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.Those unbroken sheets bothered her, like an offsmell or a discordant sound would.And the irritationwas sharp, as strong as the pull she d been feelingto this place.She rose and crossed to the bedroom window,looking at the dark woods surrounding the lodge,then back inside at the walls.Out, then in.Wrong. Unable to stand it any longer, she fashioned a spearof ice, galvanizing it with layer after layer, honing it.Once finished, she took her makeshift chisel to thewall, stabbing the glaze.Then again.And again, untilpeculiar markings began to take shape.Murdoch would not return to Siberia.I ve made itseven days, I can make it seven more.He d finished chasing his leads for the night, anddawn was approaching Lukyan and Rurik hadalready returned to Mount Oblak.But it would be dark in Siberia.Lulls in action were dangerous for Murdoch.Theymade the temptation to return to Daniela harder toresist.No, he refused.Because of the blooding, he was justsupposed to succumb? To tolerate this total loss ofpower? Welcome a complete personality rewrite?He was determined not to go to her like some lovesick lad, especially since she obviously couldn thave cared less when he d been about to leave thatlast night.And she hadn t called him once.Part of him resented how easily she d manipulatedhim.Another part resented her encroachment.Butthat didn t mean he had bachelor s panic, as she daccused which, he d noted, handily placed all theblame on him for this, while ignoring the difficultiesshe presented as a Bride.In any case, if a woman s toothbrush was this age ssymbol of female encroachment, try two stuffedsuitcases.So for the last week, he d kept himself occupied,endeavoring not to think of her at all.With Lukyanand Rurik, he d been following the leads she dhelped generate, closing in on Ivo with each one.He d tried repeatedly to see Nikolai, but his brotherwas usually.engaged with Myst.During this time, Murdoch went to bed exhaustedevery day, hoping that he wouldn t dream of Daniela. But he always did.And each time, that strange voiceasked: What would you sacrifice? What would youdo for her?He glanced at the lightening sky once more, feelingnearly powerless not to return to her, to check onhow she was settling in, to see if he d imagined theblue of her eyes or her crisp, clean scent.In his homeland, the fall came with a pounding rain,scouring the countryside.Then one morning the rainwould be gone, and they would wake to a whitelandscape.The air would be briskly clean, carryingthe slight tang of the nearby northern seas.Daniela smelled like those rare mornings.The oneshe had never forgotten.Wait maybe she hadn t been able to recall hisnumber.What if she d wanted to contact him butcouldn t? He should go just to check on her.Yes, tomake sure she had everything she needed.Hetraced back to the lodge. Murdoch s jaw went slack at the scene that greetedhim.The windows were all open and ice was.everywhere.She d spun it all over the manor like aspider spins a web.He d been raised on the Baltic in the seventeenhundreds.Keeping a home warm had beenparamount.Yet now ice arched in the doorways, rounding out thesquare doorjambs.Icicles dangled from the ceilingand descended from the windows like curtains.Thewalls were covered in a white glaze, and she dcarved primitive-looking symbols into the ice.She had no right.Bachelors panicked over atoothbrush? Try having an otherworldly female leavea permanent ice storm in one s hunting lodge.Who wouldn t panic?And she was nowhere to be found.As he stalkedfrom one empty room to the next, the level of disappointment he felt both staggered andperplexed him.When he reached his bedroom, he saw that she dbeen sleeping there she d stripped the bed of allits blankets.Why would she stay here and not in theroom where he d initially put her bags?She s been sleeping in my bed? That knowledge didsomething to him, touching some dark, primal drivewithin him.The thought of keeping his femaleprotected within his property, in a stronghold won byhis sword.aroused him.Sleeping in my bed.He gave himself a shake, then turned to one of herunpacked suitcases, finding a couple of eroticnovels with titles that had him raising his brows anda collection of lingerie he d be imagining on her foryears to come.He picked up one of her silknightgowns, inhaling her scent.Not surprising, he grew hard as rock.But his fangs also sharpened.Why was she the only one whotempted him to drink from the flesh? He d neverbeen tempted before her and hadn t had theslightest urge all week until now.Setting the gown away, he opened the second bag.It was filled with containers of salt.What could sheneed so much of it for?He crossed to the dresser.Atop it sat her sat-phone,which he checked in case she d been unable tocontact him.Not a chance fully charged, the ringermuted, the screen displaying numerous missedcalls.He scrolled through her contacts, finding hisnumber saved as VAMP PHONE.She d could vecalled, but hadn t.Tethered to the phone was a rugged-looking laptop,apparently ice-proof.At times, the world of the Loreproved boggling for him; the idea of internetcapability in this lodge ranked right up there with thenotion of an otherworldly ice being inhabiting it.Once he entered the bathroom, he discovered what she used the salt for.A container was openedbeside the old fashioned bathing tub.Danielaneeded salt so she wouldn t freeze her bathwater
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