“He doesn’t smell like a shifter,” Trace said, lifting his head. “And I haven’t seen that guy before.”
The guy had a dark hood over his head, a hood that connected with the loose sweatshirt he wore. His shoulders were broad, his legs braced apart.
Vance frowned at him and … backed up a step? Eve caught the flash of fear on Vance’s face.
The new fighter shoved the hood off his head. The bright, almost glaring lights hit the stark lines of his face. It was a face she knew too well.
“Cain,” Eve whispered.
And she knew that she’d arrived too late.
CHAPTER SIX
“Cain!” Eve screamed his name even as the crowd chanted for Vance. No, no, they didn’t realize what was happening. They had no idea just how screwed they could all be.
The whole place could go up in flames.
“You know him?” Trace demanded as his hand curled over her arm.
She glanced at him. She’d tried to brief Trace as much as possible on Genesis as they rushed to the fight, but, sure, she’d skimmed over a few details. Like the sex. Like Cain leaving me at the truck stop. Some details you didn’t tell your best friend. Especially when that friend had a serious overprotective streak. “He’s … Subject Thirteen.” She’d told him that part. Told him that she’d helped Thirteen escape from Genesis.
Trace was still staring up at Cain. “He’s not like any shifter I’ve seen before.”
Vance was curling his hands into fists.
Cain stood, smiling faintly at him. Definitely a chilling smile—so why wasn’t Vance running the hell out of there? The guy should be trying to claw open the side of the cage and get to safety.
But he wasn’t.
“Get out,” she whispered. Vance had to know what Cain was capable of doing.
“No one can leave, not until a body hits the floor,” Trace told her, voice grim.
That wasn’t good.
She elbowed a lady out of her way. When the lady turned with a hiss, Trace stepped in to make sure Eve didn’t get clawed. Eve muttered her apology and tried to make sure she didn’t elbow anyone else.
Don’t want a beating right now. Don’t.
She was at the cage, curling her fingers tight around the heavy wiring. “Cain! Cain, stop!”
His head snapped toward her. Their eyes locked.
“Don’t do this,” she screamed. “Please, don’t—”
Vance attacked, leaping at Cain while his attention was on Eve. The two men were almost the same size, and Vance hurtled right at him, knocking Cain to the floor.
Then Vance—bit Cain?
“Shit. Snake venom.” Trace was at her back again. “Your Thirteen’s about to go out. That stuff ’s fucking poison.”
Vance sure seemed to think so. He was jumping off Cain’s body. Heading back toward the other side of the cage. Distancing himself, while he waited for his enemy to fall. He waved his hands in the air, encouraging the shouts from the crowd.
Venom. Venom. Venom.
Now she understood what they had been screaming for so long. The crowd had wanted to see the snake bite.
They’d gotten their wish.
Eve couldn’t move. She’d distracted Cain. She hadn’t wanted him to kill Vance, but she sure hadn’t wanted Cain to suffer, either.
Cain was still crouched on the floor. His head was down. The crowd was going wild. They were screaming for another bite. They wanted blood. They wanted violence.
Cain’s head tilted up. His gaze met hers once more.
They were going to get it.
She saw the fire lighting his eyes.
Her head turned toward Trace. “You should …” She cleared her throat because her voice had gone hoarse. Fear could do that. Fear could steal her voice. She tried again. “You should run.”
Because she knew an attack was coming.
Who the fuck was that blond jerk beside Eve? With his hand on her? The fool needed to step back.
The venom pumped through Cain’s blood, making the burn inside him hotter. Jimmy was a fool. His venom might work on the weaker shifters, but it wasn’t going to incapacitate Cain. It wasn’t doing anything but making his fury deepen.
“You shouldn’t have come after me, man!” Jimmy snarled at him. “Always thinking you were so big and bad. Who’s bad now?” Jimmy threw his arms into the air and spun to face the crowd.
Eve was whispering something to the blond dick beside her. She looked back at Cain and he saw her lips form, “No!” but there was no stopping him. Jimmy was begging for death.
Cain rose to his feet. Lifted his hand. Let the flames dance above his palm.
The cries died from the crowd. Fear—ah, he could smell it.
Jimmy froze with his hands still in the air. Maybe he smelled the fear, too.
“You sold me out,” Cain told him, his voice carrying easily. “Me and a dozen other paranormals.”
Murmurs came from the crowd. Some folks—the smart ones—started heading for the door. Eve didn’t leave. Neither did the blond with the death wish.
Jimmy’s hands lowered. He turned back to face Cain and his face had whitened. “N-no, I—”
Cain wasn’t in the mood for his lies. “You let the humans cut into us. Torture us.” For days. Weeks. Some paranormals hadn’t lasted more than a few hours. Some had screamed until they’d lost their voices.
The crowd wasn’t cheering for Jimmy anymore. It looked like he’d lost his bloodthirsty fans. Selling out your own kind could make you hated.
And targeted.
If I don’t kill him tonight, others will. In the paranormal world, you didn’t sell out your own kind, not to the humans. That was the one rule that shouldn’t be broken.
“I didn’t sell nobody out!” Jimmy yelled. His gaze darted around the cage. Looking for a way out. Unless the guy shifted, there was no way for him to escape, and Cain wasn’t about to give him time for a shift.
“Yes,” Cain said flatly, “you did.” It was his turn to leap forward. His turn to attack. Jimmy tried to slip away, but that snake just wasn’t fast enough. Cain slammed his hand and his fire right into Jimmy’s chest. The shifter screamed and the scent of burning flesh filled his nostrils.
“Sonofabitch.” Trace yanked Eve away from the cage. “We’re getting out of here, now.”
They weren’t the only ones looking to flee. Everyone seemed to be running away from the cage.
Animals were often afraid of fire, and the animals inside the shifters were never very far from the surface.
But while the others were screaming and running—those flames weren’t even that high yet—Eve dug in her heels. She’d come to that warehouse for a reason. She wasn’t leaving without Vance—or Cain. “Go,” she told Trace and yanked away from him.
He never held her too tightly. When it came to women, he was always conscious of his strength. With his past, he couldn’t be any other way.
“I’ll meet you back at your place.” She didn’t wait for his response. She lunged through the crowd and headed for the entrance to the cage. Okay, maybe those flames were getting pretty high in there.
But Vance wasn’t dead. He’d rolled and put out the flames on his chest. His flesh was blistered, charred, and the snake tattoo had sure gotten scorched. The flames scattered around him, licking at the floor and at the edges of the cage.
Cain stood in the middle of that chaos. His hands were at his sides and his gaze was on Vance.
She grabbed for the cage door.
“Oh no, sweet thing,” a hard voice told her.
And just that fast, Eve found herself in a grip that hurt. A man held her arms. A big, burly guy with lots of piercings and slicked-back red hair. “I want to see how this one ends. Got me two grand riding on the snake.”