Burn For Me

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Hunt.

Cain rushed through the darkness, striking out at the beings that were foolish enough to attack him. He touched them, the fire flared, and the beasts turned to ash.

The tunnel smelled of death. Blood. Rot.

And … her.

Sweetness inside the gaping mouth of hell. A light scent that pulled him forward. One image was burned into his head, the image he’d had as soon as the fire brought him back.

A gun, pressing into his heart. Her. Dark hair streaming around her, shadows slipping over her body. Tears glistening in her eyes. “I’m … sorry …”

Then the thunder of a gun. The white-hot agony as a bullet ripped into his heart.

She’d shot him.

Killed him.

Now his beast wanted vengeance. The fire burned inside him, so hot that when he breathed, a puff of smoke appeared before his mouth.

Deeper he went into the tunnel. He could hear the shuffle of footsteps. To his right.

He reached out—another vampire died by his hand.

Then he heard her scream. A wild, terrified cry. He rushed after the sound, running as quickly as he could.

Mine. She was his to punish. No one else could hurt her. No one else should fucking dare to hurt her.

Mine.

The beast knew it. Even death couldn’t change that truth for him.

He saw them. Eve, struggling in the arms of a vampire. She was holding him off, pushing him away from her neck, but the vamp’s teeth were mere inches from her.

He lunged forward and grabbed the vampire. The man tried to scream, but couldn’t. Cain didn’t give him a chance.

The vamp died instantly.

She ran. She lurched away and tried to escape into the darkness once more. Didn’t she realize? There was no escape.

He sent his fire out, letting it lick the ground on either side of her body. The fire showed that there truly was no way out. A wall of giant rocks waited just ahead.

She stumbled to a stop. After a moment, she spun around, facing him again. He kept advancing on her. One step at a time. The flames were low on the ground, burning softly, but he could make them rise with a thought.

Or he could let them die.

He saw her eyes and knew she didn’t fear his flames. Just the darkness.

He smiled at her and let the flames die. The darkness took him—and her—once more.

But while she couldn’t see in the dark, he had no such trouble. He could see her perfectly. From the top of her tousled head, all the way down the slender length of her body.

She was all alone with him in the dark. No one to save her. No one to hear her screams.

Did she realize how close he was to her? He could see her head turning as she strained to see in the darkness.

I see you. He lifted his hand and let the back of his fingers trail down her cheek.

She jerked back, gasping. Then softly, “Cain?”

The name pierced through him.

“Cain, please tell me that you have control right now.” Her voice was breathy, husky. Sexy.

His cock began to swell as he inhaled her sweet scent. He slid closer to her and touched her again.

“It is you.” Relief had her words shaking.

If he’d been a vamp, would he have bothered with touches? No, he would have attacked with teeth and fangs.

She’d been attacked. He could smell her blood, and that coppery scent pissed him off.

No one else hurts her.

She stood before him. Her small body was trembling, but she wasn’t trying to flee. Probably because there was no place for her to go.

His hand drifted down her cheek. Eased over her chin. Then his fingers wrapped around her throat. Her pulse raced beneath his fingers, drumming so quickly.

“Say my name, Cain.”

He frowned at her.

“Who am I?” she whispered to him.

She was the woman who’d shot him. His fingers began to tighten around her.

“Who. Am. I?” she rasped.

“Mine.” It almost hurt to say the word, but it was the truth. He knew that with all his being. This woman—small, deadly—was his.

And she’d betrayed him. Killed him. It was his turn to punish her.

He pushed her back against the rocky wall of the tunnel. Kept one hand around her throat.

“Cain—”

His mouth took hers. He was rough, he knew it, couldn’t stop it—didn’t even care to try. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, and he took what he wanted.

Her.

He’d died for her. He figured he deserved her. She owed him.

His cock was stretching, aching with arousal. His clothes were gone. They never survived the fire. His flesh pressed against her, but it wasn’t good enough. He wanted more.

He began to push her down to the ground.

Her eyes were so big in the darkness. Wide. Afraid.

For some reason, her fear stirred the rage that was always so close to the surface for him. His hand fell away from her throat.

Instead of pushing her down, he lifted her up, caging her against the rocks with his body. Her hands lifted and wrapped around his shoulders as she fought to find her balance.

But she wasn’t fighting him.

He put his mouth on her throat. Licked her. Sucked her delicate skin. Let her feel his teeth.

The vampires had thought they’d mark her.

No. He’d be the only one to mark her.

“Cain … come back to me,” she whispered. Emotion filled her words.

He growled and his fingers went to the snap of her jeans. He yanked the jeans open. Shoved his hand inside and pushed past the silk of her panties.

She was smooth. Soft.

But not wet. He was hungry for her, ripping apart with his lust, but …

She didn’t want him.

“I’ll make you want me,” he promised. She had to want him. She was the only thing the beast wanted. Without her…

Fire. Madness. Hell.

“Say my name,” she told him again, her voice that husky purr that had his cock jerking eagerly against her. “My name, say it. Let me know that you’re back with me again, Cain.”

But there was a wall of fire and fury in his mind. He looked at her and knew only that she was his.

She’d killed him.

She’d made him burn.

He fucking needed her …

His hand rested between her legs. He pushed a finger inside her. She gasped beneath him. Her hips arched.

She likes it when I lick her neck.

The knowledge whispered through him as his mouth settled on the column of her throat. He touched her with his lips. His tongue.

She shuddered against him.

His fingers pushed into her a little more.

He nipped her flesh.

Another shudder and … he could feel the wet heat of her arousal beginning to moisten his fingers.

His thumb pressed over her clit. She gasped at the move, and her hips arched again, the move almost helpless. Not trying to get away, she was pushing closer to him.

He pulled back his hand. Put his fingers in his mouth. Tasted her.

Yes.

He was the one to fall to his knees. His hands grabbed her jeans and the thin slip of her panties. Yanked them down. Tossed them away.

Her hands curled over his shoulders. “W-what are you—”

His hands wrapped around her hips. He pushed her back, just a step, then lifted her up. “Spread your legs.” A guttural order, but he had to taste more of her. Was desperate for more.

All he knew was a haze of lust and need. Want her. Take her.

Slowly, she spread her legs.

He lifted her higher. Positioned her so that his mouth hovered right over her sex.

Then he took her. His tongue thrust into her sex and she jerked against him. Good. Her taste filled his mouth. Cream. Woman. Sweet and rich and perfect on his tongue.

He tasted her. Took from her. His tongue licked over her skin, over her clit, and then thrust into her sex. She whispered his name. Her nails sank into his shoulders.

When she came, he felt the climax against his mouth. It made him hungry for more.

Another lick. Another taste. Then he surged to his feet. His body was tight, aching, his heart beating too fast and his blood seeming to burn his veins. He needed release. The explosion of climax. He needed—

“Cain.” She sighed his name as her arms wrapped around him.

He needed her. The witch who’d killed him. The woman that he knew belonged only to him.

His cock pushed between her legs. He didn’t hold back. Couldn’t. He thrust into her as hard and as deep as he could go. He wanted to take everything from her.

Because he was hungry for everything.

Her gasps filled his ears. His body drove into hers. Over and over. The fire filled him, burning him from the inside out. She jerked at the feel of his hands, and he tore them from her. They were too hot—

She can handle the fire. A whisper from inside. An instinctive response. My fire won’t hurt her.

He slammed his fists into the wall behind her head. Rocks and dirt rained onto his shoulders. Fire sputtered from his hands.

And still he took. Too fast. Too hard. She couldn’t match his rhythm. He couldn’t stop.

“Cain.” His name. Breathed this time as she held him close.

His name. His woman.

His thrusts grew even wilder. Her legs were locked around his hips. Holding tight. Her hands braced on his chest as she drove her hips back down against his. Again. Again.

He erupted inside her, driving into her and shuddering with the force of a release that gutted him. A pleasure that ripped past the fire and the hell and touched the man caged inside him.

“Eve.” Her name broke from him.

She came around him, shuddering, her sex gripping him and greedily taking the last of his orgasm.

She was Eve … his Eve. His memories flooded back to him. Vampires had been attacking. They’d been coming for her. Clawing her. Biting him. He’d told her to kill him.

She had.

His fingers rose from the rock wall. Slowly, carefully, he pushed back the curtain of hair that had fallen to conceal her face from his view. His fingers curved under her chin, and he tilted her head back so she had to meet his gaze.

“Eve,” he said her name again, almost tasting it. He could still taste her.

Her lips quivered, then curved into a slow smile. “You’re … coming back to me.”

He was. But he was still fighting the beast inside. A beast that wanted only to destroy. To burn.

Not her.

Even in the midst of his fury, the beast didn’t ever want to hurt her. Neither did the man.

“Yes,” he said slowly and his voice didn’t sound quite right. Too rough. Too raw.

Her legs slid down his body, her smooth skin brushing over him. He pulled out of her, hating to leave her body. He was still aroused. Not close to being satisfied, but …

His sanity was back … for the damn moment. Shame burned through him.

A fucking tunnel? Against a dirt wall? With dead vamps yards away?

Had he really taken her there? Why the hell wasn’t she attacking him?

“I’m sorry,” she told him. “I didn’t want to shoot you. But they were coming. They were biting you and—”

He saw her eyes close and kissed her. Not with the wild roughness of before … softer. “I know.” He’d already been dying. Slowly. Moment by moment. He’d been watching her suffer. Helpless, his spine broken, he hadn’t been able to fight back against the monsters coming for them. “I was dead anyway.” He’d just lost the memories for a time. Lost everything—to the greedy claws of the fire.

He could never tell how he’d rise. If he’d be sane. If he’d remember …

Or if the fire and beast would strip his memories away.

I remembered her. He had, dammit.

Mine. He’d remembered Eve before, too. Even back at Genesis, when he rose, he’d thought of …

Her.

He knew what that meant. Knew how dangerous such a connection was. For him. For her.

Before he could speak, Cain heard the thud of approaching footsteps. He caught the stench of fear and sweat. Humans. Racing through the tunnel.

Coming after them.

He grabbed Eve’s clothes. “Get dressed.” He needed to tell her how sorry he was, but the beast was still too close to the surface. And with those men coming …

Kill.

Burn.

He wasn’t exactly battling the most gentle of instincts.

“We just want the woman!” a man’s voice called out. “Send her to us! We want to make sure she’s safe.”

Now they came to save her? Where had the fools been when the vampires were attacking?

When I was attacking?

He couldn’t look in her eyes.

Her hand brushed over his arm. “I wanted you, Cain. I’ve always wanted you.”

His breath was ragged. His chest aching.

Cain pushed her behind him. Heard the rustle of her clothing as she dressed. “Come any closer,” he yelled to the humans, “and you die.” Fair warning. The only warning they’d get before he let his fire end them.

“The tunnel’s already falling in …” a voice shouted back. Not Wyatt. Another male. One with a death wish.

I can grant that wish.

More rocks and rubble fell onto him. Onto Eve.

“It’s not stable. The vampires dug this hole, but it just kept falling on them. With your fire …” The voice was coming closer. So were the footsteps. Six, seven men? Eight. “If you blast again, the whole place will collapse.”

Their shouts weren’t exactly helping to stabilize the tunnel. Did the assholes know that? He bet they did—and that they didn’t care.

A light shone in the darkness. A bright light that caught him and Eve in its illumination. “You’ll just die and come back,” the male voice said, “but what about her? You really think she’ll survive a cave-in?”

No, she wouldn’t.

Ryder had said Eve didn’t have the blood of a phoenix. Why would he have lied about that?

Why would he have told the truth?

Never trust a vampire.

Cain didn’t trust anyone. Except … Eve. Somehow, some way, she’d gotten beneath his skin. Beneath the fire.

“I couldn’t find a way out,” she said, rising to whisper in his ear. “Just stones. Dirt.”

A dead end.

That bright light kept shining right on him.

“I’ve got a better idea,” the voice told him. It wasn’t sounding so afraid any longer. More like cocky.

A bad mistake. Cain had never been able to tolerate cocky jerks.

“Why don’t you send the woman over here …”

Behind that light, Cain saw the man’s gun point toward the top of the tunnel.

That bastard was going to shoot the tunnel at its weak points and force a cave-in.

The fire began to rage inside Cain. The beast hadn’t been calmed, not appeased nearly enough. This jerkoff was tempting him. All but begging for death.

“Send her here, or I’ll send this whole damn place crashing down on you both.”

The men behind the leader lifted their weapons. They pointed them not at Eve and Cain, but at the tunnel’s top, its sides.

When they fired, Cain knew the tunnel could collapse. Eve would die. She’d suffocate or be crushed.

And he’d rise to find her broken body.

“Go,” he forced out to Eve.

She didn’t move. “And what happens to Cain?” Eve asked.

Silence, then … “Nothing,” the lying human told her. “We’ll leave him just where he is.”

Such bullshit. Cain caught Eve’s hand. So soft. His gaze stared into hers. “They can’t kill me.” Well, not for long, anyway. “They’ll just piss me off.”

She shook her head. “But when you rise”—her voice was so soft that it barely whispered in his ears—“you come back … different, Cain.”

Each time, he did. Darker. More lost. But he’d been fighting to hold his sanity.

For her.

What would happen if he rose and she wasn’t there?

He forced himself to release her hand. “If you stay with me, they’ll kill you.” He couldn’t allow that.

He couldn’t protect her, not there. Too much fire could destroy the place, and then he’d be the one to destroy her.

Not gonna happen.

“Wyatt wants her alive.” The leader’s hard voice came again. His weapon was still pointed at the ceiling. “So just send her over, and we’ll get her out of here.”

But they wouldn’t do the same for him. He knew what would happen next, even if Eve didn’t.

He wanted to kiss her. Taste her. But time was running out. So he stepped away from her. Let all emotion wash from his face. “Go.”

Eve still hesitated.

“Shoot the wall!” the leader barked.

“No!” Cain screamed right back. He caught Eve’s shoulders and pushed her away from him—and right at the guards. “Get her the hell out of here.”

“Cain!” Arms reached for her. Eve fought them, glancing back. “Cain!”

He stood frozen. There wasn’t another option. Didn’t she see that?

Cain stared at the leader of those guards. Memorized him. The receding hairline. The thick neck. The beady eyes. “I’ll kill you first,” he promised. He saw the gun’s barrel tremble. His gaze swept around, learning the faces of all the men. The shadows didn’t hide their identities from him. The darkness hid nothing. “Then I’ll come for the rest of you if any man so much as bruises her skin.”

Some of the smarter humans immediately eased away from Eve. Maybe they’d get to keep living.

But there was always at least one dumbass in any group. The lead guard appeared to be that one. The man scurried back like a rat running in the dark. “Oh, Wyatt’s gonna do more than bruise her.” The taunt was tossed out after the guy had backed up about five feet. Did he think Cain couldn’t see his smile? “He’s gonna cut her open. Dissect her”—he fired his gun, a fast blast at the tunnel’s ceiling—“and you can’t stop him!”

As if on cue, the others began to fire their weapons. Dirt and rocks fell down, burying him. Cain had expected this.

Eve hadn’t.

The guards weren’t holding her. They were too busy firing and backing away. They must have thought she was afraid of the cave-in. He’d learned Eve wasn’t afraid of much.

She lunged toward him.

No, Eve!

But she ran through the falling debris. Ran straight for Cain and threw herself into his arms. They tumbled back, back, and he rolled them away from the collapsing edge of the tunnel. As the dirt rained down, as the rocks hit him, he covered her with his body and hoped that he’d be able to keep her alive.

“Open your eyes.”

His voice slipped through her mind. So deep. Rumbling. She loved the sound of Cain’s voice.

“Dammit, Eve, don’t do this … open your eyes.” He shook her. Hard.

She opened her eyes, but saw only darkness. A total and perfect black. Eve opened her mouth to speak and choked. What the hell? She spat out dirt.

Cave-i n.

She tried to sit up, but strong hands held her down. “Breathe, Eve.”

There wouldn’t be much to breathe, not for long. Those bastards had sealed them inside the tunnel. They buried us alive. If she weren’t already choking on dirt, she’d be whimpering.

Cain’s hands slid over her body. She jerked at the touch. She couldn’t see anything in that darkness, but she could feel his body surrounding her. Eve spat out more dirt and managed to rasp, “Cain … light.” She needed his fire. She hated this darkness. It was suffocating her.

No, that would be the dirt and rocks.

“Can’t.” His voice was grim. “The fire would burn up the oxygen in here. You need it too much.”

Her heart seemed to stop at those words. “We’re trapped.” Not a question. She’d realized it could happen as soon as those jackasses with guns had started firing. But she hadn’t been able to leave Cain.

He didn’t respond, but then, he didn’t have to. His fingers brushed over her face. She turned in to his touch.

“You should have gone with them.”

“So Wyatt could slice me open?” At least she could talk easily now. “No, thanks.”

Cain’s hand left her. She missed his touch instantly in the dark.

“You’d rather die slowly here with me?” Anger hummed in his voice.

It felt like she couldn’t get in a full breath. Her imagination? Her fear? Or was there just no damn air in there? “I’d rather not die at all.” She reached out in the darkness and her hands clutched him. “But I wasn’t going to leave you trapped in this hole alone.”

Her hands were on his chest. His heart raced beneath her touch. “If I’d been alone,” he growled, “then I could have used the fire to blast my way out.”

“You still can. You know the fire doesn’t—”

“We could run out of oxygen before the fire gets us free. Or the whole fucking mountain could just fall on us. I’ll keep coming back, again and again, keep burning … but you won’t.”

Brutal words. Cold. The truth?

Eve pushed away from him. Surprisingly, there was enough room for her to rise to her feet. Her movements were slow, mincing, careful. Once she was at her full height, she stepped forward in an attempt to explore their small space.

Almost instantly, Cain’s hands wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her back against him. “You’re heading toward the cave-in.”

She turned and lifted her hands right out in front of her face. She waved them, and saw nothing. Dammit. “You can see perfectly, can’t you?”

“Yes.”

She touched the rocky wall that had been at the end of the tunnel. So heavy. “Someone put these here… .”

“Probably because they didn’t want those vamps ever getting loose.”

She didn’t want to think about the vampires. Or the memories they’d stirred up in her mind. One thing at a time. The only thing she was thinking about was survival. She touched the rocks.

Cain grabbed her hand. “Baby, why do you have a death wish?”

Eve tried to snatch her hand back. She couldn’t. He was too strong. “I don’t.”

“Then why did you stay with me?” In the darkness, his words were more snarls than anything else. So much anger. No, fury.

She had fury of her own. “Why are you so pissed off at me?” Eve demanded. “Because I didn’t want to get my body sliced open by that freak? Or because I’d rather die in the dark with you than—”

He whirled her around and pulled her against him. “You’re supposed to live.” He backed her up two steps. “We’re running out of air. No one is going to come for us. You were supposed to live!”

His eyes started to burn in the dark. Finally. She could see the fire blazing at her. The only light in the blackness.

Was there madness in that light? Maybe. But she had her own madness, too. “I wasn’t going to leave you alone.” Her words sounded calm. How was that even possible? She could see Cain walking that fine line between reason and fury. She had to keep him from crossing over, so she told him the truth. “I knew I’d be safe with you.”

His hands bit into her shoulders. “You’re going to be dead with me.”

“Then you’d better hurry and find a way to save us both”—she said the words with confidence—“before I run out of air.”

He jerked away from her so quickly that she stumbled and slipped to the ground.

“Eve—” His hands reached for her, but she shoved him back.

“Eve, I didn’t mean—”

She crawled on the ground. Rushed toward the rocks. Lifted her hand, not touching them, just feeling.

“I’ll get you out,” he swore. “I will. I’ll find a way.”

“You don’t have to.” Her hand moved to the left. “Cain, I-I found it! I can feel air …” The lightest breeze was blowing through the heavy rocks.

No wonder Genesis had walled up this end of the tunnel. The vamps had been close to freedom.

They just hadn’t been strong enough to break free once the rocks blocked that freedom.

Cain was beside her in an instant. His hand pressed forward. “Hell, yes. ”

Eve started to smile. They were going to make it out of there. They’d be safe.

But then Cain’s fiery eyes turned back to her. Why was there no relief in his gaze?

“Eve …”

“Get us through the rocks,” she told him, knotting her fingers into fists. “Do whatever you have to do, but get us out.”

The rest of the mountain might collapse on them. She got that. But if they didn’t try, if they just sat in the dark and did nothing, she was guaranteed a slow death. “Get us out,” she said again.

Cain rose. Pulled her to his feet. Then he wrapped his arms around her and tucked her chin against his chest. “Keep your head down.”

She nodded against him. His heart thundered beneath her ear.

His body grew warmer against hers. His bare flesh heated, warming like a furnace.

She saw the flash of fire that seemed to come straight from his body—a flash that ripped around her and circled them, twining like a snake.

The fire revealed her prison. Barely five feet. A wall of earth where the tunnel had been. Destruction. Decay.

Buried alive.

The fire swelled around her. Swelled, focused.

“Close your eyes,” Cain said.

She didn’t. She wanted to see every moment.

Her head tilted, and her gaze cut toward those heavy rocks. The fire lunged at the rock wall, a snake striking. Again and again.

The rocks began to shake. Dirt fell from above.

The fire swelled higher. Burned so bright.

The mountain trembled around them. The ground rocked. The walls shook. And the dirt kept tumbling down. Cave-in. She knew it was happening, but there wasn’t a thing they could do to stop it.

Cain shoved more of his fire out, blasting at those rocks. Blasting …

And the mountain seemed to explode.

Eve sucked in a gasp of air, but choked on dirt. The thick dirt was everywhere, showering on her, smothering her. She tried to push against it, but couldn’t.

Then she was being pulled, yanked from the dirt, still held tight against Cain’s hard body. He pulled her, heaved her through the falling earth even as he pushed her toward the fire.

Into the fire.

Eve felt the whisper of the flames around her. Heard the crackle as it smothered out the rush of falling earth. Her hands grabbed onto Cain and she held him as tightly as she could.

She was tumbling, rolling, and he was with her. His body twisted around hers as they thudded onto the ground.

Eve opened her mouth. Sucked in a desperate gulp of air. The earth shook around her.

Cain scooped her into his arms. Raced away. She looked back over his shoulder and saw the small opening that he’d carved into the mountain. An opening that barely looked a foot wide. How had they gotten out of there?

The opening closed. The ground kept shaking.

And Cain kept running. He ran and ran with her—until they fell into the icy cold water of a lake.

“You … left her down there.” Richard stared at the guard. Stuart Montgomery. Ex-Marine. Ex-police detective. A guy who should have known how to carry out a simple order without screwing everything to hell and back.

The alarm was beeping, a constant shriek. It had started beeping as soon as the facility trembled.

“We were trapping him, sir,” Montgomery told him. Sweat beaded the guy’s forehead. “We didn’t know she’d run back to his side.”

“Your mistake,” Richard snapped out. Those trembles had been constant for the last five minutes. How long could Eve last in that hole without air?

Not long enough.

“Hand me your gun,” Richard ordered.

Montgomery stiffened. “The phoenix did not escape, sir. He’s still down there… .”

“And he’ll stay there until he manages to dig himself out.” Which he would do, Richard had no doubt about that. “But she can’t survive that long.” He’d given a simple order. How hard was that to follow? Retrieve Eve Bradley.

Not kill her.

“Give me your weapon.” The commanded was snapped from between Richard’s gritted teeth.

Two other guards stood behind Montgomery, waiting tensely, with their eyes on Richard.

Slowly, Montgomery lifted his gun from his holster and handed it over.

“Thank you.” Richard stared at Montgomery, wondering what to do with the man before him. Shooting him instantly was so tempting, but what purpose would it serve?

His father had always taught him that life and death had purpose—meaning that nothing was to be wasted in this world. “Take Mr. Montgomery down to the main lab for holding,” he told the other guards.

They immediately stepped forward.

Montgomery stiffened. “The lab?” He gave a rough laugh. “Throw my ass out of here. Fire me, whatever. But I’m not going to the damn lab—”

“Yes, you are.” Richard nodded to the guards.

They grabbed Montgomery’s arms. He tried to struggle against them. How annoying.

Richard put the gun on the desk and picked up a syringe. While Montgomery snarled and fought, Richard walked right up to him and plunged the needle into the man’s throat.

Montgomery’s eyes rolled back into his head. The guards dragged him toward the door.

The man would make a good addition to the new super-soldier program. His body was the right size. He was in top shape. He might be able to survive the transformation.

And if he didn’t …

No death is a waste.

Richard reached for the intercom. “Unit Twelve, report to the east side of the mountain.” The side just beyond the rocks. When Cain broke free, that was where he’d be.

And maybe, just maybe Richard would get lucky. Maybe the phoenix would manage to drag Eve from the rubble.

Life and death … both always had a purpose.