Arctic Fire 2 Read Free

ready. Most likely, it would be someday soon, when he wasn’t acting like such an asshat. It took all she had to sniff at him before turning away.
    “Admit it, that just got you all hot and bothered,” he coaxed.
    She forced herself to scowl at him over her shoulder, even though she loved the playfulness in his eyes. He was right, but she’d never admit it. “You’re incorrigible.”
    “And proud of it. I did all the work with these guys, and you expect me to clean up the mess?”
    “They were only here because of you . I’m pretty sure their exact words after walking into the bar were, ‘If it isn’t Julian, the betrayer of our kind.’ Last I checked, that’s not my name.”
    “Women, you all have minds like a steel trap when it comes to things we don’t want you to remember,” he muttered.
    She planted her hands on her hips as she glared at him. “It sounds like you’re speaking from experience with a lot of women.”
    Realizing he’d stepped into a steaming pile of shit, his mouth clamped shut. Quinn bit her inner lip to keep from laughing as he placed the mop against the wall and bent to lift one of the bodies over his shoulder. She walked over to one of the others.
    “I’d prefer it if you’d let me take them,” he said to her.
    “And I’d prefer it if you’d stop trying to coddle me, but you won’t.”
    He grabbed hold of her hand when she bent to grab the man’s arm. “I’m not coddling you,” he said quietly, his eyes burning into hers. The paler blue band encircling his pupils darkened in color. The turquoise flecks in that band danced in the light.
    She released the dead man’s hand and stood. “You can’t keep treating me like a child. I’ve survived bigger threats before—”
    “No, you haven’t.”
    “Yes, I have. I spent my entire life in hiding from Hunters, Guardians, The Commission, and vampires. Now, I only have the vampires to worry about; I think those are much better odds.”
    His gaze never wavered from hers. “ Desperate vampires who believe you could be their only hope at regaining the power they once enjoyed. There is nothing more lethal than a desperate vamp.”
    She despised that damn prophecy the vampires were spreading about her. She wasn’t anyone’s savior, and she especially wasn’t the vampires’ savior. She may be a vampire, but it hadn’t been by choice. Having been born a half-vampire and a Hunter, she’d had enough vampire blood within her to undergo the change on the night she and her family were attacked and killed by vamps.
    “These guys seemed pretty desperate, and there’s not much left to them,” she said with a wave at the bodies.
    A muscle in his jaw jumped. “Vampires en masse, Quinn. What if a horde of them comes at us?”
    “Then we will fight them, but there has never been a horde of vampires searching for me. They have no idea where I am, what I look like, or that I’m with you.”
    “That doesn’t mean they couldn’t find out.”
    She threw her hands up in the air. “We will deal with it then! But I can’t have you constantly prowling around me like an irritable bear ready to lash out at anyone who comes too close. It’s exhausting!”
    “I couldn’t stand it if something were to happen to you.” Damn him, he could always make her melt, even when she was trying to get her tirade on. “What if you had used your ability to drain the life from one of them while fighting, and one of the others took off before we could stop him? He could have told everyone he came across about you. The vampires would then know exactly where you are and what you look like.”
    “I understand, but you have to ease up. I’m a fighter, and if you try to take that away from me, I’m only going to end up resenting you for it. And you definitely cannot order me around like that again, or I may stake you myself. If you want to be with me, then we are going to be equals. If you don’t want to be with me, then tell me to go sit in the corner