Scorched Ice (Fire and Ice #3)(44)

Julian grabbed the knob and twisted it; it didn’t move beneath his hand. With a sharp jerk, he tore the knob from the door and tossed it carelessly aside. The abrasive clatter it made against the porch caused her shoulders to tense as she waited for someone to leap out or some weapon to fire at them. When nothing moved, her shoulders relaxed slightly.

Turning, she surveyed the woods again. She saw nothing out there, not even the vampires she knew were watching them.

Julian leaned his shoulder against the door and shoved it inward. It swung inward with the slightest creak of its hinges. The open door revealed the pine wood floors and midnight blue, fluffy throw rug in the center of the small living room beyond.

Lining the wall, the heads of deer, moose, and bears stared down at them from beady black eyes that made Quinn’s skin crawl in a whole new way. A red wolf was propped in the corner, its head tilted back in an endless howl. She’d always hated trophy animals. She found something infinitely creepy in the way the eyes would follow her wherever she went. With Herb, she wouldn’t be astonished if they also discovered the heads of vampires hanging on the wall somewhere inside.

For the first time since becoming a vampire, she was glad she couldn’t enter a residence without an invitation.

Julian lifted a hand and tried to push it inside the home, but it stopped in the doorway, blocked by an invisible barrier. “The bastard is still alive,” he muttered before stepping back. He gave an elegant wave of his hand to Chris. “I wish I could say after you, but we’ll still be here.”

Chris stared at him for a minute before his gaze went back to the heads lining the wall.

Melissa’s onyx eyes simmered with anger as she gazed at the animals. “Disgusting.”

“Would the vegetarian in you be happier if he didn’t eat them before mounting them?” Chris asked her, earning him a scathing glare that caused his eyebrows to shoot into his hairline. “Just trying to lighten the mood a little.”

“It’s not funny. A red wolf,” Melissa muttered with a shake of her head as she stepped into the living room. “Apparently ‘endangered’ means nothing to this man, and is that a puma?” The outrage in her voice made even Julian take a step back. “Why didn’t he just slap a bald eagle on the wall while he was at it. If he were here right now, Julian wouldn’t get a chance to kill him.”

Julian chuckled and leaned against the doorframe as Chris followed her into the living room with Dani right behind him. Chris kept some distance between him and Melissa as she continued to glower at the walls. Quinn’s fingers itched to pull the three of them back, but they’d moved beyond her grasp the second they’d gone through the doorway.

Dani and Melissa pulled out their stakes from the holsters at their sides while they moved; Chris tugged a crossbow from his back.

“Keep an eye out for booby traps,” Julian said to them.

Chris glanced over his shoulder at him. “We know.”

Julian’s posture remained casual, but Quinn felt the stress within him. When Chris took another step forward and they all turned on their flashlights, Julian tensed. She rested her hand on his arm to calm him.

He relaxed slightly before speaking. “Also, don’t forget to look to the ground for something hidden beneath this place.”

She wondered if he realized he sounded like a mother hen. If he did, she knew it wouldn’t change, not until the three Hunters were free of this cabin.

“I know,” Chris replied. “We’ve seen what The Commission can do and build too.”

“Yeah, you have,” Julian muttered.

Beside her, Vern glanced between Julian and Chris before his gaze settled on her. “They really are friends.”

“If they weren’t, they probably would have all killed each other by now,” she replied.

“We certainly tried to kill him once,” Melissa said as she poked her head cautiously around a corner of the wall to what Quinn assumed was a hallway beyond. “And he definitely tried to kill us.”

“Bygones,” Julian replied with a wave of his hand that earned him scowls from the three Hunters in the living room.

“This is how we will all work together,” Quinn said to Vern.

“Hopefully so,” he replied.

Quinn turned her attention back to her friends, unwilling to take her gaze off them for too long. There was nothing they could do if the Hunters got in trouble inside the house, but she had to know what was happening with them. When the three of them slipped into the hall and out of view, she took an instinctive step forward to follow them.

She nearly banged her hands against the invisible wall holding her back from entering the house when she came up against it.

“It’s okay,” Julian said, drawing her back a step. “Chris?”

A second later, Chris’s head poked back around the corner of the hall. “Yeah?”

“Keep talking to let us know where you are and that you’re safe.”

“Oh sure, that way if someone else is in here, I’ll let them know our every step too. Great plan, dead boy.”

A rumble of annoyance slid up Julian’s chest as Quinn hid a smile. “I may kill you myself if you make it out of there, Christopher,” Julian said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Chris muttered. “I’m shaking.”

Before Julian could reply, Chris disappeared down the hall once more. Beside her, Vern was unable to hold back anymore and released a deep, resonating laugh. “I never thought I’d say this, but I actually like that Hunter.”