Ice Baron (Ice Chronicles, Book One (science fiction romance)) (36 page)

Tears blurred her vision and she
ran into his arms. “Joshua,” she whispered. He felt solid and strong…and
smelled of blood.

His arms closed tightly around
her. Joshua held her close for so long that she wondered if he ever intended to
let her go. She held him tighter. The death and destruction around them sank
like a chill into her soul. Joshua had killed tens of people, and she had
killed at least nine. So much death and horror. Would they ever be the same
again?

Gently, she pulled back. “Let’s
go. Richert’s men are on the roof. Michael’s waiting for us, too, with my
family.”

“Good.” His beautiful, tawny eyes
closed for a second.  Beneath the bruises and blood, exhaustion tinged his skin
gray. He didn’t move.

“Come on.” Tenderly, she took his
hand. “You need a doctor.”

“No.” The word sounded bleak. “I
have one more job to finish.”

“What?”

He strode from the room, scrolling
through Onred’s phone directory. “Emelie.”

Anya gasped. All of Joshua’s
stories about being the clean up man for the military flooded her mind.
The
only safe enemy is a dead enemy.
She dashed after him. “You
wouldn’t.
”

“Emelie planted the virus in
Astana. She is responsible for thousands of deaths.” He shouldered into a
nearby stairwell and headed up them, fast.

“But she’s just a child!”

“Fifteen is not a child. And she
is Onred’s heir.”

“Joshua!” She grabbed his arm. “I won’t
let you.”

He stopped. Slowly and carefully,
he gripped her arms and said, “She is a risk that must be neutralized. Permanently.”
He finished the last stairs and strode into the fifth floor hall.

“No!” She grabbed his arm, but he
shook her free.

“You would have killed her thirty
minutes ago.”

“To free
you.
And my
family. But now…”

“Now they’re free. But this war
will continue until we cut off the head.”

Was Joshua a monster? Was this man
she loved a cold-hearted child killer? “Don’t murder her,” she cried out. “I’ll
never be able to look at you again.”

He rammed the key card into Emelie’s
locked door and sent a grim look over his shoulder. “Who said anything about
murder?”

Joshua slammed open Emelie’s door.

To Anya’s consternated relief, the
room was empty. Joshua strode from one end to the other, upending the bed,
wrenching open closets. She was gone.

Anya watched in silence. “If you
don’t plan to kill her, then what do you plan to do with her?”

He swore. “Shuttle bay. Now.”

She followed in his fast footsteps.
Emergency lights flickered. Cold crept through the halls in a thickening,
frigid current. Scores of Richert’s red-suited soldiers ran through the
corridor, mixing with a few blue Donetski men. Black clad Gorno men lay dead.
Children’s cries reached her ears. Innocents were suffering. They would
continue to suffer…for days, weeks, perhaps even months—if they survived that
long.

Anya could not grasp the unending
horror and misery just beginning all around her. She burst into the shuttle bay
shortly after Joshua. Although flooded with people, all of the aircraft were
gone.

Outside the windows, a swarm red
birds, vastly outnumbering the Donetski blue ones, made short work of the
fleeing black ships. For a second, the threatening sight of Richert’s dominant
forces made her steps falter. If she didn’t know Richert was on their side, the
sight would frighten her. As it was, she could only feel thankful.

The war was almost over. Just like
that.

“Now what?”

Joshua gazed outside, his lips
straight and hard. “We can hope justice has been served. If we’re lucky, Onred’s
line has ended forever.”

“You would wish for the death of a
little girl?”

He turned to her. “No. But I can
wish for the deaths of all who would advise her to carry on her father’s quest.
I can pray for that. And I will.”

“Do you really think she’s evil?”
Anya asked in a hushed voice. “She cried when I held her hostage, just like
Marli would. She might have only been a pawn. A little girl trapped by her
father’s expectations.” She looked at Joshua. “But you would understand that,
wouldn’t you?”

His shoulders relaxed a little. “Yes,”
he said at last. “I would.”

More quietly, she said, “What did
you plan to do, then, if you’d found her?”

“Banish her to our northern city.”

“To the prison?”

“Yes. If she proved
trustworthy…and sane, I would transfer her to the supervised level.”

“She would never be free.”

“It would be natural for her to
want to avenge her father’s death. We could never trust her. So no, she’d never
be allowed to go free.”

“I see.”

He turned to her. “Do you?” The
weight of the world seemed to deaden those brown eyes.

“I do.” She slipped her arms
around him and pressed her cheek into his shoulder. And she did understand. He
didn’t want to ruin a child’s life. But Emelie had planted the fatal virus. She
was a smart child, and could possibly be a dangerous one, if enough of her
father’s tainted blood ran through her veins. The safety of Donetsk had to come
first.

Joshua’s arms closed tightly
around her, and remained so for a long time. At last, he touched the
transmitter at his collar. “Alpha Victor. Ready for transport.”

*  *  *  *  *

Michael instructed Joshua and Anya
to meet him at the far end of the shuttle bay. They managed to board before any
desperate Gorno people could crowd in close enough to beg passage from their
dying city.

Marli greeted them with hugs. The
little craft was crowded. It was only meant to hold four, at the most, but
including the doctor, eight weighed down the ship.

“We’ll make it,” Michael assured
them. “Doc, take a look at my brother. He’s in bad shape.” Joshua allowed the
doctor to attend to his visible wounds. Dr. Spalding clucked that Joshua would
need to spend twenty-four hours in Zyra’s hospital.

Anya would be surprised if Joshua
stayed until dawn.

They flew into the black night,
leaving behind the pale, flickering lights of Gorno. Damon was awake now, to
Anya’s relief. According to Dr. Spalding, he was recovering, but needed to be
admitted to the hospital immediately.

Marli snuggled up against Anya. “The
war’s over, right?”

“Yes. Onred is dead.” And so was
his evil father, Jacan. However, Cadmus, the other son, was still alive. He was
a wanderer, also nicknamed “The Ghost,” and was rumored to live in western Mongolia. Would he take it upon himself to avenge his father and brother’s deaths? If so,
Richert might be right. Maybe they’d have to fight all of western Mongolia next. But now wasn’t the time to think about the unknown future.

“Your face is burned,” Elise told
Anya. “Hold still. I’ll fix it.” Elise borrowed the healing wand from the
doctor and cool light touched Anya’s left temple. The spot did burn, now that
Elise mentioned it. So did her arm. Anya had forgotten about being shot in the
communications center. Her foot burned, too. Why?

And then she remembered being shot
in the boot in the conference room. Upon closer inspection, a hole perforated
the boot. Her foot was burned, but not too badly. She took the wand from Elise
and patched it up.

An hour later, back in Zyra,
Joshua, Anya, and her entire family were ordered to report to the hospital.
Damon, David, and Joshua were admitted, amid protests. After being released,
Anya and her sisters were ushered to a suite of rooms which they were instructed
to consider their own, for as long as they wished them.

Anya tucked Marli into bed, said
goodnight to Elise, and collapsed onto her own soft, warm bed with the blankets
pulled to her chin. Was it possible the war could be over so quickly? All
worries of Cadmus aside, they had escaped Gorno. Onred was dead. Joshua and her
siblings would live. What more could she possibly want?

All of her prayers had been
answered. For the first time, Anya realized the enormity of this simple fact.
Tears in her eyes, she breathed a heartfelt prayer of thanks.

She fell deeply into dreams of
death, blood, and horror. The souls of the men she had killed tormented her.
Guilt plagued her. And worse, Joshua went missing. Where could he be? She
searched everywhere, but he could not be found.

He did not want to be found.

At dawn, Anya woke up in a cold
sweat. One fact pierced her heart like a knife. Joshua meant to leave her.

She had to stop him.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Anya slipped
into the shower, feeling dead
tired after the short night of tossing and turning. The warm water revived her
a bit. Hopefully enough to survive the coming confrontation with Joshua. Maybe
her dream had been a premonition, or maybe only a result of the fear and horror
lingering from the attack on Gorno. Soon, she’d find out the truth.

A brush through her hair, clean
clothes and wounds tended, she left the room, heading for the main conference
room. She had to find Joshua.

The halls were quiet. Too quiet.
She hurried faster, but found the conference room empty. She stopped a
uniformed man. “Where’s Birn and Ray?”

The corporal’s eyes narrowed.
Puzzling contempt curled his lips. “Command Center’s main viewing room.
Straight ahead and to the right.”

“Thanks.” Disconcerted by his
attitude, she sent him a frown and hurried to her destination.

A swipe of the Zyran security
keycard she’d been given, and she entered the huge room. Floor-to-ceiling
windows overlooked the western plain and the eastern, snowcapped mountains. To
the south, a gigantic television screen broadcasted footage of a smoking Gorno.
Birn, Ray, Joshua, and a few others stood in the middle of the room, talking.
If Joshua’s set expression and straight, stiffly held shoulders were any
indication, the conversation was serious.

Birn caught sight of Anya. “Get
out. You have no place here.”

“Speak to her with respect,”
Joshua said in a low, harsh snarl.

“I am baron now,” Birn bit back. “I’ll
listen to your advice, but that woman means nothing to Donetsk. Escort her out,
or I’ll order my men to throw her out.”

Stunned and confused, Anya’s gaze
went from Birn to Joshua. Birn claimed
he
was baron now? What had happened?
How could he strip away Joshua’s power, and dismiss her as if she were a piece
of trash?

Joshua strode for Anya. His
features were like expressionless stone. Firm fingers took her elbow. “Come
with me.”

Without a word, she obeyed and
followed him into an empty conference room. The door slid shut behind them.
There, he released her. The burned patch on his cheek had faded to a light
pink, and his cuts and gashes were half healed. The skin around his eyes,
though, was a pale purple color. His eyes looked black.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s my fault,” he gritted. “I
should have stopped him. I’m sorry.”

Now she was even more confused. “You
should have stopped
who
from doing what?”

A grimace flickered. “Remember the
elevator in Gorno? When I kissed you.”

“Yes. Of course.” How could she
forget? She had wondered if that would be the last blissful moment she’d ever
spend in Joshua’s arms.

“Onred got it on digital feed. He
taunted me with it. I should have shot him before he sent it.”

“He sent it…over Alpha?”

“Yes.”

Anya felt as if she’d been punched
in the stomach. She needed to sit down.

Of course. That explained the
corporal’s contempt, and Birn’s greedy grab for power.

“I can fix this,” Joshua said, his
voice even.

Anya instinctively stiffened. Her
fears from the dream returned with full force. “No.”

“Listen,” he said curtly. “I can
make this all go away. You’ll keep power in Donetsk.”

But Joshua would not. This was
abundantly clear from his set expression. “I don’t want power. Not without you.”

“You owe it to your family.
Renounce me.”

“What?”

“Tell Birn and Ray that I forced
myself on you. Demote me to an enlisted man. Banish me to Tash.”

“No!
I won’t.”

“The Dubrovnyks will retain power.
That’s as it should be.”

“I won’t lie. Not for you. Not for
my family. For no one.” The injustice of the situation caught her by the
throat. “This is wrong.
We
saved Donetsk from Onred. Birn has no right…”

“He has every right,” Joshua
returned quietly. “Renounce me. That is an order, Dubrovnyk.”