“If you bring me the phoenix, I should be able to save your son.”
Yes, he noticed her very careful should be. Because Cassandra Armstrong wasn’t going to make a promise she couldn’t keep. She was already nervous, already so scared he’d caught her hand shaking when she’d injected Vaughn with a sedative.
But Cassandra wasn’t going to break and run. She’d dealt with plenty of supernaturals before.
And she was his only hope. “She’s coming.” Little Sabine Acadia. Who would have known that she’d be the key to saving so many people?
“Is she coming . . . willingly?” Cassandra asked carefully.
Not exactly. But he nodded anyway. When it came to his son, willingness didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but saving Vaughn. Stopping him from being a monster.
But he didn’t tell Cassandra that part. She wouldn’t understand. She hated what Wyatt had done. She was on some quest to help the supernaturals, to make up for all the wrongs that Genesis had done to them.
Good fucking luck to her.
He just wanted his son back.
And he’d do anything, use anyone, if it meant that Vaughn could be more than just a killing machine.
When those bastards closed in on Sabine, something broke inside of Ryder. He didn’t care about control or caution. He had only one thought.
Kill them.
So the vampire with a stake at his own heart and the vampire with the gun at his head—they both turned instantly . . . and attacked the primals.
Julia screamed, even as she, too, lifted the weapon she’d tucked in her jeans and fired on the primals.
All those vampires who’d thought to take him out, Ryder turned them on the primals.
Take them out. Get their attention. Stop them. Kill them.
“Fucking bloodbath,” Grayson muttered. He tried to run forward and attack the primals, too.
Ryder grabbed his arm. Grayson was his oldest friend. That meant something. Even in the roar of his fury. “Stay back or you’ll die, too.”
“Staying the hell back,” Grayson agreed as he jumped behind the bar’s counter.
A primal sank his teeth into Julia’s throat. She screamed and fired her gun right into his heart.
One primal was already on the ground, a stake in his heart. Another primal had just ripped a gun away from his attackers.
But there were still others. Still too many vampires . . .
Get them away from Sabine.
Because he couldn’t hear her screams anymore. She had to be okay. Too many bodies were in his way. He couldn’t even see her.
Ryder tried to reach her mind. Sabine.
A wall of flames flickered in his mind’s eye.
Still flames. With her, he was starting to realize that would always be the case.
Then a vampire—a primal—flew back through the air. A stake was embedded in his heart.
“I’m not”—Sabine shoved her hair back over her shoulder and wiped away the blood that dripped down her chin—“helpless anymore. Not human . . . So back away!”
But they weren’t backing away.
The primals were slicing right through the other vampires, the other fools who’d been stupid enough to think they could control these predators.
But Ryder could attack. He could kill. Now that he knew Sabine was alive, he could actually think again.
He shoved his claws into the chest of one primal. Had his heart before the man could scream.
There were so many screams around him.
Ryder sliced the throat of another.
Sabine had a chair in her arms. When a primal vamp came at her, she shoved it at him. The chair leg sank into his chest.
The vamp fell to the floor.
The primals were dying. Those still living should have tried to run, but they just kept trying to get to Sabine.
Ryder grabbed the next bastard who was attempting to bite his woman.
“Need . . . her . . .”—the primal’s eyes looked blind—“her . . . blood . . .”
“You’re not getting it.” Ryder sliced his throat. Took his head. Dropped his body. Moved on to the next target. “None of you are getting to her.”
But the primals were so close to the one thing they wanted most—Sabine’s blood. And they were fighting with a wild ferocity as they realized that death was stalking them.
Because he sure as hell was.
Then one primal made the mistake of driving his fist into Sabine’s jaw. He yanked the makeshift weapon from her hands and shoved his fangs into her throat.
The world became a sea of red rage for Ryder.
He tore through everyone in his path. His claws sliced. His teeth bit. Flesh tore. Screams surrounded him.
Get to her.
Sabine’s arms came up. “Get away!”
The faintest tendril of smoke appeared between her and the primal.
Ryder reached out and grabbed the bastard—even as the primal started to howl in pain.
The primal’s chest was burning.
From the inside?
Ryder swung him around. The guy sliced out with his claws, digging deep.
And Ryder just laughed. Then he picked up the still-smoking bastard and tossed him across the room. The man slammed into the bar.
Grayson lunged up and staked him.
Ryder stood there, chest heaving, fury boiling his blood. His head turned, and he met Sabine’s wide-eyed stare. She had her hands at her throat. Her lips were trembling.
As she stared at him, there was no missing the fear in her gaze.
His racing heartbeat began to slow. Ryder shook his head and glanced around. Bodies littered the floor. Blood. So much blood.
All of the primals were dead. Their eyes stared sightlessly ahead. Some of them . . . His chin lifted. He didn’t remember even making the brutal attacks, but he knew the kills were his.
I lost it. When they went for her . . .
And the vampires that had thought to attack him? All but one of them had already died. The only one left was Julia. She lay sprawled on the floor, a giant chunk of wood in her chest. Her gasping breaths seemed to echo in the room.
Ryder didn’t want to touch Sabine. Not yet. Not with so much blood on his hands. And there was still one more piece of business to finish.
He turned away from her. Walked toward Julia’s desperate form. His shoes slid in the blood that surrounded her.
Then he was bending over her. Her gaze met his. A faint smile lifted her lips. “You think . . . won?”
Yes, he fucking did. His hands closed around the stake.
“Did you . . . give her a . . . choice?”
Ryder’s eyes narrowed. He heard the faint rustle of steps behind him. Felt Sabine standing at his back.
Julia’s gaze wasn’t on him. It was on Sabine. “Did you . . . ask to be . . . like this?”
Grayson had come from his position behind the bar. He stood on Julia’s right side. Not touching her. Just staring at her with a mix of pity and fury in his eyes.
“Did . . . you?” Julia pressed as her chest heaved.
“I asked to live,” Sabine said, her voice soft.
“But you didn’t know . . .” Julia’s lips curved in a faint smile. “The price he’d . . . make you pay.”
Ryder stiffened.
“I . . . didn’t . . . know . . . I didn’t . . . ask . . .”
“Is that why you sent me to Genesis? Because you and the others hadn’t asked to be vampires?” Ryder asked, voice rough. “I didn’t turn you, I didn’t—”
“You . . . started it. You turned . . . him. Made us all.”
Him. Malcolm.
“Some things . . . shouldn’t be made.”
His fingers were curled around the chunk of wood in her chest. One twist of his hand, and she would be dead. “And here I thought it was all about you wanting to be free of me. Because I controlled you all.”