Once Bitten, Twice Burned

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Sabine nervously shifted from her left foot to her right. The house before her was just as she remembered. Tall, brick, with a long wraparound porch. Big bay windows.

Withering azaleas in the front yard. No matter how hard her mom tried, those azaleas never did live long enough.

The house was dark. Figured, since it had to be close to 3 A.M. Her heart ached at the sight of the house. She’d grown up there. Broken her arm at the house just across the street when she’d tried to climb that big, damn oak tree.

I wanted to be like Rhett. He’d climbed that tree, zipped up it in about two seconds. She’d wanted to do just what her brother could do. He’d been her hero then.

I’ll find you, Rhett. I’ll stop this nightmare. Somehow.

But first she had to get her parents to safety.

Sabine glanced over her shoulder. Darkness stared back at her. Easing out a careful breath, she looked to her side and asked Ryder, “What if we were followed?”

“Their address is in the phone book. Anyone coming after you already knows where they live. They wouldn’t have to follow us. They could just come up and kill them anytime.”

She flinched. Leave it to Ryder not to bother sugarcoating things for her. She wasn’t even sure if the guy understood the concept of sugarcoating.

Her gaze returned to the house and its dark windows. Be alive. The house was so quiet. She should have come here sooner.

She’d just been afraid to face her parents.

She couldn’t afford fear any longer. Sabine hurried up to the front door. She didn’t bother knocking. The spare key was hidden under the loose brick near the bottom of the front door. She pulled the brick out and grabbed the key. In seconds, the front door was swinging open, and the alarm was beeping. But she punched in the alarm code digits as quickly as she could and—

The lights flooded on. Sabine spun around and saw the long barrel of a shotgun staring back at her.

“Sabine?”

It was her dad. His hair stuck out in a dozen different angles. His old LSU shirt hung faded and loose around him. He blinked, as if stunned to see her. Then he lowered the gun and grabbed her in a hug that stole her breath. He and Rhett had always hugged her too hard.

“I missed you, Dad,” she whispered, holding him just as tightly.

His body shook against hers. “I knew you’d come back home.” So confident, but the words quivered.

Then he pulled back a few inches to stare down at her. His gaze swept over her face, not seeming to miss any detail. She studied him in turn, noticing the new gray in his hair and the lines that appeared deeper on his face.

After a moment, her father glanced over at Ryder. She caught the faint narrowing his eyes. “Vampire, huh?”

The cool response was the last thing she’d expected. “How can you tell?”

“Because I used to be a hunter, of sorts.” He pulled Sabine to his left side. His head cocked as he continued to study Ryder. “Your man there probably doesn’t remember me, but I even went after him once.”

Shock held her immobile. Her father? A hunter?

Ryder stood in front of the closed door. He shrugged as his gaze swept over her father. “I . . . remember your face.” He paused. “You should be grateful that I let you live.”

Ryder knew her father? That was just weird.

Her father lifted the shotgun. Aimed the barrel at Ryder. “And maybe you should be grateful that I let you live.” A hard pause, then, “Now you tell me, was that a mistake, vampire?”

Ryder smiled, showing his sharp fangs. “All along, you knew what she was.”

The ticking of the clock in the den seemed too loud. Sabine’s hand tightened around her dad’s arm. “Where’s Mom?”

“Somewhere safe.” A fast response. Again, not what she’d expected.

Sabine studied her father with new eyes. He’d hunted vampires. Hunted Ryder. But he’d never once mentioned anything about supernaturals to her while she was growing up. Heck, when the vamps had started making headlines, he’d acted as shocked as the rest of their neighbors.

He was an ex-EMT turned college professor. He spent his days digging up archaeology sites and . . .

Digging up vampires?

“Why didn’t you tell her the truth?” Ryder asked, his voice flat and hard. “Why did you let her think she was just like everyone else?”

“My girl is just like everyone else.” Now her dad sounded pissed.

“Rhett thought I was dead.” The words were pushed past her numb lips. “You . . . didn’t, though, did you, Dad?” This wasn’t exactly the homecoming she’d anticipated. She’d thought he’d be shocked, horrified.

Her gaze darted to the mantle. Thick, wooden spears hung over the fireplace. Souvenirs—so she’d always thought—from one of her father’s trips to Africa.

“Yes, love,” Ryder said softly, his gaze following hers, “those have been used to stake vamps.”

She felt as if she were seeing her father—seeing him clearly—for the first time in her life.

“Sometimes, the only good vamp is a vamp with a stake in his heart,” her father muttered, “and, just so you know, I’ve got wooden bullets in this gun.”

Her breath rushed out as she left his side. Sabine took a few stumbling steps forward, and then she turned and placed her body right in front of the shotgun.

“Sabine.” Ryder snarled. He grabbed her arms.

“Don’t you hurt—” her father began.

“Those bullets can kill me, too,” Sabine said, cutting across his words. Her father. She’d thought she knew him so well. But now her gaze darted around the house. What she’d thought were travel mementoes, were they all weapons? Tribal bags from South America and faded silver spears from Guatemala.

How could she be so blind?

“Nothing can kill you, Sabe,” her father said, shaking his head. “Don’t you worry.”

He knew. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Were you waiting to tell me until the first time I died? When I burned for the first time, were you going to tell me then?”

He slowly lowered the gun. Ryder didn’t wait for the gun barrel to face the floor. He grabbed the gun from her father’s hands and threw the weapon across the room.

Her father blinked his eyes, eyes an exact match to Rhett’s deep stare. “I never wanted you to burn.”

“Too late.” Her stark whisper. “Because Genesis made me burn, over and over again.”

He paled and seemed to age ten years before her eyes. He jerked a shaking hand through his hair. “N-no. They were . . . supposed to help you.”

A scream echoed in her mind. Her scream. The cry she’d made each time they’d killed her.

Her eyes couldn’t look away from her father.

You did this to me.

The truth was right there on his face.

She’d never expected this betrayal. Not from him. He was her dad. Her hero. The man who had protected her all her life.

He was the man who gave me to them.

“Go outside, Sabine,” Ryder said, his voice a lethal rumble of sound.

Her father shook his head. “Let me explain . . .”

“You didn’t tell Mom what you’d done.” She had a heart attack. No, her mother hadn’t known. If she’d known, she wouldn’t have been so shaken that she wound up in the hospital. “You didn’t tell Rhett.” He wouldn’t have been so frantic to find her.

“I wanted to help you!”

Ryder was in front of her, blocking her view of her father. He stared down at her, his face implacable. “Go onto the porch. Wait for me there.”

Her heart was breaking. “Why?” The question was stark. “So you can kill my father?”

“Yes.” No lies. No denial.

“Sabine!” Her father’s desperate cry. She’d never heard him sound desperate before. Happy. Loving. Even angry a time or ten when she and Rhett pushed him too far. But never desperate. Until now.

She didn’t look at him. Just stared up at Ryder. She’d trusted her father, always. “But . . . he’s my father.” The words she left unspoken were . . . He wouldn’t do this to me. There’s a mistake. My father wouldn’t have let them hurt me. He protects me. Keeps me safe. Always.

That was a father’s job, right?

Not to . . . not to let his daughter get killed. Tortured. Over and over again.

“Sometimes your family members are the ones you need to fear the most.” There was a whisper of something dark in Ryder’s voice. A stir of memory in his eyes. But, right then, Sabine couldn’t see well enough past her own pain to unlock his secrets.

He gave her a little push. “Outside.”

“I can’t . . .” She couldn’t let her father die. Wouldn’t kill him. Even if. . . Sabine rushed around Ryder and grabbed her father’s arms. She shook him and was aware that his bones felt so fragile to her, brittle. “Why? Why did you do this to me?”

There were tears in his eyes. His hands twisted and grabbed onto hers. “Genesis . . . they were supposed to help people like you.”

People like you. “They hurt me, Dad. They killed me.”

His eyes seemed to sink into his face. “I saw the stories on the news. Until then I-I didn’t know—”

“You’re the one who told them where to find me.” He’d sent the men who came for her in the night. The men who’d drugged her. Kidnapped her. Tossed her in a cell with a starving vampire and watched as she screamed.

That vampire was right behind her now. She could feel his fury. He wanted to rip out her father’s throat.

Part of her wanted the same thing.

“You sent me to die,” she told him.

But her father shook his head, his desperation plain to see. “I sent you to live. I knew what was—I knew what you were, yes, dammit, I knew. And I knew you couldn’t stay that way. The fire would take you over. Drive you insane until all you wanted to do was kill and burn. But Genesis, I-I thought they could help you, baby! That was all I wanted—for someone to help you.”

“No one can help me,” she said, voice breaking. “They never could.”

Her shoulders hunched. The home she’d loved for so long suddenly felt foreign to her. “I was . . . I was coming to tell you that you needed to leave town. The people at Genesis . . . not all of them are gone. I was told”—she stopped to lick lips gone bone-dry—“I was told that Rhett might be targeted for death.”

Her father’s jaw had gone slack with shock. “But Rhett’s human . . .”

And you’re not.

The words hung in the air. They didn’t need to be spoken.

“Genesis never cared about collateral damage,” Ryder said, voice rumbling.

No, they hadn’t. “I was supposed to do a job for them. I didn’t.” She’d let Wyatt die. She hoped he was in hell. “So they sent someone to kill Rhett.”

Her father staggered back a step. “I-I didn’t know, I swear! One of my old army buddies, he worked for them. He said they were going to make the world better. I just wanted you to be normal. To be like everyone else.”

“The funny thing, Dad, is that I thought I was normal.” Until he’d served her up to those sadistic bastards. “If you hadn’t told them about me, then Genesis would have never come for me. I wouldn’t have burned . . . if it hadn’t been for you.” And she didn’t even want to look at him. She couldn’t look him in the eyes. It hurt too much. You’re not the man I thought you were. Her gaze darted to Ryder. “Rhett’s missing. I’m going to find him.”

“We are,” Ryder immediately corrected her.

If Ryder hadn’t been there, she might have let the tears fall. She might have just broken. Pain twisted inside her, cutting like a knife. But Ryder was there. His fingers curled around hers. He was steady and solid and strong.

She stared into his eyes. Remembered the hell they’d faced. Remembered the hell they’d survived. Together.

Genesis hadn’t broken her.

Genesis hadn’t broken him.

They’d fought, together, and they’d keep fighting that way.

So she didn’t break. She pulled in several deep, frantic breaths. Ryder’s hold tightened on her.

In a world turned upside down, she found herself relying on the monster that most would fear.

He’s not a monster.

Sabine realized that she didn’t think of Ryder that way, not anymore.

He was her lover. He was her partner.

He was . . . more?

“I-I talked to Rhett this evening.” Her father’s voice was lost. “He was f-fine then.”

“You talked to him before a fire tore through The Rift, and before someone hijacked the ambulance he was in and shot one of the EMTs.” Her own voice sounded so calm. Odd, when she felt anything but calm. Turning away, she told him, “Get out of town. Go to wherever it is that you’ve got Mom stashed. Stay until all of this is over.”

Mom. Thinking about her mother just hurt too much then.

Sabine forced herself to take slow, determined steps toward the front door. Ryder shadowed her every move.

She wanted out of the house. But a hand on her shoulder froze her.

“You were two when I found you,” her father said, his hand trembling against her shoulder. “You were floating face down in the river.”

Sabine River. Yes, she knew where she’d been found.

“You should have been dead. I rolled you over . . .” He turned her to face him. “And I saw fire burning in your eyes. A baby . . . with burning eyes.”

She didn’t want to hear any more from him.

“I loved you like you were my own. You are my own.”

A child he’d sold to the devil. “How much did they pay you?” Sabine asked because she knew he’d gotten something from the deal.

“Nothing.”

Her life had been worth nothing?

“I wanted them to fix you, baby. I saw the fire again and again over the years—it would flare in your eyes whenever you got real angry, and I was so afraid of what would happen the moment you lost your control. I’d heard stories of others like you. Supernaturals that were too dangerous to be around humans. Evil. I didn’t want you to turn out like them. I wanted to help you.” His voice broke.

So did her heart.

“Get out of town,” she told him, the last time she’d give her father the warning. “And tell Mom . . .” She had to clear her throat. Had to choke back the lump of pain and fury that had risen. “Tell her anything but the truth.” Because she didn’t want to hurt her mother.

“I-I can’t leave Rhett—”

“Leave on your own,” Ryder told him, his tone lethal, “or I’ll have my vamps drain you and drag your limp body out of this town.”

She knew the words weren’t an idle threat. Her father knew it, too. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that the knowledge blazed in his eyes.

Eyes that still watched her with a sad desperation.

“Good-bye, Dad,” she whispered as she walked across the porch and into the yard. Sabine expected Ryder to follow right on her heels.

But he didn’t follow.

“Tell me the name of that old army buddy,” Ryder’s tight demand.

“N-no.”

A thud. Sounded like a fist hitting a wall. Her eyes squeezed shut as her shoulders stiffened. “Don’t hurt him, Ryder. He’s . . . he’s still my father.” The tears fell then, because she couldn’t hold them back any longer. She could even taste the salt of the tears on her lips. “And I still love him.” Maybe he had thought to help her. Maybe he’d thought . . .

It doesn’t matter. I still love him. I love the man who played hide-and-seek with me. I love the man who read Sleeping Beauty to me again and again and again. I love him.

She glanced back.

Her father stood inside the house, with Ryder at his side. “I’m so sorry, baby,” her father whispered.

She inclined her head. “I-I know.” And one day, when this nightmare was over, she’d go back to him. When the pain wasn’t so strong.

Tears fell from his eyes, too.

Ryder put his hand on her father’s arm. “I want the man’s name. He lied to you. He sent your daughter to hell. Give me his name, and give her the justice she deserves.”

Her father’s breath rasped out. “K-Keith Adams.”

Uncle Keith? Vaughn’s father?

Then Ryder was heading toward her.

Her gaze strayed—once more—to her father’s face. “I love you, Sabine,” he told her. “I always have, and I always will.”

She couldn’t stop her tears. “I love you.” Despite it all, she did.

“Lucky bastard,” Ryder snarled. “If she didn’t care for you, you’d be minus a head right now.” He pointed at her father. “Get out of town. Keep her mother safe.”

Ryder stopped in front of her. Gently, carefully, he brushed away her tears. “Don’t.” His voice was gruff. “It hurts me when you cry.”

Why would her tears hurt him?

He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I told you before . . . Don’t ever fucking cry for anyone.”

She didn’t know how to stop the tears.

She heard the door shut behind them. The sound was so loud. That part of my life will never be the same.

Ryder pulled her against his chest and held her. Strong. Steady.

Slowly, she took deeper breaths. The pain in her chest eased.

Ryder kissed her lips. Such a light, gentle kiss. “The next person who makes you cry”—his words were a rumble—“I’m killing him. Family or not.”

Her fierce vampire. She was coming to know him so well. Well enough to say, “You wouldn’t hurt my family.” Because he wouldn’t want to hurt her.

His gaze searched hers. “We have to leave here, Sabine.”

Yes. She glanced at the house. She’d been happy there.

Her father was peeking out the window.

It isn’t over, Dad. The love she felt wouldn’t let it be.

But she loved Rhett, too, and he needed her. “I think we know our next stop now.” Because Vaughn had been with her brother when Rhett vanished.

Another betrayal.

“Vaughn’s place isn’t far away,” she whispered. It was a familiar location to her.

Why was the familiar suddenly so painful to face? Because the familiar hides so many secrets and lies.

She’d been foolish to think that home was a safe place.

They were being followed.

Ryder had felt the eyes on them, had heard the rustle of footsteps, ever since they’d left the home of Sabine’s parents. He’d figured it was better for their prey to follow them. At least, that way, her bastard of a father would have time to drag his sorry ass out of town.

He kept his body close to her as they walked. He wasn’t sure if it was his enemies stalking them, hers, or who-the-hell-knew else.

They had a tail. Soon enough, they’d get the bastard to show himself.

They were in front of a small house on the edge of the French Quarter. Time had faded the house, roughened its edges. The place was pretty secluded. Good. That way no one would hear the humans’ screams.

Ryder was in the mood to make someone scream.

Sabine is hurting. That fact pissed him off.

She was standing in the shadows and gazing up at the house. Lights glowed from inside the windows. Looked like Keith Adams was waiting up for them.

A trap. Obviously.

“Who’s watching us?” Sabine asked. “Is it Dante?”

Ah, so she’d noticed, too. Good. Her vamp hunting instincts were definitely starting to kick in. “If it were Dante, we’d have a circle of fire around us by now.” The phoenix wasn’t exactly subtle.

“Then who?”

He smiled at her. “Let’s find out, love.” He pulled her close. Pressed a quick kiss to her lips. He wanted to take and taste more, but he only allowed himself that little sample of her. “Do me a favor,” he said, voice rasping. “Wait one minute, then scream for me.”

Her brow furrowed. “What?”

“Scream. Loud. As loudly as you can.” He had no doubt that Sabine could be very loud.

Then he slipped away. Finding a perfect vantage point to watch his prey was easy. Vampires weren’t just fast.

He leapt into the air and easily landed on the side of the roof.

They could do things that humans thought were impossible.

He crouched on his perch. Watched. Waited.

Sabine screamed. The woman had some pretty fantastic lungs.

He saw a shadow jerk away from the darkness on the left side of the property. The shadow stumbled forward, racing toward Sabine and her scream.

Do you think she’s weak now? Afraid? That it’s your perfect time to attack?

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.