Frozen Vengeance (7 page)

“No one—myself—I talk to myself, okay?” She said it as if she was daring him to criticize her.

He gave her a strange look, but didn’t comment on that. He lifted the bundled-up shirt. “Help me clean the fish.” Colt turned toward the back of the house and the kitchen, and Angelica was mute as she trailed him.

“Watch how I do this. Next time fish needs to be cleaned, it will be your job. Got it?” He stood at the table with a knife in his hand, picked up the fish, and started to clean it.

Geli suppressed a shudder. “I don’t like the idea of gutting fish.”

“Too. Damn. Bad.”

He pinned her with a stare that told her she better shut up or risk making him mad again. She compressed her lip to keep her mouth closed. She gestured with a hand for him to continue the lesson.

He didn’t explain much as if he expected her to simply watch and learn as he slit the belly of the fish open and scooped out the innards.

Angelica must have pulled a face as he looked up because the crease between his brows deepened.

“If you are going to live in Alaska, you have to get over your squeamishness.”

“Who says I’m going to live in Alaska?”

“I do.” His tone was like a bell tolling her doom.

“Come on, I don’t even know why you kidnapped me. I was trying to help you.”

He barked out a mirthless laughter. “Help me?” Shaking his head, he picked up the next fish. “You used me, and if you value your pathetic life, you will shut up about it and pay attention to this lesson because you are going nowhere. You are staying with me until I’m done with you.”

A retort rose to Angelica’s lips and died. She didn’t want to risk him doing his cold fury thing again. She needed him to get her out of this place. Soon enough, they’d come across other people. People that might help her escape this crazy male.

She was surprised when he asked, “You come from another plane, a closed off one, yeah?”

“Yes, the plane of the Phoenix.”

“Then, why, little phoenix, do you talk using American slang?”

When she stayed quiet, he looked up at her. “Answer me.” The third fish was gutted and cleaned.

“We have a way of watching this plane. I used to watch it a lot. I learned to talk like you do.”

“How?”

“How did I learn to talk like you do?” She was confused for a moment.

“No, moron, how did you watch this plane.”

“Listen, you taciturn jerk. If you explained what you were asking, I wouldn’t sound like a moron.” Angelica bit her tongue, shocked that she’d said that, and expected him to blow up at her.

His laughter surprised her. It was deep and genuine, sending a tingle of pleasure up her spine. “Point made. I will try and ask my questions with better clarity in the future.”

She nodded, not knowing what else to say.

“But you haven’t answered.” He picked up the cleaned fish and brushed past her toward the living room, his shirt rubbing her arm, making her break out in goose bumps of anticipation.

“We used a viewing tear.”

He got to the fire and bent down to lay the fish on the makeshift grate. “That doesn’t explain much, Gelibean.”

She pursed her lips at the stupid nickname he’d given her. “It’s like the tear we stepped thorough, only it’s used for viewing.”

His head snapped up. “Can you contact someone through it, talk to someone?”

Crap, I don’t need him knowing that I can communicate if I find the right medium.

“No, you can’t communicate through a viewing tear.”
Not a lie.

“And making one that you can step through like the one you made to get us here?”

“Honestly, I don’t know how I did that, and I don’t think I could do it again.”
Which is why I’m stuck taking his bull.

He stared at her a moment longer, as if he were trying to decide if she was being truthful with him. He must have thought she was, because he went back to the task of making breakfast.

Angelica swallowed as she asked, “Are we leaving here today?”

“Yes, the storm is passed, and we are about a day’s travel from my village. A hard day’s fast travel,” he warned her.

She nodded.

“You will keep up.”

“Or what? You’ll beat me?”

Her tone was flippant, but it came back to bite her when he pinned her with those unusual eyes and spoke. “Don’t tempt me, Geli.”

Angelica broke the eye contact first. She didn’t know how to read this man. One moment, he was killing mad, the next, he was laughing at her outbursts. He kept her on edge, and it was playing hell on her system.

The chilling snow was deeper as they trudged out of the ghost town. Angelica did her best to keep up with Colt, stepping in the trail he was breaking through the deeper snow.

She hated it.

She hated the cold, she hated this place, she hated that she was a prisoner to a male she found sexually attractive.

Who are you trying to fool? It’s not just sexual. You find everything about him attractive— even his mood-swings.

She made a rude sound, making Colt stop and half turn to look at her.

“What?”

Angelica did her best to hide her expression of self-disgust. “I detest the snow. It’s horrible, icky and wet.”

“Good, the more you suffer, the happier I am.” He turned and continued breaking trail, while
whistling
a tune.

Angelica felt the inane urge to attack his back and do as much damage as she could with her fists. She gritted her teeth, picking up the hem of her robes, so she could try to keep them dry, and followed him again.

They walked for about thirty minutes, when Angelica heard the first howl.

“That’s close.” She heard the quiver in her own voice, and cursed herself.

“Yes, but the wolves won’t hurt us. It’s not far enough into winter for them to be desperate for food, and there are still a lot of other animals they can prey on.”

She tried to take comfort from his words. After all, this was Colt’s home—his world, so he must know the behaviours of the native populace. When the next howl came, it sounded closer and Angelica shivered, not from cold, but from fear.

Her animal form wasn’t a big toothy predator, and the bigger ones had always scared her. She knew it was an irrational fear, much like human’s fear of spiders or snakes, but it was still something that caused her anxiety.

Colt pointed off at a hill in the near distance. “That is all that’s left of the Radcliff mine. It’s why this town is supposed to be haunted.”

She didn’t know why he was suddenly chatty, but she was grateful that his talking distracted her from her fear.

“Oh? What’s the story behind it?” Angelica was sure he’d ignore her and keep walking, but he surprised her when he answered.

“It was the dead of winter, one of the worst Alaska has ever seen, in the mid eighteen hundreds.” He glanced over his shoulder at her before carrying on with the story.

“The town and mine were owned by Hamilton M. Radcliff who was a sick, sadistic, son of a bitch. He worked his people ragged, mining that gold mine and he did well for himself.” Colt stepped through a deep snow bank and stopped to stomp it down further.

Angelica was surprised. She guessed he was doing it to make the walking easier for her. It seemed Colt was a gentleman when he wasn’t being a jerk.

“That was his house we stayed in last night.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, the rest of the houses weren’t nearly as nice. Most of the workers in this town lived in squalor, but as I was saying, it was a brutal winter and a blizzard was coming in from the north. The people went to Radcliff and begged him to let them shelter in his home.”

“Would there have been enough space? I mean, that house was big, but big enough for a whole town of people?”

“Yeah, when he built the place, had he had a basement built into it, there would have been enough space.”

“What did he say?” Somehow, Angelica already knew the answer.

“He refused—he didn’t want the filthy miners in his home, so he made them go shelter in the mine.”

Angelica gasped. She had an idea what must have happened next.

“The people didn’t have much choice. Their homes wouldn’t have stood up to the strength of the blizzard.

Angelica stopped, so involved in the story, she didn’t even hear the wolf howl closer. “What happened next?”

Colt stopped and looked back with a lifted eyebrow. “Why aren’t you walking?”

“Oh, sorry,” she mumbled, and started moving through the snow again.

“What happened, Colt?”

He smiled and turned, walking on. “The storm was brutal. It shook the whole area, howling like an insane demon.”

Angelica held her breath.

“No one knew where Radcliff was, but just before the storm broke, the entrance to the mine caved in.”

“Oh, my gods.” Angelica gasped, lifting her hands to her mouth. “All those people?”

“Buried alive, yes.” Colt broke through another snow bank and waited for Angelica to come through behind him.

She must have been pale because he frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, it’s just such a horrible story.”

“Yeah, and it’s sad. Though no one can confirm it because every man woman and child in that mine died, but it’s said that the people of Radcliff put a curse on the man himself. As for Radcliff, they say he froze to death in the snow while trying to escape the town.”

Angelica took it in and felt pain and pity for the people of the town—all dead because of one man’s greed and elitism. It was horrible to think about it, and she felt her heart ache for them.

She took another step forward and her foot disappeared deeper into the snow, her ankle twisting in a hole that she hadn’t seen because it was covered.

She cried out and went down, her arms pin wheeling as she tried to catch her balance. In the next instant, Angelica was face down in the snow.

She felt a warm hand around her upper arm as Colt helped her up. It caused a tingle of pleasure, and she hid the shiver of need that raced through her body. Spluttering and disgusted, she sat in the snow and wiped it off her face.

“You need to watch your footing.” He sounded angry.

“Shut up. I just face planted in the snow, so I’m not in the mood for your grumpy ass.” She opened one eye and looked at him, expecting a glower, and was shocked when she saw his lips curled in a breath-taking smile.

“Face planted? Exactly what were you watching when you watched this realm.”

Angelica chose not to answer him and tried to stand, wincing a bit at the pain in her ankle.

“Is it broken or sprained?” he asked as he lifted her up.

“A little sprained, but nothing I can’t handle.” She lifted her chin and dusted snow off her robes.

“You sure? We wouldn’t want you to face plant again, yeah?”

He was laughing at her, the jerk. “I thought you were supposed to be breaking the trail.”

“I was, and you wouldn’t have fallen if you’d stuck to it.”

He was still smiling and she wanted to punch him in the face. Mortification made her feel hot all of a sudden.

“Oh—just go stomp some snow down. I’m right behind you.”

“You are entertaining when you’re all mad, like a wet, spitting kitten.”

“Shut up, Colt.” She glared at him and he must have had enough of teasing her because he turned. It was obvious that he was still amused and started walking ahead of her again.

They walked for a while longer, the outline of what was left of the mine growing larger as they went. Angelica didn’t know if it was because the story was still fresh in her mind, or if it was because she was being a big scaredy cat, but she swore they weren’t alone.

They were still hearing the wolf howls, closer and closer, but Colt didn’t seem worried. It wasn’t the wolves howling that was freaking her out, though. Angelica felt something else, something like the feeling Michael had given her when he appeared to her in the house, but this was much worse. Intense and deep, the cold was more than the wind and snow. It was bone deep and chilling, and she felt her steps falter.

Dizzy, Angelica put her hand to her head and told herself to suck it up. The sooner they were gone from the mine, the sooner she’d stop being scared of ghosts that weren’t there. It was a story and it couldn’t be true. Colt had been trying to scare her—that had to be it.

Oh, yeah? Explain Michael, then?

She had to admit it was a valid argument. If Michael was around and he was a ghost, then there had to be more ghosts.

She saw something flicker in her peripheral vision. Her head snapped in that direction, but there was nothing.

Angelica frowned and took another step. Something flickered again, this time on both sides. She couldn’t move fast enough to see both.

A wolf howled right in the tree line nearest them.

“Colt…”

Chapter Seven

Colt tensed a moment before Geli spoke his name. Something was wrong. There was something that felt colder than the ambient temperature of the air around them, even with the wind blowing, an unnamed presence.

He felt the hair on the back of his neck rise and turned around taking a large step toward Angelica.

She screamed, her whole body going stiff as if electrocuted. The snow around her went up in a fountain spray and the wolves charged out of the tree line. Colt had to make a split second decision.

He lunged, grabbed Angelica, pulling her toward and behind his back. She fell limp to the ground and then he turned and faced the pack of wolves.

There were six of them, haggard looking, wild, and underfed. He wondered about that as he let his bear surge forward, and explode a roar from his throat.

Colt’s claws burst from his fingertips and he felt his body enlarge, his shoulders bunching up and surging. He was tempted to complete the transformation, but if he did, he wouldn’t be able to protect Angelica from the other threat that presented itself.

Colt held the polar bear back, giving it enough room to make its presence known, but not letting it take over.

The wolves faltered and stopped, whining.