Eternal Flame

“Thanks, Erin.” Again, his voice vibrated behind Jana.

Erin stopped next to them. “It doesn’t matter what others think about you,” she told Jana. “It doesn’t matter if they think you’re a freak or a monster …”

What if I am?

“They don’t know you.” A wisp of a smile lifted Erin’s lips. “They don’t know us.” Then she was gone.

“Let’s get out of here.” She didn’t like the smell. Didn’t like the bodies. Didn’t—

Zane kept a tight hold on her as he led her from the morgue. They hurried down the hallway, raced up the stairs and—

He pushed her back against the hard, stone wall of the stairwell. His eyes glittered down at her. “You’re holding back on me.”

Jana swallowed. His eyes were so dark. Really, a demon’s eyes shouldn’t have been sexy. Scary maybe, sure. Not sexy.

But his were. So sexy her knees shook and her panties were getting wet.

He slapped his hands on either side of her head. “What aren’t you telling me? Fuck, don’t you know by now, you can trust me? I’m not going to turn on you.”

Her breath caught. “I do trust you.” A painful admission. She’d never trusted anyone fully. Certainly not those assholes at Perseus-and her wariness had sure paid off. But she’d never trusted her handful of lovers or her so-called friends.

“No, you keep waiting. Keep watching me. You think I’m going to screw you over.” He shook his head, and she saw the muscle flex in his jaw. “What do I have to do? How do I prove to you—”

He didn’t have to do anything. “Beth offered me a deal in that shithole.” She’d told him that part already. But now it was time for the full confession. “If I walked away and left you on your own, I could get my life back.”

“How were you supposed to—”

“She said she could take away the fire. The witch was right. Laura was psychic. She just had to touch me, and she could get my fire.” Do it, tell him. “She could get the fire …” Do it, tell him. “And transfer the power to someone else.”

His whole face hardened. “Beth.” He shoved away from the wall.

“I-I told you she wasn’t an Ignitor.” And she hadn’t been. “But that night, she got my power. Beth got it, and she used it to attack you and everyone else in that place.” She’d burned Perseus to the ground. Even though she hadn’t gotten the full rush of fire-not like poor Laura-Beth still hadn’t been able to control the flames. Only Jana could control the fire.

Beth should have realized that as soon as the psychic burned.

He turned away. His shoulders were ramrod straight, and the fury rolled off him in waves. “Was it worth it?”

What? She stood frozen against the wall.

“I knew there was something different about you. I couldn’t figure out…” A harsh laugh. “And you shot the vamp. You didn’t incinerate the asshole. You shot him.”

Her lips were too dry. Jana swiped her tongue over them and forced herself to step forward. “I tried to call up the fire when he attacked me, but nothing happened.”

“Because you’d fucking traded your fire and me for your freedom.” His voice echoed up the stairwell. “And here I thought you …”

He thought she-what? Her heart slammed into her chest. “Zane, it’s not like that!” Her hand reached out to him.

He glanced back at her, his face a hard mask. “I pulled you out of that fire at Perseus. I went back for you before I helped anyone else.” Disgust had his lips tightening. “And you’d already screwed me over.”

Then he walked away. Zane marched up those stairs. Walked. Away.

No. “I went back for you, too!” He kept walking. “Zane! I went back into the fire, when I didn’t have any power, for you. I wasn’t leaving you, dammit! I wasn’t going to let you burn!”

But he was still leaving her and her heart seemed to burn in her chest. Don’t leave me. She ran up the stairs after him. He was close to the exit, the one that led to the back parking lot. She grabbed his arm and forced him to stop. She yanked him around-and made him look at her. “Where’s your trust?” she whispered.

His eyes were as cold as black ice.

Damn him. “You think I sold you out so easily? You think I tossed you over to be damn normal?” Her nails dug into his arms. “My fire is the only thing that has saved me over the years. First from that bastard who tried to break me. He came into my room, every freaking night and watched me. I knew what was coming, I knew, and I prayed for some way to stop him.”

The mask began to crack. Screw him. She wasn’t done talking.

“My mother didn’t believe me. No one would help me. No one. He started hitting me, and it got worse, and worse, and I knew he had so much more planned. I knew—” She broke off as emotion clogged her throat. “I prayed, and I got my fire. I stopped him.” Over the years, the fire had kept her safe. Always. “When the assholes in the dark come after me, they’re the ones who run away scared because I control the flames. They’re the ones who beg for mercy. Not me.”

She felt the wet trickle of his blood on her fingertips. Her nails had dug in too deep. Her hands lifted, and her fingers balled into fists. “I stopped wanting to be normal a long time ago.”

His nostrils flared. “But you still sold me out.”

Her laugh was brittle. “Would it have killed you”-she asked him, stepping toward the exit now because it was her turn to leave him—“to have trusted me, just a little bit?”

Good sex. No, great sex. Maybe that was all they’d ever had. Why had she expected more? “A human was coming at me.” She didn’t look in his eyes as she spoke now. She couldn’t. “Beth was shouting some crazy shit about me being normal, saying all I had to do was walk away.” Laura … the girl’s eyes had been wide. Sad. Tears had glittered behind her glasses. “I didn’t want to hurt Laura. She didn’t seem like a threat to me.”

He shifted and edged closer to her.

“I thought … I thought Perseus was using her, just like they’d used me. I didn’t want to hurt her,” she said again as the memory surged through her. “Then she lunged at me. She touched me and barely let her fingers skim down my side.

And it had felt like the woman sliced her open with a hot knife.

Jana tossed back her head. “If you don’t believe me, look.” Her eyes held his. “Look. “

She felt the hard psychic push against her mind. Laura stood before her, the woman’s thin body trembling. Hell, where was Zane? “Don’t take another step.” Laura froze.

“What happens when she takes the fire away? Where does it go?” Jana asked.

Beth didn’t answer and the girl wasn’t speaking. Her eyes looked so big behind the glasses, and her skin was stark white.

An alarm sounded then. A high-pitched, whining alarm. Beth jerked and swore. “Dumb bitch. She should’ve just done her damn part.”

What?

Footsteps thundered outside.

Beth’s face hardened. Her hand lifted and she stabbed a finger in the air toward Jana. “The demon is going to die. If he won’t help us, then we’ll rip him apart.

“But first…” And the guards spilled into the room. “First we’re taking that fire from you. We’re taking it, and we’re going to make sure you’re nothing but a corpse when we leave this room.”

Now, this was the Beth she knew and hated. “Bring it, bitch.” Jana let the charge shoot through her. “If you think you’re strong enough, come on.” A line of fire split the floor between them. Charge more. Charge. “Let’s see if you still like my fire.”

“Shoot her!” Beth screamed at the guards. “Not the head or the heart, but shoot her! Take her down!”

The bullets flew through the air just as the flames blazed higher.

Laura stumbled forward, careening dangerously close to the fire. Jana lunged toward her. Laura’s fingers brushed her arm.

Pain. It sliced through her. Agony that burned and burned and burned.

Jana screamed and fell to the floor.

Beth’s laughter echoed around her. “Give it to me! Give it to me!”

Something was ripping out of Jana. Clawing its way out of her body. Burning claws, hacking their way to the surface. Tears streamed down her face. “Z-Zane …”

“He can’t help you. He won’t.”

Her palms slapped against the floor. She forced her head up. Those flames …

Laura stared back at her with eyes too wide. Beth was holding the girl’s hand, squeezing tight. “Give it to me.”

Smoke began to drift from Laura’s nostrils. From her mouth. Her eyes. “Give it to me!”

Jana tried to speak, but blood trickled from her lips and splattered onto the floor.

Laura’s pale skin reddened. Beth laughed. Laughed and took the power.

Beth’s hand fell away from Laura just as the fire erupted. Laura screamed.

So did Jana. She screamed for Zane because she knew Beth was going after him, and she couldn’t do a damn thing to stop the bitch.

“Get out!” The snarl broke from her lips as Jana’s temples throbbed. He’d seen e-damn-nough. He hadn’t believed her.

Zane’s breath heaved out, and the bastard reached for her. Reached for her. Right, like she wanted him touching her then. “I’m not the one with the trust issues. I didn’t turn on you, haven’t ever. Hell, I came back to you. I could have run. You wouldn’t have ever seen me again, but I came to your house.”

“Why?” Seemed torn from him.

“Because I’m a damn idiot.” She grabbed for the door.

“Jana—”

Her fingers curled tight around the doorknob. “You got to me, demon.” She was ashamed to admit it. She’d fallen so easily. Started falling that first day, when he’d come through the fire for her on Francis Street. She’d thought she could count on him.

A good guy, her ass. Just another wolf inside. No, a demon inside.

She wrenched open the door and hurried outside. The cold night air bit into her face and arms and cut right through her clothes. Her teeth chattered before she was even halfway across the parking lot.

“I’m not letting you go, Jana!” His words carried easily on the wind. Loud, angry. Desperate? No, not desperate. Zane was never desperate for anything.

But those were just the words she needed to hear, the words that pissed her off. Jana spun back to face him. “You don’t let me do anything. I do what I want, always have, always will. And right now, I’m leaving you.”

He didn’t rush toward her. Didn’t run. Just … stalked her. Slowly. Like she was prey and he had her cornered. He doesn’t.

His eyes blazed with emotion that she couldn’t read. So much emotion swirling in those deep eyes. “Is leaving me really what you want?” he asked.

Not answering that. She couldn’t have what she wanted. That was obvious. He didn’t trust me. Had to look in my mind to see the truth. “There’s a killer in this town, apparently coming after me.” Talk about kicking a girl when she was down. “According to your witch girlfriend, I’m dead center on the target list and—”

His eyebrows shot up, but he kept coming at her. “Catalina isn’t my girlfriend.”

“Screw that. You’ve slept together.” Why was she bringing this up now? Like this mattered with all the other crap that was happening. I don’t care what he does with the witch. I’m leaving. Not my business anymore. The back lot was deserted. Frost had settled over the handful of cars parked there, and a small pool of light spilled from the building.

“We have slept together,” he confirmed and Jana wished, wished, she had her fire back then.

Zane stopped in front of her, bracing his legs, and throwing back his shoulders. “But we’ve been over a long time. Catalina knew she wasn’t the one for me.”

“What? Did she scry that, too?” she tossed out as her breath formed a cloud in front of her face.

“Yes, she did.”

He caught her arm and pulled her close. “Don’t leave me.” Not an order this time. Probably as close to a plea as the man had ever gotten. “Everything is so screwed up, but shit … I need you, Jana. More than I’ve ever needed anything.”

She needed him. She wanted to punch him right then, and dammit, she needed—

His mouth crashed onto hers. Hot. Hard. Desperate. Wild. Just what she wanted. His tongue pushed into her mouth, drove inside and claimed her, and her heart thundered against her chest. It would be so easy, so easy to give in. But …

But Jana pulled her mouth away from his lips. Hurt. The wound was too fresh for her to give in to the rush of lust. “Why?” she whispered, letting more emotion out than she should. “You want me for sex?” That wasn’t enough for her anymore.

“Fuck, yeah, for sex, but more. “ There was more glittering in his eyes. “Give me a chance, baby. I know I can be a dumb bastard, but give me a chance.”

“You don’t trust me.” Couldn’t he see? Without trust, they didn’t have anything.

“No, I don’t trust myself. Not with you.” Stark. “I want you so much, need you, that I don’t trust myself.” He huffed out a hard breath. “You’re in me, Jana. Beneath skin and bones, and even if you had traded your fire for me … shit, I’d still need you just as much.”