Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2016 05:37:11 -0500 From: Kody Boye <boyekody@gmail.com> Subject: His Touch of Ice - Part 64 DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction, and contains scenes of graphic violence and explicit male/male sex. If you are not of the legal age to read this, or are uncomfortable with this sort of content, please turn back now. HIS TOUCH OF ICE (The Ice Men, Book 1) is copyright © Kody Boye. All Rights are reserved. ______________________________________________________________________________ A cold, hard bang—the sweet tang of rain splashing upon my back. A run through the woods alongside the pack—barking, snarling, howling. The taste of blood across my tongue, the tear of flesh between my teeth. The rain. The rain. Why was it so painful? I opened my eyes to find my vision devoid of any clarity. I struggled focus on my surroundings and found that I couldn't. The air was cold, the ground hard, yet beneath me was not tile. No. It was... dirt, it seemed—earth: dampened by rain. I was nowhere near that underground place, but if not there, where? My inclination was to believe that we'd somehow gotten away—that, despite the odds, Guy's abilities had enabled us to flee the compound. But was it true? Had we escaped? The world came to be slowly and like a fog drifting free of a cloudless sky. Revealed in shades muted and gray, then more vibrantly as time went on, I took in a breath as above the trees were revealed in full. Rain filtered down through their branches, kissing drops to my lips and face. I opened my mouth to take in the moisture. Slowly, I lifted my arms. Neither bore the scars of the previous night, nor the monstrosity I witnessed myself turn into. I was... human. "Guy?" I said, the word like a dull knife cutting through my chest. "Are you there?" The shuffle of feet drew my attention. Turning my head, I looked at a raised portion of earth to find the Kaldr crouched there, eyes intent and watching me. "Hey," he said. "You ok?" "Yeah," I replied, still struggling to speak. "Are... you?" "I'm ok," he said, stepping down off the slight incline. "I'm sorry I had to tie you up, but... I had to be sure, and after what happened last night..." I looked down. A series of bungee cords and all manner of rope had been secured around my waist and upper body, essentially trapping me to the tree I'd woken against. "Did I," I started to ask. Guy didn't need to say anything to reply. His nod was answer enough. "Yeah," he said. "You did." "Let me see." He raised a piece of glass likely lifted from the nearby house and held it before my face. As I feared, my eyes were rimmed with gold. They glowed a faint amber in the pale morning light. Sighing, I bowed my head and allowed the realization to sink in, knowing fully that my options were growing slimmer by the second. First my life had led me to Guy, then from Austin in a desperate fit for survival. Then I'd become a part of the Kaldr only to willingly leave after my lover had been exiled. And now—here, in the wild, with Guy at my side, and with everything I could've ever wanted—I'd been delivered the deadliest gift I could ever possibly imagine. I was a Howler. There was nothing I could do. "It's going to be ok," Guy said, setting a hand on my face and tilting my chin up. "I told you everything would be." "You can't do anything for me," I replied. "I'm fucked—screwed." "Jason—" "Can they..." I swallowed. "Control it?" Guy sighed and shook his head. "No," he said. "They can't. And there's no real pattern to transformation either, so far as I've known." "But the wolves in the compound—" "Were what we called the Crazed—the ones who've fallen so far to the beast they were never able to change back." "What does this mean for me then?" I asked. "For us?" There was no real answer that could be expected from such a question. I was asking the world—for all its contents and everything in-between. I couldn't have been any bolder even if I'd walked up to God Himself and asked, "Knock knock, can I come in?" Because that's what I really was—damned. Just as Amadeo had said. Damned. That lying, conniving bastard. Because only the wicked can be killed by silver. Only the wicked have fallen from true grace. Guy's eyes flickered away. His obvious struggles in trying to maintain focus on me while still attempting to control his emotions were painful to behold. I'd never seen anything like it in anyone—not my grandfather when my grandmother had passed, not my parents when my grandfather had finally left, not friends who'd lost their friends. This—this was something else. This was salvation dangling in reach yet always evading whenever one extended an arm to take it. Lowering his eyes, Guy lifted his hand and covered his face. "Jason," he whispered. "I... I don't—" "Do it." The words were out of my mouth before I could think twice. "Do what?" Guy asked, returning his attention to me. "What Pierre was trying to make you do," I said. "If he really believes that the Wendigo is the product of a Kaldr and a Howler, that means you'd be able to turn me into one—that I'd be able to control myself." "We don't even know if that would work." "What else are we going to do?" "You might die, Jason." "I'd rather die than live with the knowledge that someday I might kill you." Guy's features softened. Closing my eyes, I tilted my head back and inhaled the damp morning air. A pair of hands pressed against my face and guided my head back into a straightforward position. I opened my eyes. Guy stared back at me. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked. "You know that if anything happens... we can't go back." "I know," I whispered. Tears slipping down his face, Guy nodded and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "I love you, Jason." "I love you too." "Just open your mouth when I kiss you. That's all you have to do." "Will it hurt?" "No. It won't." I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable. Guy's tongue pressed against my lips. My mouth opened. A fine frost slipped inside. A part of me I never knew existed instantly reacted. Primeval, born from the time when we were not human and were truly something else—his touch bonded my skin in a strange symbiotic nature before ice began to form between us. I opened my eyes. The ice was beginning to cloud my view—but somewhere, deep within its glacial surface, I could just barely make out the thing that looked back at me: the thing with the great stag's antlers and a wolfish creature's head. Even when I closed my eyes, there was no denying what I really was. Guy had always said his people had been afraid. Now they had a reason to be. I was the Wendigo. Amadeo had started a war. ____________________________________________________________________________ And that concludes HIS TOUCH OF ICE. If you enjoyed this book and would like to read book 2, it can be purchased on Amazon.com. If you enjoyed the novel, consider emailing the author with your thoughts or donating to him via Paypal at boyekody@gmail.com. You can also download the novel for free on Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, or any other major eBook retailer, or buy the Audible version online via Amazon.com. You can visit the author online at www.kodyboye.com.