If someone had told her two months ago she would be standing shoulder to shoulder with a group of vampires outside a member of The Commission’s house, she would have told them they were dreaming. But then, if someone had told her five months ago she’d be mated to a vampire and friends with Hunters, Guardians, and vampires, she would have told them they were insane and run as far from them as possible. Yet, that was exactly where she found herself now.

Sometimes it felt as if years had passed since she’d met Julian; at others, it felt like yesterday. Her life had drastically changed since December. She didn’t regret any of it, but she’d really like a chance to get her bearings instead of feeling as tossed about as a ship on the Bering Sea most days.

Chris and Julian stood resolutely beside her as they all stared at the small log cabin tucked into a clearing in the woods. The cabin was as dark as the night around them. Thick clouds had rolled in to obscure the moon and stars over an hour ago. Movement in the trees drew her eyes when a raccoon ran behind the cabin before slipping back into the woods.

No vehicles were parked in the drive, and both garage doors on the massive bay beside the cabin were closed. She had no idea why anyone would have a garage bigger than their house, but the building stood nearly twice as high. From everything she’d heard about The Commission, the size of it probably didn’t bode well for any unsuspecting humans and vampires.

She actually wouldn’t have minded living in this peaceful little spot Herb had chosen; however, goose bumps covered her skin, and her bones felt like ice. Her soul-deep chill had nothing to do with the climate difference between Pennsylvania and Arizona, and everything to do with the fact she wanted nothing to do with the man who lived here.

The thick pines surrounding the clearing creaked when a breeze blew down from the mountains looming behind the cabin. The eerie sound made the ominous feeling inside of her grow.

“I don’t smell any humans or hear any heartbeats,” Prue said.

“No, but The Commission are like rats. They like to go to ground,” Julian replied. “We may not be able to smell or hear him if he’s in hiding.”

Quinn refused to shudder, refused to let them see how much this place unnerved her, how terrified she was of what they would find, and what such a discovery might do to Julian. The two of them were intricately bound together now. She knew the tightrope he walked every day between killing and keeping himself restrained from doing so. It wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge, and The Commission was the one thing that always rattled him.

“What’s the plan?” Vern inquired.

“You, me, Quinn, Chris, Dani, and Melissa will go to check it out,” Julian said. “Everyone else will be staying here to watch out for any threat.”

They’d already discussed this arrangement in the car with Devon and Cassie. Julian had originally planned to keep her in the woods, but she’d refused to agree to that. “Sounds good,” Vern replied.

Julian nodded his head toward the cabin and slipped from the trees. Quinn stayed close on his heels while he walked out of the woods and across the front yard as if he owned the place and knew every lethal secret it might hold.

She felt more keyed up than a skydiver standing in the doorway of a plane, and she was half afraid she may scream if only to ease the tension building within her. Every second, she was certain she would hear the sound of a crossbow releasing, or the whistle of an arrow flying through the air at her.

Julian subtly positioned himself so that he walked in front of her. “Julian!”

“You can bring me back to life. I can’t do the same for you,” he said so low that she knew only she heard him.

“I never want to do that again,” she grated through her teeth at him.

“Save my life?” he inquired and shot a sexy smile over his shoulder at her. It was a look she was sure had made many women swoon over the centuries; it made her blood boil.

“Right now, no.”

His grin widened before he turned away from her. “Sheathe the fangs, Dewdrop.”

She moved to the side to walk next to him. When he went to grab her arm, she gave him a look that froze his hand in place.

“I don’t want to take a life like that again,” she said to him as her eyes turned to survey the house once more.

His hand fell to his side before he stepped closer, so his shoulder brushed against hers while they walked. He moved so that he was still partially in front of her, but he no longer blocked her completely.

As they got closer to the house, she noticed more subtle details about it. The curtains on the sides of the windows had been neatly tied back. The covered porch, taking up half the front of the cabin had a rocking chair and table set out on it. On the other was a built-in, solid-wood bench with intricate designs of ivy and flowers etched into its oak-colored surface.

It was a peaceful image that was completely out of place with what she knew the owner of this cabin represented. She imagined Herb often sat in the chair or on the bench, sipping iced tea or beer as he plotted how to torture and kill someone.

Julian didn’t bother to look through the windows but went straight to the front door. The thumping of their boots on the steps caused her to wince as they climbed onto the porch. Quinn’s gaze was drawn to the window beside the chair, but she didn’t approach it.

Julian and Chris walked around the porch, their eyes focused on the boards. Quinn glanced down and took a small step back at the thought of someone hiding beneath floorboards. Julian pulled the chair back while Chris lifted the table. They approached the bench together; Julian ran his hands over the surface as he examined it while Chris pulled the cushions from the seat and tossed them aside. Seemingly satisfied, Chris rejoined them while Julian stalked over to the front door.

“Don’t think anyone’s going to invite us in,” Vern said.

“That’s why we have Hunters with us,” Julian replied. “But it is always polite to knock first.”

With that, he opened the screen door, lifted his hand, and rapped his knuckles loudly against the wood. Quinn bit her lip as she listened for any hint of sound from the other side of the door. Everything remained as it had before he’d knocked; the creaking of the pines and the whistling of the wind were the only sounds in the clearing.

Julian grabbed the knob and twisted it; it didn’t move beneath his hand. With a sharp jerk, he tore the knob from the door and tossed it carelessly aside. The abrasive clatter it made against the porch caused her shoulders to tense as she waited for someone to leap out or some weapon to fire at them. When nothing moved, her shoulders relaxed slightly.

Turning, she surveyed the woods again. She saw nothing out there, not even the vampires she knew were watching them.

Julian leaned his shoulder against the door and shoved it inward. It swung inward with the slightest creak of its hinges. The open door revealed the pine wood floors and midnight blue, fluffy throw rug in the center of the small living room beyond.

Lining the wall, the heads of deer, moose, and bears stared down at them from beady black eyes that made Quinn’s skin crawl in a whole new way. A red wolf was propped in the corner, its head tilted back in an endless howl. She’d always hated trophy animals. She found something infinitely creepy in the way the eyes would follow her wherever she went. With Herb, she wouldn’t be astonished if they also discovered the heads of vampires hanging on the wall somewhere inside.

For the first time since becoming a vampire, she was glad she couldn’t enter a residence without an invitation.

Julian lifted a hand and tried to push it inside the home, but it stopped in the doorway, blocked by an invisible barrier. “The bastard is still alive,” he muttered before stepping back. He gave an elegant wave of his hand to Chris. “I wish I could say after you, but we’ll still be here.”

Chris stared at him for a minute before his gaze went back to the heads lining the wall.

Melissa’s onyx eyes simmered with anger as she gazed at the animals. “Disgusting.”

“Would the vegetarian in you be happier if he didn’t eat them before mounting them?” Chris asked her, earning him a scathing glare that caused his eyebrows to shoot into his hairline. “Just trying to lighten the mood a little.”

“It’s not funny. A red wolf,” Melissa muttered with a shake of her head as she stepped into the living room. “Apparently ‘endangered’ means nothing to this man, and is that a puma?” The outrage in her voice made even Julian take a step back. “Why didn’t he just slap a bald eagle on the wall while he was at it. If he were here right now, Julian wouldn’t get a chance to kill him.”

Julian chuckled and leaned against the doorframe as Chris followed her into the living room with Dani right behind him. Chris kept some distance between him and Melissa as she continued to glower at the walls. Quinn’s fingers itched to pull the three of them back, but they’d moved beyond her grasp the second they’d gone through the doorway.

Dani and Melissa pulled out their stakes from the holsters at their sides while they moved; Chris tugged a crossbow from his back.

“Keep an eye out for booby traps,” Julian said to them.

Chris glanced over his shoulder at him. “We know.”

Julian’s posture remained casual, but Quinn felt the stress within him. When Chris took another step forward and they all turned on their flashlights, Julian tensed. She rested her hand on his arm to calm him.

He relaxed slightly before speaking. “Also, don’t forget to look to the ground for something hidden beneath this place.”

She wondered if he realized he sounded like a mother hen. If he did, she knew it wouldn’t change, not until the three Hunters were free of this cabin.

“I know,” Chris replied. “We’ve seen what The Commission can do and build too.”

“Yeah, you have,” Julian muttered.

Beside her, Vern glanced between Julian and Chris before his gaze settled on her. “They really are friends.”

“If they weren’t, they probably would have all killed each other by now,” she replied.

“We certainly tried to kill him once,” Melissa said as she poked her head cautiously around a corner of the wall to what Quinn assumed was a hallway beyond. “And he definitely tried to kill us.”

“Bygones,” Julian replied with a wave of his hand that earned him scowls from the three Hunters in the living room.

“This is how we will all work together,” Quinn said to Vern.

“Hopefully so,” he replied.

Quinn turned her attention back to her friends, unwilling to take her gaze off them for too long. There was nothing they could do if the Hunters got in trouble inside the house, but she had to know what was happening with them. When the three of them slipped into the hall and out of view, she took an instinctive step forward to follow them.

She nearly banged her hands against the invisible wall holding her back from entering the house when she came up against it.

“It’s okay,” Julian said, drawing her back a step. “Chris?”

A second later, Chris’s head poked back around the corner of the hall. “Yeah?”

“Keep talking to let us know where you are and that you’re safe.”

“Oh sure, that way if someone else is in here, I’ll let them know our every step too. Great plan, dead boy.”

A rumble of annoyance slid up Julian’s chest as Quinn hid a smile. “I may kill you myself if you make it out of there, Christopher,” Julian said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Chris muttered. “I’m shaking.”

Before Julian could reply, Chris disappeared down the hall once more. Beside her, Vern was unable to hold back anymore and released a deep, resonating laugh. “I never thought I’d say this, but I actually like that Hunter.”

“They all tend to grow on you after a while,” Julian replied. “Doesn’t mean you’re not tempted to break their necks occasionally.”

“Julian,” Quinn said.

“It’s true,” he replied as he leaned forward and turned his head to hear any sound from the house.

Quinn went completely still, her gaze going to the windows on the side of the house. “We can follow their movements, at least a little.”

Releasing Julian, she climbed down the steps and walked toward the windows. “Quinn!” he hissed from behind her.

She ignored him as she made her way over to the first window. Rising on her toes, she placed her hands on either side of her head and peered through the glass. Melissa stood in front of a bureau, carefully moving aside clothes as she searched through them. Chris stood beside her, rifling through a closet full of flannels and jeans. Their flashlights were the only source of illumination as their beams played over the bare, wood walls.

There would be no hiding their presence here from Herb, not after Julian had broken the door, but the three of them were taking care of the things they were rifling through. Quinn understood why the Hunters were being careful; she would have done the same. No matter who Herb was, these were still his possessions, and going through them was intrusive enough without tossing them carelessly aside.

Dani bent down to search something in front of the window. Her eyes came up, and she let out a small squeal when she spotted Quinn on the other side of the glass. Dani leapt back with her hand on her heart and her chest heaving for breath. “Shit!” she blurted, her voice distorted by the glass. “You scared the crap out of me! Don’t do that again!”

“Sorry,” Quinn apologized.

Dani took a deep breath before returning to where she’d been. She bent over and lifted something up. A lid appeared before Quinn, blocking her view of the room. Julian’s hand clasped her forearm, pulling her a little away so he could look in. Over her shoulder, Vern didn’t have to rise onto his toes to peer into the room.

“Can either of you see anything?” Quinn demanded.

“They’re fine,” Vern replied.

The lid closed again, revealing the room and the three Hunters exiting it. Quinn hurried to the next window, tugging Julian along with her as they went from window to window, following the Hunters around the house the best they could. When they returned to the main living room, Quinn climbed the steps as Chris came to the door.

“There’s nothing obvious here about any other members of The Commission, where they could be, or what their plans are. Do you want us to start bringing stuff out for you?” he asked Julian.

Julian gazed beyond Chris’s shoulder before turning toward the garage. “We’ll search in there first.”