With my left hand clenched around the palmquell tight enough to make the balsa wood creak, and the lighter crushed in my right fist, I barreled through the shopping center courtyard, intent on giving Doris a piece of my mind.
The retired enforcer stood at the other end of the opening, deep in conversation with a man whose soul shone like a god’s.
Niko.
10
Dignity? I Gave That Up Years Ago
The clear, vibrant texture of Niko’s soul hit my retinas and flash-fried all rational thoughts. My footsteps accelerated. Undeniably the most perfect man I’d ever seen in Primordium, Niko radiated purity and strength like visible pheromones, and every cell in my body stood at attention.
My knee clipped the edge of a low planter box, and the sharp pain burst across my senses, pulling me up short. I bent to rub my knee, breaking my line of sight on Niko. Had I been about to run to him?
Blinking to normal sight, I took another peek at Niko.
He stood in a weak sunbeam, the pale light playing across the smooth curve of his shaved head, adding a glint to his dark eyes and accentuating his firm lips. I hadn’t realized skin that dark could glow.
Even relaxed, Niko radiated power, as if he were always a breath away from exploding into action. Nothing fazed him. If he’d found himself Jamie’s keeper, he would have had the pooka wrapped around his pinkie by now. If he were enforcer of this region, tyver wouldn’t dare set proboscis or wing inside the borders. The man exuded confidence—all earned—and my libido lapped it up.
Niko’s gaze collided with mine, and molten heat coursed through my body, weighting my breasts and tightening my nipples before settling lower. I held my breath. It was that or pant, and I retained enough sanity to spare myself that embarrassment.
What the hell was wrong with me? The man might be sexy enough to melt butter in a meat locker, but usually I had better control—
The frost moths.
Doris motioned me over to them. I shook my head and raised a hand to ward them off. Curling my toes inside my boots, I fought my body’s compulsion to launch myself at Niko. Mimicking Doris’s gesture, Niko said something to me. The thundering of blood in my ears drowned out his words, but the crook of his lips tugged me off balance.
Biting the inside of my cheek, I tore my gaze from Niko and spun on my heel. I didn’t have the control for a dignified retreat, so I bolted, sprinting around the corner and throwing myself against the cold stucco wall. On a normal day, Niko fused my synapses; Niko plus the consuming heat of frost moths melted my brain.
Dropping my hands to my knees, I gulped icy air, not straightening until my head cleared.
Doris rounded the corner at a jog, spotted me, and shooed Niko away, assuring him I was fine.
“What happened?” she asked me.
I blinked to Primordium, surveying the marsh and homes beyond it. The landscape stretched in a gray-and-white calico as far as the eye could see. I’d lost track of how many frost moths I’d killed. Apparently all of them.
“Frost moths happened,” I said.
“Ah.”
I heard her laughter in the short sound.
“Did you know he was coming?” I asked, biting off each word.
“Yep. Got his text a bit ago.”
“A heads-up would have been nice.”
Doris grinned. “And miss your expression? Niko should be hormonal goo on the pavement back there. Or you should be, the way you were looking at him.”
I stuffed my weapons into my pockets and dropped my head in my hands. My cool gloves felt divine on my flaming face.
“Then you got all constipated-looking,” Doris continued, “and I thought maybe you were having a heart attack, so I came to check on you.”
“You’re not being even remotely helpful.”
“Oh, don’t scowl. It’s not like I planned to have him show up when you were hopped up on frost moth fumes.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Is he still here?”
“Yep, still here,” Niko said from just out of sight.
I closed my eyes and prayed for a lightning bolt to strike me dead. When nothing happened, I pushed away from the wall, straightened my coat, and yanked my beanie tighter to my scalp.
Just pretend like it never happened. I’m a professional. He’s a professional. There’s no need to make the situation more awkward. As if that were possible.
I strode around the corner in time to see Jamie pee on the back tire of Niko’s BMW.
“Are you okay?” Niko asked, his voice neutral.
I jerked my gaze to his before he followed my line of sight and caught my pooka in the act of vandalizing his car. “Mmm-hmm. Peachy.”
Laughter danced in his eyes, the bastard.
Jamie trotted away from the BMW. Since the coast was clear, I stalked past Niko toward the parking lot. With any luck, a change of scenery would erase the whole embarrassing ordeal from everyone’s minds—or at least disrupt the loop playing on repeat in my head.
“What’s the emergency?” I asked. Niko hadn’t shown up just to humiliate me. That had been a bonus.
“No emergency. A change of plans,” he said, falling in step with me. “We’re making a last-ditch effort to cut the tyver off at a higher elevation. If we can raise the temperature up the hill, they’ll never make it to Roseville.”
“Okay.” I waited for the part that involved me.
“There were, what, four forest fires in the foothills this year?” Doris asked.
“Seven.”
“That’s a boatload of frost moths.”
I glanced around the empty lot. The tree stand covered less than a quarter acre and it’d spawned close to fifty moths when it had been torched. How many hundreds of acres had burned in the forest fires? The hills must be overrun with frost moths.
“We’re calling in every enforcer who can be spared, including you, Madison.”
“Brad said it was okay for me to go? Pamela, too?”
“If Doris will fill in for you.” Niko turned to Doris. “Brad said you’d be well compensated.”
Jamie spotted us and circled closer, checking my expression. I strove for neutral, still unsure how to respond to his rebellion. The soft wag of his drooped tail halted when he caught Niko watching our exchange. Niko didn’t miss much.
“Freelance is good for the body and for the bank account,” Doris said with a shrug. “Besides, you never fully retire from being an enforcer, at least not until you die, and even then, I bet somebody in the afterlife will have work for us.”
“You’re not looking for anything more permanent?” Niko asked.
“Than death?”
“Than freelance,” Niko corrected.
Doris gave him an unfriendly look. I stepped out from between them, coincidentally putting myself between Jamie and Niko. Sure. Coincidence. Not the blasted bond prompting my actions.
“Don’t you start,” Doris said, waggling a finger at Niko. Next to him, she looked like a child, but I had no doubt she could back him into a corner with that sharp digit alone. “Pamela already tried to stick me with Isabel’s old region. What about me gives off the vibe that I want to be turned into an office drone?”
“I think it’s your sneakers,” Niko said.
They both examined Doris’s lime and purple tennis shoes.
“She offered you the whole region?” I blurted out.
“Yep. One fool or another has been trying to stuff me into a warden straitjacket since I got my first gray hair. Do yourself a favor, Madison: Dye your hair. Especially if you go gray early, like I did. It’ll save you a lot of pointless conversations.”
Jamie crept closer and put his cold nose against my wrist between the gap of my coat sleeve and glove. I rubbed my thumb down the bridge of his muzzle.
Yes, I still love you, you obstinate pooka.
“Jamie, I request a prophecy,” Niko said.
That’s right! Between the frost moths, drones, and emotional turmo
il of last night, I’d forgotten to ask Jamie about his strange ability, but it wouldn’t slip my mind again.
The Great Dane nodded and stretched his legs in a telltale fashion.
“Wait!” I clamped my hands to his sides. “Change next to the car, please.”
I went with Jamie to help him out of the vest. Opening the back door of the Civic, I tossed it onto the seat and leaned in for Jamie’s boots.
“Wait until I’ve got—”
“Burr!” Jamie exclaimed.
Two white human feet danced on the freezing pavement behind mine. I gave myself whiplash when I jerked my head forward before I caught sight of any other bouncing bits of him.
“Here, let me get out of your way.” I bumped into Jamie when I backed up, but I didn’t look to see which part of him I’d hit. Thrusting his boxers in his general direction, I hustled around the car and out of view.
“He doesn’t understand modesty,” I explained to Doris and Niko.
“Val says you’re too uptight about nudity,” Doris said.
She and Niko turned curious faces to me. My cheeks flamed. “He’s one to talk. He’s always wearing a thick leather jacket.”
“She’s got you there, Val,” Doris said.
Niko chuckled and strode off with a fully clothed Jamie at his side. They didn’t start talking until they were out of earshot. I’d never wished for the skill to read lips more than I did in that moment.
“Do you know if Pamela has anyone else lined up for the position?” I asked, hoping I could pass along useful information to Brad.
“Why? Looking for a career change already? I think you’ve got your hands full learning everything you need for . . .” She trailed off, eyes narrowing. “It’s Brad, isn’t it? He wants the region.”
“Not Isabel’s entire region. Just what we hold now.”
“How much land did he nab?”
I outlined our new boundaries, and Doris released a low whistle. “That’s quite an upgrade for you both.”
“Brad said region boundaries rarely change . . .”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Do you think we have a chance at keeping any of Isabel’s territory?”
Doris tapped her fingers against the soul breaker protruding from her pocket. “It’s beyond time for the CIA to restore some of Brad’s dignity, but Isabel going rogue really stirred the hornet’s nest. From what I understand, the higher-ups just realized they’re not as omnipotent as they thought they were. I expect they’ll err on the side of ultraconservatism when picking Isabel’s replacement.”
In other words, they weren’t going to pick the tarnished warden and his know-nothing enforcer.
“Don’t look so glum. Ultimately, it’s up to Pamela.”
Brad might as well throw in the towel now.
Jamie finished prophesizing, and as the two men walked back to us, I scrutinized Niko’s face, but he gave no indication of his thoughts.
“Are you going to ask for a prophecy?” I asked Doris. Maybe she’d let me listen in.
She scoffed. “I don’t need a foretelling mucking up my thoughts.”
Jamie ducked into the Civic, rubbing his arms with his hands, his teeth audibly chattering. Niko walked around to the driver’s side of his BMW but didn’t make a move to get in.
“Doris, I feel obliged to ask one more time: Are you sure you want to stick around? You’re retired. You don’t need to chance an encounter with sjel tyver. You could take a trip, head south.”
Doris gave him a scandalized look. “You’re still young and all your parts are still eager to perk up, but have you seen how old the men I date are? I’d be a fool to miss out on this windfall of frost moths. I’ve already lined up three outdoor dates this week.”
“Three?” I echoed, impressed.
Doris’s smile straddled the line between demure and smug. “Would have been four, but Harold broke his hip.”
Three dates with three different men? Cotton-topped, great-granddaughter-picture-adorned, eighty-something Doris was a player.
“Glad to see you’ve got your priorities,” Niko said.
“Damn straight.”
Still grinning, Niko shifted his attention to me. “You and I are paired up to clear a remote location outside of Colfax, so I think it’s best we carpool. Meet me at the park and ride off Sierra College in half an hour.”
“Okay,” I squeaked. Me, an unprecedented number of frost moths, and Niko. What could go wrong?
Doris chuckled under her breath as we got into the car. I snapped out of my daze and pointed a finger at her. “No comments.”
We made the drive back to my apartment in silence, which freed my mind up to replay over and over again my appalling reaction to seeing Niko and imagine even worse embarrassments in my near future.
“What’s your motto today?” Doris asked when I dropped her beside her Miata in the overflow lot near my apartment building.
I stared at her blankly. Don’t maul Niko? Keep my pants on?
“Regarding lux lucis,” she prompted.
Oh. Right. “Use it all the time.”
“And in your case, shoot everything in sight. It’s the only way you’re going to improve fast enough to be a lick of good against the drones.”
With that confidence booster, she handed back Val, hopped into her toy car, and tore from the lot.
“Want to come up front?” I asked Jamie.
“I need to pee.”
I turned off the car. “Grab some snacks while you’re up there. Don’t take too long.”
He snatched the keys from my hands and bolted from the Civic. With envious ease, he sprinted up the walkway, taking the stairs two at a time, and he’d unlocked the apartment before I remembered he’d spent the entire time we were at Quarry Ponds peeing on everything in sight.
“What are you up to, pooka?” I shoved from the car, ready to chase after Jamie, but stopped when I caught sight of him in the front room’s sliding glass door. He snuggled Dame Zilla to his chest, head bent to touch noses with her. With a sigh, I relaxed against the door of the Civic. Getting the kitten for him might have been a stroke of genius. Unlike the imps, she was a creature he could play with that I wouldn’t have to kill. Plus, his desire to spend time with a pure lux lucis creature had to work in my favor, right?
The clouds played peekaboo with the sun, and the breeze whisked away what little warmth the flickering rays provided. I slid back into the driver’s seat and shut in the remaining heat, checking the clock on the dash. I’d give Jamie five minutes before I retrieved him.
“Sweet Home Alabama” jingled from my pocket. I pulled out Medusa and stared at a picture of my mom’s face. Better to answer now than have her keep calling while I was out with Niko.
I chose to ignore how the phrase out with Niko added an erratic skip to my heartbeat. He was just a coworker.
A smoking-hot, extremely talented coworker.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Madison, do you have a minute?”
“I have exactly four,” I said, eyes on the clock. “I’m about to leave for, um, a hike with a few friends.” I wasn’t the most inventive liar, but I was proud of the plausibility of my outing and how closely it mirrored the truth—minus, of course, all the details that would have sent Mom into a panic.
“A hike sounds lovely if the weather holds. You’ll take your rain gear?”
I glanced down at my arctic-chic outfit. “Yep. I’m prepared for anything.”
“Good. Okay, I won’t keep you. I just wanted to let you know your dad and I have tickets for the Sierra Scenic Train tomorrow.”
She paused like I had a clue what she was talking about. “The what?”
“It’s a train that goes from Roseville to Reno through the snow.”
“It’s very romantic,” Dad shouted in the background.
Right. Romantic. My dad loved all things trains. It’d be a miracle if he remembered Mom existed once he caught sight of the first engine.
/> “What’s in this for you?” I asked Mom.
“It’s Johnny Cash themed. Carol went last week and said they’ve got an impersonator who looks like Johnny in his prime.”
I rolled my eyes. “So up and back in a day. Are you prepared for twelve hours of fanatical foaming from Dad?”
“Oh, no, we don’t come back until Tuesday.”
Alarm bells rang in my head. They’d be in overt tyv territory overnight? “How long is this train ride? Will you be in Reno by dark?”
“I hope not. I want to see the snowcapped Sierras at sunset.”
“You’ll stay inside the train at all times?”
“It’s going to be ten below over the summit. Of course we’ll be inside, won’t we, Oscar?”
“I make no promises,” my dad shouted.
I dropped my forehead to the steering wheel and focused on keeping my breathing even. The odds of tyver or drones attacking a lone train were slim. “When you get to Reno, you’ll stay indoors, right?”
“Well, I had plans to skinny-dip in the Truckee River . . .”
“Mom! I’m serious.”
“What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing. I just worry about your health.” And your memories and your inhibitions. Oh holy hell. Drones and casinos? If ever there was a place where one needed to have full control over their faculties, it was at a casino. As long as they stayed inside, they’d be safe, though. They were norms. They wouldn’t have their souls ripped from their bodies, only their memories.
This pep talk wasn’t helping.
“How was your date?” Mom asked.
No segue. No lead-in. No time for me to collect my breath. A click announced my dad picking up the other extension in their house. I banged my head against the steering wheel.
“It was nice.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Mom prompted.
“Alex is very nice.” And a great kisser and handsome and so wonderfully normal. “You’d like him.”
A Fistful of Frost Page 13
