He snapped the stake in his hand. His gaze drifted over her as his nostrils flared. “You took a shot in the chest, huh? From one of the monsters or from your own guards?” Because they’d broken. He’d seen them. Shooting at anything or anyone who got between them and the red exit signs.
When the prisoners broke free and you’d been the one playing jailer and executioner, you had to know your ass was about to get tortured before death. Run, run, humans. Run.
But wherever they ran, the monsters would find them.
“You’re already dead,” Ryder told her, because the wound to her chest was too deep. “And it’s an easier death than you probably deserve.”
He pushed her away.
But she shook her head. “Th-there’s a syringe. A formula . . . it can stop the fire from consuming her!”
Desperation shook the words. A desperate woman would say anything, especially if she thought her lies would help her to keep living.
“Give me your . . . blood!” Vivian’s voice was weakening. “Give it to me . . . and I will give you . . . the formula . . .”
Ryder stared at her, barely holding back his fury. If Sabine didn’t need to keep feeding from him . . .
His jaw locked and he managed to growl, “The fire won’t take her.”
Vivian shook her head. “It will! Your blood . . . won’t stop her change, it won’t—”
“Three times,” he said.
She shook her head again.
“For humans, it just takes one blood exchange for the transformation.” For a human to take a last gasp of air as a mortal, and to awake as a vampire.
Her eyes widened. “You didn’t—”
“For Sabine, since she was far from human, it took three exchanges.” Maybe because her DNA was so strong. The vampire blood had needed time to sink into her cells. To bond. But the proof was unmistakable. When he glanced over her body, he saw that her wounds were closing. She was drinking his blood. She had fangs. Her teeth were sharper because they weren’t normal canines any longer. His Sabine had transformed with this blood exchange.
He hadn’t managed to stop her from dying that first terrible night in his cell. But Sabine would never die again.
His blood guaranteed it.
He didn’t expect Vivian to charge at him. But she did. With an infuriated scream, the redhead slammed into him and tried to pull Ryder away from Sabine. “Stop!” Vivian shrieked. “You’re ruining her!”
With his left hand, he shoved her back, and never took his right wrist from Sabine’s mouth. “I’m saving her. She doesn’t want the fire.” And how did Vivian have this strength? With that bullet wound to her chest, she should be barely managing to stay upright.
Not attacking.
“You’ll make her . . . less . . .” The last word was a hiss.
He stiffened. “You have five seconds to get out of here, or I’ll kill you.” He never liked hurting women, but that Vivian—she’d hurt Sabine. The doctor was already dying.
“Bastard!” But Vivian’s feet stumbled toward the door. “You’ll regret this! She’ll…hate you! She had the power of a god . . . and you’re turning her into just another . . . bl-bloodsucker!”
His head turned. His gaze met hers. “You should be on the ground. Choking on your own blood.” The wound had slowed her, yes, it was bleeding, almost gushing blood, but . . . Calculation had his eyes narrowing. “What are you, doctor? Are you an experiment, too, like Wyatt was?”
“W-was?” Her lips trembled. Grief flashed in her eyes.
He offered her a cold smile. “Guess you didn’t watch that part on the security footage, huh? Go upstairs. See him for yourself.”
She turned and fled. Still moving too damn fast.
But he didn’t care about her. He only cared about Sabine. He looked back at her. Im-fucking-possible, because he’d never seen a vamp heal so quickly, but her wounds had already closed. Her cheeks were pink.
The third time had been the charm. She was locked with him now. Tied—body, blood, and soul.
He wasn’t ever going to let her go. He didn’t think that he could. Ryder’s need for her had grown too strong.
As he stared at her, Sabine’s eyelashes flickered.
“Look at me, love,” he whispered as he leaned over her. “Let me make sure you’re still with me.”
Her mouth pulled away from his wrist. He didn’t even glance at the wound. Her lashes lifted, and her dark eyes stared back at him.
No fire was in that gaze.
Just a darkness that seemed to see into his soul. The dark had never looked so warm or beautiful.
“Ryder?” She whispered his name. “What—where are we?” Then her eyes widened as she jerked upright. Her hand flew to her stomach. “He—he gutted me!”
Ryder wrapped his arms around her. Pulled her close to his chest. “You’re safe.”
But she shook against him. “I know this place . . . they used to experiment on me here.”
Fuck that. He lifted her into his arms. “We’re getting the hell out of here. No one is ever going to experiment on you again. I won’t let anyone hurt you.” A vow.
Her hands curled around his neck. “I feel . . . strange.”
Because her body was transitioning. He’d heard of a few shifters being transformed over the years. Once they’d become vampires, they’d never been able to call up their beasts again.
Some said vampirism was a virus. An infection that spread with the exchange of blood. Humans were easily infected. Other paranormals just weren’t as susceptible to the virus.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” he told her, not wanting to explain what he’d done. Not then. “But you’ll be okay.”
Her head rested over his heart. “The fire was coming for me, but you stopped it.”
His hold on her tightened.
“Thank you.”
After all that had happened, the last thing she needed to do was thank him. When she realized that she was a vamp, Ryder knew she wouldn’t exactly be thrilled.
Not when Sabine just wanted her human life back. How many times had she told him that she just wanted to go home?
He didn’t speak as he carried her from the room. There was a thick blood trail in the hall. As if someone’s bleeding body had been dragged away. There was also no sign of Vivian.
Growls and shouts could still be heard coming from the building. Smoke drifted in the air, and the crackle of flames grew louder.
Maybe the other phoenix had decided to burn this place to the ground. It seemed a fitting retribution.
Ryder held tight to Sabine and made his way from the wreckage and the hell. No one stopped him. No guards appeared with their guns. The guards who hadn’t died had all run by now. And the paranormals left knew better than to fuck with him. Especially when he had his mate in his arms.
She is mine. To him, the truth was undeniable. Always.
Now, he just had to make Sabine realize that she needed him, too.
The vampire came at her, with his deadly claws and his too-sharp teeth. Vivian screamed, but there was no one to help her. No one to care.
When he opened his mouth and gave a guttural cry, she saw the vamp’s teeth—every tooth was razor-sharp. Not just his canines. Every. Single. One.
She kicked and she punched, but he just held her with hands that bruised and knife-like claws that cut.
Vivian knew what he was. He was one of the freaks. One of the “bad experiments” that should never have seen the light of day. Wyatt had told her that most of the primal vampires had died in a recent fire, but this one—