Arctic Fire 2 by Erica Stevens

on his nerves; his nails had dug into his palms so forcefully he’d dug crescent shaped grooves into them until blood dripped from his hands. It wasn’t until he heard the slamming of their car doors that he’d dared to emerge from the pool house.
    He would have stayed there all day to avoid the sun, but his need to get to Quinn had driven him through the scarce shadows he could find back to her apartment building. Then she’d soothed him, told him she loved him, and given herself to him. She’d completed and calmed him in ways he’d never known possible. What she’d done that day had worked more of a miracle with him than her ability to make his heart beat had. For the first time, he’d known he could forever keep the evil part of himself caged in order to be with her and make her happy.
    She was his savior; she’d also be his greatest downfall if something ever happened to her.
    He wished there was a way to get Devon here without bringing Cassie too, but Cassie would never agree to stay behind if she believed they were in enough danger to warrant calling Devon. Chris and Melissa were her best friends, Luther her Guardian, and he knew she loved him. She’d refuse to stay behind, and with her powers, she couldn’t come anywhere near Quinn. Not while a large chunk of the vampire population was hunting her.
    “You’re very deep in thought.” Quinn’s fingers brushed over his face, heating his flesh and drawing his mouth instinctively toward hers.
    “Thinking about how to catch a vamp.”
    “Easy,” she replied and rose above him. “We use me as bait.”
    “No.”
    “Julian, he has no idea what I’m capable of. So far, he seems to be playing this game alone. I can draw him out, we can trap him, and then I can use his own life force to pummel him into pieces.”
    Despite his intense dislike of her plan, his curiosity pricked at her statement. “Can you do that?”
    “I’ve never tried it before, but I don’t see why not. I can give and take, or I can just take. Apparently, I can restart heartbeats too.” She smiled at this and pressed her fingers against his chest. That little development still awed him. It had been five hundred and seventy-six years since he’d felt his heartbeat. The sensation had been one of the most amazing of his life, second only to knowing what it was like to possess her body and taste her blood. “I imagine I could also turn that life force against another and bash them with it.”
    “I’d imagine so too,” he murmured.
    He threaded his fingers through her hair, drawing her mouth to his. He took her lips with a firm possession. His tongue delving in and out of her hot recesses made him crave more. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her on top of him.
    “Julian, the others,” she protested against his mouth.
    “Sleeping,” he assured her as he reclaimed her mouth.
    He’d make her forget all about her harebrained idea to be bait soon enough. Instead, he found himself being the one to forget as his hands skimmed over her flesh. A feeling of contentment and belonging stole through him when she easily slid her body together with his. When her fangs sank into his neck, his entire body arched up. Her ecstasy beat against him so vehemently he could barely separate her pleasure from his. Sinking his own fangs into her shoulder, he gorged on her sweet, powerful blood.
    He opened up the pathways between them, allowing her to experience all of the sensations he experienced when he was inside of her, tasting her, allowing her to feel the love he felt for her. She melded against him as her mind opened up to flood his with her love.
    His fingers entangled in her hair, he pulled her closer as he fed deeper on her. Her hands dug into his back, and her body moved more rapidly over his as she gave and took of his life in deep pulls. His heart exploded into life, pulsing his blood more vigorously into her.
    She moaned against his throat, a delicious sound that nearly pushed him