Crossblood - Completed

Chapter 35

The harsh wind whips around our stiff hoods, snowy dust coating our lashes and lips like sand on the beach, each granule burning as it lands swiftly across my blackening arm.

"Thanks for c-coming with m-m-me." Teeth chattering I pull the cloak around myself. Even with my arm wrapped in a protective blanket my fingers stay frostbit and trembling.

Mikayla only shrugs her shoulder closest to me, untangling a curl as her cheeks blush a faint pink. "They shouldn't of let you come, you're freezing." There's a tang of bitterness in her tone but it's better left unaddressed, her teeth biting down on reddened lips as she glares at her own footprints in the snow.

She's right. My fingers are white and bloody, lips lifeless and eyes silver slits through the blowing snow. She runs a trembling hand through my newly blonde hair before stiffly shoving her gloved fingers into her coat pocket for warmth. "As are you."

We walk on in silence, our eyes wandering back every few steps to see if the looming house behind is still in view. Trees rush by in a blur, Mikayla tripping over camouflaged stones and falling to the forest ground every other mile we tread. I want to say something, fill the void lingering between us, but my lips stay tightly sealed and her eyes search nowhere but the floor. "So..uh..."

She gives a light laugh, positioning herself so that she's close enough that our fingers brush together slightly. I lock our fingers together on the fifth swing of my hand, squeezing her fingers shortly and filling her body with a flash of heat. "How do you know where we're going?"

There's worry in her eyes, in her movements, the tensing of her arm and the curling of her fingers, nails pressing into my palm. "What if we get lost? Or they come back?" Mikayla's eyes scan my blanket draped arm and the dented skin of my jewel-less wrist before turning away flushed and embarrassed at being caught out the corner of my eye.

"I know the scent of his pack, Kay. We aren't going to get lost just calm down." Her eyes widen at the nickname just as Jules had, but she turns her head away before I can get a better look at her features. "Are you embarrassed?" She slightly nods, pressing her face into my shoulder with the next wind. Her curls wrap around my neck and ears, grazing my cheeks as she buries herself deeper into my pale and cracking skin. I pause as she wraps her free hand around my waist and under my shirt, lips pressing gently on my collarbone until my body is emerged in flames and the color returns to my flushing skin. "W-we-"

She cuts me off with a light moan of protest, leaning farther into my body until the wind ceases to beat with the rhythm of my racing heart. She pulls away, arms still tight around my hips as she stares straight into my aching chest. It becomes my turn to be flustered, to rest my cheeks over her head and hope she doesn't notice the unnatural heat radiating off my body.

"Moon," I tense at the noise, the forest deathly quiet despite the birds resting across the branches, faces muffled into their disgruntled feathers and the rustling of branches, of deer and bobcats and foxes alike.

Of a shifter and a human.

Alone in a circle of trees.

With the snow filled footsteps of a bear hidden beneath the brush.

"Moon, we should get going." Mikayla detaches from my chest, the space where she once stood turning cold and empty in her absence. The brunette drags me by the hand away from the clearing and though the deer have quieted and the birds have drifted into sleep I can't help but feel that something, someone is watching us.

We're barely three steps out the clearing before she's asking: "How much longer?"

"I can carry you." I laugh, nudging her in the back when she stops moving.