As Cold As Ice

by Mandy Rosko

  “Whoa! Easy, I got you,” Soren said quickly. It took Jessica a few seconds to realize his strong hands were holding onto her arms, saving her from slapping into the floor. “Let’s get you back into the cart,” Soren suggested. Everyone seemed to already be packing up.

  Where were the attackers? Had Soren gotten rid of them? Killed them?

  Jack rushed to the driver’s side of their particular vehicle, and it started up again. Jessica could barely take her eyes away from Charles, staring at him, glaring a little even, and totally distrusting him. She hadn’t even noticed he’d been in the tunnel with her until he’d said something.

  “We need to hurry,” Charles said. “The fact that they cut us off means they probably know where we came in. We might need another way out.”

  “They didn’t find the blast hole,” said a slim man with dark hair and even darker eyes. “I made sure they wouldn’t see it.”

  Jessica didn’t need to ask what he was. His pale, nearly white skin was enough of a giveaway before he smiled, revealing pointed fangs on the side of his mouth.

  Vampire.

  Great. Not only was she sharing space with Charles, but there was a bloodsucker sitting inches away from her bleeding brother. If he lost control and tried to go in for a snack, well, at least she had her powers back to do something about it, even if her body was so incredibly weak.

  “So, what are you doing here?” Jessica asked, taking her mind away from the vampire and putting her thoughts to what may or may not be the lesser evil.

  Charles shook his head. “No time. Soren can explain when you both get out of here.”

  She looked up at Soren, who smiled down at her softly, looking slightly pained with the half-grimace that made up that smile. Yeah, she saw it in his eyes that he didn’t like keeping that from her, but she got it. She wasn’t about to give him any grief over it, either.

  They didn’t come across anymore hunters or collectors. They couldn’t have been driving for more than five minutes, but it was the longest five minutes of Jessica’s life. This wide tunnel really did seem to go on forever. Maybe it actually did run to the other side of the city.

  She kept expecting something super villainous to happen, mainly a wave of water to appear down the other side of the tunnel and rush toward them, drowning them like in one of those old James Bond movies.

  Or maybe poisonous gas. Or little holes would open in the wall, allowing all kinds of automatic guns to poke through and fire either bullets or more tranquilizer darts Head Office loved so damned much.

  Nothing like that happened, and the carts Jack and the others were driving came to a stop when the vampire directed them to.

  Everyone pulled out quickly, standing in front of the wall. Jessica could smell fresh air and hear birds chirping, but didn’t see anything. She didn’t have to wait more than two seconds before the pristine, heavy concrete walls melted away, revealing a massive hole that looked like it had been blasted open the same way as the door to Markus’ area.

  There were mounds of rubble with thick metal wire, like chicken wire, poking out of the edges. The hole slanted upwards, through the dirt to fresh green grass.

  “Time to put my mask back on,” said the vampire, and he along with one or two other men fitted their faces with a black, thin material that stretched over their features. Jessica didn’t see any eyeholes, so it had to be thin enough for him to see through, but still strong enough to protect him from the sunlight.

  “Good job, Bruce.” Jack said. “Okay everyone, let’s get out of here before any other hunters come. Charles, come here. I need to tie you up.”

  Jessica was stunned to watch as Charles did as he was told. Ethan had to lean against part of the wall that wasn’t crumbling as Jack actually pulled out a roll of silver duct tape and tied Charles’ hands behind his back.

  I’ve seen everything now. I really have.

  “He needs to stay behind,” Soren said. “Bad enough that I’m leaving with you.”

  Jessica looked up at him, into his honest, strong blue eyes, and she felt nothing but relief.

  Right before that relief turned into something uglier and more fearful. “Wait! I have a tracker inside me! My arm. They’ll know where we’re going. Soren, you have one, too.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” Charles said.

  She looked at him. Jack appeared to be testing his handiwork. “Can you get out of that?”

  Charles tried to move his arms. He couldn’t. “This is fine. Listen, I didn’t inject Soren with a tracker, but it’s not a dud, either. What’s inside of him will block any signal from your tracker until you can both get them out of you safely.”

  “I left behind enough blood that they’ll think any tracker was cut out of you,” Ethan said, still looking pretty pale around the cheeks. The pain must’ve come back. “They shouldn’t suspect Charles of helping us.”

  Jessica thought back to all the times Charles and Soren had been alone together, the times she’d spotted them and assumed they’d been in a heated discussion about something, or even arguing.

  All this time, they had been working together?

  Jack stretched out another piece of tape. “Okay, we’re going to leave you here to be found. Be as honest as you need to be without giving too much away.”

  “I know how to lie, thank you,” Charles responded, irritated and frowning as Jack placed the tape over his mouth.

  When Charles turned his eyes to Jessica, they changed, like he was smiling for real, and he actually winked at her.

  Charles, asshole, sometimes creepy Charles who was known for overly flirting, standing too close, and sometimes even putting his balls on women’s desks, was actually one of the good guys.

  She wanted to hit him. She really did. Jessica knew beggars couldn’t be choosers when it came to their allies or anything, but Jesus.

  Jack sloppily taped Charles up to some of the wire mesh sticking out of the wall, and then went to put Ethan’s good arm over his shoulder.

  They were the last to climb out of the hole. No one said anything. The factories Head Office was situated near billowed smoke off in the distance. They’d made it pretty far away, and there were cars waiting for them on a dirt road.

  Jessica knew how vampire mind manipulation worked. Without Bruce in the vicinity, he wouldn’t be able to put up that mirage, and soon enough hunters would find the hole and realize where they’d exited. Jessica was back on the run again, with her brother and ex-boyfriend this time, having no clue where she was going. Soren held her hand tightly, checked on the wound on her head, and kissed her temple as she leaned against him and let herself pass out.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jessica dreamed of the dragon. She dreamed of Soren in his man shape, and in that amazingly beautiful dragon shape. They were on a grassy hill overlooking the city, out in the open, no one to bother them, no one to take them away to a lab to be studied.

  She dreamed he and the dragon were two different entities, and as she sat next to him on the soft, green grass, their fingers laced together between them, the blue dragon sat on the other side of her, sandwiching her between the human Soren and the dragon Soren.

  It was nice.

  It was especially nice when Soren, the human one, leaned to the side and kissed her forehead, making her feel pleasantly warm inside, instead of cold.

  She opened her eyes.

  Soren pulled back from her, his blue eyes widening, and then he was smiling, cupping her cheeks with his hands. His incredibly warm and comforting hands.

  “Hey.”

  He looked…happy. He also wasn’t wearing his usual white lab coat.

  “Were you kissing me just now?”

  God, is that my voice? She sounded like a complete train wreck. Jessica didn’t normally put much thought into how other people saw her. She liked to look good, sure, but if someone happened to see her when she looked or felt bad, well, it wasn’t an issue.

  Except when it was Soren. Jessica wanted to fi
nd a mirror, though she wasn’t sure she wanted to look at herself and see the mess Soren was staring at.

  He didn’t stop smiling at her, though. His hands laced through her hair. “Yeah. Couldn’t resist, though I avoided your bandage,” he said softly, rubbing her hand in his.

  “Good to know. Now kiss me again.” Jessica reached up, grabbed onto the back of Soren’s head, and brought his face down.

  She caught the instantaneous look of shock in his eyes right before their mouths met.

  It probably wasn’t so sweet being able to kiss her, but from Jessica’s end, kissing Soren was the best thing she’d done since waking up. Since ever. It was a relief and a rejuvenation. A sudden rush after too long of being without. A lot yet not enough.

  Soren smiled before their mouths parted. They didn’t separate until after she’d pushed her tongue into his mouth, and then he started to laugh.

  “That’s cold,” he said.

  “Sorry,” Jessica replied. They both sounded winded. Jessica felt all giggly and happy.

  Soren shook his head. “Don’t be. I like that tingly feeling on my mouth, but you’ve been out for a couple of days. I don’t want to take too much from you.”

  Jessica’s eyes popped wide, and she was suddenly wide awake. “Days? Are you serious?”

  “Try not to move so much.” Soren put a hand on her shoulder. It was a good thing he did, because the room spun around her the instant she pushed herself up.

  It wasn’t as bad as it had been when she’d first had her head bashed in then passed out. She blinked a couple of times then pushed Soren’s hands away. “I got it.”

  He didn’t try to hold her back. He clearly knew not to.

  “Ethan?”

  “He’s all right, recovering nicely,” Soren said. “He’s not too happy, and neither is his boyfriend.”

  Jessica frowned. “Boyfriend?”

  Soren’s cheeks turned slightly pink with color. It was actually a little cute. “Oh, uh, I hope I didn’t just give away anything private.”

  Jessica shook her head, though she did it carefully. “I know my brother’s gay. I just didn’t know he had a boyfriend.”

  The fact that he could have something as normal as a boyfriend, considering where they were, not to mention the life of secrecy Jessica had forced him to live, made her happy. Though, now that she thought about it, Markus had said something about him running off with a guy who had electrical powers.

  Seeing Soren also made her happy. Really happy.

  He sighed, as though pleased he hadn’t just dropped some secret he shouldn’t have. Jessica wanted to touch his face in that moment.

  “Yeah, well, Jamie seems like a nice enough guy. I checked on your bother a couple of times, and he was always there. I stopped when I figured I was getting in his way.”

  “You checked on Ethan for me?”

  Did he do that for her? Because he knew she’d be worried about her brother and would want an update as soon as possible?

  Soren scratched at the back of his neck, avoiding her eyes. “Yeah.”

  Jessica’s chest filled with all kinds of warmth. She wasn’t used to that feeling, and once again, it only seemed to happen whenever she was around Soren. She knew what it meant, and for the first time in her life, she didn’t fear it. She had feelings for Soren, and she liked that.

  Jessica sat up. Soren stood from the chair he’d been sitting in, reaching out to touch her then pulling back. “Can I get you anything?”

  “A bathroom would be great.” Jessica laughed.

  As much as she wanted to have ‘happily ever after’ victory sex with him, she was going to implode if the basics weren’t taken care of first.

  Soren helped her to her feet.

  The room she was in was tiny as all hell. Concrete brick walls, and a small window that was so tiny a child likely wouldn’t be able to fit through. A long portion of the wall was a different color than the rest, however. She got the feeling the windows used to be a lot bigger but were bricked up.

  The place had been modified. In case of an attack? Definitely not the sort of place that would have private bathrooms attached to each room. Not that she was expecting much from any form of resistance.

  Soren led her out of the small room and into an equally grey and bleak hallway. The only difference was the occasional kid’s picture colored in crayons or markers that were taped up. There were even chalkboards and a few lockers. There were kids there.

  "How did you get out of the shackle?" Soren's hand was bandaged from when Markus had stepped on it, but the shackle was gone. It would've had to come off for him to change in the first place.

  Soren's smile was tense. "Had a space key Markus didn't know about. Always figured it would come in handy."

  She couldn't believe it. "You let him hit you like that, even with a spare key?"

  "It wasn't the right time to make a move."

  Jessica let that sink in. "Why were you working for him? Markus knew you were a dragon."

  Soren sighed. "Honestly?"

  She nodded.

  Soren looked uncomfortable, but he answered her anyway. "I went to him in the beginning. Offered my services, I guess you could say. With my education and the fact that I was a dragon, regardless of whether or not I could do any of the cool things he wanted, that made me an asset. Sometimes the dragon can be a little...angry, I guess you could say, and he had the money and resources to calm it down. I needed that."

  Jessica thought of the needles she'd seen Soren inject himself with. "Can't you control yourself?"

  He nodded. "I know how put together what I need for control now, and if worse comes to worse, I can always wear a shackle. I stayed with him because by the time I got that control, it was too late. There was no backing out, and he said he would look the other way if he ever found others like me. He wouldn't hunt dragons, and if any were caught, they wouldn't be killed or experimented on. They'd be released. All I had to do was be one of his scientific spokesmen for the cameras. If it ever came down to that."

  "Oh," Jessica said softly. "So, he'll probably be going dragon hunting, really soon."

  Soren wet his lips, and he nodded. "I know."

  Jessica didn't know how much trouble dragons had with their control. Some thought they were so hard to find because they were already extinct. Jessica hadn't thought so even before knowing what Soren was. There had to be more, they were just hiding somewhere.

  Having Markus actively looking for them, hunting them down, wouldn't help them, however. This had to be tearing Soren apart inside.

  "I'm so sorry."

  He looked down at her. "It's not your fault."

  "But this happened to you because of me."

  The corner of Soren's mouth pulled up in a slight smile. "No. It happened because of me."

  He wasn't going to let her accept any of the blame. Jessica didn't know what to think of that, other than how much she wanted to hug him, make all the pain he felt go away, and tell him how sorry she was.

  He'd been a prisoner in that place, and she'd never known it. She hadn't known it when she'd threatened him, or when he'd started helping her. He'd never thrown it in her face either.

  “Did you know about this place?” Jessica asked, needing to change the subject.

  “Sort of,” Soren admitted. “It’s hard to believe everything you hear in Head Office when some paranormal kid is being questioned and tortured. Charlie believed in this place, and it paid off.”

  “Ugh. I can't believe we owe our escape to that asshole."

  Soren laughed.

  They arrived at the bathroom. There were stalls inside, and Jessica kicked Soren out of the room entirely when it came time for her to do what needed to be done. Whether she needed his help with that or not, she wasn’t about to ask for it or accept it. She could pee on her own, thank you very much.

  When she headed to the sink to wash her hands, she took one look at herself in the mirror and winced.

  She’d aged
ten years, for sure. Her hair was greasy, and the bandage didn’t make her look much better.

  If she was going to have romantic sex with Soren, she was getting cleaned up first. The problem was that the bathroom didn’t have shower stalls.

  Later. She’d think about that later. There were so many more important things to be worrying about. Her brother, for one thing, meeting his boyfriend and making sure the guy was taking good care of him for another. But what came above all that was figuring out who ran this place and what they wanted.

  No one offered to help for free. No one.

  Despite all that, Jessica still needed to take the time to splash her face with water from the tap.

  The water that came from the sink was room temperature no matter how much she turned the blue dial, but her frost helped with that. She had the cold water she needed to splash her face. Multiple times. Until the bags under her eyes were down. She couldn’t wash her hair just yet, so she dampened it where she could and ran her fingers through it instead.

  At least it meant her ice was still on hand. She hadn’t lost it with that knock to the head.

  Jessica washed her arms, avoiding the bandage there, as well. She lifted the white wrap to see underneath. Looked like someone had removed the tracker. That was good, and she was especially glad it had been done when she wasn't awake.

  Jessica took off the oversized floral shirt she wore and washed up to her shoulders, using the brown paper towels to get her armpits. Nothing she could do about what she wore, though. Her feet were bare, and she was in what essentially looked like a nightgown for an old lady.

  She put her clothes back on, and when she stepped back out in the hall, Soren waited for her. She at least felt somewhat normal again, which was a start.

  Soren smiled at her and didn’t offer his arm for her to hold onto. She appreciated that. “Ethan next?”

  Jessica nodded, anticipation and gratitude building inside her. “Definitely.”

  His room was in the same hallway, and she heard his voice before she saw him. He was pissed off about something, and she smiled at the sound of his bitching as she stepped through his open doorway.