Frostbound

Chapter 17

Outside the fire door at the building’s back entrance, the parking lot was a glittering snowscape. Talia stood in the tiny clearing someone had shoveled so the door could swing open. Beyond was a knee-high drift that stretched across the lot to the street. Rows of snowcovered cars made the landscape look like an inverted egg carton.

She knew it had been snowing, but this was way more than she’d expected. Back in her hometown, winters had been worse than this, but they’d worked up to it. A body had time to brace itself. This had come on freakishly fast.

She flashed back to the big hill behind her childhood home. Kids knew how to play even when adults were mired in life-and-death problems. She and her brother, Max, had found a big refrigerator box and used it for a toboggan, sliding down the hill over and over until every last bit of their clothes was soaked. There had been a snowball fight after that, one bunch of neighborhood kids against another. They’d known everyone in the area. They were all pretty much related, anyway. Cousins of cousins.

Her mom had been the odd one out. Whatever had made her marry Dad? Why had he, the ultimate Hunter, picked a wife outside the tribe?

Opposites attract?

But not forever. Her father had all but crushed the life out of her mom—not with his fists, but with the hard edge of his will. Why had he wanted to kill the radiance in her that moved his heart? Because loving someone makes you vulnerable. Weakness is never the Hunter way.

More to the point, why had it taken her mother so long to leave? She had to have stayed for Talia and Max, toughing it out as long as she had. She left just after Talia had gone away to school. Too bad cancer had killed her a year after she’d found freedom.

The men had blamed Talia. If she hadn’t escaped to university, the family would have stayed together. That had been the weapon they’d used to drag her back home: guilt.

They made me feel like a monster even before I was Turned. Most of the time that made her angry, but sometimes she believed those old accusations. You’re selfish. You insist on having your own way. Then everything gets worse.

The facts could be twisted to fit that theory. She’d left for school and lost her mother. Escaped to Fairview and lost Michelle. Tried to break up with her fiancé and lost everything—right down to her life.

Talia took a step forward. Her high-heeled boots skidded on the frosty ground. There’d been enough of a melt during the day to coat the sidewalk with ice, and then another fall of snow to hide it. She caught her balance, holding her arms out like airplane wings. Cold stabbed at her toes. Clearly, Jimmy Choo knock offs weren’t designed for Arctic exploration.

She heard the rattle of the door behind her, then Lore’s voice. “You’re going to break something before you make it to the street.”

“Can’t you give a girl a moment to think?” Her words drifted up on sudden puffs of steam, surprising her. She needed to breathe only when she talked.

He was silent for a moment. “Wouldn’t you think better where it’s warm?”

Carefully, she turned around to face him. His mouth twitched, like he was fighting a laugh. “I think the tweed would have looked better on you.”

His smile brought heat to her cheeks. Talia looked down at herself. She looked like she’d crawled out of a Dumpster. “I wasn’t sure I was coming back.”

“So you took my coat?”

“If you never saw it again, I’d be doing you a favor.”

He chuckled. “Where would you go?”

“A hotel.”

“With the police on your tail? And maybe a necromancer?”

“I’m the evil Undead. I have tricks up my sleeve, and about forty dollars in my pocket.”

“Good luck with that.”

Talia skittered on her heels. “I’m screwed, aren’t I?”

Lore crossed the ice patch toward her, his heavy boots finding plenty of traction. “You seemed bothered by the conversation upstairs.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Errata found the name of your sire. King Belenos. You have some impressive enemies.” He caught her arm before she could fall. “You said you didn’t ask to be a vampire.”

Her chest tightened. “I didn’t.”

His look went deep into her. “How did it happen?”

Talia pulled the coat closer around her throat. “I . . . it’s a long story. All you need to know is that Belenos is a few boards short of a coffin. And he hates Queen Omara.”

“I know.” Lore shifted onto drier ground. The movement brought him closer. “He’s been here before. Last time he tangled with one of our slayers and she handed him over to the queen for punishment.”

Talia nodded. “Queen Omara maimed him in ways that a vampire can’t fix. He can’t swing a sword anymore.”

Lore gave her a sharp look. “You think it’s him, don’t you?”

Talia swallowed. She’d lived in fear of revealing her sire’s name for two reasons. One, it made it more likely that Belenos would find her. Two, it brought anyone curious about her past closer to the fact that she’d been a Hunter. A prickle of anxiety skittered down her back.

Now Lore and her friends knew about her sire. She was walking on a tightrope, Belenos on one side, all the rest of the nonhumans on the other. If there was a third side available, her family would be itching to kill her, too. It was hard to know which to worry about first.

Don’t go there. If she did, she’d be paralyzed. She had to focus on the idea that Belenos had killed Michelle. My God, this means he must be in Fairview! She so had to get her weapons from Michelle’s condo.

Talia took a shaking breath. “Belenos is a sorcerer. He hates the queen. Besides that, he likes a cat-andmouse game. If he found out I’m here, he’d kill Michelle for the simple reason that I loved her. He’d do it just to make me afraid.”

“I believe that. Darak said your cousin’s spirit was worried that you were in danger, too. Is Belenos a necromancer?”

“If it’s nasty magic, he’s probably done it. Frankly, the idea that he’s anywhere nearby is going to give me nightmares.”

“There’s a report that you stole a lot of money from him.”

Damn Errata! “He owed me a new life. After all, he stole my last one. I took enough to get away.” Okay, so maybe that was understating, but he owed her.

“Blood money?”

“I think of it as disability insurance.” Talia nearly spit the last words. “Stealing’s not what you’d call honorable, but it was my ticket out of his house of horrors.”

She dropped her head, not wanting to meet Lore’s gaze. No one else would understand what she’d done. Not unless they’d been there. She could feel his interest like a gentle hand probing her, wondering who she was. I’m toast if you ever figure that out.

Talia shivered, feeling like a child in the huge coat. The sleeves dangled past her hands, the hem almost to her knees. Lore put his arm around her, drawing her close to his body. The coat he was wearing was cleaner, but just as plain. He’d left it undone, leaving access to his body heat. Talia curled close.

Wait a minute! It didn’t dawn on her until a second later what had just happened. He’d taken possession of her so casually, she hadn’t noticed. She twisted her neck to look up at him.

He had a half-serious, half-amused look.

“You’re presuming a lot, dog-boy—you know that?”

“You looked cold.”

She dropped her guard an inch. “How come you don’t have a nice hellhound girlfriend?”

A pained expression crossed his face. “Who says I don’t?”

“I’d lay good money that none of you three canines are taken.”

“Are you?”

Talia looked down, her mind sliding over unwelcome memories. “No. I was engaged, but I broke it off.” Talia pulled away from him, suddenly not wanting a male touch.

“Whatever he was like, I’m not that guy,” Lore said softly, the tug of his fingers protesting her movement. “Just so you know.”

What was he saying? Was this some sort of flirtation? Talia nearly stammered. “No, you’re the guy who chained me up.”

“I had my reasons.”

“You kissed me.” It was an accusation.

Without his body next to hers, the cold air wrapped around her.

He gave a low laugh. “Was it a bad kiss?”

He moved forward, as if he might kiss her again, but she planted a hand on his chest and used her vampire strength to hold him back.

Talia frowned up at him. He was backlit by the light over the door, his features blurred by shadow. Above, there was a break in the clouds where the stars glittered like chips of ice. She was balanced on the point of decision: go or stay, trust him or run like hell. She couldn’t think past the memory of his lips on hers.

How can I be breathless when I don’t breathe? Irritation and an unwanted desire chased each other in an annoying loop.

“What do you expect from me?” she said, her voice a mere whisper.

Lore gave a smile that was at once sad and amused. “I don’t expect anything. I want you to come back inside and help me find Belenos.”

He held out his hand.

She dropped her arm, no longer pushing him away. He didn’t try to close the gap, but stood there, waiting.

Talia felt the night closing in on her. A few flakes fell out of the darkness, catching on her sleeve. Running from Belenos had worked for a while. She’d built a life that wasn’t ideal, but she’d been able to teach and no one, especially no man, had interfered. Yet now her freedom was withering away again, bit by bit.

“The snow isn’t going to let me get away, is it? I bet all the roads out of town are blocked.”

Gently, Lore reached out and caught her hand. His was warm, engulfing hers in welcome heat. “Come inside. I’ll put on a fire.”

She followed him inside, wondering how much she dared trust the moment.