DEMON SENSE (Completed)

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

The arctic air completely numbed my fingers, and I cursed myself for not thinking to buy gloves. What an epic fail. If I got frostbite, I’d deserve it for being so stupid.

I did my best to keep a firm grip on Nathan; though, with the lack of sensation in my hands, I wasn’t sure if I was holding on tight enough. I took it as a good sign that I was, since I hadn’t yet fallen to my death. Even as my fingers quickly turned to icicles, the rest of me was pretty much protected, thanks to my travel buddy, who’s back shielded me from the icy wind as we sped along the frozen landscape.

Just when I started to get a little comfortable with riding, the snowmobile went airborne for a few seconds before roughly landing again. I yelped, and attached myself to Nathan like a leech, holding on for dear life.

“Are you crazy? You’re going to get us killed!”

I felt something come to rest on my arm. Under any other circumstances, I may have welcomed Nathan’s touch, but with him consoling me, that meant he was now driving with one arm. He was tempting fate too much to my liking.

 “Trust me,” Nathan bellowed back loud enough so that I could hear him over the rumbling of the engine, and the whoosh of the wind.

He wasn’t making it easy with his X-treme snowmobiling stunt. Not that I had much of a choice to do anything about it. Not unless I thought that flinging my body off the contraption was the better option—which I didn’t.  I could only cling on and pray.

It seemed like an eternity later that we finally came to a stop, and I was ready to kiss the ground. We’d been on the snowmobile for at least a half-hour, which felt like an eternity to me. My legs felt like jell-o, and my butt had fallen asleep. My hands had warmed, though. Nathan had ordered me to tuck them in his trench coat after he’d felt how cold they were halfway through the ride. Looked like I would get to keep my fingers after all.

 My excitement to finally be off the death-mobile, and the relief at having sensation back in my fingers, was short lived. From the looks of it, we were still in the middle of nowhere. For all I knew this could be just another pit stop.

“Where are we?”

“This is where we rendezvous with Larson.”

I allowed myself a moment to rejoice internally before the cynicism kicked in.

We were standing a few hundred feet from the mouth of a colossal ice cave. It seemed this Larson guy liked to meet in obscure, creepy places. I guess I should have known he’d be weird. After all, he associated himself with Nathan.

“You sure he isn’t a demon?” No normal human being, not even the most paranoid, would suggest such an unusual meeting place.

Nathan’s eyes strayed from mine. He stiffly replied, “No. Larson is not of that sort.”

Well, crap, he wasn’t anything I was going to like if he made Nathan uncomfortable.

I was about to demand he give me a better explanation, when my intent was interrupted by the echoing of a man’s voice resounding from within the ice cave.

“Nethaneel, such a pleasant surprise! It feels like centuries past since the last time I saw you. Ah! What do we have here? This must be the lady you’ve told me so much about.”

Larson’s features came into view as he descended upon me and Nathan. His eyes, I noticed, were a mossy green set against alabaster skin with dark chestnut waves that framed his face. Larson’s full lips looked drastically softer when compared to his strong jaw line.