CHAPTER 19
Quinn stepped away from the coyote she’d caught and fed from. It glanced over its shoulder at her before vanishing behind one of the numerous outcroppings of rock rising up from the desert. The cool air slid over her skin, causing goose bumps to break out on her arms. She tilted her head back to take in the moon hanging just above the horizon and the thousands of stars glowing from the midnight tapestry above her.
She hadn’t been born in the desert, but it had become her home over the years. With her inability to deal with the sun, she’d often considered going somewhere safer for her, but she felt at home here amongst the shifting red and orange sand though. Felt at home amongst the numerous wildlife, large and squat prickly cactuses and the wildness of the terrain around her.
Maybe staying here was another way to punish herself by having to be locked away for large portions of the day. Or perhaps it was the barrenness of the desert, the loneliness of the rolling dunes and cactuses dotting the landscape that called to her.
It didn’t matter what it was, all that mattered was she’d somehow always felt safe hidden away here. Until now. Now a monster had invaded her home and was killing innocent women and children. And not just killing them, it was turning them into monstrosities, and she had no idea who it was or how to stop them from doing what they were doing.
She wiped away the blood on her mouth with the back of her hand. Her gaze involuntarily drifted over her shoulder as Julian released the coyote he’d been feeding from. The moonlight spilled over his chiseled features and lit his hair with its silvery radiance. The memory of what had transpired between them earlier flooded her mind; her lips tingled as she recalled the heat of his mouth burning against hers.
She’d been kissed before; felt up and nearly had sex with a boy she’d dated for two months during her senior year of high school. If her family hadn’t been murdered, she probably would have stayed with that boy, at least through the summer and maybe even her first semester of college.
After the murders, she’d locked herself away from people until she was certain she could be trusted around them. When she’d reemerged she’d been guarded, caged, unwilling to care for anyone again. She was a monster, she’d killed her uncle, she’d consumed the blood of her loved ones; she deserved more than the scars marring her face and body. At least the scars showed the outside world a small piece of the hideousness within her.
She’d made friends in this town, but she’d always known those friendships were tenuous at best. One day she would have to leave here, and people died far too easily.
This man had managed to break past the walls she’d so carefully constructed around herself over the years, and she didn’t know how to handle it. He wasn’t in love with Cassie, or so he said, but what was it he wanted from her? And why did he have to keep tearing at her walls, keep coming at her until she had nothing left to defend herself with?
His gaze mirrored the Arctic Ocean when it slid to her. It was a chilling color but warmth still spread throughout her as she held his unwavering eyes. A smile curled his mouth as he rose with the flowing grace of a river rippling over rocks.
She could watch the mesmerizing way he moved every day, but then she realized she was getting way ahead of herself. There was no way of knowing how long he would be in her life.
Still, she couldn’t deny that seeing him standing in front of the window, his arms open to the warmth of the sun, had been one of the most magnificent things she’d ever witnessed. He’d been so achingly beautiful that it had tugged at her heart in ways she’d never experienced before.
She glanced away from him and back toward the shifting sand of the desert as the wind rippled over the dunes. The fresh influx of coyote blood had helped to ease her hunger, but it did nothing to dampen the desire he’d managed to create within her.
She brushed back the hair from her face and wiped the sand from the knees of her pants as she tried to gather her scattered thoughts and emotions. What was she going to do about him? She didn’t think she’d ever figure out the answer, but when his hand wrapped around her elbow she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know it.
He walked with her toward the back of Clint’s bar. If they started to run they could cover the three miles to the bar in less than two minutes; she found she far preferred walking with him. She stayed close to his side, welcoming the heat of his body. Just touching him warmed her from the tips of her toes to her hair.
“Are you going to search for whoever is doing this again tonight?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he answered. His thumb stroked over her arm as they walked, sending a firestorm of yearning through her body. “I don’t like the idea of leaving you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
His head tilted as he studied her with an amused twinkle in his eyes. “I know you can, but you also don’t want to come up against a child again.”
“No, I don’t,” she admitted. “But if it’s going to die…”
“Not all of them die from the change, but all of them have to be put down.” Quinn shuddered at his words. “I don’t think there will be any more children coming for us though.”
She swallowed before turning to look at him. “Why not?”
“Whoever is doing this made their point. They think they’re smarter; they’re playing with us, and they’re going to pay for that.”
The cold didn’t cause her to shiver this time; the merciless flash in his eyes did as they met hers again. His kisses could melt her like a flame melted chocolate, but there was only so much warmth in him.
“How are we going to find them?” she inquired.
He pondered her question before shaking his head. “I’ll find a way. They may have some kind of cloaking ability that makes them appear human. They can’t cloak their memories from me though. And I think they want to be found; they mistakenly believe they’re stronger than me, but they don’t know who they’re messing with.”
His voice was a lethal rumble. She knew, without a doubt, if he discovered the vampire who had turned the girl, there would be little left of them. It was the matter of finding the vamp before they could kill any more children.
Frost Burn (The Fire and Ice Series, Book 1) Page 28