Scorched Ice (Fire and Ice #3)(29)

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?”