Scorched Ice

by Erica Stevens

  Somewhere from the other end of the diner, music began to play from one of the small, silver jukeboxes on each of the tables. Biting into his cheeseburger, Chris leaned over and, with his other hand, pushed the button to flip through the music choices.

  “It’s all old people music,” he muttered before glancing at Julian. “You would like it.”

  Julian’s eyes narrowed on him as Quinn choked on her soda. “Keep it up and you won’t live long enough for your music to be considered old people music,” Julian warned.

  Chris grinned at him and lifted a handful of French fries from his plate. “You’re really not all that intimidating now that I know your bark is worse than your bite.”

  Julian’s fangs extended as he leaned across the table toward him. “Want to see if that’s really true?”

  “Maybe you wouldn’t like the music after all,” Chris replied with a grin. Julian retracted his fangs before leaning back in the vinyl red booth again. “There’s no classical. Mozart was more your time, right?”

  “You’re a dick,” Julian said to him, and Quinn gave up on trying to hide her laughter.

  “What can I say? You’ve rubbed off on me,” Chris replied with a shrug and shoved a handful of French fries into his mouth.

  A few of the older men glanced their way, and a couple of them smiled as Quinn wiped away her tears from laughing so hard. “I think Mozart would be new to him too,” she teased.

  He couldn’t stop himself from smiling at her as her eyes shone with amusement. He playfully tugged at the end of her hair. “He did come along later in my life,” Julian replied, “and I did enjoy his work.”

  Quinn leaned over to kiss his cheek. “You’re an ancient.”

  “But I more than keep up with you.”

  “You do,” she agreed.

  Chris rolled his eyes. “Melissa had to abandon me to mated vamps, lucky me.”

  Julian stopped himself from replying that Chris might be able to have someone who would make every day a lot better too, if he’d pay a little bit more attention to something other than food. When Melissa wanted Chris to know something about her feelings for him, she would tell him. Until then, he knew Chris would remain completely oblivious. He was the type who needed to be smacked over the head with some things.

  “Well, I’m going to be abandoning you too,” Quinn said and slid from the booth. Julian made a move to follow her, but she waved him back. “I can walk to the bathroom on my own.”

  He sat back in the booth again; his back to the cool plate glass window as he watched her walk down the aisle toward Cassie and Melissa. They both turned to talk to her when she stopped beside them. Breaking away, Melissa went with her toward the bathroom while Cassie returned to sitting beside Devon.

  “It would be nice if we could take out The Commission,” Chris said. “Go a long way toward gaining more of the vampires’ trust.”

  “It would,” Julian replied. “And it would be better if we could shut them down before they recruit more members to join them and gain more Hunters to aid them. We have to stop them from finding some other way to attract attention to the three of you, or even the rest of us too.”

  Chris scowled. “I’m almost twenty years old, and they had me listed as a freaking runaway. Assholes.”

  “Good thing Lou is a computer genius,” Julian said as his gaze slid to where the young Guardian sat with the others. Lou laughed at something Dani was saying.

  Lou had located the website The Commission had created. He’d managed to make it so that while any member of The Commission who checked on it would still think it was running smoothly, it was actually no longer visible to anyone else. Julian would have preferred it taken down completely, but they didn’t want anyone to know they were onto what The Commission had done and come up with something new.

  “You’re not kidding,” Chris said. “We also need to stop The Commission before they can create more Hunters.”

  “That too,” Julian said. “All of you may hesitate to kill a Hunter, just as Quinn did.”

  Chris’s mouth pursed, and his sapphire eyes took on a remorseless gleam Julian rarely saw from his friend. “I won’t hesitate.”

  No, he won’t, Julian realized. Chris had seen and experienced too much with The Commission to hesitate. He would kill them the first opportunity he had to do so.

  “Some of the others might,” Julian pointed out.

  Chris turned to look as Melissa and Quinn emerged from the bathroom. The two of them walked down the aisle to stand at the table beside the others. When Quinn smiled at something Lou said, Julian’s lips twisted into a smile too.

  “Yes,” Chris agreed. “They might hesitate.”

  Julian’s smile faded away, and his fangs pricked when he recalled what Quinn had looked like in that arcade room. She’d been covered in her own blood with electrical burns marring her silken flesh, yet he knew she would have continued to avoid having to kill the Hunter attacking her. If their roles had been reversed and the Hunter had come after him, she wouldn’t have hesitated to end the man’s life.

  “We could leave them behind and take care of it ourselves,” Chris suggested, drawing Julian’s attention back to him. “To keep them safe. It might be for the best.”

  “They would never agree to stay behind. Plus, leaving them behind may prove more disastrous. Look at what happened with Earl when we split up. I thought Quinn would be safe between her ability and Dani’s. Splitting up isn’t a good idea. Besides, if we tried it, Quinn would never forgive me and Cassie may torch all our asses.”

  Chris chuckled and leaned back in his seat. “Yeah, she would.”

  Julian caught a hint of movement from the corner of his eye a second before the door opened. The bell above the door released a tinkling ring that caused everyone in the diner to turn toward it. When they had first entered, all of the patrons within had done the same thing. Whereas everyone within had returned to their food and business shortly afterward, this time the giant ducking under the doorframe kept their gazes riveted on him.

  Julian slipped from the booth and shot to his feet all in one fluid motion. He stalked with lethal speed toward Quinn and stood beside her before Vern took more than two steps into the diner.

  “Vern,” he greeted.

  The men at the counter continued to gawk at Vern while one of the waitresses poured them fresh coffee. “Boss,” Vern replied. “Just letting you know we’re here. We’ll be waiting outside by the gas station.”

  “We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  Vern nodded and turned away from him. The bell rang as he exited the diner, and the men at the counter finally returned to their meals and gossip, but the old men’s shoulders remained more rigid than they’d been before Vern entered.

  This was a small town, and the employees in this diner probably knew almost everyone who came into it. At first, they’d been written off as normal people simply passing through. His reaction to Vern’s entrance and Vern’s size had brought unwanted attention to them.

  Julian focused on Vern again as he made his way across the parking lot toward the gas station next door. Vern opened the driver’s door of a van and climbed inside.

  “We should go,” Devon said. He tossed some cash on the table before sliding out of the booth behind Cassie and taking hold of her hand.

  Julian took hold of Quinn’s hand before walking over to throw a hundred-dollar bill on the table. The old men watched them the entire time, their gazes curious and more than a little wary. They all turned away when Julian focused on them. Talk of what they were going to plant in their gardens this year resumed.

  A tendril of unease slid up his spine. When it came to The Commission, nothing was ever as it seemed. He’d already been in one town where their evil had been embedded in everything there. He didn’t think that was the case here, but he wasn’t taking any chances either.

  With Quinn against his side, he brushed his hand against the arm of one of the men. The man jumped and leaned away f
rom him, but not before Julian saw that all he really did have on his mind were tomatoes and lettuce.

  “Sorry,” Julian apologized as the man’s watery brown eyes ran over him.

  Keeping Quinn’s hand in his, he led her from the diner and out the door behind Devon and Cassie. He searched the night for any hint of something hiding within the shadows created by the trees swaying in the breeze. Scenting the air, he detected only the crisp aroma of water from a nearby river and snow still on the highest peaks of the mountains. The chill of the April air made his lip curl, but he had to admit the freshness of it was welcome after nearly a week in the RV.

  Certain there was no one waiting to ambush them, he turned his attention to the van he’d seen Vern climb into. The streetlights at the edge of the parking lot illuminated some of the van, but most of the windows were tinted enough that he couldn’t see who was in the back of it.

  “I’m going to talk to Vern. Wait here,” he said to the others.

  “I’m coming with you,” Quinn replied.

  Julian hesitated but nodded when her eyes narrowed on him. Her hand warmed his as they walked across the parking lot toward the idling van. Vern was leaning back in the driver’s seat, his large frame stretched out as much as he could get it when Julian stepped up to the open window.

  Prue sat in the passenger seat, one of her bare feet propped on the dash as she painted her toenails. Her silvery blonde hair swayed about her shoulders when she glanced at him before returning her attention to her toes. In the back of the van, Hadie sat with four other vamps, all of them stared at him with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

  “Boss,” Hadie greeted and pushed back a lock of her strawberry blonde hair.

  “Hadie,” he replied. He nudged Quinn back when she leaned forward to peer inside the vehicle. He could feel the daggers she stared into his back before she pinched him. Gritting his teeth, he focused on Vern. “We’ll be parking about a mile down the street from the house. We’ll pull into the first place we can find to put the RV where it won’t be noticed.”

  “You got it,” Vern said and leaned forward to start the van. “Just so you know, there are some vamps coming to Maine tomorrow night who might prefer to see you dead.”

  Quinn’s power crackled against him as anger radiated from her. Reaching back, he enclosed his hand on her free one. He drew it forward and tucked it against his stomach. Her ability sizzled against him before dying out in a sputtering flicker that drew Vern’s attention. Vern raised an eyebrow but refrained from saying anything before he shifted his attention back to Julian.

  “There are many who would prefer to see me dead,” Julian replied, and wasn’t surprised when the vamps in the back nodded their agreement. “There’s only one who might be able to succeed in killing me, and he’s standing right over there,” Julian pointed over to Devon. They didn’t need to know that Cassie would be perfectly capable of taking them all out, as might Quinn. “If they want to take their chance at me, they can have at it. I’m always up for a good fight, and I’m more than happy to kill someone.”

  “Julian,” Quinn whispered, and he squeezed her hand.

  Prue finished with her toes, twisted the top back onto the nail polish bottle, and turned toward him. “We’ve got your back, Boss.”

  Julian bit back a smile when the others chimed in their support. They said that, but he wouldn’t be stunned if most of them turned tail and ran at the first hint of danger to their lives. He didn’t blame them. He hadn’t earned their loyalty yet, and even if he did, there were always those who would save themselves first.

  For most of his life, he had been one of those too. He would have stopped to save Devon, but the rest of the world could have burned for all he’d cared. After Devon had turned against his more nefarious nature and stopped killing, Julian would have gladly burned him too.

  Now, there were more than a few he would fight to the death for. In some ways, it made him stronger than he’d ever been in the past. It also made him far more vulnerable than ever before. He would take the new vulnerability for the love and friendships he’d discovered.

  “Let’s go take care of this,” he said to Vern.

  “Are we really going to take them out if they’re Commission and Hunters?” one of the vamps in the back asked.

  Quinn’s body became rigid against his. “It is always open season on any member of The Commission,” he replied. “However, if you come across a Hunter you think might show some signs of understanding that you’re not there to kill them all, then no, don’t kill them. However, we will all do whatever is necessary to survive if our lives are in peril.”

  “Let’s get this over with then,” Hadie said.

  Julian stepped away from the vehicle and walked with Quinn to Devon’s sleek black Challenger. For this ride, he didn’t plan to climb into the RV again.

  CHAPTER 16

  If someone had told her two months ago she would be standing shoulder to shoulder with a group of vampires outside a member of The Commission’s house, she would have told them they were dreaming. But then, if someone had told her five months ago she’d be mated to a vampire and friends with Hunters, Guardians, and vampires, she would have told them they were insane and run as far from them as possible. Yet, that was exactly where she found herself now.

  Sometimes it felt as if years had passed since she’d met Julian; at others, it felt like yesterday. Her life had drastically changed since December. She didn’t regret any of it, but she’d really like a chance to get her bearings instead of feeling as tossed about as a ship on the Bering Sea most days.

  Chris and Julian stood resolutely beside her as they all stared at the small log cabin tucked into a clearing in the woods. The cabin was as dark as the night around them. Thick clouds had rolled in to obscure the moon and stars over an hour ago. Movement in the trees drew her eyes when a raccoon ran behind the cabin before slipping back into the woods.

  No vehicles were parked in the drive, and both garage doors on the massive bay beside the cabin were closed. She had no idea why anyone would have a garage bigger than their house, but the building stood nearly twice as high. From everything she’d heard about The Commission, the size of it probably didn’t bode well for any unsuspecting humans and vampires.

  She actually wouldn’t have minded living in this peaceful little spot Herb had chosen; however, goose bumps covered her skin, and her bones felt like ice. Her soul-deep chill had nothing to do with the climate difference between Pennsylvania and Arizona, and everything to do with the fact she wanted nothing to do with the man who lived here.

  The thick pines surrounding the clearing creaked when a breeze blew down from the mountains looming behind the cabin. The eerie sound made the ominous feeling inside of her grow.

  “I don’t smell any humans or hear any heartbeats,” Prue said.

  “No, but The Commission are like rats. They like to go to ground,” Julian replied. “We may not be able to smell or hear him if he’s in hiding.”

  Quinn refused to shudder, refused to let them see how much this place unnerved her, how terrified she was of what they would find, and what such a discovery might do to Julian. The two of them were intricately bound together now. She knew the tightrope he walked every day between killing and keeping himself restrained from doing so. It wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge, and The Commission was the one thing that always rattled him.

  “What’s the plan?” Vern inquired.

  “You, me, Quinn, Chris, Dani, and Melissa will go to check it out,” Julian said. “Everyone else will be staying here to watch out for any threat.”

  They’d already discussed this arrangement in the car with Devon and Cassie. Julian had originally planned to keep her in the woods, but she’d refused to agree to that. “Sounds good,” Vern replied.

  Julian nodded his head toward the cabin and slipped from the trees. Quinn stayed close on his heels while he walked out of the woods and across the front yard as if he owned the place and
knew every lethal secret it might hold.

  She felt more keyed up than a skydiver standing in the doorway of a plane, and she was half afraid she may scream if only to ease the tension building within her. Every second, she was certain she would hear the sound of a crossbow releasing, or the whistle of an arrow flying through the air at her.

  Julian subtly positioned himself so that he walked in front of her. “Julian!”

  “You can bring me back to life. I can’t do the same for you,” he said so low that she knew only she heard him.

  “I never want to do that again,” she grated through her teeth at him.

  “Save my life?” he inquired and shot a sexy smile over his shoulder at her. It was a look she was sure had made many women swoon over the centuries; it made her blood boil.

  “Right now, no.”

  His grin widened before he turned away from her. “Sheathe the fangs, Dewdrop.”

  She moved to the side to walk next to him. When he went to grab her arm, she gave him a look that froze his hand in place.

  “I don’t want to take a life like that again,” she said to him as her eyes turned to survey the house once more.

  His hand fell to his side before he stepped closer, so his shoulder brushed against hers while they walked. He moved so that he was still partially in front of her, but he no longer blocked her completely.

  As they got closer to the house, she noticed more subtle details about it. The curtains on the sides of the windows had been neatly tied back. The covered porch, taking up half the front of the cabin had a rocking chair and table set out on it. On the other was a built-in, solid-wood bench with intricate designs of ivy and flowers etched into its oak-colored surface.

  It was a peaceful image that was completely out of place with what she knew the owner of this cabin represented. She imagined Herb often sat in the chair or on the bench, sipping iced tea or beer as he plotted how to torture and kill someone.