Julian’s head bent, his blood pulsed loudly through his veins as he shoved against the door. His shirt tore across his back when his muscles bulged. Pieces of it fell onto the dirt beneath his feet.
Focused on the strength flooding through him, Julian didn’t realize the door was giving way until a screeching noise pierced his eardrums, and the cool steel toppled away from him. He stood for a second, gazing into the darkened building before him. His shoulders heaved as he inhaled greedy gulps of air into lungs that normally didn’t work. His chest strained with the influx of air, swelling like an over inflated balloon before it popped.
Like someone pulling a rope from the water, the energy flooding his muscles and system reeled rapidly away from him. He took one last gulping breath before the beat of his heart ceased once more. Turning, he found Quinn’s eyes closed and blood trickling from the lip she’d bitten as she focused on flooding the life she’d borrowed back into those who had willingly given it to her.
Some of the strength lingered within him, remnants of what she’d taken, and he realized that no matter how much she tried, she never returned everything she took. A little something always remained afterward, strengthening her. Around him, the vampires and Hunters took an unsteady step forward, their bodies brushing against his.
He glanced over their faces, but none of them cared about him or the open doorway right now. They were all focused on Quinn. In their eyes, he saw something more than awe, something more than fear. The prophecy had stated that if used correctly, she would become the vampire’s greatest ally, their savior.
All of them now gazed at her as if she truly were their savior.
***
Quinn couldn’t look at the faces turned toward her now. She may be leading them to their deaths, and most of them were staring at her as if she were the greatest thing since peanut butter and chocolate were squished into a cup. Her gaze fell on Julian standing in the center of the doorway, exposed and staring at her from his beautiful, wintry blue eyes.
It seemed like minutes had passed since the door had been shoved open and she’d funneled the life back into those she’d borrowed it from, but it had only been mere seconds. Seconds for trouble to unfold from within. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted movement within the shadowy interior of the building.
Grabbing Julian’s arm, she jerked him out of the way as an explosion of something erupted from within. Vern yelped and some of the others screamed as they fell away from the doorway. Julian embraced her against him and pressed her into the wall. Chris, Melissa, and Lou flung themselves to the side, coming up against the building beside her.
Julian spit out a series of curses. Quinn lifted her head to search the vampires over Julian’s shoulder. More immobile bodies lay on the ground, while some vamps hurried to drag the injured out of the way. She realized the explosion had been an eruption of stakes from within when she spotted the wooden weapons protruding from some of the vamps.
“They’re going to come for you the most,” Julian said to her. “They’ve seen what you can do. I need you to stay with me.”
“You can’t get in front of that door again!” she hissed.
“I think they just shot their load.”
“Not funny.”
Across the way from them, Vern turned back toward the door. His eyes were a fiery red, blood oozed from his shoulder, and a large scratch marred his cheek, but he looked ready to commit mayhem.
“What do we do?” Chris asked.
“We go in,” Julian replied.
“We go together,” Quinn said.
His eyes fairly spit fire when his gaze lowered to hers. Her teeth grated together as she glowered back at him.
“You said they’ll be coming for me; I assume that means they want me alive. We either go together, or I lead the way. Like many, I’m sure they’d prefer to see you dead,” she told him.
Some of the others actually chuckled, but she was too intent on making him listen to reason to find anything amusing right now.
“You have no idea what they’ll do to you if they capture you. I am faster than what they just unleashed on us,” he said.
“They could unleash something new,” she replied.
“And I’d still be faster. My age and you have made me so.”
“Maybe so, but we’re still going together or not at all.”
His jaw clenched, but he lowered his arms. “Together.”
Quinn nodded and her body tensed as the two of them turned into the doorway together. She fully expected to be hit in the chest with a stake, but the building was eerily quiet, and no one stood within waiting to attack them. Julian put one arm around her waist while he held the other arm protectively out in front of her.
“Stay with me, Dewdrop,” he whispered.
This time, she knew he didn’t mean to stay by his side; he meant not to get herself killed.