Scorched Ice (Fire and Ice #3)(62)

The flames of the Jeep leapt into the sky as the vampires closest to the vehicle were cautiously trying to move away from it. A vamp with graying hair stepped forward and froze. In the next instant, he was screaming as he flew through the air. A wave of fire erupted as the ground beneath her shook from the force of the explosion.

Some of the others were running through the smoke covering the field toward them. They followed a charred pathway that she assumed Julian had left behind when he’d come for her. He could have gotten himself killed, and if he continued to hold her, he just might. She couldn’t get her power to retreat now that she’d set it free and her body was still repairing itself.

“Julian, please let me go,” she pleaded as the bones of his shoulder stood out beneath her hands. “I can’t…”

A man materialized through the smoke with a crossbow in hand. “Julian!” she screamed, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

She tried to pull herself over his back to get at the man. Snarling, Julian spun; he jerked her back at the same time the man fired the crossbow. Julian snatched the bolt out of the air and snapped it in his fingers before lunging for the man.

“Don’t kill him!” Quinn gasped when Julian’s hand encircled the man’s throat.

He turned toward her, his mouth open in what she knew was about to be a protest, but he snapped it shut when she reached for them. Her fingers opened and closed in a gesture meant to indicate she wanted to touch the man. Julian dragged the man forward and kept hold of him as he dropped the man on the ground beside her. He wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and held her against him.

Quinn shuddered as her hands fell onto the man. He didn’t offer the same amount of vitality and nourishment Julian or the Hunter did, but her ability still latched voraciously onto him. An influx of life filled her, and she realized she’d still been keeping herself somewhat restrained while connecting with Julian. She had none of that restraint now as the man’s body withered before her while her body healed further.

With Julian’s hands still on her, she fed some of the life she’d taken from him, back into him. Julian’s skin took on a healthy hue again, and his face and shoulders filled back out. He kept her cradled against him as the man’s skin became gray and his eyes spun in his head.

“I’m sorry,” Quinn whispered before the man crumpled before her.

Julian’s fingers ran over her hair; he turned his lips so that they rested against her forehead. “You have nothing to be sorry for,” he whispered. “You have to protect yourself, protect us.”

Her battered body thrummed with the influx of life it had received. Her bones still grated as they finished mending and every muscle in her body felt like it had been beaten by a thousand fists, but those aches were already fading away. She finally managed to get the tentacles to retreat into her again, though a part of them remained connected to Julian. She didn’t take any more from him as she kept a steady flow going between them. If she took hold of someone else while they were touching, she would feed that power into him.

“I know I do,” she whispered, “but I still don’t like taking a life.”

“If it saves yours, I’ll gladly take every one of their lives.”

“I’m better now,” she told him. “I can control my ability again, and I’m nearly healed.”

His hand fell to the hole in her shirt, his fingers touched upon the blood seeping out from the closing wound over her heart. She tore her eyes away from the hole. She couldn’t stand to see her near death stamped onto her body in such a way.

“It was so close,” she whispered.

Julian’s body tensed around hers as he enveloped her closer. “Thankfully, you have many secrets and talents.”

Chris arrived at their side. Trails of sweat streaked through the soot covering his face. His sapphire eyes ran over her before settling on her chest. He opened his mouth to say something but clamped it closed again. Over his shoulder, she saw Melissa, Lou, Luther, Dani, Vern, and some of the other vampires coming closer. The looks on their faces were ones of reverence and curiosity as they approached her.

Julian rose from his crouched position and set her carefully on her feet beside the piles of ash she’d created. Quinn didn’t look at the remains; there was nothing there she wanted to see. She did, however, have to brush some of their dust off of her.

Just remains of a fire. She tried to tell herself this as she wiped the ashes off her clothing the best she could, but it didn’t work. Lifting her head, she met the awed gazes of those surrounding her.

“Burn like the sun the life from anyone she touches.” Vern’s gaze was focused on the ashes at her feet while he muttered this line from the prophecy. “It really is her.”

“Did you doubt it?” Julian demanded.

Vern lifted his head to gaze at him. “I was never one for prophecies.”

Quinn looked to Julian, who set his jaw and glared at everyone before them. “Neither was I, but she is different, and she has brought us all together here. We have to finish this, now.”

“Quinn just took out two of them,” Luther said. “The rest of The Commission and their lackeys retreated into the building while we were following your path through the minefield. The vampires still on the field and road are too far away from the path you created to follow it. I told them to remain where they are for now.”