Frost Burn

by Erica Stevens

  He’d purposely put a wall between them, the last thing he wanted was to make things more complicated than they already were, but he wasn’t the only one with a wall. She barely made eye contact with him and seemed as determined to stay away from him as he was from her.

  The few conversations they had were clipped and usually in the presence of the others. Ever since she’d revealed her history to him, he didn’t know how to act around her. She walked around with this hard outer shell protecting her, but inside she was damaged and he was frightened he would somehow make it worse.

  He wasn’t a good man, and she deserved something wonderful and someone good in her life. She deserved better than him.

  So he threw himself into finding the monster hunting the innocent people in this town.

  That there were no bodies only made things harder. It was difficult to track a killer when he didn’t know where to start. No one had been reported missing, and the person doing the killing was smart enough to hide the mess they were creating.

  In the brief flash of images he’d seen, the women and children all had darker skin with black hair and deep brown eyes. Their faces had been round, with broad cheekbones. The lack of missing people reports, the lingering images of those innocent faces, and the fact they were only a half an hour from the Mexican border had led them all to the conclusion this killer hunted illegal immigrants crossing over. The killer may be a brutal monster, but they weren’t stupid.

  By the third day of the search, Quinn insisted they’d run across everyone who had been involved in the fight, but there had to be someone they were missing. His ability had never been wrong before; he knew what he’d experienced from whoever it was he’d touched.

  The lack of progress was making him testier with every night that passed. Trying to keep Quinn safe should be his main concern, and he wanted this checked off of his list of things to be taken care of, or taken out was more like it. He didn’t understand how he couldn’t find the man or where they were hiding from him, but the longer the killer eluded him, the more determined he became.

  He placed his beer on a table and shifted his pool stick into his other hand. He’d been avoiding the bar until closing time, but with the dead ends he’d been hitting in his search, he’d decided it was time to go back to the beginning. The clinking of balls sounded in his ears as his gaze drifted to Quinn. She smiled as she placed some drinks onto a table surrounded by a group of young men.

  One of them said something and went to slap her on the ass. Julian’s jaw clenched; he placed his pool stick against the wall and stepped toward them. He’d break their hand before he ever let them disrespect her.

  Before he could intervene, Quinn’s hand shot out and caught hold of the guy’s hand in the air. The smile was still on her face, but even he would have been put off by the chill in her eyes. The guy was an ass, but the human wasn’t a fool, he dropped his hands back into his lap like a good schoolboy.

  Julian couldn’t help but smile while he watched her walk away. He found Chris grinning at him when he turned from the scene. “You’re so lucky Cassie made me promise not to kill you,” he muttered.

  “I didn’t say a word,” Chris replied innocently.

  Julian was really beginning to rethink his promise to Cassie. He didn’t have to kill Chris; he could always just make it so he couldn’t speak again. But he’d probably miss talking to Chris, seventy-five percent of the time at least.

  Unwilling to deal with him right now, Julian turned away and watched as Quinn returned to the bar. Hawtie, having resurfaced in Clint’s four days ago, was sitting at the end of it. Quinn rested her elbows on the bar and leaned forward to talk with her. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the smile on Quinn’s face was genuine now.

  “Julian…”

  “I’m not going to discuss this. This is the one thing that is off limits, Chris.”

  The hand Chris had wrapped around his pool stick turned white as he bit back his words, finally he gave a brief bow of his head. Julian took a step away from him and moved into the main barroom. There wasn’t anyone in here tonight, he hadn’t seen over the week. There might still be a chance he could find some people he didn’t know if he returned to Hawtie’s, the bonfire, or the Mitchum’s, but he couldn’t bring himself to look again tonight. Tonight he wanted to be close to her.

  A human murderer in this town was nothing compared to the vampires he feared might be closing in on her. He’d been hiding from her this past week, he wasn’t so oblivious he couldn’t admit that to himself, but he couldn’t do it forever. They were going to have to stay close to one another if he was going to keep her alive. The vampire community had taken a huge hit when the Elders were killed, and their main source of leadership had been disrupted.

  He and Devon may not have fallen into line with The Elders when they’d been alive, and preferred to be on their own, but many had looked to The Elders for guidance and protection. Without The Elders, the vampires had been lost and scattered these past two years. The hopeful promise of her might be enough for them all to regroup, something that would be treacherous for them all.

  Apprehension twisted in his gut, the urge to get closer to her drove him as he swept across the barroom. Few people paid him any attention, but more than a couple instinctively leaned away from him. Quinn’s eyes widened when she saw him approaching; she paused in the act of placing some glasses into the dishwasher.

  Hawtie’s eyes lit up when she spotted him; her gaze slid pointedly toward Quinn and a smile curved her mouth. He grinned back at Hawtie as he stepped beside her.

  “You may be twenty years too young for me, but I still wouldn’t mind teaching you a thing or two,” Hawtie teased.

  Quinn snorted before returning to stacking dishes in the washer. Julian couldn’t help but chuckle over Hawtie’s statement either. If she knew the truth about his age, she’d fall off her barstool. “I’m a lot older than I look.”

  Hawtie laughed and flirtatiously hit his arm. “Still too young for me.”

  “I ain’t afraid to shoot you, Eminem,” Clint grumbled as he walked behind the bar.

  A burst of laughter escaped Quinn; her eyes twinkled when she glanced up at him from under her sweeping lashes. Julian stared at the old man as Clint eyed him up and down and rested his hand on the revolver holstered at his waist. There was a time he would have leaned over and snapped the old man’s neck before ordering his next drink, now he found himself oddly amused by him.

  “Point taken,” Julian assured him.

  Clint grunted in response; he glanced at Quinn before giving Julian another glaring look. “Clint behave, and leave the children alone,” Hawtie admonished and rested her hand on Clint’s arm. The old man relaxed visibly beneath her touch.

  Quinn finished loading the dishwasher and dried her hands on a towel. “What can I get for you?” she asked him.

  He shook his head as he simply drank in the sight of her. She wasn’t beautiful in the classic sense, but she was pretty, and he believed she might be the most intriguing woman he’d ever seen. Her features were striking, the air of pride surrounding her almost irresistible.

  “Nothing,” he told her.

  “Nothing? You came over here like you were on a mission.”

  His only mission had been to get closer to her, but he couldn’t say that to her, not after their estranged week of who can avoid whom most. He should walk out of this bar and go back on the hunt, but now that she was looking at him again, he found it impossible to do.

  “I’ll take a Bud, on tap.”

  Quinn dropped the towel and walked down to the taps. “If you’re going to keep staring at her like that, you should at least buy her dinner,” Clint griped.

  Julian frowned at the man. He found him amusing for the most part, but there was a fine line between amusing and starting to piss him off. “You know why you’re finding him so annoying right now?” Julian had been so focused on Clint, he hadn’t realized Chris had come to stand beside him
.

  “Please enlighten me, Yoda,” Julian retorted.

  “Oh I will young Skywalker. He annoys you because he’s so much like you. Just ask Zachariah.”

  Julian glowered at him before turning away, but as his eyes landed upon Clint’s, he realized Chris was right. “Crap,” he muttered.

  Chris laughed harder and slapped him on the back. “I really like that old guy.”

  Quinn gave them both a questioning look as she handed Julian his beer. “What’s so funny?” she asked Chris.

  “Your boss,” Chris replied.

  Her mouth quirked in a smile; she glanced at the man who had moved further down the bar to talk with some of his other patrons. “He’s one in a million.”

  “Miss!” Julian’s attention was drawn to the group sitting at the table and waving to get Quinn’s attention.

  “If you’d like, I’ll teach them some manners,” he told her. “And I’ll make sure their hands never travel to places they shouldn’t again.”

  “Believe me their hands won’t be traveling anywhere anytime soon,” she retorted.

  “They could still use some manners.”

  “So could you.”

  He lifted an eyebrow at her as he leaned against the bar. “Come now, Dewdrop, you have to admit you enjoy my more uncivilized manner.”

  She scowled at him, but he caught the hint of a smile tugging at her lips when she turned away from him. Julian drank down his beer and turned to Chris. “Are you following me now?”

  “No, I actually came to tell you Melissa had a premonition.”

  “About what?” Julian demanded.

  “She told me to grab you before she said anything.”

  Julian nodded and followed Chris to the poolroom. He spotted Melissa and Zach sitting at a table in the corner. Melissa’s shoulders were hunched up, her head bowed as she stared at her folded hands on the table. When she lifted her troubled eyes to his, he knew whatever she’d seen had been bad.

  Melissa’s premonitions ranged from the mundane to the life changing. She could brush off the smaller ones and continue on as if nothing had happened. The bigger ones left her looking older and wiser than her tender years. They drained her, and they were more noticeable to anyone around her as they took hold of her and held her immobile until they revealed every detail to her.

  He glanced around the room, but the dozen or so people playing pool and shooting darts hadn’t noticed anything different. Julian turned toward Angie as she walked by. “Can you get us a water?” he inquired.

  “You got it,” Angie replied and hurried away.

  Julian grabbed hold of a chair and pulled it up to the table. “What did you see?”

  “I saw whoever it is you’re looking for.” Her voice sounded as if she’d swallowed a handful of sand. “Or not what they look like, but what they’re going to do. I haven’t caught any hint of their presence until this vision, but I was there.” She leaned closer to them. “I was in their head. I saw it from their point of view.”

  Zach rested his hands on her back and began to rub it when she shuddered and closed her eyes. Melissa’s shoulders relaxed as she leaned into his touch. He still didn’t like the guy, but he had to admit it was good to see Melissa unwind a little.

  Quinn’s presence in the room caused warmth to spread through him before she stepped beside him. His left elbow, the one she stood closest to, tingled. He almost took hold of her hand, but restrained himself at the last second.

  “Whoever is doing this is going to kill again, soon,” Melissa whispered. “A little girl.”

  “Was there anyone with the little girl?” Julian inquired, his voice edgier than normal.

  Melissa shook her head and swallowed heavily. She lifted her head to look at him. “I didn’t see anyone else. I don’t know what that means; I don’t know if there is someone else in the background or if it was only the little girl. I do know we still have a chance to save this child.”

  “Shit,” Julian hissed from between his teeth. He ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the ends of it as his mind spun. His gaze drifted to Quinn.

  “You have to go,” she urged. “There’s no one here you haven’t seen before. If there’s a chance you can save the child, you have to go.”

  It was the right thing to do, but up until two years ago right and wrong had mattered to him about as much as dirt. Looking at Quinn, he realized right and wrong were on the backburner. He didn’t want the child to die, but her safety mattered more to him. He’d left her to the protection of the others this past week, but he couldn’t shake the feeling their time was running out. That vampires were closing in on them even now.

  “I can take care of myself,” she murmured. The feeling of being torn in two filled him. If he went she could be put at risk, if he stayed she may end up hating him. “If you don’t go, I will. I’ll tell Clint I’m sick or something, and I’ll walk out of this bar. I’m safer here, in public, than out of it.”

  Her eyes were determined as they held his, her jaw jutted out defiantly. He rested his palms flat on the table and rose to stand beside her. “You’re not to leave this building until I get back.” The muscle in her cheek began to jump. “The others will stay here with you.”

  “You need someone to go with you,” she protested.

  “No, I don’t.”

  She stepped closer to him and cast her voice low. “I can drain the life from someone, I’m stronger than most, and I don’t need a babysitter.”

  He rested his hands on her shoulders. “You have to be kept safe. That is my number one concern. If the vampires were to capture you…” He broke off as he bit back the words, I don’t know what I would do. Instead, he continued with, “It could spell doom for all of us.”

  The hopeful shimmer in her eyes faded away by the time he finished speaking. Confusion swirled through him as he sensed her disappointment and hurt. He had no idea what to make of anything happening between them. What did she want from him? Or better yet, what did he want from her? The frightening answer to that question hovered at the edges of his mind, but he refused to acknowledge it.

  Where he’d just been unwilling to leave her, he now found himself eager to escape the suddenly cramped bar.

  She gave a brisk nod and moved away from his hands. “I have to get back to work.”

  In his mind he made a move to stop her, but his hands remained by his sides. The others all stared at him with expressions that made him think he might have somehow sprouted a third eye in his forehead. “She doesn’t go to the bathroom by herself,” he commanded gruffly.

  Spinning on his heel, he stormed out of the bar before he could stop to contemplate everything that had just transpired and the tumultuous feelings rolling through him.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Quinn put her hands in Chris’s back and pushed him toward the door. “But we’re supposed to stay with you,” he protested.

  “Not after closing,” she told him.

  “Julian’s going to kick my ass.”

  “And Clint will fire me if he finds out I let anyone stay in here after closing. Stand outside; I’ll be out in half an hour.”

  Melissa and the others were already gathered in the parking lot when they arrived at the door. “But…”

  “Don’t forget there’s a backdoor,” she said and closed the door in his face.

  “Talk about some barflies,” Angie said and shook her head. “I didn’t think they were ever going to leave.”

  “Me either.” Quinn gathered the last of the glasses from the tables and placed them on her tray. She dropped them off at the bar for Angie to put in the washer.

  “Where did Julian go?” Angie asked.

  “He had some things to take care of,” she replied evasively.

  Angie’s eyes were probing when she met Quinn’s gaze. “I think he likes you.”

  Quinn shrugged and began to wipe off the tables. She had no response for her or any idea of what she and Julian were to each other. It was al
l such a confusing mess, one she would have preferred not to have in her life, yet she also didn’t want him out of her life. She didn’t have a choice on that matter though, not as long as he believed she could possibly become a menace to them if she was caught.

  She’d opened up more to him than anyone else in her life, and then she’d shut him back out again. It had been difficult to do, but necessary. Tonight the reasons why had slapped her over the head again.

  Sometimes she thought he might care for her, and then he reminded her the only reason he was still here was to make sure she couldn’t be used as a weapon if she fell into the wrong hands. Of course that was his number one concern, his heart belongs to another, she reminded herself for the thousandth time.

  It felt like a weight had been tied around her heart, but she couldn’t shake the heaviness dragging her down since he’d left. She hated that she’d come to care for him and opened herself up to him in such a way. It made her vulnerable, made her feel exposed and like a fool for thinking he could feel anything more than pity for her.

  But his kisses…

  She could vividly recall every one of his sizzling kisses, but he hadn’t kissed her since she’d told him about the horrific events of her transformation. Nothing pissed her off more than being pitied, and that’s exactly what she felt she was now. As she scrubbed one of the pub tables she debated giving him a good ass kicking so he would stop thinking of her as fragile.

  “You’re taking the paint off it,” Angie said with a laugh.

  Quinn stepped back as she realized she had indeed scrubbed off a layer of varnish. “Just distracted,” she muttered.

  “I bet I know by what or should I say, who,” Angie teased.

  Quinn smiled at her, however she felt anything but cheery as she moved onto the next table. Angie sprayed down the bar; she was beginning to wipe it off when a loud bang on the roof froze them both.