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The bar was dingy, and dark, and every eye was on her. Iris felt her skin prickle as she walked further in, heat rising to the surface and trying to ripple outwards again.
She kept her head high. These people weren’t going to see her afraid.
There were only four of them. The bar wasn’t open yet, Iris had chosen the time intentionally, and she made a note as two of them moved to the doors, as the one behind the bar slipped back into another room, and the largest, close cropped blond hair, pale skin almost gaunt in the dim light stepped to block her path.
“Detective Joe West’s daughter,” he sneered. “What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”
“I’m looking for someone,” Iris said. “Doctor Caitlin Snow. Do you know where I can find her?”
“I might,” he said, stepping forward into her personal space. “It’ll cost you.”
A blast of ice hit the slightly raised hand and he skittered back in pain.
Even empty the room parted as Killer Frost stalked forward, white hair and blue lips glistening with flecks of ice, ice that spread and crunched behind her, a cold mist blanketing the room around their feet.
Iris breathed a sigh of relief as the cold sank deep into her bones.
“You’re warm,” Frost said and Iris caught the curiosity she tried to disguise as a threat.
Killer Frost was dangerous. The entire city knew that.
She’d killed three people in as many weeks.
“Doctor Caitlin Snow?” Iris asked.
“There’s no one here by that name,” she said.
“Doctor Snow, I’m an investigative journalist and my father is a detective,” Iris said. “Your old friends might still be trying to protect you, but you haven’t exactly been subtle. Your fiancé died during the accelerator switch on, didn’t he?”
Snow let out a small laugh, one the others- blue and shivering- recoiled from.
“Did your investigation reveal how I got my name too?” Snow asked, shards of ice behind her words.
“That’s not hard to find,” Iris said. “Arthur Light had a reputation, didn’t he? Sacked from S.T.A.R. Labs for sexual harassment, and you were one of the people who reported him. I don’t know if it was your plan or if he tried his luck and lost, but once one man was dead at your feet, it was easier with the next, wasn’t it?”
She lifted a hand and took hold of Iris’ chin, hard skin rippling and freezing along.
“Right up until you got to Cisco Ramon,” Iris said. “You left him alive. Barely, and he claimed he didn’t know why, doesn’t know the woman behind the mask, but, well. You always did have a soft spot for him, didn’t you?”
“I haven’t killed a woman yet,” Snow said. “But I’m sure it will work the same.”
She pulled Iris close and kissed her. The air she breathed was almost solid, frozen particles of ice filling Iris’ mouth as she felt Snow pull her heat away from her, draw it into herself.
The fire deep inside Iris grew, flames rising in her throat.
Snow pulled back with a gasp, touching red lips in shock and wonder.
Iris raised a hand and let the flame out to dance between her fingers.
“I don’t freeze easy these days, Doctor Snow,” she said.
“You might be able to burn your way out death, Ms Phoenix,” Snow said. “Did you think that would be enough? Did you think you could stop me with a little flame?”
“It’s Doctor Wells you want,” Iris said. “So do I.”
Snow looked at her, not hiding the curiosity any more.
“Your fiancé died in the accelerator explosion,” Iris said.
“He did,” Snow said. “Ronnie tried to warn Wells it was flawed, but he was so certain he knew better. And when it did fail it was Ronnie down there, not him, not the man it should have been.”
Ice circled her hands.
“His accelerator caused this,” Snow said. “Is that why you hate him?”
“It didn’t help,” Iris said. “My now-ex is a detective; he was pushing to set up the meta task force, I couldn’t trust him. My father is involved and my best friend. Wells saved his life, he says, as if Wells wasn’t the reason he was in a coma in the first place. And out of everyone in this city, Barry was the only one Wells went to to offer his help. There’s a reason for that. And now my colleague, mentor, was murdered two nights ago. I know it’s being covered up, and I know the story he was about to break was about Harrison Wells and his hard drive with all his evidence was destroyed. Wells has the biggest motive.”
“So?” Snow sneered. “Go tell your detective dad that.”
“He’s lying to me,” Iris said. “So’s my best friend. I know he knows about my powers. He was there when they first happened.”
Or the Flash had been, back when Tony Woodward had kidnapped her, the first few flames, but Barry had still never brought them up, and if he really thought she wouldn’t be able to figure it out herself, he had another thing coming.
“He’s lying to me and he won’t talk to me and he’s already proved he doesn’t want me involved. He doesn’t trust me, but he trusts Wells. Why would he listen to me over him?”
Snow stepped closer again, her ice swirling around and Iris took a strange comfort in the almost forgotten feeling of cold.
“You know what I want from Harrison Wells,” Snow said.
“I do,” Iris said. “I know what I’m doing.”
Snow formed an icicle in one hand and offered the dagger to Iris.
“You know what you’re doing, throwing your lot in with me,” Snow said.
Iris looked at the dagger. Harrison Wells wanted Barry. That much she knew. What for, she didn’t know, but she knew at the centre of this was Barry.
“Desperate times,” Iris said, closing her hand around the dagger and watching it melt between her fingers. “I’ll help you kill him, and you can help me expose him. Do we have a deal?”
“Deal,” Snow said.