Burn For Me (Phoenix Fire #1)(20)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Cain was still crouched on the floor. His head was down. The crowd was going wild. They were screaming for another bite. They wanted blood. They wanted violence.

Cain’s head tilted up. His gaze met hers once more.

They were going to get it.

She saw the fire lighting his eyes.

Her head turned toward Trace. “You should . . .” She cleared her throat because her voice had gone hoarse. Fear could do that. Fear could steal her voice. She tried again. “You should run.”

Because she knew an attack was coming.

Who the f**k was that blond jerk beside Eve? With his hand on her? The fool needed to step back.

The venom pumped through Cain’s blood, making the burn inside him hotter. Jimmy was a fool. His venom might work on the weaker shifters, but it wasn’t going to incapacitate Cain. It wasn’t doing anything but making his fury deepen.

“You shouldn’t have come after me, man!” Jimmy snarled at him. “Always thinking you were so big and bad. Who’s bad now?” Jimmy threw his arms into the air and spun to face the crowd.

Eve was whispering something to the blond dick beside her. She looked back at Cain and he saw her lips form, “No!” but there was no stopping him. Jimmy was begging for death.

Cain rose to his feet. Lifted his hand. Let the flames dance above his palm.

The cries died from the crowd. Fear—ah, he could smell it.

Jimmy froze with his hands still in the air. Maybe he smelled the fear, too.

“You sold me out,” Cain told him, his voice carrying easily. “Me and a dozen other paranormals.”

Murmurs came from the crowd. Some folks—the smart ones—started heading for the door. Eve didn’t leave. Neither did the blond with the death wish.

Jimmy’s hands lowered. He turned back to face Cain and his face had whitened. “N-no, I—”

Cain wasn’t in the mood for his lies. “You let the humans cut into us. Torture us.” For days. Weeks. Some paranormals hadn’t lasted more than a few hours. Some had screamed until they’d lost their voices.

The crowd wasn’t cheering for Jimmy anymore. It looked like he’d lost his bloodthirsty fans. Selling out your own kind could make you hated.

And targeted.

If I don’t kill him tonight, others will. In the paranormal world, you didn’t sell out your own kind, not to the humans. That was the one rule that shouldn’t be broken.

“I didn’t sell nobody out!” Jimmy yelled. His gaze darted around the cage. Looking for a way out. Unless the guy shifted, there was no way for him to escape, and Cain wasn’t about to give him time for a shift.

“Yes,” Cain said flatly, “you did.” It was his turn to leap forward. His turn to attack. Jimmy tried to slip away, but that snake just wasn’t fast enough. Cain slammed his hand and his fire right into Jimmy’s chest. The shifter screamed and the scent of burning flesh filled his nostrils.

“Sonofabitch.” Trace yanked Eve away from the cage. “We’re getting out of here, now.”

They weren’t the only ones looking to flee. Everyone seemed to be running away from the cage.

Animals were often afraid of fire, and the animals inside the shifters were never very far from the surface.

But while the others were screaming and running—those flames weren’t even that high yet—Eve dug in her heels. She’d come to that warehouse for a reason. She wasn’t leaving without Vance—or Cain. “Go,” she told Trace and yanked away from him.

He never held her too tightly. When it came to women, he was always conscious of his strength. With his past, he couldn’t be any other way.

“I’ll meet you back at your place.” She didn’t wait for his response. She lunged through the crowd and headed for the entrance to the cage. Okay, maybe those flames were getting pretty high in there.

But Vance wasn’t dead. He’d rolled and put out the flames on his chest. His flesh was blistered, charred, and the snake tattoo had sure gotten scorched. The flames scattered around him, licking at the floor and at the edges of the cage.

Cain stood in the middle of that chaos. His hands were at his sides and his gaze was on Vance.

She grabbed for the cage door.

“Oh no, sweet thing,” a hard voice told her.

And just that fast, Eve found herself in a grip that hurt. A man held her arms. A big, burly guy with lots of piercings and slicked-back red hair. “I want to see how this one ends. Got me two grand riding on the snake.”

She twisted and kicked, but the guy didn’t let her go. Crap. “You’re . . . gonna lose that money . . .” Eve gasped out as she fought to break free.

If he didn’t let her go and get out of there before those flames got much higher, he might just wind up losing his life, too.

Jimmy lifted his hands. “D-don’t kill me!”

The first blast hadn’t been meant to kill. Only to hurt. To show the snake just what it felt like to be tortured.

“Weeks,” Cain snapped out as he stalked his prey. Smoke rose in the air, heavy and thick, and Jimmy started to cough. “For weeks, they kept me chained up. They cut into me. Sliced me apart. Drugged me.”

Jimmy’s back was pressed against the side of the cage. The guy actually whimpered.

This was the tough SOB that the crowd had cheered for? The guy looked like he was about to piss his pants.

Some paranormals liked to give pain, but they just couldn’t take it.

Some . . . like soon-to-be-dead Jimmy.

“How much?” Cain demanded, a foot away from Jimmy. One more touch, and he’d incinerate the guy. Just one. “How much was my life worth to you?”

Jimmy’s gaze darted to the left. To the right. And—wait, did a faint smile curve his thin lips?

Cain tensed. Jimmy shouldn’t be smiling. Begging, yes. Smiling, no.

Jimmy’s shoulders straightened and his chin shoved out. “You were worth more than the others. Twenty thousand”—Jimmy paused—“then.” His small smile widened to show his curving fangs. “The price is double now.”

The price is double now. Cain’s body stiffened

“It’s a two-for-one deal this time,” Jimmy said, voice strengthening. Definitely turning into a cocky bastard once more. “Genesis doesn’t just want you—they want the pretty girl you escaped with. The same girl who’s fighting to get in this cage. To get to you.”

Cain’s head whipped to the right. Eve was fighting some giant jerk, twisting and punching in his hands and he was—