by Cynthia Eden
Shit. He knew that they’d taken too long. He turned around and found Beth in the doorway. Flames flickered behind her, bright orange and red flames.
Beth’s red stare-the stare of an Ignitor charged up and burning hot-tracked across the room, landing briefly on them all, as if marking them. Maybe she was. Aim and fire. “None of you are leaving.” A brief smile. “Not alive, anyway.”
Zane dropped the vamp to the floor and stalked forward. The guy’s groan rumbled in his ears, blending with the crackle of the flames. “Cat, get ‘em all out.” He’d take the Perseus agent on.
“How?” Catalina’s scream. “There’s only one door, and she’s—”
Blocking it with a wall of flames. Yeah, he saw that.
“The walls are reinforced with steel. Your witch is too weak to break out.” Beth came closer. Those flames danced right along with her. “They’re all too weak to do anything but die.”
They might be. He wasn’t. Zane sucked in a deep breath, letting his own power swell. Then, spinning away from Beth, he blasted a long, hard wave of energy at the far wall. The wall exploded, shooting outward with a scream of metal.
“Go!”
The fire caught him then. A hot lick that raced up his legs and back. Instantly, he pushed down the flames but, dammit, that had hurt.
Beth’s laughter filled his ears. “Bad mistake. You just traded your life for theirs.”
Because he’d given the bitch the perfect moment to strike. Shit. And he still had to focus his power, use his energy to protect the others, because she’d let the fire loose and it was racing for Catalina. And Catalina-she stood frozen, staring at the flames with eyes too wide, terrified, as—
Jana jumped through the hole he’d knocked into the wall.
“Zane!”
No, shit, no! “Get out!”
More laughter. “Oh, no, she’s just the one I was hoping to burn. Payback’s coming,” Beth said.
Jana’s gaze widened. The flames were spreading too fast. Eating the floor, the walls …
And burning like a bitch at his back.
Hold it … control it … He couldn’t focus his attack on Beth. Not with the fire so close to the others. He pushed against the fire, but the flames kept flaring higher. Her fire’s stronger than-
Jana ran for Catalina. She grabbed the witch’s arm and yanked her. “Move!”
Catalina shook her head and finally seemed to snap back to reality. She turned and hauled ass, dragging her shifter with her.
Yes…
“The man on the floor-get him!” Catalina screamed to
Jana.
Um, not a man, not really—
Jana dove over the flames and grabbed the vamp’s hand. “I’ve got him. Zane-stop Beth! Save yourself!”
She did have the vamp. She grabbed both his wrists and she started pulling him toward their new escape hole.
So Zane turned his attention back to the woman who was trying to burn him.
“No!” Beth screamed, and the fire flared higher, hotter. “She’s not getting away!”
“Yeah, she is.” But you’re not. He could concentrate just on her now. And he knew how to stop an Ignitor.
The flames circled them, caging him and Beth together. Her eyes were so red he couldn’t even see her pupils anymore. Red as fire. Her body trembled and drops of blood splattered from her nose.
“You started the fire at Night Watch, didn’t you?” he asked. Another Ignitor, it made sense now, it—
“Yeah, yeah, I paid the assholes to torch the place.” Her voice rasped out. More blood flew from her nostrils, and she began to shake. “My plan, my call-and it would’ve worked fucking perfectly! The FBI was going to grab Jana, more of the paranormal assholes were going to burn-killing two fucking birds!”
His hands clenched. Before he ended this, he had to know … “Who is your boss? Who set this whole nightmare up?” Who was behind Perseus?
She laughed at him. Laughed with madness and power echoing in the wild sound. “I am Perseus. A human killing the monsters.”
He didn’t want a lesson in Greek myth. “Who’s your boss?” he roared over the flames. Who’d begun the chain of death? He had to know, he had to—
“My game,” she told him with a sick smile. “What? Don’t you think a human could do it? Don’t you think a human could take down demons? Could send them to hell?”
“I think …” Shit, it was hot. Sweat trickled down his face and back. “Humans can be damn dangerous.”
Another laugh. The fire leapt higher. “Yes … we can.”
“Your fire is getting out of control.” Wait… just wait. He had to give Jana time to clear out with the others before he struck. Perseus was about to explode.
Implode.
Her eyes widened. “Scared, demon? Because you know I’m stronger than you? You can’t stop my fire!” That circle of flames closed tighter.
“No, I’m not scared.” He shook his head. He didn’t hear Jana’s footsteps anymore. Couldn’t, not over the crackle and roar of the flames. “But you should be.” Only one way to stop an Ignitor’s fire. He sent his own fire and power plunging right at her. The blast hit Beth in the chest, and she stumbled back, screaming.
The fire went wild. Uncontrolled, for that brief moment, the circle broke and the flames licked back toward Beth, turning on her. Delicate human flesh.
Beth didn’t get up.
But a scream rose above the flames. Pain filled. Afraid. Female. Not coming from inside—outside. Jana.
She’d gotten out, but what-who-had been waiting for her? Fuck, fuck!
Another scream broke the air. Then, “No, dammit, stop!”
Zane lunged for that hole in the wall, shouting her name. The smoke and flames chased him as he burst outside.
He flew forward, sucking the fresh air into his lungs.
“Jana!”
There. Jana was near the swamp. On the ground … with that asshole vampire over her. His teeth in her neck. She was pounding his back, kicking, shoving, while her right hand struggled to reach a gun that was just a few feet away.
But where was her fire? Why hadn’t she just burned the asshole to ash?
“Get the fuck away from her!” He roared.
The vamp didn’t stop. Snarling, Zane lunged forward and closed the distance between them in seconds. He grabbed the vamp by his neck and hauled the bastard back.
Jana cried out, and he saw the blood dripping down her neck. Her blood.
He threw the vamp into the muddy swamp water. “Baby, fuck, baby, are you okay?” Her face was stark white, and she was shaking.
And crying. Jana—crying?
He’d kill that bastard, and he’d make sure the vamp stayed dead. His fingers trembled when he touched her neck. Her blood stained his fingers.
The world went red.
Zane surged to his feet and locked his stare on the vamp. The bastard was rising from the water, his eyes open, his fangs bared.
Jana’s scream. Her blood. Fucking bastard!
Chapter 13
“No!” Catalina flew in front of him. Zane shoved her to the side. Now wasn’t the time for the witch to—
She grabbed his arm and held tight. “He didn’t know what he was doing, Zane! They bled him nearly dry! It was instinct. He needed to survive, he needed—”
“He attacked her.” And where the fuck had Catalina been while the vamp shoved his teeth in Jana? Water dripped down the vamp’s body as he sloshed toward the shore. His stare was still black and his fangs glinted.
Rip. Him. Apart.
Catalina’s nails dug into him. “Please, Zane, he-he didn’t mean—”
“Screw what he meant.” Jana’s voice. Strong. Angry. She ran up beside Zane. “I’m not on the damn menu.” She shot the vampire, blasted him right in the chest with a bullet from the gun she held in her trembling hands.
“ No!” Catalina screamed.
Too late.
Blood blossomed on the vamp’s chest.
He stared at Jana a moment, his eyes flickering between blue and black, and he whispered, “S-sorry …” right before he toppled back into the water.
Catalina ran after him, chanting, whispering her spells- they wouldn’t do much good. Not with her being so weak. And if that vamp rose again …
He’s mine.
Jana’s hand was shaking so much. Damn blood loss. Zane caught her hand and took the gun.
An explosion rocked the ground. Jana slipped, tumbling to her knees. Zane glanced over his shoulder. The Perseus buildings had just blown to hell and back. Guards were running, screaming, and that fire was blasting out of control as—
Fuck me. Beth was running out of the building. The flames were chasing after her, and she was headed right for him.
He grabbed Jana, pulling her to her feet. He’d protect her, make sure that—
Those flames raced toward them. Beth shrieked, “I can’t stop it! Help! Make it stop! Make it—”
This time, Zane was the one who fired. His finger squeezed the trigger and the bullet thudded into Beth’s heart. She gasped, shuddered, then pitched back on the ground.
The flames sputtered, then began to die, burning down slowly.
“I made it stop,” he said quietly, staring at her prone body. He’d made it stop, the only way he could. His left arm wrapped around Jana and held her tight.
“Z-Zane…”
His head tilted down toward hers.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she whispered, and she blinked away the tears in her eyes. “It wasn’t …”
He kissed her. Because right then, he damn well had to. Vamp attacked her. Could have lost her. In the end, despite their powers, Ignitors were only human. Unlike the vamp asshole, an Ignitor couldn’t take a bullet and rise again.
So easy to kill. Too easy.
His lips brushed against hers. Light at first because shit, she was delicate. So fragile. But her hands rose and sank into his hair and she arched up against him, kissing him harder, pressing her mouth tightly to his.
Zane’s tongue thrust into her mouth. His hold was too hard. He knew it, but he couldn’t manage to ease his grip. Can’t let her go.
The world fell down around them, but he held her close and wondered how in the hell she’d come to mean so much to him. So much that he was ready to kill for her.
“ Zane!” The shout broke through the chaos, but he didn’t let Jana go. Not yet.
“Zane, fuck!” Footsteps thudded toward him. “I come to save your ass and find you gettin’ ass!”
Jude. Perfect timing, as always. Slowly, Zane lifted his head. His gaze craned to the right and met the shifter’s. “Arriving late to the party?”
Jude whistled as he took in the scene before him. “What the hell did you do?” The question wasn’t for Zane, though. No, when he asked, his stare locked on Jana.
Tony ran up behind them. “Fire trucks are coming but- shit, Catalina? What are you doing here?”
“Like I said,” Zane murmured, “a party.” A death party.
Jana stiffened against him. “The cop?” Her whisper. She shoved against Zane, and he let her go, only because he knew there was a hell of a lot to work out. Sirens blasted in the distance. The fire trucks. Probably police cars, too.
Zane exhaled heavily. “You sure took your sweet time tracking me.” Jude was usually a much better tracker. He’d thought his friend would arrive sooner. Before the fire and screams.
Tony rushed toward Catalina. She had one arm around the vamp, and she was struggling to pull him out of the water.
“What the hell happened to him?” Tony demanded.
Catalina’s green eyes darted to Jana.
“I did,” Jana said, squaring her shoulders and stepping even farther away from Zane. What was up with that?
Zane’s eyes slit when Tony offered a hand to the vamp. “Watch it, Tony.” The cop would need the warning. “The asshole with Cat bites.”
“Shit.” From Jude. Yeah, the shifter understood-he would have caught the vamp’s scent.
Instead of reaching for the vamp, Tony drew his weapon and leveled it at the guy. “My bullets are laced with holy water. Make one move at me, come at me with those teeth, and the first bullet goes between your eyes.”
Tony always believed in being prepared. Smart guy.
Jana slipped back a few more steps.
Fire trucks and police cruisers flew onto the scene. The low flames flickered, and the smoke billowed. Then the uniforms burst out of their cars. Hell. Showtime.
Her neck burned. It ached and throbbed and burned. What the hell? You try to do something nice for someone, like oh, drag a guy’s butt out of the fire, and as payment, he bites you. Did she look like a freaking buffet?
As the cops swarmed the scene, Jana eased deeper into the darkness. The firefighters were blasting the remaining flames with hoses from their trucks. Not that there was much point in fighting the fire now. Those flames were dying on their own. Without the Ignitor to fuel the fire, they would sputter out.
The Ignitor.
Jana cast a fast glance at Beth’s body. Beth had lost control at the end. The fire had been too new to her. She hadn’t been able to control the flames.
Because those flames were mine. The power was mine.
But Beth had taken the flames from her. And now-now she was just … human.
A human with a lot of blood on her hands and too many cops close by.
The butt of the gun pressed against her lower back. She’d taken it from Zane, stolen it right out of his hand while he’d kissed her.
I can still taste him. I still want him.
But Zane was about twenty feet away now and talking to that woman. The one with the pale blond hair. The one who touched him too much. The chick who’d saved the vamp. Zane hadn’t attacked the vampire. He’d frozen, because of the blonde. Catalina. The witch. She’d heard the woman chanting when they came outside, and she’d felt the wind ripple around her in response to those words. Yeah, the blonde was a witch, though she seemed to be pretty weak in terms of power.
Beth had been right after all. There had been someone in the Perseus compound that Zane cared for. His weakness.
But Perseus was dead. Gutted. The guards and agents who’d survived the flames had fled into the swamp. The cops would search for them. If they didn’t find them, Night Watch would. She didn’t know what kind of bullshit explanation Zane was giving to the cops then, but it was obvious from their expressions that he had the guys eating out of his hands. The fact that he had a cop at his side-that Tony guy from Baton Rouge-probably just made his story all the more believable.
Yeah, the cops were on Zane’s side, but when the smoke cleared, they wouldn’t be on her side. No, she was still a wanted woman. They’d come after her, and she didn’t particularly like the thought of spending any more years locked away from the world.
She stared at Zane. Watched him gesture to Beth’s body. Jana swallowed. Time was running out. She needed to leave but …
Zane.
His gaze cut to hers. His eyes glinted, reflecting the fire. His face was hard, tight, and her breath shuddered out as she stared at him.
She’d gone back into the fire for him. Did he know that?
Did he—
Zane turned away and started walking toward the back of an ambulance. Catalina was with him…. so was the vamp. He turned away.
Jana kept her shoulders up. She blinked. Once. Twice. Swallowed. They’d had a deal. She’d given Zane what he wanted-Perseus. Justice for the hunters who’d died in the fire.
Now the deal was over.
“Miss?” A cop approached her with his brows drawn low. “Miss, we’re gonna need to ask you a few questions.”
Questions that she couldn’t answer. Hi. I’m Jana Carter. If you check, you’ll see that I’m wanted in connection with a series of arsons. What? Oh, yeah, the fire tonight was arson, too. It looks like my M.O.? Really… um, look, why don’t you just shove me in jail foreve
r?
She stared at the cop and shook her head. “I can’t talk to you.”
He blinked. “Miss?” He was a harmless looking fellow. Big, brown eyes. Pale cheeks. A bit of a receding hairline. Well, he appeared harmless … except for the badge and the gun he carried.
How could she get away from him? Without, of course, assaulting him. Don’t want to add assaulting an officer to my rap sheet.
But then he gasped and those puppy dog eyes widened. “Uh, are you okay?” she asked. He fell to the ground.
Jana jumped back. Her heart slammed into her chest. “What the—” She found herself staring into eyes that she’d never forgotten. Bright blue eyes that seemed to shine. No, that did shine-with the light of the beast. Shifter. The wolf she’d been ordered to kill.
“You planning to stand there all night?” he demanded, and she saw that he was sweating. In the chilled air, he was sweating. And shaking. “Or do you have a plan to get out of here?”
Once more, she looked at Zane and only saw his back. The wolf closed in on her, and Jana knew what choice she had to make.
Survival. That’s what life was all about, right?
Good-bye, Zane.
The EMT was a demon. Low level. Zane took one look at the guy and saw right through the glamour. “We got a vamp here,” he murmured to the EMT as he steered the guy and Catalina toward the ambulance. Catalina wasn’t releasing her hold on the vampire-probably because she knew just how much Zane wanted to rip the bastard apart.
Can’t. Not with all the humans there …
“Get him out of here,” Zane told the EMT. “Before he starts gnawing on the humans or before I have to cut his damn head off.”
The EMT’s eyes bulged, but he nodded quickly.
Zane glared down at Catalina. “You don’t know what you’re doing with him.”
The vamp was weaving on his feet. He slumped forward and fell into the ambulance. The demon EMT grabbed him and shoved him onto a gurney. Then he strapped the vamp down, nice and tight.
“He didn’t meant to hurt her,” Catalina said. Finally, she wasn’t touching the vamp. “He was starving, desperate….”