by Cynthia Eden
I’m going to kill you, Wyatt. He’d watch the bastard burn to ash. There’d be no escape for him.
“How are you gonna do that?” Trace wanted to know. The werewolf shook his head. “You’re not a paranormal, Eve, you’re not strong enough to—”
Cain laughed. The wolf really didn’t know her that well. “Guess again,” he murmured.
Trace frowned.
Eve’s gaze lowered to the floor.
“Eve?” Trace said her name with uncertainty. “What’s going on?”
She’s not human. She’s not your fucking sweetheart. How about you choke on that?
But Eve wasn’t talking. Fine. He’d help her out. Cain took his time walking to her side. He lifted his hand and let the fire rise above his fingers.
“What the hell are you doing?” Trace shouted and then he charged at Cain.
Too late. The fire was already sliding toward Eve. The fire whispered over her arm, right over the flesh, then vanished in a puff of smoke.
Trace shoved him to the ground. Lifted his claws—
“The fire can’t hurt me,” Eve said. Her soft voice seemed loud in the quiet room.
Trace froze. Then he looked up at her. He shook his head . . . twice. “Eve . . . how?”
Because he’d been wanting to do it, Cain punched the wolf in the jaw. Trace’s head snapped back as he fell to the side. Cain lifted his hand, eager for another swing.
But Trace wasn’t fighting back. He just stared up at Eve and looked lost. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because there wasn’t a lot to tell!” Her voice rose even as her body tensed. “Fire doesn’t hurt me. I don’t know why. It just . . . doesn’t.” Her gaze flew between them. “And I don’t know what I am, okay? When you don’t know what the hell you are, then what are you supposed to say?”
“You say something to your friends. You knew all my secrets,” Trace gritted out, rising slowly to his feet.
Cain shadowed his moves.
He didn’t like the wolf ’s tone and positioned his body near Eve’s. “Back off.” They had others to attack. “My fire can’t hurt her. She’s safe with me, got it?” That was all the guy needed to know.
The anger in Trace’s eyes—anger directed at Eve—the wolf needed to dial that shit back. Or Cain would dial it back for him.
“We can’t afford to waste the dark,” Eve said. She was right. The night was coming. Hunts were always easier in the dark. “We need to get out there and start hunting him. Every second we waste just gives Wyatt more time to collect new subjects and more time to come for us.”
Cain had never a fan of sitting back and waiting—for anything—and surely not for some bastard hunters to come and attack him.
But Trace was shaking his head. “It’s too dangerous, you need—”
“I know what I need,” Eve told him. Damn, but she was sexy. Fierce. Determined. “I need to keep my friends alive. I need to make sure that no one else dies because of me.”
Trace didn’t argue. Maybe he was getting smarter.
“So I’m hunting.” She threw the words out, and they sounded like a dare. “And I’m taking that bastard down.”
Vampire bars always smelled of blood and death. They also always sported a long line of eager humans, all dressed in Goth black, who were eager to get inside and play victims to the bloodsuckers.
Charlotte, North Carolina, had two vamp bars. One on each side of the city, because the vamps were extremely territorial. From what Eve had seen over the years, those parasites just didn’t share well.
Trace had taken the bar to the north, and Eve and Cain were headed to the one down south—the pit called Blood Bath. Nice name—if you were into getting your body drained and tossed away like garbage. Judging from the winding line of humans, it looked like a lot of folks were into that scene. Some people just begged for death. Eve didn’t get it.
They’d be meeting up with Trace the next day, after they’d all had time to do some recon work. They’d picked a meeting spot and scheduled the rendezvous for the afternoon. Hopefully, they’d have good intel by then.
Eve paused across the street from the club. Her heart was pounding too fast. She’d bandaged up her hands before she left the motel, a useless precaution. Even with the bandages, the vamps would be able to smell her blood.
They always closed in when they smelled fresh prey. They were like sharks that way.
“You sure you want to start with the vamps?” Cain asked as his arm pressed against her.
No, she didn’t want to start with them. The vampires were the last creatures she wanted to face, but . . . “Wyatt had a vampire at Genesis. If he lost one, he’ll want another.” What better place to pick up a new specimen? Vamps gorged at these bars. Got drunk on blood and the alcohol in their prey’s bodies and often passed out.
Snatching a vamp from a place like this would be child’s play for Wyatt.
She inhaled a deep breath. Could almost taste the blood in the air. “Let’s do this.”
But Cain stopped her. He blocked her path and stared down into her eyes. “Why do you fear them so much?”
“Uh, because they’re bloodsuckers with super sharp teeth and an unquenchable thirst for death?” What sane person wouldn’t fear them?
He shook his head. “Try again.”
Her jaw dropped. Her line had seemed perfectly believable. Well, most folks would have bought the line, anyway. Now wasn’t the time for a little heart-to-heart. She hated those talks. She’d already managed to make Trace angry by not telling him her secrets, and now Cain thought she’d just cut her soul open and reveal all to him on this crowded street?
Not gonna happen. “We have a club of vampires waiting about fifteen feet away.” Give or take a bit. “We don’t have time to pore over my issues with them right now.” The issues didn’t matter. She’d managed to control her fear plenty over the years, and Eve wasn’t about to break down. “I’ll keep it together, all right?”
His stare told her it wasn’t. “You don’t trust me.”
No, she didn’t.
His fingers brushed down her cheek. She barely controlled a shiver. The guy seemed to like touching her, sliding his fingers over her skin.
She liked it, too.
“Don’t worry,” Cain told her in that deep, rumbling voice that always made her knees want to jiggle—even when she was standing in front of a vampire bar. “I won’t let them get close to you.”
Promise? She clamped her lips together to hold that bit back. She didn’t want to look weak right then. Or ever.
Cain led her across the street. He didn’t get in that long line of eager humans. He headed right for the door. The bouncer glanced at him, baring fangs—but whatever he saw in Cain’s gaze had the guy stepping back.
Probably the flames. She could feel Cain’s body heating up beside her.
He shoved open the bar’s door, and the scent of blood grew even stronger. Music pounded. Humans moaned.
Vamps fed.
Lights flashed inside in a sickening whirl. Illuminating, then concealing. She saw the flash of fangs. Blood dripping down a woman’s throat.
The vamps had been the ones to start the paranormal coming-out party. They’d wanted an all-you-can-eat-buffet.
They’d gotten it.
She tried to see through the darkness. Vamps and prey. None of Wyatt’s hunters but . . .
Someone bumped her. “I like the way you smell,” a male voice whispered near her ear.
She stiffened. She smells so innocent . . . let me have a bite. The words were an echo from her nightmares. The ones that never stopped.
A hand was on her arm. Sliding over her skin. The fingers pressing against her were so cold. “You’re already bleeding,” the man murmured. “Want to give me a lick?”
“No, she fucking doesn’t,” Cain snarled and threw the vampire back a good ten feet.
The lights kept flashing around them.
But in those flashes, she saw that the va
mpires were moving. Rising. Closing in on them. Uh-oh.
“Cain . . .”
Vampires had closed in on her before. Only they hadn’t been hidden in the darkness. Fire had raged. Burned. Those flames had driven the vampires back right before their fangs could sink into her.
Let ’em all fucking burn. The words from her nightmares came again. The dark voice that she’d never forget. The vampire—he’d left her to the fire. Left her to die.
She’d screamed, but the vampires had run away and given her to the flames.
She’d been four years old. She’d screamed and screamed and screamed.
Blood and fire were a terrible mix.
“Someone’s scared,” a vampire whispered. When the lights flashed again, a big, tall, dark-haired vamp was two feet from her. Smiling. “Fear can taste so sweet.”
Cain pushed her behind him. “Know what doesn’t taste sweet? Fire.”
His fire blasted right at the vampire, who screamed and fell to the floor, rolling to put out the flames that were racing over his flesh.
The guy had to hurry . . . fire could kill a vampire. No stake to the heart needed.
The other vamps started to lunge forward.
But Cain just let more fire burn. He created a line of fire that separated him and Eve from the vampires. “Listen up!” he called out, voice clear and strong. “Unless you want this whole club to burn, some of you are gonna start talking.”
That wasn’t exactly the approach she’d planned to use. Eve had been hoping to talk quietly with some of the vamps, to ask some sly questions and broker some deals in the back of Blood Bath. She wanted a low profile.
She obviously wasn’t getting what she wanted.
“I want to know about a prick named Richard Wyatt!” Cain’s voice carried to every corner of the bar. “A bastard who’s been hunting your kind.”
The vampires were silent and they were damn well staying behind that line of fire.
“Tell me what you know about him,” Cain demanded, voice rumbling. “Tell me.”
A more subtle approach might have worked best, but . . .
“Come with me.” A male’s voice. Rising above the flames. A voice that seemed familiar.
The lights flashed again. Again. Eve saw the vampire who’d moved too close to the fire. A vampire with blond hair, wide shoulders, and a face that she knew.
The vampire from Genesis.
Her fingers curled around Cain’s shoulder. “Let’s talk to him.”
The flames died.
A few smart humans ran out the door. The rest offered their necks again. Vamps went back to feeding. Business as usual. Guess it took more than a little fire to rattle those guys.
The blond vampire headed toward them with his hands up. His eyes were on her. “I owe you.”
She forced herself to breathe. The last time she’d gotten close to this guy, he’d tried to take a bite out of her.
“You’ve got to work on that fear,” he told her with a shake of his head. “It’s like an aphrodisiac to every vamp in the room. Don’t you know”—he gave a small pause—“we get off on fear?”
“And here I thought it was just the blood,” she muttered with a glare.
Cain was beside her, and, yeah, she was sure grateful for his strength. Without him, would she have been able to go into the vamp bar? She would have tried, but the stark truth was . . . vampires terrified her. When they’d closed in . . .
She forced her muscles to unlock. “We need to talk. Privately.” Not in the middle of that chaos. Preferably in a room with a lot fewer vampires.
The blond vamp pointed to the left. She couldn’t see anything that way, but she followed the vamp and Cain. They headed down a hallway and slid inside another pitch-black room.
The vamp’s hand hit the wall, and lights flooded on. The brightness had her blinking as spots danced before her eyes.
When the spots vanished, the vampire was staring at her.
“I’m Ryder Duncan.” He offered a faint smile, one that showed the sharp edge of a fang. “I didn’t get to introduce myself the last time we met.”
No, he’d been too busy trying to bite her—while she’d been fighting to save him.
Ryder’s gaze swept over to Cain. “I see you’re still playing guard. Haven’t let her get away yet, have you?”
Uh, what?
Cain glared back at him. “Where’s Wyatt?”
“Seems we’d both like to know that,” Ryder said, face hardening. “That bastard has something I want, something I need, and I will be getting it back.”
Great for him. “Did you see Wyatt that night? Did you see him escape?” Eve needed to know.
Ryder shook his head. “Not then. I thought the guy burned. It wasn’t until the next day that I started to hear the stories.”
Cain stepped toward him. “Just what stories did you hear?”
“Some of those who escaped . . . they said Wyatt retreated to his second lab.”
A second lab? Eve’s stomach knotted. There were more paranormals being held out there? Being tortured?
She’d tried so hard to research Genesis before she’d gone in, but the place was surrounded by miles and miles of red tape. She’d bribed her way to some security files and learned what she could.
The original Genesis Foundation had been created over forty years ago, by Richard Wyatt’s father Jeremiah. After his death, Richard had taken over the family business.
What a twisted, bloody business it was.
Two labs.
“Wyatt’s got a bounty on you both.” Ryder’s gaze—a sharp, cold green—went from Cain back to Eve. “Seems he wants you two very, very badly.”
“Badly enough to kill,” Eve said.
Ryder nodded. “And he’s got plenty of firepower behind him.”
Yes, she knew that part. Cops at his beck and call. Guards armed to the teeth. So what? Richard Wyatt would still go down. She’d make sure of it.
“Do you know where he is?” The question was Cain’s.
Ryder hesitated, then shook his head.
“Then what good are you?” Cain asked him as he lifted his hands.
Ryder took a fast step back. “Easy, easy. Shit. I’m not looking for you to send your flames at me again.”
When had Cain done that?
Ryder exhaled on a hard breath. “I don’t know where he is, but I know how to get the guy to come to us, okay? I know how to bring the bastard right out into the open so we can take him.”
Now that was sounding promising. “And how do we do that?” Eve wanted to know. The sooner they took Wyatt out, the better.
Ryder’s attention focused on her. “We give him what he wants. We give him . . . you.”
CHAPTER NINE
In the next instant, Cain had slammed Ryder back against the wall. The thud of the vamp’s head hitting that brick wall made him smile. “No deal,” Cain growled.
Give Eve up to that guy? Hell, no.
“Wait, listen. Listen!” Ryder’s teeth flashed, but he didn’t fight Cain’s hold. “We just need bait.”
Cain had to step back. It was either step back or burn the vamp. “Eve’s not bait.” No one would use her.
“No,” Eve muttered from behind him. “I’m not. If that’s the best idea you had, vampy, then, sorry, time for a new plan.”
“He wants you alive!”
The vamp needed to shut the hell up.
But the guy just kept talking. “Wyatt wouldn’t hurt you. He’d take you back to the lab—wherever that second lab is hidden. We could follow you there, get you out, and end Wyatt.”
While they were doing all that ending . . . “Let me guess,” Cain muttered. “You get to retrieve that ‘something’ that Wyatt took of yours, right?”
A grim nod from the vamp. “It’s in the second lab. Has to be. And if I have to, I’ll tear that place to the ground in order to find it.”
The vampire’s features were tense. Stark. Had the guy been feeding? Because it
looked like he could sure use more blood.
The vampire’s gaze dropped to Eve’s throat.
“Don’t even think it,” Cain snarled at him.
That gaze flew back to Cain. “Then help me find what was taken. Help me . . . and I’ll help you.”
Eve laughed, a cold sound. “Doesn’t sound like much help to me. Sounds like you’re just trading me in order to get what you want.”
Sounded the same way to Cain. He caught Eve’s hand. Led her back toward the door. “No deal, vamp.”
Ryder didn’t follow them. “You’re making a mistake. If we work together, I can help you.”
No, he couldn’t.
Cain yanked open the door. Music still pounded. Too damn loud. Voices whispered. Vampires gulped blood. He could hear all those sounds. All of them and—more.
The lights flashed around him, but he could see perfectly in the dark—or in that blinding light.
The room Ryder had taken them inside—the walls had been too thick. Soundproofed. Reinforced one hell of a lot more than the rooms had been at Genesis. He’d been so focused on the vamp that he hadn’t even noticed the quiet that surrounded him.
My mistake. Cain knew the mistake could prove fatal. He hadn’t realized the threat that was growing around them. Hadn’t realized just how close the hunters were.
He could hear their footsteps now. Could smell their sweat.
Moving in for the kill.
“Eve!” Ryder shouted her name even as Cain shoved her behind him.
The gunfire came then, erupting in a lightning-fast burst. The bullets thudded into his chest. Again and again.
The hunters had come in nice and close. Good. When he rose, it would make killing them so much easier.
Eve’s scream echoed in his ears, and he fought to stay up. Fought to keep blocking those bullets.
But Cain knew that he’d be dying soon.
“No!” Eve screamed and leaped forward, but Cain pushed her back. His body jerked as the bullets slammed into him, one after the other in fast succession. The bullets were perfectly aimed for maximum, up-close impact.
Then . . .
Silence.