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Ski trips sucked. Ruby hated them. She didn’t hate skiing. That, she was good at. She liked that. It was the people on the ski trips. Most of her classmates took the ski trip as an excuse to flirt with anything male that came within fifty feet. Downside of going to a girls’ school, Ruby supposed, but it was still annoying. Even the ones who weren’t really interested in boys took it as an excuse to expand their hookup pool, except for Casey, and Ruby and Casey didn’t get along at all.
To make it worse, there was a military academy here, too, and while a lot of her classmates went drooly over the boys and girls in uniform, Ruby couldn’t stand them. They all thought they were better than everyone else because they could obey orders without questioning and be just like everyone else. Screw that. Ruby was proud to be an individual who could think for herself.
As the only one of her class who was actually out on the slopes that day, Ruby was the only one who didn’t get the memo about the snowstorm. She was therefore the only one who wasn’t safe in the lodge by the time the snow got too bad. The storm was interfering with cell service, and she couldn’t see far enough to be sure which way she was going.
She could only barely see well enough to not run over the skier in front of her. “Why are you not somewhere safe?” the other skier yelled at her.
“Didn’t know this was coming! Why aren’t you?”
“Looking for my dumbass friend who doesn’t have the sense to come in from a snowstorm! Stay with me, I’ve got a tracking device my school can use to find me once it’s safe to start sending out proper search parties.”
“I’m not the dumbass friend, am I?”
“Not unless you got a really quick voice change! Anna Milton, from the Garrison. Who are you?”
“Ruby Arnold, Lilith’s Academy!” Of course. Of fucking course it would be one of the goddamn Angels. Ruby wasn’t stupid enough to just leave, though. Anna had a tracker. Her school would find her, and if Ruby was with her, they’d take her to safety too.
“What do we do now? We can’t just stand out in the snow!”
“I suggest we pick a direction and head out! Here, catch!” Ruby barely had time to spot the rope flying toward her, but she managed to catch it and tie the end around her waist. “Down?”
“Down makes sense!” Ruby got her skis pointed down the slope and headed out. Skiing while tied to another person was bound to be tricky, so she kept it slow and did her best to not fall down.
Eventually, they spotted a small building, which turned out to be an empty cottage. “Better inside than outside,” Anna decided when Ruby suggested they stop. Ruby picked the lock easily enough, and they got into the at least dry house.
It wasn’t much warmer inside, but there wasn’t snow, and there was a stack of firewood and a fireplace. Ruby looked around. “I got this. See if there’s any food or whatever.”
Before long, the two girls were sitting in front of a nice warm fire, wrapped in blankets with their clothes laid out to dry, sipping canned soup they’d heated up. “Seriously, no one bothered to tell you to get off the slopes because of the storm headed our way?” Anna said.
Ruby shrugged. “Too busy flirting, I guess. At least I’m not the dumbass who went looking for some other dumbass instead of staying warm myself.”
“Cas is my best friend. He’s also my responsibility. I’m his commander, I should have dragged his ass in earlier, but I didn’t.” Anna took another sip of soup. “I hope he found shelter.”
“Or he could have grown a brain and gotten in his own damn self.”
“Like you did?”
“Hey, I didn’t get anyone else out there looking for my dumb ass.”
The snow didn’t let up enough to allow Anna’s people to come get her, or cell signal to get through, by the time it would have been bedtime back at the shelter. “We can’t build another fire. There’s not enough wood to last the night burning two fires, and we’ve already got this one built and going. There’s a bedroom that’s gonna be cold or we can bring blankets out here. Which sounds better?”
Ruby groaned. “Bring the blankets out here, I guess. Rather deal with the floor than with the cold when I’m trying to sleep.”
“Okay.” Anna returned quickly with an armful of blankets and started spreading them out. “We should probably share. Body heat and all.”
“Yeah, probably.” For an Angel, Anna wasn’t bad at all. Not that Ruby was going to admit that. She climbed into the makeshift bed.
Anna got in beside her, pressing their backs together. “You know… most of my classmates don’t think too much of Lilith’s girls. They call you demons, among the usual names girls hear from guys who don’t really respect them. I don’t know if you’re different or we’re judging your whole school unfairly, but you’re pretty cool. Certainly put up with me better than I’d have expected.”
“Yeah, well, we tend to not like your school much either unless it’s someone trying to get in an Angel’s pants. There’s kind of a checklist that some girls take as a challenge, hook up with people from as many different schools as possible.”
“Same for us. There’s even a point system based on how hard it’s perceived to be. Demons aren’t worth just a whole lot.”
“Ouch. How many points do you have?”
“Depends. Does this count? We are sleeping together. Or will be.”
“Yeah, sure, why not?”
“Ten. Eight for a boy from Singer’s, two for you.”
“Nice! Is Singer’s even here this year? There was a guy I’d been trying to get last winter, but I haven’t seen him around this year.”
“Nice? If you’re keeping score, mine’s pathetic. Last I checked, Balt was in the high 200s. Even Cas has twenty – two different guys from Singer’s, two-point bonus because they’re brothers, and a Demon.”
“It’s just that you Angels kinda have a reputation as having sticks up your butts about honor, nice to hear that it’s not taken to stupid extremes.” Ruby laughed. “Gotta say, I’m a little hurt that banging a Demon is worth the same as the bonus for banging brothers.”
Come morning, Ruby was sorry to hear the banging on the door. Anna had rolled over in her sleep and was spooning her, and it was just… nice. “Anna?” a voice called. Male voice.
Anna’s head popped up. “Cas! You’re safe!”
“I got back to the lodge just before the snow got really bad. I’m so sorry you had to go looking for me. Next time, I’ll make sure to get back sooner.”
“Don’t worry about it, I had an adventure and made a new friend.” Anna got to her feet and helped Ruby up. “Thanks for coming to get us.”