Page 5 of Jack Frost
Instantly the cold white of his mouth turns faintly lavender. A frosty exhale rushes from him, and I breathe it in, because that scent of snow and mint is the best thing I've smelled in a long time. For weeks it's been nothing but sour body odor and penguin crap, wet coats and morning breath in the confines of a canvas tent, lukewarm canned food and fishy saltwater.
The man's eyes flash open, shocked and baleful and blue, so blue.
I'm still leaning over him. Way too close.
"Nick's icy balls!" he exclaims. "What in the fresh hell are you doing?"
The icy shield across his chest begins to crack, and I lurch backward. "I—I need your help."
"You woke me up. Do you realize what you've done?"
"No?" I wince. "I'm freezing, and I'm lost, and I thought maybe you could help me."
His cold mouth quirks in a sneer. The ice around him shatters, and he sits up, sloughing off the shards. "Of course you did. Humans, always so focused on their individual needs and not the collective good. You've set me back at least a week." He rakes his hands through his hair. "Damn it. I should have switched out of human aspect before going to sleep. Then you wouldn't have been able to see me."
He stands up, brushing grains of ice from his body. He's a good foot taller than me, slim and naked from the waist up, with dark blue pants settled temptingly low on his hips. His body is stone-white—pale curves and ledges of muscle.
I'm going insane. I must be. I press my gloved hands over my eyes. My whole body is shaking uncontrollably from the cold and from exhaustion. My mouth can barely form words anymore.
"Hey. Hey there." The pale-haired man snaps his fingers in front of me. "What's wrong with you?"
"I'm freezing to death." I force the words between chattering teeth.
"Oh god." He rolls his eyes. "Come here."
"Wh-why?"
"I can make you immune to the cold. It'll just take a second."
A helpless, raw laugh breaks from me. "Okay. Yeah, that would be nice."
He grabs my hooded head in both of his long white hands and crushes his mouth to mine. His lips are sharply cold, and his breath tastes chilly and sweet. A trickle of icy sensation skims across my tongue, down my throat, along my nerves. Suddenly I'm not cold anymore. I'm not warm either, though. I'm just—fine. No shivering, no stabbing pain in my extremities, no lingering numbness.
He pulls away, examining me briefly and nodding with satisfaction. "There. I gave you the Chill. You'll be impervious to cold now. Unfortunately you'll also be able to see me even when I'm invisible to other humans. And not just me—you'll be able to perceive other supernatural entities too. True Sight is a side effect of the Chill."
"Sure, okay. Whatever you say." With the physical relief from the cold comes a hint of clarity, even though I'm still muggy-minded from exhaustion and dazed by all the very impossible things that are happening right now.
Get home first. Process later.
"I need to get back to my team," I tell him. "We're researchers. I'm a cinematographer."
"You make movies?" He lifts a disapproving eyebrow.
"About animals and nature. For documentaries. To raise awareness, help with conservation causes—you wouldn't understand."
"The hell I wouldn't. Do you know who I am? I'm—"
"No!" I slam my soggy glove across his mouth. His blue eyes widen with shock. "I don't want to know anything about you. I just want to get back to my team, up on the—the surface or whatever. And I don't want to remember any of this. Can you wipe my memory of the last several minutes?"
He knocks away my hand. "I don't mess with memories. I'm not a vampire."
"Then what are y—never mind. I don't care. Just show me the way out of here, please."
"There's no way out."
"You must have a way of leaving this place." I survey his body. "You look fleshy enough—" His frown deepens, and I hurry to correct myself. "I mean, it looks as if you eat and everything, like a normal person, so you must go out to get food. And your pants are modern-ish, so obviously you haven't been under the ice for centuries. You can get out, which means you can get me out."
"I can spiral to any place, anywhere around the globe."
