As Cold As Ice (23 page)

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.

He seemed to be glaring at someone before he
turned his eyes and noted Soren and Jessica standing there. His
glare melted away, replaced by an immediate smile as he spotted
Jessica.

“
You’re up,” he greeted,
holding out his arms expectantly.

Jessica grinned and went into them. The room
didn’t spin as she bent down to hug him, so she was equally pleased
by that as much as she was by the strength he held her with.

His gunshot was clearly not bothering him
too much. Maybe there was a healer in the building who was speeding
up the process. It didn’t matter, though, because he felt strong
and alive and real in her arms. She felt like she hadn’t seen or
gotten a hug from her big brother in years. It was something
Jessica had been aching for without even knowing it.

“
It’s good to see you,”
Ethan said, the first to speak, breaking the silence they’d fallen
into.

Jessica’s eyes burned when she pulled back.
She had to blink a lot to keep it from looking like she was about
to cry, because she totally wasn’t.

“
Are you okay?” Ethan’s
eyes had that ‘worried older brother’ look, and okay, maybe she was
fighting the waterworks.

Jessica nodded. “Yeah. Christ, I should be
asking you that. You were shot.”

“
And you were in a lab for
almost a month,” Ethan replied.

Jessica laughed. “Soren made it not so
shitty.”

She looked over her shoulder. Soren wasn’t
in the room with her. Neither was that other guy with the white
patches in his hair.

They must’ve stepped out when Jessica and
Ethan were hugging, giving them some privacy.

“
He helped you out?” Ethan
asked, and his gaze slid over to the door, as if he was trying to
see Soren through it. “Okay, that’s good.”

It sounded like he was grading Soren’s
paper. Jessica was too happy to have her brother there that she was
willing to let him do that to her lover, just this once. Ethan
liked playing the part of protective big brother when Jessica gave
him the opportunity, and she didn’t often do that.

But Jessica needed to know some things
before they could celebrate. “So, where are we?”

“
Just outside of Lincoln
Peak,” Ethan said. “Bunch of vampires live here. They keep the
building under a mirage. Looks like it used to be an old elementary
school.”

If that was true, the building had been
modified for the sake of the windows, but once Ethan mentioned it,
Jessica supposed it made sense.

“
You didn’t know about this
place?”

Jessica shook her head. “Christ, no. Never
heard anything of it.”

Soren had been right; there were always
rumors, but Jessica had assumed that anyone actively resisting the
government and Head Office was just hiding some paranormal
relatives in their basement or something. Nothing like this.

That was the idea behind the Proxy Project,
pairing up paranormals with hunters to seek out and bring down safe
houses. This place wasn’t so much a safe house as it was a tiny
fortress.

And if she didn’t know, that meant Ethan
hadn’t known, either.

“
How did you find this
place?” Jessica asked. She grabbed one of the plastic chairs in the
room and pulled it over to his thin, steel-frame bed.

And Ethan told her. He told her about how
he’d been picked up with that man he’d been with. Jamie. Jack was
there, too. His little fire-starting girlfriend had known something
about this place, too, apparently.

“
Jack and I had to do a lot
of begging and pleading before we could convince the people in
charge to let us go after you. Had to do some groundwork,
too.”

“
To prove you weren’t still
a hunter?”

Ethan nodded. “Pretty much. Fuck me, I hated
it, going out there and helping other paranormals. Didn’t matter if
they were women with kids, I didn’t care about any of them. It
always felt like I was wasting my time until I could go and get
you.”

Jessica smiled. “I was fine.”

If she ever told her brother about how those
assholes had put her in a room, how they’d made her kill a few
people just to see if she could, then it wouldn’t be for a long
while. Ethan had clearly gone through a Hell of his own waiting to
get his sister out of Head Office, and she didn’t want to put more
on his plate while he recovered.

They held hands like they were kids. When
Ethan finished telling her everything he knew about the people
there, which wasn’t much, Jessica shared everything she thought
could be useful. The Proxy Project was a major one, and their new
training for paranormals. She mentioned the ring in the basement
where paranormals were expected to fight, though she got the
feeling Ethan already knew what that room was for.

She also left out the parts where she and
Soren had sex.

“
You think if I tell all
that to the people in charge here, they might be able to do
something with it?”

Ethan nodded. “Definitely. I can’t see them
not being interested in knowing paranormals are being recruited to
weed out hiding spots. Considering what this place is, they’re
going to want to know that right away.”

Because a mirage could only hide so
much.

Ethan didn’t mention it, but Jessica knew
another benefit to telling her story to whoever it was that ran
this place. Ethan had said it was a group of people, not just one
leader. If those people had distrusted Ethan and Jack so much, and
were hesitant to do the rescue mission, then Jessica needed to show
them how saving her was beneficial to them. They wouldn’t have this
information had it not been for Ethan and Jack taking that risk, if
Ethan hadn’t been willing to take a bullet, and they’d better be
damned grateful for it.

“
Do me a favor,” Ethan
said, his voice dropping so low she almost couldn’t hear
him.

Jessica leaned closer as Ethan squeezed her
hand. His eyes were as serious as she’d ever seen them.

“
Don’t give the people in
charge here everything.”

Jessica opened her mouth to ask why. The
look in Ethan’s eyes, that tight squeeze of his fingers, though,
stopped her.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Someone knocked on the door, interrupting
her reunion with her brother. Some guy with black hair and
piercings up his ears. She didn’t recognize him from her rescue.
Soren was right behind him, along with the man with the white
splotches in his hair. Jamie, she assumed.

“
Hi there. Sorry to
intrude, but we thought we might get to ask your sister some
questions now that she’s awake.”

He sounded like he was trying to be nice
about it, in the way that suggested Jessica didn’t have much of a
choice.

Soren glared at the back of the man’s head.
“Just because she’s awake and I didn’t have to carry her here
doesn’t mean she’s well enough to be interrogated. For Christ’s
sake, what are you thinking?”

The guy actually looked embarrassed, his
pale face flushing pink.

And Jessica had never been more turned on in
her life. Shy, gentle Soren had just spoken with such authority on
her behalf that it made her go all warm and tingly behind her
belly. That was…incredibly sexy.

He wasn’t just a dragon shifter; he actually
did have something of a dragon personality after all.

“
I’m very sorry about that,
but she was on the inside of Head Office for a while. The sooner my
bosses can hear everything she knows, the better. I don’t exactly
want to be bothering her either, you know.”

He looked like he meant it, so Jessica
couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him.

Had Ethan not given her that warning, she
might have taken pity on him and gone with him wherever it was he
wanted her to go.

Not now, though.
Jessica looked to Soren then brought her hand up
to touch her forehead. “Actually, I’m not feeling so great right
now.” The fact that she had a major headache and honestly did still
feel weak from the short walk from her bed to Ethan’s was something
she used to her advantage, and she let it be obvious in her
voice.

“
I want to help out as much
as I can, though,” she continued. “Do you think I can go back to
bed? I can tell you whatever you need to know there.”

The man with the black hair smiled. Soren
and Jamie looked worried behind him. “You can rest up a little
more. I’ll send someone to check on you tomorrow. Until then, I’ll
have food brought over for you and Mr. Birgir.”

Jessica smiled as sweetly and gratefully as
she could, purposely keeping her voice sounding tired and small.
“Thank you so much.”

The man nodded. “Not a problem. My name is
Leo, and if you or Mr. Birgir need anything, I’ll be right around
the corner. You only need to ask.”

Soren stepped around Leo, coming to put his
arm around Jessica’s waist. It felt good having him touch her. It
felt even better to let him use his strength to lift her into a
standing position.

Jessica could still stand and walk on her
own, but something stirred inside her to have Soren hold her and
keep her up with the strength of his arm.

Okay, yeah, she was purposely playing up the
weak and defenseless woman thing, but considering how nice it felt
to lean against Soren like this, she was willing to go along with
it.

And it seemed to make Leo genuinely worried.
“Can I get you anything?”

Jessica continued with the act by letting
Soren speak for her.

“
Do me a favor and bring a
bucket of ice chips, if you could. I’ll need it to help bring her
fever down.”

“
She’s got a fever?” Leo
asked. “I thought she had ice powers.”

Soren started speaking to the man like he
was simple. “Yes, and you know how using powers and abilities can
tire some people out, right?”

“
Oh, yeah, right. I’m
sorry. I’ll get the ice right away. I’ll be back.”

Leo walked quickly from the room, off in
whatever direction would get the ice Soren asked for.

Soren looked at Ethan, gesturing to
Jessica.

Ethan nodded as Jamie came around the other
side of the bed, taking his hand and lacing their fingers
together.

That seemed to be all Soren needed. “Come
on, I’ll take you back. We need to talk.”

Jessica nodded, looking back to her brother.
“Glad you’re all right, Ethan. I’ll come talk to you later,
right?”

She glanced to Soren when she asked that
question. Not that she needed anyone’s permission, but she would
need to know if anyone would be giving her trouble if she tried
later on.

Soren nodded. “Yeah, you will. Come on,
you’re shaking on your legs.”

She wasn’t, so he was probably saying that
just in case someone was still nearby, listening in on them.

Jessica went with Soren, sparing one last
backward glance at her brother.

As they rounded the corner and left the
room, Jessica caught sight of Jamie rubbing his hand through
Ethan’s hair, and she felt a little better about leaving her
brother alone with him.

When they made it back to the tiny room
where Jessica had been sleeping, Soren helped her sit on the bed
before shutting the door. He didn’t say anything right away, and
Jessica didn’t try to engage in conversation either. Not yet.

Soren sighed and eventually came to sit next
to her. “Did Ethan tell you anything?”

Since he was whispering, Jessica whispered,
too. “Just that I shouldn’t give too much away. Can the people here
be trusted?”

Soren rubbed his jaw. “I spoke with Jake and
Ethan for a while, got what they’d been hearing around the
building. Some people can. Leo and Dylan seem genuinely here for
the sake of helping other paranormals, but for now, we just have to
be careful.”

Made sense. Jessica was used to living her
life as carefully as possible. It wasn’t like having to continue to
do so was something that shocked or upset her.

“
Ethan told me not to give
the people here everything I know. What doesn’t he want me telling
these people?”

Soren rubbed the back of his neck, shaking
his head. “I don’t know. There’s nothing specific. He probably
thinks you know more about Mark Layton than you actually do.”

“
I don’t know much of
anything about him,” Jessica stated. “The only think I know that
isn’t common knowledge is that he’s got a sick fighting arena for
him and his billionaire buddies to watch paranormals kill each
other.”