Burn For Me (Phoenix Fire #1)(32)
Author: Cynthia Eden

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 f**king 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 vampires 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 f**king 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?