Burn For Me (Phoenix Fire #1)(33)
Author: Cynthia Eden

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.

Cain’s body slumped to the floor. She grabbed for him, aware of the others stalking forward. “Cain?”

His eyes were open. Staring at nothing.

Blood soaked her knees. His blood. All around her.

“You’d better run,” she said, not looking up at the men. She kept her hold on Cain. “Because when he rises, you’re gonna die.” Not a threat. A promise.

Hard hands reached for her. She fought those hands. Punching. Kicking.

They were too strong. She was too weak. She could stop fire, but couldn’t stop them. Her gaze flew around, looking for help. From someone.

Ryder was gone. He’d left them. Set them up—and left.

Cain wasn’t moving.

“Leave him. Just get her out of here.”

She knew that voice with the hint of the South sliding beneath the words. She knew—

“Hello, Eve,” Richard Wyatt said as he stepped from the shadows. “So nice to see you again.”

She tried claw her way to him, but one of the hunters holding her lifted his gun and slammed it into the side of her head.

After that, she didn’t see anything else.

Screams echoed in his ears. Cain smelled ash. Burning flesh. Death.

The fire was around him. In him. Burning hotter every second. Consuming. Destroying.

There was pain. More agony than most could ever imagine. There was a price for life. A price for death.

He’d never been able to stop the pain as it burned him alive and then seemed to mold him back together. The fire—it was all he knew.