Playing With Fire (Phoenix Fire #3)(61)
Author: Cynthia Eden

And Dante . . .

If she went out there to Jon, would he leave the lab alone? There was a chance he might just take a deal. A big might. Her fingers trembled, but she pressed the intercom once more. “I come to you, and that’s it. You let Charles go. You leave.”

“You’re hardly in the position to bargain!”

“Fine, then I don’t come to you, and I stay in here and I shove a knife into my chest.” Totally bullshitting. Would he be able to hear that lie, too? Please, don’t. “Then you can get the samples from my dead body—how about that? Will that work for you?”

His eyes widened. “Don’t!”

Maybe she did have some power.

Jon hesitated, then spat out, “Fine. You come up to me. When I’ve got you, I’ll send good old Charles here down.” His smile was dark and twisted. “But get your ass up here now, Cassie. Now.”

She jumped back and whirled for the door.

She found her path blocked by one very enraged phoenix shifter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Jamie had found Charles’s keycard tossed away. His fingers were slick with sweat as he slid it across the panel that secured the vampire’s room. The vampire—Vaughn—would be in there, waiting.

The door opened soundlessly. Jamie had his stake in his hand. He wouldn’t hesitate this time. Not even for a second. He’d go in, and he’d make the kill.

I won’t be afraid.

He’d be just like Dante.

Jamie stepped into the room. His gaze scanned to the left. To the right.

He didn’t see the vampire. But, the guy had to be there, right? He had to be.

“Hellooo . . .” the vampire whispered. He lunged at Jamie.

The guy had been on the freaking ceiling.

“Heard you . . . coming . . .” His teeth went for Jamie’s throat.

“You are not going out there.” There was no way Dante was letting Cassie risk her life.

“I can’t let Charles die!”

“He won’t. I’ll go drag his ass back inside.” Easy enough. There was no need for Cassie to be at risk.

But she was shaking her head at him, sending her dark hair tumbling over her shoulders. “Jon will attack you—”

Uh, yeah. Dante was a phoenix. Was that supposed to scare him?

“Let him try.”

“He’s controlling fire. He died. He’s like you,” she said, voice rising. “And if he’s like you—”

She thought that jerk was strong enough to send him to hell, for good?

Dante pulled her into his arms. Kissed her. Hard. Demanding. “He’s another experiment.” He knew that had to be the case. He just didn’t understand how the hell it had come to be. A phoenix made, not born? “He’s new, and I’ve got plenty of age on my side.” Like vampires, a phoenix’s power increased with age. “I can defeat him.”

“Dante, I won’t let—”

“Sweetheart, don’t make me shove you in a closet again.”

Her eyes slit. “Try it and you won’t like where I shove you back.”

He kissed her again. “Let me fight this one. You keep working on your cure.”

He did not want her facing Jon again. That man had hurt her, tracked her—that guy deserved a beat down.

Or a burn down.

But then Dante heard a scream. A long, terror and pain filled cry.

Cassie’s breath caught. “Is that . . . Jamie?”

He’d left the kid in his room. He’d made sure he was safe.

Cassie ran for the doors.

“I’m done waiting!” Jon shouted at the same instant. “Charlie boy is dying now, and that death is on you!”

Dante caught Cassie’s shoulders. “Find Jamie,” he told her as he felt a tremble ripple through her body. “Make sure he’s all right. I’ve got the bastard upstairs.”

She nodded quickly, then she was running down the hallway.

Dante waited until she vanished then he headed for the elevator. He’d heard the deal that Cassie had made with Jon. She’d been going to exchange her life for Charles’s.

He wondered just what kind of deal Jon would offer him. Not that it mattered.

Death was all the bastard would get.

Vaughn was loose.

Cassie stared at the open door to the vampire’s cell, her heart thundering in her chest. The door should have been sealed.

A keycard had been tossed on the floor. Charles’s keycard. And that had been Jamie’s scream. It had come from that room, she was sure of it.

Jamie had gone after the vampire again.

“Help . . .”

Cassie rushed inside. She didn’t have any weapons with her, no drugs at all, but she couldn’t leave Jamie in there alone, because that was his voice whispering for help.

And there he was. Curled into a fetal position near the far wall, with blood around him. Jamie was hunched, rocking back and forth, whispering, “Help . . .”

Her heart ached as she ran to him. “Jamie. Jamie, I’m here!”

But where was Vaughn? She didn’t see him anywhere. Had he gotten out after attacking Jamie?

When she touched Jamie, he screamed and tried to leap back. “Get away! Get away! I’ll kill you!”

“No, it’s not Vaughn. It’s me.” She tried to make her voice soothing. Dante kept saying she had power with her voice, she could sure use some of that power right then. “It’s Cassie. I’m here to help you.”

Tears leaked down his cheeks. “There’s no way to help me.” His breath sawed from his lungs. “H-he bit me.”

The primal virus.

She grabbed Jamie’s arm. “Come with me to the lab, now.”

“I’m dead! I’m dead!” He jerked away from her and bent to grab a chunk of wood. Then he was back, his hands shaking, as he grabbed her fingers and curled them around the wood. “Don’t let me change.” He brought her fingers—and the stake—up over his heart. “I don’t wanna change. I don’t wanna be . . . like that.”

He was surprisingly strong, and she had to yank with all her might to get that stake away from him. “No!” Cassie yelled because he wasn’t listening to her. He was trying to die right in front of her.

But at her yell, Jamie stilled.

“There’s time.” Those words were a lie. He already had the virus in him. “Come to my lab.” She’d never had a sample from someone so newly exposed. Maybe there was something she could do. Maybe. Please. “Come with me.”