Once Bitten, Twice Burned

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“Never,” Ryder barked, his response instant. Now he was the one to grab her and hold on tight.

“If I change, if I’m like them—” She shuddered. “It just takes one bite to get infected by them, doesn’t it? Just one. He bit me, so that means that I’m going to become primal.”

“You’re not changing. You’re already a vampire.” Mostly. “You can’t change.” He sure as hell hoped not.

But fear was whispering through him. Sabine wasn’t like him, not like the others. With her, what if—

No. It had taken three exchanges just for her to become a vampire in the first place, and he was still seeing signs that her phoenix side wasn’t gone.

“If I do change, then promise me that you won’t let me—”

He pressed his lips to hers. Kissed her hard and deep. Drank the gasp from her mouth. Gave her his breath. I’d give her my life. “I promise that I’ll always protect you.” That was all she’d get from him.

And he’d protect her any way that he could. Every way.

Glass crunched. The scent of gasoline hit him.

Keeping a steady hold on Sabine, Ryder turned his head and saw that Grayson was back. And carrying gasoline containers in both hands.

“Since we don’t keep a lot of alcohol here, I planned ahead,” Grayson said, lifting the containers. “Don’t want to leave any messes behind.” He started pouring the gasoline on the bodies. On the walls. Everywhere.

Sabine shuddered. “More fire.”

When you needed to wipe away the scene of a mass attack, yeah, fire could do the trick.

“Go,” Grayson said, jerking up his chin. “I got this.”

Ryder hesitated. Grayson had always been there for him. Steadfast. True. But he had to ask, “Do you wish I’d left you on that field?”

Grayson hesitated. “Some days.”

Because Grayson never pulled his punches, Ryder felt that hit right to his gut.

“But most days, I’m glad to be alive. Glad to see the sky, glad to screw pretty women, glad to do all the damn things that I want.” Grayson bared his fangs. “Julia made her choice. We all make our choices. And I choose to keep living.”

Ryder’s breath eased out as some of the tension left his shoulders.

“Now get your lady out of here.” There was concern in Grayson’s gaze as his eyes dropped to Sabine’s throat. “Take care of her.”

He thought . . . Grayson thought that she was going to change.

The hell she was.

Ryder laced his fingers with hers. Led her away from the blood- and gasoline-soaked scene.

Before he left the bar, he glanced back, just once, to see the clock.

Two hours before midnight.

Two hours . . .

“Sabine just ignited Bran’s Castle,” Keith said as he shoved his cell phone back into his pocket. “The place is burning, with flames reaching up to the sky.” Now why the hell had she burned her lover’s place?

Cassandra frowned. “You’re sure she was behind the attack?”

“You know another phoenix in the city?” Keith demanded. It wasn’t like their kind was heavy on the ground. “The flames are burning, it’s a vamp bar, hell, just connect the dots.”

“Do you think she killed Ryder?”

If she had, their plans were about to be screwed. “The local cops aren’t even at the scene yet. There’s no way to tell if anyone was inside when the blaze started.” The tip he’d just received from one of his watchers had been fast and frightened.

The guy had been hauling ass away from the fire, not trying to get close and see if any victims were burning.

Keith looked at his watch. “She’ll come.” She had to come. Sabine was his key.

“And if she doesn’t?” Cassandra asked. There was sympathy in her green eyes. “Then you’ll need to prepare yourself for what must be done.”

Killing his own son?

No, he wasn’t prepared to take that step. Not yet.

Sabine’s father had been ready to do anything to “cure” his little girl. Keith was ready and willing to do the same thing.

Anything.

She wanted him.

Sabine was afraid and furious and ripping apart on the inside.

Don’t want to change. Don’t want to change.

Her neck had finally stopped throbbing, but she felt like a ticking time bomb was inside her, just waiting to explode and destroy her. She didn’t want to change. Didn’t want to become one of the primals.

They didn’t seem to have any emotions. Only basic needs.

The need to kill.

Ryder was running with her. They were rushing down an alley. Dark. Away from the scent of fire.

Away, away, away . . .

“Stop!” Sabine cried.

Ryder whirled to face her just as the dark clouds over them erupted. Rain fell down on them, beating hard, pounding in a fury.

Maybe the rain would stop the fire at the bar. Maybe the rain would wash away all the pain swirling inside of her.

The rain fell and the blood washed from her hands. Now for the pain, please.

Her hair clung to her neck. She lifted her fingers and wrapped them around his shoulders. “I want you.”

Ryder blinked. Desire flared instantly in his eyes, but he shook his head. “Sabine, you need to be safe, you need—”

To feel alive. The way he’d always made her feel, even as he brought her death.

She stepped toward him. The rain kept hailing down on them. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Angry. Threatening.

Kind of the way she felt.

All she’d known before Genesis . . . that life was gone.

All she had left . . . the way I feel for him.

Sabine kissed him. She tasted the rain on his lips. The richer flavor that was his alone.

He went still beneath her touch.

“I don’t have a lot of control right now,” Ryder whispered.

She let a smile lift her lips, even though she knew the smile wouldn’t be reflected in her eyes. “Good. Because I don’t want control.” She didn’t want a safe lover.

She wanted him.

The most dangerous man she’d ever met.

The only man who made her feel safe.

Maybe she was screwed up. Maybe she was broken inside because of everything that had happened to her at Genesis.

She didn’t care.

Sabine kissed him again. This time, he broke.

His arms locked around her. His tongue thrust into her mouth. Her hands pushed between them. Desire was desperate, a greedy bitch swamping her. Sabine wanted to touch him. Needed to feel his cock push deep, so deep inside of her.

But Ryder grabbed her hands. Two steps, and he had her against the brick wall. He locked her wrists above her head, pinning them there with his right hand.

His mouth kept kissing hers.

She could hear voices. Laughter. The crowd was close. She didn’t care.

Someone could walk into the alleyway. Someone could see her and Ryder.

I don’t care.

His left hand had opened her jeans. Pushed between her legs. She hadn’t put on underwear. No, Ryder had grabbed it and tossed it somewhere before they’d left the cabin.

So his fingers touched her sex.

“Wet.”

And she knew he wasn’t talking about the rain that kept falling.

The rain was making the humans scatter. That was where the voices and laughter were coming from. The humans were running in the rain.

She and Ryder . . . they weren’t running.

Two of his fingers pushed into her.

She rose onto her toes. Tried to yank her hands down so she could touch him, but Ryder wasn’t letting her go.

His fingers thrust into her, again and again, as his thumb worked over her clit. She twisted her hips in an attempt to demand more of his touch.

He gave her more.

His mouth stayed on hers, his kisses deep and drugging as the rain fell, and his fingers kept stroking her. Light and easy then deep, demanding. Pushing and taking until her sex was clamping eagerly around him and then—

She came.

A release that shook her body and had her hips thrusting hard against his hand. A release that sent pleasure spilling through her and driving deep the realization that—

I’m alive. I can feel. I can want. I can need.

I can love.

He still had her hands pinned. His fingers stroked her, softly now, as the aftershocks of pleasure hit her.

His jaw was locked. His eyes blazing. His control was still there, hanging by a thread.

He’d held on to that control, for her. But she didn’t want that control. She wanted all of him.

His fingers slid out of her. Gave her one last caress. He started to lift her jeans back into place.

“No.”

Now she did pull her hands from his hold. Because he let her. “Ryder, I want you.”

“I’m . . . trying to be stronger.”

She put her hands on his chest. “You don’t always have to be strong with me.” Her whisper. “With me, you can break.”

He wanted to. She could see the struggle on his face.

So she made it easier on him.

She spun around. Slapped her hands against the wall and kicked away her jeans. Sabine lifted her hips, arching so that her ass—

Ryder growled. Then his body was surrounding her. Cradling her. Covering her. If anyone saw them now . . .

I don’t care.

He adjusted his clothes. Parted her sex and pushed deep into her.

The pleasure hadn’t stopped. When he thrust into her, when he drove deep, the sensations nearly ripped her apart.

Too much.

So good.

So . . . Ryder.

Her next release contracted around him, tightening around his cock. He thrust. Withdrew. Thrust.

The rhythm was frantic. Desperate.

Then he was stiffening behind her. Holding her even tighter. Coming.

In the rain.

In the alley.

With her.

His body shuddered. His arms curled around her and hugged her. And he pressed a kiss to her neck. Not a bite. A kiss. Right over the wound that was finally healing.

In silence, he withdrew from her. Ryder straightened her clothes, his. His hands steadied her when her knees wanted to tremble.

Then he turned her around and stared into her eyes.

They were soaked through.

And she was so sated she just wanted to sink into his arms.

“When you come for me, your eyes burn.”

Sabine blinked. That wasn’t what she’d expected to hear.

“When you touched the primal who attacked you, smoke rose from your fingers. His chest . . . it burned.”

She didn’t remember that. She’d just been afraid. Desperate.

“When I kiss you, I can almost taste the fire.”

Was that good? Bad?

“You’re so much more than I ever expected.”

So was he.

He put his forehead against hers. Held her tighter. “If I could go back, I’d change it all.”

“There isn’t any going back.” She didn’t even want to look back. Why see the scars? “I just want to go forward.” She drew in a breath. “I’m ready to leave this town. Let’s forget about Keith. He doesn’t have my brother. He doesn’t have anything that I need.”

“He’ll hunt us.” Ryder shook his head. Raindrops slid off him. “I don’t want you always looking over your shoulder. I can finish this mess. If he’s the last tie connecting you to Genesis, then we sever the tie and make you free.”

Her laughter was weak. “There’s always another tie and another . . .” She just wanted to start new. To do that looking-forward bit, with him. “I want . . .”

You.

They’d never talked emotions. Just lust and need and power.

But it was more than just lust. What she felt for him was so much more.

A sudden ache stabbed at her, as if a knife had just been plunged into her stomach, and twisted. She sucked in a sharp breath and her nails sank into Ryder’s arms.

Her nails . . . her nails were turning black.

He bit me. The primal . . .

“Sabine?”

She pushed at Ryder. “It’s . . . happening.” The virus—whatever the hell it was—it was in her. She could feel it. Twisting. Cutting. She ran her tongue over her teeth. They felt normal, but her nails . . .

She held up her hands. “It’s happening,” she said again.

His face blanched. “No, no, it’s fucking not.”

Her gaze met his. She was so glad she’d taken the pleasure with him. So glad that they’d stopped in the rain.

The rain . . .

It was just a sprinkle now.

“You promised you’d help me,” Sabine reminded him. She fumbled, adjusting her clothes.

He had to help her.

But his face had locked into tortured lines. “I’m not killing you.”

The knife was stabbing her again. “It . . . hurts, Ryder.”

He shook her. “We can stop it.” He laced his fingers with hers. “Come on. Genesis made them. We can fix them. Hell, Wyatt said that you were the key—”

She wanted to tell Ryder that she felt more than lust for him.

But she couldn’t seem to speak. The stabbing was gone, but she felt as if she were burning up from the inside. Burning .

A moan slipped from her.

Ryder lifted her into his arms. “Hold on, love.” He started running then, moving so fast. “Please, hold on.”

Her vampire.

The fire built within her. Burning more. Hotter. Her hands curled around his neck. If she changed, he wouldn’t kill her. Sabine knew that.

Because she also knew, though he’d never said the words . . .

He loves me.

Which was only fair, since Sabine was sure that she loved her dark vampire.

Loved him and was very, very afraid that she might soon turn on him.

The others had no control. They killed.

Her black nails dug into his skin. Her teeth began to ache.

I don’t want to hurt him.

But when she turned fully primal, her control might not last.

It wasn’t midnight. Not even eleven o’clock yet. Ryder didn’t give a fuck. He kicked down the door at 49 Chartres, and when the humans turned toward him, he bellowed, “Adams! Keith Adams!”

Keith came running, his eyes wide. As soon as he got a good look at Ryder, and the woman lying so still in his arms, Keith stumbled to a halt. “Sabine?”

Ryder’s hold on her tightened. “One of the primals bit her. I thought . . . I thought the bite wouldn’t change her.”

“But it is.” A woman’s voice.

Keith backed up.

Ryder saw the woman walking toward him. Her hair hung in a long braid. Her eyes—green, focused—were on Sabine. “The virus is pushing through her body now.”

Clinical. “You’re the doctor Keith mentioned.”

She nodded. “My name’s Cassie, and I’m here to help you.”

He stalked toward her. “Don’t help me. Help her.”

Cassie’s stare drifted over Sabine. Worry flashed on her face. “Bring her to the next room. There’s a table in there that we can use.”

Ryder followed her, hurrying inside the small room. Keith shoved some papers off the table, and carefully, Ryder put Sabine on the table. He took her hand. Wanted to roar when he saw the dark nails.

The woman—Cassie—reached into a black bag.

Ryder swiped out with his left hand and caught her fingers. “She’s been sliced open enough.”

He saw the pulse jump in her throat. “Please, I-I’m not like Wyatt and the others at Genesis.”

But he didn’t believe her. There were secrets in her eyes. Lies.

“I just . . . I need to check her blood. Get it under a microscope.” She had a needle in her hand. “I need to see what’s happening on a deeper level.”

Sabine moaned. “Burning . . .”

Cassie frowned down at her. “How long ago was she bitten?”

“Thirty minutes.” He rubbed his fingers over her knuckles. Her nails. Shit, they were . . .

Not as dark.

His breath stilled in his lungs.

Cassie leaned over Sabine and looked into her mouth. “Her teeth aren’t changing.”

No.

He lifted her hand. He could see the pink in her nails now.

He could actually breathe again. Whatever was happening in Sabine’s body, she was fighting off the attack.

Hell, yes, she was fighting.

Cassie tried to push the needle into Sabine’s arm. Ryder grabbed the syringe. Tossed it. “She’s fine.”

He’d been frantic moments before. Ready to trade and barter and demand, but her claws were turning back into regular nails. The stark paleness of her skin had faded back to a normal hue. Her lashes opened.

She was back.

“Ryder?”

His Sabine. So strong, when she didn’t even realize it.

“Get away from us,” he snapped to the woman and Keith. He didn’t need them. He should have stayed away, for a little longer. But the panic had made him crazy.

Didn’t matter.

She was back.

Sabine sat up. Ryder pulled her into his arms. Held her close.

“Amazing,” Cassie whispered. “Her body fought off the infection at such a rapid rate.”

“How!” The desperate cry came from Keith Adams.

Ryder lifted his head. Stared at the red-faced man.

“How’d she do it?” Keith asked, his voice lower. “How?”

“Her genetics are no doubt very different from a human’s,” Cassie said as she tilted her head and swept an assessing gaze over Sabine. “We already knew the primals were after her blood, but maybe . . . maybe it wasn’t for the reason Wyatt thought. Not because they were linked to Ryder, but because . . .” Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe they realized she was the key they needed. Their cure.”

Ryder pulled Sabine from the table. Pushed her behind him. “You’re both going to want to get the hell out of my way now.”

Cassie shook her head. “Maybe it was something in her scent, some kind of trigger that their enhanced senses picked up on. They had an instinctive response, not even knowing why . . . but perhaps it was because they were ill. She was their cure—”

Ryder didn’t give a fuck as to the whys of the situation. “I warned you,” Ryder growled. Then he shoved Keith out of his way.

Cassie yelped and hurriedly jumped back. Good. Time to get the hell out of there.

“We have your brother!” Keith yelled at him.

Ryder hesitated. His gaze swung back to meet the human’s. Keith was rising off the floor. No guards were in the room. Just Keith and the doctor.

Easy prey.

Ryder smiled. “My brother is dead. I sent him to hell a long time ago.” The first time I bit him. When I destroyed the man he’d been.

“You think so?” Keith challenged. He was back on his feet now. Looking too desperate. Desperate men were often the most dangerous. “Then why don’t you just check behind that door?” He waved to the right. To a wooden door that had been painted white. “Because Genesis found him. They found him, buried in Russia. The guy was nearly decapitated and had a stake shoved in his chest. Only he wasn’t bones in that grave. Wasn’t a rotted corpse. When they took that stake out, when those Genesis fools there gave him blood, he came back.”

Impossible.

“Ryder?” Sabine’s shocked voice.

“They wouldn’t have even known where to look for him,” Ryder said. He wouldn’t fall for this BS.

“They had dozens of vampires imprisoned in their facilities. Vampires that they tortured for weeks. Years. With enough pain, don’t you think those vampires would have shared the information they had? Told anything? Everything?” Keith’s voice rushed out. “One of them . . . some guy named Lawrence . . . he knew.”

Lawrence. The name was familiar. Ryder had a flash of a vampire. Thin, small. With shaking hands. Hands that had helped to kill Malcolm so long ago.

“You didn’t finish the job on your brother,” Keith told him. “Or hell, maybe he’s too powerful to ever die, just like you. Too powerful . . .” Keith lifted his chin and straightened his shoulders. “At Genesis, they injected him, gave him their fucking tainted blood, and he became just like the others. Primal.”

Ryder shook his head. Impossible. He wasn’t gonna believe this story. “If my brother were alive, he—”

“You were the first!” Now it was Cassie who spoke. “But when you gave your blood to others, you started diluting its power. Every exchange, every vampire created after that was weaker.”

And that was why Wyatt had tried to give Ryder’s blood to the primals in his lab? Because the doctor had thought the pure blood could heal them?

It’s not blood that . . . was the cure. It’s Sabine. Her tears. A phoenix’s tears . . . found out . . . really heal . . . Some of Wyatt’s last words seemed to echo in Ryder’s mind.

His gaze darted to the door. If his brother was in there . . .

“Go look,” Keith yelled. “Look!”

He could hear sounds behind the door. Desperate breathing. Scratching. As if someone were clawing against wood.

“How would you have him?” Sabine demanded. She was at Ryder’s side now. Not looking so weak. Looking strong and beautiful. “If this story is even true, how would he be here, with you?”

“I was smuggling subjects out of Genesis,” Cassie confessed quietly. “Trying to help. I was going to get you out, too, but Genesis burned before I could help you.”

She sounded so sincere. But no one had been there to help him. Or to save Sabine. “Lies,” he rasped.

“Well, there’s one way to know for sure,” Sabine said and she stalked toward the white door.

But before she could rip open the door, Ryder jumped in front of her. If his brother was in that room, no way would he let her go in first. He grabbed her hand, curling his fingers around hers, around the doorknob. His gaze met Sabine’s, and he knew she’d see his fury. “My brother was a butcher.” His head tilted toward Cassie. “Do you even have any idea what he did before I put him in the ground?” My brother . . . alive?

“He isn’t the same man now,” she whispered, looking tearful. “I started . . . I figured out the cure, using teardrops that were recovered from Subject Twenty-Nine—I mean, from Sabine. I used those drops to begin treatment to eliminate the primal virus from his system. Your brother has changed. He’s—”

“Open the door,” Sabine whispered, her soft words cutting right across the doctor’s words.

But Ryder pushed her back. He made sure his body was shielding hers, and only then did he open the door. With a squeak, the knob turned beneath his hand and the wooden door opened.

The inner room was big, much bigger than the other room. Inside, there were lab tables. Test tubes. Cages.

Been there. Fucking done that.

In one of those cages, he saw the hunched form of a man. The man’s body was in the shadows. Ryder began walking toward him. There . . . that was where the scratching sound was coming from. He could see the man’s long, dark claws scratching at the floor near his feet.

“I know what he was like before, but he’s different.” Cassie followed close behind Ryder. “Since I started his treatment, there’s been no aggression. I think the original vampirism virus created a serotonin deficiency in him that—”

Malcolm wasn’t in the cage. As he watched, the man in the cage surged toward the bars and gave Ryder a clear view of his face.

“Vaughn?” Sabine whispered. “He’s . . . dead.”

“There’s a lot of that going around,” another voice said.

A voice that came from the right. The man standing there had made no sound at all, hadn’t even breathed, so Ryder hadn’t picked up on his presence as he stood cloaked in the shadows.

But that voice had haunted Ryder for so long. He turned his head even as his hand reached out and curled around Sabine’s arm.

And his eyes met a gaze the exact shade as his own. A gaze that had last looked upon him with fury and hatred.

“Hello, my brother,” Malcolm said quietly. “It’s been a long time.”

Screams and blood and agony. Women and children slaughtered. Cries that wouldn’t end. So many broken bodies. “Not long enough,” Ryder responded as battle-ready tension pumped through him. He’d defeated Malcolm once, and he’d do it again.

“You see?” Cassie was there again. Rushing in front of Malcolm. Gesturing excitedly with her hands. “He’s cured! His fangs have returned to normal. His claws—normal. He has his control back. There haven’t been any attacks from him, any—”

“Did you hear that?” Malcolm asked with a smile. One that showed his sharp canines. “I’m normal.”

Easy words. Flat. But . . .

“Sabine, go back into the other room,” Ryder ordered.

Cassie blinked. Some of the excitement left her face. “But we need Sabine’s assistance. It’s her tears, they’re the key. A phoenix’s tears can heal anything, anyone.”

So he’d heard.

Cassie glanced toward Sabine. “The tears have to be shed willingly. They can’t just be harvested from the tear ducts. That’s why it’s so hard to get them.”

Wasn’t that just a damn inconvenience for her?

Cassie shifted nervously. “If we can just get a few more then we can help so many others.”

“I-I haven’t cried since Ryder changed me,” Sabine said, shaking her head.

“Changed you?” Now Keith had come into the room.

“Ryder’s blood . . .” Sabine swallowed. Ryder saw her gaze dart to Vaughn. The primal was yanking at the bars of his cage. Snapping his teeth. “I’m a vampire now, not a phoenix. I can’t help Vaughn.”

Cassie’s eyes widened, and then she glanced over at Vaughn. “B-but we need . . .”

“You will help my son,” Keith demanded as his hands fisted. “He’s not dying!”

The snarling, fighting beast in that cage screamed. An inhuman cry.

Then Keith charged for Sabine. Ryder yanked her back and stepped forward. So instead of attacking Sabine, Keith shoved the stake in his hands into Ryder’s chest. Or rather, the fucking fool tried to drive it into Ryder’s heart.

Ryder stopped him. He caught the wood. All but disintegrated it in his fist. “Never come at her!” he roared.

Then he heard the laughter.

Ryder stared into the human’s eyes. They looked a little . . . lost. Unfocused.

And that mocking laughter had haunted so many of his dreams.

“You always were too impetuous . . .” Malcolm’s voice. Ryder turned slowly and found Malcolm holding Sabine in his arms. His brother bent to smell her hair. “You just could never see the real threat that was right in front of your face. The threat that’s been there, all along.”

His brother.

Ryder grabbed the human’s head. Turned it to the side. Saw the faint bite marks on Keith’s neck.

Son of a bitch. Malcolm had just forced Keith to attack, in order to distract Ryder.

“They’re just puppets, aren’t they?” Malcolm murmured. “Puppets and food.”

Ryder pushed Keith away. He faced off against his brother. Cassie was still there, her frightened gaze flying back and forth between Malcolm and Sabine.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Cassie asked Malcolm. “Let her go!” The woman was scared, but she didn’t appear to be under Malcolm’s control.

Appearances could be so deceiving.

“Of course.” Malcolm smiled. His fangs glinted. “I’m not desperate for her blood like the others, so I should just let her go. It’s the right thing to do.” His fingers were wrapped around Sabine’s neck. “But fuck the right thing.”

He snapped her neck.

“I never gave a shit about right,” Malcolm said. “Not after my change, and, sorry to ruin this for you, brother, but not before, either.”

He had a stake in his hand.

The broken neck . . . that wouldn’t have killed Sabine. Ryder rushed forward. She’d recover from the break. She’d recover.

But not if his bastard of a brother staked her.

He grabbed Sabine’s hand. Yanked her body away from Malcolm. When he turned to shield her with his body, Ryder felt strong fingers close over his neck.

“You love her.”

Carefully, because her broken neck hadn’t healed yet, Ryder lowered Sabine to the floor. Cassie gave a wild cry and rushed toward her.

When Ryder stood, Malcolm moved in a flash and put the stake right over his heart.

“I didn’t think you could love. I thought you were like me.” Now Malcolm sounded disappointed. But he’d made a mistake. He hadn’t attacked when he’d had the chance.

“I used to think that I was just like you,” Ryder told him. “But then I realized I wasn’t broken.”

The tip of the stake pushed into his skin, drawing blood.

“They buried me. I wasn’t dead. I could feel everything. Do you know what the worms and insects did to me?”

Ryder’s jaw locked. “You’d lost your head. You were staked.” He should have been dead.

“It takes more than a stake to kill you and me. Let me show you.” Then Malcolm shoved forward with that stake.

Only . . .

Ryder’s hand flew up. He stopped the wood before it could do more than—fuck me—press against his heart. The pain pulsed through him, burning and white-hot.

Malcolm’s eyes widened in surprise. He tried to push down with the wood. “You’re . . . stronger.”

“I was always stronger.”

He heard a gasp behind him. Sabine. Coming back to him. Healing. Bones cracked.

Ryder yanked the stake from his chest. Malcolm jumped back and gazed at him with furious, desperate eyes.

“None of this was my choice!” Malcolm bellowed. “You should have let me die with the rest of our family. It wasn’t your call to make! You should have let me die then!”

Ryder nodded. “Yes, I should have.” Malcolm’s words were so familiar to him. His head cocked even as the blood continued to pour from his chest. “Julia,” he murmured, understanding so much more now.

Malcolm smiled.

“You’re the one,” Ryder said with a slow nod. “You wanted them to take me out.”

“I wanted you to wind up in hell, with me,” Malcolm snarled back. “Those Genesis bastards found me. They took my blood and kept me prisoner in their cells for years.”

Ryder stared at him. When he looked hard enough, he could almost see the brother that Malcolm had once been, back when they were both still human.

I never gave a shit about right. Not after my change, and, sorry to ruin this for you, brother, but not before, either.

But maybe he’d never even known him then.

“I told them about you,” Malcolm confessed. “Told them that if they wanted real power”—his lips twisted—“then they wanted you.”

And Genesis had begun hunting him.

Vaughn was yelling behind them and still thrashing against his bars.

“Ryder?” Sabine whispered.

He eased out a slow breath. “Richard Wyatt kept us both at the same—”

“You’re not listening!” Malcolm yelled at him. His brother’s face flushed. “I said . . . years. Richard was just a whelp when they brought me in to Genesis. It wasn’t him. It was the old guy who found me. His father. That’s the asshole who dug me up. I thought he was going to help me. Stop the pain. He just made it worse.”

Ryder saw that his brother’s hands were shaking.

Malcolm lifted his hands and pressed them against his temples. “Everything makes it worse.”

A soft hand curled around Ryder’s wrist. Ryder didn’t look at Sabine. He couldn’t. Malcolm had already tried to use her against him once. “Go to the other room, Sabine.”

Malcolm’s hands dropped. “So she doesn’t see you clean up this mess? So she doesn’t see you kill the primal? Kill the human?” He pointed toward a frozen Keith. “And drain the doc?” He tossed a glare toward Cassie.

Cassie was crying. Tears trickled down her cheeks, but she didn’t make a sound.

“And after you dispatch all of them, you’ll have to kill me. But a stake didn’t work before. A beheading didn’t. What else can you try?” Malcolm seemed mildly curious.

Fire. “I think I have a few options,” Ryder said as he rolled his shoulders. There would be no room for emotion here. No sympathy could stir in his heart.

Do you know what the worms and insects did?

“Go, Sabine,” he urged and pushed her away. Pushed her away, when he wanted to pull her close. To make certain that she was whole and healed.

Her steps were hesitant.

But just as she reached the door, Malcolm spoke again. “Do you think Keith is the only human I . . . sampled?”

Hell.

“Sabine.”

She stopped at the door.

“What did you do?” Cassie whispered, her voice hoarse. “Why?”

Malcolm shrugged. “It’s good to hedge your bets. And I have always enjoyed being in control of my own little army.” His arms lifted and spread around him. “I’ve been building my army for quite a while. After all, I was in Genesis for over twenty-five years.”

Fuck.

“But . . . you were a primal,” Cassie said, swiping at the tears on her face. She came closer to them, with slow, hesitant steps. “You weren’t in control. You only knew the hunger.”

Malcolm turned his stare on her. “A mindless beast.”

She flinched.

“Isn’t that what I was supposed to be?” Malcolm growled at her.

“It’s what the others were . . .”

“The others were made from my blood. Humans, who thought that they could become bigger, better warriors with some vampire blood and DNA thrown into the mix. I made them. Me. They just couldn’t handle my power.”

“B-but . . . I found you . . . in that cage . . . you looked just like the others.”

Ryder knew she had to be talking about the black claws. The mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.

“You mean . . . I looked like this?” Malcolm’s head bowed. His body convulsed. Shuddered.

“The tears . . . They healed you!” Cassie cried out.

Malcolm’s head lifted. His eyes were pitch-black. His teeth—hello, mouthful of fucking fangs. When Malcolm raised his hands, Ryder wasn’t surprised to see the flash of black claws.

“I can change anytime I want.” Malcolm jumped forward, moving lightning-fast. His claws wrapped around Cassie’s neck and he hauled her against him. “I told you, I made them. My blood. Genesis wanted to play with genetics and mutations, but before they even started experimenting on humans, they first played with me.”

And his brother had become even more of a monster.

“Old Man Wyatt tried to punch up the vampire evolution.” Malcolm’s hold tightened on Cassie. “The scientists understood what I could be. How strong. How deadly. But I could change back, any fucking time I wanted.”

From the corner of his eye, Ryder saw Sabine crouch and pick up a chunk of wood.

Vaughn was still screaming. Snarling.

“After they experimented on the humans, they realized—too late—that they couldn’t change back.” He bent his head and licked Cassie’s neck. She held herself statue-still within his arms, eyes stricken and terrified. “They couldn’t do anything because they weren’t strong enough. They weren’t like me.”

Or me. Ryder realized as he stared at Malcolm. No wonder Richard Wyatt had been so desperate for his blood. Malcolm’s blood had sent the test subjects straight to hell. Richard must have thought that an infusion of blood from the first vampire—untainted blood—could help them.

He’d been wrong, so Richard’s only option had been . . .

Ryder’s gaze jumped to Sabine. She’d hidden the stake behind her back.

The tears of a phoenix.

“I made my army,” Malcolm said, as he looked up to smirk at Ryder. “One victim at a time. I controlled the humans. Even from inside my prison at Genesis, I sent the humans out to find vampires who would aid me.”

Vamps who would be willing to turn on me. Ryder stared back at his brother and didn’t allow any emotion to show on his face.

“When my army was strong enough, when I knew Genesis had you,” Malcolm continued, “I escaped.”

By acting like a victim. By using Cassie.

He hadn’t realized his brother was such a damn good actor.

“I’ve been wanting to taste you for a while,” Malcolm muttered as his mouth lowered near Cassie’s throat once more. “There were always too many cameras on us. Too many watching you so closely.”

Ryder saw Cassie’s eyes. The fear faded and gave way to . . . satisfaction? But when Cassie spoke, her voice trembled. “Don’t,” she said. “Please.”

Maybe his brother wasn’t the only good actor in the room.

Malcolm sank his fangs into her throat.

Sabine screamed and ran forward, with her stake clutched tightly in her hands. “Leave her alone! No more! No more!”

But Ryder grabbed Sabine around the waist and hauled her back. He held her against his chest.

She didn’t need to save Cassie. Malcolm was already shoving the doctor away and trying to spit out her blood.

His claws retracted. His mouthful of fangs vanished.

“Surprise, surprise,” Cassie said, her voice sad. “I’m not what you thought, either, bastard.”

Malcolm stared at her with horror blazing in his eyes. Blood dripped from his chin.

And then he fell to the floor, his body frozen, apparently stone-cold dead.