Burn For Me (Phoenix Fire #1)(61)

Cain yanked open the driver’s side door, nearly ripping it right off the vehicle. Sometimes, she forgot just how strong he could be.

He reached inside and yanked out a man. Tall. Big. Wide shoulders.

In the moonlight, she saw the flash of his fangs. Ryder. The vampire sank his teeth into Cain’s throat.

Eve shoved open the car door and raced for them. “Cain!”

But Cain had already broken free of the vamp’s hold and shoved the vampire back. Ryder’s body dented the side of his car.

“Bad mistake, vampire,” Cain growled. “I was going to let you live …”

“Can’t live … without her …”

The pain in Ryder’s voice made Eve’s heart ache. The vamp seemed to really care about his phoenix.

Ryder rose to his full height, baring his fangs. The two men circled each other. Going in closer, closer …

One will die.

“Where are you heading in such a hurry?” Ryder demanded. “You talked to the human, then you swept out of town.” Blood dripped down his chin. “What did he tell you?”

Cain just smiled. “Why didn’t you ask him yourself?”

Ryder’s face tightened, but his arms stayed loose at his sides. “The other humans got there before I could make him tell me.” Ryder’s gaze cut to Eve. “But I know you found Wyatt. I know, and I can help you.”

With his enhanced strength and speed, he just might be a strong ally.

If they could trust him.

We can’t.

“I can taste the fire in your blood,” Ryder said as he swept the back of his hand over his chin. “Just like hers … ”

The vampire was on a dangerous edge of obsession, and Eve knew he’d turn on them in an instant, if it meant he could get to his phoenix.

“I gave you the chance to walk away,” Cain growled, voice low and cutting. The parking area was deserted. The whole place looked deserted, except for the faint glow that shone from inside the motel’s office. “You should have just kept going.”

“Tell me where she is!” The vampire leaped toward Cain.

“No.” Cain punched the vampire in the chest, a pounding blow that crunched bones.

The two men were a twist of bodies. Punching. Kicking. Brutal fighting that was silent and vicious.

Since Cain’s fire wouldn’t work on the vampire, it looked like Cain was going to kill the guy the old-fashioned way.

By tearing him apart.

“Stop!” Eve yelled.

Neither man even looked her way.

I can taste the fire in your blood.

Cain kept swinging. Eve glanced around. The railing near the motel’s office was old and sagging … and made of wood.

Yes. She raced toward it. Saw the sleeping form of an old man inside the office. Ignoring him for the moment, Eve shoved her hips against the railing, then she yanked hard on the loose wood. Once, twice …

A chunk of wood broke off in her hands.

There was another way to kill the vampire.

She ran back to the two fighting men just as Cain tossed Ryder onto the ground. The vampire landed on his ass. He began to lunge up.

“Don’t!” Eve jumped near him. The stake hovered over his chest.

Ryder froze.

Good. Looked like she had finally gotten his attention.

Cain came up behind her. She could feel his strength all around her. He wasn’t going to like this part, but there wasn’t a choice.

Eve kept one hand wrapped tightly around the stake. Maybe it was sliding into Ryder’s flesh, just a little, but she needed the guy to understand she meant business. She lifted her other hand and turned it, wrist first, toward Ryder’s mouth. “Bite me.”

Cain’s hands closed over her shoulders. “Are you insane?”

Ryder wasn’t biting her. He’d tilted his head to the side, and, sure enough, he was looking at her like she was the crazy one.

Takes one to know one …

“He can taste the fire in your blood. He said so. He said you tasted like the other phoenix.” She pushed her wrist toward the vamp’s mouth. Since when did a vampire turn away from a bite? “If I’m like you, he’ll know with one taste, Cain.”

She wasn’t going to let Cain kill the vampire, not when he could give her so much valuable information. Tell me what I am.

If she was like Cain, like the other phoenix, then she wasn’t alone. She wasn’t the freak in the world.

“Bite her and you die,” Cain promised.

“Don’t bite me,” Eve snapped right back, “and I’ll shove this stake in your heart.”

“I can take it away,” Cain whispered in her ear. “By the time you can even blink, I can have that stake in my hand and in the vamp’s heart.”

He could, she knew it. But … “Don’t.” Her head turned just a few inches, so she could meet his stare. “I need to know this.”

She gasped at the sting of pain in her wrist. The vampire had sunk his teeth into her. The skin broke beneath his fangs, and she felt his tongue against her flesh. She jerked her hand, wanting to recoil, but forced herself to freeze.

Have to know. I want to— “Enough.” Cain’s snarl.

Ryder lifted his head and licked the blood from his lips. His eyes seemed to glow a bit as he stared at Eve. “Lot of power … so much …”