Taking a deep breath, I did as Austin suggested, crouching down to kneel on the floor between Cole's spread legs and tentatively placing a hand over his. The cold bit into my skin instantly, but I didn't pull away. I had endured much worse pain in my life, and his eyes had flickered ever so slightly when I’d touched him.
Up close, I was able to see clearer that it was scales coating his forearms and hands. They were all shades of blues and greens and appeared and disappeared sporadically, sometimes just leaving cold human skin and others totally engulfing his arms. Under my hand I could feel the transitions sliding in and out, and the sensation creeped me out in a big way.
“Cole, hey,” I said in a soothing voice. “Can you hear me? It's Kit…” I grasped onto his hand a little more firmly, and was rewarded with a slow blink.
“Hi there, big guy.” Smiling, I tried to meet his eyes, but they were still unfocused. His jaw was clenched so hard it looked like he was about to break his teeth, so I sat up higher on my knees and slid one hand along his jaw.
“What's going on, Cole?” I murmured, hopefully loud enough for him to hear. “You're kind of scaring us here.” At this, he blinked a couple more times and focused on my face. He blinked again, and this time when he opened his lids I had to suck back a startled gasp.
The beautiful granite gray color of his iris had bled out, eradicating any trace of white and filling the space with gray. His pupils had stretched and narrowed to slits, giving an effect not unlike a reptile's eyes.
“Hon, you're really freaking me out now. Can you tell me what's going on?” I pleaded, shuffling in closer on my knees and running my hands over his skin. The contact seemed to be helping him because the more I touched his skin, er, scales the more he seemed to regain his wits.
“Vixen?” he murmured, frowning at me in confusion with his unnatural, reptile eyes. “Why am I so cold?”
A startled laugh snorted out of me at his question; I had always been a nervous laugher. “Um, that's kind of what I was wondering too…” My breath was fogging in front of me, and I could feel myself beginning to shake.
“Keep contact with him,” River said quietly from somewhere close by. “It's helping.”
Nodding my agreement, I shuffled closer to Cole, then gave up and climbed into his seat, straddling his waist and facing him from inches away. His whole body was like one giant ice cube, and the cold radiating into me where my butt was resting in his lap was making me shiver hard.
“Talk to me, big guy,” I urged, my teeth chattering as I held his cheek in one hand to maintain his eye contact. “What's going on? How can I help?”
“You're so warm,” he murmured, with a confused frown. “Why am I so cold? One minute I was feeling this… insane, out of control rage and then the next it felt like I had been dipped in Antarctic waters.” As he spoke, his words came out clearer and stronger, but his body began trembling uncontrollably. “You feel really warm though…” He picked his hands up from the arm rests where they had been resting, half frozen and covered in scales. When he lifted them, there was a loud cracking noise, and shards of ice dropped to the floor.
“What the hell?” he exclaimed, looking at his arms with wide eyes.
“No idea.” I shrugged unhelpfully. “But warming you up seems to be helping…” Already the scales seemed to be fading and not coming back anywhere near as quickly as before.
He nodded hesitantly, and I could read the panic on his face as he tightened his arms around me. Rightly so, too. Fuck, even I'm freaking out right now, and it's not happening to me!
Cuddling into his freezing body, I laid my face on his neck. Given how achingly cold his skin was, my own must feel like fire in comparison, but the long sigh he gusted out told me it was a good thing.
After only a few moments, my cheek was numb with cold, so I shifted my face to lay the other side against his skin, and he hissed at the initial contact. His body was still trembling with shivers but gradually slowed as I snuggled into him like a koala bear.
I had no idea how long we had sat like that when his shaking finally ceased all together and his temperature felt almost normal again. Pulling back, I grabbed his face in my hands to bring his eyes to mine.
“Thank fuck for that,” I whispered, seeing his eyes totally back to normal again. Releasing his face, I picked up one of his arms to check for scales.
“Anything?” he asked, inspecting his other arm carefully.
“All clear, I think,” I released his arm and sat back on his knees. “So um… what the fuck was that?”
“I wish I knew,” he muttered, his face pale and his eyes a bit wider than usual.
“I know,” Vali chimed in, and both Cole and I looked over the aisle at him. The rest of the team was still gathered around us, and the carpet was soaking with melted ice.
“Now is hardly the time for keeping secrets, Dragomir,” River snapped, his usual controlled demeanor fraying around the edges as he glowered at the Romanian.
Vali flicked his gaze across all of the guys, pausing on Cole then resting on me last. He held my gaze steadily as he responded.
“Apparently, as a little bonus to you saving my life when I got shot, you’ve also somehow turned me into a dragon. And by the looks of things, Andrei too.” His words seemed to hang in the air as everyone simply stared at him.
“Sorry, I could have sworn you just said dragon.” Caleb was the first to recover, squinting at Vali as though he was considering a hearing aid.
“I did.” Vali was still holding my gaze as he raised an eyebrow. “After you left Nevada, I entered into a somewhat heated debate with that vile old bastard who calls himself my father. The next thing I knew, my bedroom was halfway destroyed when I shifted into a dragon the size of a fucking semi-trailer.” My jaw dropped slightly open at this revelation, but I was at a total loss for words. What the hell does one say to that?
“Fuck,” I whispered, for lack of anything better.
“And yet, despite you all looking a little surprised, none of you look anywhere near as shocked as I was.” Vali raised his eyebrows at me in a bit of an accusatory fashion, which was entirely warranted. “So now that my little brother is no longer in danger of ripping this aircraft to bits like it was made of paper, do you think maybe you can catch me up to speed with what the hell you’ve done to us?”
Sliding off Cole’s lap, I half staggered, half fell into the empty seat opposite Vali. My knees were weak, and it had nothing to do with the biting cold that had so recently seeped into my bones. I puffed out a long breath, nervously twisting my hair over my shoulder while I thought about where the hell to begin. A sick, guilty feeling was churning in my gut as I thought about the consequences of my actions. Yes, I had saved both Cole’s and Vali’s lives. But at what cost?
“Caleb, I could probably go for some more vodka right now.” I was only about thirty percent joking. My world was getting crazier by the second.
Vali deserved some answers though, so I had better suck it up for now.
Sitting forward, I sighed. “Okay, let’s start from the beginning…”
31