by Zoe Chant
“Great,” Fiona said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. “There’s the snowmobiles.”
So that was what they were. Justin had heard of them, but never seen one before. “Do you know how to drive them?”
“Warning! The self-destruct sequence has been initialized. All personnel, exit the premises immediately. This is not a drill. The base will self-destruct in four minutes.”
“Yeah.” Fiona was already heading for the nearest one. “Destiny taught me. I’m just not big on snow-related stuff, that’s all. Hop on.”
She helped him on, then climbed on herself. “Hold tight.”
He wrapped his arms around her, pressing his chest against her back. The key had been left in the ignition. She started it up, and began to skim across the snow. He was startled by how fast it went. From the looks of it, he’d expected something like a golf cart, and had been wondering if it would be better to run. But it was fast as a car. He relaxed. They were in no danger of being caught in the blast.
He counted off the seconds in his mind, and when he got to three and a half minutes, he nudged her. “Stop. I want to see it blow up.”
She turned the snowmobile around, then brought it to a halt. The base loomed in the distance. A second later, it blew up with an earsplitting crack and rumble, followed by the slight push of the shockwave. Debris shot up into the sky, then fell down. And then there was nothing left but a heap of rubble.
It was over. Dr. Mortenson was dead. Apex was gone. Justin had finally accomplished what he’d sworn to do, all those years ago. But when he’d imagined it then, he’d always thought he’d die doing it. Then there would be no more pain, no more guilt, and no more trying. He’d be done with it all. He’d figured it would be a relief.
Justin’s blood-soaked shirt was starting to freeze in the icy air. His side hurt so badly, it was making him break out in a cold sweat, and then that froze on his skin. Just sitting upright was unpleasant and difficult. If he’d known they’d had minutes to spare, he’d have given himself a shot of morphine and taken the equipment to start an IV line. He longed to lie down the way a man lost in a desert longs for water, and they hadn’t even started their journey yet.
But Fiona’s body was warm against his, and he no longer wanted to be done with anything. He had a team and friends to return to, and a mate to build a life with. He had dogs to adopt.
He must have said some of that out loud, because she said, “We’ll go to the shelter as soon as you’re better. I want to help pick them out.”
“Of course. They’re your dogs too. I hope they’re not too much of a shock, after your robots. I hate to break it to you, but real dogs slobber.”
“Everything’s a tradeoff,” she said with a shrug. “Robot dogs don’t love you back.”
“Yours might. Maybe that’s why they haven’t taken over the world yet.”
“They’re probably just biding their time.”
Fiona bent over the snowmobile and programmed the GPS for Fairbanks, Alaska. She twisted around to kiss him, her lips warm on his chilled skin, and then they set out into the wilderness.
Chapter Seventeen
Fiona
Fiona had never imagined she’d be so glad that Destiny had dragged her on that miserable ski trip where she’d learned to drive a snowmobile. Even if Justin had known how, doing so in his condition would have been hellish at best and impossible at worst. It had no power steering, so turning it meant physically wrestling it around by the handlebars, and on the rough terrain they were traveling on, she kept having to stand up and lean to one side to keep it from tipping over. Even with her shifter strength, it was tiring.
Justin hung grimly on, silent and stoic. At first she’d tried to talk to keep his spirits up, but the icy wind whipped the words from her mouth, and his efforts to shout replies were obviously wearing him out even more. Now she just followed the GPS and drove, weaving around trees and boulders. A couple more hours, and they’d reach Fairbanks. Justin would never agree to go to a hospital, but they could hole up in a motel where he could warm up and lie down, and she could call her team to fly in Dr. Bedford, the shifter doctor who’d treated some of her teammates before.
The snowmobile slammed into what felt like a brick wall. Fiona was flung forward. She automatically tucked and rolled, tumbling head over heels until she came to rest in a snowbank.
Jolted but unhurt, she leaped to her feet. “Justin!”
He lay nearby. At her words, he struggled to a sitting position. He didn’t seem to have any new injuries, but his arm was pressed to his wounded side and he was obviously in pain. “I’m all right. You?”
“I’m fine.”
She helped him up and they trudged through thigh-deep snow to the snowmobile. It had hit a big rock buried under the snow, then flipped over and slammed into a tree. The frame was askew, one of the skis was bent, and gasoline was streaming out from the engine. Even if Fiona had all her tools with her, she’d have written it off as totaled.
“Goddammit!” she burst out as she spotted the shattered pieces of the GPS.
“We don’t need it,” Justin assured her. “I can find the way.”
She gave him a dubious glance. “Your power only finds people. Do you know anyone in Fairbanks?”
“No,” he admitted. “But it’s southwest of here. And so is Santa Martina. Hundreds of miles past Fairbanks, but still. If I track Shane, that should put us roughly in the right direction.”
She kissed his cheek. “You’re a genius.”
He concentrated briefly, then pointed. “That way. How close to Fairbanks are we?”
“A couple hours. On snowmobile.”
Justin frowned, undoubtedly tripling that to figure out how long their trek had to be.
“It won’t be that bad,” she promised him. “We’ll do it as snow leopards. We’ll make better time, and we’ll be much warmer.”
But he was shaking his head. “I can’t. If I shift, it’ll pull my bandages off.”
She shuddered at a flash of memory. “Nick did that once. He nearly bled to death. Okay, forget it, then. We’ll just walk the way we are.”
“No,” he replied firmly. “You have to shift. We’re talking about a nine-hour trek in the snow. If we’re both human, we’ll both get hypothermic, and then we’re done for. If one of us stays in reasonably good shape, then we’ll have a chance.”
Fiona hated the idea of being comfortable herself while he was freezing—especially when he was the one who was wounded and most needed the warmth. But she couldn’t argue with his logic. No one knew where they were. If they sat down and waited to be rescued, they’d freeze to death. And she couldn’t help him if she was incapacitated herself.
She pulled off her shirt and tossed it to him. “Put this on.”
The cold wind knifed into her bare skin as she stripped. Justin was able to haul her shirt, which she’d taken from a male security guard, on over his. Then he wrapped her pants around his waist, tied her shoes around his neck by the laces, and stuffed her bra and panties into his pocket.
To leap and pounce...
To hunt in the snow...
To be one with the night...
The bitter cold was suddenly no more than pleasantly brisk. Justin staggered, then caught himself with his palm braced on her back. She nuzzled him, scenting both his natural scent and the sharp tang of blood, and he stroked her head.
They set off into the snow. Fiona kept a slow pace, making sure Justin could keep up. He had to stoop to lean on her, which had to be uncomfortable, but he never complained.
She tried to stay on level stretches of land, avoiding hills and valleys and rough areas, but he was the one leading the way. The terrain got rougher and rougher, covered with boulders and snowbanks and fallen trees, and the snow got deeper, going from knee-deep to thigh-deep. Her leopard’s lithe form easily slipped through the snow, and her thick fur kept out the cold. But for Justin, it was like slogging through deep water. He braced himself on her with one h
and and clutched his side with the other, shivering and panting, then gasping. She stopped to let him rest, nudging him to sit down.
“Go on,” he said.
She didn’t move, and nudged him again.
“If I sit down, I don’t know if I can get up.” His teeth were chattering, and his words came out in jagged bursts. “Better keep going.”
Reluctantly, she went on, slower than before. The light snowfall slowed, then ended. At first she was relieved. She’d been afraid of a blizzard. But the temperature quickly began to plummet, until even she grew cold.
Justin’s walking grew less and less coordinated, until he was stumbling even on level ground. His shivering changed to slow, whole-body shudders, then stopped. She knew what that meant: he’d gotten so cold that his body was starting to shut down to conserve energy. Fiona looked up, alarmed. His eyes were half-shut, his lips blue with cold, his face ashen. He tripped and didn’t catch himself, falling bonelessly into the snow.
Her first thought was to shift and pick him up. But she needed to warm him up, and she could do that much better in the form she was in. So she lay down beside him, wrapping her legs around him to keep him from the icy ground and curling her body into him. In giving him her warmth, she was losing her own heat. But if she didn’t, he could freeze to death.
With no way to tell time, she had no idea how long they lay there. But after a while, Justin began to shiver again, then opened his eyes.
He looked around, confused, then gave her a tired smile. “Oh. Thanks. Guess we didn’t make very good time, huh?”
She shook her head.
He reached out a trembling hand to stroke her ears. “I’m so cold, my side’s gone numb. No pain. Small blessings, I guess.”
Fiona wasn’t any kind of medic, but that didn’t sound like a good sign to her.
“Yeah, I know,” he said, as if she’d spoken aloud. “I don’t think I can walk any more. My head’s spinning. I think my only shot at getting back on my feet is to become invincible.”
She nodded and flicked her paw at him: Do it.
Justin closed his eyes. When he opened them a minute later, they were black mirrors, uncaring and unfeeling. Though she agreed that he had to do it, seeing him like that struck a chill into her that was colder than the frigid air.
She stood up, giving him something to hang on to. He forced himself to his hands and knees, then put both his hand on her back and levered himself up.
As soon as he stood upright, he collapsed again. Fiona pawed him on to his back. His eyes were closed, but her leopard’s hearing picked up the sound of his breathing.
A moment later, his eyes fluttered open. The cold hard stare was gone, and the man she loved was back.
Dreamily, he said, “Orthostatic hypotension. Hypothermia. Hypovolemic shock. Elevate feet, keep warm, give warmed fluids by mouth or IV, medevac immediately.”
Alarmed, Fiona gave him a hard nudge with her head.
Justin blinked and seemed to force himself to focus. “Sorry. Thought I was back in medic training for a second. Let me translate. My blood pressure’s dropped so low that I’ll black out if I stand up, invincible or not. You were right. Invincibility really isn’t good for much after all.”
She nuzzled him: It’s all right.
He pulled in a deep breath, and looked at her with so much love and resignation that she felt her heart shatter like ice. “Fiona... I’m not going to make it. There’s no point in both of us dying. You need to leave me. ”
Anger flared up in her until her face felt hot enough to melt the snow. She was yelling almost before she finished shifting. “You actually think I’d leave you to die? If you give up now, you’re the one who’s leaving me. To hell with that! We live together, or we die together. ARE WE CLEAR?!”
Justin blinked, startled. “We’re clear. Uh... You’d better put your clothes back on.”
It was only then that she realized that she was kneeling naked in snow up to her waist. She retrieved her clothes and hauled them on. They barely eased the cold, but the time it took to get dressed also gave her time to calm down.
She pulled him into her arms, held him close, and said, “Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
With their cheeks pressed together, she couldn’t tell if the wetness that warmed and then froze on their skin was his tears or hers.
“Which way?” she asked.
He pointed. “That way. But...”
“Hal carried Shane out of Apex and me off the mountain,” she said. “You carried me in Venice. I’ll carry you now.”
She wrestled him over her shoulders in a fireman’s lift, then stood up and started walking. Even with her shifter’s strength, it wasn’t easy to walk through thigh-deep snow carrying a man who weighed more than she did.
“Stay with me, Justin,” she said. “I need you.”
She felt him draw in a breath. “I know. I won’t leave you.”
Fiona struggled through the snow. Her back and knees and chest burned with effort, and her skin burned with cold. She’d never been so exhausted in her entire life, and they probably had at least a six-hour hike ahead of them. But Justin needed her, she needed him, and she was the only one who could walk. She’d walk if it killed her.
Every few minutes, as best as she could estimate time, she asked him to point the way, mostly to make sure he was still conscious.
“Straight,” he usually said, or occasionally, “Bit to the right.”
Fiona stubbed her toe on a snow-buried rock or fallen tree and nearly fell on her face. She staggered, regained her balance, and carefully stepped over it.
“Which way?” she asked.
He didn’t reply. A stab of fear pierced her heart. “Justin!”
“Sorry. I’m awake.” He gave a weary, exasperated sigh. “This is just what we need. My power’s gone haywire.”
“What do you mean? Can’t you find Shane?”
“Well, I can. But it’s telling me he’s...” Justin pointed at the sky. “...up there.”
Too baffled to even be upset, Fiona stopped and stared upward. A bleak gray expanse met her eye... and then a spark of gold.
The sun’s coming out, she thought with relief. Finally. Maybe now we can stop and rest and warm up...
The spark got bigger. It was coming nearer, spiraling down out of the sky.
“Hey,” Justin said slowly. “Is that... What is that?”
Fiona’s heart lifted as high as the clouds, as high as a dragon could fly. “It’s Lucas!”
A moment later, Justin exclaimed, “It’s Shane!”
The golden dragon landed in front of them. Fiona was so exhausted that the buffet of wind from his wings nearly knocked her over. Shane leaped off, ran up, and steadied her as she staggered.
“I’ve got you,” Shane said to them both. Urgently, he added, “It was Apex, wasn’t it? Are they following you?”
She shook her head. “We blew up their base.”
“What, again?” To Justin, he said, “And you! I take my eyes off you for one night...”
Fiona felt Justin breathe out in a soft chuckle as Shane lifted him from her shoulders. Relieved of both weight and tension, Fiona’s knees started to buckle.
Lucas, who had become a man when she wasn’t looking, caught her. “Are you hurt?”
“Just tired. And cold.” She saw that Shane was watching, concerned, and said, “Never mind me. Justin’s been shot.”
Shane shrugged off the backpack he was wearing, pulled out a tarp, and laid Justin down on it. Lucas helped Fiona down beside him. She watched in a haze of exhaustion and relief as Shane pulled up a flat rock and used it to elevate Justin’s feet, took a blanket and medical kit out of the backpack, cut off Justin’s shirt, examined but did not remove his bandages, checked his vital signs, and finally covered him with the blanket.
Laying a hand on Justin’s shoulder, Shane said, “You’re going to be fine, Red. You’re hypothermic
and a doctor needs to take a look at the gunshot wounds—”
Justin’s eyes widened with reflexive alarm.
“A shifter doctor,” Shane said. “The same one who took care of you last time. What did you think, I was going to drop you off at the nearest ER?”
Justin shook his head. He was starting to fade out, his eyes losing focus, his eyelids fluttering.
“Hey!” Shane snapped his fingers in front of Justin’s face, jolting him awake. “Stay with me, Red. Just long enough to drink something hot. Then you can go to sleep. All right?”
Justin nodded. Staying awake, let alone speaking, was obviously a strain, but he managed to get out, “Take care of Fiona.”
“Relax, Red. I’m on top of it.” Shane dug into his backpack, removing a bundle of clothes and a thermos. “Lucas, I’m drafting you as a medic. Get Red into some warm clothes—gently—then help him drink this. Don’t let him pass out till he’s finished it.”
Lucas looked slightly alarmed, but got to work.
“Here, drink this while I check you.” Shane handed Fiona another thermos.
Cupping her hands around that warmth was one of the best sensations she’d felt in her entire life. Then she took her first sip of the hot, sweet, milky tea it contained, and thought, No, that’s the best.
As Shane began examining her, she said, “How did you find us so fast?”
“I was hoping you could explain that, actually. We tracked you and Red to an airstrip, but then we lost you. We were still trying to figure out where you’d been flown to when some guy called the office. He said, ‘A man named Justin who works at your company and a blonde woman who’s apparently calling herself Fiona now are wandering around somewhere northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. You better pick them up before they get frostbite.’ Then he hung up before we could ask any questions. Any idea who that was? It sounded like he had some history with you.”
Carter, she thought. It has to be.
“Yes,” she said. “We have history.”
In the brief silence before Shane replied, she could hear Lucas coaxing, “Come on, Justin. One more sip. Very good. One more now...”
