Once Bitten, Twice Burned

CHAPTER SIX

Genesis was a maze. At least four levels, though Ryder was betting more levels waited downstairs, far below his own prison. So many cells. Far more than he’d realized.

Too many prisoners.

“There are others trapped here,” Sabine said as she walked closely by his side. Ryder kept his head down. They’d been lucky enough to walk right past two guards without those guys even giving them a second glance.

You just saw the lab coats and you didn’t bother to look at our faces.

Richard had hired those guys for their bulk. Not so much for their brains.

“We should get them out,” Sabine told him, voice soft.

“I’ll come back,” he told her. Not on a rescue mission. But a mission to make Richard Wyatt scream in agony.

She glanced toward him.

“We’ll turn the corner up here,” he told her, inclining his head slightly, “then we’ll go in the room on the left.”

“I thought we were going for the exit.”

Boots pounded behind them. More guards. Would these guys be as clueless as the others? Hopefully. If not, then he’d just kill them.

“We are heading for the exit,” he explained, keeping his voice low. “I can smell fresh air coming from that place.” His nose was even better than a wolf shifter’s. Actually, since he’d taken Sabine’s blood, all of his senses seemed to be working overtime.

“Walk faster,” she told him as she started to double-time her steps. Had she heard the guards, too?

They rounded the corner.

Ryder kept following that fresh air scent. He didn’t want to run. He wanted to turn and fight all those fools following him. To have a bloodbath just like in the old days.

But I can’t risk her.

So he clenched his teeth and shoved into the room on the left.

A small window waited. One covered with bars. An office. Barely ten feet long. It smelled of humans. There were half-eaten snacks scattered on a table. A breakroom?

A breaking-out room. He headed for the window. Yanked on the bars.

The footsteps were coming closer.

The bars snapped in his hands. “Come on!” He all but tossed her through the window.

But then another alarm began to blast. One that was coming from the exterior of Genesis. Got it rigged so no one gets out, huh? Too bad, we’re out. Ryder shoved his own body through the narrow window. Chunks of plaster and brick rained down on him as he broke not just the window, but the weak wall surrounding it. Unlike the walls in his cell, this room wasn’t reinforced. Probably because it wasn’t a place for prisoners.

Before he’d even cleared the window, Sabine grabbed his arm. The woman was actually trying to help drag him out of the building. Cute. He didn’t need any help. “Run!” he ordered.

She kept her hold on him. Didn’t run until he did. Unexpected. It looked like Sabine wasn’t the type to leave a partner behind. He’d remember that tidbit about her. Then they were rushing toward the line of trees before them. Guards raced into their path, ready to cut off their escape. The guards had big, shiny guns.

Big fucking deal. He had big, sharp teeth—and he was about to let his claws out. Claws that would make a shifter envious. Had, actually, on plenty of occasions in the past.

He grabbed Sabine’s arm and shoved her behind him.

“Stop!” one of the guards yelled. “Raise your arms and—”

Ryder didn’t stop. Bullets tore into his shoulder and stomach.

He kept running. Grabbed the nearest guard. Broke his arm. Took his gun. Shot back at the others who were foolish enough to still be trying to stop him.

And, even though he’d tried to push her back, Sabine was there. Fighting at his side. Snatching up a gun when it fell from another guard’s hands, and then whirling to fire—because they had more company coming at them from the south.

A quick glance showed Ryder that Wyatt had sent a heavy force outside. He easily counted ten guards—and there, in the middle was Richard Fucking Wyatt himself. “Shoot the prick,” Wyatt snarled at Sabine.

And damn if she didn’t.

Sabine raised her gun. Aimed. Fired.

Richard tried to dodge at the last minute, but the bullet still ripped deep into his chest.

The woman was one very fine shot.

But when she fired, all of the guards lifted their weapons.

Ryder snarled. He grabbed Sabine and turned, cradling her in his arms.

A hail of bullets hit him. Thudding hard into his back. Some even ripped out of his chest as they tunneled all the way through him. He held his body steady, refusing to buckle as the agony burned through him. So many bullets.

Keep her safe. Keep her—

Sabine gasped and her body jerked within his arms.

“Stop! Stop! Dammit, put down your weapons!”

That voice. No way. It couldn’t be . . .

Footsteps pounded toward him. Ryder didn’t turn, not yet. He’d wait, let them think he was weak, then he’d whirl and attack.

“Ry-Ryder . . .” Sabine shuddered against him. “H-help . . .”

His gaze dropped to her. Her face was so pale in the bright sunlight. Her eyes too dark. And . . .

He eased his body away from hers. Blood soaked her shirt.

His blood. It had to be his blood. He’d taken the bullets to protect her.

Her body sagged.

It . . . wasn’t just his blood.

Her blood.

The guards were surrounding him then. He didn’t give a fuck. Carefully, Ryder lowered Sabine to the ground. The grass was green and soft—and already getting soaked with her blood.

There were bullet holes in her chest. He’d tried so hard to shield her but the bullets went through me and into her.

“You’re dead,” he promised, savagery rising in him, a dark force that he didn’t try to control.

Sabine’s eyes widened. She tried to speak.

No, not you . . . Not. You.

His fingers were so gentle as he stroked her cheek.

The guards were dead. They were the ones he was sending to hell. He bit his wrist. Let the blood flow. Brought the wound to her mouth. He wasn’t letting her die. Wasn’t going to watch her burn.

“Are we really doing this again?” that familiar voice drawled. A voice that should belong to a dead man.

Sabine’s lips feathered over his wrist. She was drinking. Good. Yes.

But his head turned and—sure enough—Richard Wyatt was striding toward him. Wyatt’s shirt was red with blood, the guy’s face appeared strained, but he was advancing just fine.

She hit him in the heart. I know she did. Even if she hadn’t, no human could be up and walking after a hit like that.

Not human.

Wyatt’s lips quirked a bit as he met Ryder’s stare. “Move away from Twenty-Nine, and let’s get back inside.”

Twenty-nine? What the hell?

One of the guards sprang at Ryder.

Enough.

Ryder surged to his feet and broke the guard’s neck. Shattered the collarbone of another and grabbed the bastard’s gun. Fired—

Fire?

“I don’t believe your blood can stop her death this time,” Richard murmured as he cocked his head to the side.

Ryder whirled back around. Sabine had taken his blood. She should have been all right. She should have been—

No heartbeat. He didn’t hear Sabine’s heart.

And he could already smell smoke.

“No!” He fell to the ground beside her. More guards were coming. Screw them. He’d told Sabine that he’d get her out of that hell, but she was about to burn anyway.

“It’s easier to contain her before the shift.” Richard’s voice. “Dose them both. Keep firing at her until she begins to rise. You’ll have to time the attack just right.”

Her skin was heating beneath his touch.

He felt sharp pricks on his back. Harder punches, too. The backup guards were dosing him with that SP tranq. Right then, he didn’t give a damn. He wasn’t moving from her side.

Not until she was back with him.

She rose once. She’ll rise again. “Come on,” he whispered to her. “Come back!” Because he didn’t know exactly where Sabine went when she died and part of him was afraid to find out.

Afraid . . . when he hadn’t feared anything in the last thousand years. Not since he’d put the last of his family in the ground.

Not until now. Until her.

“Sabine!” Her name was a roar. A desperate order. The SP tranq was already flooding through his body. How much of the drug had they pumped into him?

Didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but her.

“Sabine.” Softer now. More of a plea.

Her lashes began to flutter.

Yes. She was coming back to him. As soon as her eyes opened—

Her lashes opened. Her eyes were so dark and deep when they met his. Dark . . . at first.

Then a ring of red appeared in her eyes. A red that looked like fire. The ring spread. Flared hotter. The red expanded until flames consumed her eyes.

“Now you”—he had to lean forward to hear her whispered words—“run . . .”

Beneath his hands, her skin continued to warm as the fire flickered higher in her eyes.

Run.

He tried to stand, but the SP tranqs had numbed his body. He fell to the ground beside her. That was where he wanted to be. Close to her. Close.

Flames erupted, covering her flesh. The heat blasted across his skin. Several of the guards cried out, and he saw them, burning. How does it feel?

The guards hit the ground and tried to roll in an attempt to put out the fire.

But that fire wasn’t dying.

Neither was Sabine.

As he watched, she rose. Covered in those flames, she rose. The fire was flying out from her body, hitting guards, seeming to deliberately attack them while none of those red-orange streaks were coming at him.

Because his phoenix was controlling her fire.

He’d never see anything more beautiful or more deadly, and he knew that he never would again.

“Shoot her!” Wyatt screamed. “Shoot her until she goes down!”

The remaining guards were trying to shoot, but the SP tranq couldn’t penetrate the wall of fire around her.

Ryder’s eyes wanted to sag closed, but he forced his gaze to stay open. Sabine had the strength right then. This was her moment. She could . . . “Get . . . away.”

Through the flames, he saw her head turn toward him. Her hair seemed to be floating in the fire, and a rough brush of wind—hot wind—whispered over his skin.

“Now’s . . . your . . . chance,” he managed. He wouldn’t be able to stay conscious much longer. But he didn’t have to last long, just until she escaped. “Go!”

And she did. Sabine—his phoenix—turned and rushed into the woods. The flames around her dimmed as she reached the trees.

“Shoot!” Wyatt yelled.

More SP tranqs were fired at her.

But Sabine disappeared into the woods.

She’d gotten away. Hell, yes.

His head fell back against the ground. Ryder stared above him. The sun. Big and bright, and, right then, fucking gorgeous.

He could always think clearly when the SP tranq hit him. He just couldn’t move his body an inch. It took all of his strength to keep his eyes cracked open just a few minutes more.

Vampires were supposed to hate the daytime. It made most of ’em weaker.

Not him.

The tranq was doing that all by itself.

Then he couldn’t see the sun. Not because his heavy lids had finally closed, but because Wyatt stood above him, blocking the view. “Don’t worry,” Wyatt assured him. “We’ll get her back. I’m sure that last shot hit its mark.”

No!

Wyatt offered a smile. “Perhaps if you cooperate fully with my experiments, I’ll even let her visit your cell once more.”

Ryder tried to turn his head so that he could look over and see the woods. Sabine had gotten away. Wyatt was a lying sack of shit. He was—

A guard was carrying Sabine’s limp body from the trees.

“Oh, didn’t I mention?” Wyatt murmured. “I had guards waiting in the woods. Just as a precaution. They had orders to dose her with the SP tranq until she went down.”

Son of a—

“When you wake up,” Wyatt told him, “you’re going to be very, very hungry.”

His lashes were closing.

“Sorry, but I’m afraid I’ll have to drain you nearly dry. For science, of course.”

Science could fuck off.

His eyes closed.

I’m sorry, Sabine.

He’d promised her freedom. One way or another, he’d find a way to keep that promise.

Sabine was naked.

When Ryder opened his eyes, she was the first thing he saw. What a damn fantastic sight. His body hardened and he lunged for her.

Only to be yanked back—before he could touch that smooth skin of hers—by the heavy chains that wrapped around his wrists.

Sabine flinched. She lifted her head, and her eyes—dark once more, no longer flaming red—met his.

His memory flooded back. The escape. The fire. Her. “You didn’t get away.”

She just stared back at him.

Hell, did she even know who he was?

She’d pulled up her knees. Wrapped her arms around her legs. Sabine was shielding her body from him.

A good idea, because the lust cutting through him was already reaching a fever pitch, after just a few seconds.

Physical lust . . . and bloodlust.

Because he didn’t just remember their failed escape attempt. He remembered being strapped down. Remembered Wyatt shoving needles in his arm and draining his blood. Draining and draining until it had felt as if there was nothing left inside of him. Until Ryder was just a hollow shell. No blood.

After that kind of torture, he should have been no more than a beast. A wild creature that only wanted to feed. That was what Wyatt had wanted him to become.

Ryder backed away from her, retreating until his shoulders hit the wall. Won’t attack her. Can’t.

“I . . . fed you.” Her voice was hushed.

Ryder blinked, not sure he understood.

Sabine lifted her wrist. He could see the narrow slice that cut across the faint line of blue veins. “I fed you while you were asleep. I thought I’d be able to, ah, control you better that way.”

Ryder could only shake his head. That had been too risky. When it came to a starving vampire and feeding, control didn’t exactly apply. And when he was unconscious, anything could have happened. “You remember me this time.”

Her hand dropped. Went back to curl around her knees. “It’s been five days since we tried to get out. My memory—I didn’t lose all of it this time, and what I did lose, yes, it’s back.” Her gaze was stark. “I died again.”

He wanted to touch her, and, despite the blood she’d so generously given to him—I can taste her. There’s a sweetness in my mouth—he wanted to sink his teeth into her delicate neck and drink.

Sabine wasn’t safe with him. She needed to be in another cell. Needed to be far away.

“Wyatt said that sometimes I’ll remember who I am. Sometimes I won’t. If I—if I die enough, he thinks I’ll totally lose myself . . .” He saw her throat move as she swallowed. “Wyatt said—”

“I don’t give a shit what he said!” Okay, maybe he shouldn’t have snarled the words. Her flinch had shame knifing in his gut.

And realizing that, dammit, he was naked, too.

Playing a new game, are you, Wyatt? What, now the guy wanted them to fuck?

Ryder sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm his fury. His gaze flew around the cell. Same room. Same inner pit of hell. But if he was back there, then that meant Wyatt and his cronies had retrieved Jim Thomas. If the guy was still at the facility, then maybe he could use him.

“I think Wyatt wants me to lose myself. To just become the—the phoenix.” Her shoulders were hunched.

“That’s not going to happen.”

Her gaze met his. “Yes, it is.”

She was so beautiful that she made him ache. Beautiful, strong, a creature of myth.

And Wyatt had stripped her and tossed her into a cage with a bloodthirsty monster. All for his twisted science.

Sabine’s voice was husky as she said, “Wyatt told me that I will die, again and again, and rise in the fire . . . rise until the only thing left is a monster that just kills and destroys everyone in its path.”

Wyatt was a talkative bastard, in addition to his million other sins. Heaving out a heavy breath, Ryder walked to her. The chains trailed behind him. He needed more blood in order to be strong enough to break those chains.

“I can’t pretend this isn’t happening. My life . . . everything’s changed.” She shivered and glanced at him. “And you know the worst part?”

Having a naked vampire standing over you, wanting a bite of you so badly his mouth is watering?

No, she didn’t realize how desperate he was becoming. Maybe he could play the caring role a bit longer. If he was lucky. If she was.

Her eyes squeezed closed. “I’ve been to hell.”

He didn’t speak.

“When I died, I-I remembered this time. The fire is so hot. It surrounds me. Burns and burns and burns and it has to be hell. I go to hell.”

He reached for her arms. Pulled Sabine up to her feet. “No, love, this cage we’re in, that’s hell. And, I swear to you, we will be free.”

She shook her head. “We tried, we—”

He kissed her. His lips brushed over hers, silencing the tangle of her words. He wanted to thrust his tongue deep, to sink into her, but if he pushed, he knew he wouldn’t be able to pull back.

With her, his control was too weak.

So he kept the kiss simple. A bare press of the lips. A soft caress against her mouth.

Just enough to give him a taste.

Just enough to have him hungering for so much more.

Then his head lifted. “Don’t be afraid.”

She stared back at him. Such big, dark, beautiful eyes. But then, he’d thought her eyes were beautiful even when they burned with red and gold flames. Sabine swiped her tongue over her full lower lip and confessed, “They wanted me to use my body to seduce you.”

Seducing me wouldn’t be hard. No way had she missed the big erection pointing toward her.

“They said that if you answered my questions, if I got you to tell me your secrets, that I’d be let go.”

He wanted her mouth again. Because he wanted it, he stepped back. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

But she shook her head. “They’re lying. All Wyatt can do is lie.” Her gaze met his. Her cheeks were flushed. “He’s not human. I shot him in the chest—” Breaking off, she spun to face the mirror. Her hands slapped against the glass. “I saw him get shot in the heart! His men must have seen it, too! He’s not human!” Now she was screaming.

He grabbed her shoulder. “Stop, he’ll come—”

She whirled and wrapped her arms around him. “I want him to come.” The rain of her hair covered her face as she turned her head toward him. “They only let me see you because I promised to seduce you. To learn your secrets.” She gave a quick shake of her head. “But I won’t betray you. I just wanted to help you. You helped me, you were the only one who did.”

“Sabine . . .”

“I knew that you’d need my blood.”

She’d come to save him?

“Maybe now that you have it, you’ll be strong enough to get out.”

He heard the guards coming. Wyatt had realized his little plan had just gotten screwed.

But Sabine hadn’t.

“Come back for me, okay?” She tried to smile. If he’d been human, Ryder was sure that smile would have broken his heart. “When you’re free, promise to come back for me.”

The guards wrenched open the door. They came in with their guns up. “Step away from her!” Wyatt shouted.

Ryder turned toward him. Bared his fangs. “Why don’t you come and make me?”

Wyatt merely smiled back. “Fine. She’s behind you. I’ll just have the guards shoot until the bullets blast through you and penetrate her flesh again and—”

“How do you want to die?” Ryder asked him, genuinely curious as he made his plans. “It’s going to be a slow death, but do you want me to start by cutting your flesh away? Or—”

“Death doesn’t come so easily to me.” Wyatt’s mouth tightened. “If it did, do you think I’d be here?”

Interesting response. “So that’s a yes for cutting your flesh away?”

The doctor’s cheeks flushed dark red with what Ryder suspected was raw fury. Not so clinical now, are we? “Let Twenty-Nine go,” Wyatt snapped.

Twenty-nine?

“That’s me,” Sabine muttered, sounding disgusted. “Because I’m not a person anymore. Just a number.” Then she walked around Ryder.

The hell she was just leaving. He grabbed her arm. “Don’t go with them.”

She gave him a faint smile. “I was wrong about you. For a vampire, you aren’t so bad.”

Yes, I am.

“You’ve got a real killer bite, but there’s more to you than just that.” She searched his gaze. “Don’t forget me,” Sabine told him. Then she shrugged away his hand.

His gaze followed her. So hungry and wild and, he knew, desperate.

Wyatt shrugged off his lab coat and offered it to Sabine. He pointed to the guards behind him. “I want her transferred to the second facility.”

A second facility? Hell, no. “Sabine!”

She looked back at him.

“You’re not a number,” he snapped.

She was so much more.

Her head inclined. “And you’re not a monster.”

Then she left him. The guards led her out of the room, and Ryder noticed they were careful not to touch her skin. Probably because they were afraid she’d fry them.

He hoped that she did.

Wyatt didn’t exit the room. He stood in the doorway, lingering after the others were gone. “Were you the first?”

Ryder glared back at him.

Wyatt’s lips tightened. “Don’t you understand what I’m trying to do?”

“You’re trying to get your kicks from torturing paranormals?” Yes, that bit was obvious. He more than got it.

“I’m trying to cure us!” Hushed, as if he were afraid someone, somewhere, might overhear.

Ryder slanted a glance at the observation mirror. “Us?” Sabine had been right, but then, he’d suspected that truth for a long time. When Sabine had fired her gun, Ryder had seen the truth with his own eyes. Her bullet had plunged into Richard Wyatt’s chest.

But the guy was still alive. Humans didn’t recover so quickly.

“No one’s in the observation room,” Wyatt said, voice rough. “Do you think I’d risk talking while others could hear?” Wyatt bent down and yanked out a pair of jogging pants from a duffel bag at his feet. “Fuck, put these on.” He tossed the pants to Ryder.

Raising a brow, Ryder yanked on the pants. “Guess that little naked scene didn’t work quite as you wanted, huh, asshole?”

Wyatt’s eyes narrowed. “You think you’ve helped her? If you’d had sex with her, maybe gotten lucky enough to get her pregnant, you would have helped us all.”

“Guess I’m not a helper that way.” Ryder gazed back at him. “What happened to the whole, ‘I’m not interested in birth, but transformation’ bit?”

“That was before,” Wyatt replied flatly.

“Before?”

“Before I knew just what you were!”

“The fangs and blood-drinking didn’t give me away?” Ryder asked, baiting. “And here I thought we’d long ago established that I was a vamp. Your science really must not be that good.”

The flush deepened on Wyatt’s face. “I knew you were a vamp, but I didn’t know you were the first.”

“Back to that, are we?”

“A child with your DNA, Twenty-Nine’s DNA—that would be a transformation.”

Or an abomination, depending on the person you asked.

Wyatt yanked a rough hand through his hair. “Don’t you get it? We need a cure!”

“I’m not sick. I don’t need anything.” He’d never been sick. Never would. A vampire didn’t—

“I’m not the only one who did experiments.” Hushed. And yes, Wyatt tossed a nervous glance over his shoulder. Thought the big boss wasn’t worried about someone overhearing him. “Some of those experiments, they went damn wrong.”

Ryder forced a shrug. “Then I bet you terminated them.” Wasn’t that the guy’s MO? To terminate his failed experiments? When he’d broken free, Ryder had caught the scent of death. Bodies. So many.

A rough laugh escaped Wyatt. “Sometimes, it’s harder to terminate experiments than you think.” His eyes blazed at Ryder. “Imagine vampires who didn’t retain their humanity. Vamps who were just killing machines, beasts with fangs and claws that have only the most basic of primal instincts—the instincts to kill and feed.”

Ryder didn’t let his expression alter. He did casually pull on the chains, testing them.

“Those aren’t going to break.” Wyatt waved his hand with a disgusted air. “It’s a new metal, one we’re having to use on another subject, too. Subject Thirteen has proven too strong.”

“Subject Thirteen,” Ryder repeated. So the mad doc was giving them all numbers now. “What’s he? A vamp? A shifter?”

Wyatt’s eyes narrowed. “Cain’s like Sabine, of course.”

A phoenix.

“Just stronger,” Wyatt shook his head. “I’d hoped that Cain—Subject Thirteen—might be able to stop the—”

“The vampires? The ones who’ve gone all primal on you?” Ryder cut in, voice mocking. His gaze lasered in on Wyatt’s. “All vamps have fangs and claws. That’s not exactly a newsflash.” He raised his own growing claws. “So forgive me if I don’t give a shit.”

“These vampires are different. Don’t you get that? Every tooth is sharpened to a killing edge. Every tooth is a fang.” Wyatt bit out these words. “Their claws are long, black, sharper than knives, and they never retract. The vamps stay in killing form, day and night, and the hunger they feel can never be quenched.”

Ryder’s brows climbed. “Sounds like someone made the wrong kind of monster.” Bastard, is this why you took my blood? To make more of them? Because the world needed more monsters.

“You could be the cure for them. Maybe the cure for all vampires.” Wyatt wiped a hand over his sweaty forehead. Huh. Looked like the doc was starting to fray at his edges. “You are the first, aren’t you?”

“No, not even close,” Ryder said, voice as mild as could be.

Wyatt frowned at him. “Liar. You think I don’t know? I saw what you did to Donaldson—”

“And where is he?” Ryder had to ask. He was vaguely curious about the guard. He’d tried to reach out to him a moment before and felt nothing.

“Dead.” Said without a hint of remorse.

Figured. “And the doc? Thomas?” Ryder hadn’t tried to link with him yet. He wanted to wait until he didn’t have an audience.

“Jim Thomas is a test subject now.”

Poor human. Yes, Ryder was almost feeling sympathy for him.

“Those vamps,” Wyatt muttered. “We have to find a cure for them.”

“Yes, well, good luck with all of that.” Ryder crossed his arms over his chest, and the chains rattled. “Maybe if you’d let me the fuck out of here . . .” And if you gave me Sabine . . . “Maybe then I’d be in more of a helping mood.”

Wyatt shook his head. “The blood they were given—the blood wasn’t pure enough. That must have been why they had the breakdown with their cells.”

Ryder forced his muscles to remain loose and relaxed.

“They were soldiers . . .” Was Wyatt just talking to himself now? Looked that way—crazy jerk. “Their minds should have been strong enough. Their bodies strong enough. Vamp and Lycan DNA—they were going to be stronger.”

Hold the hell up. “You spliced vamp and shifter blood?”

“Wolf shifter blood,” Wyatt snapped. “Lycan—”

“And you created some crazy-ass monster that you can’t control? How can you be surprised by that?” That was what happened when you played God. You created the devil.

Hell came to earth.

“You can be the cure.”

Ryder shook his head. “You kill your test subjects left and right. Why the hell haven’t you just taken these guys out? Failed experiments, right?” He tossed back at the guy. “I’d think you’d just get rid of them—”

Wyatt’s shoulders straightened. Behind the thin frames of his glasses, his eyes hardened. “Normally, I do.” The words were cold. Crisp. Ah, so he was trying to pull back his control. Crazy. “But these beings are immune from disease. They don’t age. They can kill savagely, perfectly. They can communicate on a psychic level—”

This just got better. But Ryder said, “Bullshit,” because the story was too impossible. He hoped it was.

“You’ll see.” Wyatt turned away from him. “Soon enough, I’ll show you what was created.”

The guy was heading for the door. “You said ‘us’ before,” Ryder called out.

Wyatt paused.

“You wanted a cure for ‘us,’ ” Ryder reminded him, focusing on the word that had first caught his attention. “So you’re one of the freaks, too?” I already knew that.

Wyatt glanced over his shoulder at him. “When my father realized the mistake he’d made with these experiments, when he saw how quickly they could infect others with their bite, he had to create a being who would be immune to them.”

His father?

“If a human gets so much as a single bite from these vamps, the infection takes over that person’s body.”

That wasn’t the way vamps were made. Never so quickly. And it took an actual blood exchange between the vampire and human, not just one single bite.

“The infection is in their saliva,” Wyatt said, rolling his shoulders a bit. “Humans don’t have an immune system or DNA strong enough to resist the transformation.” His lips twisted in a humorless smile. “Human DNA is actually designed to speed up the process.”

“But you’re immune, right?” That was what Wyatt had just said. “If you’re immune, then why don’t you just make up some vaccine from your blood so all the little humans in the world are safe?” The words were snarled, but Ryder actually meant what he said. If Wyatt wasn’t just bullshitting in an attempt to push Ryder into cooperating with his experiments, then this—shit, this really could be hell on earth.

“Because my blood’s poison.” The words were growled from Wyatt. “To the vamps and the humans . . . flawed. He made a mistake.”

He? The guy’s father? They were just a whole family of screwed-up assholes.

“Where are these vampires?” Ryder asked. If the guy was telling the truth, he wanted to know where these primal vamps were being held. Because I’ll kill them.

“They’re contained.” Wyatt opened the door. “I won’t let them out. Not until I’m sure of their control.”

The story could be a lie. “Show me one of them. Prove what you’ve got.” What you’ve done.

“No.” Wyatt didn’t look back this time. “They don’t get out. They never get out.”

They aren’t real. “This is bullshit!” Ryder yelled. “You don’t have them—you’re just trying to get me to cooperate.” He yanked on the chains. Felt more rage building in him. They’d taken Sabine. More experiments. More hell. The chains were embedded in the stone walls. The stone began to crack as he yanked with all of his strength. “I’m not cooperating! I’m going to fucking kill you!”

The door closed behind Wyatt. He’d gone.

Ryder kept pulling at the chains. Pulling . . .

“You can try to kill me.” Wyatt’s voice drifted through the speaker. “But I told you, I’m poison.”

Then they’d both die.

“Now I have to go see about your lovely phoenix. If you won’t cooperate”—Wyatt sighed—“maybe she will.”

Then there was only silence. The frantic beat of Ryder’s heart, and the knowledge that Sabine would be hurt. She’d be killed. And all he could do was sit in this cage and wait.

The rage built within him. Grew. With every second that passed, the man he was lost more and more control.

I can be fucking primal, too.

Wyatt was about to see just how primal the first vampire could be.