Arctic Fire 2 (17 page)

Quinn stared at the shifting sand of the desert as she tossed the trash bag into the dumpster behind the bar. She didn’t sense anyone out there watching her, but somehow she knew he was. Now that she’d finally persuaded Julian to use her as bait, they had to figure out a way to lure her stalker out into the open. She didn’t think the vamp would buy her wandering around alone in the desert all helpless.

She didn’t do helpless well, and Julian had been steadfastly by her side this entire time. No one would believe he’d left her to her own devices. The breeze blew her hair back from her face, the strands of it tickling her cheeks.

She could walk out into the desert right now. Glancing behind her, she stared at the open kitchen door before shaking her head and turning away. If she took off now, Julian would have her head. He’d agreed to let her be the bait, but it was supposed to be under controlled circumstances, or at least as controlled as they could be.

She climbed the back steps and returned to the kitchen. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she nodded to the two cooks and washed her hands at the sink before entering the crowded bar. Julian stood at the end of the bar, his elbow leaning casually against it, but she sensed the tension in his rigid muscles.

Pausing beside him, she rose on her toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t worry so much.”

“I think that’s impossible not to do right now.”

Quinn tied her apron around her waist before patting his cheek. “I’ll be fine.”

Before he could respond, she walked down the back of the bar to take the orders of the customers there. The hours passed in a blur of orders, drinks, and gossip about the people who had never returned from the bonfire last night. Talk of what the police were doing, at what was now a crime scene, ran rampant amongst the patrons.

Some whispered that the missing people had been taking part in some sort of satanic ritual that had gone wrong. Others believed a pack of rabid coyotes had taken them all, but the ones who believed that didn’t have an explanation for how so many of their things had ended up in the fire. Still, others thought the party had been attacked by a gang as an initiation requirement. Very few assumed any of them were still alive.

Missing fliers were already going up all over town; a few of them decorated Clint’s front window. The smiling people in those photos only served to reinforce her determination to stop this vamp no matter what it took.

About halfway through the night, Jeb, Ross, and Ernie came in again with a few other ranch hands. “What can I get you?” Quinn asked them.

“Beer please,” Jeb replied before the others made their requests.

Quinn filled their orders and placed them on the bar. “I thought you weren’t going back to the ranch?”

“Just stopped by to check on some things today,” Jeb replied.

“You still having trouble out there?”

Jeb shook his head and took a swallow of his beer. “Checked the video but nothing new has been recorded in a few days. Whatever it was seems to have moved on.”

“Probably coyotes,” Ernie said.

“On speed,” Ross muttered.

“I don’t know what it was, but I’m glad they’ve moved on,” Jeb said and pushed a ten across the bar toward Quinn. “Can we get some quarters for pool?”

Quinn grabbed the money and went to make change for them. “Thanks,” Jeb said when she returned and handed him his quarters. She watched as they walked away before returning to work.

When the bar finally closed, she couldn’t help but think that even though she was tired, now was the perfect time to tempt her stalker. “Maybe if you leave while I close up, he’ll come around,” she suggested to Julian when he remained sitting at the bar after the last person had left.

His jaw locked, a red ring encircled his pupil. “I don’t think he’ll buy that,” he muttered.

“We don’t know what he’ll buy,” she replied.

Julian rose stiffly and walked over to grasp her arms. “Turn your tracking app on, now.”

She pulled her phone from her pocket and turned the app on. He stared at her phone before bending to kiss her forehead. She watched as he walked out of the bar with Chris, Lou, Luther, and Melissa. She looked over at Dani, Hawtie, and Clint, who were collecting the last of the glasses from the poolroom. It wouldn’t look so obviously like they were trying to trap her stalker if she had some other people with her. She hoped, anyway.

She finished cleaning the bar and placed the rest of the glasses in the dishwasher. Her gaze repeatedly went to the window, but everything beyond remained hushed. The normal sounds of the ticking clock and the hum of the coolers had her on edge. Every noise made her feel as if she were going to jump out of her skin, but as time went on, nothing happened.

“It may take him a while to believe Julian isn’t around,” Dani said.

“Maybe,” Quinn replied, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the window.

For the next three nights, whenever Quinn would close the bar, he would go out to the desert and pace. The others would remain in the truck, watching him as he ran through the sand, trying to keep himself from going back to Quinn.

He would wait with his senses as attuned to Quinn as he could get them. He checked the tracking on his phone almost every minute to make sure she was still at the bar. At the end of the night, Quinn would call him to let him know she had returned home without incident. She’d begun making comments about ditching Dani, Hawtie, and Clint too, or at least Dani, but he’d adamantly refused.

On the fourth night, he couldn’t take the idea of returning to the desert and the endless pacing anymore. “We’re going to the ranch,” he said brusquely to Luther who was sitting behind the wheel of the truck.

“What ranch?” Luther asked.

“The one where Jeb and his crew were having trouble.”

“Do you know where it is?”

“Clint told me it’s about five miles that way,” he pointed down the road past Hawtie’s and in the opposite direction of the ghost town where he and Quinn had killed the other vampires. “He said it’s called
The Rising Moon Ranch.
We’ll see the sign for it.”

“You’re willing to go that far away from her?”

Julian’s teeth ground together; he glanced through the window of Clint’s Bar. He could see Dani, Clint, and Quinn cleaning up. Hawtie sat at the end of the bar doing the books for her strip club. Quinn laughed at something Dani said and threw her rag at her. The smile on her face made his heart clench.

“We have to do something,” he grated.

Luther shifted the truck into drive. Julian grabbed hold of the side and launched himself over and into the truck bed. He landed silently beside Melissa and Chris. Resting his hand on the roof, he kept himself braced as Luther pulled out of the parking lot and drove through the main road of the small town. His gaze remained latched on Quinn through the window of the bar until she faded from view.

The cool wind blew against his skin as he turned to face forward in the truck. He shivered against the cold. When this was over, he was taking Quinn somewhere near the equator for a relaxing vacation of endless nights and days with only each other.

He narrowed his eyes against the stinging wind as he watched the dark ribbon of road unfolding before them. In less than a mile, the businesses and homes comprising the main stretch of town faded away, and they were left with only the moon, stars, and headlights to guide them. The endless rise and fall of the dunes spread out all around. The stark beauty of it wasn’t lost upon him, but the clawing sensation to return to Quinn made it difficult for him to focus on anything other than getting to the ranch.

After a few more minutes, Julian spotted a wooden sign on the side of the road with
The Rising Moon Ranch
, written on it. Kneeling, he knocked on the back window and pointed to it. “Stop at the edge of the drive!” he called to Luther.

Luther pulled onto the dirt drive and parked the truck.

“I know Jeb said they weren’t having any more trouble, but I think it would be better if we go on foot from here,” Julian said as he leapt out of the back of the truck. “Don’t need to announce our presence with an engine, if we don’t have to.”

The others climbed out of the truck to join him. “I’ll go ahead. If I see anything threatening, I’ll come back and let you know. I’ll also take care of the cameras as I go. Move the truck down the road and find a place to park it out of sight.”

Before they could respond, he turned and loped down the drive, pouring on the speed as he raced toward the ranch. He’d remain undetected by the cameras he saw amongst the Joshua trees planted beside the drive, but the others wouldn’t. Moving behind each camera, he leapt up or climbed the trees until he was high enough to tear the cameras from them. He ground each one beneath his boot before racing to the next one.

He listened for the small, tinging noise each camera made as he moved. No human would hear the noise, but it alerted him to a few well-hidden cameras he might have missed if he hadn’t been searching for it.

Toward the end of the drive, another sign stretched from two wooden beams over the road. The name of the ranch was sprawled across the large board in the middle. Julian slowed when the massive main house came into view. It had been built to resemble a log cabin that could rival some of the ski lodges he’d seen in his lengthy life.

Cactuses and colorful rocks decorated the main landscape surrounding the wraparound porch. Lights shone in the lower windows, but he didn’t detect any heartbeats, nor did he scent any life inside the home.

To the right of the house was a smaller building with glass windows all around it. As he neared it, he detected the scent of sawdust from recent construction work on the building. Glancing in one of the windows, he spotted a rolling chair set up before a large desk with TV monitors. The black TV screens shone in the light overhead.

He pulled his phone out to make sure Quinn was still at the bar before lifting his head to scan for more cameras in the few trees around him. Moving rapidly around the property, he tore down the rest of the cameras he heard and saw around the perimeter of the property. He smashed them all before returning to the security shack.

Circling toward the back of the main house, he slid down a small hill and stopped to take in the barns and pastures tucked behind the home. Acres of green land sprawled out as far as he could see. In the center of all the rolling pastures, fences, and wooden shelters for the animals, a lake shimmered in the moonlight. He didn’t know if the lake was natural or if it had been dug to collect the scarce rainwater and more water was piped into the ranch from somewhere else.

His gaze scanned the horizon. His nostrils flared as he tried to detect any odor beside that of the animals and blood on the air. The stringent aroma of bleach made his lip curl. The humans must have used it to clean up after the animals were slaughtered.

He continued around the main house, his gaze raking over the horizon, but nothing stirred in the night. There weren’t even any desert animals creeping in to steal some water.
The vampires have decimated the wild animals in this area too,
he realized. His blood felt colder than the night air blowing around him.

How many of them are out there
?

His hand twitched toward his phone; he fought the impulse to call Devon and tell him to bring an army here.
Cassie can’t be here
, he reminded himself. He’d die for Quinn without thinking twice about it, but if Cassie ever fell into the wrong hands, it would be even more disastrous than having Quinn fall into the hands of someone who knew about the prophecy.

Over the years, he’d considered himself one of the most selfish bastards on the planet. At one time, he wouldn’t have cared about what the consequences would be for others, but not anymore. He couldn’t risk the lives of everyone he cared about and many other innocents by involving Cassie in this. His hand fell back to his side. He closed his eyes against the anger and frustration warring within him.

The smell of Chris and Melissa alerted him to their presence before he heard their footsteps on the hill behind him.

“Wow,” Chris breathed, his eyes fixed on the lake and rolling green pastures. “It’s like an oasis back here.”

“Beautiful,” Melissa murmured before turning to him. “Do you sense anything?”

Julian shook his head, his gaze raking the horizon again. “I sense
no
life out here.”

“That just made my skin crawl,” Chris muttered. “What does
that
mean?”

“I believe there’s a lot of vampires,” Julian murmured and ran his hand through his hair. “More than I’d anticipated, and they’re feasting.”

“But if he’s changing vamps and turning them to his will, there would be more deaths reported in the area, not only the Kemps,” Melissa said.

“The Kemps were a message to Quinn, to all of us,” Julian muttered. “This isn’t a message. This is a mission.”

“The vamps that killed Angie were slaughtering illegal aliens in order to go undetected by law enforcement. Could he be doing the same, but turning them instead?” Chris asked.

“He could,” Julian replied, “but I’m not sure he’s created the vampires who are here. I think he may have brought them in or perhaps someone else has, and they’re all working together to try and get at Quinn. When he goes to turn vamps again, he’ll go after people Quinn will notice missing, like the ones at the bonfire. He’s trying to make a point.”

“That he’s batshit crazy?” Chris asked.

“Yes, and he can get at people close to her, no matter what we do.”

Turning away from them, Julian walked the rest of the way around the house. On the other side of the building were five smaller log cabins. Behind the cabins was another larger building. For the ranch hands, he realized. The full-time help had their own little homes in these smaller cabins, but when more help was required, the bigger building was also utilized.

He cautiously approached the smaller cabins to peer into one of the windows. Shadows danced across the walls of the small kitchen and living room, but the orderly home looked untouched. He climbed back down the stairs and around to the larger building as Luther and Lou descended the hill toward them.

“This place gives creepy a whole new meaning,” Lou said as he joined them.

Julian pulled his phone out; Quinn was still at the bar. He hit her number as he walked up the steps of the porch. She picked up on the first ring.

“Still at Clint’s. Everything okay?”

His shoulders relaxed at the sound of her voice. “Just checking in.”

“Should be home in half an hour.”

“Call me when you get there.”

“Will do. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

He’d expected some wiseass comment from one of the others about his final words to her when he hung up, but they were all focused on the large building before them. Melissa’s head fell back to peer at the roof above their heads. “I don’t know why, but I don’t like this place.”

Julian slid his phone into his pocket and scented the air. Like the other, non-residential buildings on the property, it smelled strongly of bleach with an undercurrent of blood. Julian couldn’t think of a good reason why the ranch hands would have scrubbed this place with bleach, or why it would stink so much of blood.

He grabbed hold of Chris’s arm when he grabbed for the knob. “Something’s not right in there.”

Chris glanced between him and the door before pulling the crossbow off his back and raising it before him. The others all pulled their stakes and weapons free and braced themselves.

“What if there’s an alarm?” Melissa inquired.

“If there is, we’ll be out of here before the police arrive,” Julian replied.

“Will you be able to enter?” Lou asked him.

“This place may have residents occasionally, but no one calls it home.”

Julian nodded toward Luther then the door. Luther moved in between Chris and the building. Grabbing the door handle, he shoved the door open. A series of small beeps sounded, but no alarm blared as Julian swept inside.

“Why wasn’t the door locked and the alarm on?” Lou asked.

“Whatever is in here, someone wants us to see it,” Julian replied as he moved further into the building.

The scent of blood was more potent inside; it tickled his nostrils and pricked his fangs. Beneath the blood, he detected the stringent aroma of cleaning chemicals and sweaty men. The faint smell of livestock from the worker’s clothing also lingered.

“Stay close to me,” he commanded the others.

He walked through the kitchen and into what he assumed was the dining room because of the hutch and breakfast bar, but there was no table or chairs in the room. Instead, two twin beds were set up within. A chill slid down his back as he stared at the neatly made beds. He didn’t think the beds had been placed here because the hands had required more sleeping space. He didn’t know why they were in this room, but he was certain they’d find out before they left.

“What is going on here?” Melissa whispered.

“This is the part in the horror movie when you start screaming at the people in it to run,” Chris replied. “And then call them idiots for staying.”

“I think you’re right,” she said.

So did Julian, but he continued past the dining room and into the living room. It took up half of the building. Three large TVs, a pool table, foosball table, and a bar were set up within the room for the workers. His gaze swept over the paneled walls and wooden floors as he moved through the space, but he saw no evidence of blood anywhere.

Coming back around to the front door, he peered up the stairs to the second floor before jerking his head toward it. He kept his back pressed against the wall as he crept up the stairs. His ears strained to hear any noise other than the solid thumps of the hearts behind him. The wall across from him blocked his view of what lay beyond until he was nearly to the top of the stairs.

The scent of blood became more cloying here, but he still saw no sign of it. Two twin beds in the hall upstairs came into view. His hand wrapped around the banister as he continued upward. Chris’s breath was warm against his neck, his breathing silent from all of his years of training to be a lethal killer of vampires. Melissa was just as quiet, and Luther and Lou wouldn’t have been detected by anything other than their heartbeats to a vampire.