He led Quinn out from behind the desk. They walked around to the hall stretching beyond the desk to more rooms. He kept her close to his side as he jogged up the steps at the end of the hall with the others following close behind.
CHAPTER 13
Quinn stayed close against Julian’s side as they strode down the hall. Most of the rooms they passed were silent at this time of night, but one of them had music and laughter drifting from within as a few diehards continued to party into the early morning hours.
Stopping outside the door of room two twenty-two, Julian moved her so she stood against the wall while he remained in front of the door. She opened her mouth to protest before closing it again. There were things to fight over, and there were things to let go. This was one of those things to let go. No matter what she said, he wouldn’t allow her to stand in front of that door with him.
Luther and Lou stood behind her while Devon and Dani moved to the other side of the door. Julian released her hand, grabbed the handle, and jerked down on it at the same time he shoved his shoulder forcefully into the door. It gave way with a cracking sound that the music covered.
Quinn went to pull him out of the way in case something rushed them, but he’d already sidestepped so that he stood in front of her. His hands rested against the wall on either side of her head as his body molded protectively over hers while they all waited to see if anything would happen.
Julian lowered his hands from beside her head. He pointed to Devon, then himself, and then made some gestures to indicate he would go into the room. Devon nodded.
Julian bent down before stepping cautiously into the doorway. He crept into the room until he vanished from view. Quinn’s heart leapt into her throat as every horrible image of what could be lurking within raced through her mind. What if he was shot with a crossbow, or someone dove on him with a stake? She’d watched him die once already; she couldn’t do it a second time. A cold sweat broke out on her skin, and her mouth went dry as the seconds ticked by in her head.
Quinn took an abrupt step toward where Julian had been. Devon held his hand out and gave her a fierce look. She glared back at him before focusing on the doorway again. She had no doubt Devon would tackle her to the ground before he ever allowed her to follow Julian, but if she heard one off sound, she’d fight him to the death to get in there.
A light turned on within, and Julian appeared in the doorway. Devon lowered his arm when Julian reclaimed her hand. “Causing trouble?” he inquired of her.
“Nowhere near as much as you,” she replied.
“So very true.”
Quinn followed him into the room with Lou and Luther on her heels. Her gaze ran over the typical landscape paintings hanging on the beige walls. To her right, the fluorescent light in the bathroom illuminated the cream-colored sink. Beside the sink, a toothbrush, shaving kit, and hairbrush were still neatly laid out.
The carpet beneath her overlarge sneakers was the standard, gray industrial carpet found throughout the hotel. Her nose wrinkled as the potent aroma of cologne flooded her nostrils. It smelled like someone had dumped an entire bottle of it somewhere.
Devon closed the broken door after Dani stepped into the room. They walked by a coffee table, fridge, and sofa in a small alcove room before stepping around a corner and into the main part of the room. The red comforter on the bed was tossed back, the sheets a tangled mess in the center of the mattress. A book on the stand beside the bed was opened and placed facedown to mark the reader’s last spot.
Herb’s last spot.
On the nightstand on the other side of the bed, a broken bottle of cologne was tipped onto its side. A small puddle sat beneath it, but the rest of the liquid had run down the side to absorb into the carpet.
Herb had come back here after Julian had chased him, she realized, probably before he’d arrived in the arcade room. In his rush to get whatever it was he’d needed from here, he’d knocked the cologne over and left the broken bottle—just as he’d left everything else, including his open suitcase in the corner.
“What did he take from here?” she wondered as Julian released her hand to walk over to the suitcase.
He didn’t hesitate before pulling the clothes from inside. He held them briefly before tossing them onto the floor. No emotion played over his face, but his eyes held a hint of red within their ice-blue depths. The angel tattoo on his arm flexed with his movements. He tossed the last piece of clothing onto the floor and stood staring at the empty suitcase like he was contemplating smashing it.
“Whatever he took from here was important enough for him to chance returning to the room for it,” Luther said from behind her.
Julian grabbed the lid of the suitcase and threw it off the stand before turning to face them. “We have his address. We’ll go there.”
“We’re supposed to be meeting the vamps in Maine in a week,” Quinn reminded him.
“What’s his address, Lou?” Julian demanded.
Lou pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled through it. “The address he gave is in Burkes, Pennsylvania. He would have shown his license when he checked in, and since he used his real name, it’s probably his actual address.”
They had all handed over fake IDs when they checked in, but Lou was right. If Herb had used his real name, there was a good chance he’d used his real license and address too.
“I can get on the computer and find out more when we leave here,” Lou said.
“Good. We’ll pay Herb a visit in Pennsylvania on our way to Maine,” Julian said.
“Do you think this Burkes, Pennsylvania is like Cedarville was?” Dani asked.
“What is Cedarville?” Quinn inquired.
Red flashed around Julian’s eyes again. “Cedarville was the name of the town in New York where Cassie and I were imprisoned. The Commission used the residents of the town to further their experiments until it became a town full of nothing but Halflings. Those Halflings were monsters trapped somewhere between human and vampire and nothing but mindless killing machines.”
Quinn hugged herself when goose bumps broke out on her flesh. The Commission really was a bunch of monsters. “Do you think Burkes could be like Cedarville?”
What would it do to Julian if the town was another place for vampires and humans to be experimented on?
“No,” Julian said.
“What makes you so certain?” she asked.
“Because there aren’t enough members of The Commission left to pull off something on the level of Cedarville again.”
“How do we know there aren’t many Commission members left?” Dani inquired. “I mean, we know how many of them we took out, and Luther and I had an idea of how many of them were in existence, but do we really believe they told us everything, or even half of their secrets?”
“No, I don’t believe they did.” Julian lifted his hands into the air, drawing all of their eyes to them. “But I glimpsed some of their secrets when I was held by them, and good ole Herb here has revealed some more. I think there’s only a handful of Commission members left, but they are actively recruiting more, and they have at least a dozen Hunters on their side.”
“Great,” Quinn muttered.
“If he’s from Pennsylvania, what is he doing in New Mexico?” Dani asked.
“I’m not entirely sure,” Julian replied.
“Maybe they were having a conference of psychos or something in the area,” Lou suggested.
“Maybe,” Julian murmured. “He may also have been looking for more Hunters or Guardians to recruit to their side. I can see some of his life through his things, but there are a lot of memories in this room, far more than his. The echoes of the others who have stayed here makes it tough to single him out.”
Julian’s gaze ran over the walls before settling on the door to the adjoining room. “There’s a good chance the Hunter was staying next door.”
“We don’t want to break in on someone sleeping,” Dani said. “Screaming is never a good way to go unnotic
ed.”
“No, it’s not.” Julian walked over to the door and knocked loudly on it.
Quinn bit her lip as he leaned against the door, pressing his ear to the wood. He stood that way for a minute before grabbing the knob and yanking the door open. She jumped as pieces of wood flew away from where he’d torn the deadbolt from the wall. Beyond the first door was another one. Julian didn’t bother to knock on this one before leaning his shoulder against it and shoving on it. The wood groaned for a second before giving way beneath his weight.
He took a staggering step into the other room before righting himself. No one screamed or shot at him from the pitch-black room beyond. She walked over to stand beside him and peered into the shadows. Enough of the parking lot light filtered in around the heavy drapes over the windows to reveal this room was the mirror image of the one they stood in, right down to the open suitcase on the stand in the corner.
Thankfully, the potent aroma of cologne didn’t permeate this room too, but then the occupant of this room had never had a chance to return for any of his things. Her stomach dropped when it hit her that they were standing in the doorway of a dead man’s room.
Julian stepped into the room and turned on the lamp beside the bed. Quinn swallowed heavily when she spotted the clothes neatly laid out on the foot of the perfectly made bed, waiting for their owner to return.
This Hunter definitely hadn’t expected his life to end when it had. She shuddered as a feeling of foreboding crept over her. Life was so fragile. It could be ripped away from someone in a second, even an immortal.
She almost jerked Julian back when he moved further into the room, but she kept her hands by her side. They couldn’t stand in this doorway all night, and they had to know more about what they could be facing. He walked over to the open suitcase. Like the last suitcase, he pulled the clothes from within and tossed them onto the floor.
She opened her mouth to tell him to have better care with these things, but what was the point? The owner no longer had the ability to care what happened to them.
Julian pulled a leather-bound book from within and held it before him. He undid the red strap tied around the book and flipped through the pages of what appeared to be a journal. The frown on his face deepened as he continued skimming.
His fingers slowed on the last pages of the book. He read through them before closing the book and tying the strap around it again. “I think his own journal may have been what Herb returned to his room for,” he said.
“What does it say?” Quinn asked.
“They were in the southwest looking for us,” Julian replied.
Julian stalked toward her with the lethal grace of a sleek panther. The tension coiled within his body beat against her skin as he took hold of her elbow. She knew this was the merciless man who delivered death without a second’s hesitation. The heat of his body helped to warm hers as he handed the book over to Luther.
“Someone had reported seeing us in the California area,” Julian said.
“Where you found Zach,” Devon said.
“Yes.”
“Who saw us?” Luther demanded.
“Just an average person,” Julian replied, his upper lip curling into a sneer. “The Commission has recently posted pictures on the internet of Lou, Chris, and Melissa claiming that they are runaways. It’s not a police website, but a personal thing. A family looking for their lost children.”
“Son of a bitch!” Luther exploded and paced away from them with stiff, jerky movements.
“Well that’s not good,” Devon muttered.
“I’ll find it,” Lou said. “I may be able to take it down.”
“Let’s hope so,” Quinn said. “Otherwise anyone who sees it and you may think they’re doing a good thing by calling to report you. Hell, they may even think they’re a hero and try to catch you themselves.”
“I’m sure someone will,” Lou agreed.
“You have to admit, it’s a bit of a genius idea,” Devon said. “Even if Lou, Melissa, and Chris are all of age, they could also pass for underage too, and people could still think they’re doing a good thing by handing over a runaway twenty-year-old to their family.”
“It is,” Julian agreed. “They’ve been looking for us through California and Arizona. They were on their way home when they stopped here. They’d decided the trail was either cold and we’d moved on, or the sighting had been a false one. It was a very unhappy coincidence for this Hunter that they stumbled on us here.”
“If they’d found us somewhere else, what did they think one Hunter and Guardian could do against all of us?” Lou demanded.
“They weren’t to engage, only to find and trail until more could be gathered to come after us,” Julian replied. “I’d be willing to bet they decided to play hero when they found us here. We’ll read through his journal more carefully later, but for now, let’s get our things and get out of here.”
That sounded like a freaking fantastic plan to her. She wanted out of this hotel and as far from it as possible. Julian kept her close against his side as they left the Hunter’s room and walked out to the hall once more.
Devon, Dani, and Luther split off to go one way down the hall, while they walked with Lou toward their rooms nearby. They were passing the party room when the door opened and a drunken couple staggered out. Despite the fact the young man had his arm draped around the girl’s shoulders, his gaze ran leeringly over Quinn before he grinned.
“Hey, baby, wanna join us,” he slurred drunkenly.
Quinn never saw Julian move before he had the guy pinned against the wall. Julian’s hand was around his throat, his face mere inches from the young man’s. “Does she look like she’s available?” Julian snapped.
The young man went deathly pale, but a hint of green crept across his features. If the guy threw up on Julian, she had a feeling it would be the last thing he ever did. The girl squeaked and staggered back, her hand on her throat.
“Let him go.” Quinn wrapped her hand around the bulging muscles of his forearm. “He didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Oh, believe me, he did,” Julian growled. Quinn realized he’d kept his ability on and it was picking up on the young man’s intentions. “I should tear your eyes from your head.”
A sheen of sweat beaded over the man’s forehead and face. They would know everything he’d eaten and drank today in another minute or two. Lou stood beyond Julian, looking nearly as shocked as the woman beside him.
The woman burst into tears when Julian suddenly released the man. The man staggered to the side, careful to stay far away from Julian as he gasped for air. His hand flew to the bruises already forming around his throat. Stepping away from him, Julian reclaimed her elbow and pulled her against his side.
“You’d be better off finding someone else tonight,” Julian said to the woman as they walked by her. “That’s a one-night stand you’ll regret.”
The woman fled down the hall past the man who was still gasping for air.
“Are you okay?” she whispered to Julian.
“Yes.”
“That wasn’t like you.”
The sound of retching followed them around the corner. Lou looked like he was about to lose his dinner too as he gazed at her and Julian with wide eyes.
“Yes, Dewdrop, it was.”
Quinn refrained from arguing with him further. He was right, it was like him, only the more lethal part of him. A part of him that she had a feeling would be much closer to the surface from now on.
CHAPTER 14
Julian kept Quinn tucked against his chest as the RV rumbled down the highway. The sound of the tires on the pavement did nothing to lull him to sleep. His mind was far too geared up for that right now. He’d carried Quinn into the bedroom and closed the sliding door to separate them from the others as soon as they’d returned to the RV. She needed her rest, and he needed a break from the tumult of images cascading over him.
It was difficult enough to deal with his ability around a
normal number of people and vampires when he kept it turned on. The hotel had been a hive of activity that he’d been unable to avoid. Impressions had endlessly bombarded him with everything he touched. Normally he would have shut it down in order to have some peace, but he hadn’t dared to turn it off when it might be able to lead him to The Commission and help him protect Quinn.
So he’d kept it on and learned things he’d never wanted to learn about anyone. Some of it had been mundane, some of it awful. But he’d at least acquired a few things that would help them out.
A dull throb pounded against his temples from the remnants of the impressions he’d received. His teeth ground together as he recalled what he’d seen when he’d touched that boy in the hall. The things he’d planned to do to the woman with him, the things he’d wanted to do to Quinn, were things no one should have done to them.
The boy had been young, but he’d already left misery in his wake. Even at his worst, Julian had never condoned rape or the torture of those who didn’t deserve it. He’d killed innocents, but those deaths had been swift. Maybe it didn’t make him any better than the boy, but he believed it did, in a small way.
Julian should have killed the boy in order to save future people from his cruelty. However, it was not his place to be the judge, jury, and executioner. In the end, he could only hope the boy got what he so rightfully deserved, an excruciating death.
He hated not keeping his ability turned off, but from now on, whenever he was anywhere he might have to use it, he would have it on. Even if it meant he would suffer headaches and the influx of images better left unseen or unknown.
Quinn murmured something in her sleep before settling down again. Since Earl had walked back into her life, her nightmares had been more frequent, but she didn’t appear to be having one now. Lifting his head, he looked at the rays of the sun filtering through the curtains. He should stand in the sunlight again, yet he couldn’t bring himself to part with her in order to get up and do so.
Later, when she was awake, he would push himself through the burning rays of the sun. Quinn whimpered, her brow furrowed. He ran a finger over her wrinkled forehead, smoothing it out, before tracing his finger over the scar running across her eyebrow. The sweep of her dark lashes fluttered open. She blinked for a minute, seeming to try to place where she was.
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