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Snowflake shadows speckled the ground as he walked with her in an almost dance
step, his legs between hers, spinning them around and following the direction
of the wind, faster and faster until they almost fell. Then they suddenly
entered a ground shadow at the edge of another building, and were gone.
That's when she felt it, the full velocity of the wind. That's when she
screamed as she experienced what could only be described as her body exploding
into a million snowflakes and moving with the unfathomable power of nature
contained in the wind. Centrifugal force made it nearly impossible to breathe.
She concentrated on Hunter's edict to keep him close, and she pressed her face
against the warmth of his chest, tightened her legs around his, clenched her
fists around leather and amber if he let her go within this freezing black
void, to forever move at this speed trapped between planes of existence, she
would lose her mind.
Then, without warning, they were falling. It was as though someone had dropped
the bottom out from under them and the force that had originally been
thrusting them forward was sucking them down into a blackout-creating spiral.
She landed hard and ungracefully on something solid. Him.
"Breathe," he said in a low, rumbling command. "Keep your eyes closed until
the vertigo stops and breathe through your nose or you'll hurl."
He didn't have to tell her twice. The only thing halfway saving her stomach
was that she'd done enough rounds of in-flight simulation training and other
military-inspired, grueling tests to have some frame of reference. Still, this
was no joke and not for the faint of heart. Maybe if she'd known what to
expect but sheet!
After a moment, she slowly opened her eyes and blinked at the blurred
landscape. Her skin felt hot and cold at the same time and everything beneath
her leather jacket and pants felt like second skin. She pushed up from
Hunter's huge frame and dragged her fingers through her hair, glad that it was
snowing and cold outside. Finally giving in to the urge, she opened her mouth
and drew in a deep breath, unable to gulp enough clean, normal air into her
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lungs.
"Take your time with that," he warned, placing one hand against her back and
one against her chest. "It'll burn like "
"Oh!" Panic consumed her; her lungs were on fire. Sasha doubled over gasping,
but Hunter caught her and pressed hard with his hands.
"Through the nose!" he said firmly. "Or you'll be upchucking blood."
She covered her mouth with a hand, drawing in huge, painful inhales through
her nose, tears brimming from the pain.
"The compression from the speed collapses your lungs, damned near. Fill them
up too fast and you'll burst blood vessels and capillaries." He blotted her
nose with the edge of his sweater as it bled. "The old leaders would smoke
peyote to help them transcend and transition into the shadow travel winds& so
when they came out they were very relaxed and mellow for the meeting. We
didn't have that luxury. The pain will pass in a minute. Then we'll stand."
She just leaned her forehead against his chest for a moment, wishing he'd at
least given her a shot of tequila or something beforehand. Damn.
But true to his word, she could feel the burning sensation within her chest
slowly ebbing, just like the roiling nausea had abated. The hot-cold sweats
had ceased, too. Finally she had enough strength to look up at him. Half of
her was really pissed off, the other half was grateful as hell he hadn't
dropped her.
"The next time you have one of these cultural 'let's share' moments, I want a
full debrief," she said, pulling away thoroughly peeved. "No more of this
'trust me, baby' crap. All right? That was insane."
He swallowed a smirk which made her ball up her fist
"If I had explained all the hazards, you probably would have decided to wait
out the storm and travel by conventional methods through airports when they
reopened for example but by then, the trail would have been cold."
She wasn't going to dignify his comment by responding and refused to give him
the satisfaction of being right. And rather than punch him in the eye, she
gathered herself up on shaky hands and knees and began the perilous process of
trying to stand, the entire time feeling like a newborn foal. When he got up
first and extended his hand to her, she nearly bit it, not amused in the least
that he drew it back as though she'd snapped at him. Well, maybe she had but
still.
"You have to admit that this was efficient," he said with too much mirth in
his tone for her liking. "The old ones never had the benefit of modern
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