She just knew the fire.
She pulled at the metal bonds. They wouldn’t give. Her wrists were raw and bloody and she couldn’t get free.
There had to be more than this for her. Why couldn’t she remember? She’d had a life.
But it was gone. All she knew now were days and nights of fire and pain.
And the urge to destroy. To attack and kill . . . those urges grew stronger in her every moment.
Sabine jerked once more on the bonds. The coppery scent of her blood rose to fill her nose.
An image flashed in her mind. A man. Blond hair. Chiseled features. A faint smile tilting his lips. For some reason, when she saw that image, Sabine thought . . .
He likes blood.
She shivered. Her skin was cold. They wouldn’t give her clothes. The clothes just burned away. Everything burned.
Sabine heard the crackle of static drift in the air and knew the voice was going to come again.
“This time,” the voice announced—a female voice. One that was always flat and so cold, clipped with a hard accent—“this time we’ve been instructed to use gas on you. I’ve been assured that the process shouldn’t take long at all.”
The process. Sabine bit her lips. There was a hiss of sound and the air around her changed. Developed an acrid odor. The scent burned her nose.
Her throat.
A tear leaked down her cheek.
She held tight to the image of the blond man. It was the only image that had ever come to her.
He likes blood.
That knowledge should have scared her, but she was long past the point of terror. As she choked and shuddered, Sabine just thought . . .
Find me. Because somewhere deep inside, an instinctive knowledge told her that man was coming for her.
Chaos. Fire. Hell. But . . .
No Sabine.
Ryder’s hands clenched as he watched Genesis burn. He’d taken blood—plenty of it—from the guards who were fleeing. But the blood tasted wrong to him. Sour.
Sabine.
The scream was in his head. She was the one he needed, but he couldn’t find her. Genesis—there was nothing left there. Everything would soon be ash.
It was the second lab that he needed. Wyatt had transferred Sabine there. Ryder just had to find the place.
But the guards he’d fed on, they hadn’t known about the second lab’s location. He’d ripped into their minds—they hadn’t known. The place was shrouded in secrecy and—
The big, dark bruiser from before was back. Ryder watched as the guy stalked right through the fire. The woman was in his arms.
The woman . . . she’d tried to help me.
In his rage before, he hadn’t thought she was truly there to free him. But she had been. Not there to torture and destroy, but to help.
So he owed her. For the moment. Ryder braced his legs and called out, “Let her go.”
The man’s head snapped up even as his hold on the woman tightened. “I knew letting you live was a mistake.” Disgust and rage were ripe in the man’s voice.
Ryder swiped away the blood that dripped down his chin. He’d gorged too much. So why am I still hungry? He bared his fangs as he advanced. “She . . . saved me.” Ryder managed to grit out the words. “I won’t let you hurt her.” Sabine wouldn’t want the woman hurt. The woman—she kept reminding him of Sabine.
The guy frowned and gazed down at the woman. She appeared dead to the world, but Ryder saw the soft rise and fall of her chest. Still alive, just unconscious. Unconscious and in the arms of a phoenix who’d just torched Genesis. She wasn’t exactly in a safe place.
Then the bruiser looked back up at Ryder, and fire burned in the man’s eyes. A fire just like Sabine’s. “I’m guessing you’re lucky number thirteen,” Ryder murmured.
The phoenix glared at Ryder and warned, “You don’t want to tangle with me.”
Actually, no, he didn’t. He wanted that phoenix to get far away from him, but the woman . . . “She’s human.” He gave a hard shake of his head. Then he lied and said, “I don’t know what the hell you are, and—”
“She’s not.” The words were shouted at him. The guy’s grip on the woman just kept tightening. Cain. That was the name Wyatt had mentioned for Subject Thirteen. Cain needed to ease up or he might wind up hurting her.
And she wasn’t human? Then what was she? She’d certainly smelled human to him. “Doesn’t matter,” Ryder said as the phoenix advanced on him. “I won’t let you hurt her.” Saving the woman had suddenly become too important. Why? Because I can’t save Sabine.
No, no, he would save her. He wasn’t giving up on Sabine, not yet.
Cain studied Ryder as if he were insane. Yes, buddy, I am. Don’t push me anymore. Then the guy said, “I wasn’t the one trying to eat her.”
Ah, valid point. But that was okay. Ryder had a point of his own to make. “No, you’re just the one who wants to fuck her.”
Cain’s eyes narrowed to fiery slits. This phoenix seemed to have more power than Sabine. Wyatt had already said that Number Thirteen was stronger. With vamps, age brought increased power. Was it the same situation for a phoenix? Sabine hadn’t known what she was. The first death and rising had stunned her. This guy knew the score.
He also seemed to be able to control his fire. Wasn’t that intriguing?
Before the male could escape with the woman, Ryder deliberately stepped into his path.
The phoenix sighed and told him, “If you don’t move, you’re dead.”
Like he hadn’t heard that a time or twenty before. Controlling the impulse to roll his eyes, Ryder advanced. “You can’t—”
Fire seemed to surge right out of the guy’s hand. The flames flew at Ryder, spinning in a deadly ball. Ryder yelled and jumped to the side. The blazing ball missed him, but as he lay on the ground, a whip of fire circled him, caging his body within the crackling flames.
Then the phoenix told him, “If you ever come at her again, you’ll feel the full force of my fire.” There was a deadly promise in the words. “And you won’t have time to scream then. You’ll just die.”
Ryder stiffened. First up, he hadn’t screamed. Yelled in fury, fuck yes, but screamed? No. The very suggestion was insulting.
And second, the bastard was just leaving him there. Leaving a vampire trapped in his worst nightmare. Flames that wouldn’t die.
The flames were all she knew. Burning bright and hot in red and gold. Surrounding her. Seeming to come from within her.
The fire terrified her. So did the screams that she could hear. Or was she the one screaming? It was so hard to tell for sure.
She was supposed to remember someone. Something. A man?
The idea was there, whispering beneath the screams, but then she forgot him.
Forgot her own self.
The fire burned and burned and burned.
Fury cut through her. A killing rage. Destroy everything. Everyone. She wanted to hurt and punish.
But though the fire burned so hot, she couldn’t move her body.
Burn, burn, burn.
The fire crackled. She started to laugh. Soon she couldn’t tell the difference between that crackle of fire and her laughter. Maybe there was no difference.
Son of a bitch. He had to get out of the flames. More humans would be coming soon. It would be rather hard to ignore the giant blaze for much longer.