Arctic Fire

by Erica Stevens

  We’d been eating in the dining room when they knocked, she recalled of the night her family had been torn from her. Spaghetti with meatballs.

  Her hand fluttered up to the heart-shaped locket around her neck that had belonged to her cousin, Betsy. She wrapped her hand around it, feeling as if the metal burned her flesh while she watched Julian run his fingers over the dining room table. No food was on the table, but papers were scattered across the surface. Perhaps someone had been doing their homework when the attack had occurred.

  Quinn’s fingers trembled, tears burned her eyes as her own memories threatened to engulf her within their suffocating depths. She struggled to keep herself rooted in the present while the past rose up all around her.

  “Did the police clean up all the blood?” Chris whispered.

  “If this was a vampire attack, there most likely wouldn’t be much blood for them to clean up,” Julian murmured.

  “Oh, yeah,” Chris replied dully.

  He looked as pale as she felt right then. Beside him, Melissa’s normally olive hue had faded to a pasty color that caused her onyx eyes to stand out.

  Quinn spotted specks of blood on the hardwood floor and a few more on the tiles beyond it.

  A tremble went through her. “There was a lot of blood when they attacked my family.”

  Julian’s eyes were a vibrant red when he lifted his head to look at her. “They had to be violent and lethal with your family. They knew you were Hunters.”

  Quinn closed her eyes as she tried not to cry. It had been violent.

  Betsy and I were discussing what to pack for college, how to decorate our dorm room. Betsy had wanted pink or purple. I preferred living on the street to either of those color options. I preferred a stereo and no TV. Betsy insisted on both. The bickering had been good-natured, more excited than annoyed or irritated. We both knew, in the end, we were going to have a good time, and neither of us would consider the idea of getting a different roommate.

  Barry had risen at the sound of the knock. I barely paid him any attention as he walked behind us toward the door. I couldn’t see who was there and barely heard him say, “Come in.”

  Then, before I could tell Betsy I’d beat her with her old, giant, stuffed elephant if she brought it with her, they were on us. His hand wrapped around my neck, yanking me out of the chair and dragging me into a battle I hadn’t been prepared to fight.

  “Quinn?” Julian asked worriedly.

  She opened her eyes and forced herself to focus on the house before her. Forced herself not to see the home she’d shared with her family until that fateful night. “I’m fine,” she muttered. “Do you see anything?”

  He continued to stare at her, his eyes narrowing on her face. Melissa rested her hand on Quinn’s shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. Julian shook his head before walking over and running his fingers across the papers on the table. Quinn’s legs were wooden; her knees barely bent as she climbed down the two steps to the sunken living room and walked toward him. Julian glanced at her when she stopped beside him to stare at the papers.

  “Algebra,” she muttered to no one in particular.

  “Maybe we should get out of here,” Chris suggested.

  “Wait.” Turning away, Julian walked over and knelt by one of the few splatters of dried blood marring the floor.

  Quinn lifted her head, her eyes latching onto a picture sitting on top of a desk in the corner. Her mouth went completely dry as a stab of grief shot through her heart and a startled cry escaped her. At the sound of her despair, Julian’s head shot up. His eyes darted around as he searched for some sign of an impending attack.

  His eyes came back to hers when her legs began to shake. Before she knew it, he was standing before her. His hands on her shoulders helped to steady her. “What is it?” he demanded.

  Quinn pointed at the picture on the desk. “It was him,” she whispered. “The vampire who attacked me did this.”

  Julian turned to look at the photo. Across the center of the glass, a smear of blood partially obscured the clothes of the family in the photo. However, their smiling faces were still evident, all five of them. Two of the children were the young girls she’d seen in the photo in the kitchen, but the girls were older in this one, probably mid-teens. The other was a boy who was only a couple of years younger than the girls were. The mother and father sat in front of their children, their pride in their family evident on their glowing faces. All of them had hair so dark it nearly blended in with the shadows of the room.

  “How do you know?” he demanded.

  “They look too much like my family for it to be a coincidence. And the blood across the picture, that’s what our family photo looked like after the attack.”

  Julian squeezed her shoulders before turning and striding over to pick up the picture. He held it in his hand as he ran his fingers over the blood smeared across the glass. His head bowed before he placed it back on the desk.

  “She’s right,” he confirmed. Returning to her, he pulled her into his arms. “Let’s get out of here.”

  He didn’t release her as he walked with her out the door.

  CHAPTER 10

  Julian held Quinn close against his side as he stared at the ceiling in her room. His arm was propped behind his head; the little bit of sun filtering through the blinds and curtains played across the ceiling. His arm tightened around Quinn when she stirred against him, mumbling something before settling down again. It had been a couple of weeks since she last had a nightmare. Tonight, she’d had three.

  After each nightmare, she’d bolted upright in bed, her eyes wild in the night as she screamed. Her cries had startled the others and brought Luther to the door the first time, but Julian had sent him away. Turning his face into her, he nuzzled her hair until she settled down again.

  He inhaled her fresh scent, which mingled with his own scent in her blood. He was such a big part of her now, his blood mingling with hers, his claim on her evident in the fading marks on her neck. She was his now, and he was never going to let her go. She may not know what they were to each other yet, but he had no doubt she was his mate. Their lives were irrevocably bound together, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

  His head turned toward the road when a shout sounded; it was followed by the laughter of people outside. The town had been abnormally subdued since the murders, but it had become louder again today as people fell back into the natural rhythm of their lives.

  Julian shuddered as he recalled the impressions he’d received from inside the Kemp’s house. In the beginning, all he’d seen was laughter and some tears in the home—along with fights and hugs, shared meals and burnt food. It had been the home of a family who had loved and supported each other. When he’d touched their blood, he’d felt their terror, heard their screams, but it wasn’t until he’d touched the photo that he’d seen who had unleashed such ruthless brutality on the unsuspecting family.

  The vampire had touched the photo himself, wiping his hand across the picture purposely when he was done killing them. The photo had been meant as a message for Quinn. The vampire had picked the Kemp family because they reminded him of Quinn’s. He’d left the blood trail on the photo to remind her of the blood-splattered pictures in her own home. Quinn knew it was the same vampire who’d attacked her; what she didn’t know was how badly the vamp wanted her.

  Julian did though. He’d sensed the desire in the man’s touch, the twisted amusement the vamp took in tormenting her. Julian had no idea who the vamp was yet, but he would, and soon.

  Quinn stirred beside him once more. He ran his fingers over the bare skin of her shoulder until she settled again. The vamp hunting her was everything she hated and despised about their kind. Julian had been on the verge of becoming that kind of vampire again the other night. He’d nearly been the one to bring death to this town as he’d teetered on the edge of losing himself to his sinister urges.

  Thoughts of Quinn and how badly he’d hurt her if he did such a thing had b
een the only things that had stopped him. She’d lost too much already in her short life; he couldn’t be another of her disappointments and heartaches. He loved her too much for that.

  He’d come so close to killing again that he’d stood at someone’s back door, his hand on the knob as he’d fought to rein in his baser, more volatile urges. He’d stood there until the sun had sizzled across his back, burning through his clothes down to his skin. Forced away from the door by his burning flesh, no one would welcome a burning man into their home no matter how handsome or charming he was, he’d taken shelter in the pool house. Unable to trust himself around the people as they’d woken and started their day, he’d remained hidden until he could be sure they were gone for the day.

  The entire time their coffee brewed and their bacon fried, he’d fought the urge to find a way to coax an invite into their home to gorge on them. Their laughter and inane conversation had grated on his nerves; his nails had dug into his palms so forcefully he’d dug crescent shaped grooves into them until blood dripped from his hands. It wasn’t until he heard the slamming of their car doors that he’d dared to emerge from the pool house.

  He would have stayed there all day to avoid the sun, but his need to get to Quinn had driven him through the scarce shadows he could find back to her apartment building. Then she’d soothed him, told him she loved him, and given herself to him. She’d completed and calmed him in ways he’d never known possible. What she’d done that day had worked more of a miracle with him than her ability to make his heart beat had. For the first time, he’d known he could forever keep the evil part of himself caged in order to be with her and make her happy.

  She was his savior; she’d also be his greatest downfall if something ever happened to her.

  He wished there was a way to get Devon here without bringing Cassie too, but Cassie would never agree to stay behind if she believed they were in enough danger to warrant calling Devon. Chris and Melissa were her best friends, Luther her Guardian, and he knew she loved him. She’d refuse to stay behind, and with her powers, she couldn’t come anywhere near Quinn. Not while a large chunk of the vampire population was hunting her.

  “You’re very deep in thought.” Quinn’s fingers brushed over his face, heating his flesh and drawing his mouth instinctively toward hers.

  “Thinking about how to catch a vamp.”

  “Easy,” she replied and rose above him. “We use me as bait.”

  “No.”

  “Julian, he has no idea what I’m capable of. So far, he seems to be playing this game alone. I can draw him out, we can trap him, and then I can use his own life force to pummel him into pieces.”

  Despite his intense dislike of her plan, his curiosity pricked at her statement. “Can you do that?”

  “I’ve never tried it before, but I don’t see why not. I can give and take, or I can just take. Apparently, I can restart heartbeats too.” She smiled at this and pressed her fingers against his chest. That little development still awed him. It had been five hundred and seventy-six years since he’d felt his heartbeat. The sensation had been one of the most amazing of his life, second only to knowing what it was like to possess her body and taste her blood. “I imagine I could also turn that life force against another and bash them with it.”

  “I’d imagine so too,” he murmured.

  He threaded his fingers through her hair, drawing her mouth to his. He took her lips with a firm possession. His tongue delving in and out of her hot recesses made him crave more. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her on top of him.

  “Julian, the others,” she protested against his mouth.

  “Sleeping,” he assured her as he reclaimed her mouth.

  He’d make her forget all about her harebrained idea to be bait soon enough. Instead, he found himself being the one to forget as his hands skimmed over her flesh. A feeling of contentment and belonging stole through him when she easily slid her body together with his. When her fangs sank into his neck, his entire body arched up. Her ecstasy beat against him so vehemently he could barely separate her pleasure from his. Sinking his own fangs into her shoulder, he gorged on her sweet, powerful blood.

  He opened up the pathways between them, allowing her to experience all of the sensations he experienced when he was inside of her, tasting her, allowing her to feel the love he felt for her. She melded against him as her mind opened up to flood his with her love.

  His fingers entangled in her hair, he pulled her closer as he fed deeper on her. Her hands dug into his back, and her body moved more rapidly over his as she gave and took of his life in deep pulls. His heart exploded into life, pulsing his blood more vigorously into her.

  She moaned against his throat, a delicious sound that nearly pushed him over the edge. Breaking his hold on her shoulder, his head fell back as his heart continued to beat out a riotous tempo within his chest.

  He pulled her against him as he lost himself to the pleasure of her body.

  ***

  “If he would listen to reason, he would see it’s a good plan,” Quinn said and actually stomped her foot on the ground.

  Julian folded his arms over his chest as he watched her. It was rare that her composure slipped, but the whites of her eyes had turned red, and the red encircling the outer rim of her irises leapt and danced like actual flames.

  “Wow!” Melissa breathed and Julian realized it was the first time they’d actually seen the enchantingly strange phenomena of her eyes. Having been born a half-vampire and a Hunter, Quinn had possessed a lot of power before she’d made the transformation into full vampire; it showed in the color of her eyes now.

  “Astounding,” Luther remarked.

  Quinn frowned at Luther before focusing her attention on Julian once more. “It’s the best way to accomplish anything,” she insisted.

  “Putting your life on the line is far from the best way to accomplish anything,” he replied.

  “It’s a good plan, and you know it. If it was anyone else, you would allow it to happen.”

  “But it’s not anyone else,” he said. “It’s you, and I’ve sensed how badly this man wants to get his hands on you. I’ve sensed his thoughts about you, and the depraved things he anticipates doing to you.” She paled, but her chin remained thrust out in defiance at his words. “I won’t allow it to happen. Do you really think he’s going to fall for it, if you go prancing around all alone in the desert?”

  “And what would you suggest I do, prance around my job and this apartment while he slaughters more families? I don’t know how many families there are with three children in them in this town, but I can guarantee none of them are safe. And that’s only if he decided to keep going after families with those numbers. He’s made his point; I’d guarantee almost everyone is fair game now.”

  “She’s right,” Chris said.

  Julian’s eyes snapped toward him. “This doesn’t concern you, Christopher.”

  “But it does,” he said. “It concerns all of us. Believe me, I know how testy you vamps can be when your mates are threatened. I saw it firsthand with Cassie and Devon. I really don’t want to see it with you. You’re already a little scary at times, but your alternative is to let more people die. Possibly a lot more.”

  “You’re making the mistake of thinking I put anyone’s life ahead of hers,” Julian growled.

  Chris’s eyes narrowed on him. Quinn stepped forward and waved her hands at him to break his stare with Chris. “Mates?” she inquired when he looked at her.

  “I told you about them before, Dewdrop.”

  “Yes, I remember, but us?”

  Julian shot Chris a fulminating look. Chris held his hands up innocently and shook his head. “I assumed you were with how close you two have been. I could be wrong. I don’t think I am,” he muttered in an aside to Melissa.

  “Neither do I,” she whispered back.

  “Do you think we’re mates?” Quinn asked Julian.

  Julian tried to figure out the best way to an
swer this. In the end, he went with the truth. “We are.”

  Quinn’s mouth dropped open; she closed it again as the red faded from her eyes. “Oh. I, uh… Oh.”

  “Just the response every man wants to hear when a woman is informed she’ll share her life with him,” he said, hoping to coax a smile from her and ease some of the strain from her face.

  Finally, a small smile tugged at her mouth, but she still looked as if a freight train had sideswiped her. Walking over, she perched on the edge of the couch. “We can discuss it later,” he assured her.

  She turned to look at him with her eyebrows drawn together. Chris, Melissa, and Luther grouped closer together. Lou and Zach eyed the door like it was their only hope.

  “I saw what that bond did to Seanix when Angie died,” Quinn muttered. “And they never even completed it.”

  “Can you leave us?” Julian asked the others. “We’ll meet you at the bar shortly.”

  “Sure,” Lou said and flung the door open. He wouldn’t have been more eager to escape from a ticking bomb.

  “Good luck,” Chris said and slapped him on the shoulder as Julian followed him to the door.

  “Thanks,” Julian muttered.

  Luther stopped before him in the doorway, his gray eyes intent on him. “Hallway,” Luther said. Julian glanced back at Quinn before stepping into the hall behind him. “Once you get this straightened out, you really should consider her plan. This vampire has to be stopped before he destroys more innocent lives. I know Quinn is your number one concern, but she will blame herself for every one of those lives, and you know it. She’ll also blame you for keeping her from doing this.”

  Julian’s hand curled around the doorknob as he fought the urge to tear it free. “Shit!”

  “Shit is right. You can’t order her about and expect it to end well. It won’t. I don’t think being a mate assures you a happily ever after with each other, but working together and listening to her will go a long way toward doing so.”