Kiss of Frost

'Here goes nothing,' I muttered.

I shoved the branch through the wolf's leg. It took all the strength and bravery I had to force the wood through the creature's muscle and out the other side, but I did it. Then I grabbed the bloody stick and threw it as far away as I could. The broken branch hit one of the flattened trees and fluttered to the snow.

The Fenrir wolf let out a horrible, horrible howl, and before I could blink, I was on my back in the snow, with the monster on top of me, its paws as heavy as lead weights on my chest. I froze, staring up into its bloodred eyes. The wolf leaned closer, its breath hot, heavy, and sour on my face. I tensed, waiting for it to sink its teeth into me…

The wolf leaned forward and licked my cold cheek.

Its tongue was wet, heavy, and as rough as sandpaper against my skin, but the wolf's touch was gentle enough. My psychometry kicked in the second it licked me, and I got a series of flashes off it, mostly of the avalanche and all the snow slamming into its body just like it had mine. But there was also a warmer, softer feeling in the mix, a sense that the wolf was actually… grateful to me for getting the branch out of its leg. For helping it when I could have just crawled away and left it here alone and injured in the snow.

The wolf stared down at me, paws still on my chest, its shaggy tail thumping from side to side and spraying us both with snow. It seemed like… it expected me todo something. Maybe my mind was completely gone, because there was only one thing I could think of right now that might satisfy it. I reached up and awkwardly patted the side of its head, since that was all I could reach.

'Nice puppy,' I whispered, and passed out.

Chapter 14

'Gwen! Gwen Frost!'

Someone shouting my name snapped me out of the blackness that I'd been drifting along in. I opened my eyes and realized that I was still outside on my back in what was left of the crushed, snowy thicket.

But I wasn't cold.

Sometime while I'd been unconscious, the Fenrir wolf had lain down lengthwise next to me. It was longer than I was tall, and it had wrapped its thick, shaggy tail around my legs, like I was a cute, wayward puppy that it was cuddling with. I turned my head and almost bumped my nose into the wolf's. The creature blinked at me, like it had been asleep, too, then yawned, showing me each and every one of its sharp, pointed teeth. It could have seriously used a breath mint.

Snuggling with a wolf? That was kind of weird. All right, really weird. But since the creature hadn't tried to, you know,eat me,I wasn't going to complain. Not one little bit. Still, I slowly scooted away from it. No point in tempting fate, the gods, or whatever crazy thing was at work here.

'Gwen!' the shout came again. This time I realized it was a man's voice. 'Can you hear me?'

'Over here!' I shouted back, although my voice came out as more of a low, strained rasp. 'I'm over here!'

Silence. For a second I wondered if he'd even heard my hoarse cry, but then-

'I heard her! She's alive!'

Scuffles sounded, and through the pulverized pine trees, I spotted someone in a black jacket running toward me, sending up sprays of snow in every direction. I turned and looked back at the wolf.

'I think you'd better go now,' I said. 'They wouldn't like you being here.'

I don't know if the Fenrir wolf understood my words or not, but the creature rose to its feet. I noticed that its right ear had a bloody, jagged V in it, like a piece of it had been torn off during the avalanche. The creature leaned down and gently butted me with its head. I hesitated, then reached up and stroked its silky ear. My psychometry kicked in, and once again, the wolf's warm gratitude filled my mind. Maybe it was my imagination, but the wolf almost seemed to-torumblewith pleasure at me petting it. Yeah, that was kind of weird, too, especially since I'd never thought of the wolf as anything but a mythological monster, a nightmare come to life.

'Gwen!' the shout came again, closer and louder this time.

The wolf let out another happy rumble, then loped off through the trees, heading away from the sound of the approaching voice. It limped a little on its injured leg, but it still moved quicker than I could ever dream of.

I put my head back down on the snow and tried to ignore the tremors that shook my body and the fact that my teeth clattered together like dried up bones. I'd just petted a Fenrir wolf-andlived. How twisted was that? Daphne would have probably thought it was wicked cool. I was just happy I'd survived.

Without the wolf to help keep me warm, the cold quickly seeped into my body. I knew I should fight the icy numbness, but I just didn't have the strength. Not right now. I'd just started to drift off to sleep again when Coach Ajax burst into the thicket, his big, burly body tearing through the broken trees like they weren't even there. He dropped to one knee in the snow beside me.

'Gwen?' he asked in a tight, concerned voice. 'Are you all right?'

'I've definitely been better,' I said, and passed out again.

I was out of it for a while after that. I tried to stay awake, really, I did. You would think it would have been easy, given all the shouting, noise, and general commotion. But time after time, my eyes slid shut, and I just didn't have the energy to stop them. All I got to see of my dramatic rescue were these little snapshots whenever I woke up for a minute or two.

Coach Ajax carrying me out of the trees and putting me on a stretcher that was attached to the back of a snowmobile. Professor Metis wrapping me in warm thermal blankets to help get my body temperature back up where it should be. Even Nickamedes was there, throwing the snowmobile into gear and racing down the mountain faster than I thought the librarian would ever dare to drive.

Finally, though, the cold, wind, and noise faded away, replaced by soft, soothing, quiet warmth. I dreamed