Frostbitten (Frost Saga Book 1)

Prologue

"Come on, Vi!" Nathaniel yells at me. "I wanna go already!"

"Quit complaining, Nate!" Jaxon groans. "Vi'll be done when she's done."

"She takes too long!"

"And you complain too bloody much!"

"Language!" Mother scolds. "You should know better, Jaxon."

"You need to stop complaining, son," Father tells Nathaniel. "You're fifteen now."

"I know, but-" Nathaniel gets cut off.

"Nathaniel James Sarisa."

"Okay."

I smile and fold my last shirt. I sit it on the top of my suitcase and do the zipper up. I stand it up and look around my room one final time before lugging my suitcase down the stairs and into the lounge room. Nathaniel mutters something and Jaxon looks over at me, both of us rolling our eyes at our little brother's stupidity.

Father picks up my suitcase with ease and ruffles my neat hair at the same time. I groan and let my hair down, a red stripe falling in front of my face. I flip it back out of my face and follow everyone out to the car. All I'm going to say is this; thank goodness we have one of those huge cars with two rows of seats (not including the driver and passenger seats).

The car jumps as Father slams the trunk and Mother wacks him lightly over the head. Nathaniel dives into the very back row and doesn't let anyone sit with him; leaving Jaxon to sit with me. Which is no problem because we get along perfectly. Mother and Father argue about who's driving and Mother gives in when Father bribes her with coffee; her ultimate weakness.

Jaxon slides into the car and closes the car door behind him. He does up his seat belt and Nathaniel reluctantly does the same. Mother climbs in the front and closes her door while Father checks the house to make sure it is locked up tight. He gets into the car and closes the door, putting his seat belt on at the same time.

"We all excited, kids?" Father calls.

"Yeah!" Jaxon and I cheer.

"Nathaniel?"

"As I'll ever be," Nathaniel mumbles, putting in his earphones.

"This'll be fun," I murmur to Jaxon.

"Cheer up, Vi," Jaxon teases. "Where's your goofy smile now?"

"Wait. Where's Gracia?"

"GRACE!"

"I'm back here!" Gracia announces. "Have been the whole time!"

"Everybody in?" Father asks. "Let's go!"

Father pulls out of the drive and onto the tar road. This vacation is going to be absolutely wonderful! We are going on vacation for half a year, and I can tell everything is going to go exactly as we have planned. We are going to go to Niagara Falls, Montmorency Falls, Lake Ontario and Toronto Zoo all in one.

We live in the province of Ontario, Canada. We are going to be travelling through both the province Ontario and the province Quebec for the next six months. We are going to be seeing a lot of trees, water, people and animals throughout the next few months, and I hope that Nathaniel does not get tempted to shoot any of them.

Father is taking us the long way to Toronto, through a few forests and towns. Right now, we are going through a beautiful forest and Jaxon is sketching a picture of one of the trees. I watch his hand dance over the blank paper, giving it life and colour; making a masterpiece.

"Masterpiece?" Jaxon laughs. "Hardly, Vi."

"It is a masterpiece to-"

I get cut off by Gracia's shrill scream, followed by an animal snarl. Father jerks the wheel to the side and a squealing sound fills my ears. Jaxon holds me tightly as the car starts rocking back and forth, and I squeeze my eyes shut.

"What's happening?" Nathaniel whimpers.

"They've found us, Rixon," Mother breathes. "There's nothing we can do."

"The kids have nothing to do with this!" Father yells. "Let them be!"

A snarl sounds. "Your whole bloodline is cursed!"

The car tips to the side and the sound of shattering glass fills my ears. The car starts to tip again and I realize we are going to roll down the mountain until we either get caught or end up on flat ground. Either way we are all going to be dead or seriously injured.

"Are we going to die, Mommy?" Gracia asks.

"No, darling," Mother says. "We're going to be alright."

"I don't want to die."

"We're not going to."

It seems like the world is against Mother when the car starts tumbling down the mountain. Gracia screams and Nathaniel holds her protectively against his body. A snap fills the car and my eyes fly open to see Father's head on an angle he couldn't survive.

Jaxon gulps and Mother screams. Her scream gets cut short by another sickening snap and a gurgle. I turn my head away and bury it in Jaxon's chest. My seat belt unclicks and I am thrown around the car as it tumbles.

I manage to see over the back and my breath gets caught in my throat at what I see. Nathaniel and Gracia are laying on a bed of broken glass and are both covered in blood. Jaxon eventually catches me and I start crying.

"What's wrong, Vi?" Jaxon whispers.

"Nate and Grace," I sob. "They're dead!"

"Fuck."

"Jack!"

"Everyone else is dead, Vi!"

"I know. We will be too."

I must have spoken to soon because the car finally stopped rolling and hit the ground with a crunch. Everything happened pretty fast during that split second; Jaxon's seat belt comes unclicked and he flies toward the roof, smashing his head hard.

He lands with a thump back on the seat and I crawl over to him. One close look at him and I can tell it is too late, he is going to be dead in a few minutes. I hear a screech of metal and look to find the back door being ripped off it's hinges.

The roof caves in and lands on my leg, snapping it and trapping it. I scream for a split second before a hand covers my mouth. The roof is pulled off my leg and I whimper as someone turns it. I look to my right and see Jaxon being pulled away.

"Jaxon!" I scream, fighting my captor. "Jaxon!"

"Heal the boy," my captor hisses. "I'll deal with the girl."

"Let me go!"

They uncover my mouth. "Sorry, ma'am. We can't let you escape us again though."

"What are you talking about?!"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Pain fills me and I cry out. Everything around me begins to distort and change colour. The pain soon goes ice cold and numbs my body. Just as soon as I go numb, I start to feel like acid is being poured over me.

"Stop it!" I whimper. "Make it stop!"

Nobody answers and I realize that they left me alone, with no company but four dead bodies. My leg snaps back into place and I scream. I manage to get out of the car and lay on the snow covered ground. The cold helps the pain slightly and I almost sigh in relief.

Almost being the keyword.

It was only the keyword because everything went black. I couldn't see anything. I could feel myself fading

fading.

fading..

fading...