Cryostorm (Touch of Frost) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Cryostorm

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Epilogue

  Thank You

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  More Books by Lynn Rush

  Copyright

  They made his body, she’ll awaken his soul…

  Three months ago, my twin sister, Georgia, and I had to die so our loved ones would be safe from the scientists hunting us. After months of searching, we’re close to finding the one person who can help us find closure, Georgia’s adoptive mother, Lois.

  Snowstorms and an unexpected run-in with GenCorp, the latest entity charged with capturing us, delay our mission and break our spirits. The only light in my supernaturally chaotic life is Nate. He’s given up everything to protect and take care of me, and each minute I’m with him confirms how much I love him. Finally ready to share my heart again, I take the next step, admitting my true feelings.

  The mad scientists who want to tear me apart and use my body for a freak show, once again taint my happiness with a disturbing technology that rips Nate from my arms. As I battle GenCorp’s warped technology to save my soulmate, I’m faced with the vivid reality: the Nate I knew and fell in love with may be lost forever.

  And if I get him back, will I still be able to say those three precious words?

  Cryostorm

  (Touch of Frost #3)

  Lynn Rush

  To God, my savior.

  To Charlie, my soulmate.

  To Lynn, my inspiration.

  Chapter 1

  It’d been three months since Georgia and I died.

  “Cannonball,” I yelled as I launched myself into the air, needing to have some fun before I pulled all my hair out from sheer boredom.

  The water slapped against my feet, then slammed against my ears. I dropped through the water like a stone in a river. Luckily, the pool was only five feet deep, pretty much how tall I was.

  I planted my feet on the rough, cement bottom and shot to the surface. I treaded water with one hand while wiping my hair and water from my eyes. Jeez, months ago I avoided pools like the plague for fear of freezing them into ice rinks, but the control I’d developed in the last few months in particular was amazing.

  Freeing.

  A squeal, followed by pellets of water bouncing off my face, alerted me that Georgia, my twin sister who I lovingly call Blaze, landed her own cannonball.

  Had to give her props, it was a fairly solid plunge.

  The waves lapped against my chest as I scanned the water, waiting for her to pop up. Her bright red hair surfaced, and she treaded toward me. Both only five-foot-three, neither of us could touch the bottom very well so we moved to the side.

  “Okay, what’s up with that chick scoping your boy?” Georgia cast her icy glare poolside, and I followed her line of sight.

  Sure enough a chick—tall, skinny, with miles of legs—leaned against the soda machine at the far corner of the pool area, staring at my Nate.

  Yep, my Nate.

  But dang if she wasn’t model-type beautiful. In an instant my newfound confidence melted away with the water. I was just a plain Jane. Sure, I now had black hair with a blue streak instead of blonde hair and a blue streak, but still, I was a flat-chested freak of nature with strength and freezing abilities. Not to mention a little flying.

  Stupid doubt ripped through me like a knife.

  I turned to look for Nate. He sat at our table, watching me. His amber-flecked brown eyes flickered, melting my insides like they always did. He wasn’t even watching the leggy-supermodel-beautiful-chick.

  I mean, she couldn’t be more obvious. Wonder how long she’d been there...

  Dinging from a pinball machine in the opposite corner of the pool area pulled my attention from my sweet Nate. The pool area was huge for po-dunk hotel, but it made the blistering winter wind howling outside more tolerable.

  We’d been snowed in for two days at the southern part of Minnesota, tracking down Georgia’s fake mom’s whereabouts.

  She was supposed to be at this hotel, but we missed her again.

  For three months Nate and Tim have been watching over us, helping us try and find Georgia’s mom. We’d had several near misses with her, but somehow, she always evaded us.

  “Check it. Your guy isn’t even giving her a second look.”

  “I know. How lucky am I? Where’s Tim?”

  “Up in their room doing something smart on the computer.” Georgia clung to the wall, her bright red nails reflecting the overhead lights. “I’m so sick of missing my mom—er—fake mom. I just want to find her already and find out what she knows. What she is.”

  “I know, hon. We will.” I glanced at Supermodel again. Still hadn’t moved. A really slippery, icy feeling raked down my spine. What if she was an Agent? Or one of Bev’s GenCorp cronies. But in three months, we’d had no run-ins with them so they must not know we’re alive.

  Or, haven’t found us yet. Kinda hard to hide our blue and red-streaked hair. Well, At least Georgia could hide it better than me. Hers blended into her dyed red hair. Mine wouldn’t hold the black, and I refused to die my entire head of hair blue, so, I was stuck with what I had.

  “Hey, Georgia,” I whispered. “That girl, I’m getting a bad vibe. Agent?”

  “Shit.”

  I backhanded her shoulder. “Miss potty mouth.” She’d been cussing more and was much more distant and angry, especially the last month or so. Probably frustration over the Lois thing. I couldn’t fault her for it, but I could razz her a little, right?

  “I wish they came with identifiers, you know? Like tattoos or marks or something. I can’t help but think everyone’s an Agent sometimes.”

  “I know the feeling.” Scott and I had been doing it for years.

  “What totally sucks is that we’re stranded here, not able to do crap about getting to the last town my ex-mom showed up at.” Georgia bobbed beneath the water and pushed her much longer hair back. It’d grown so fast she could finally tuck it behind her ear without it falling forward anymore like it always had.

  “Okay, that chick’s pissing me off,” I said. “I’m getting out. Maybe if I go plant a whopper of a kiss on my boyfriend, she’ll buzz off.”

  Georgia laughed.

  I glanced at Nate again. He sat back in his chair, his shaggy, dark h
air dusting his bronze-skinned forehead. His focus was totally and completely on the book he held in front of him. The man read constantly. Sucked in every bit of information he could get his hands on—er—his eyes on.

  It was one of his gifts, he always said. Thankfully, too, because he’d had to quickly learn how to do minor surgery on me to remove the six trackers wedged beneath my skin months ago. So, it came in handy. Too bad it made me feel like a moron.

  Never was too good in school.

  I reached the steps and made my way out of the water. The sounds of water rushing off and dripping into the pool must have pulled his attention because he looked up from his book. As I neared him, he bathed me in warmth as his gaze brushed over my entire body, painstakingly slowly.

  Heat singed my cheeks. Well—and other areas south of my tummy, too.

  We hadn’t had the sex-talk yet, but over the last couple of months, I sure wanted to. Not sure where he stood on the whole issue, but it might be time for me to brave up and ask about it.

  Seemed to be the weirdest time to be thinking of that stuff while searching for Lois. Plus, not much privacy with Georgia and me sharing a room.

  Nate clapped his book shut and stood. A smile curved his plump lips. “You pruned already?”

  “Hey, Nate,” I whispered. “Humor me, okay?”

  He arched an eyebrow like he always did while trying to figure something out. I’d come to recognize that even more over the last few months. I threw a quick look at Supermodel to make sure she was still watching, then I hopped into Nate’s arms.

  Good thing he had quick reflexes.

  He coiled his arms around my bottom to hold me up as I clenched my legs at his waist. I crushed my lips against his and squeezed my body close to his.

  He grunted, but then must have decided to go with the flow and kissed me back. And boy, that guy could kiss. He’d never been with another girl before me, but it sure didn’t show. Probably because he’d read everything written about sex and how to treat a woman.

  And memorized it.

  I sure have been enjoying learning all his talents over the past few months when we were able to sneak in a few make out sessions. Didn’t happen very often though, considering we were all traveling together, constantly on the run.

  Might be time to call a room swap for a night.

  I pulled away and glanced to the side. Supermodel’s shiny, perfectly painted lips curved into a slight smile. Wicked-looking almost, yet her big, blue eyes held a hint of sadness, too. I couldn’t blame her. Nate was a looker with his six feet three inches of deliciously muscled body, wavy chestnut hair, and killer brown eyes.

  But he was mine, and she needed to know that.

  “Not that I mind at all, but what brought that on?” Nate whispered into my ear, then touched feather kisses to my neck.

  Oh, that shot my skin up into some world-record-breaking-sized goose bumps. Yep, it was definitely time for a room swap tonight.

  I slid down the front of my boyfriend, very slowly, enjoying each movement, then planted my feet on the slippery floor. “Just letting one of your fans know you’re taken.”

  “My what?”

  I stepped away. “I’ll explain in a sec. Where’s my towel?”

  He turned to the side and as he did, the black marks across his chest that The Center had so lovingly branded him with were clearly visible through the soaked, white shirt.

  “Wait.” I reached for Nate’s chest to cover the marks with my hands, but I heard a distinct gasp from the direction Supermodel stood.

  Her wide eyes scanned Nate, then me.

  Now, I’d initially thought she was an Agent from the creep factor she emitted, but her reaction to the markings on Nate’s chest confirmed it.

  Well, not confirmed it, but really made me think she was.

  “What?” Nate said.

  I pulled his shirt away from his skin. “You’re showing.”

  “Oh.” Nate snagged my towel. “Thanks.”

  I turned to see Supermodel, but she was gone.

  “Great.” I glanced at Georgia who’d witnessed it all. Her wide-eyed, open-mouthed look said it all. We’re screwed.

  Chapter 2

  “No way she could be an Agent,” Tim said, shaking his head.

  We’d all convened in Tim and Nate’s room to work through this. Hopefully, I was totally wrong. Just super paranoid.

  “You should have seen her reaction to my ink, man.” Nate rubbed his hand up and down his chest. “Mandy said it was obvious.”

  “It was,” Georgia said, nodding. “I saw everything, too.”

  Georgia and I sat side by side in the loveseat in the sitting room outside of their bedroom. It was a pretty nice hotel, considering the town only had two, and the town only had, like, 500 people in it.

  Landscape pictures decorated the dark walls. A nice flat-screened TV was mounted on the wall above an entertainment center that had a play station, DVD player, and a little fridge.

  Nate and Tim paced in front of us. Only the small coffee table separated them from us, but I could feel the tension billowing off them.

  “She’d been staring at you, that’s why I did the whole kiss thing in the first place, and now look what I did. Exposed you. Well, us.”

  “No you didn’t. She probably just reacted to the mark. It’s hideous,” Nate said.

  “No it’s not.” I hopped to my feet.

  Anger bubbled in my tummy at what The Center had done to him. First they created him from a freaking Petri dish. He’d grown at supernatural speed, had uncharted intelligence, and even helped kill my real parents. Then he realized the error of his ways and escaped.

  But they’d marked him both with ink and tracking devices, which he had to dig out himself. The results were bumpy, scar-tissued marks beneath the big, thick, black lines. I didn’t care, though. I liked Nate how he was. Black lines, no real birth parents, and freak of nature crap and all. We fit together so perfectly, it was like he was made for me.

  “Mandy?” Nate’s voice cut through my tirade of thoughts.

  I turned to face him and realized I was standing in front of the door.

  “You okay?” Nate asked, stepping toward me.

  “Yeah, um…why?”

  He glanced at Georgia, then back to me. “You’re just a little hyper.” He moved closer. “While you were sitting you were twitching your leg, too. You feel okay?”

  Now that he’d mentioned it, yeah, I had been doing that. There was so much energy bottled up in me I couldn’t sit still. Must be from being snowbound in this stupid place for so long.

  “I’m okay. Just getting cabin fever.”

  Nate watched me with his analytical, but very yummy eyes. Sometimes it felt like he could see into my brain, hear my thoughts.

  “I’m going to get on the laptop and see the people currently registered. We’ve all been stranded here for two days.” Tim checked his watch. “It’s going on two o’clock right now of our second day. No one’s come or gone, so it should be easy.”

  “I haven’t seen her before today, though. Not even for breakfast,” Georgia said. “Strange.”

  “Shit,” I said. Georgia tossed a couch pillow at me. “Hey, I’ve always sworn, it’s you with the new potty mouth.”

  “Very funny, Kelvin.” She stuck out her pierced tongue, another form of rebellion now that she was free from her adoptive parents’ rules. “Look, I’m sure it’s fine. We’re all paranoid and we’ve been stuck here and pissed because we keep hitting dead ends. But, Tim will do his computer work and figure it out, right hon?” She winked.

  He smiled. “Yep.”

  “Good. So I’m okay to go to our room to shower this chlorine off and change.” Georgia stood.

  “Go together,” Nate said. “Never go anywhere alone until we figure this out. You have your phones?”

  I stood next to my sister. We both held them up. “Yes dad,” we said in unison.

  “Ha. Ha.” He winked at me.

 
That’d become a running joke since he’d arranged our deaths. He often shifted into protection mode, which was annoying sometimes. But I had to give him credit, he knew what he was doing in the keeping-us-safe department.

  I so wasn’t in the mood to see protector-mode, though. Not after that whopper of a kiss down at the pool.

  “Then go. Bolt your doors, get beautified as you call it, then come back. Okay?” He stepped toward me. “Better yet. I’m walking you guys to your room.” He glanced at Tim. “Okay with that?”

  “We’re only five doors down, silly,” I said. “Can we say paranoid?”

  “You’re right. Okay. Go.” He opened the door. “Hungry? I’ll get us some dinner.”

  “Sounds good. Just no pizza,” Georgia said as she stepped through the doorway. “I’m sick to death of pizza.”

  Nate tucked one of my wet strands of hair behind my ear, then leaned in and pressed his lips to my cheek. “See you soon.”

  I charged toward Georgia, who was already halfway down the hall, still rambling on about how sick of pizza she was. I really needed to figure out what was going on with her. It was more than the ex-mom thing.

  Georgia stopped in front of our door and I glanced back. True to his word, Nate stood in the hallway, watching, arms crossed over his broad chest. He leaned against the doorframe, his foot propping the door open.

  I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve him; well I didn’t deserve him, but whatever. I was glad he was mine. The beep of our door card thingy sliding through the slot, followed by the click of the lock, drew my attention back to the issue at hand.

  Georgia.

  She stomped into our room, which was an exact duplicate of Nate and Tim’s, but smelled much nicer because of Georgia’s melon body spray. She tossed the card key on the table beneath the TV, then slid her damp shirt over her head, leaving her with her bright red bikini top on.

  She’d taken to the color quite well.

  “Okay, what’s going on, G?” I slouched on the edge of the bed. “Seriously. We got this whole twin vibe thing going, and it’s wigging me out.”

  “Twin vibe.” She huffed.

  “Like that. All with the negative. You aren’t like that. You—”