“We should go sledding now,” he whispered.
“Yeah,” Cormac murmured, letting out a shuddering exhale
before finally letting go of Zane. Still, he was hesitant to pull away from all
that warmth, and when he finally did, and saw Cormac smiling up at him, he was
tempted to crawl right back into his arms.
“So let’s get a look at these hills, huh,” Cormac said as he
stood and brushed himself off. Together they tugged the sled between two trees,
into the wide-open space beyond the copse. Whisps of translucent clouds drifted
in an otherwise azure sky, and as they pulled the sled up the first hill, Zane
start humming one of the band’s songs. Such an automatic gesture he gave no
thought to the fact that he’d even done it until Cormac began humming along.
“You know our songs,” Zane said softly, glancing over to see
his mate nodding.
“I do,” Cormac admitted.
Zane felt his cheeks start to hurt from how widely he was
smiling as they reached the top of the hill. The view was spectacular, nothing
but trees, sparkling, crystalline powder and the mountains looming in the
distance.
“Wow,” Zane breathed, taking it all in.
“Beautiful, ain’t it?” Cormac said.
Nodding, Zane turned, taking it all in, until he was back
facing his mate.
“Yeah, but you’ve got it beat hands down,” Zane replied,
staring up at him.
It was the best feeling in the world to see Cormac blush from
his complement.
“Wanna be in the front, or in back?” Cormac asked.
“Front, I wanna see everything flying by while you hold me.”
“Well then climb on and lets see if this baby can fly,”
Cormac said, waiting for Zane to be settled before he climbed on behind him and
rocked the sled, sending it rocketing down the hill. Gasping at first, Zane let
out a shirk as they gained speed. Cormac was laughing and holding him tight as
they bounced along, racing through the snow and eradicating their footprints
before slowly coming to a halt.
“That was amazing!” Zane declared, scrambling off they could
run back up the hill with the sled and come racing down again. The wind against
his face and all the colors rushing past was like being in a life sized
kaleidoscope. Each time they did it the view changed, morphing with the acceleration,
imprinting memories Zane knew he would never forget.
They must have gone down those hills over a dozen times.
Comparing them to one another before deciding on a favorite and sledding down
it a half dozen more. By then, they were getting colder and a little tired from
all their running up the hills. Pressed to Cormac’s side, Zane stood with him,
staring out at all the sled trails they made.
“Kinda looked like giant snakes slithered through the snow,
doesn’t it,” Zane mused.
“Not sure snakes could manage all this cold without
hibernating.”
“They could if they were snow snakes or ice snakes, or iceacondas.”
“Icea….Cormac began, before bursting into laughter. “You
either need to turn that into a song or let someone out in California in on the
concept so they can turn it into a movie.”
“Why, so it can play just after Ice Sharks and right
before Ice Spider?” Zane remarked, laughing.
“Don’t forget Ice Crawlers and Snow Sharks.”
“I think we’ve just stumbled upon the theme for our next
movie day.”
“I wonder if the bakery can whip up a few ice and snow
themed treats with some hidden surprises in them.”
“Like gummy sharks?”
“And gummy spiders.”
“Do you think they have gummy bugs?”
“We can ask. Not sure about the snakes though, we might have
to settle for worms and using our imaginations.”
“That’s okay, snakes or worms it would still be fun to see
them pop out of a creamy center or pressed into glittery dusted ice cubes,”
Zane said.
“I like that. I’ll see what they can do,” Cormac offered.
“Until then would you like to create your own snow snake?”
Looking around, Zane didn’t see anything they could use to
do that, even as a joke, but when his mate reached for the backpack and opened
it to reveal several cans of spray paint, Zane realized that he hadn’t finished
with the surprises yet.
“We could trace some of our paths through the snow and
create our own,” Cormac said, shaking a can in his direction.
“Seriously?” Zane remarked, digging in the bag and pulling
out green, purple and silver paint. “This is so awesome!”
Biting his lower lip, he took a minute to survey the tracks
until he happened upon just the one he wished to trace. Moving carefully, to
not mess up the other tracks, he worked his way to the top, while Cormac picked
out his own trail nearby, and began painting. With such a calm day, it was easy
to keep the paint on the snow where they wanted it, and while Zane’s looked
more like a cartoon snake, Cormac’s looked slick and scary, like something
someone might have on the side of a bike.
“I love it,” Zane called out as he kept working on his.
“Thanks!”
Near the bottom of the hill their snakes entwined, necks
winding around one another and it was so much fun to see the clash emerge, ending
with the snakes ‘hugging’ one another and staring into each other’s eyes,
forked tongues flicked out and touching.
“Thank you for an amazing day,” Zane told Cormac as they
stood, taking pictures of their creation. The temperature was steadily dropping
along with the sun, and they had a bit of a ride ahead of them.
Smiling Cormac leaned in and kissed him, Zane catching a
close up of Cormac’s eyes on his phone as he did. “So glad you enjoyed it.”
“I don’t want it to end,” Zane admitted, trying not to
shiver and failing miserably.
“Neither do I, but perhaps we can continue it somewhere
warmer?”
***Death Growl, Book 3 of the Comet Lake Chronicles will be released this summer ***
You can find books 1 and 2 on Amazon Here!
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