Burn For Me

by Cynthia Eden

  Eve’s hands slid around him. She could feel . . . stone beneath them, and she heard the sound of breathing. Rough. Raspy breathing.

  Something grated overhead. She looked up. “No!”

  The light above her vanished as the area closed off once more. Wyatt had sealed them in.

  Cain groaned beneath her. Something . . . else groaned from the darkness.

  They were locked in, but they weren’t alone.

  “F-fire, Cain,” she whispered into his ear. He was hurt beneath her. She knew it. The fall had been brutal. Too long. At least three stories. They’d fallen straight down.

  Her hands found his face. Smoothed over his cheek. Pushed into his hair. She felt the sticky wetness of his blood. No.

  The breaths around her grew stronger. “T-Trace?” He hadn’t been moving when he’d fallen. Hadn’t appeared to even be alive. Could that breathing be him?

  More groans. No, growls. Coming from the left. The right.

  Not Trace. Eve’s own breath choked out. “Please, Cain,” she whispered, holding him tight, “I need the fire.” She needed to see. Had to see what was coming for them in the dark.

  Something touched her hair. Eve whirled. She still had her gun. “Get back!”

  Pain sliced across her back. Eve screamed. Something had . . . clawed her. “Stay away from us!” Cain wasn’t moving. Still breathing, but she knew he was hurt badly. Was he dying? “Cain?”

  She felt the tightness of his muscles beneath her hand. He was trying to move, but he couldn’t. “Just a little fire,” Eve whispered. Begged. “I need to see . . .”

  What’s coming for me.

  She found his hand. Turned it over. Then, in the dark, her lips met his. She tasted blood on his lips. And he felt—cold.

  Cain never felt cold.

  “The fire,” she whispered against his mouth. “I need . . .”

  A small spark sputtered to life in his hand. Like a weak candle lighting the room.

  And revealing the monsters that waited for them.

  Eve’s gaze swept to the left. To the right. She saw the fangs. The claws. The monsters coming. Just a few feet away. Waiting to pounce on her.

  Too many.

  Vampires.

  These didn’t look like others she’d seen. They didn’t just have sharp canines—all of their teeth were razor sharp. And the nails breaking from their fingertips looked like long, black knives.

  What the hell? This wasn’t the way vamps were supposed to look. This was something totally foreign to her.

  “K-kill . . .” Cain rasped.

  She lifted her gun. The bullets she had left might slow the vampires down, but it wasn’t going to stop them all.

  She could still hear what she’d told Cain earlier. If a vamp ever tries to bite me again, I swear I’ll kill him myself. Eve had meant those words.

  There were too many to kill. She wouldn’t be able to take them all out, no matter how hard she tried.

  The vamps were ignoring Trace’s body. Because he’s already dead? They were focused only on her and Cain.

  And on Cain’s blood. There was so much blood. She could feel it beneath her fingertips. With that faint light from Cain’s fire, she could see the broken bones in his arm. His twisted legs . . .

  “Kill . . . me . . .” Cain whispered.

  Her gaze flew to his face. “No!”

  Another slice over her back. Eve screamed and turned back, firing her gun. A vampire cried out, the sound like an animal’s shrill cry of pain and rage.

  She’d made a hit. How many bullets did she have left? Not enough.

  “Come . . . back . . .” Cain’s voice. So low. Pain-filled. “I can . . . stop . . . them . . .”

  Yes, the fire could burn through the vampires, she knew that. But I don’t want to be the one to kill Cain. She couldn’t be the one.

  Another swipe of claws over her skin. Eve fired the gun. Caught another vampire and heard that same high-pitched cry.

  “Eat . . .” A whisper from the darkness. From the vampires that were shuffling closer.

  Her hands were shaking. “Stay away from us!”

  “Kill me . . . Eve . . .” Cain’s voice. So weak. Broken. “Kill . . . me . . .”

  But she couldn’t. She couldn’t look into Cain’s eyes and pull the trigger.

  He’ll come back.

  Cain’s body jerked. His breath rushed out.

  Gulping. Slurping.

  A vampire was drinking from Cain’s leg. Eve fired again. “Stay away from him!”

  That feeding vampire fell back with a screech. But the others inched closer.

  “My . . . fire . . .” Cain’s voice was weakening even more. He was hurt too badly. She knew he wasn’t going to survive much longer. Either her bullets took him out or he kept suffering. He kept facing agony as the vamps tried to drain him.

  Her cheeks were wet. From blood or tears? Both. “I’m . . . sorry . . .” She couldn’t let the vampires eat his flesh. Not during these last desperate moments. She couldn’t do that to him.

  “Come . . . back . . .” His words were a bare whisper. One she had to strain to hear as she leaned over him. “You . . . run . . . ”

  She nodded.

  “Don’t want to . . . hurt . . . you . . .”

  But he wanted her to shoot him.

  She lifted the gun to his heart. The fire in Cain’s hands was flickering, fading, and the vamps were closing in as the darkness spread once more.

  Their claws reached her, tearing into her skin. Cain’s body jerked and shuddered, and Eve knew they were attacking him, too.

  “I’m sorry,” she told him, crying hard, unable to stop her tears. Eve pulled the trigger.

  “Remarkable,” Richard said as he watched Eve kill her lover. The gray images played before him on the screen, the gritty, night-vision surveillance cams making the forms of the vampires look like long, desperate shadows.

  Shadows with glowing eyes. Shadows that were grabbing Eve. Poor Eve. She’d used her last bullet on Cain. She was still trying to fight back, but she couldn’t seem to summon any fire on her own.

  Not like her mother.

  How disappointing.

  Flames began to flicker around Cain’s body. The regeneration process had begun, but the phoenix had better hurry. If he didn’t rise soon, Eve would be dead long before Cain was able to draw breath again.

  “Taste . . . sweet . . .” Fangs tore into Eve’s shoulder, digging deep. She screamed at the pain and shoved the vampire back. She punched and she kicked, and the vampires still kept coming.

  Since the gun was out of bullets, she used it like a club to hit them.

  They weren’t near Cain anymore. The minute he’d died, they’d left his body, and come after her. She figured the bastards must like fresh meat. The kind of meat that was still alive.

  Hurry, Cain, please, hurry . . .

  “Drain you dry . . .” the vampire who’d bit her rasped as he came at her again.

  Drain you dry . . .

  Eve stiffened. Another vampire had said those words to her. So long ago. The night her parents had died.

  The scent of smoke teased her nose. Yes. Smoke meant flames and flames meant . . . Cain was coming back to her.

  Fire lit up the area, flashing as it consumed Cain’s body. The vampires jumped back, screaming.

  Eve got a good look at the vampire who’d been trying so hard to make a meal of her.

  All teeth. Giant eyes. Deadly claws. But . . . but there was something about his face, the curve of his jaw, the stark lines of his cheeks. She stared at him, heart racing, and realized—

  I know him.

  A girl never forgot the face of her nightmare.

  The vampires were backing away from the fire, giving off screams that felt like they were going to shatter her eardrums.

  “You wanted a bite?” Eve snarled to the vamp she remembered. The one who’d always haunted her. “Come and get it.” She grabbed him and fell back toward Cain—and th
e fire.

  The vampire’s flesh ignited instantly, like dry leaves in a flash fire. The skin burned, the muscle . . . all melted away in an instant.

  Eve was left holding ash in her hand as the fire burned brighter.

  Some of the vampires were running down a long, dark tunnel on the left. So much damn darkness. Others were frozen, staring with gaping mouths and wide eyes at the orange and red flames.

  The fire raged. Bigger. Brighter.

  Cain stood up. He went right for the vampires who’d stayed behind. Touched them with his hands and they melted before him. One. Two. Three. They went down so quickly. Burned, burned.

  Eve wanted to close her eyes. She hated to see the carnage and the smell . . .

  It was choking her.

  But she kept her eyes open. The vampires died quickly, but their screams seemed to linger in the air around her.

  Then Cain turned to her.

  Fire was at his feet, seeming to sputter out and fade away. He stared at her, and she could see the flames flickering in his eyes.

  “Do you know me?” she whispered. On his last rising, he’d seemed so confused. Lost.

  He stared at her. Stalked toward her. Eve’s back was pressed to the wall. The tunnel was a few feet away. But some of the vamps had escaped down that tunnel. If she ran that way, they could be waiting for her.

  Cain’s eyes were locked on her, too bright with the flames that he stirred. “You . . .” His voice was dark, rumbling.

  He recognized her. Eve’s breath left her in a rush. He knew who she was. He knew—

  “You”—a muscle jerked in his jaw—“killed me.”

  There was fury in his stare. So much dark rage. And deadly intent.

  Eve glanced toward the dark tunnel once more. Cain had tried to warn her. She should have listened when he’d told her to run.

  He reached for her.

  I’m listening now.

  She ducked under his arm and raced down the tunnel, but she could hear the thud of his footsteps as he followed her and she knew . . .

  There’d be no escape.

  “Run,” Richard whispered as he watched Eve flee.

  Cain followed right after her. The phoenix didn’t bother running. He just slowly stalked his prey.

  Why should he run? He’d track Eve down easily enough. It wasn’t like the tunnel had an exit. Eve would hit a dead end soon enough.

  “Sir . . .” From the guard on Richard’s right. “Do we need to go down and follow them?”

  Richard shook his head. “No need. There’s no way out of that tunnel.” It was why the vampires were trapped there. The area had proven to be the perfect prison for a particular failed experiment.

  Richard glanced over at the guard. His eyes narrowed. The guy was sweating. Had it been the first time the man had seen a vamp get fried? If he stayed around Genesis, it sure wouldn’t be the last time he saw such a sight.

  Richard was glad those particular vamps were gone. He’d figured that once Cain was tossed in their midst, the vamps wouldn’t last long.

  That breed of vampires had proven to be a disappointment. An unfortunate experiment that had gone wrong. His father had made those beings. Tried to transform soldiers into an enhanced breed of vampires.

  At first, the transformation had seemed to work. The soldiers who’d volunteered for the program had become stronger, bigger, and faster. Their senses had been better than any shifter. They’d been such great hunters. Perfect killers.

  At first . . .

  The genetic splicing had been flawed, though. The humans hadn’t been able to maintain the transformation, not at an optimum level.

  The speakers on Richard’s right picked up the sound of a scream. Not the high-pitched cry of the vamps in that hole, but a woman’s cry. Eve.

  His fingers tapped lightly over the keyboard. He’d counted on Cain to protect Eve when he’d dropped her into that hole. Cain had already risen once—all alone with Eve—and not attacked her, so Richard had thought Eve would be safe with him.

  Maybe he’d thought wrong.

  He glanced back at the monitor. “Send a team in. Bring the female out.” He needed her, and he couldn’t afford a miscalculation with her life.

  “Yes, sir.” the guard replied readily enough, but then he hesitated. “Ah sir, just how far does that tunnel stretch into the mountain?”

  Richard kept staring at the screen. He’d been in that tunnel once, a lifetime ago. Been trapped with the vampires. Another experiment. His father had always enjoyed those experiments.

  Richard had hated the darkness. Hated the vampires all around him.

  He’d been seven years old.

  And he’d been the experiment then.

  Don’t worry, son. They don’t want your blood. I’m sure of it. His father’s voice. And then he had just . . . pushed him into the dark. Pushed him into that pit with the vampires. I just have to test them. His father had left him with the monsters.

  How long was I down there?

  Richard swallowed back the memory. Shoved it back deep inside.

  This lab, all of it, had been created by Jeremiah. The first Genesis lab. The original. The place that still housed so many secrets.

  And plenty of failures. Failures that were hard to kill. Failures that had to be contained.

  “The vamps made that tunnel,” Richard said. They’d clawed it, hacking their way through the dirt and rock over the years. Searching for a freedom they’d never find. “It ends in a wall of stone.” His father had made sure of that. No getting out, not for the pet project that had gone so horribly wrong.

  Vampires who could never satisfy their hunger. More beast than man, their intelligence had begun to plummet just weeks after their transformation. His father had wanted to make a super soldier, a human with a vampire’s strengths and none of the creature’s weaknesses.

  Instead, the soldiers had broken down. Their bodies and minds hadn’t been strong enough to survive the change for long. After a few months, they’d had all the vamps’ weaknesses.

  And very few strengths.

  They’d been such a disappointment to his father.

  “My vamps are better,” Richard said, the words a dark growl. So much better.

  “Uh, sir?”

  Richard stiffened and glanced back. “Didn’t I tell you to get a team in there?”

  “But . . . the phoenix, the vampire—”

  “Use the tranqs on them and bring the girl out.” Cain could rot in that dark pit for a while longer, but Richard wanted to start harvesting eggs from Eve before the phoenix decided to kill her.

  If he hasn’t already . . .

  Eve wasn’t screaming anymore.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Hunt.

  Cain rushed through the darkness, striking out at the beings that were foolish enough to attack him. He touched them, the fire flared, and the beasts turned to ash.

  The tunnel smelled of death. Blood. Rot.

  And . . . her.

  Sweetness inside the gaping mouth of hell. A light scent that pulled him forward. One image was burned into his head, the image he’d had as soon as the fire brought him back.

  A gun, pressing into his heart. Her. Dark hair streaming around her, shadows slipping over her body. Tears glistening in her eyes. “I’m . . . sorry . . .”

  Then the thunder of a gun. The white-hot agony as a bullet ripped into his heart.

  She’d shot him.

  Killed him.

  Now his beast wanted vengeance. The fire burned inside him, so hot that when he breathed, a puff of smoke appeared before his mouth.

  Deeper he went into the tunnel. He could hear the shuffle of footsteps. To his right.

  He reached out—another vampire died by his hand.

  Then he heard her scream. A wild, terrified cry. He rushed after the sound, running as quickly as he could.

  Mine. She was his to punish. No one else could hurt her. No one else should fucking dare to hurt her.

&nbs
p; Mine.

  The beast knew it. Even death couldn’t change that truth for him.

  He saw them. Eve, struggling in the arms of a vampire. She was holding him off, pushing him away from her neck, but the vamp’s teeth were mere inches from her.

  He lunged forward and grabbed the vampire. The man tried to scream, but couldn’t. Cain didn’t give him a chance.

  The vamp died instantly.

  She ran. She lurched away and tried to escape into the darkness once more. Didn’t she realize? There was no escape.

  He sent his fire out, letting it lick the ground on either side of her body. The fire showed that there truly was no way out. A wall of giant rocks waited just ahead.

  She stumbled to a stop. After a moment, she spun around, facing him again. He kept advancing on her. One step at a time. The flames were low on the ground, burning softly, but he could make them rise with a thought.

  Or he could let them die.

  He saw her eyes and knew she didn’t fear his flames. Just the darkness.

  He smiled at her and let the flames die. The darkness took him—and her—once more.

  But while she couldn’t see in the dark, he had no such trouble. He could see her perfectly. From the top of her tousled head, all the way down the slender length of her body.

  She was all alone with him in the dark. No one to save her. No one to hear her screams.

  Did she realize how close he was to her? He could see her head turning as she strained to see in the darkness.

  I see you. He lifted his hand and let the back of his fingers trail down her cheek.

  She jerked back, gasping. Then softly, “Cain?”

  The name pierced through him.

  “Cain, please tell me that you have control right now.” Her voice was breathy, husky. Sexy.

  His cock began to swell as he inhaled her sweet scent. He slid closer to her and touched her again.

  “It is you.” Relief had her words shaking.

  If he’d been a vamp, would he have bothered with touches? No, he would have attacked with teeth and fangs.

  She’d been attacked. He could smell her blood, and that coppery scent pissed him off.

  No one else hurts her.