jack was a prisoner of the Lovers, just days ago. I still have no idea what they did to him—but it's safe to say he's been through enough without your jabs.”

Aric's amusement faded. “I give as good as I get.”

“Put yourself in Jack's position. A man with a deadly touch singled out his girlfriend to torment, and she had no clue why. Then the man took her away. Violently. What would you do if someone else treated me like that?”

His expression told me everything.

“In any case, you're so much older, so shouldn't you be more mature?”

“Mature? You know I don't age physically between games, but I probably don't mentally either.”

“I don't understand.”

“I go into a kind of stasis.” Staring past me, he said, “The centuries between feel like one long dream. The games are like briefly waking in the night—to an awareness of threat and peril—only to slip back into slumber once the game ends.”

My God, his existence had been horrific. And then I would come along every few hundred years to crash his life. I took a deep drink.

But I couldn't feel guilty any longer for misdeeds committed by another incarnation. I
wouldn't
. “I'm sorry for your past, Aric. I wish it had been different. I wish
I
had been. But I refuse to keep paying for what I did in past games.”

He seemed to shake away a haze. “Do you, then?”

“In our first meeting, you skewered me with your sword. In other words: you started it. You didn't ask me to marry you, just ordered it. I played the hand I was dealt.”

“I take your point.”

Hadn't really expected him to say that.

“Let's begin anew, Empress.”

Over the rim of my bottle, I said, “I haven't decided anything.”

He made a sound of frustration. “The mortal can't provide for you like I can. I offer you a home. Does he think you'll live in that muddy outpost?”

Defensive, I said, “Jack plans to rebuild Haven House for me.”

Anger flashed across Aric's face. He schooled his reactions as quickly as he did everything else, leaving his emotions to seethe beneath the surface. “If you desire something, all you have to do is tell
me
. It will shortly be yours. You'll see soon enough.”

I swallowed. Was he referencing the
gift
he'd spoken of? The trick up his sleeve? I almost dreaded learning what it was.

What if Aric could straight-up end the game? Blow up the machine?

“Deveaux will never understand you as I do. As only another Arcana can.” Aric replaced my beer. Because I'd finished it.

“Maybe not. But we have other ties.” I thought of the ribbon he'd kept all this time, the one now in my pocket. I thought of our mutual longing for our home.