Burn For Me

by Cynthia Eden

  The guard’s eyes were on her. Please. Help me.

  A muscle jerked in his jaw. She could see the struggle on his face.

  Maybe he wanted to help her, but the guy wasn’t moving.

  She kept her own face desperate, afraid. Not hard to do because she was desperate and freaking terrified.

  “We have to see how much heat you can handle.” Wyatt’s voice seemed emotionless, but she knew the truth. He was enjoying what he was doing. He’d enjoy her screams. “So we must get the fire to burn as hot as possible. Maximum temperature levels are necessary.”

  “It’s necessary for you to kiss my ass!” Eve snarled. Her hands fisted, and she pounded them into the glass. Nothing. She hit the window again. Again.

  Nothing.

  “Help me!” Eve screamed at the guard.

  His eyes were wide. Wide and—

  Fire was rising from the floor. From every vent. Shooting toward her, burning so hot that her clothes melted, that the floor hurt her feet, that she screamed—

  And was swallowed by the fire.

  Another damn guard. The guy was yanking at some door, swearing, trying so hard to get inside the room that waited before him.

  “Stop!” he screamed. He pulled out his gun. Shot at the glass window near him. “Fucking stop!”

  Cain rushed the guard, swung him around and—

  “Help her,” the guard said. His eyes were wild. “There’s a woman in there—Wyatt’s fucking burning her alive.”

  A woman—Eve. Cain’s gaze rose to the window. He’d smelled the flames. They’d led him this way. The fire was raging inside that room, burning hot and bright. He couldn’t see her. Just the fire.

  But she could handle the fire, couldn’t she? Eve could handle his heat.

  The flames died away as he watched, seeming to vanish right back into the room’s floor.

  And there was Eve. Naked, with her arms wrapped around her body. Shivering. Her gaze found his. Her mouth opened. She was screaming, but through that soundproofed wall, her words came to him as a whisper . . .

  Cain, help me. Make it stop.

  It was fucking stopping.

  He tossed the guard away. Kicked open that damn door, knocking down half the surrounding wall.

  Eve hadn’t moved. Her arms were still around her body, and she was shaking so much. He went toward her, seeing ash float in the room around them.

  Cain reached out to her. She flinched.

  “Eve?”

  “He was watching,” she whispered. Her voice was hollow. “I couldn’t stop it. The fire was everywhere.”

  The floor below them was heating up again. Shit. Cain snatched off his stolen shirt and put it over her. It hung low, falling past her knees. “Come on.” He couldn’t stand to see her look that way. So . . . broken.

  She was shaking her head. “They wanted to lure you in. They wanted you to come . . .”

  Cain’s fingers locked with hers. “Screw ’em and what they want. I’m getting you out of here.”

  She didn’t move. “Wyatt’s here.” A faint line appeared between her brows. “I heard him. We can find him.” Her words came faster. “We can stop him.”

  She wasn’t moving. Fine. He’d move her. Cain lifted her into his arms and carried her the hell out of that place.

  “But Wyatt—”

  “He’s not here.” The guard had vanished. He’d damn well better stay gone. Actually, the whole place looked empty as Cain headed back for the garage. No guards. No bodies. The place was as quiet as a tomb. But he was catching dozens of scents in the air, scents that told them just what Wyatt planned next. “This place is about to explode. It’s wired—I can smell the damn explosives.”

  The bastard was still experimenting. Probably watching with video cameras to see just how much fire Eve could handle.

  An alarm was beeping somewhere. Understanding hit. No, that wasn’t an alarm.

  It was a countdown.

  His hold tightened on her, and he raced down the corridor. No guards—they’d sure cleared out fast.

  The SUV waited for them, just where he’d left it. Only the gate leading back outside had been locked, trapping them inside.

  “Cain?” Eve’s worried voice.

  He flashed her a smile. “We’re getting out.”

  He could smell the fire again. The smoke. Wyatt’s latest fire had already started.

  He put her in the passenger side. Rushed around the vehicle. Jumped in and gunned the engine. “Hold on.” He jerked the vehicle into reverse.

  For an instant, Cain stared at that heavy gate. Then he smiled. His hand lifted, hanging outside of the driver’s window, and he tossed a ball of flames right in the middle of that gate, weakening it. Then he pushed the gas pedal all the way down to the floorboard. The SUV lurched backward and crashed right through the gate.

  They made it outside with a scream of metal and tires. Cain spun the car forward and didn’t slow down, not for an instant. He kept the gas pinned to the floor and drove as fast as he could.

  Right then, Wyatt didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but getting Eve away from there.

  Cain knew exactly why the freak scientist had been testing her. He knew what Wyatt wanted her to do.

  You just had to see how much fire she could handle, didn’t you?

  Wyatt had wanted to make sure that Eve was strong enough for a deadly job.

  She’d survived the flames. Come away without even a mild burn. And Wyatt had seen it. He’d seen everything.

  Wyatt had just proved to himself—and to Cain—that Eve could be a very, very dangerous woman.

  A woman who could kill a phoenix.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “I . . . didn’t expect you to come after me.” Eve’s voice.

  Soft. Hesitant.

  Cain turned away from the window and glanced back at her. This time, he’d picked the hiding spot. No more holes-in-the-wall. He hated those places. Instead, they were inside a luxury cabin on the top of the mountain—one that would let him see when any unwanted guests were coming. They’d driven hell-fast and hard to get to this refuge. Normally, the drive would’ve taken three hours. They’d made it to the place in less than two.

  It was a cabin that he owned. This one and half a dozen others, scattered all around the Southeast. He liked to keep his options open.

  And he liked to have a safe place to crash when necessary. The cabins couldn’t be traced back to him. He’d made sure of that.

  Eve rocked forward on her heels. “Wyatt was counting on you coming. He wanted to trap you.” Her laugh was weak. Rough. “I was his bait, too. Seems everyone wants me to be bait.”

  “That’s not what I want.”

  She stared into his eyes. “What do you want?”

  You. He hadn’t gotten her out of his system yet, not even close. But he looked away from her. Showing her how hungry he was for her . . . was one bad idea. She already had enough power over him. “I want to make Wyatt pay for what he’s done.” Death for death. Wasn’t that a fair enough exchange?

  It was in Cain’s book.

  “Cain . . . how can—how can you die?”

  The question was the last he’d expected from her, and every muscle in his body tightened as he went on full alert. “I can’t die.” A lie. “Not really.” He forced a smile as he walked toward her. She was still just wearing the shirt he’d given her. She smelled of smoke and fear and woman. “I just come back, again and again.”

  Her gaze searched his. Then she took a deep breath. “If you’re going to keep lying to me, how am I ever supposed to trust you?” Eve turned away and headed for the stairs. “Everything and everyone can die.”

  True enough. The trick was to strike at the right time, and in the right way.

  She was halfway up the stairs, and after all she’d been through, he shouldn’t have his eyes glued to the bare expanse of her legs.

  He did, though. The woman’s legs were perfect. Sexy. Long.

  Eve paused and her fing
ers trailed over the banister. “Sometimes I see you looking at me”—her shoulders fell—“and I can’t tell if you want to make love to me or if . . .”

  She didn’t say more.

  Helpless, he walked toward the stairs. Toward her. “Or if what?” A grandfather clock ticked slowly in the other room. Too loud in the silence that fell between them.

  Her head bent. She studied the banister like it held the secrets to the universe. It didn’t. “If I were all-powerful, able to come back again and again—come back stronger with each death—I wouldn’t fear anything or anyone.”

  He didn’t. He didn’t fear a damn thing.

  “But even Superman had his Kryptonite,” she said, voice sad. “No matter how strong . . . everyone has a weakness.”

  She was hitting too close to the truth for him.

  “Weaknesses can make a person angry. So angry . . .” Eve glanced over her shoulder at him. Her bright gaze caught his. “And sometimes, when you look at me, I see that anger.”

  Cain forced himself to speak. “The fury that I carry isn’t about you. It’s not for you.” There was just too much rage inside his beast. He’d never be able to fully control it.

  Did he even want to?

  “Wyatt was testing me.”

  Yeah, Cain fucking knew that. Sick prick.

  “He wanted to see how much heat I could handle.”

  Cain saw the whisper of fear cross her face.

  “I’d never . . . I’d never been in fire that hot. When the flames came at me, I thought I was going to die.”

  Why was his chest aching? Cain pressed a palm over the spot, pressing back against the burn.

  “You’re doing it again,” she whispered with a small shake of her head. “Staring at me like you don’t know . . . do you want me?”

  Hell, yes.

  “Or do you hate me?”

  He cleared his throat. “Why would I hate you?” She’d never done anything to him. Never tried—

  “Because according to Wyatt, I can kill you.” Her lips twisted, and her smile made the ache deepen in his chest. “I don’t think he was talking about the kind of death that just stops you for a few moments.”

  No, Wyatt hadn’t been.

  “He tested me to see if I was strong enough to handle the hottest fire that can burn from you. He tested me”—her hair brushed over her shoulders as she tilted her head to the right and stared at him—“because he wants me to kill you.”

  Cain stared back at her. “Wyatt is a sociopathic prick who gets off on torturing people in the name of science.” He raised his brows. “I wouldn’t believe anything he has to say.”

  She kept her gaze on him. “Can I kill you, Cain?”

  “Anyone can—”

  One of her hands impatiently waved that away. “A real death. One that doesn’t let you come back—come back from wherever it is that you go.”

  Her stare was too bright. Too intense. But why hide the truth? She already knew anyway, thanks to Wyatt. “Yes, you can.”

  A slow nod. “So that’s why you look at me that way.”

  He looked at her with lust in his eyes because he wanted her so much he wanted to damn near eat her alive.

  “You want me,” Eve said, “but you also want to get as far from me as you can.”

  Because she could destroy him.

  Or he could destroy her.

  “So why did you save me? Why come after me at all?”

  Because the thing that could kill him was the thing he needed more than breath.

  But Eve had turned away. Her steps were slow as she climbed up the stairs. Cain didn’t stop her. Didn’t call out to her.

  He heard the soft click of the door shutting a few seconds later, then the shower came on with a rattle of the pipes.

  Why did you save me?

  He hadn’t hesitated when she’d vanished. He’d known that he had to get to her as soon as possible.

  She’d saved him. He’d saved her. They were even now. Right?

  His gaze rose to the top of the stairs.

  He’d wanted to get her back before Wyatt ran any more experiments, but he’d been too late. Wyatt had proof of what she could do, and the bastard wouldn’t ever let her vanish.

  He’d want to do more tests. On Eve. On Cain.

  And in the end, Cain knew that Wyatt would use Eve against him. It was just a matter of time.

  The one thing he wanted . . . was the one thing that could cost him everything.

  Richard Wyatt stared at the video screens. He’d watched the feed over and over, zooming in to catch every single shot. That fire had been glorious. So beautiful. And when it came at Eve—

  She’d been afraid.

  The woman didn’t understand her own power. Maybe because she didn’t realize what she was.

  He’d set up his cameras outside the testing room. If they’d been inside, they would have melted almost as fast as Eve’s clothes.

  The fire had burned her clothes, burned everywhere around Eve, but the flames hadn’t been able to hurt her flesh. Not her fingernails. Not even her hair. The fire couldn’t damage any part of her body.

  “You ever seen anything like that before?” his assistant asked.

  He didn’t bother glancing at Keith Ridgeway. The guy had so much to learn. Richard had pulled the geneticist from his ivory tower, just like he’d pulled a dozen others. But Ridgeway didn’t understand the paranormals. The fool had actually thought vampires and shifters were the only supernaturals on the streets.

  They were just the ones that got the most attention.

  “If we could replicate her skin,” Ridgeway said, excitement in his voice, “it would help so many—”

  “I haven’t seen another like her before . . . but I’ve read reports. . . . My father had a test subject similar to her.” Richard’s words cut through the other doctor’s fast speech as he finally glanced at the younger man.

  “Your . . . your father?” Ridgeway pushed his glasses higher on his nose. “A subject with the exact capabilities?”

  “No. The first test subject could do even more.” Richard frowned, remembering. His father had spent so many years researching paranormals, conducting his painstaking experiments. Richard’s hands clenched into fists. Even before the paranormals had publicly made themselves known, his father had discovered them and started his research.

  Jeremiah Wyatt had always been a very thorough man.

  Richard exhaled slowly. “Unfortunately, the test subject objected to the experiments.” His father had noted that tidbit in his journal. His father wouldn’t have cared about the objections. He never did. “She escaped from the facility and attacked a number of guards.”

  Ridgeway’s eyes widened. “What did she do to them?”

  That part he remembered perfectly. “She burned every bit of skin off their bodies.”

  Ridgeway weaved a bit. “W-what?”

  “That subject wasn’t just immune to the fire. She could control it. Could send it out at specified targets.” He tapped his chin, remembering, “But that was only when she shifted.”

  Ridgeway stared at him, eyes still too wide. “What could she become?”

  “A beast of enormous power and strength.” A beast that his father had never expected. “You know those old stories about dragons attacking castles and burning knights?”

  A quick nod.

  “Those stories were based on truth. Dragon shifters existed once, but they were hunted to near extinction.” His father had thought they were extinct after the unfortunate death of his test subject but . . . Richard’s gaze turned back to the screen. Back to Eve Bradley. “But it seems we may have one left, after all.”

  Silence. Then . . . “Uh, Doctor Wyatt, that woman doesn’t look like a dragon to me.”

  No, she didn’t. And she should have shifted when the fire hit her. She would have shifted, if she’d been a full-blooded shifter.

  Are you like your mother, Eve?

  “There weren’t any of her
kind left,” Richard murmured, still staring at that screen. “So she had to find a human to take as her mate. ”

  His father had said that his test subject found sanctuary with humans. That she’d been hiding, using them for cover. Of course, Jeremiah must not have realized the truth. The test subject mated with a human.

  If he had realized that important fact, then Richard figured that his father wouldn’t have told the soldiers to kill them all.

  His father’s order. He’d wanted to cover his tracks. The test subject couldn’t be controlled, so she’d had to be eliminated. Jeremiah had wanted to make sure no witnesses were left behind.

  The humans had needed to die.

  Pity.

  But . . . his father had kept meticulous research. Blood samples, hair, tissue—all of those still remained from the dragon shifter. It would be easy enough to discover if his own suspicions were true.

  And if Eve did turn out to be the child of a dragon shifter . . .

  Then he would be able to take his father’s research to the next level. He smiled. He’d finish what the old man started. Prove I’m better, stronger. He would be the one with the perfect killing machine. And his father could fucking choke on his success.

  The water poured over her, ice cold because she needed the chill. Every time that Eve closed her eyes, she saw the fire.

  But . . . it wasn’t just the flames that Wyatt had sent out at her.

  It was another time. Another place.

  Memories that haunted her.

  Mommy! Mommy! The fire had been everywhere. Fire and blood and the flash of vampire fangs.

  Bet you taste good. Kids always fuckin’ do.

  Her eyes squeezed closed tighter as she pushed her head under the water. It should have cooled her down. It didn’t. It just made her feel hotter.

  Her mother had died in that long-ago fire. Her father . . . he’d been dead before the flames hit him. The vampires had ripped out his throat.

  Eve shuddered. I hate vampires.

  Every time she turned around, a vampire was attacking—or selling her out. Thanks, Ryder. She’d be sure to pay him back.

  If it hadn’t been for me, you would have burned at Genesis.