“What—” Kara said as the women came to a stop in front of her. “What are you doing in my home?” she asked as she stepped back from them again.
The women stared at Kara’s chest and she realized the crystal was burning even hotter than before. She followed their gazes and glanced down to see that the black crystal was practically glowing silver with the flecks swirling throughout it.
Kara’s gaze tore from the pendant to the women, only to find the four now surrounding her. They moved as silently as spirits and Kara wondered if she might be dreaming.
“She is the one,” said the woman closest, but the words did not come from her lips. Instead it came from a small box-shaped pendant at her throat. “She bears the crystal.”
Kara forced herself to stop staring at the woman’s throat. She raised her chin and clenched her hands at her sides. A chill skittered down her backside at the thought of the wicked blades of the women who now stood to her sides and behind her. “Just get out of my house before I call the cops.”
“Secka.” A woman with a small pale mole on her cheek and a box pendant at her throat nodded toward the one who had first spoken. “Perhaps we should behead this one and take the crystal to Echna.”
A sick feeling weighted Kara’s stomach at the thought and she nearly screamed.
The one called Secka shook her head. “No, Chai. The Ice-Witch wants her unharmed.”
What in the hell are they talking about?
Kara thought about going for Secka, the woman who appeared to be the leader. But in the next moment she felt the point of a blade in her back and she went completely still.
Oh, shit.
“Do not move.” Secka and another woman grabbed Kara’s arms, their grips so tight they were bound to leave bruises. She felt the rush of ice-cold air even harsher than before. Everything around her blurred as if she was in a snow globe, white particles whirling around her.
As the world faded she could have sworn she heard Adan’s roar of fury.
Fire burned through Adan as he rushed the women who surrounded Kara, his blade held high. He was prepared to battle all four skilled warriors to reach his woman, to save her and the crystal.
White flakes whipped around Kara and two of the ice-ghosts.
They vanished.
Adan stopped in his tracks. In that split second his thoughts ran through every scenario, every possible way to save his woman.
He lowered his arm, leaving his sword resting at his side. There were no other options. Only one choice remained for him now, only one way to save Kara.
The remaining two ghost-warriors stepped forward, each with her curved blade held at the ready. Adan surrendered his sword to one ice-ghost as the other grasped his arm in her icy hand.
* * * * *
Kara slammed to her hands and knees on a cold and unforgiving surface. Her head still spun but the swirling white began to slow around her until it vanished like dandelion fluff on the wind. Vaguely she was aware of the two women in white stepping away.
Her breathing was hard and heavy as she stared down at the white surface she had landed upon, her pendant swinging from her neck. Her mind couldn’t quite process what had just happened. Perhaps she was dreaming—
“So you are the bearer of the L’sen.” An icy voice rang through the chill air and Kara slowly raised her head to see that she was essentially groveling before a beautiful woman perched upon a white throne. The woman wore a white bodysuit beneath matching fur-lined robes, and her eyes were the same pale shade of snow as the women who had captured Kara.
Gingerly Kara pushed herself to her feet, pain shooting through her knees as she stood. The pendant fell against her chest, its heat warming her despite the cold in the room, and some of her aches vanished. In a daze, she glanced at her surroundings to see she was in a beautiful room with glittering white walls.
The walls are made of sculpted ice. I’m in an ice palace, with an ice queen.
When Kara’s gaze returned to the woman perched on the ice-carved throne, the woman smiled. The expression chilled Kara deep in her gut. If she hadn’t met Adan, if he hadn’t let her remember—if she hadn’t believed his story about being from the future—she would have lost her mind from shock and fear. As it was, she was nervous, frustrated, and full of awe.
“Welcome home, Kara of Sanor,” the woman said with a slight nod of her head.
Kara raised her chin. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but you’d better take me back home.”
The woman laughed, the sound crisp and clear like ice tinkling in a crystal goblet. “I am Echna.” She waved her hand as if to encompass the room, or perhaps the entire building around them. “This is your new home.”
Kara narrowed her eyes and ignored the hand. “I don’t think so.”
The woman who called herself Echna raised one pale eyebrow and relaxed back in her throne. “So long as you bear the L’sen, you will be my guest.”
“I don’t know what planet you think you’ve landed on,” Kara said, biting out each word, “but you can’t tell me what to do. And you can’t hold me here against my will.”
Echna’s eyes glowed an eerie white as she held her hand up, palm facing down, and then slowly lowered it. In the next instant, Kara felt a force so powerful that she dropped to her already-throbbing knees, landing hard on the ruthless ice floor. She barely choked back a cry as pain lanced her joints again.
Her pendant burned hot against her chest. Heat rushed over her body, as if she could burst into a ball of flame and melt everything around her.
Echna’s gaze dropped to Kara’s pendant, but her only reaction was a slight twitch along her jaw. Her unreadable, colorless stare returned to Kara’s face.
“I will not allow you to destroy our way of life.” Echna’s eyes glowed even whiter than before. “Remove the crystal.”
Kara tried to get to her feet again, but a force continued to hold her down. Another few minutes, and her knees would freeze just like the sculpted walls.
“Like hell I’ll give it to you.” Not only had it been a gift from her parents, even if they had abandoned her, but something told her it would be a bad idea to hand over the crystal to this weird Echna creature.
Kara expected the women on each side of her to hold her down and yank off the crystal, but neither of them moved.
The woman pushed herself out of her throne and strode to where Kara was being held to a kneeling position by the invisible force.
Echna bent over Kara and the silk of her long white-blonde hair brushed over Kara’s cheeks. The scent of peppermint was strong as Echna leaned forward, then brushed her lips over Kara’s.
Kara was so taken by surprise that her jaw dropped. Warmth seemed to flow from her to Echna, as if the woman was drawing heat from her body. An electric jolt jerked through Kara. Stars flashed before her eyes and she felt herself falling, falling, and being caught against a soft form. She fought to keep her eyes open, to stay awake, but the draw was too powerful. Her energy stolen, she slipped into darkness.
* * * * *
Adan gritted his teeth as the ghost-warriors bore him away to the Ice-Witch’s realm. Swirling white frost blinded his eyes and stung his face. It smelled of winter and peppermint, and felt like a powerful snowstorm.
When they finally stopped, Adan barely kept to his feet. He swayed, his head still whirling with the white flakes that vanished in moments.
They had arrived in a small white chamber. The ice-ghosts released him immediately and backed up with their blades in attack position. From his spying, Adan knew the women could wield their weapons as the finest of warriors. Their curved swords, as well as his own, gleamed in the light coming from a skylight in the roof, in the otherwise lightless, doorless, windowless chamber.
The warrior with a pale mole on her cheek tilted her head and studied Adan. Her words came through the translation module at her throat as she said, “Is he not a fine specimen, Tanon?”
“Indeed.” The other
warrior gave a soft laugh and motioned to him with his own sword. “He would be a fine addition to our stable. Our men would be jealous, but he would be worth it.”
The moled one smiled. “Yes, he would make the finest of concubines.”
Adan balanced on the balls of his feet, hoping the women would come at him. He was confident that no matter their skill he could best these two ice-ghosts, even though he had no weapon of his own.
Instead the woman called Tanon slipped her hand into a pocket of her jumpsuit and extracted what looked like a small icicle. She tossed it in front of Adan, and it rolled and hit the toe of his boot. Immediately the intense smell of peppermint hit him full force. His head ached and his eyes watered.
The warriors gave each other a grin then watched him. “He would be a fine male to enjoy pleasures with,” said Tanon.
Adan took a step toward the women. His knees buckled. He pitched forward and slammed against the icy cold floor.
Fucking ice-bitches, he tried to say, but his mouth was as paralyzed as his body.
Helpless and completely unable to move, Adan could only lay there while the ice-ghosts stripped him of his clothing. He fought the magic of the icicle with everything he had, but could do nothing.
When he was entirely naked, the women rolled him onto his back. Tanon tapped her hand on the cold, cold floor, and a crystal-clear loop rose up from the surface, beside his neck. A collar and chains made of white links were attached to the loop.
Again Adan struggled to move, but his body remained as frozen as the intense expressions on the faces of his captors.
Tanon clamped the collar around Adan’s neck, the chain rattling against the floor as she moved. “Do you not think we should sample him, Chai?”
The other woman gave a soft laugh. “I wish, dear sister.”
When the ice-bitch finished, she glanced up at Chai and smiled. “I like this one.” Tanon settled on one knee beside Adan. She trailed her finger down his abdomen to his flaccid member. “Impressive, even when not aroused.” A devious look crossed her perfect features as she lowered her head and her mouth near his cock.
“The Ice-Witch will not approve,” Chai warned in a tone that held a certain amount of nervousness.
Tanon laughed and slid her tongue down the length of Adan’s staff.
It was apparently the only part of his body not frozen.
The traitorous appendage grew larger with every stroke of Tanon’s tongue, and all Adan could do was lie there and watch his cock rise like the mast of a sailship.
When Tanon reached the tip of his erection, she licked the pearl of his semen and gave a small moan. “I want this man.”
Chai gave a nervous glance around the doorless room. “You don’t have time. The Ice-Witch knows we’re back. She will be here any moment.”
“I could take him fast.” Tanon ran her hand along Adan’s cock. “And I could take him hard.”
“But you will not take him at all.”
At the sound of the Ice-Witch’s voice, Tanon scrambled to her feet. Chai straightened and turned to the witch who had appeared in the chamber. Flecks of snow still swirled around the woman before slowly vanishing.
“My apologies, lady.” Tanon bowed her head.
“I did not give you leave to touch our guest.” Echna gave a wave of her hand in Tanon’s direction. “Back to your post.”
Tanon visibly swallowed and bowed again. “Yes, lady.” She kept her eyes lowered as she moved to one wall. She raised her hand, palm facing the wall, and moved it in a slow circle. Adan watched with intense concentration as a large crystal-clear bubble formed where the wall had been. Tanon stepped into the bubble and then the ice-wall melded behind her, whole once again.
“Give me his sword,” Echna ordered Chai, who instantly obeyed. Echna flicked her fingers in the direction Tanon had departed. “Leave us.”
Chai quickly left the same way Tanon had.
The Ice-Witch slowly walked around Adan, until she had completely circled him. “So,” she said, “Here lies the great Clan Leader, Adan Valnez.”
Adan wished he could move. He would throttle the bitch.
Echna pursed her lips and tapped one finger on her chin. “Now that I have the crystal, your sword, the woman and you, my people are almost safe.”
Frozen into immobility, Adan could only watch as she vanished the same way she had come.
Chapter Six
In a haze that took a moment to clear, Kara woke on a soft pad. She blinked away the remnants of fog and came to a sudden realization. Her clothes were gone and she was freezing her ass off.
The smell of peppermint and winter air filled her senses. Memories—or perhaps dreams—battered her mind. She remembered women appearing in her home, being caught up in a blizzard, meeting some woman called Echna. And that woman had kissed her and made her pass out. What the hell was going on?
It all had to be a dream, a very bad dream.
Yet she knew it wasn’t, no matter how hard she tried to fight the truth.
“She wakes, Daar,” came a woman’s voice from behind her, and she recognized it as Secka’s, the woman who had been the leader when she was kidnapped.
The two women moved within Kara’s sight. The one called Daar smiled, and from that small box at her throat came, “Isn’t she lovely?” Despite the fact that her comments projected from the box pendant, her words spilled out in a clear and beautiful voice, as if she was speaking through her lips.
Instead of answering, Secka moved to Kara’s side. “Rise,” she said.
Kara was completely exposed and vulnerable to these women who had kidnapped her, and she had no choice but to obey. She found she was in a smaller room now, devoid of anything but the mat. The floor and ceiling were the usual white and the walls also looked like they had been carved from ice.
“Where are my clothes?” Kara demanded when she had pushed herself to a sitting position on the floor mat.
“It is only to ensure you will not attempt to leave us.” Secka reached for Kara’s arm and carelessly brushed one gloved hand against her nipple.
A bolt of sensation traveled through Kara and she caught her breath in surprise. The pendant burned against her chest, and the sexual ache between her thighs became more intense than ever. Heat flushed through her—she couldn’t believe that such desire could come from a woman’s touch—and she bit her lip hard to fight away the sensations.
Each woman took Kara by an arm and brought her to her feet, then forced her to walk through an open doorway. Her aching knees threatened to give out on her, but she managed to keep up with the strides of the two women. Their leather clothing brushed her bare body and the air chilled her skin.
Completely bewildered and pissed off, Kara allowed herself to be escorted from the room without protest. The blades Secka and the other woman carried were enough of a reminder that she was in deep shit. Not to mention she had absolutely nothing on.
Even stranger was the phallic-looking pendant lying between her naked breasts. Beside the fact that it made her hot and horny beyond belief, it comforted her. It made her feel safe despite being held captive by ghostly pale women with knives. Big knives.
The two women strode on either side of Kara, each with a firm grip on her arms. Kara attempted to memorize the layout of tunnels, but it was hopeless. There was little of notice, and they went up and down so many passageways that she was sure she wouldn’t be able to find her way out even if she had a map. She had an incredible memory for names and faces, but directions were another story.
Opaque white walls curved and rounded overhead. The ever-present chill caused Kara’s teeth to chatter and goose bumps to prickle her skin, not to mention making her nipples as hard as ice chips. She still had a hard time believing what was happening to her. Could she be in some kind of coma, dreaming everything?
It was all far too real.
While they walked, Daar pressed a button at the side of the box at her throat. She spoke, this time through her lips. I
t sounded like a command, but Kara couldn’t understand the language that emerged. It was unlike anything Kara had ever heard before.
When Daar finished, Kara scowled up at her. “Can you give me some kind of clue as to what’s going on here?” Kara’s voice echoed through the hallway, bouncing from ice wall to ice wall. “You forced yourselves into my house, kidnapped me, and took all my clothes. The least you can do is tell me why.”
Secka turned her pale gaze on Kara. “You are the one. You bear the pendant,” she said, as though that should answer everything.
“You’ve definitely got me confused with someone else.” Kara slipped on a slick patch on the floor, but the two women easily held her up and continued walking.
They finally came to stop before a blank wall. Secka kept a tight hold on Kara’s arm with one hand while she waved her free hand in a slow circle, palm facing the wall.
The wall bowed toward them and then turned clear. A giant crystal bubble appeared where the solid wall had been. Too startled to even think straight, Kara stumbled when a pair of hands pushed her forward, into the bubble.
Immediately, she felt like her naked body was wrapped in a cocoon of snow. She couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe and was freezing her nipples off. She barely kept from tripping over her own bare feet as she burst from the bubble into a small room.
She felt the presence of the two women following behind, but her gaze was riveted on the sight before her.
Adan was spread-eagled on the floor, a collar around his neck. His glorious body was as naked as hers, and the room was empty save for her lover. Adan didn’t move or make a sound. But his eyes—they were black flames that promised retribution.
For a long moment, Kara couldn’t tear her gaze from Adan’s. She saw the fury in his eyes, but his concern for her, too.
She ran to his side and dropped to her knees, ignoring the stabbing pain. “Are you all right?”
Adan didn’t speak. He simply looked at her and his eyes seemed to tell her that he was well, but as pissed off as she was.
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