Frost Fire (Tortured Elements) Read Online Free PDF Page A

further.
    Drake stood over Silas. His claws were still extended, but now coated in slick, dark red liquid. Blood? It had to be, because Silas wasn’t breathing. He just lay on the ground, his eyes staring blankly at the overcast sky and his hands limply resting on his chest. Allai looked away the moment she noticed the red on his shirt. She didn’t want to see the wound. Or the death.
    Her eyes found Drake. He just stared at his victim lying on the muddy ground, his claws slowly retracting into his forearm. As they withdrew, they left droplets of blood to slowly trickle from the spaces between his knuckles. Drake’s breaths came in and out unevenly, and his entire body shook. His eyes grew wide with sickened disbelief.
    “Drake,” Allai whispered. She didn’t know what else to say. But letting him know that she knew his name, and that she knew who he was… It somehow felt right.
    He glanced over his shoulder at her. For a moment, they just stared at each other. His eyes brimmed with a mixture of guilt and horror. She was sure hers looked nothing like that. They’d be blank with shock.
    Then Drake collapsed. He just fell, crumpling to the ground. His body struck the ground with a thud, and his body shook with tremors as Silas’s venom started to take effect. But his eyes remained looking up at hers, staring at her with that guilt and horror. And, now, helplessness.

Chapter Three
    Drake gasped, the air singeing his raw throat and lungs. A muscle spasm raced up his spine, quivering his flesh and only stopping when it twisted under his shoulder blades. His back arched in agony, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
    That didn’t help much. It just forced him to concentrate on the incessant flames that licked and burned at his wounded neck. He knew they weren’t actual flames; it was worse than that. Persequor venom. When Silas had lunged, he’d had enough time to throw the girl out of the way. But not enough time to do the same with himself and escape those silver fangs.
    He opened his eyes. The girl just stared down at him, a slender hand covering her mouth, like she thought it’d be impolite to let him see that her jaw had dropped with shock. He wanted to tell her to forget the politeness, because he’d just be worried about her if she wasn’t shocked. But he didn’t. Because he needed to keep his jaw clenched to keep from screaming. He didn’t want to scream in front of her.
    “Holy shit.”
    He eyed her, unsure which one of them had said it. Yeah, his jaw was clenched, and he shouldn’t be able to talk. But that really sounded like the kind of language he had always gotten punched for, and it certainly didn’t sound like something she should be saying, being all elegant, and graceful, and… hot.
    Damn, when had she gotten hot? Last he’d seen her, she’d still been in that awkward, gangly teenage stage. Now she’d filled out in all the right places, and her face was sharper and more feminine, and her hair had gotten wavy. She’d even grown an inch or two, so she was now cute-short and not midget-short.
    Allai.
    Her name came to him, crashing into him with a familiar, comforting warmth that nearly made him forget the venom. He still remembered the first time he’d heard her name. It’d been three years ago, when he’d overheard a conversation at the Keepers’ headquarters that offhandedly mentioned it. The rest of that day he’d spent in his room, staring at the ceiling in a daze and rolling the name around on his tongue. But he’d never get to say her name to her, not with the way things had turned out after that night.
    Allai’s silver eyes locked with his. He wanted to blurt out her name, just so he could actually say it out-loud. But he didn’t. Because she looked terrified, her eyes wide and her entire body tensed. Terrified of him.
    He opened his mouth to tell her it was okay, that he wasn’t going to hurt her. That he would
never
hurt her. But his jaw muscles only twitched.
    He groaned between