Page 18 of Frost and Fate
“Aria!”
“Don’t worry about her. She’s a lycan, she will heal,” Darren reminded Nova. “You, on the other hand.” He frowned as he assessed her open head wound. Nova could hear the sounds of running footsteps down the hallway. Dr. Sawyer hurried in, followed by the blond man from earlier. He quickened his pace in her direction, kit bag in hand.
“Hello again, Nova.” He gave a small, weary smile. “Let’s take a look shall we.” As he leaned in to inspect Nova, Darren stepped between them. The move caught Nova by surprise but Dr. Sawyer didn’t seem fazed. He responded calmly. “Ridgewell, are you a doctor? I don’t think so. Now unless you want Miss Nova to continue to sit there bleeding and in pain, I suggest you take a step back and give me room to work.”
For such a kindly gentleman, there was an authoritativeness to Dr. Sawyer that seemed to command compliance.
“Sorry, Doctor,” Darren muttered as he stepped back. The doctor inspected the cut on Nova’s scalp. She flinched as he dabbed an alcohol swab on the open wound. Darren stepped forward but a quick clearing of Dr. Sawyer’s throat had him returning to a safe distance. “This doesn’t look too deep. Are you able to call on your powers again?”
Nova grimaced. “I’m not sure. I tried earlier, but my head was so fuzzy.”
“Well I have a theory I’m trying to test. If you would please indulge me with a bit of ice.”
Nova took a deep breath in and focused. As her eyes opened again she knew that they had changed to their icy blue. She grew a small flower of ice in her palm and handed it to Dr. Sawyer. Nova noticed the pain in her forehead dissipating.
“It’s as I suspected.” The doctor smiled. “When you came to us after awakening your powers, you healed extremely quickly. The wounds Darren mentioned from the warehouse were substantial. And while you were covered in blood upon arrival, I couldn’t find anything physically wrong with you.”
This was news to Nova. She had wondered what happened after the warehouse incident. “So I can heal myself?” she asked, incredulously.
“In a manner. When you summon your Celestial powers, your body seems to regenerate itself. We will have to keep an eye out to see if it affects any other areas for you.”
“Such as?”
“Your age, for one. We don’t know how you will age now that your cells are constantly regenerating. Also your pregnancy and children.” Nova pulled a face, and the doctor quickly added, “Not that there is any rush to find that out. Forgive me, it’s just my scientific mind at work.” He patted Nova on the hand and headed to check on Aria. Darren crouched down as soon as Dr. Sawyer walked away. He meticulously checked the area where Nova’s gash had been.
“I’m fine,” she reassured him. He continued to scowl.
“Alpha,” he addressed Gideon. “We need a security meeting immediately.”
Gideon nodded. “Let’s get the team together.”
Within a few minutes Nova was surrounded by lycans inside a large conference area. Peering around the room she again noticed the two men who had been with Leah and Darren at the warehouse. One had curly brown hair, maple-colored eyes, and freckles dotting his nose and cheeks. The markings would have seemed boyish had it not been for the chiseled jaw and jacked body. The other man was blond with green eyes. His hair was shaved on both sides with the rest piled in a tight man bun on top. He grinned at something the other man said and damn did he have great teeth. Both men were well over six feet. What was it with these lycans? Were they really all this hot? Honestly it should be illegal to house this many gorgeous faces and hot bodies under one roof. Nova wondered how anyone ever got any work done. As if on cue, the two walked over to where Nova sat.
“Well if it isn’t our favorite Ice Queen!” The brunette smiled at her. His charming nature and boyish grin no doubt melted many girls’ hearts. “Long time no see! Murdered anyone with giant shards of death ice recently?”
Nova cringed and the blond man scowled.
“Too soon?” the brunette said bashfully. “It was supposed to be an icebreaker…” He gave another of those charming boyish grins. Nova actually laughed this time, but it earned him an eyeroll from the tall blond.
“What Aaron is trying to say”—he gave the brunette, evidently named Aaron, a friendly elbow to the ribs—“is that we’re glad to see you again. I’m Lucas.” As if the blond could get any hotter, he also had a subtle Australian accent.
“You’re from Australia?” Nova asked.
“I am. Though I’ve been here for a while now.”
“Yeah, yeah, the accent’s a real panty-dropper,” Aaron added, giving Lucas a shove. That only earned him a headlock from the Aussie. “Not so chatty now, mate.” He grinned as Aaron tapped out. Aaron retaliated with a ruffle of the blond’s perfectly done-up hair. Before they could get after each other again, Darren approached.
“I hope you two are making a good impression. She’s gotten pretty good at controlling her powers.”
Aaron raised an eyebrow. “What? Silver’s going to freeze our balls if we don’t play nice?”
Darren looked to Nova who wiggled her fingers mischievously in the air. Aaron laughed, but did take a small step back.
Darren slapped the two men on the shoulders. “I couldn’t do my job without them. Aaron handles training and the new recruits. Lucas here runs all of our rescue-recovery and infiltration ops.”
“Basically lycans get into trouble a lot and I get them out.” Lucas winked at Nova. She smiled at the gesture which earned her a glare from Darren’s direction. Before he could say anything else, Gideon entered the room. Everyone quickly took their seats and quieted down. The shift in energy when Gideon addressed the others was truly palpable.
“As you have all heard by now, we had an incident in the training room today.” His tone was serious. “The Collectors obviously have some other members who are able to teleport. We had hoped the one killed in the warehouse was the only one with that gift.”
