Think again.
Ryder leapt down and crashed right into the fool who was running for Sabine. They hit the ground, tumbling, and when their bodies stopped rolling, Ryder had his claws at the throat of Vaughn Adams. Ryder could easily see the human in the dark. Not the army buddy he’d sought, but the son. He figured one human was as good as the other.
Vaughn tried to yank up his gun. Ryder broke the man’s hand. This time, Vaughn was the one to scream.
Sabine rushed toward them. “Where’s Rhett?”
Ryder yanked the human to his feet. Vaughn was groaning and trying to cradle his right hand. So weak. So human.
“Where is my brother?” Sabine demanded. She was fierce. Eyes glaring. Hands clenched into fists. Fury clear to read on her face.
Maybe the human couldn’t see all of her rage. He probably could see very little in the dark.
His disadvantage.
Ryder swiped out and let his claws rip open the human’s side. The scent of blood filled the air.
“Stop!” Vaughn screamed. “I don’t know what the hell is happening—stop!”
“He’s lying,” Ryder said, not about to buy the man’s BS. “He was tracking us, hunting us. He started following us the minute we left your father’s house.”
Vaughn stopped his moaning and groaning. His shoulders straightened. His chin lifted. “Damn right, I did. And I called for backup.” He bared his teeth. Really? Was that supposed to be intimidating? A human’s teeth? “You’re surrounded, vampire. There’s no getting away for you this time.”
Ryder tilted his head to the right. Listened. Heard nothing. “Try again.” Now, he bared his teeth. “Or I’ll just end this game and rip open your throat.”
“Ryder.” Sabine’s snapping voice. “Get him to tell us where Rhett is, then you can have your bite.” She grabbed a fistful of Vaughn’s shirt. “Or maybe I’ll have one.” She sounded deadly.
Sexy.
He liked it when she showed her kick-ass side. That side was starting to peek out, more and more.
But Vaughn shook his head. “You won’t get a chance, they’re coming—”
Ryder tensed when he heard a growl. A low, animalistic sound. Not the growl of a werewolf, that was rougher, deeper. This sound . . .
He stepped away from the human and scanned the darkness. This sound was different. This sound had every muscle in his body tensing.
Then he was attacked.
Sabine screamed when a blurry form ran at Ryder. The attacker hit him, cutting Ryder’s stomach open with a slash of his claws. The attacker moved fast, far too damn fast, and punched with a killing force.
Luckily, Ryder wasn’t so easy to kill.
He slashed back with his own claws. Tossed the jerk into the air.
“What the hell?” Vaughn’s shocked voice. A voice that shattered into a terrified, pain-filled scream.
Because someone had just taken a bite out of the guy.
A vampire was guzzling the guy’s throat, a vamp with dark, matted hair and bloodstained clothes.
That human is my prey. Back the hell off.
Ryder grabbed the vamp and yanked him back. “You don’t know who you’re screwing with—” Ryder began, more than ready to teach the guy about the vamp hierarchy in this world.
But then he got a look at the vampire’s face. At the parch-white skin. The sunken, black eyes. And . . . the fangs.
Not just sharpened canines, like vampires were supposed to have. All of this guy’s teeth narrowed down to razor-sharp points. And the claws that had cut into Ryder before? He got a good look at them now. Those claws were like long, black knives. Not a vampire’s normal claws.
Primal. The word whispered through his mind. Wyatt had warned him, but getting the warning and actually seeing the primal were two way different things.
The vampire was tall, too thin, but there was a hell of a lot of strength in his body. Too much.
What all had Wyatt told him? Wyatt had tried to cure the primal with Ryder’s blood, but that hadn’t worked and—
The primal vampire’s attention shifted to Sabine. He licked his lips. “Want . . . you . . .”
Oh, the hell he did.
They want . . . what you want.
The primal vampire ran for Sabine. Before he could grab her, Ryder slammed into the SOB. “She’s taken.” He drove his fist into the guy’s gut and let his own claws swipe and tear.
The vampire just laughed. His fangs came at Ryder’s throat.
I’m not on the menu.
Ryder slammed his head into the guy’s nose. Bones snapped. Blood gushed.
“Vaughn?” Sabine’s voice. She sounded scared. Ryder glanced over at her. She was on the ground, right next to the human. He was shuddering. Convulsing. She put her hands on his chest, obviously trying to hold him down. Her head snapped up and her frantic gaze found him. “Ryder, I think he’s dying!”
The night couldn’t get any fucking worse.
He focused on the vamp. Then he heard the rumble of tires. The shrill screech of brakes. Footsteps pounded toward them.
Vaughn’s backup.
So it could get worse.
“I can’t stop the blood!” Sabine cried. “It’s too much. He’s dying!”
No, he wouldn’t die. Ryder kept his body between Sabine and the freak who wouldn’t take his eyes off her.
Those teeth . . . humans should have known better than to play God. When you fucked with nature, nature fucked back.
The guy in front of him was one giant fuck-up.
“Give her . . . to me.” The primal vampire’s words were a growl. Not normal speech. Too rough. Too gritted. As if speaking were hard for him.
Had Ryder’s blood done this? Or had the primals become this way thanks to the first experiments that Genesis had run on them? Were they already screwed to hell and back, and my blood just made things worse for them? Wyatt had said that three primals received Ryder and Sabine’s blood. Three.
“Give her . . .” the primal vamp growled again.
“Not going to happen.” Ryder sucked in a deep breath as he prepared for the next attack. There were three main ways to kill a vampire. First up . . . fire. No fire here. Second . . . a stake to the heart. No wood. Well, he might be able to rip off part of the fence on the west side of the house, but if he did that, he’d have to leave Sabine. The freak might grab her while Ryder rushed for the weapon. Then the guy would drink from her. No. Not happening.
So that just left him with option number three.
Beheading.
Could he take the vamp’s head, before the guy took his?
Time to find out.
The humans were coming closer. Racing toward them.
Ryder flexed his fingers. His claws were out. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d taken another vampire’s head. Not the first, not the last.
But this guy wasn’t like the others.
The primal vampire stalked toward them. “Taking . . . her.”
No, asshole, I’m taking your head.
With a growl of his own, Ryder attacked.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Vaughn was choking on his own blood. Sabine stared down at him, terrified. His eyes were wild. So scared and desperate.
And she remembered sitting on the couch with him and Rhett. Watching scary movies. Eating popcorn.
Swimming in the lake.
Laughing while they roasted marshmallows.
How in the hell had things come to be this way?
“You’re going to be okay,” she told him, pressing her fingers against his neck. His blood soaked her hand. The blood wouldn’t stop gushing out. “Hang on, Vaughn, okay? Just hang on.”