Once Bitten, Twice Burned (Phoenix Fire #2)(32)
Author: Cynthia Eden

The hell they were. He wasn’t about to believe another lie.

“I was trying to . . . fix them.”

Ryder’s claws jerked back. Wyatt’s body swayed.

But the doc kept talking. “You were the first. Your blood was . . . pure. I thought the pure blood would . . . fix what was broken.”

“Did it?” Not that he was buying this but . . .

Wyatt’s gaze held his. Blood streamed from his wounds. Somehow, the guy was still on his feet. Were his wounds healing? Maybe. “I gave it . . . just to three of them,” Wyatt muttered. “Needed a . . . test pool. They grew stronger and more . . . savage.”

Not what he’d been hoping to hear.

“Primals have . . . a strong psychic sense. They pick up emotions . . . needs . . . your blood tied them to you.”

Wasn’t that grand?

“You want her blood . . . they feel what you feel . . . they want her.”

This shit just got better and better. “Then they’re dead.” Simple. Because no one else would take Sabine. He was there to protect her. To claim her.

“Like me, they’re . . . not so easy to kill.” Wyatt looked down at his chest. Ryder knew his claws had sunk past flesh and bone. But Wyatt was still on his feet. Still talking. “My blood . . . it will keep them away. It can hurt them.”

“Yeah, well, I’m betting I can hurt them, too.”

Wyatt shook his head. “Not if they get to your . . . phoenix first.”

They wouldn’t.

Wyatt’s hand flew up and locked around Ryder’s wrist. “I wish you could kill me.” The words were growled with a dark intensity. His eyes glittered. “I didn’t want to be this way. I was a kid . . . I begged him not to change me, but he said I had to be stronger.”

What the hell?

“Stopping my heart won’t stop me . . . You’ll have to try harder.” Wyatt’s hand tightened on him. No, he was lifting Ryder’s hand, and trying to shove Ryder’s claws back into his chest. “I’ve tried, too . . . I wanted a cure. I wanted to be free.”

The doctor was breaking apart right before his eyes.

“The urges come to me. I can’t control them. I . . . hurt people. Not just the subjects. Humans.”

Ryder yanked his hand out of the guy’s grip and stepped back. “Then I guess you’re as much of a monster as me.”

“No, I’m more.” Desperate. Wild. “And I am what he made me.”

“He?” Wyatt wasn’t going down from his wounds. Whatever this guy was . . . he had a whole lot of strength and healing power.

“My father.” Wyatt’s smile was cold and evil and sad. “He liked to . . . experiment, too.”

Son of a bitch.

Ryder heard the thunder of footsteps in the hallway. More company, coming for them. Only the company heading their way . . . that company carried the scent of fire.

Not my phoenix. He’d never forget Sabine’s scent. Flowers, sin, woman. But he also recognized this scent . . . it belonged to the male phoenix he’d met at the first Genesis facility. Subject Thirteen. Cain. Like Ryder, Cain wanted to get his pound of flesh from Wyatt. They all wanted vengeance. Every test subject Wyatt had tortured—we all want our payback.

“If you want death, then I think I can deliver it.” Ryder stared into Wyatt’s eyes, searching for truth. Did the bastard really want out of this world? Was that just another trick?

Wyatt’s lashes flickered. Ryder caught the scent of fear.

He backed away from the doctor.

The scent of fear lessened. Ah, Wyatt thought he was safe. No, he was bait. “Cain is coming for you.”

He’d follow the odor of Wyatt’s blood. He’d find the bastard, and Cain would use those flames to send the guy to hell.

And if Cain came into the room, then . . .

Sabine will follow right behind him.

Wyatt had told him that Sabine was coming. The guy was working another experiment. Seeing which phoenix was stronger.

Cain was in the hallway. Sabine would be on her way after him. It was just a matter of waiting for her.

“I hope you enjoy the fire,” Ryder muttered as he turned away. He didn’t need to see the bastard die. He just needed the job to be done.

“It’s not blood that . . . was the cure.” Wyatt’s voice stopped him. “It’s Sabine. Her tears. A phoenix’s tears . . . found out . . . really heal . . .”

Ryder didn’t look back. Why stare at a dead man? He slipped out of the room and got ready to wait.

Hurry, Sabine, I need you.

The cages were open. The beasts out. Sabine saw death all around her. Guards fighting. Dying. Beings with claws and fangs attacking.

She tried to jump away from them. She didn’t want to fight. There was only one man that she had to find.

“Bitch, you’re one of them!”

Hard hands grabbed her. She looked up into the wild eyes of a man—no, not a man. He had fangs and claws—claws that were cutting into her hips. The light glinted off the vampire’s bald head.

“Let me go!” Sabine cried out. She’d put on a white lab coat. Thinking it would let her slip by the guards, just like last time. Only now, the lab coat marked her for death because it wasn’t the guards that she had to worry about. She needed to fear her fellow prisoners.

“I’ll make you beg!” His claws dug deeper, and she gasped. She’d had enough pain. Too much.

Her hands curled around his wrists. “No, you won’t.” Then she let her fire out. His hands heated beneath her touch. Burned. The man jumped back, screaming.

He didn’t attack again. He was too busy trying to put out the fire that licked at his skin. Sabine yanked off the coat. Blood had already appeared in thick patches on the white material. She tossed the coat aside. Kept hunting.

The woman had told her to go to the third floor. Others were fleeing, rushing for freedom.

Instead of running out with them, she continued going up.

Another stairwell. More attackers. She kept her fire ready. When they saw it, everyone stayed the hell back.

Then she was reaching for the door that would lead her to the third floor. The scent of death and blood was so strong there and—

She screamed when she was grabbed from behind. Grabbed, and then shoved up against the nearest wall. The vampire she’d burned—he’d tracked her. There’d been so much blood in the air that she hadn’t smelled him, so many other thudding footsteps that she hadn’t heard him. Before she could scream again, he sank his teeth into her shoulder and tore into the flesh.