Playing With Fire (Phoenix Fire #3)(78)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Then, because it wasn’t about someone suffering, but because she just wanted to end it, she pulled the scalpel back and prepared to send Zura to whatever world waited for her next. Hope it’s a fiery one.

But . . . there was already fire. Burning so bright and hot behind Zura. A man—surrounded by flames.

He reached for Zura even as Cassie scrambled back.

Zura tried to scream, but she couldn’t.

She was burning.

The smell was horrible and Cassie turned away—only to see Charles blocking Jamie’s view of that terrible scene. “Charles, get Jamie out of here!” He already had enough nightmares.

Charles grabbed him and they ran. The guards were all running, too, fleeing from the beast that was attacking.

Or maybe . . . with Shaw gone the guards were finally free.

“Dad?” Vaughn’s rough voice.

He was hugging his dad.

It wasn’t the time for hugging. “Vaughn, get him out of here!”

That wasn’t Dante in the middle of the fire. She still had a chance of reaching him. Controlling him.

He hadn’t risen.

When her eyes had opened, he’d been near her. Dead.

The fire was coming from Jon. He was the one who’d risen first. The one who’d just burned Dr. Shaw.

Vaughn held tight to his dad and they ran.

Cassie took a few careful steps away from Jon. Zura was—just gone. Only ashes drifted in the air.

Jon stared at her through the flames. His eyes were burning as bright as the fire. The flames began to roll away from him, toward her.

“Jon, stop.”

The flames flickered, then died away. Jon stood there, and—she sucked in a sharp breath—burns covered him. “You—” She could barely make herself speak. “Something is wrong. The fire is—”

“Killing me,” he finished, voice rasping. “Because I still have . . . human in me. I need more of… the tears. More of the serum.”

He’d lost her. “What serum?”

“The female . . . Sabine . . . we got her tears.” He smiled, and the sight was horrific on his damaged face. “Killed her, broke her, made her . . . cry again and again before Ryder . . . changed her.”

Cassie finally understood. “You used her tears.” Used them to try and become a phoenix. Just as the previous experiments at Genesis had made him become a wolf shifter.

“Wolf shifter DNA made me stronger . . . just not strong enough.”

He’d wanted to be like the phoenix.

“No death . . . just fire.” He glanced behind him. At Dante’s prone body. “You’re alive, so . . . that means he cried for you.”

Yes, he had.

She couldn’t even think about what that meant. One monster at a time.

“I need more . . . tears . . . to be stronger.”

Cassie shook her head. “It’s not about the tears. Your body just can’t keep regenerating—the fire is too strong for you to handle!” He had to see that.

“I will be stronger!” he roared and lunged toward her.

“Stop!”

He froze.

“Let me help you,” she pushed as much of that soothing power as she could into her voice. “This isn’t what you want. When we first met, you wanted to change the world.” What had happened to that man?

“No, I wanted to change me . . . and own the world.” Fire crackled above his damaged fingers. “I won’t go back to being human.”

There wasn’t a choice for him.

“You won’t survive more risings.” She could see that. Anyone could see that.

His human side wouldn’t be able to do it. It looked as if his skin were melting away, until all that remained was the fire he’d foolishly tried to harness inside himself.

“I just need the tears!”

She shook her head. “They won’t help you. They won’t—”

He bent and picked up the scalpel that had fallen on the floor. “Have to stop . . . your voice.”

Her heart was racing. She backed up.

“If you can’t talk, you can’t control me.”

“S-sto—”

He grabbed for her. Cassie screamed when his fire licked across her arm. His touch was scorching, burning her right to the bone. And his weapon was coming up to her throat.

Fire was all she could see. Fire and death, coming for her.

“Cas . . . sandra . . .”

That deep, dark voice rose over the flames.

“My Cassandra . . .”

Dante had risen, and Jon had been so busy with her that he hadn’t even noticed the phoenix—a pureblood phoenix—stalking him.

Jon stiffened at Dante’s voice and he froze with that scalpel inches from her throat.

Cassie smiled at him.

She’d kept him distracted, been willing to suffer, so Dante could rise.

As she’d told her lover, it wasn’t always about killing. Sometimes, it was about sacrificing in order to protect the one you loved.

Dante spun Jon to face him.

“How do you remember her?” Jon shouted. “You should have nothing! Know nothing.”

“I know her.”

“How?”

“Because he loves me,” Cassie whispered, certain. It wasn’t just about lust and mating. It was about a phoenix who had shed healing tears for the woman he loved.

“No!” Jon yelled. “He can’t love! He can’t! He burns, he kills, he—”

“I do kill,” Dante agreed. The flames crackled around him “You will not hurt her ever again.”

“I will!” Jon swore right back. “You think you get to keep Cassie? I was the one who asked her for marriage! I was the one who stayed in that facility for her, I was the one—”

“I was the one who couldn’t live without her. And I was the one who went back to hell, again and again, for her.” Dante put his hands on Jon’s chest. “It’s time for your visit now.”

Fire wasn’t supposed to hurt another phoenix. But, Jon wasn’t really another phoenix.

Not completely. The serum he’d had must have been far too unstable when combined with his own already altered DNA.

“I’ll show you fire!” Jon snapped back as he pulled away from Dante. “I’ll show everyone!” He raised his hands. Fire leaped from his fingertips.

Seemed to burn from within him.

Dante caught Cassie’s hand. “Go outside. Wait for me.”

She shook her head. “I’m not leaving you!”

“The fire only makes me stronger.” He pressed his lips to hers even as she felt the heat build. “Get the others out. Go!”