But Trace wasn’t fighting back. He just stared up at Eve and looked lost. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because there wasn’t a lot to tell!” Her voice rose even as her body tensed. “Fire doesn’t hurt me. I don’t know why. It just … doesn’t.” Her gaze flew between them. “And I don’t know what I am, okay? When you don’t know what the hell you are, then what are you supposed to say?”
“You say something to your friends. You knew all my secrets,” Trace gritted out, rising slowly to his feet.
Cain shadowed his moves.
He didn’t like the wolf ’s tone and positioned his body near Eve’s. “Back off.” They had others to attack. “My fire can’t hurt her. She’s safe with me, got it?” That was all the guy needed to know.
The anger in Trace’s eyes—anger directed at Eve—the wolf needed to dial that shit back. Or Cain would dial it back for him.
“We can’t afford to waste the dark,” Eve said. She was right. The night was coming. Hunts were always easier in the dark. “We need to get out there and start hunting him. Every second we waste just gives Wyatt more time to collect new subjects and more time to come for us.”
Cain had never a fan of sitting back and waiting—for anything—and surely not for some bastard hunters to come and attack him.
But Trace was shaking his head. “It’s too dangerous, you need—”
“I know what I need,” Eve told him. Damn, but she was sexy. Fierce. Determined. “I need to keep my friends alive. I need to make sure that no one else dies because of me.”
Trace didn’t argue. Maybe he was getting smarter.
“So I’m hunting.” She threw the words out, and they sounded like a dare. “And I’m taking that bastard down.”
Vampire bars always smelled of blood and death. They also always sported a long line of eager humans, all dressed in Goth black, who were eager to get inside and play victims to the bloodsuckers.
Charlotte, North Carolina, had two vamp bars. One on each side of the city, because the vamps were extremely territorial. From what Eve had seen over the years, those parasites just didn’t share well.
Trace had taken the bar to the north, and Eve and Cain were headed to the one down south—the pit called Blood Bath. Nice name—if you were into getting your body drained and tossed away like garbage. Judging from the winding line of humans, it looked like a lot of folks were into that scene. Some people just begged for death. Eve didn’t get it.
They’d be meeting up with Trace the next day, after they’d all had time to do some recon work. They’d picked a meeting spot and scheduled the rendezvous for the afternoon. Hopefully, they’d have good intel by then.
Eve paused across the street from the club. Her heart was pounding too fast. She’d bandaged up her hands before she left the motel, a useless precaution. Even with the bandages, the vamps would be able to smell her blood.
They always closed in when they smelled fresh prey. They were like sharks that way.
“You sure you want to start with the vamps?” Cain asked as his arm pressed against her.
No, she didn’t want to start with them. The vampires were the last creatures she wanted to face, but … “Wyatt had a vampire at Genesis. If he lost one, he’ll want another.” What better place to pick up a new specimen? Vamps gorged at these bars. Got drunk on blood and the alcohol in their prey’s bodies and often passed out.
Snatching a vamp from a place like this would be child’s play for Wyatt.
She inhaled a deep breath. Could almost taste the blood in the air. “Let’s do this.”
But Cain stopped her. He blocked her path and stared down into her eyes. “Why do you fear them so much?”
“Uh, because they’re bloodsuckers with super sharp teeth and an unquenchable thirst for death?” What sane person wouldn’t fear them?
He shook his head. “Try again.”
Her jaw dropped. Her line had seemed perfectly believable. Well, most folks would have bought the line, anyway. Now wasn’t the time for a little heart-to-heart. She hated those talks. She’d already managed to make Trace angry by not telling him her secrets, and now Cain thought she’d just cut her soul open and reveal all to him on this crowded street?
Not gonna happen. “We have a club of vampires waiting about fifteen feet away.” Give or take a bit. “We don’t have time to pore over my issues with them right now.” The issues didn’t matter. She’d managed to control her fear plenty over the years, and Eve wasn’t about to break down. “I’ll keep it together, all right?”
His stare told her it wasn’t. “You don’t trust me.”
No, she didn’t.
His fingers brushed down her cheek. She barely controlled a shiver. The guy seemed to like touching her, sliding his fingers over her skin.
She liked it, too.
“Don’t worry,” Cain told her in that deep, rumbling voice that always made her knees want to jiggle—even when she was standing in front of a vampire bar. “I won’t let them get close to you.”
Promise? She clamped her lips together to hold that bit back. She didn’t want to look weak right then. Or ever.
Cain led her across the street. He didn’t get in that long line of eager humans. He headed right for the door. The bouncer glanced at him, baring fangs—but whatever he saw in Cain’s gaze had the guy stepping back.
Probably the flames. She could feel Cain’s body heating up beside her.
He shoved open the bar’s door, and the scent of blood grew even stronger. Music pounded. Humans moaned.
Vamps fed.
Lights flashed inside in a sickening whirl. Illuminating, then concealing. She saw the flash of fangs. Blood dripping down a woman’s throat.
The vamps had been the ones to start the paranormal coming-out party. They’d wanted an all-you-can-eat-buffet.
They’d gotten it.
She tried to see through the darkness. Vamps and prey. None of Wyatt’s hunters but …
Someone bumped her. “I like the way you smell,” a male voice whispered near her ear.
She stiffened. She smells so innocent … let me have a bite. The words were an echo from her nightmares. The ones that never stopped.
A hand was on her arm. Sliding over her skin. The fingers pressing against her were so cold. “You’re already bleeding,” the man murmured. “Want to give me a lick?”
“No, she fucking doesn’t,” Cain snarled and threw the vampire back a good ten feet.
The lights kept flashing around them.
But in those flashes, she saw that the vampires were moving. Rising. Closing in on them. Uh-oh.
“Cain …”
Vampires had closed in on her before. Only they hadn’t been hidden in the darkness. Fire had raged. Burned. Those flames had driven the vampires back right before their fangs could sink into her.
Let ’em all fucking burn. The words from her nightmares came again. The dark voice that she’d never forget. The vampire—he’d left her to the fire. Left her to die.
She’d screamed, but the vampires had run away and given her to the flames.
She’d been four years old. She’d screamed and screamed and screamed.
Blood and fire were a terrible mix.
“Someone’s scared,” a vampire whispered. When the lights flashed again, a big, tall, dark-haired vamp was two feet from her. Smiling. “Fear can taste so sweet.”
Cain pushed her behind him. “Know what doesn’t taste sweet? Fire.”
His fire blasted right at the vampire, who screamed and fell to the floor, rolling to put out the flames that were racing over his flesh.