Frost Burn

by Erica Stevens

  A prickling began in Julian’s hand. It wasn’t unpleasant, but he could feel her drawing on his life force to pull the soul from Seanix. Seanix’s eyes closed, his mouth parted as a look of peace came over his face. “Tired,” he murmured.

  “I know,” she whispered as her fingers slid over his cheek. “It’s almost over.”

  A smile curved Seanix’s mouth making him appear almost childlike. The tingling sensation in Julian’s hand began to ease; warmth spread through his fingers and up his arm. He realized the life that had been taken from him was now being returned.

  Seanix’s body didn’t shrivel up like the others, but he felt it when the life within the vampire slipped away. His power swelled within him as the force of Seanix’s life coursed through his veins charging him like liquid lightning. The force inside him made him stronger, but he couldn’t think about that as Quinn’s heartbroken gaze met his.

  Leaning forward, he encircled his hand around her head and pulled her against his chest. No more tears spilled from her, but her arms wrapped around his back as she clung to him. The others shuffled out of the room while he rocked her back and forth within his arms. He didn’t care what he had to do, who he had to kill, he would do whatever it took to keep her safe, forever.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Red and blue lights flashed off of the glass littering the ground like some kind of macabre funhouse from Hell. It made Quinn’s eyes throb and her head pound. She wrapped her arms around herself as she stared at Clint’s bar.

  Pieces of wood had been torn from the front by the force of the bullets that had pierced the building. Glass and wood crunched under foot as police officers rushed about. An ambulance was parked off to the side but the backdoors remained closed and no medical equipment had been taken out. Its silent presence here made her feel even more hollow and deflated than she had before.

  “Quinn!” She lifted her head at her shouted name.

  Her eyes searched the people gathered solemnly behind the yellow tape set up as a boundary around the bar. She didn’t actually see Clint coming toward her, but more the people he shoved out of his way as he made his way through the crowd. He was three people away from her when she finally spotted his squat figure.

  She didn’t have time to speak before he threw his arms around her and engulfed her in a bear hug forceful enough to crack her knotted back. “Dear God girl, we had no idea where you were! Are you ok?”

  “What happened?” she squeaked out when he dropped her on her feet again.

  “Someone…” Clint’s brown eyes filled with tears; he hastily wiped them away. “Someone shot up the bar.”

  “What? Why?” She felt like the lowest form of life lying to friend, and the worst actress in the world, but he couldn’t know she’d actually been inside when the bar had been shot up.

  “I don’t know,” he said with a sad shake of his head.

  Hawtie was crying openly when she stepped up behind Clint and threw her arms around Quinn. “We were so afraid you were inside!” she wailed.

  Quinn swallowed before issuing the lie they’d come up with while she and Julian had been ridding themselves of their bloodstained clothes at her place, after disposing of all the bodies in the abandoned building. The vampire’s bodies would disappear at sunset, the others they had buried in a mass grave with only a stone to mark it. She hated leaving those innocent women and children like that, but they couldn’t allow their bodies to be discovered.

  “Angie let me leave early so we could go out,” she said with a wave of her hand toward Julian, Melissa, Chris, and Zach. Behind him, she could see Luther and Lou pretending to stroll over from the motel, seemingly drawn on by curiosity.

  “At least there was one blessing tonight!” Hawtie declared as she enveloped Quinn in a hug again.

  “Where’s Angie?” she forced herself to ask around the lump wedged in her throat.

  Hawtie’s breasts heaved as tears streamed down her face. “Oh, Quinn, it’s just awful!” she wailed.

  “Let her go, Hawtie,” Clint said kindly. “You’re scaring her.” Hawtie released her but kept hold of her hand in a vice like grip that bruised her bones. Clint clasped hold of her shoulders and began to speak. “I’m sorry Quinn, but she was inside when they started shooting. She didn’t survive.”

  Even though she’d already known this news, tears spilled from her eyes and her shoulders heaved as a sob escaped her. Her lying skills may be questionable, but her sorrow was real.

  Julian stepped forward, pulled her away from Clint and into his arms again. Quinn held onto him as she watched the police move in and out of the building. Hawtie glanced down at Clint when he took hold of her hand and turned to face the building again. More tears fell when Angie’s body was finally placed on a gurney and wheeled outside.

  Looking to shut out the world, she buried her face in Julian’s chest. She wasn’t allowed to stay hidden there for long before the police came to speak with them. More lies spilled from her mouth, she answered their questions but thankfully they seemed to believe the lies. They stared questioningly at Julian; he responded to the few questions they had for him with unflinching ease.

  With the sun about to break on the horizon, they were finally allowed to leave with the promise they wouldn’t go anywhere for a couple of weeks in case the police had any more questions for them. Exhaustion made her eyes heavy and grainy. Her muscles felt like lead when she finally crawled into bed that morning.

  As the week wore on, she realized her original exhaustion was nothing compared to what she felt throughout the following days. The killers hunting her town had been taken care of, but there were more questions to endure from the cops, Angie’s wake to attend, and Clint’s bar to clean and rebuild when they were finally allowed to go inside the building again. She kept trying to pick up the scattered pieces of her life, but none of them fit together right anymore.

  She’d lost the closest friend she’d had since Betsy died. She’d believed she’d closed off the piece of herself susceptible to grief over the years, she’d been wrong. This wasn’t the same kind of grief that had crippled her after the loss of her family, but she missed her friend. She missed Angie’s eager chatter, easygoing ways and perky smile.

  The only heartening thought was that maybe Angie and Seanix were finally together again. After the events of that horrible night, she understood Angie’s melancholy and erratic behavior better after Seanix disappeared, thanks to Julian’s explanation of mates. Angie and Seanix had been human when they’d first met, but they’d been soul mates. Seanix’s feelings for her had been enhanced by his change into one of the undead.

  The bar wasn’t the same without Angie, and it would never be the same again. In those early days after Angie’s death, she wondered if Clint would reopen at all. They all walked around in a haze of melancholy, barely speaking as they tried to put the place back together. She didn’t know who had been the one to clean up Angie’s blood, and she didn’t ask.

  On the day of Angie’s funeral, she sat in her window and listened to the vehicles driving by on the street below. She would have given anything to be able to attend, but bursting into flames in front of everyone wasn’t exactly an option.

  With the pathetic excuse of, she didn’t do funerals to Clint and Hawtie, she’d ungracefully bowed out of going. She’d sent flowers, like that would somehow make it any better considering Angie had no family left in town. The disappointment on Clint and Hawtie’s faces had been obvious when she’d refused to go. She hated it, but there was nothing she could do about it.

  Starting into the third week, Clint decided to reopen the doors of the bar. He did have bills to pay after all, and the place had been in his family for over fifty years. Quinn had been certain she’d never be able to make it through her first shift, but somehow she persevered.

  One thing she’d learned from the death of her family was that no matter how badly she desired the world to stop, if only for a minute to acknowledge her misery, it never did.
The world had an insistent way of continuing on without any knowledge of the small piece that had been lost, forever.

  People also had a way of continuing on when they didn’t think they could, simply because they had to. She’d lost another friend, she was grieving again, but she fell back into her routine.

  During the whole awful time, Julian’s steadfast presence was the only thing getting her through. He stayed by her side, but never made another move toward her. She didn’t know if she was thankful for this or disappointed. The last thing she wanted was to come to care for him even more, only to lose him like she did everyone else, but she missed his touch and his kisses. She hadn’t believed it would ever be possible, but she even missed his banter and arrogant attitude.

  She didn’t understand what had brought about this change in him, and she didn’t ask. Instead, she continued on almost robotically as they all talked about the threat against her and the peril of the vampires grouping together and becoming more powerful.

  To her, it was the same threat she’d been living with her whole life. She had to keep who she was a secret, that information and situation was nothing new. Luther and Julian were far more concerned about it than she thought necessary.

  On her first night off since Angie’s death and Clint’s reopening, she lounged on the couch while munching on peanut butter cups and watching Dexter. She’d assumed the blood and gore of the show would turn her off after what had happened in the abandoned building, but she found him rather likeable, for a serial killer.

  A knock on her door caused her to groan. The last thing she felt like doing was moving her ass from this couch, but as another knock sounded, she realized she didn’t have a choice. She shoved the rest of her peanut butter cup into her mouth and chomped on it as she approached the door.

  “Who is it?” she asked around a mouthful of food.

  “It’s Julian.”

  “Why didn’t you just use your key?” she grumbled.

  “Open the door.”

  “Pain in my ass,” she mumbled as she threw the locks on the door and pulled it open.

  Julian leaned against her doorway with his arms folded over his broad chest. His blond hair had been brushed back to emphasize the chiseled planes of his face. Arctic blue eyes gleamed as they slid over her from head to toe. He looked stunning in a midnight blue t-shirt that hugged his broad chest and the bulging muscles of his biceps. The jeans he wore fit him well and emphasized his taut ass.

  “Come on, Dewdrop, get dressed.”

  She glanced down at her favorite, faded red t-shirt and black yoga pants. This was about as dressed as she planned to get for the evening. “I am dressed.”

  “Put on something you’ll wear out.”

  “It’s not red carpet material, but I have no shame in rocking it around town,” she retorted.

  He smiled as he stood away from her doorframe. “How about you stop being difficult and put on something without holes in it.” She opened her mouth to protest; he rested his hands on her shoulders, cutting her off. “Please. For me.”

  Her lips compressed but she knew she couldn’t argue with that. “Ok, but do you mind telling me what this is all about?”

  “After you get dressed, I promise.”

  He gave her a little nudge toward her bedroom door. She shot him a disgruntled look over her shoulder as she walked into her room. Digging through her closet, she had no idea what she was going to put on. He’d looked as deadly as the seven sins standing in her doorway; she didn’t own anything close to matching that.

  Finally, she settled on her favorite pair of jeans and a black cowl neck sweater that made her eyes stand out. A small chuckle escaped her as she realized it was the first time she’d thought about her eyes standing out in six years. She brushed her hair hastily and returned to the living room. He still stood casually in her doorway, but his eyes lit up when he spotted her.

  She couldn’t help but feel pleased as his gaze raked her from head to toe, and the cocky smile she’d missed over the past few weeks slid into place. She’d told herself she was glad he’d backed off of her; she didn’t need any more hurt in her life, but she realized now she’d been lying to herself.

  “Come,” he said.

  She took hold of the hand he extended to her. He locked the apartment before turning away and leading her down the hallway. Her confusion deepened when instead of going downstairs, he went up the stairs at the end of the hall. They climbed past the third floor hall and up to the door leading to the roof.

  “What’s going on?” she inquired.

  “You’ll see.”

  He opened the door to the roof and held it open for her to walk out ahead of him. About twenty feet away was a blanket with two small candles sitting in the middle of it. The small flames of the candles danced and flickered in the air. Beside the blanket, an already open bottle of champagne was chilling in a bucket of ice.

  Her brow furrowed as she turned toward him. “What is this?”

  “This,” he said with a gesture toward the blanket. “Is our first date.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “What?”

  “Before everything happened you stated we hadn’t been on a date yet. It’s time to remedy that.”

  She would have laughed if she hadn’t been so amazed. “And this is your idea of a first date?” she teased.

  “In case you haven’t noticed this is a pretty small town, you don’t even have a movie theatre. Unless you’d like to return to the movie theatre gaming hall?”

  “No.”

  “I didn’t think you’d want to spend the night hanging out at Clint’s or Hawtie’s.”

  “Not at all.”

  “And since neither of us eat food, I didn’t see the point in trying to find some fancy restaurant. I will take you to a movie tonight, if you’d prefer?”

  “You’ll sit through a movie?”

  “I love the movies.” He cocked his head to the side and gave her a devilish grin. “You have to find new things to enjoy when you’ve been alive for as long as I have.”

  “I suppose you do,” she replied with a laugh.

  “Would you prefer to go to the movies?”

  Her gaze drifted back to the blanket; she smiled as she shook her head. “No. This is perfect for my first date.”

  “Your first date?” he inquired with a quirk of his eyebrow.

  “I dated a boy in high school for a few months, he was really nice, but we didn’t go on dates so to speak. We hung out at our friend’s houses, drove around in his car, or went on group outings to places like the movies and bowling.”

  “Well then,” he said as he held his arm out to her. She chuckled as she slid her arm through his, and he led her to the blanket. “This can be both of our first dates.”

  She almost tripped over her feet when she turned toward him. “You’ve never been on a date before?” she blurted in disbelief.

  He laughed as he settled her onto the blanket. “Not technically. Most of the time I spent with my exes had little to do with dating.”

  The bluntness of his words left her momentarily speechless, or perhaps it wasn’t the bluntness, but the unexpected burst of jealousy that tore through her and shook her frame. The idea of him with another woman made her want to claw someone’s eyes out.

  “I don’t want to know,” she muttered.

  “There are far better things to talk about.” He poured her a glass of champagne and handed it to her. “Besides, that’s more like tenth date talk, so we can discuss it then.”

  “You think there will be a tenth date?” she inquired as she sipped at her champagne.

  His eyes pinned her to the spot. “I know there will be.” The heat his gaze aroused in her caused her toes to curl. She had to look away from him in order to gather her scattered thoughts. Staring across the rooftop, she focused on the endless stars dancing in the night sky. The moon lit the sand, causing it to shimmer like a lake in the darkness. “I’m hoping this will lead to many firsts for us.”r />
  “Get your mind out of the gutter,” she scolded.

  “When it comes to you, it’s almost always in the gutter, Dewdrop.”

  She couldn’t stop the faint blush sliding up her neck and into her cheeks. “Why have you been so quiet lately then?”

  “I’m an ass ninety-nine percent of the time, but even I know when to back off and allow someone to grieve.”

  “I don’t agree with the first part of that statement, but thank you,” she murmured.

  “You would have a month ago.”

  “You’re right.”

  He placed a kiss on her forehead. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you.”

  An ache began in the area of her heart as she leaned into him. “They’re going to come for me.”

  “And we’ll be ready for them.”

  “I can’t take anymore death, everyone I care about dies. I don’t want to lose you too.”

  He drank down the rest of his champagne and refilled his glass. “I’m more difficult to kill than a cockroach on steroids and a thousand times faster. You won’t lose me.”

  “You can’t know that.”

  “Yes, I can. No one will get to you, or anyone else, while I’m here. And I have no intention of going anywhere, ever.”

  The promise within his words caused her to gulp as she swirled the liquid in her glass. She finished it off and handed it back to him to refill for her.

  “What did Seanix mean by a vampire, not born of vampire blood?” she asked. “I was born from a vampire so wouldn’t that technically mean I was born of vampire blood.”

  “No. You weren’t entirely human, but you were born more human than vampire. When you made the change, vampire blood didn’t turn you, not in the way it has always turned someone. Face it Dewdrop, you’re something special.”

  “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

  “Oh, believe me, it’s a very good thing.” The way he purred the words caused her body to tense and her lips to tingle with the urge to kiss him. “Now, enough of the depressing talk. This is our first date, and I intend to try and take advantage of you.”