The vamp shook his head. “Do you have to be naked out here? Damn man. Seriously, you don’t go to war naked.”
Cain’s teeth ground together. “After I kill you, I’ll be sure to take your clothing.”
“Come and try,” Ryder taunted.
Fine. Cain rushed forward in an instant and shattered the closest tree. He turned back with his makeshift stake, ready to drive it into Ryder’s heart.
Ryder had moved. He stood behind Eve. Not touching her. Just smirking as he gazed at Cain over Eve’s delicate shoulder. “Do you think you could go through her,” he asked Cain, “in order to kill me?”
Cain advanced. He could push Eve aside before the vampire would have a chance to attack. He could—
“They weren’t like you.” Eve turned away from Cain as she faced the vampire. “The vampires in that mountain didn’t look like you. They didn’t smell like you, and they didn’t attack like you.”
She’d caught Ryder’s attention. “What are you talking about?”
Eve’s mouth tightened, then she said, “The vampires that Wyatt kept locked in that hole, they weren’t … normal.”
Cain frowned at her. There was a normal for vampires? Not likely. Supernaturals were abnormal by their very natures.
“Their claws were black, and their fangs …” Her hand reached up to Ryder’s mouth.
If that prick nipped her fingers …
Eve let her hand fall away before she ever touched Ryder. “It wasn’t just their canines that were sharp. Every tooth was long and curved. They had a mouth full of fangs.”
Ryder stared down at her with wide eyes. After a moment, he shook his head. “That’s not … possible.”
“Sure it is,” she said as she glanced back over her shoulder at Cain. “With Wyatt, anything is possible.”
Then she stepped to the side.
Cain sprang forward, but he didn’t drive the stake into Ryder’s heart. He just shoved the tip into the vamp’s chest. Let the bastard know that if Cain had truly wanted …
You’d be dead on the ground.
That wasn’t what he wanted … yet.
“I knew one of them.” Eve’s voice pulled Cain’s gaze to her.
Ryder yanked the stake from his chest. “Asshole.”
Cain ignored him.
“I remembered him,” Eve said. “His voice, what he said—I remembered him.”
Cain could hardly recall those vampires at all. When he’d fallen into the pit, his spine had broken. Blood had choked him. He’d heard the vampires. Smelled them. Felt them bite into his flesh.
But then he’d burned. When he’d risen, he’d barely seen the vampires at all. They’d just been prey.
Eve looked so pale in the starlight. “He was there when my parents died.”
Cain advanced slowly and touched her shoulder. “Are you sure?” She’d told him that her parents died when she’d just been a child.
A slow nod. “I couldn’t ever forget his face. It’s starred in too many of my nightmares, but … his eyes had changed. Gotten bigger. Darker.” She swallowed and Cain saw the small, painful movement of her throat. “And I think he remembered me.”
Well, hell.
He glanced back over at the mountain.
“They’re coming,” Ryder muttered but Cain had already heard the thud of approaching footsteps. Wyatt had sent out his human minions to make sure Cain didn’t make it out of the mountain.
Too bad, asshole. I’m already free. The guy would have to learn to move faster.
“Time to get some clothes,” Cain said as he turned toward the approaching threat rounding the mountain.
Eve glanced at him, eyes wide.
“I could go for a bite,” Ryder added, voice mild.
Cain nodded—and they attacked.
“We’ve got a wounded man!” Cain called out as he lifted Eve over his shoulder. They’d taken the liberty of borrowing some clothing—perfect camouflage—from the guards who didn’t need the uniforms anymore. They were unconscious and would be for a long time to come. It wasn’t like they’d miss the clothes.
“Hurry up!” Ryder snapped. He kept his head down. Anyone looking at him would see only the green uniform he wore and his issued weapon.
Eve’s head was covered by one of the hats that a guard had been wearing. She’d slipped the uniform over her own clothing, helping the loose outfit fit a bit better. But since she was the one playing injured, the guards wouldn’t get much of a look at her.
Not before they were taken out.
The guards near the building’s entrance rushed toward them. “Need a medic,” one said into his mike. “We need—”
Cain knocked him out with one punch.
Ryder’s fangs flashed as he took care of the other man.
Too easy.
Cain lowered Eve to her feet. She cut her eyes toward him, not saying a word.
Wyatt would never expect them to storm right back after their failed attack last time. And Cain always loved to do the unexpected.
Ryder took the guard’s key card and swiped it across the entrance. The door slid open and he bared his teeth at Cain and Eve. “This is where we part ways.”
Cain had been itching to ditch the vamp.
“Whichever one of us finds Wyatt first,” Ryder said, “well, then that lucky bastard gets the pleasure of gutting him.”
With that, the vampire slipped down the hallway, easing perfectly into the darkness.
Cain headed left, but Eve’s light touch on his arm stopped him.
“I didn’t come back to kill Wyatt,” she said.
That sure was the reason he’d come back to this hell. He glanced at her and saw the tension and worry etched onto her lovely face.
“I came back for Trace.”
Shit. Cain’s body tensed. The werewolf was dead. Cain remembered seeing him get shot. Not once, but over and over. No way would Trace be coming back.
Eve saw the thoughts in his eyes. Her lips firmed and she shook her head. “No. Trace is strong. If anyone could survive, it would be him.”
Cain heard footsteps approaching. He stepped into the shadows, pressing his back to the wall. Eve mirrored his movements perfectly.
The footsteps grew closer. Closer …
Cain grabbed the guard, wrapping his fingers around the man’s neck and jerking him into the air. The human never even had the chance to scream.
Cain tightened his hold.
“Stop.” Eve’s whisper.
Teeth clenching, he did, but he didn’t let the guard go.
Eve leaned toward the terrified human. “The werewolf that was brought in earlier … where is he?”
Cain eased his hold, just enough to let a whisper slip from the man’s throat. “How … the … fuck … should I … know?”
The human thought he could play tough. He thought wrong.
Still keeping one arm around the fool’s throat, Cain grabbed the man’s left hand—and broke it.
The color bleached from the guard’s face.
“Try again,” Cain urged.
“D-dead …”
It was the answer that he’d expected. A werewolf wasn’t built to survive that kind of silver impact.
“F-failed … experiment …”
Ah, now wasn’t the guard turning into a talker.
“Where’s his body?” Eve demanded and Cain realized that she had a gun shoved into the man’s side. He knew that she’d taken that weapon from the hands of a fallen guard back near the lake. The woman liked to be armed. Cain could respect that.
“Furnace room … gonna … burn him …”
Eve stabbed her gun harder into the human’s side. “Tell me where to find that room.”
“Go … left … all the way …” He tried to point with his broken hand.
Someone was being useful. “And Wyatt?” Cain wanted to know as he flipped the guy around to face him. “Where is he?”