Page 9 of Gemini Christmas
The engine sputters out. The vehicle fills with a stunned silence.
“The fuck,” Ronin gasps behind me. “Were those bloody thingsreindeer?”
“Mountain elk, surely.” Lucius is already unbuckling his seat belt. “Zara, my dear, are you quite all right?”
I fight free of the airbag and twist around in alarm.
But Zara is already releasing her seatbelt. “Yeah, I’m fine. Neo, baby? You okay?”
My gaze shoots to the seat beside me. For some reason, the passenger airbag has not deployed.
Neo is slumped facedown over the dashboard.
Because he was searching the floor for his fallen smart phone when the reindeer—or elk—appeared, he was not wearing his seatbelt.
“Neo Mercury, do not move.” Alarmed, I wrestle my airbag to one side and switch on the overhead light.
Neo’s face is buried in his outstretched arms, purple curls dark against his green parka. I inhale sharply, but I can smell no blood. The windshield before him is intact.
“Neo!” My senses jangling with fear, I touch his shoulder gently. “Can you hear me?”
To my immense relief, this sweet mate I cherish stirs and voices a thick groan. “Oh… wow… my head.”
With my anxious assistance, Neo sits slowly up and falls back against his seat. One hand fumbles with his spectacles, which thankfully have not broken. My sharp shifter eyes zoom in on his forehead, where the purple shadow of a goose egg swells.
“Neo, be still. You have bumped your head.” Gently I capture his fumbling hand and peer into his bleary eyes. “On the dash. I do not know why your airbag—”
“Never mind that. Lemme up there.” Ash is a healer and he will know what to do. But he is trapped in the back until the others move.
Already Ronin is pushing open his door and scrambling out of the bucket seat. Everyone shifts around so Ash can shoulder his way out of the vehicle. A gust of cold winter air and a flurry of snowflakes curl into the warm interior.
“Lights,” Vasili calls, staring intently through his window. “There’s a house or something. I see lighted windows through the trees.”
“Oh my God,Neo.” Awkward with her pregnant belly, Zara is straining to lean between the front seats and reach for Neo. Her turquoise eyes are wide and anxious, her face pale and filled with fear.
“S’okay, babe.” At once, Neo’s hand gropes to find hers. His eyes are closed and his brow is furrowed, but he knows she is there.
“I said there’s a house,” Vasili repeats impatiently from the rear. He is trapped back there by Mordred and a mountain of gifts.
And our snake does not like to be ignored.
“Yes, Vasili, we see it.” Lucius is supporting Zara as she leans into the front, his strong hands bracing her from behind. But our wolf is Neo’s alpha too, so Lucius is straining to get his eyes upon our boy.
“Can’t be the chalet,” Zara says softly. “We’re nowhere near the summit. Neo, baby…”
“I’m okay,” Neo mumbles, sounding dazed. “Just a headache. But I won’t mind… getting out of the car. I think I might be sick.”
By now, Ash has clambered into the ditch, plowed through the snow, and swung open Neo’s door. “Just stay put for a sec, okay, Neo? Lemme get a look at ya.”
Knowing that Neo is in the best of hands with our resident healer and Zara both tending him, I push the airbag farther from my face and swing open my door. It opens halfway, then thuds into a snowbank.
A fresh flurry of cold gusts into the vehicle.
Fortunately, I am not a bulky dragon. (No matter how much I eat.) I swing my legs out, squeeze my shoulders through the narrow opening, and drop into the snow-filled ditch.
A thick drift of fallen snow rises above my boots to encase my thighs. Thick wet flakes kiss my face and swirl past my eyes. I zip up my parka, pull up my hood to shield my eyes, and peer between the snowy boughs that fringe this narrow road.
Through a thick lattice of trees, I glimpse the warm golden glow streaming through a row of mullioned windows, set deep into snug stone walls. I breathe in and fill my lungs. Over the balmy tang of spruce and the fresh metallic scent of snow, I smell the acrid char of burning wood. Smoke curls through the chimney and floats over the eaves.
