Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“Right. Anyway, half their herd was gone and they didn’t have any warriors in the village—so they asked Hold and me to hunt the fucking thing down,” Fierce said.
“And did you?” Celia tried to imagine the two of them hunting down a ten-foot-tall double sided, furry land-shark and shivered.
“You see our coats, right?” Fierce held out his arms, displaying the long, shaggy coat of rusty-red fur.
“We only wear the furs of an animal we’ve killed ourselves on Twin Moons,” Hold explained. “Once we killed the trenka-veerm, the villagers thanked us by skinning it and making us coats from the hide.” He shifted his shoulders. “I don’t think we’ve been anyplace cold enough to wear them until now, though.”
“Yeah, it’s plenty fucking cold out there,” Fierce growled. “We’re going to need to get into the grotto as soon as possible.”
“Well, no time like the present.” Hold hitched up the backpack he wore and looked at Celia. “Ready, my lady?”
“I am.” Celia adjusted the red scarf so that it covered her head and ears and mouth and nose, leaving only her eyes peeking out. “Let’s go.”
“All right—I’ll open the door and we’ll run to the grotto entrance,” Fierce said. He pressed the door mechanism, causing the hatch to open. “Go!”
They went.
14
CELIA
Celia had lived in Florida all her life, but she’d visited New England for a special client in the dead of winter once. That was as far north as she’d ever been and it had been a chilling experience.
But the temperatures on Tranq Prime blew anything in New England away. The air was so cold, it felt like knives going down her throat and the moisture in her nose and around her eyelashes immediately froze into hard little crystals.
“Madre de Dios!” she gasped, staggering as she tried to step down from the shuttle.
Fierce turned and caught her or she would have fallen.
“Be careful, lelka! You all right?” he shouted, over the whipping of the wind.
“Don’t…don’t know,” Celia gasped. She still felt like she was being stabbed from the inside with a thousand ice cold knives and the tips of her ears and nose were rapidly going numb.
“We have to get her inside before she gets frostbite or worse,” Hold shouted. He held out his arms to his brother. “Give her to me and get that door open!”
Fierce handed her over—both brothers lifted her as though she weighed no more than a pillow, Celia noted faintly. She was beginning to shiver despite the warm suit—the wind felt like blades assaulting her body.
Hold wrapped the folds of his shaggy fur coat around her and cradled her close to his big body as Fierce ran on ahead to the entrance of the grotto.
It looked like a frozen white hillside to Celia but there was indeed a large metal door in the center of it—a door that Fierce was currently fighting with. Either it was locked or frozen closed.
Finally he pulled out his blaster and aimed at the door’s hinges. Several blasts of deadly, brilliant blue light later and he was finally able to pull it open.
“Get her inside! Hurry!” he shouted, gesturing to Hold.
“I’m going!” the Light Twin shouted back. He hurried into the grotto with Celia held in his arms and Fierce followed behind him, pulling the door shut behind them.
Inside and out of the wind, Celia could finally breathe without feeling like knives were stabbing her lungs. It was still freezing cold, but the absence of the whipping gale made a huge difference.
“I…I think I can stand now,” she said, looking up at Hold, who was staring down at her with concern.
“Let me hold you a little while longer to share my body heat,” he said, frowning. “Kindred run hotter than humans and you’re even more delicate than we thought—you need to be warmed thoroughly, my lady.”
“Well…all right.” Celia wasn’t going to fight with him. She couldn’t deny it—she liked being held in the Light Twin’s arms. He was so big and warm and his delicious scent of clean laundry and cedar wood and masculine spice filled her senses and made her want to breathe him in and stay close to him.
In fact, if she was really being honest, she hadn’t minded being held in Fierce’s arms either—or so she thought until he came and said,
“You need to look at the hinges, Brother—they may be fucking broken beyond repair but tell me what you think. I don’t like leaving the door unlocked behind us.”
“All right—here, you warm our lady for me then.” And Hold handed her off to Fierce, who cradled her in his arms as gently as his brother had a moment ago, despite the fight they’d had on the way over.
“Um…I can stand on my own,” Celia said, feeling uncomfortable.
“Not until you’re warm through,” Fierce growled. “How are your ears? They look bright red to me.”