Clarity

Chapter Two

I opened my eyes suddenly and immediately regretted it as bright light blinded me. My eyes clenched shut of their own accord, aching violently and I felt like they were burning.

Carefully, I opened my eyes again and squinted past the brightness before realizing why it was so bright.

There was snow. And not just in little splotches or on top of buildings. No…there were no buildings to begin with. Just vast planes of snow covered hills and frozen trees that seemed to go on forever.

But for some reason, I wasn’t cold. Actually, I was burning up.

I tried to move slightly and something colder than the air kept me in place. My stomach recoiled as I looked down to see from my collarbone to my calves frozen completely in a sheet of ice.

Whoever had ‘tied’ me up as sat me down first and lifted my knees up so my feet were flat. Frozen, it was a very uncomfortable position that left no leeway for shattering the ice.

I managed to turn my head enough to see the small set of tents lined up near what looked like a frozen river. The tents melded perfectly into the landscape with their icy-blue coloring and reminded more of huts than actual tents.

Carefully, I turned the other way and immediately regretted it.

Jack leaned against the tree. His clothing was far different than before I wasn’t quite sure if it even was him, for a moment. Everything about him seemed different somehow. There was just something about him that wasn’t there in the bar or even on the street.

But it had been there in the warehouse.

I surveyed the landscape, trying to gather my bearings of the unfamiliar place. Something deep inside of myself told me that I knew this place—knew every inch of the frozen hills and rivers.

As far as I could see was hill after hill of beautiful snow. Far above in the sky I saw no sun but there seemed to be something else lighting the world. It wasn’t quite a moon, either, because it was too bright so it had to be something else. Something more.

My head ached and I looked to the ground to try to ease the pain.

Frozen, glass-looking flowers covered the ground as they pushed out of the snow. The only plants I could really make out where a few patches of frozen flowers and the forty or so trees scattered across the barren landscape.

I felt like I had been dropped into the Artic and frozen. But there was one thing that kept unnerving me despite my attempts to ignore it.

Despite being in thigh-high boots, a thin mini-skirt and a pleather corset, I wasn’t cold whatsoever. Actually, I was burning up. It felt almost as if I was in the desert with the sun beating down on me.

Frostbite, I reasoned with myself. That makes complete sense. You’re frostbitten.

I struggled against the ice slightly and heard a slight crack before I went still again. My heart leapt in a mix of fear and hope but both were quickly squashed beneath the feel of warm breath across my cheek.

My gaze slid sideways and I tried my best to avoid the breaths that puffed my way as I ignored the fact that, in spite of what should be the extreme cold, I couldn’t see the exhaled smoke that should have been there.

“You’re getting cold again,” he whispered, touching my cheek softly.

His slight touch shot razors of arousal slicing through my cheek and clear down to my toes in one swift motion. I let out a quiet whimper as I tried to lean away before realizing what I had just done.