Half an hour later we were in one of his cars and heading toward Seattle. Evidently, Periphetes lived in a historic house in the posh Queen Anne District of the Rainy City. I sat in the back, flipping through our notes from the library, trying to memorize what it was we needed to take. I didn't want to get caught simply because we had trouble recognizing the loot. We were looking for a breastplate, a dagger, a few silver bracelets, a book, a helmet, and a codpiece.
By the time we started winding our way up the hill near the fae's home, I was growing nervous about the time. At five in the morning, the night sky was still pitch black, but I didn't know how long that would last or how dense the clouds would be when the sun did rise. I voiced my concerns to Nik, who scoffed at them.
Typical.
We parked a block away and slunk toward the house—ducking below dripping trees and rhododendron bushes. It was a beautiful brick building from the 1930s, with old windows and what looked like a tower. We worked our way through the shrubbery and around to a side door. To my surprise, Nik simply grabbed the door handle, turned it with his vampire strength, and snapped the lock. He silently pushed the door open and stepped through.
Josh and I hesitated.
“Umm…” murmured Josh.
“How do we know he’s not home?” I asked before Josh could get to his point. I sensed he had been about to ask the same question.
“I checked,” said Nik. “There is a charity ball being held in New York. ‘The Bouncing Ball,' I believe it’s called. Some charity to raise money for children in foster care. All the bigwigs of New York will be there.”
“And we know he’ll be gone why?” Josh asked. I was glad to see he was just as confused as I was. Had he not spoke first, I would have asked.
“Periphetes is a jewel thief. Everyone there will be wearing their best stuff. He goes and spends a week snatching the jewels he saw at the ball. Periphetes won’t miss this opportunity. He’s not home.”
“You mean he’s going to rob a whole bunch of people who are helping children in foster homes?” I asked, shocked and disgusted.
“Cause those people are there to help children,” chided Nik. I could almost see the sarcasm dripping from his lips. “Those people are there to be seen, nothing more.”
I shrugged and followed him. Call me a fool; I just kept hoping to find something worth redeeming in humanity. It was getting harder and harder.
I wanted to ask him why this was turning out so easy—surely the fae would have some sort of protection—when the floor suddenly coated itself with a layer of fine, slick ice. We all went down with a muffled thud. Sadly, being a vampire does not stop things like falling on ice from hurting. The men tried to work their way back to their feet, both of them slipping and ending up in painful positions. I, on the other hand, stayed on my bum and scooted to the nearest piece of solid looking furniture, which had been embedded in the ice. I used the armchair to keep myself from falling over as I climbed to my feet. I gave Nik a meaningful glower while he copied my strategy. It said Really? Stealing my ideas? A little better than baggage?
I wasn’t sure if he got all of that.
To my frustration, we discovered the entire house was coated in ice. This was only an annoyance until we reached the stairs. As we began our slippery climb, a driving gust of freezing wind tore down the narrow passage. It pushed me off my feet, and I slipped a few steps down before I could grab onto—the delicate looking, hand carved railing.
Josh and Nik were doing the same thing in front of me, but it was less than useful. The railing suddenly sprouted thousands of tiny spikes, like the world's coldest rose bush. Each of us let go with a yelp of pain and scrambled for a new hand hold—which turned out to be the chair molding running up the length of the wall on the other side of the steps. Our hands dripped dark red onto the ice, which rolled and bubbled as if excited by the taste of our blood.
The wind shifted, suddenly raging up from below us. It pushed me toward the next step until I fell over. I gripped the stairs to keep from being dragged up them. Just when I felt my fingers slipping on the smooth ice, the wind shifted again. With the power coming from above us, we were sent careening down the narrow stairs to land in a pile at the base.
The magical wind didn't let up as we disentangled our limbs. While we attempted our second ascent, the gale was joined by hail, and not the cute, tiny stuff either. Balls of ice the size of rolled up socks came whizzing toward us. While Nik and I continued to climb up the stairs, our bodies being pummeled by the new onslaught, Josh disappeared.
A few minutes and a thousand balls of icy death later, a bloodied Josh appeared at the top of the staircase. Carefully staying out of the supernatural tunnel of driving wind, he tossed what looked like a bed sheet down to us. Nik pushed it into my hands, while somehow keeping a grip on the molding. I held on for dear life while flattening myself against the frigid steps. Josh pulled me up and out of the wind. He threw the sheet back to Nik, and we both heaved him up. As Nik climbed to his feet, the wind died down. By the time we all stood in the upstairs hall, we were each feeding the living ice our blood, but the wounds were quickly healing.
“What the hell was that?” I whispered. Nik made a shushing motion while giving Josh a once over. Though he had been skewered through the shoulder, he seemed to be in one piece. Nik glanced around and motioned for us to follow him. How in the world had Josh made it to the second story, and why hadn’t we used his route? I was about to demand an answer, but after one look at Nik’s fierce glare, I clamped my mouth shut.
After a few slippery turns, we found ourselves in a long room with a fireplace at the end. Sitting atop the fireplace were the dagger, bracelets, breastplate, helmet and book, all encased in their own special glass displays. The codpiece was, thankfully, missing.
Nik motioned for us to stay put before stepping into the room. Without warning, spikes of ice shot up from the floor, barely missing Nik. He leaped into the air and landed on the sofa. With it as a fluffy shield, he made it halfway across the room before he had to jump to a nearby chair. While in the air, spikes of ice shot up, grazing his leg and sending him floundering to the ground. New thorns sprouted from his body. He cried out, the first time I'd heard him give voice to any sort of pain. Without giving it a second thought, I jumped forward, with my new strength and landed on the couch. I ran toward him, my feet sinking into the cushions and forcing me to run in a strange, mincing gait. I felt awkward and had no doubt that had the situation slightly less brutal, Josh would be laughing at me.
At the other end, I reached for Nik, careful to keep as much of me over the couch as possible. I grabbed his foot and pulled him to the couch, breaking the giant icicles that still impaled his body. He groaned but didn't fight me. I got him back onto the couch with only one long gash. It bled profusely, but I ignored it for the bigger issue—the three spikes sticking out of Nik's body. With a hand placed around one of the three ice skewers, I gave it a firm yank, pulling it from his flesh. He jerked, nearly sending his leg off the shielding couch. I got the other two shafts out of his body before turning back toward the artifacts, leaving him to rest. Nik reached forward and grabbed my arm in a gesture I knew a human could manage; it was much slower than his normal movement. His gentle yank was enough to cause me to lose my balance and topple onto his chest. He grimaced. I felt his hot blood soaking into my shirt.
“I got it. You stay put,” I whispered. “Josh, watch our backs,” I added in a louder tone, though it wasn’t necessary. Josh turned to watch the hallway and staircase.
“No,” he groaned. “You'll… ”
“Shut up,” I interrupted as I pushed myself carefully off his chest, prying his surprisingly weak hand from my arm. Well, three ice picks driven into your body will do that I guess.
Instead of jumping, I rocked myself against the thick armrest, effectively shifting the couch a few inches in the direction of the fireplace. I felt the impact of ice hitting the bottom of the couch. So it was activated by motion, eh?
The realization wasn't that helpful. I couldn't get the artifacts by holding still.
I had managed to get the couch half way across the empty space with only damage done to the furniture when the ice coating the floor began writhing up the wall. I glance to my left and right, suddenly concerned about what might be thrown at us next. I had no idea how literal I was being until thin icicles shot from the walls. I ducked the first couple, but the fourth one sliced me across the back. I jerked in response and nearly fell from the couch. A new spike shot up from the thin layer of ice still left on the floor. It grazed my cheek and gave me the needed fright to scramble back into place in record time. I grabbed one of the throw pillows, decorated in snowflakes, and used it as a shield while ducking behind the backing of the couch.
Each time I moved, more icicles flew across the room and clanked against the opposite wall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one melt and then meld into the floor. I returned to my rocking motion, being sure to keep my head below the back of the couch. This hampered my ability to shift the couch, but eventually, I made it. The couch bumped into the hearth. I glanced at the throw pillow. It had been skewered by more icicles than I could count in a glance.
I reached up to lift the glass box off of the book, only to discover it wasn't a glass box at all. It was a large piece of perfectly clear ice with the book embedded in it. The block of ice was part of the ice coating the rest of the room. I couldn't pry it off.
“Josh, you got a lighter?” I asked.
Before I could turn to look at him, a small silver item bounced off the wall. I reached out, barely catching it before it could clatter to the floor. It was a fancy Zippo. I flicked it on and held it against the base of the enormous ice cube. To my complete astonishment, the ice hissed and melted quickly. What with magical icicles being flung at me by an interior wall, I wasn't sure the ice could be melted with fire. After maybe thirty seconds of sizzle, I yanked the cube off the ledge and dropped it onto the couch. Though the icicles continued to fling themselves at me, they seemed to fall short. I glanced at the zippo in my hand. Why hadn't we just lit the whole house on fire? I wondered as I pressed the flame against the next cube.
One by one, I got the enormous ice cubes off the mantle and wedged them wherever they could fit on the couch. The block holding the breastplate would have crushed human Ashley under the weight of it, but with a few unladylike grunts and my burgeoning vampire strength, I was able to move it.
At this point, Nik and I had to switch spots. I could only imagine what Josh must have been thinking as we carefully executed the maneuver, while Nik bled and I tried to keep neither of us from getting punctured again. Once I was on the other end of the couch, I repeated the rocking motion to make the couch slide across the ice covered floor while keeping the handy Zippo lit. It was difficult to do all this and not light the couch on fire. At the doorway, I tossed Josh the blocks of ice and jumped clear. With some difficulty, Nik was able to follow me. The holes in his side, shoulder, and leg were healing themselves slowly, though I knew he needed blood to speed up the process.
Josh led us to a second story window that faced out onto the street, each of us carrying at least one frozen antique. It turned out we were in part of the tower. Thick vines grew up to the wanna-be-deck. It was one of those tiny things that were more for appearances, with a sturdy railing but less than half of foot of depth. I helped Nik over the railing and made sure he was going to make it down the vines covering the outer wall before I started the climb. As I pulled myself over the railing, an enormous gale surged up, thumping me into the metal handrail. Josh grunted next to me. He was straddling the railing. I managed to glance down at Nik before the gale brought on whiteout conditions. The thick snow pelted me from all angles as the storm settled over the house. I couldn't see my own hands in front of my face. For what felt like half a lifetime, I hung from the side of the fae’s house, too frozen with fear to move.
Finally, I reached down, seeking a new grip. My fingers touched something cold, smooth, and roughly in the shape of a leaf. The way down was coated in a thin sheet of ice. I thought about jumping but worried I'd hit Nik's battered body. From my perch, I heard faint voices calling to me. Finally, out of desperation, I began climbing down, slipping most of the way. The distance seemed to grow with each groping reach. The foot and hand holds were beginning to fill with more ice, making the blind descent all the more difficult.
Just when I began to consider jumping again, I slipped, falling until my butt landed on the snow-covered ground. I looked around, but between the blizzard continuing to gust past me and the snowflakes caked to my eyelashes, I couldn't see a thing. I got onto my hands and knees and started crawling away from the building, hoping the storm would not follow my retreat.
Slowly, as I gained some distance from the enchanted house, I stumbled upon Nik. He was lying on his side, a thick layer of snow covering his bleeding body. Though awake, I doubted I had long before he would become unconscious. I got him to his feet and helped him shuffle toward the thinning side of the storm. At the edge, and I mean edge, of the blizzard, Josh stood with his two blocks of ice tucked under his arms. When he spotted us, he turned toward the car. I helped Nik down the street and into the back seat. We piled the antiques into the trunk and locked it. I glanced back at the house only once. It was still surrounded by a very small, but fierce, blizzard. I wondered what the neighbors would think of the sudden snow covering only that house.