Cloudburst Ice Magic (2 page)

And now she’s in the Rockies and I’m packing
my stuff in the Spring Mountains.

“Hey, man, you’re really gonna move,
huh?”

Zach turned and found his best buddy Sleet
leaning against the doorjamb, wearing little more than a pair of
snowpants and boots. He still hadn’t quite mastered the human
disguise. His eyes glittered steel-blue and his canines protruded
between his lips, while his white hair hung in dripping dreds. But
at least he didn’t appear fish-white like a Minnesotan tourist on
holiday in Vegas.

“Yeah, I’m really gonna move.” Zach grimaced
at the frown on Sleet’s face. “Aw come on, Sleet. It’s not gonna be
that bad. You and the family come to the Rockies every fall. The
party usually starts around Halloween. Longer season there.”

“Yeah, but you’ve always been here.” Sleet
scowled. “Even if you were hanging out with humans all the time. At
least you were just down the mountain. Now you’ll be several ranges
away.”

“At least I’m not moving to the Sierra
Nevadas. Then you’d have to find a way across Death Valley.”

Sleet shuddered. “Yeah, it’s better you’re
headed back onto the Plateau.” He shook his head. “Why not the San
Francisco Peaks? That’s a lot closer.”

“Too small and too dry.” Zach moved some of
the totes closer to the door. “Besides, after the Navajo named it
one of the Four Sacred Mountains, the Ice Demons there have gotten
a little holier-than-thou about their work.” Zach rolled his eyes.
“Not really my thing. I don’t have the god-complex.”

“Why are you moving there again?”

Zach turned and scanned his belongings in
the totes. He hadn’t told anyone in his family of his mating with
Lily Sinclair, a human and his very own ice princess. Letting him
work with humans was one thing. Mating one?
Yeah, Mom and Dad
would shit icicles.

He shrugged. “It’s just time. I want to see
some of the higher ranges and greet Santa Claus when he rides over
Pike’s Peak.”

Sleet snorted. “Santa Claus doesn’t
exist.”

“How do you know he doesn’t exist?” Zach
ribbed his friend as he picked up a couple totes.

“Have you seen him?” Sleet raised a prickly
eyebrow.

“Just because you haven’t seen Santa doesn’t
mean he doesn’t exist.” Zach hauled the totes out the door to his
truck. Driving took longer than his normal mode of transportation,
but he meant to take his whole life with him. “Humans haven’t seen
Ice Demons, but it doesn’t mean we don’t exist.”

Sleet shook his head. “Come on, man. Why are
you really leaving?” His eyes bulged and he sank his fangs into his
bottom lip. “Holy Freya, you met someone.”

“What?” How in the Ninth Hell had Sleet made
that jump?

“You did.” Sleet threw a claw at Zach. “You
totally met someone. What’s her name? What clan is she from? Does
she live in the Rockies permanently or is that just her favorite
stomping grounds?”

Zach tried for cool as he loaded more boxes
into the truck. “How do you know it’s a woman?”

“Seriously? You’re gonna go with that line?
’Cause I’m not buying the super casual dude routine.” Sleet crossed
his arms over his chest and tossed his dripping hair over his
shoulder. “You’ve never done anything so drastic and you’ve never
been with anyone other than Greta. Who is still interested in you,
by the way.”

Zach laughed. “No, she isn’t. You’re just
hoping I’ll change my mind. But I won’t. Let it be.”

“Right. There is no way I’m letting this go,
and you can bet an avalanche your parents won’t, either, when they
find out.”

“Find out what?” Zach hoped his voice
sounded sufficiently bland even as his stomach tightened. Telling
his traditional Ice Demon parents that he’d mated with a human
would be a helluva conversation. It was bad enough when he’d told
them he planned to move to the Rockies.

“That you’ve met someone.” Sleet inhaled and
narrowed his eyes. “You smell different. Like spicy.” He wiped some
of his sopping hair off his face. “Ice Demons never smell
spicy.”

Zach laughed to cover his unease. “You’re
melting. Get out of here before you turn into a puddle on my floor.
I’ll swing by the upper peaks before I go. Where are you migrating
to this year?”

Sleet’s irrepressible grin split his face
and exposed his canines. “Patagonia. The weather’s gonna be wicked
this year and they’re having a glacier building contest. Winner
gets an ice cave in Banff.”

Zach whistled, impressed. “Nice. Are you
going to enter?”

“Yeah. Me’n Hailee are gonna work together
to win.”

Zach raised an eyebrow as he shooed his
dripping friend out the door. “You gonna share the ice cave with
your brother?”

“Yeah. We thought we’d make it a swinging
bachelor pad for wooing chicks.” Sleet flashed his grin again. “But
you don’t need to do that anymore, do you?”

“Get outta here. You’re leaving
watermarks.”

Sleet laughed, saluted, and was gone in a
hissing sprinkle of snowflakes. The desert air sucked up the
moisture before it hit the ground and took Zach’s smile with it. He
shoved the last of the totes into the back of his truck and closed
the tailgate, grateful Sleet didn’t push too hard. He wasn’t ready
to tell anyone of his impulsive choice to mate with Lily.

Speaking of which, why hasn’t she
answered my texts?
He checked his phone again to be sure, but
he found a big ol’ nothing. He shook his head and sprayed a little
shower of water around him. Crap. Nevada had launched into its
warmer spring temperatures and he needed to make himself scarce in
the lowlands or get out of Dodge entirely. He locked the empty
cabin and glanced at his phone again, willing it to beep with an
incoming text or email.

A chill ran up his back from his gut and all
his crystalline hair rose to stand on end.
Something’s
wrong.
He inhaled the balmy spring air and scanned the softly
dripping world around him, but everything appeared in order. Still,
the eerie feeling of dissonance rattled the crystals of his hair
and he gritted his teeth as he strode for the driver’s side of his
truck.
What is it?

His phone rumbled with a red hawk’s scream,
the sound he’d chosen for emergency contact texts. He jerked it out
of his pocket and touched the screen.

Snowed in bad. Whiteout conditions w/hikers
on the slopes. Miss you and love you. Lily.

Zach’s stomach flipped over and dropped to
his boots. He punched her number immediately and listened to it go
straight to voicemail. “Dammit, Lily! Where are you?”

He took a deep breath and thought back to
where she’d said she worked. Cloudburst Resort in Cloudburst,
Colorado. He slid into the driver’s seat and punched the maps icon
on his phone. Cloudburst showed in the mountain range in the
southwestern corner of the state.

Zach nodded. Too much time between Vegas and
Cloudburst if he took his truck, but he needed his gear with him.
Gritting his teeth, Zach started the engine and called a buddy of
his who played in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

“Snow, my man, what’s up?”

“Cade, I need a favor.” Zach headed down the
hill toward the freeway.

“Anything, man. What’s going on?” The mellow
voice on the other end sharpened.

“Do you know any Ice Demons in the mountains
of southwestern Colorado?”

“Sure. Got a couple of friends there.
Why?”

“Can you find out if they’ve got any Spring
Flings going on right now? I’m on my way, but I’m still about nine
hours out.”

“Whoa, man. Are you moving this
direction?”

“Yep, but I gotta get there ASAP. Can you
find out and call me when you know?”

“Yeah, sure. Not a problem.” Cade paused.
“What’s the big rush, Snow?”

Zach sighed as he hit the turn-off to the
215. How much would Cade understand? “You know I’m in Search &
Rescue for the humans, right?”

“Yeah, I’d heard you have a thing for them.”
Cade chuckled. “What of it?”

“I got news that some humans are caught in
some heavy weather in southwestern Colorado and one of them’s a
friend of mine. If I could, I’d be out on the slopes right now. But
I can’t enter someone else’s territory without an intro.” Ice
Demons tended to be territorial unless visitors went through the
proper introductory channels. “Do you think you could have someone
meet me in Cloudburst, Colorado as soon as I get there? I gotta get
these folks out, Cade. It’s important.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Snow. Just promise
me you’ll tell me the full story when you get here.”

“Will do.”

“I’ll text or call you when I got
something.”

“Thanks, Cade.” Zach floored the accelerator
past the Aliante exit.

“Not a problem. Talk to you soon.” The phone
clicked off. Zach dropped it on the seat and slowed down before the
cops got too interested in him. He’d have to send texts to Sleet
and his folks, but he could do that when he reached a rest
stop.

Waiting at the light to get onto I-15, he
tapped a quick text to Lily.

Hang in there. I’m coming. Z

He prayed to Freya Lily would receive it.
All he had to do was get to Colorado. He just hoped he’d arrive in
time.

Chapter Three

Lily grimaced as her phone cheerfully shut
down after she’d sent the text to Zach. Damn. They wouldn’t be able
to track her phone using GPS. She stuffed the little device back
into her pack and did her best to smile at the others in the snow
fort.

The temperature had warmed from the stove
and their combined body heat, but she had no illusions of how long
it would last. They had two days’ worth of food to help fight the
cold. After that, things would get tough.

Randy settled beside her after distributing
the sleeping bags and nodded his graying head to her pack. “Did you
get anything out?”

Lily shrugged. “I hope so. Sent a text just
before my phone died. You?”

“I sent my wife a text and powered the phone
down to save the battery. I got nothing from the radio.” He scraped
more snow into the pot and set it on the stove to melt. They
wouldn’t turn it on for a bit, but their body heat would help it
liquefy. “What’s your gut tell you about our situation?”

She let her gaze slide over the others
huddled in the tent. Their expressions varied from miserable to
worried, and Lily lowered her voice to a whisper.

“It’s going to be a long storm. I think
we’ll be better off if we sleep here tonight and try to move them
down-slope tomorrow.” She set her pack aside and leaned against the
snow wall. “My nose tells me we can’t stay.”

“What’s that?”

“Smell.” She tapped her nose. “It smells
like there’s more moisture in the air and it’s gonna stay that way
for a while.”

“Come on. It smells wet because we’re in a
blizzard.”

“Yeah, a really wet, heavy blizzard. Which
means what in these mountains?”

Randy sighed and grimaced. “Avalanches.”

“Yeah. And we’re in Quicksilver Chute if my
last bearing was right. That’s a direct path.”

“Hell.” He pulled out his laminated map and
focused his head lamp on it. “Where do you think we are in the
Chute?”

Lily scanned the map and pulled out her
compass, setting it on the floor between them. The needle steadied
at around ninety degrees and the spread the map with north to their
right.

“We’re right about here.” She pointed to a
spot below Lost Peak Ridge. “I know there’s a Forest Service
equipment shed somewhere about here.” She stabbed the wooded flank
of the ridge. “If we can make it there tomorrow, we’ll be out of
avalanche danger. Mostly. And we’ll be able to weather the storm
better. There might even be extra supplies inside.”

Randy frowned. “Would they stock the
equipment shed with food and firewood?”

“I don’t know. I thought I overheard one of
the older SAR’s talking about the fall restocking efforts the
Forest Service does around here.” She stared at the map. “I just
hope that was one of the places they stocked up.”

“Yeah, I hope you’re right.” He rubbed a
hand over his stubbled chin, the hairs glinting silver in the
light. “Shit.”

“Did your wife respond?” Lily couldn’t
imagine the worry of an SAR spouse in this kind of weather.

Randy nodded. “She’s not happy, but she’s
sending us prayers.”

“Good thing. We’re gonna need them.” Lily
rotated her wrist and checked her watch. The little digits flashed
20:06. “Look, get some rest. I’m too hyped up right now to settle.
I’ll make some hot water every hour so we can have fresh water in
our canteens and heat the space. I’ll wake you at midnight.”

“Sounds good, Sinclair.” He gestured at the
others. “We should probably try to head out after first light if
the weather keeps up.”

“Agreed.”

He gripped her shoulder a moment. “We’ll get
out of this. We got shelter and food right now. We’re good.”

She gave him a brief smile and a nod before
he crawled over to the others to suggest they get some rest. Lily
watched him settle into his sleeping bag on the other side of the
stove and shut off his headlamp. She sat in the dark and willed the
concern to the back of her mind.

A little over a year ago she’d been willing
to let everything go to see her late twin one more time, but now
she feared she might not have the choice.
Shut those thoughts
down, Sinclair
. They had food and water and shelter for the
night. They’d be okay and in the morning, they’d face whatever came
at them.

God, Zach, please get the text.
She
closed her eyes and imagined him standing in his ice cave wearing
nothing but a grin in his natural form. His beauty never failed to
excite her and a fierce yearning to see him again burned through
her chest.
I miss you and love you.

The truth came hard. She sat in an ice
shelter hoping nothing crashed down on them and she finally
admitted she loved him.