Polar (Book 1): Polar Night by Julie Flanders Page B

don’t have to speak,” the woman said. She sat down on the cot next to him and produced a canteen from her apron. “Here, take a bit of water.”
    She held the canteen to his lips, and he winced as the water touched his parched throat. It was painful to swallow, but the water brought relief. He tried to take more, but she pulled the canteen away from him.
    “ I can’t give you too much right now,” she said. “This is all we have. I need to conserve it.”
    Aleksei blinked and stared up at the woman, who remained on the side of his cot. She had long yellow hair pulled back from her face, and wore a dirty white apron over her blue dress. She clasped a tattered fur cape around her shoulders in an attempt to stay warm. In spite of her thin, drawn face and the circles under her blue eyes, Aleksei was sure she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She was an angel.
    “ I’m Natasha,” she said. “I’m your nurse. Do you know where you are?”
    Aleksei shook his head no.
    “You’re in the field hospital in Petrograd. You were wounded at the front but we’re caring for you now.” She patted his hand. “You’ll be alright. Try to relax now. Pасслабьтесь”
    Aleksei lifted his head from his pillow and glanced around the room. There were more cots than he could count, jammed together and filled with fellow soldiers. Some moaned in agony, others wer e so still and silent Aleksei wondered if they were still alive.
    “You’ll be alright,” Natasha said again as she pulled the blanket around his shoulders. “If I can find another blanket, I’ll bring it to you.”
    Aleksei tried again to respond, but was interrupted by a scream and a commotion from across the room. A man yelled in pain, and knocked over a table filled with medical instruments. Natasha jumped up from her cot.
    “ I have to help that poor thing,” she said. She patted Aleksei’s hand again. “I’ll be back to check on you.”
    He watched her walk from his cot and wanted to yell for her not to go, to come back, to stay with him. Outside of the pain and the cold and the hunger, he felt something far worse. He felt fear. He knew Natasha’s insistence that he would be alright was just her attempt to comfort him. He knew it wasn’t true. He was going to die and he knew it. And he was afraid.
    He didn’t want to die alone.

 
     
    Chapter 22
     
     
     
     
    Danny headed for Rex's Tavern, an age-old bar which was conveniently located right down the street from the police station, as soon as he and Terry landed back in Fairbanks. Still edgy from his trip to what he now believed really was a haunted asylum, he wasn't ready to be alone in his dreary apartment.
    He parked his car and headed inside Rex's, immediately grateful for the warmth of the place, and the welcome noise of country & western music coming from the old jukebox in the corner of the room. Everything about Rex's was cheap and tacky, from the sticky wood-paneled bar to the tables and chairs made of logs to the fake moose head wearing a straw hat on the wall behind the bar. The only thing of quality in the whole place was the alcohol that Rex poured with an expert hand.
    Danny walked to the bar and perched on his favorite stool, looking around as he waited for Rex to finish with another customer. He was surprised to see most of the tables full. Apparently lots of people in Fairbanks weren't in the Christmas spirit. Or perhaps they had just had enough of the family togetherness by this time on Christmas night.
    “What can I get you, Detective?” Rex asked as he placed a small square napkin on the bar in front of Danny.
    “Scotch,” Danny said. “And you might as well plan on keeping them coming.”
    “Rough holiday?” Rex asked.
    “A strange one. I've been working so I wouldn't call it a holiday anyway.”
    Rex nodded. “I can relate.”
    “I didn't expect you to have such a crowd here,” Danny said.
    “I always do on Christmas. Holidays make lots of people