Frost Burn Read online

  Her lithe, athletic body flowed effortlessly across the ground. She wasn’t an Elder and he didn’t get the impression she was all that old, but he did get the impression of extraordinary power. So much so that it caused his skin to crackle. She was young, he knew it, but the closer she got the more his skin felt electrified by the waves of power radiating from her.

  She was a disconcerting puzzle, one he meant to figure out. However, if he knew one thing about his kind, it was that they weren’t much for talking, especially when their lives were on the line. As she neared, he moved to stand protectively in front of Chris and Melissa. They were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, but something about this vampire threw him off.

  Distrust shone in her eyes, her shoulders were set in such a way as to indicate she was prepared to launch at him if he made a move toward her. It wasn’t something he planned on doing, but when she stepped equal with him, he found his hand irresistibly drawn to her arm.

  Heat sizzled through him when his fingers connected with her bare flesh. But even as his body heated and reacted to her, a strange sucking sensation gripped him. It felt as if the energy, the very life drained from him as all of his cells seemed to crash into his hand before being pulled from him and into her. Held immobile by the grip she had over him, he could only stand and stare at her as their supernatural abilities mingled together.

  Blood, death and brutality flooded his mind as images of her life bombarded him. Screams of agony and terror resonated within his skull. Faces of people he didn’t know flashed like picture cards through his mind. Their expressions were twisted in suffering; blood streamed from their torn throats and splattered the pictures hanging on the walls. Those pictures contained a beautiful, smiling family, the same family who was dying before him in his mind.

  There had been a time when he would have savored memories such as these, gotten off on them and craved more, however that time had passed. Now he would have pulled away from someone before he saw this much, but he was entangled in whatever hold she had over him and couldn’t break free.

  A jolt of something hit him so forcefully it knocked him back a good three feet. Coming up against the wall, he inhaled a deep breath before recalling he hadn’t needed air to breathe in centuries. Across from him, her honeyed eyes were hooded as she stared at him. She’d adjusted her stance, prepared to defend herself if he should attack her.

  He remained against the wall as he watched her. If he’d been human the jolt would have killed him, but she hadn’t been the cause of the violent images that had flooded his mind. No, she’d been one of the children in the smiling family photo hanging on the wall.

  Julian grabbed hold of Chris’s arm when he took a step toward her. “No,” he cautioned in a low voice.

  The girl across from them took a step away and turned on her heel. Julian watched as she walked to the bar and placed her order.

  “What did she do to you?” Melissa bit on her bottom lip as her eyes rapidly scanned over him.

  “I’m not sure,” Julian murmured. “But we’re going to have a talk with her.”

  “Is she a threat to us?” Chris asked.

  “She’s definitely lethal.”

  Chapter Three

  Quinn tried to keep her hands steady as she loaded the drinks onto the tray, but she couldn’t stop the shaking. Her gaze was irresistibly drawn toward the strange group gathered near the doorway of the poolroom. What is a vampire doing with a bunch of humans? She pondered as she dropped a bowl of pretzels onto the tray.

  Humans who knew exactly what she was and what he was. She’d heard their whispered words to each other and could feel their inquisitive gazes burning into her flesh. Staring at them, she began to wonder if they were something more than human?

  But it was impossible. No vampire would be with a group of Hunters, and no Hunters would be with a vampire. They’d be fighting to the death if they ever encountered each other, not standing in the doorway of a bar sharing drinks as if it were just a night out with friends. Unless they planned on breaking their bottles and going to war in the next few seconds, but she didn’t get that vibe from them. They were all extremely at ease as they stood close to one another.

  Her gaze went back to the stunning vampire with them. Other than her, most of the vampires she knew were vicious, murdering bastards, however he stood amongst a group of humans as easily as if he were one. The distinct lack of a heartbeat, and the vibe of power radiating from him, was more than enough to indicate he was anything but human. He was also far more powerful than she was. The small blast she had given him would have been enough to knock out a weaker vampire, it seemed to have barely fazed him.

  What was she going to do?

  This was her home; she’d established a base here. She’d blended in with the humans and made a few friends. When she’d first arrived in this town, she’d been determined to keep her distance from the locals. She’d lost enough people she’d cared about over the years and wasn’t willing to have her heart crushed again by losing even more.

  She hadn’t planned to stay here for more than a month or two. That had been her standard amount of time in any one place over the last three years, but once here, she’d found it impossible to resist some of the friendly people she’d met. They’d been determined to get to know her better, to wedge their way into her life. No one, no matter how close she’d gotten to them, knew the most pertinent details of her life, but they were her friends.

  This town had become the home she’d believed forever stolen from her. She could hide here while she searched for and trained to fight the monsters who had destroyed her and her family. She’d only run into a dozen vampires in the three years since she’d moved here, but they’d all been weaker and younger than her, and easily dispatched.

  One of them had even been like her and had only been looking to pass through without incident. She’d spoken with the woman before they’d gone their separate ways.

  Aside from that woman, those other vampires had been the complete opposite of the man standing across from her now. She didn’t know who or what they all were, but she was certain their presence here was about to turn her orderly life completely upside down.

  Get it together, she told herself as she lifted the tray from the bar. She had to walk back by them to deliver her order. Inside she felt like a mass of loose live wires tossed in a storm, but she kept her shoulders back, her chin out and her eyes on the dominant vamp. His presence seemed to take up the entire eight foot wide doorway as he leaned against the frame with his muscular arms folded over his chest.

  “Don’t touch her,” he said in a low whisper to the others.

  It eased her a little to realize he wouldn’t try to pounce on her, however she wasn’t fooled into thinking he couldn’t kill her. She recognized a vampire who was older and stronger than her when she came across one. She may be young, but she wasn’t a fool.

  Those icy blue eyes followed her every step as she approached him, the white band encircling his pupil expanded as she neared. The waves of power emanating from him made her fingers tingle with the urge to touch him and taste a little bit of his power again. Most of the time she could keep her ability under control, but he was a temptation the likes of which she’d never come across before.

  Setting her jaw, she fought back the urge to reach out and absorb some of him again; she’d be wading into extremely dangerous territories by doing so though. Out of control, her ability was lethal, and it would swallow her whole if she allowed herself to become lost to it. She feared the dark, sucking lure of her ability more than she feared her thirst for blood.

  He shifted protectively closer to the humans around him. He was the most magnificent man she’d ever seen with his vivid eyes, chiseled face, and large, well-muscled body. Cut short, his white blond hair emphasized the angles of his broad cheekbones and square jaw. The nearly white of his hair was a startling contrast to his black eyebrows and the shadow creeping across his jawline and over his cheeks. />
  If she hadn’t been so thrown off by his presence here, she might have actually been a little dazzled by his looks. Now all she wanted to do was tug her stake free of her boot and whip it at his heart. She had no doubt he could avoid the stake, but it would give her a chance to rush him before he knew what she planned.

  Such an action would also put everyone else in this place in peril, and alert everyone to the reality that their nightmares actually walked the earth. Her fingers itched to grab her stake, she kept moving forward to deliver her drinks. Her stride remained steady when she moved past them and on toward the cowboys in the back corner.

  When one of them grabbed her ass, she smacked his hand away and forced a flirtatious smile, he smiled back at her before she made her way out of the room. What she really would have liked to do was drive her fist into his hooked nose. That would be a big mistake though, she may not have to be concerned about aging and death, but she did have to pay her bills and her meager tips were the only thing helping her do that. Punching the customers was a sure fire way to end up living on the street.

  Throughout the rest of the night, she watched the new group in the poolroom with the same intensity as they watched her. She had no idea what would happen when the bar closed, she didn’t see this group walking away from her though. Her body tingled with the adrenaline coursing through her and the realization this night could end up in a battle to the death. One she might not walk away from but was more than prepared to wage.

  “That guy is hot.” Angie rested her hands on the bar and leaned over the top of it to announce this to her. Angie’s feet kicked in the air as she spoke, her hazel eyes twinkled mischievously; Quinn detected the elevated beat of her heart as her gaze turned toward the poolroom. Quinn didn’t have to look up to know whom she was talking about. “Like I’d take him out back and do him right now, kinda hot.”

  Quinn had no doubt Angie would do just that, but she bit her tongue to keep from retorting that it wouldn’t be the first time. Three years ago, Angie had been in a relationship with the love of her life, Seanix. The two of them had been together since they were toddlers. When Quinn first met them they’d been inseparable and even finished each other’s sentences. It had been an annoying trait, but one she’d found cute and endearing. Their wedding date had been set for the following year.

  Then Seanix had lost his job at the factory in the neighboring town and decided to get his license to drive trucks. Two years ago, he’d gone out on a run to Atlanta and never returned. He’d texted once since he’d left to tell Angie he’d met someone else and Angie should move on.

  For the first year after, Angie walked around in a stupor, cried more than she spoke, and looked as if she’d just rolled out of bed and grabbed whatever clothes she found lying around. Most days she’d smelled and looked like she hadn’t taken a shower. Clint, the owner of the bar, had at first been understanding of Angie’s plight, but when the customers started to complain about the poor service, the weeping over their beers, and her unfortunate odor, he’d stepped in to put a stop to it.

  Quinn had gone with him to Angie’s small apartment. They’d discovered Angie living in a room full of empty food containers, scattered clothes, and discarded tissues. After giving the apartment a good scrubbing, Clint sat down to tell Angie she had to pull it together or he would have to let her go. He hadn’t been cruel when he’d said it, but none of them knew what to do to help get her through her misery. Her job and her friends from the bar were all Angie had left, and Clint had hoped the threat of losing them too would get through to her. It hadn’t happened over night, but over the following weeks, Angie’s smell improved, her hair began to shine again, and she started to smile once more.

  Then, she’d done a complete one-eighty and become a vivacious woman who was always on the prowl for a party, and a man. Quinn knew Angie was still heartbroken and trying to figure out a way to ease her suffering, but she worried about Angie getting mixed up with the wrong guy. The prime example of that would be the vampire Angie was eyeing up right now. She’d tried to talk to Angie about her grief multiple times, but Angie refused to speak about Seanix any more.

  If Angie tried to get entangled with this guy, Quinn would tie her friend to a chair until she realized Seanix was a jerk that was better off forgotten and she was better off without him. She would do what she needed to do until she knew her friend would be safe from the vamp while this crew remained in town.

  Quinn poured a couple of beers from the tap and slid them onto the tray. “Seriously Quinn…”

  “I know, he’s hot,” Quinn agreed before Angie went into a full on tirade about the vampire’s many attributes.

  “With the way he’s been watching you all night, you should go for him,” Angie said excitedly. A rosy hue began to creep into Angie’s round cheeks; her eyes sparkled in a way that made Quinn shift her feet uncomfortably. It wasn’t often Angie tried to play matchmaker; she was too busy making her own matches to worry about Quinn’s lack of boyfriends, but when she did she was like a pesky mosquito at a bar-b-que.

  “He’s not my type,” Quinn said and grabbed a bottled beer from the cooler.

  “No one is your type.”

  “Not all of us can like them all.” Quinn smiled at her friend in order to ease her harsh words. She shouldn’t have said that to her, she knew what Angie had gone through, but his presence here had made her edgy and short tempered. She supposed she had a right to be edgy; there was a chance she might die tonight, for good this time. But she didn’t have a right to be rude to her friend. “Sorry.”

  Angie dismissively waved her hand. “I can’t help it if my type is breathing.” Angie grinned at her before hopping off the bar.

  Quinn’s gaze slid back toward the imposing stranger holding a pool stick and talking with the beautiful black haired woman at his side. Perhaps he actually wouldn’t be Angie’s type, as he most certainly wasn’t breathing anymore.

  “I’m definitely breathing, honey,” the middle-aged biker next to Angie said. He slapped Angie on her ass when she shook it at him.

  Angie laughed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “You might not be by the time I’m done with you.”

  The biker and his friends laughed loudly, Angie bounced away into the crowd. Quinn finished filling her order and carried the tray into the poolroom. The clanking of the pool balls grated on her hypersensitive hearing. She tuned them out as she handed the drinks over to a group of younger guys who commuted to college over in Yuma. None of them looked old enough to be drinking, but she knew they were all of age as they’d become regulars here last year when they’d turned twenty-one.

  “You looking for some company tonight?” one of them asked her.

  “Not tonight handsome,” she replied.

  The response was so automatic she was already turning away when she answered him. One thing that completely sucked about being a vampire in a bar was the never-ending stream of sexual propositions she had to fend off. The only good thing was she could kick the ass of any guy who got a little out of hand and had already done so on one occasion.

  She wasn’t expecting it when the kid grabbed hold of her arm and spun her around. One of the bottles on the tray slid to the side. It almost flew off but her hand shot out, she snagged it out of the air before it could smash to the ground. A ripple of anger slid down her spine. She struggled to keep her fangs leashed and her eyes from changing.

  Turning back to the kid, she directed the power within her to the place on her arm where his hand held her tight. He yelped and with the speediness of a cat landing on a hot stove, jerked his hand away. He shook his hand before raising it in front of him and then looking toward her. “Winter. Static electricity,” she said with a smile. “It sucks.”

  His forehead remained furrowed in confusion; he shook his hand again. “Yeah, it does,” he muttered.

  Feeling more than a little pleased with herself, she turned away and came up against a broad chest. She almost stomped her foot in frustr
ation; she’d just gotten rid of one pest to come face to face with another. Except this one wouldn’t be thrown off by a little jolt.

  Her eyes slid up his solid chest, a chest alluringly enhanced by the fitted black t-shirt he wore. On the etched muscle of his right bicep was the tattoo of a weeping angel. Done entirely in black ink, the angel’s wings were hidden beneath the sleeve of his shirt but appeared to stretch to his shoulder. She’d bet anything this man could easily make the angels weep and probably had more than a few times in his life.

  She should be concerned about her safety around this man; vampires had been her enemy since birth. However, this one did strange things to her. He completely threw her off her game, but more than that, he was the first one she’d ever encountered who made her feel as if her heart were actually beating again. It was one of the things she missed the most about being human, the simple reassuring thump of the vital organ filling her with life.

  He was also the first one she’d encountered who could probably kill her and most likely would when he found out what she really was. With that reminder digging its way into her brain, she forgot all about those spectacular eyes burning into hers.

  “Excuse me,” she said in a clipped tone.

  The corner of his mouth quirked in what could have been amusement, but it was too fleeting to tell for sure. He stepped away from her, and she hurried from the room. She hated the eyes she felt burning into her back with every step she took. It was going to be an endless night.

  Chapter Four

  Quinn polished another glass and slid it onto the rack over her head. “Come on Quinn, no one has done that in fifteen years,” Angie complained as she dropped a case of beer on top of the bar.

  “All the more reason to do it now,” Quinn said and slid the next glass into place.