“Oh no, I’m perfectly capable of tearing the throat out of something. I simply refrain from doing so,” she replied, moving with him in order to keep from being cornered against one of the machines.
He chuckled and moved so rapidly that Quinn barely saw his hand pull back before he threw the stake at her. Darting to the side, she plucked the stake from the air. Before he could get a chance to realize what she’d done, she whipped the weapon back at him. He wasn’t fast enough to completely dodge it as the stake embedded in his shoulder, knocking him into the wall.
“That could have been your heart!” she hissed at him. “I chose not to make it so. I don’t want to kill you.”
Wrath blazed in his eyes when he tore the stake from his shoulder. The scent of his blood caused saliva to fill her mouth as her earlier hunger surged back to the forefront.
“Your eyes,” the man murmured.
Quinn glared at him as she realized she’d lost control of her hunger enough for her eyes to change. She’d worked her entire life to keep herself restrained from allowing that to happen. There was no denying she was different when her eyes changed. Unlike other vampires, whose irises became red when out of control, her irises became a molten gold color and red danced around the outer rims of her pupils. Like flames, that red actually seemed to leap and burn. The whites of her eyes turned completely red to emphasize the striking anomaly of her irises.
He twisted the stake around in his good hand. Despite his years of training, she heard the increased beat of his heart, and a thin sheen of sweat beaded his brow. He’d been completely composed when he first encountered her, but her eyes had rattled him.
“What are you?” he asked.
“I’m not your enemy,” she replied.
“All vampires are my enemy.”
“That’s not true. You’ve been taught wrong all these years. The Commission has taught you wrong. You have to believe me.”
“Lies,” he murmured, but his gaze never left hers. “Vampires spew lies.”
“If I was your enemy, I’d be on you by now.”
He chuckled as he changed his stance. She may have injured his right shoulder, and most likely the dominant side of his body, but she had no doubt he’d be as capable of handling a weapon with his left hand as he was with his right. Most Hunters were; she was.
“You’re simply not as stupid as most vampires,” he replied. “You’ve learned to hang back and gauge your enemy. A sign of your age and the power I feel coming from you.”
“I was only turned into a vampire six years ago. I’m twenty-four.”
“More lies.”
“The truth.”
“Not possible. I can feel the strength in you.”
“I’m not a normal vampire. I’m a friend.”
“Who hangs out with the enemy. You think we didn’t see you all in the pool. You think we don’t know who Julian and Devon are; you think we didn’t recognize some of our own. The traitors amongst our own kind!” he spat at her. “There’s been a standing kill order on all of them for two years. We may not know who you are, but we’ll figure it out.”
She’d never seen this guy in the poolroom. Where had he been hiding? Had they purposely sent the other man to lure them away from the pool? She had the unpleasant suspicion the answer to that question was yes.
They’d been lured away and split up, making them more vulnerable to an attack.
Where were her friends? How many members of The Commission and Hunters were in this hotel? Had her friends all been taken or killed already?
Julian. Terror tugged at her gut, but she couldn’t give in to it. If she let her emotions rule her, she’d never make it out of this fight. Julian was still alive; she would know if he wasn’t.
This man had said there was a standing kill order on the others, but what of her? The Commission had no idea who she was, and this man was more than curious about her. Would he try to take her alive in order for The Commission to figure out exactly who and what she was?
Julian had told her some of what had been done to him and Cassie while they’d been held prisoner and tortured. She’d seen more of his imprisonment when their minds were connected while they fed from each other.
She would die before ever letting these bastards experiment on her in such a way. If they ever figured out what she truly was, she had a feeling they would make eternity for her an exercise in brutality.
“Don’t force me to kill you,” she said.
The man’s thin lips twisted into a smile, and in that instant, she knew only one of them would walk away from this. The flicker of the lights in the room revealed the lethal ability this Hunter possessed. She had only a second to brace herself before a bolt of electricity slammed into her chest, flinging her backward.
CHAPTER 11
“Where is Quinn?” Julian asked of Cassie when they found her in the hallway.
“We split up,” she replied as she glowered at him before turning to aim a killing glare at Devon. “What were you thinking?”
Devon lifted an eyebrow but refrained from responding.