Frost Burn (The Fire and Ice Series, Book 1) Page 26

CHAPTER 18

  Quinn stepped out the front door with Angie then locked it behind them. She slid the keys into her pocket and climbed down the steps with far more calm than she felt. Her body was twitchy with the urge to double around to the back, see what was going on, and help the others.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow!” Angie called and branched off to the left, toward her apartment.

  Quinn watched until she was out of sight before turning to go behind the restaurant. She didn’t make it all the way through her turn before she smacked up against a solid chest. Startled, she took an abrupt step back and shook her head. He moved as noiselessly as a wraith if he’d managed to sneak up on her, either that or she was way off her game.

  Despite the fact she was annoyed with herself, she couldn’t help but admire the way the moonlight lit his white blond hair and shimmered across eyes made even more arctic by the hostile air surrounding him. His gaze went to where Angie had disappeared before settling on her. With a sharp jerk of his head, he indicated the small alley between Clint’s and the bank next door.

  “How is the girl?” Quinn asked anxiously. “Is there something we can do to help her?”

  “No.” His blunt tone caused her to stumble over her feet a little.

  “What do you mean no?” she demanded. “There has to be something we can do.”

  “She’s dead.”

  Quinn’s mouth dropped, for the first time in her life, she believed she might throw up. “What?”

  Julian turned toward her. “There was nothing we could do for her, Quinn,” he said quietly. “The few children who survive the change are crazed monsters, but she didn’t survive it.”

  “I saw her,” she whispered. “She was alive.”

  “She wasn’t done with the change. She was too small. Her body couldn’t handle the influx of vampire blood, her system shut down. It was for the best; she would have been irrational and we would have had to put her down anyway. Children can’t handle the thirst; they can’t control themselves. There’s a reason why vampires can’t procreate.”

  Her gaze drifted back toward the bar; she couldn’t shake the sickness in her stomach. “She was so helpless, so broken.”

  He wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pulled her against his chest. She pressed her hands against the unyielding flesh of his ridged abdomen. To curl up in his arms and lose herself was an enticing prospect, but it wasn’t a possibility. Not today, not ever. She didn’t respond to his hold on her, but he kept his hand around her head. He bent and placed a kiss against her cheek.

  “We have to get back in there.”

  She nodded at his words and reluctantly stepped away from him. His eyes were still frigid when they came back to hers, but his face had softened a little. She walked with him to the kitchen door and braced herself before stepping inside.

  Melissa was kneeling by the child; tearstains streaked her face, but she’d stopped crying. Chris stood on the other side of the island, his hands rested on the steel. He glanced up at Julian, but his attention quickly returned to his hands. Lou and Luther knelt on the other side of the child; Zach had retreated to stand by the stove.

  “It’s the same girl,” Melissa whispered. “She looked far different, but this was the same little girl in my vision.”

  Images flipped rapidly through Quinn’s mind, screams echoed in her head as she stared at the body. The past surged up around her, it tried to pull her into its murky depths and bury her beneath an avalanche of fear and misery.

  “How is that possible?” Quinn managed to get out. “I thought we were looking for a human. There were no vampires, other than the two of us, in the bar the night of the fight.”

  Luther leaned back and rested his arm over his bent knees. “I have no idea.”

  Despite herself, she felt her eyes flicker to Julian. He’d been the one saying the killer was a human. Melissa hadn’t seen who the killer was in her vision, and he’d been away while the girl had been changed. No matter how much she tried to push it away, she couldn’t stop the suspicion growing within her.

  She hated it; she didn’t want to be skeptical of him. She’d trusted him with things she’d never trusted anyone with, but she couldn’t shake her growing uncertainty. His gaze slid to hers, and though she wanted to look away, she forced herself to meet it head on. She would know if he had done this, she would know if he was a killer, wouldn’t she?

  His gaze burned into hers, she knew he wasn’t a mind reader, but she became certain he knew exactly what she was thinking. Hurt flickered through his eyes before he turned away from her. Standing there, she felt more exposed now than she had when she’d revealed her hideous secret to him. She had every right to doubt him; he hadn’t been here when this girl had been changed, and he had been a killer.

  Then why do I feel so awful about it? She wondered as he turned his back on her.

  “Whoever is doing this is playing with us,” Julian said. “They sent this child here to prove that to us.”

  “Why would they do that?” Melissa asked.

  “Because they’re letting us know they’re here, and they’re coming for us.”

  Quinn couldn’t tear her gaze away from his back. Who would be coming for them, vampires she wasn’t even sure existed, or him?