Once Bitten, Twice Burned

CHAPTER FOUR

“Wait.” Fear churned in Sabine’s stomach as she stared into Ryder’s eyes. When a vamp was about to sink his teeth into a girl’s throat, he shouldn’t look so . . .

Reassuring. And, um, sexy.

Especially when said girl had a stake pressed to his heart. Why the heck had he given her the stake? Her fingers trembled around it. After what he’d done, maybe she should drive it into his chest but . . .

I need him. The truth was there. Desperate. He was her only hope in this nightmare. The vampire scared her, but the man named Richard Wyatt? He terrified her. He liked to hurt her.

Ryder had said that he’d help her. The vampire was the only one that she could trust.

Provided he didn’t drain her dry. Her fingers tightened around the stake. “Aren’t vampires supposed to have some power to control the minds of their victims? Can’t you just make me forget what you did before? Make me—” Sabine broke off, unable to say the last.

He finished for her. “Make you want my bite.” The words were deep and dark.

She almost shuddered. The last thing she wanted right then was to feel his teeth sinking into her throat. She hadn’t been lying about those nightmares. He’d been starring in her dreams all week. Not those lab coat–wearing jailers and their constant needles. Ryder.

Fangs. Fury.

Only after he bit her in her nightmares, sometimes, he did . . . more. Things that didn’t scare her, but turned her on. She swallowed.

“Would you want me to take your will away?”

She realized he hadn’t actually answered her question. Could he do it? Could he take the memory away?

But with all the crazy crap that was going on already, did she want to add mind control to her list?

No, thank you.

“It took me three days to remember who I was.” She licked her lips. His gaze dropped to her mouth. Lingered. His gaze seemed to heat. “So no, don’t take the memory away.” It had just been desperation talking. “I don’t want anyone to ever mess with my mind again.” Because she was convinced that Wyatt had done something to her. He’d made her forget.

Hadn’t he?

Ryder’s hand seemed heavy against her throat, and his thumb was stroking her skin. A small, circular caress.

“You don’t seem as—as wild as before,” she blurted. It was true and reassuring.

His gaze rose back to meet hers. “I drank from four guards when they took you away. Before you, it had been months since I fed.”

The twisting in her stomach got worse. “If you try to take too much from me, I will kill you.” Fair warning. She remembered his unbreakable hold. The terror that had clawed through her.

“To stop me, just drive the stake into my heart.”

The rough edge of the wood rubbed against her fingers.

His head began to lower toward her neck.

“No!”

He froze.

“Um, not the neck, okay? Bad memories. Really bad.” Like there were any good memories of this place.

But Ryder nodded, and the overhead light glinted off the dark gold of his hair.

He took her left hand then and lifted her wrist toward his mouth. “Better?”

In the grand scheme of things? Probably not. But her wrist was a better option than her neck. Her breath rasped out. She was so in over her head. A vampire. He’s a real vampire and I’m—I don’t know what I am.

Monster.

His lips feathered over her skin. Sabine jerked and her fist shoved the stake against him. Not into him, but—

Ryder was watching her with that green stare. A stare that seemed so intense that it actually made her feel like he was looking into her. Then he quietly ordered, “You must trust me. I won’t let you down again.” A grim pause then, “Stop thinking about what happened before.”

Her laugh was weak. “That’s a little impossible.”

“Sabine.” He said her name like it was a caress. The way a man would say it in bed.

They were in bed. She was, anyway.

“Close your eyes,” he told her. “Think of something good.”

There was nothing good there. They were prisoners. No one knew where she was, and Sabine wasn’t even sure of what she was any longer.

The right corner of his mouth hitched up. “Your eyes aren’t closed.”

The vampire couldn’t be teasing her right then. The blood of the men he’d killed—her blood—stained the floor. But he was lightly holding her hand. Gazing into her eyes. Looking at her like a lover.

“You need to let the fear go.”

“Easy for you to say,” she muttered. “I didn’t sink my teeth into you and not let go.”

His smile vanished. “No, you didn’t.” He pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist.

She closed her eyes.

“Now you do that?”

Sabine didn’t answer him. Something good. She had good memories rattling around in her mind, now that her memories were actually back, anyway. She could pull some of them out.

“Where were you the last time you were happy?” Ryder asked her.

The image slipped through her mind. The dark bar. The laughter. The blues music that hung in the air. Rhett’s music. “New Orleans.” Her home. The only one she’d ever known. “At my brother’s bar.”

His breath rushed out. “You have a brother?”

The memory wanted to drift away. She held it tight. “N-not blood. The people who adopted me—my parents—they already had Rhett.” Rhett had been the reassuring constant in her life. Always there. Always watching out for her. With her eyes closed, she could see him so easily in her mind. “He was playing the blues, and I was dancing behind the bar.” The whole family had been there. Laughter. Voices mellow. She’d been swaying to the music, thinking how lucky she was. “I sang with him.” Her lips curled. “I sound like a dying frog when I sing. Half the crowd left instantly.”

His laughter came, surprising her, and her lashes flew up.

He looked different when he laughed. Still dangerous, but different.

He drained your blood. Don’t go weakening around him.

“Hold that memory,” Ryder told her as his laughter faded away.

She closed her eyes again.

His mouth was on her wrist. Pressing lightly. His lips parted. His teeth sank into her wrist, and there was only the faintest flash of pain, not nearly as bad as the prick of Wyatt’s needles, then Ryder’s mouth tightened on her skin. He was sucking her flesh. Taking her blood.

The fear rose within her once more.

Hold the good memory.

She tried to hold it. Singing in the bar. Rhett shaking his head as he told her that the blues just wouldn’t ever be for her. Her mother had waved her on. Sabine had laughed until her sides ached.

His mouth seemed to harden on her wrist as Ryder took more.

The memory flew away from her as her eyes shot open once again. The stake was slippery in her sweaty hand, but she wasn’t about to let that thing go. “Ryder.”

His eyes were open, too. Open and locked right on her. His pupils were swelling as he stared at her, swallowing up the green of his eyes. So much hunger was in that stare. Hunger, desire.

A dark lust.

Her heart raced in her chest. “I don’t want to hurt you.” Was that the truth? Or a lie? She wasn’t sure. He hurt you. The stake pressed down harder. “But I will.” Sabine let the stake draw blood, just to show that she wasn’t making an empty threat.

Say it and mean it. Her father’s advice. Don’t take shit from anybody in this world. A favorite mantra of his.

Ryder’s fangs slowly lifted from her skin. His tongue swiped over the small wounds he’d left behind, lightly lapping at the skin.

The rasp of his tongue shouldn’t have turned her on. It probably should have given her more nightmares. A vampire. Drinking from me!

But Sabine could admit to herself that the bite had turned her on. Her nipples were aching and heavy, and arousal had her shifting and arching her hips slightly.

One more lick, and his head rose. “Your taste is incredible.”

Right, what was that, like a vampire pickup line?

He glanced down at the stake. Maybe he was just now realizing that he was bleeding, courtesy of her. It seemed only fair that they’d both drawn blood. He reached for the stake, but then his body began to sag.

She tried to grab him. The stake fell to the floor, and so did Ryder.

His eyes were closing. “What . . . did . . . you . . .”

She hadn’t done anything. Had she? Sabine crouched at his side. “What’s happening?” She’d been the one on the floor after the last bite.

Ryder started to shake—hard, heavy convulsions.

Then the cell door flew open. Guards stormed in, with their weapons raised.

“Get back!” one of them yelled at her.

She held Ryder’s hand tighter. Sabine didn’t even remember reaching for his hand, but now she was holding on to him for dear life. “Something’s wrong with him!”

“No, my dear,” Wyatt said as he pushed through the guards. “He’s having the exact response to the drug that we’d hoped.”

Drug? Understanding dawned. The drugs they gave me.

“Get his blood,” Wyatt ordered the man on his right. A smaller guy with nervous hands and bright, red hair. The man’s lab coat swirled around him as he hurried forward.

Sabine grabbed the stake. “Don’t you touch him!” She held the stake up like a knife.

Wyatt laughed. “Shoot her.”

What?

The guard at Wyatt’s shoulder shot her. Sabine screamed as the tranq dart embedded in her chest.

She tried to hold on to the stake, but it rolled right out of her suddenly numb fingers.

The redhead was crouching over Ryder now, taking the vampire’s blood and filling up test tubes. A lot of test tubes.

“Take the female subject back to her room,” Wyatt ordered.

Sabine’s body was about to crash onto the floor when two of the guards hoisted her back to her feet. Well, okay, her legs weren’t exactly steady, so when they started walking, her feet dragged behind them.

“Good job,” Wyatt told her with a small smile. “I knew you’d be able to get to him.”

Wait, what? Her body might not be working right, but her mind was still functioning pretty dang well. Wyatt was making it sound as if she’d been working with him.

Her gaze darted back to Ryder. Of course, his lashes would have flickered and started to open right then. His green stare was far too aware as it locked on her.

He’s awake. Which meant . . . They’re dead.

And, wow, the guy sure hadn’t been out for long.

Her expression must have given her away because Wyatt suddenly swore and grabbed for the blood-filled test tubes. “Get her out of here!”

They hauled ass getting her out the door. Wyatt was on her heels, more guards rushing behind him.

And the redhead who’d taken Ryder’s blood—

She managed to turn her head and lock her gaze on him.

The redhead didn’t make it out.

The metal door closed on his scream.

Lethargy pulled at Sabine’s body, but she forced her eyes to stay open. They’d just hit her with one tranq this time, surely she could fight this.

Her head sagged forward. Or not. Dammit.

She hated to be so weak.

The guards began to haul her away.

“No!” Wyatt suddenly snapped. “She needs to see this.”

She tried to slap at them, but her hands just fluttered in the air like useless birds. Then she was in another room, one with dim lights and lots of computers and machines.

“Look at him,” Wyatt ordered as he took hold of her chin and forced her head back up.

Sabine blinked and stared straight ahead. At Ryder. She was looking through the two-way mirror.

Ryder was in his cell, and the redheaded man was in front of him. Ryder had one hand on the man’s throat. It looked like the redhead was begging.

“See what he is?” Wyatt demanded, his fingers pressing hard into her chin. “Do you see why he can’t be free?”

Ryder’s eyes narrowed. Uh-oh. Could he hear them? It sure looked like he had. Wyatt hadn’t even been speaking into the microphone, but Sabine was certain Ryder had heard the scientist’s words. Enhanced vamp hearing. Very enhanced.

“Open the cell door!” Ryder roared. “Or you can watch as I rip his throat open.”

The guards holding her shifted nervously.

Wyatt stepped away from her and bent over the small microphone. “You can’t be set free,” Wyatt said, voice snapping. “You’re far too dangerous. By keeping you here, we keep the humans in the world safe.”

Ryder sank his teeth into the redhead’s throat. The guy screamed and tried to fight, but he was no match for Ryder.

“We-we can’t just let him die,” the guard to her right muttered. He was sweating. She could almost smell his fear.

“That’s Jim Thomas—he’s got a wife,” another guard muttered. “A baby coming.”

Wyatt stared straight through the glass. With a supreme effort, Sabine managed to keep her gaze open and on Ryder.

Ryder’s head lifted. Blood dripped from his mouth. “Next time, it won’t be just a bite. I’ll rip his whole throat open.”

She knew his threat was real. So did the guards.

“That vampire’s too dangerous,” one said, the sweaty one on her right. “He needs to be put down.”

Wyatt’s head jerked toward them. “That would be a waste, Donaldson.”

“He’s killed our men!” Donaldson fired back as his fingers dug into Sabine’s arm. “He’s about to kill Jim! He can’t be controlled.”

“Of course he can.” Wyatt sounded annoyed, as if he were talking to a small child. His mouth was still close to the microphone as he said, “Just take out your gun and put it to her head.”

Nausea rolled through Sabine. The guard hesitated.

“Do you want to watch Jim Thomas die?” Wyatt pushed.

The guard lifted his gun. The barrel pressed into Sabine’s temple.

“Good,” Wyatt murmured. His gaze darted back to the observation window.

Ryder had frozen. He knew exactly what was happening in that observation room.

“If you don’t let the doctor go, then Donaldson will put a bullet into Sabine’s brain.”

Ryder’s claws—he had claws bursting from his fingertips—dug into the doctor’s throat. “So what? You shoot her, she burns, then she comes back.”

Wyatt actually smiled at that response. “Yes, but we both know the death hurts, don’t we? Do you want her to suffer, vampire?”

Ryder didn’t speak.

If Sabine had been able to do so, she would have shouted, I don’t want to suffer!

“Perhaps you do.” From Wyatt. Considering. “Perhaps you enjoy her pain.” Wyatt waved his hand toward Donaldson. “Go ahead, shoot her.”

Donaldson hesitated. Sabine tried to fight the nausea and the lethargy and the heart-numbing fear. “D-don’t,” she managed to gasp. “I have . . . family . . . too.”

Donaldson’s blue gaze cut to the glass. To Ryder.

“Do it!” Wyatt barked.

Donaldson looked back at her. “You aren’t human.” He said the words as if he were trying to convince himself. His finger began to squeeze the trigger.

Jim Thomas flew into the two-way glass. Ryder had tossed the doctor straight at them.

“Take the gun fucking away from her head,” Ryder snarled.

Donaldson lifted the gun.

“Get the asshole out of here,” Ryder said, shoulders heaving, as he jerked his thumb toward the door.

The vampire just saved me. Tears stung her eyes.

Wyatt inclined his head toward Donaldson. The guy nodded and rushed to claim his friend. But as soon as Donaldson stepped one foot inside Ryder’s cell, the vampire attacked.

He grabbed Donaldson, tossed him around like a rag doll a few times, and then shoved the guard’s own weapon right against his temple.

“That was a mistake,” Ryder growled at him. “You never, ever put a gun to a woman’s head.” He drove his teeth into Donaldson’s throat. The guard screamed and tried to fight.

Wyatt just watched. Then, after a moment, he sighed. “Briggs, shoot the woman.”

Briggs—the guard still holding her—stared at Sabine with wide eyes.

And he didn’t reach for his gun. Sabine knew why.

Don’t want to wind up like Donaldson, do you?

Wyatt must have realized the guard wasn’t obeying because he whirled around, grabbed the man’s gun, and pressed it against Sabine’s chest.

Then they heard the laughter. Ryder’s laughter. Sounding crazed.

Wyatt paused, then looked over his shoulder.

Ryder had hauled both men—still alive, barely, from the looks of them—toward the cell door. The men lay in a crumpled heap. Ryder was on the bed. His hands behind his head. “Come and get them,” he called, voice almost mocking.

Then he just closed his eyes.

The drug was pumping fast and furiously through Sabine’s veins, and, even though her arms and legs felt leaden, her heart raced so hard that her chest hurt. “He let . . . them go.” Now let me go.

“Yes,” Wyatt murmured. “He did.”

So why hadn’t the guy dropped his gun?

“But today’s experiment isn’t over yet.” Wyatt stared right in Sabine’s eyes. “Let’s see how long it takes for your memory to recover this time.”

Even though Ryder had freed the men, Wyatt was going to shoot her. Sabine tried to struggle but her body wouldn’t listen to her mental commands.

“Briggs, take her back to her room. Strap her down.”

Her breath rushed out in desperate relief. He wasn’t going to shoot her. He—

“Then shoot her in the heart.”

Briggs hauled her out of the observation room, and Ryder’s roar of fury followed her.

The blood was bitter on his tongue. Too harsh. Too metallic. Not like hers. Not like Sabine’s.

Ryder stood in the middle of his cell. Head bowed, shoulders sagging, a deliberate pose of defeat.

His fangs were burning in his mouth, and he wanted to spit out the blood that he could still taste.

What the hell? A vampire never turned away blood, but this time the blood had just been a means to an end. Not the sweet, powerful nourishment that he usually craved.

The observation room was empty. The dead silence from the other room told him that no one was watching him then.

Because you’re off torturing Sabine?

He wanted to bellow again with his fury. Instead, he closed his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath, and he tried to reach her with his mind.

He’d taken her blood twice. The psychic link should exist between them now. Their blood link. Not all vampires could forge those bonds with their victims.

He wasn’t all vampires. Wyatt, you fool, you should have left me the hell alone.

Now Wyatt would die. Everyone who’d helped him would die.

Because Ryder wasn’t some fresh vamp who’d been newly turned.

I am ancient. I am power.

I am death.

And he used all of his power right then, trying to reach out to Sabine, to make sure that she was still alive and—

A wall of flames.

He couldn’t reach her mind. He could feel her. The fear. The fury. But there were flames stopping his mind from connecting to hers. The blood link between them wasn’t strong enough to get past the flames that shielded her mind.

His hands clenched into fists as his eyelids flew open. No one had ever been able to escape his blood link. Not demons. Not witches. Not djinn or shifters.

But the flames just burned brighter in his mind’s eye. There was no getting to Sabine. He couldn’t reach her.

He wondered if anyone could.

Ryder forced his hands to unclench. If he couldn’t get a psychic link to Sabine, then he’d just have to get a physical link with her. She could resist the blood bond but others wouldn’t be so strong. Humans were particularly susceptible to the link.

Oh Thomas . . . And Ryder pictured the redheaded doctor in his mind. Jim Thomas.

The doctor’s blood beat in Ryder’s veins. Blood that didn’t satisfy. That just made him hunger all the more for Sabine.

He couldn’t question that growing hunger, not then. He had to focus on his escape.

Jim Thomas. He felt the doctor’s presence instantly as he locked on the terrified human. He’d bitten other humans while he’d been at Genesis, but the rage had been in control then. Ryder had bitten, drunk, and killed.

This time, his control had been stronger. He’d left the humans alive. The better to use them.

Wyatt didn’t understand the monster that he had in front of him. Didn’t understand the power of the beast. Despite all of the security and guards, Genesis wouldn’t hold Ryder.

Not now, now when he had his own prey to help him escape.

Ryder closed his eyes once more as he focused his energy. Darkness, just for an instant, then . . . then he was seeing through Thomas’s eyes. The blood link was very strong. Humans. Sometimes they had their uses.

Thomas was in a white room. A redheaded woman with a stethoscope draped around her neck stood before him. Patching up the wound on his throat? The bastard was lucky he’d gotten such a light bite.

If I hadn’t wanted to keep you alive, I would have ripped out your throat.

Thomas stiffened and whimpered, and Ryder knew the man had heard his thoughts.

That’s right, human. I’m in your head. I can read your mind. See every fear that you’ve ever had.

Thomas opened his mouth. “The vampire—he’s—”

Shut up. Ryder’s instant command.

Jim Thomas’s lips clamped together.

The doctor in front of him frowned. “Are you all right, Jim?” Her voice was clipped, a tight NY accent. Old money. Her fingers smoothed over his bandage. “Did the vampire hurt you anywhere else?”

I have no other wounds. Ryder pushed the thought into Thomas’s head.

“I-I have no other wounds,” the guy said instantly.

Ryder felt the pulse of the human’s surprise. And his fear. The fear was like a thick fog in the man’s head.

That’s right, Jim Thomas. I’m in your mind, and you won’t be able to get me out. I am in control. You should never have walked into my cage.

Because now the doctor was his bitch.

Thomas whimpered.

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “I think you need a sedative.”

No, Thomas getting knocked out for the night wouldn’t suit his purposes at all.

Get up.

Thomas jumped off the exam table.

Tell her to fuck off. Ryder smiled, and kept his head down. It wouldn’t do for any of the cameras to catch his expression. No one was watching now, but Wyatt would no doubt review the footage from his cell.

“Fuck off, Vivian,” Thomas said as he shoved by the other doctor.

Her gasp followed him.

Thomas was appalled at himself. Flushing. Shaking his head.

Oh right, because saying that makes you feel bad, but torturing vampires and shifters—you don’t ever feel a bit guilty for those crimes?

Thomas’s heart raced faster, and, surprise, surprise—Ryder did sense guilt in the man’s mind. Guilt and the dark knowledge that if Thomas didn’t do his job, Wyatt would go after his wife. His unborn child.

So you let us all suffer in order to keep them safe?

Thomas had no answer, but maybe that was because he couldn’t speak. Ryder had frozen his tongue and mouth. All Thomas could do was walk down the long hallway, glancing to the left and the right so that Ryder could learn the schematics of the facility.

Come to me. Ryder shoved the thought into Thomas’s head and knew it would be a compulsion. Cut the surveillance feed from my room. Open the door. Get me the hell out of here.

And Thomas rushed to obey. A puppet on a string. A puppet with no will. No control.

Oh, that wasn’t technically true. Thomas’s mind was still functioning. Ryder could feel his psychic screams but . . .

You can’t stop me.

Not with the blood link in place. No one could stop him.

The human went into the surveillance room. A guard turned toward him with a smile. “Hey, doc, heard that bastard vamp took a bite out of you—”

Go for his throat.

Thomas attacked him. Punching and clawing. The guard wasn’t expecting the attack, and because of that, Thomas’s rather feeble hits were able to take the man down.

Thomas, you should try working out sometime. It wouldn’t kill you. Ryder smiled. But I might.

Thomas left the guard sprawled on the ground. A few taps of his fingers across the keyboard disabled the surveillance on Ryder’s cell.

Ryder lifted his head. Now, he didn’t care if anyone saw his grin.

Come to my cell. Get the damn door open.

Because he needed out of there. Ryder had to get to Sabine before Wyatt and his sadistic band of scientists tried more of their experiments on her.

Thomas all but ran back to him. The guy’s fingers trembled as he swiped the key card over the control panel. The lights flashed green. The door opened.

Ryder lunged forward. He grabbed Thomas by the throat. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Ryder asked as he slid from the human’s mind.

Thomas whimpered. The guy did a lot of that.

“I could kill you right now,” Ryder whispered to him. It would be so easy. A jerk of his hand would snap the human’s neck. Or he could use his fangs to rip open the man’s throat.

Jim Thomas’s eyes were wide and desperate. “P-please.”

Ryder threw him across the room. Thomas’s back slammed into the wall. “Hope you like the cell.” He stepped out of that containment hell. Shut the door. Heard the whir of the lock click into place.

I’m letting you live. Be fucking grateful. Thomas would be able to go back to his wife.

Ryder was being merciful. A fairly new concept for him. And he didn’t even know why the hell he was bothering.

The child. The whisper came from inside of him as he hurried down the hallways. You know what it’s like when a child grows up alone.

Yes, he knew all too well.

He inhaled as he ran, pulling in all the scents around him. The cold scent of antiseptic. Bleach. The rotting stench of death. So many dead bodies. Wyatt had been a busy man.

He inhaled again. Caught the wilder, woodsy scent that Ryder knew came from shifters—that scent drifted from upstairs.

But the scent of fire . . . the scent of woman . . . the sweet but rich scent that he’d come to associate with Sabine—that scent came from dead ahead.

Ryder rushed forward. He expected to walk right into the room that housed Sabine. Instead Ryder entered an observation room. Two white lab coat–wearing bastards whirled toward him when he entered. Three seconds later, they hit the floor, unconscious.

Ryder looked out of that tinted glass. Another two-way mirror. He stared at Sabine. She was strapped to a table, while a guard headed toward her. The man had a gun in his hand.

Donaldson. Ryder recognized the guard instantly, and not just because he had a blood-soaked bandage at his throat. The guard’s bitter blood flowed within Ryder. The man—with his too short hair and tight, furious features—stared at Sabine with hate.

Are you pissed because I took a bite out of you? Ryder shoved the thought right at the guard. As with Thomas, forming the link with this human was effortless. All he’d needed was the blood, and, of course, to actually let the humans keep living long enough to use the link.

Donaldson stiffened.

That’s right. I’m inside of you now. There’s no getting away.

The guard’s trembling hand lifted the gun. This guy was stronger than Thomas had been. There’s no use fighting.You’re not powerful enough to stop me.

“Please, don’t!” Sabine yelled as she yanked against the straps that held her down.

Ryder could easily read Donaldson’s thoughts. She’s not human. The bitch deserves this pain. She’ll hurt, she’ll die, then she’ll come back again.

It’s not like she can ever really die.

The guard’s thoughts enraged Ryder. No, Ryder pushed into Donaldson’s mind as he grabbed the cell key card off one of the fallen doctors at his feet. She won’t die, and you won’t hurt her. So stop pointing that gun at her. Point it at your own damn self.

Ryder swiped the key card at the control box on Sabine’s cell. The lights flashed, and he ran into the room.

He found Donaldson standing near Sabine’s restrained figure. The guard had the barrel of the gun pressed against his own chest. Donaldson’s eyes were wild, and he screamed, “Stop! Stop me!”

Sabine wasn’t screaming. She just stared at the guard in wild horror.

Then she looked at Ryder. Her lips shook. “What’s—what’s happening?”

He rushed to her. Yanked away the restraints and pulled her into his arms. “You’re safe.”

She shook against him even as she wrapped her arms around him and held Ryder as tight as she could. As if she’d never let him go.

No one had ever held him like that. Most were too eager to escape him.

She knows what I am. What I can do. What I did to her.

And still she wants me? His chest ached. My second chance.

His arms curled around her. “I’m going to take you out of here.” Take her out, then come back to destroy the place. Wyatt wouldn’t get away with his sick experiments any longer.

She nodded against him, and her silken hair brushed over the side of his neck. He inhaled her scent, bringing it even deeper into his lungs. The scent soothed the fury that had been boiling to such a dangerous degree within him.

“I want to go home,” she told him, the words a whisper. She’d longed for her home before.

He eased back just enough to stare down at her. She didn’t seem to realize it yet, but her “home” wasn’t going to be a real option for her, not anymore. She’d changed.

The humans at her “home” hadn’t.

But he found he couldn’t crush the faint hope in her eyes.

Then her gaze darted to the guard and her dark eyes widened in alarm. “What is he doing?”

“Can’t stop!” Donaldson yelled before Ryder could speak. “He’s in my head.”

Ryder pulled Sabine up to her feet. “Forget about him.” He wouldn’t give the order for the guard to shoot. Not until Sabine was out of the room. No sense in her seeing that blood and gore.

But I’m not letting you go, Donaldson. You put a gun to her head. You were about to shoot her, both in my cell and now, with her tied down like an animal. Do you think I’ll let you live after this?

Tears leaked from Donaldson’s eyes. No, the man didn’t think he’d be living past these last few moments.

Ryder pushed Sabine toward the door. “Come on.” He didn’t know how long they’d have before his escape was discovered. An alarm could ring out at any second.

But Sabine stopped walking. The woman froze against him. She looked over at Donaldson, then back at Ryder. “He doesn’t . . . why is he pushing the gun against his own heart?”

Because I’m telling him to do it, love. And as soon as you leave the room, I’ll tell him to pull that trigger.

Ryder shrugged. “Maybe he just can’t live with the crimes on his soul. Bet he’s played attack dog for Wyatt plenty of times.”

And he had. Ryder could see the memories. So many dark, terrible deeds. Donaldson had killed before. Shifters. Witches.

As long as they weren’t human, did you think their deaths didn’t matter?

Donaldson gave a faint nod.

Wrong answer, bastard. They mattered.

Sabine’s fingers caught his hand. Squeezed. “Whatever you’re doing, stop.”

He blinked at her in surprise.

“Don’t be like them. Don’t kill just because they do.”

So misguided. He wasn’t killing because the humans had started a battle. He was killing because that was his nature. You didn’t tell the snake not to strike, and you didn’t tell the vamp not to kill.

“Promise me,” she said, shaking her head and still refusing to move when he gave her a harder shove. “Promise that you won’t kill him. Just leave him here, lock him up in this cell, and let’s go.”

Ryder didn’t like to make promises that he couldn’t keep. In fact, he never made a promise unless he was sure that he could follow through on his words.

Others had broken their vows to him. They’d paid. In blood.

“If you don’t give me your word,” she hesitated, then said, “I won’t leave with you. I-I’ll find my own way out. I’ll stay until I’m sure you’re gone, sure that you won’t kill him, then I’ll escape.”

He lifted his hand. Stroked the silk of her cheek. Watched with interest as her pupils dilated. Sabine had such a fast, primal response to him. Did she realize that?

I have the same response to her. “My love,” he breathed the words, “that man was about to put his gun to your heart and pull the trigger. You don’t need to feel sorry for him.”

Her gaze searched his. “It’s not him I care about. It’s you. Be better than the ones who hold us here.”

He wasn’t better. Would never be. She just didn’t understand who he was yet. What he was. Despite what he’d done to her, she didn’t understand.

Sabine stared up at him, hope struggling desperately to shine in her eyes.

He found he couldn’t destroy that hope. “He won’t die by my hand. Not right now.”

But when he came back to Genesis, once Sabine was safe . . . Ryder lifted his head and met Donaldson’s wild eyes. I will come back then. I will make you suffer. The bullet would have been too fast anyway.

Donaldson grew even paler.

Stay here, Ryder ordered him. Don’t take a step until I come back and tell you to move.

The guard’s whole body tensed as his muscles locked down.

Sabine’s breath heaved out. “Thank you.”

He liked her gratitude, but he’d be taking more than just a “thank you” from her.

His fingers twined with hers as they hurried from the room. Donaldson didn’t call out after them. He couldn’t. He couldn’t do anything unless Ryder ordered him to do so.

Now you know what it’s like to be helpless. As Ryder had been helpless when he’d been forced to watch Sabine die right in front of his eyes.

Their footsteps raced down the hallway. To the left. To the right. A guard stumbled out, directly in front of them.

Ryder caught the guy. Grabbed him, then punched him out with one hard knock of his fist. Too easy. The humans were his prey now. Nothing could stop him.

No one.

He’d be free, and Sabine would be at his side.

Then those at Genesis would be the ones to scream and beg.