Once Bitten, Twice Burned (Phoenix Fire #2)(57)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Then he pushed her behind him.

He sprang at Keith.

Only . . .

Keith was firing his weapon. Aiming not for Ryder, but pointing his gun at Vaughn.

Vaughn . . . who was on his feet. Chest heaving. Body shaking.

Vaughn . . . who was rushing toward Sabine, snarling and opening his mouth to take a bite.

The bullet slammed into his chest. Another blasted into Vaughn. A third.

Vaughn fell to the ground.

Keith looked up.

Too late, Keith. Too late.

Because Ryder was at his side. Ryder had his claws at Keith’s throat.

“Tell them to drop their weapons,” Ryder’s voice was deadly calm.

Keith didn’t speak, but he gave a fast gesture with his hand. All of the humans immediately tossed their weapons to the ground.

“Good,” Ryder praised and offered a hard smile to the man. “For that, you can die quickly.”

“Ryder!” Sabine hurried toward him. “Don’t!”

Keith’s eyes, grief-stricken, lost, met hers. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

No, she was sure that she and Ryder were the ones who were supposed to be on the ground.

“I-I wanted to help you,” Keith muttered. His throat was bleeding. Ryder’s claws were sinking into the skin. “When I found out what Genesis was really doing . . .” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and Ryder’s claws sank deeper into him. “Since then . . . I-I’ve been trying to get you out . . . trying to save the others.”

It was too late for saving them.

“My son . . . my own son.” Tears slipped down his cheeks.

Sabine realized all of Keith’s guards had frozen. No one was moving. No one seemed to know what to do.

She took a deep breath and closed the distance between her and Keith. “Were those wooden bullets?” she asked him. Wooden bullets on vampire prey.

Keith nodded.

“He’s not dead,” Ryder said, sounding almost bored. “Down, but not dead. Guess you couldn’t go straight for the heart with your own son, huh? And you couldn’t order your men to take that heart shot, either.”

Her gaze cut to Ryder. “Stop.”

He lifted his brows.

“Take your claws away from his throat,” she demanded. It was all too damn much. Rage was pumping through her own body. Hot. Blistering. Vaughn . . . turned? Keith shooting his own son? Her dad betraying her.

Too much.

Ryder’s eyes widened. Then he let go of Keith. Instead of backing away, Ryder grabbed for her. Figured. When had the vamp ever backed away?

His hands wrapped around her arms. “Sabine?” He shook her once, lightly. He didn’t sound so bored then. He sounded worried.

She took another deep breath and could have almost sworn that she tasted ash on her tongue.

“Sabine . . .” His voice had dropped, become an intimate caress.

She met his stare. Tried to pull more air into lungs that suddenly felt starved for oxygen.

“Breathe,” he whispered to her. “Everything is going to be all right. You know I’ll keep you safe.”

She didn’t feel like she really knew anything anymore. But she sucked in more deep breaths. Tried to calm a heartbeat that raced too fast. Her eyes stayed on his.

Finally, finally, the air stopped tasting like ash on her tongue.

She realized that Ryder was staring at her with a deep, intense gaze.

“Is your control back?” Ryder asked softly.

Back? When had she lost it?

But she gave a nod. His arms wrapped around her shoulders. She realized that the humans were just standing there, waiting.

For what?

Keith’s head hung down, his chin almost touching his chest. Blood dripped onto his shirt. “Vaughn . . . he and I . . . we both wanted to make things right.”

What was right anymore? Sabine wasn’t sure she knew.

Keith’s head lifted. “He was trying to protect Rhett. We knew Genesis had a hit on him. Once we realized what they were really doing, we put a plant inside the facility. We were trying to help.”

Ryder stared dispassionately at him. “You want to help? Get the hell out of our way and stay out of our way.” His arm was a warm weight over her shoulders. “Because if I see you again, I will kill you.” A vow.

She gazed at Keith and shook her head. “How were you going to help me?”

“There’s another doctor.” He licked his lips, glanced over at Vaughn’s still body, and drew in a ragged breath. “She’s not like Wyatt. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone. She wants to help the supernaturals.”

Right. Like she hadn’t heard that one before. “Come on,” Sabine said to Ryder. “Let’s go.”

“She’s not experimenting on anyone!” Keith’s voice broke. “She’s just fixing the mistakes that Wyatt made.”

Like she’d trust another human in a lab coat.

Her gaze darted to Keith. Before they left, she had to know one thing. “Where’s my brother?”

But he shook his head. “I-I don’t know. Vaughn was sent to secure him. To get him to a safe location before . . .”

Before someone else could put a bullet in his head?

“Find out,” Ryder told the man. “Find out, and you send the location to me at Bran’s Castle.”

Keith nodded. His gaze swung back to Vaughn. “She can fix him.”

The words were so low that Sabine barely caught his murmur, but when the words registered, she frowned.

“There’s no going back once you become a vampire,” Ryder snapped. So he’d heard the man’s murmur, too. “And you need to put him down, for good. That bite spread the virus. Wyatt mutated his vampires. They aren’t like me. They’re—”

“Primal,” Keith whispered. Sick horror filled his eyes. “I know.”

“Then you know the only way to stop your son is to kill him.” Ryder’s hold on Sabine pushed her forward. “So if you really want to help him, put the man out of his misery.”

Her heart ached.

She could only imagine what Keith’s heart felt like. Maybe like it had been ripped from his chest?

Unable to help herself, Sabine looked back over her shoulder. The humans were retrieving their guns and closing in on Vaughn’s prone body.

He didn’t take Sabine back to Bran’s Castle. Her body shook against his, her rage and pain so clear on her face that it almost hurt to look at her.

She should have let me kill them all.

But she was soft inside. Sentimental.