As Cold As Ice (12 page)

When Jessica had gone through her own test
to obtain her hunter license, a paranormal had been released into
the room. Usually, they were volunteers, people with low-level
powers, or maybe an alpha werewolf to throw everyone off-guard.
They tended to be paranormals who turned themselves in and worked
for The Head Office for Paranormal Containment and Study, hoping to
lead somewhat normal lives, like the people in the poorly written
sitcom that played over and over in the building.

No one in her group knew
why Jessica was taking the test a second time. If they knew she was
a paranormal, then it was too much information floating around with
too many people. Better for them to know nothing about who she was
when it came time for her to
escape
with the other prisoners they were planning on
letting go.

It was pretty much the same that time
around. A paranormal was brought out, someone who had the power to
turn their body into very strong harsh stone. The rock that became
his skin was so tough and sharp in some places, especially around
the joints, that one of the recruits cut themselves pretty badly
trying to contain the man.

“
Arrest him!” shouted one
recruit, pointing a long finger, fire and vengeance in his eyes as
his friend was carted away.

None of the guards standing around moved,
though. The gargoyle looked worried as he shifted, stone becoming
skin again, but Soren was calm as he stared at the recruit.
“Why?”

The angry recruit sputtered, like he wasn’t
sure what the question was even for. “What do you mean, why? That
paranormal cut up my cousin! Fucking arrest him!”

“
Leonard is a member of our
staff, and not someone you will harass because your cousin was too
damned slow to make the cut,” Soren said.

Jessica almost couldn’t believe her ears at
the rare show of insolence out of him. It was out of character and
shockingly alpha-like.

She
liked
it. It was sexy.

The angry recruit turned bright red, right
before he smiled and stepped back in line. There was one like him
in every group, Jessica was told. There had been a snobby, precious
jerk in the group Jessica and Ethan had been in when they got their
license. Someone who didn’t like to be wrong, who hated not getting
his way and was going to try and stir up shit whenever no one was
looking.

Perfect. She could already plan out how this
was going to happen in her head. Murphy’s Law stated that this
asshole had to be involved in some dick-ish plot in the future that
would try to fuck her over.

Not happy. She wasn’t at all happy with
that.

One by one, the recruits went on to try and
catch the gargoyle, including the angry recruit from before.

He actually managed to catch him. Using
brute strength, he got up behind the paranormal and stuck his hands
under the man’s neck, trying to choke him.

When that didn’t work, he grabbed for the
gargoyles eyes, which did.

The gargoyle arched back. The recruit didn’t
get the chance to really sink his fingers in, which was a good
thing. However, in the thrashing and yelling and churning of their
bodies, he did get a shackle on his wrists just as the wings on the
gargoyle’s back unfolded and launched outwards, throwing the
asshole recruit off.

It was too late, though. The shackle was
already doing its job, and the stone of the gargoyle’s skin started
to crumble away into nothingness. He had to quickly fold his wings
back into his body before they could fall off and shatter on the
floor like dry clay, too.

The asshole recruit hooted and cheered,
puffing his chest out and peacocking in front of the other
recruits, who clapped and cheered for him, like the paranomal’s
bleeding eyes were the bees’ knees.

It had pretty much been exactly like this
when Ethan and Jessica signed up to get their hunting licenses.

If these guys all wanted to see a show, then
they should’ve just headed down to one of the paranormal carnivals.
It irritated Jessica that these men thought they were professionals
in anything.

They probably couldn’t even professionally
mow a lawn, the jackasses.

Soren checked on the gargoyle paranormal,
taking out a pocket light and shining it into the man’s eyes.
Thankfully, it seemed that any blood was coming from the skin
around his eyes, and Jessica still couldn’t figure out how that
worked. He blinked several times, as though trying to get his
vision back in check, then nodded to Soren, indicating he could
still work.

For paranormals working for Head Office,
they were paid based on days worked, not hours. If that man was too
injured to work, even if there was only a half an hour left in the
day for him, then it wouldn’t count, it would go on his permanent
record, and his living conditions would worsen as certain rights
were stripped from him.

The right to a full eight hours of sleep,
for instance. The right to have half a day off every week. The
right to a radio in living quarters and access to the Internet were
especially big, though very few paranormals were allowed that.

Markus didn’t want the paranormals in his
care knowing what was going on in the outside world, or contacting
people they shouldn’t be.

Soren removed the shackle, and with renewed
bravery, the recruits went after the gargoyle, most failing to
shackle him. Still, two more men got him.

“
Three out of over twenty
of you. That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen in my entire
damned life!” Soren snapped, making everyone, Jessica included,
stand even straighter at attention under the harsh
words.

Jessica wanted to smile. She absolutely
loved the idea of a paranormal calling out recruits for being so
completely and utterly terrible at even a practice version of what
their jobs would be. The irony was wonderful.

Soren pinched the bridge of his nose, as if
the entire thing was giving him a headache. “Jessica Frost, you’re
the last one up. Please, do not be as much of a disappointment. I
really can’t handle that today.”

Jessica stepped forward.
None of the other recruits said anything, but they didn’t need to.
She could hear the way some of them snickered, could just imagine
inside her mind the way others would nudge each other in a silent
gesture of
yeah fucking right.

Not too many women made it as hunters. Those
who did were usually ex-firefighters or police offers, women who’d
already gone through insane physical training and could not only
handle being thrown around, but could get back up and launch a
couple of punches themselves.

Jessica wasn’t exactly dainty, but she was
smaller than each of the three men who’d bested the gargoyle, and a
good portion of the ones who hadn’t been able to.

Still, she walked tall, already knowing
exactly what to do, having brought in a couple of gargoyles herself
a time or two.

She smiled at the man, who let his stone
skin form over his body, his face changing into something more
monstrous. Then she smiled at Soren, right before he blew his
whistle.

It was over in less than six seconds.

Chapter Twelve

Jessica held onto her shackles and ran at
the gargoyle, letting out a war cry that vibrated the inside of her
throat. As if that was the signal he needed to run back at her, he
roared and did the same thing.

They were just upon each other, nearly
touching, when Jessica fell down and slid between the paranormal’s
legs.

Performing a move like that was never as
easy as the movies made it out to be, so she did get caught up in
his legs. The gargoyle tripped over her body. The weight of his
stone flesh should’ve hurt a whole lot, broken a few bones and left
her with some serious cuts, at best. At worst, it could have killed
her.

Thanks to her quickly clipping the shackle
around the gargoyle’s ankle, however, nothing but a nearly naked,
normal man landed on top of her.

He was still pretty damned heavy; she had to
admit to that much when she pushed him off her.

The paranormal looked down at his ankle then
over at Jessica, and he smiled. “Not everyone thinks of that,” he
said. “Most of ‘em just try to go for the wrists.”

Soren clapped his hands a couple of times.
It could’ve either been to grab the attention of the recruits or to
applaud her, but either way, everyone turned their eyes to him. He
stared at Jessica with clear favoritism. “Very good. Thank God,
too. I hope you were all paying attention to that.”

Jessica tried not to let the little smile on
Soren’s face warm her belly too much. Not that she cared or
anything. When she looked at the others, instead of being
classically pissed off, these guys nodded to each other, some
grinned, and there were a few catcalls of appreciation.

In pure villainous fashion, however, the
asshole recruit had his arms crossed, staring at Jessica like she’d
just pissed in his cereal bowl.

Jessica was going to have to keep an eye on
him.

*****

Another day passed by. In the morning,
Jessica did some more socializing with the other paranormals—who
thought she was a regular prisoner—and some even looked up to her.
They wanted to sit and talk with her, even though she wasn’t in the
mood to speak with any of them.

No one asked where she went after breakfast.
Likely, they all assumed she was being studied, which she was. Just
not in the same way they were.

After breakfast, when the paranormals were
rounded up, her training began again for the day with the
recruits.

Hours of rope climbing, more wrestling with
paranormals—most were able to take down the gargoyle after watching
Jessica’s trick—and basic hand-to-hand combat, which she excelled
at.

All the while, Soren watched her. Jessica
tried not to look back at him, to not give anything away just in
case a glance would be too much.

Then she was suddenly called away from the
group.

Charles walked into the training center and
went to Soren, whispering something into his ear. Soren’s lips
thinned—Jessica noticed that much as she ran around the gym with
the other recruits.

Was it finally happening? Had Markus seen
enough and wanted to bring her upstairs?

Soren called out orders for everyone to keep
on with what they were doing, but he didn’t say whether or not he
would return.

Which was stupid. He had to come back. Where
else would he go?

Jessica shook away the
worry from her mind. Of course he was coming back. Soren likely
just took it as a given that they would know, because
of course
.

Which didn’t stop her from breathing in a
great, big sigh an hour later when she and the other recruits were
on their water break, and Soren walked in through the double
doors.

His face was grim, eyes hard and set as he
observed every single one of the recruits. He didn’t say much of
anything to Charles, and he barely looked at Jessica before he blew
his whistle and commanded everyone to get back to what they were
doing.

After several more days of that, and no more
private training from Soren, no rescue attempt, and no news on The
Proxy Project, Jessica was starting to get a little pissed off.

What the fuck was taking so long?

“
Frost? You’re wanted
upstairs.”

Jessica jumped at the sound of her name.
Likely because she’d been sitting in her quarters, probably nicer
than the ones the other paranormals got, when Charles’ voice called
to her.

She hadn’t heard him knock on the door, but
she didn’t have that right to privacy, and she sure as hell didn’t
have the right to keep a lock on her door.

Still, she got to her feet. The look on
Charles’ face was unlike any she’d ever seen before. He stared at
her like he was afraid he was going to wound her.

“
What happened?”

“
Mr. Layton would like to
see you upstairs,” he said. His voice was soft, as though he was
trying to lessen a blow, which only made her anxiety launch to the
fucking moon and stars.

She went with him, followed him through the
halls. She passed by some other recruits who smiled, some even
waved at her as she went by, but she could barely summon the
ability to smile back at them. Her mind was a cesspool of worried
thoughts that churned and bubbled, and like any sticky thing, it
wasn’t easy to get rid off.

What in the hell could he possibly want that
made Charles look like that?

She thought about it during the elevator
ride up. It was too short and way too long at the same time, only
because it didn’t give her enough time to think of all the things
Markus might want from her, and her responses to every thing he
could possibly say.

She mentally argued with the man again and
again over a number of points, even up until Charles knocked on the
heavy double doors leading into Markus’s office.

When they opened, she was shocked to see
Soren inside.

Markus smiled at her, a smile she didn’t
welcome. “Jessica, please, have a seat.”

Chapter Thirteen

It more than bothered her that Markus called
her by her first name, as if they were on friendly terms with each
other, yet she was stuck calling him Mr. Layton, or Mr.
President.

“
I should keep standing,”
she said. “I just came from some physical training with the other
recruits, and I’ll have to go back to finish. Sitting will only
relax my body and make me feel tired.”

Markus shrugged. “Suit yourself, but I’m
glad you were able to make it up.”

Again, pretending as though she’d had the
choice to decline was incredibly annoying.