Scorched Ice

by Erica Stevens

  She’d never seen this guy in the poolroom. Where had he been hiding? Had they purposely sent the other man to lure them away from the pool? She had the unpleasant suspicion the answer to that question was yes.

  They’d been lured away and split up, making them more vulnerable to an attack.

  Where were her friends? How many members of The Commission and Hunters were in this hotel? Had her friends all been taken or killed already?

  Julian. Terror tugged at her gut, but she couldn’t give in to it. If she let her emotions rule her, she’d never make it out of this fight. Julian was still alive; she would know if he wasn’t.

  This man had said there was a standing kill order on the others, but what of her? The Commission had no idea who she was, and this man was more than curious about her. Would he try to take her alive in order for The Commission to figure out exactly who and what she was?

  Julian had told her some of what had been done to him and Cassie while they’d been held prisoner and tortured. She’d seen more of his imprisonment when their minds were connected while they fed from each other.

  She would die before ever letting these bastards experiment on her in such a way. If they ever figured out what she truly was, she had a feeling they would make eternity for her an exercise in brutality.

  “Don’t force me to kill you,” she said.

  The man’s thin lips twisted into a smile, and in that instant, she knew only one of them would walk away from this. The flicker of the lights in the room revealed the lethal ability this Hunter possessed. She had only a second to brace herself before a bolt of electricity slammed into her chest, flinging her backward.

  CHAPTER 11

  “Where is Quinn?” Julian asked of Cassie when they found her in the hallway.

  “We split up,” she replied as she glowered at him before turning to aim a killing glare at Devon. “What were you thinking?”

  Devon lifted an eyebrow but refrained from responding.

  “Why would you split up?” Julian demanded, drawing her gaze back to him.

  “Because you two idiots took off after a man who is a member of The Commission!” she retorted. “Because we had no idea what had happened to you or what was going on. Because you could have run straight into a trap without so much as a backward freaking glance at us!”

  Devon stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. She remained rigid in his grasp, her chin jutting out as red briefly burst to life in her eyes.

  “We’ll find the others,” Devon assured him as he ran his hands up and down Cassie’s arms. She relaxed a little in his hold. “Which way did they go?”

  “Chris, Melissa, and Dani went that way. Quinn went that way,” Cassie answered as she pointed down the different hallways.

  “She went alone?” Julian’s throat went dry, and his chest constricted at the realization. “We have no way of knowing how many of them are here.”

  Cassie didn’t bother to tell him he should have considered that before he left Quinn behind; he already knew that. If it were possible to kick himself in the ass, he would gladly do it up and down this hallway as soon as he found Quinn. He never should have taken off after that man, but the second Lou had said Commission, he hadn’t been able to think about anything other than murder. His impulsiveness and rage were things he’d believed he’d gained better control of; he’d been wrong. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

  “Did you catch him?” Cassie asked instead.

  “No,” Julian replied. The man must have had a room to retreat into soon after he’d fled from the pool area. With all the numerous scents filling the hotel and the many heartbeats, it had been impossible to track the man once he vanished from sight.

  Horror filled Cassie’s eyes. “We have to find him.”

  “We will,” Devon assured her.

  “You go after the others. I’ll locate Quinn,” Julian said.

  He took a step away from them as all the lights lining the hallway dimmed.

  “Dani,” Cassie whispered. The lights flared back to life before dimming again. “They’re in trouble.”

  “Find them,” Julian said. “I have to find Quinn.”

  He didn’t look back as he fled down the hall Quinn had taken. If the others were in trouble, she could be too.

  The lights dimmed again, this time for a longer period of time. When they burst to full life again, three of the bulbs lining the walls shattered. Julian didn’t bother to try to protect himself from the shards of glass raining over him. He barely felt the slices tearing across his skin as he ran.

  ***

  The glass of the pinball machine shattered beneath the impact of her body. Quinn groaned as pain lanced through her. Not only had the bastard hit her with a bolt of electricity, but he’d drawn from the energy flowing through the hotel before doing so.

  Tendrils of smoke spiraled up from the black hole burnt through the front of her robe. Beneath it, she could see the charred and blistered skin of her breastbone. The hair standing up on her arms was singed at the ends, and she was pretty sure that, if she went to feel it, the hair on her head would be standing straight up. Her fingers twitched against the glass beneath her, slicing the tips of them open and spilling more of her blood. She tried, but she couldn’t get her hands to stop their jittery movements as electricity continued to course through her body.

  No matter how badly her body ached, she had to move. Immobility guaranteed death. The thick robe managed to protect her from some of the glass, but it still sliced over her palms and bare feet as she rolled over and threw herself out of the pinball machine.

  She hit the ground a second before the lights dimmed again and the scoreboard of the pinball machine exploded. Glass and mechanical bits fell over her. More glass cut open her palms and feet as she scrambled to get out of the way of a possible third bolt.

  She shed the robe as she ran. Being forced to fight in a bikini should be reserved for one of the circles of Hell, but continuing to wear the cumbersome robe was plain stupidity.

  She dove under the pool table, rolling to the other side as another current of electricity hit the ground inches from where she’d been. Quinn stared at the smoke rising from the smoldering carpet. Anger clawed at her chest and made her fangs prick with more than the need to feed, but also a desire to end this.

  Rolling so her back was against the ground, she placed her feet and hands on the bottom of the pool table. Her brutalized flesh protested the movement as glass embedded deeper into her skin, but she gritted her teeth and shoved upward as the Hunter took a step toward her. Her muscles strained for a minute before the table flew up and away from her.

  The man shouted and scrambled to get out of the way as the heavy table hit the ground and tumbled toward him. The floor beneath her quaked from the weighty impact of the table. Wood broke off and scattered across the ground. The white cue ball rolled over the floor before settling against her side. Blood smeared the ball, turning it a pinkish hue when she grabbed it before leaping back to her feet.

  The Hunter had darted to the side to avoid being squished by the table, but one of its legs caught him in the thigh before the table crashed into the wall. The impact of the table leg caused the Hunter to stumble backward. While he was still trying to recover, Quinn heaved the ball at him. The Hunter was thrown more off balance when he twisted to avoid getting hit by the ball. The ball glanced across his shoulder and embedded itself a good three inches deep into the wall behind him.

  Keeping her head down, Quinn raced toward him. The lights of the room and the still intact arcade games dimmed again. The tips of the Hunter’s fingers danced with electricity as she closed the distance between them. The next electrical bolt smashed into her shoulder at the same time her hand encircled his throat.

  Clamping down on him, she kept the man in her grasp when he flung her across the room. She crashed into the wall with enough force to leave the indent of her body in the drywall before falling to the floor. Blood spilled from the three-
inch-wide hole his electricity had torn straight through the flesh and bone of her shoulder. A whimper escaped her before she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.

  Wounded and bleeding, the tentacles of her power latched onto the Hunter before she could think about what she was doing. The man gurgled, and his hands beat against her as his life flooded her. The bones in her shoulder grated and scraped together when they repaired themselves. Muscle closed over the hole he’d created in her.

  The man’s cheeks hollowed out until his eyes looked like they might pop out of his head at any second. Saliva filled her mouth as she resisted the impulse to sink her fangs into his throat and feast on his blood while she replenished her battered body with his life.

  Gritting her teeth together, she pushed him away from her. His clothes hung more loosely on his lean frame, and his cheekbones were sharper against his sallow skin, but he would survive what she’d done to him and eventually recover completely. His head turned toward her; she saw the shock in his blue eyes when they met hers.

  “I told you, I’m not the enemy,” she grated through her teeth and pulled herself off the wall as she moved her damaged shoulder back and forth. The hole was still in the process of closing, but it had healed enough that she could move it again.

  “What are you?” his voice sounded as if he had swallowed a pound of dust when he asked the question.

  Quinn pushed herself to her feet as a shadow fell across the doorway. Her head snapped up; her eyes landed on the man from The Commission she’d seen at the pool earlier. She’d been hesitant to kill a fellow Hunter. He didn’t know any better than what The Commission had drilled into his head over the years, but she’d gladly tear the throat out of anyone who was a member of the organization that had tortured Julian.

  She didn’t have a chance to go after him before the Hunter swung his leg out and landed a solid blow against the backs of her knees. “Son of a—”

  She hit the ground before she could finish the sentiment. Tired of playing with him, Quinn spun, seized his ankle, and slammed his knee up into his nose. The man howled as his nose shattered in a rush of blood that nearly sent her spiraling into uncontrollable bloodlust. She couldn’t lose herself to her hunger, not with another enemy looming in the doorway.

  Swinging her leg out, she caught the Hunter on the side of his head and sent him reeling to the side. Quinn moved rapidly across the floor as she turned to face the doorway. She growled in frustration when she discovered the doorway empty. The Hunter rolled over and this time came up with a crossbow in his shaking hand.

  Quinn threw herself forward and tucked into a ball. She rolled across the ground as the bolt fired. It whistled past her ear before embedding in the wall behind her. Glass sliced over her skin again as she came up against the ruined pool table. Unable to take stock of her injuries without risking being killed, she leaped to her feet as a crackling sound filled the air, and a bolt of electricity caught her in the thigh.

  She yelped and grabbed her wounded leg. Spinning to the side, she lifted a piece of glass from the floor and whipped it like a Frisbee at the Hunter. He released a gurgled shout and fell back against the ground, his fingers clawing at the glass embedded in his shoulder. Releasing the piece of glass, his hand fell to the floor. The pulsing flow of energy vibrated the ground beneath her feet as he drew power from the building and into him.

  Another jagged bolt of electricity sizzled out from him. All around her, the lights went out and the games shut off with a strange whirring sound as the hotel was unable to handle this final surge. She ignored the glass slicing across her brutalized feet as she ran across it to get away from him before he could release another bolt.

  She’d just ducked behind the dance machine when a loud snap filled the air and the electricity crackling the air abruptly ceased. Having heard the sound before, she knew the snap had been the sound of a neck breaking. She poked her head out from behind the machine.

  In the dim glow of the red emergency light flickering to life above the door, Julian stepped casually over the limp body of the Hunter on the floor. His eyes were a fiery red as they ran over her. “You’re hurt,” he snarled.

  “He was a Hunter!” she cried as she gazed at the immobile body.

  “I don’t care what he was. If he hurt you, he deserved to die.”

  “I would have been fine if I hadn’t had to chase you all over this place in nothing but a bikini.”

  Some of the fire faded from his icy eyes. “You should have stayed by the pool.”

  “Don’t you dare!” she shouted. “You would have followed me too if I’d been stupid enough to do something so reckless!”

  His shoulders remained locked for a minute before they slumped forward. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have taken off like that.”

  Startled by his concession without much of a fight from him, she had no idea how to respond to him at first. “Damn right, I’m right,” she finally said.

  A smile curved the corner of his mouth. “You’re sexy when you’re angry, Dewdrop.”

  “Don’t think you’re going to charm your way out of this. I’m pissed.”

  “I can see that, which just makes you sexier.”

  She scowled at him as she stepped out from behind the machine. She winced as shards of glass embedded deeper into her brutalized feet. Julian’s smile slipped away as his eyes blazed back to a ruby color. He stalked across the room toward her.

  “Don’t move,” he commanded.

  She didn’t have a choice as he was already lifting her off the ground. Despite her annoyance with him, she wrapped her legs around his waist and draped her arms over his shoulders while he carried her across the destroyed room.

  “How are we ever going to cover this up?” she muttered.

  “We’ll figure it out. Are you this badly injured because he was a Hunter and you were trying not to kill him?”

  “Yes, and the bastard hit me with a bolt of electricity that nearly jump-started my heart again.”

  “It wasn’t Dani drawing on the electricity of the hotel then.”

  “No, it was him.” Quinn couldn’t look at the body lying slumped against the wall when Julian carried her past it. “The other man was here too. The one you chased.”

  His hands clenched on her back as he stopped a few feet away from the door. “Where did he go?”

  “I don’t know. I would have killed him, but he took off running when he saw me.”

  “Fucking coward!” he spat.

  She couldn’t argue with that. “You should put me down. You have to be free in case he’s lurking around somewhere. There may also be more Hunters here.”

  “They would have taken off by now,” he replied. “And your feet look like you’ve been walking on glass.”

  “Because I was running on it,” she muttered. “Never again.”

  “Never again will you hesitate to kill,” Julian assumed. “Good.”

  She frowned at him, even as she slid her fingers through his short hair. No matter how angry she was with him, she was also extremely happy to see him, and she couldn’t fight her need to touch him. “No, never again will I wear a bikini, unless I can swim in my boots and with my weapons.”

  “Not sure how well that will work out.”

  “We’ll most likely never find out, as I never plan to let my guard down again,” she replied.

  “You can’t ever hesitate to kill another again, no matter who they are.”

  “You can’t ever chase after someone again on your own, no matter who they are.”

  His eyes were blue again when they met hers. Changing his hold on her, he lifted his finger to trace it over her bottom lip. “If I agree, will you?”

  “I’m not sure I can. That Hunter, he believed what The Commission has told him. Who knows how long they’ve told him those lies for, or what they did to him. What if we find other Hunters we can save?”

  “There is no saving them if they’re with The Commission. They don’t know any better, and th
ey’re not willing to learn differently. They’ll kill you before you could begin to convince them they’re wrong. Most of them have probably been raised by The Commission. All they know and believe is what has been drilled into their heads over the years. Your heart is one of the things I love most about you, but this belief that you may be able to save one of them is wrong and could get you killed. I can’t live without you.”

  The rest of her anger faded away at those last five words. “You’re too charming for your own good, or mine.”

  He replaced his finger on her mouth with his lips. Unable to resist the heat of his tongue sliding over her lips, she opened her mouth to his demanding invasion before he reluctantly pulled back. “Never.”

  He carried her the rest of the way out of the room just as Dani, Chris, and Melissa arrived in the small snack area. Quinn turned to look beyond them to the stairwell. She didn’t see anyone else standing there. For now, her battle hadn’t attracted too much attention. Either people were too frightened to come check out the noise, or the glass doors to the second floor provided better sound protection than she would have guessed.

  “Where are Cassie and Devon?” Julian inquired.

  “Taking care of cameras, witnesses, and hotel security,” Chris replied. “It comes in handy to have two people with mind control when someone blows out the electricity to a hotel, and it sounds like World War III is going on upstairs.”

  So much for her theory that the doors offered decent soundproofing. The noise of her fight, and probably the flashing lights, had scared everyone away.

  “Is that one of The Commission?” Dani inquired, her gaze focused on the Hunter’s body.

  “He was a Hunter,” Quinn replied. “I tried to convince him I didn’t want to hurt him, but he wouldn’t believe me.”

  “So I broke his neck,” Julian said as simply as if he’d said the sky was blue. “No one is going to harm her and live.”

  “Julian,” she whispered.

  “It’s true. We need to take care of the body.”

  “I’ll, ah… I’ll get it,” Chris said when Julian stared pointedly at him.