Arctic Fire

by Erica Stevens

  He managed to avoid a blow that would have spilled his intestines by jumping back at the last second. Quinn snarled and dove at him. Her hands grabbed hold of his chest when something hit her from behind with enough force to crack her skull. She cried out as pain exploded through her head. The stake clattered to the ground when her hands instinctively flew to the back of her caved in skull. It felt as if her brain was compressing, and she supposed it actually was compressed.

  The world around her lurched, and she took a stumbling step to the side as the wooden floor of the bar became the sandy desert. Was she inside still? Was she outside? She couldn’t bring anything into focus as the synapses in her squished brain misfired. Falling to the side, she hit something hard enough to break it. The world went dark.

  CHAPTER 22

  Julian shoved dark sunglasses on to cover eyes he knew were red as he pushed his way through the crowd gathered outside the bar. A pudgy man tried to block him, but Julian shoved him out of the way as he climbed the steps.

  “I’ll arrest you for assaulting a police officer!” the man shouted at him.

  Julian spun on him. “I’ll tear your throat out if you try!”

  The man took an awkward step back and bumped into the doorway of the building. Clint hurried forward; his hand wrapped around Julian’s arm as he pulled him away. A large bruise in the shape of a hand covered the right side of Clint’s face.

  “Sorry about that, Ed,” Clint apologized. “This is Quinn’s boyfriend. He must have assumed she was still here. You know how it is to worry ‘bout someone, I’m sure.”

  “Oh,” Ed replied, but his hand still rested on the butt of his gun as he gave Julian a scathing glance. “You’d think he’d know where his girlfriend is.”

  Julian snarled at the reminder that he had absolutely no idea where she was, and that was his fault. The tracking app said she was still here, but Clint had just said she wasn’t. He didn’t see her anywhere amongst the crowd, nor could he feel her close by.

  “Easy,” Clint murmured to him. “Killing him won’t get us anywhere. Just walk away. It’s the best thing you can do for Quinn right now.”

  “Where is she?” he hissed between his teeth.

  Clint shook his head, drawing him aside as paramedics lifted a stretcher with Hawtie strapped to it. Her hand reached out to Clint, and he hurried to her side. He bent low so Hawtie could whisper in his ear. Clint nodded briskly and gave her a brief kiss before stepping away. Julian’s eyes scanned the blood splattering the bar floor, the broken shelves, and mirror behind the bar.

  “What did she say?” he demanded of Clint.

  “To stay with you until we find Quinn. It’s all she cares about right now.”

  Julian’s eyes landed on the black body bag on the floor. It wasn’t Quinn. He would know if it was. A piece of him would already be broken. He would be a monster, unstoppable in his determination to destroy anything that got in his way. Was it Dani?

  Walking over, he grabbed the zipper and jerked it back to reveal the ruined remains of Jeb’s head.

  “Hey!” Ed shouted at him. “I don’t care who you are! You touch one more thing in this room, and I’m throwing your ass in jail.”

  “What is wrong with you?” Clint demanded as he pulled him away.

  “Where is she, Clint?”

  “Not here. They took her.” The entire bar became enshrouded in a haze of red so thick he imagined it was much like what Hell looked like. And that was exactly what he was in right now, Hell. They’d taken her, he had no idea where, and the sun was about to rise. “The police don’t know that. I told them I’d sent her home early, and we need to keep up that appearance.”

  Julian barely heard Clint’s words through the thrumming pulse of fury pounding in his head. “Her phone?”

  “It fell out of her pocket when they carried her out.”

  His gaze slid over the bar again as he sniffed at the blood in the room. Some of it was Quinn’s. The rest was human and…

  His head turned as he caught a different scent. Hurrying over, he peered behind the bar to where two male paramedics knelt on either side of Dani. They were taking her pulse and blood pressure. She grabbed hold of one of their hands when they tried to put a neck brace on her and shoved them away.

  “I told you, I’m fine,” she said testily.

  “You could have a concussion and you should be checked out,” the other one argued.

  “I’m fine,” she insisted. “I’m not going to the hospital. Now leave me be.”

  “You have to sign paperwork saying you refuse.”

  “Yeah, whatever, just get away from me with that thing.”

  The other one shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Idiot,” he muttered, earning him a wrathful glare from Dani.

  Sensing his presence, Dani’s head tilted back and her eyes widened on him. He could almost see her rethinking the hospital option, but in the end, she took a deep breath and pushed herself to her feet. She wobbled unsteadily for a minute, but managed to regain her balance before one of the paramedics grabbed hold of her arm.

  “Miss, you really should be checked out. A concussion is nothing to mess around with,” the man told her.

  “Not the first, won’t be the last,” she muttered. “No sleep for this girl, I promise.”

  Finally giving up, the paramedics put away the last of their medical supplies and walked around the end of the bar. Dani rested her hands on the bar before him, her head bowed, but she finally forced it up. A long gouge had dug across her cheek toward her ear. The upper part of her right ear was a jagged mess as part of it had been torn away. The blood had been cleaned from the wounds and no longer flowed forth.

  “I’m sorry. I tried.” She shook her head, then winced and grabbed hold of it. “We’ll find her, I swear it. I just don’t remember…”

  Julian could only stand and stare at her as her voice trailed off. He was scared if he moved even a millimeter, he would kill everyone and anyone standing nearby. He’d leave a trail of destruction wherever he went until he found her again.

  When he did finally find her, would she even know who he was?

  The possibility she wouldn’t know him once he found her made the red haze intensify. Her captor could control minds; what would he do to her? What would he make her do? His fingers tore into the bar top, shredding the wood as his shoulders hunched up. His fangs sliced into his bottom lip.

  “Everyone has to get out of here,” Ed called from the front of the bar. “Even you, Clint. Hawtie’s out now, you need to be too.”

  “We’re going,” Clint said.

  Julian felt the man standing beside him before Clint’s hand rested against his forearm. “You’re a brave man,” Julian grated.

  “Perhaps, but we have to leave now. You have to get it together enough to get past the crowd out there.”

  Splinters dug beneath his fingernails. “He’ll warp her mind—”

  “Don’t think of it. Keep it together. You’ll find her, but if you spiral out of control now, it will never happen.”

  Julian reluctantly released his death grip on the bar and turned away from it. He kept his head down so he wouldn’t be tempted by the pulsing heartbeats of those he passed as he made his way outside. Luther and the others fell in around him as they made their way to Quinn’s apartment.

  The first rays of the sun barely touched the horizon when he stepped inside the building. He stared at the rising ball of fire, despising it and his weakness to it.

  “We need the RV,” he said to Luther.

  Luther nodded and hurried back out the front door. Julian remained unmoving, his gaze focusing on the sun as it crept higher into the sky to spill across his skin. His flesh began to sizzle and smoke curled around him. He welcomed the pain; he deserved it and more for allowing Quinn to be taken.

  No, she had needed to draw her stalker out, and he understood her reasons for that. He’d wanted her far from here, but if their roles had been reversed, he wouldn’t have le
ft either, and he would have done everything he could to find and kill that bastard. The vamp had destroyed her family. Now he was tormenting her and menacing her town; she’d longed to make him pay.

  “Julian, please,” Melissa whispered. She rested her hand on his arm, trying to pull him back as blisters formed and burst on his flesh. “Someone could see, and you have to be at your strongest to look for her.”

  He hadn’t felt the searing of the sun’s warmth, and he didn’t feel the coolness of the shadows when he stepped back into them. He leaned against the wall, his eyes fixed outside as he watched the RV approach. Luther hadn’t come to a complete stop when Julian shoved open the door and strode over to the vehicle. He barely noticed the flames leaping to life on his fingertips as Luther shoved the door to the RV open.

  He strode into the RV, the shadows smothering the flames from his body. “Hopefully no one saw that,” Clint muttered as he climbed inside and settled at the table.

  “Head toward the ranch,” Julian commanded Luther as the others settled in around him. “The vampires were feeding there a lot. They may have a hideout nearby.” Luther climbed into the driver’s seat and shifted the engine into drive. Julian braced his hand against the ceiling as he focused on Dani and Clint. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

  Dani’s head fell into her hands. “It’s kind of a blur. I remember being outside and someone was attacked. Then we were inside and someone was shooting. Quinn, she became thinner?” The last statement was more of a question as she turned toward Clint.

  Clint rested his hand on her arm. “That’s the extremely shortened version. I’ll tell them,” he assured her.

  Julian remained mute as he listened to Clint’s retelling of everything that had occurred.

  “He waited until you were both weaker before making his move,” Chris said and pushed against Lou so he could slide into one of the bench seats around the table. Lou shot him a disgruntled look, but eventually slid over. “He purposely went for someone he knew Quinn would save.”

  “Yes,” Julian rasped. His throat was parched from the fire and smoke that had drifted from him. His body had already begun to heal but hunger licked across his veins like lightning. “I need blood.”

  “There’s some bags in the fridge,” Luther replied and glanced at him in the rearview.

  “I barely remember any of it,” Dani muttered.

  “It will come back to you,” Melissa said. She opened the fridge and pulled out a half a dozen bags of blood before closing it again. “One good thing about being a Hunter, we heal fast. What happened to your ear?”

  “My ear?” Dani reached up to touch her ears. She winced when her right hand made contact with the jagged wound. “What happened?”

  “You were shot,” Clint said. “But you’re fine.”

  “Just missing a piece,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Chris said.

  “Quinn was shot too, in her shoulder,” Dani recalled.

  A sound he didn’t recognize came from him at her words. Melissa kept her legs braced against the rocking of the RV as she made her way toward him. She handed the blood bags to him and rested her hand against the cabinets as he ripped the top off the first one and drained the contents in one swallow.

  He tore into the next bag with the same enthusiasm, then the next until they were all gone. It did nothing to ease the bloodlust pulsating within him, but by the time he was finished, his skin had completely healed and he felt stronger.

  Sliding past Melissa, he tossed the bags into the trash next to the sink and walked toward the front of the RV. Luther glanced at him as he rested his hand against the bed over Luther’s head to brace himself. Tuning all of his senses to the world around him, he strained to catch any hint of Quinn’s smell or presence amongst the endless desert.

  CHAPTER 23

  Quinn woke slowly. Her head throbbed like someone was beating on it with a hammer and her shoulder felt like a hot poker was digging into it. Her arms… why did they hurt so badly? They were above her head? What had happened?

  Her eyes fluttered open before instantly closing again. The pain caused by just trying to look around was excruciating. She dimly recalled the last time she’d seen anything. It had felt like a bad acid trip as she hadn’t been unable to figure out if she was inside or outside, and everything had seemed wrong. Someone had hit her with enough force to cave her skull in. She tried to move her hands so she could feel the back of her skull, but her fingers were numb and swollen.

  Think. Feel your surroundings if you can’t see them.

  Taking a couple of seconds to gather her spinning mind, she gradually took stock of her body. She was standing, or at least it felt like she was in an upright position as she could feel air moving all around her body. There was no breeze; it was the simple ebb and flow of air currents as they traveled from one place to another.

  Her arms were above her head. There was something cool and solid clasped around her wrists. Chains, she realized. She was chained with her hands above her head and… Yep, her ankles were chained too; she could feel the weight of the chains dragging against her legs when she tried to move them forward.

  The metal clinked against something hard, concrete most likely. Lifting her head, she tried to open her eyes again. Blackness surrounded her, but for all she knew, it could be bright as day around her and her eyes still weren’t working right from the blow she’d taken. She closed them again as the rest of the details of what had happened slowly came back to her.

  They’d been set up, attacked, ambushed, and outmaneuvered. It had been a genius move to weaken her and Dani before coming for them. She wouldn’t underestimate her opponent again. She’d also been shot. The burning in her shoulder was from the bullet making its way out of her body. She moved her feet, trying to turn on the chains she hung from. She was brought up short when they tightened to the point she couldn’t move anymore.

  If she were at full strength, or even at half her usual strength, she could’ve easily broken them. Right then, her muscles were cramped, her bones grated together in her shoulder blades, and she could feel her ribcage pressing against her skin.

  When she’d been younger and still had pets, she’d once held her rabbit as it died after being attacked by the neighbor’s cat. Beneath her hand, its coat had still been thick and fat still lined its body. However, a coldness she hadn’t been able to understand at the time encompassed the animal. Something had been broken within it, but her aunt and uncle hadn’t been home to help her get it to the vet. So she’d held it, feeling the life fading from its tiny body until all that remained was the limp, lifeless shell.

  She felt like that now, cold when she shouldn’t be. Drained and fading. She wouldn’t die, but if she didn’t get blood and feed on someone’s life force soon, she would be as helpless and weak as that rabbit against these vamps.

  A creaking sound from her right caused her to go completely still. She kept her head bowed and unmoving as she listened to footsteps entering her place of imprisonment. There were at least three of them, she realized.

  “Skinny thing. I can’t see her being a menace to anyone,” a woman’s voice said.

  “She’s weakened right now, and we’ll keep her that way until I can take control of her mind.” That voice she recognized as Rat-Face. It took all she had to remain immobile and not fight against her chains until she tore free and beat him to death.

  “I’m still not sure about that plan,” the woman murmured.

  “It’s the only way we’ll be able to keep her under control and make her do what we ask,” Rat-Face replied.

  “Hmm,” the woman murmured. One of the footsteps approached her and began to circle. “But you could also make her do whatever you command against any of us.”

  “Come now, Helena, we must have trust between us.”

  “I trust no one,” Helena replied, “especially not a man.”

  Quinn could feel the woman standing before her, staring at her. So not all of the vampires wi
th Rat-Face were part of his burgeoning tribe. Judging by the vibe of power radiating from Helena, she was old. Older than Rat-Face, and Quinn craved her life force like a smoker craved nicotine.

  “I must agree with Helena on this,” another male said. “How are we to know you won’t turn her against us?”

  “I vow it,” Rat-Face replied.

  Helena released a bark of laughter. “I give more worth to fool’s gold than your vow.”

  “Watch it,” Rat-Face warned.

  “Or you’ll what, take control of my mind? Then everyone here would know you’re not to be trusted.”

  “They wouldn’t know if I did, and neither would you.”

  “Don’t threaten me. I’d know, and I’d shred you before you could ever try and take control of me.”

  The other man snickered; Quinn could feel the tension in the room ratcheting up. She hoped the two of them tore each other to pieces and solved part of her problem, but neither of them made a move toward the other.

  “What about Julian?” the other man asked.

  “What about him?” Helena inquired.

  “He’ll come for her.”

  “Of course he will,” Rat-Face replied. “And when he discovers his little girlfriend is under my control, we’ll also have control of him. He’ll do anything we say in order to ensure we don’t hurt her.”

  “Are we sure she means so much to him?” Helena snorted. “Men tend to be fickle about women. He may move on; it’s not like she’s anything to look at.”

  Helena has a huge problem with men, Quinn decided.

  “Maybe she’s no beauty, but she’s prettier when she’s got some weight on her, and he’ll come for her. I’ve seen the way he watches her, the way he treats her. She’s special to him,” Rat-Face replied.

  “If they’re mated we’ll have him at our mercy,” the other man said. “Did you check her neck for bite marks?”