Burn For Me (Phoenix Fire #1)(71)

No, she wouldn’t.

Ryder had said Eve didn’t have the blood of a phoenix. Why would he have lied about that?

Why would he have told the truth?

Never trust a vampire.

Cain didn’t trust anyone. Except … Eve. Somehow, some way, she’d gotten beneath his skin. Beneath the fire.

“I couldn’t find a way out,” she said, rising to whisper in his ear. “Just stones. Dirt.”

A dead end.

That bright light kept shining right on him.

“I’ve got a better idea,” the voice told him. It wasn’t sounding so afraid any longer. More like cocky.

A bad mistake. Cain had never been able to tolerate cocky jerks.

“Why don’t you send the woman over here …”

Behind that light, Cain saw the man’s gun point toward the top of the tunnel.

That bastard was going to shoot the tunnel at its weak points and force a cave-in.

The fire began to rage inside Cain. The beast hadn’t been calmed, not appeased nearly enough. This jerkoff was tempting him. All but begging for death.

“Send her here, or I’ll send this whole damn place crashing down on you both.”

The men behind the leader lifted their weapons. They pointed them not at Eve and Cain, but at the tunnel’s top, its sides.

When they fired, Cain knew the tunnel could collapse. Eve would die. She’d suffocate or be crushed.

And he’d rise to find her broken body.

“Go,” he forced out to Eve.

She didn’t move. “And what happens to Cain?” Eve asked.

Silence, then … “Nothing,” the lying human told her. “We’ll leave him just where he is.”

Such bullshit. Cain caught Eve’s hand. So soft. His gaze stared into hers. “They can’t kill me.” Well, not for long, anyway. “They’ll just piss me off.”

She shook her head. “But when you rise”—her voice was so soft that it barely whispered in his ears—“you come back … different, Cain.”

Each time, he did. Darker. More lost. But he’d been fighting to hold his sanity.

For her.

What would happen if he rose and she wasn’t there?

He forced himself to release her hand. “If you stay with me, they’ll kill you.” He couldn’t allow that.

He couldn’t protect her, not there. Too much fire could destroy the place, and then he’d be the one to destroy her.

Not gonna happen.

“Wyatt wants her alive.” The leader’s hard voice came again. His weapon was still pointed at the ceiling. “So just send her over, and we’ll get her out of here.”

But they wouldn’t do the same for him. He knew what would happen next, even if Eve didn’t.

He wanted to kiss her. Taste her. But time was running out. So he stepped away from her. Let all emotion wash from his face. “Go.”

Eve still hesitated.

“Shoot the wall!” the leader barked.

“No!” Cain screamed right back. He caught Eve’s shoulders and pushed her away from him—and right at the guards. “Get her the hell out of here.”

“Cain!” Arms reached for her. Eve fought them, glancing back. “Cain!”

He stood frozen. There wasn’t another option. Didn’t she see that?

Cain stared at the leader of those guards. Memorized him. The receding hairline. The thick neck. The beady eyes. “I’ll kill you first,” he promised. He saw the gun’s barrel tremble. His gaze swept around, learning the faces of all the men. The shadows didn’t hide their identities from him. The darkness hid nothing. “Then I’ll come for the rest of you if any man so much as bruises her skin.”

Some of the smarter humans immediately eased away from Eve. Maybe they’d get to keep living.

But there was always at least one dumbass in any group. The lead guard appeared to be that one. The man scurried back like a rat running in the dark. “Oh, Wyatt’s gonna do more than bruise her.” The taunt was tossed out after the guy had backed up about five feet. Did he think Cain couldn’t see his smile? “He’s gonna cut her open. Dissect her”—he fired his gun, a fast blast at the tunnel’s ceiling—“and you can’t stop him!”

As if on cue, the others began to fire their weapons. Dirt and rocks fell down, burying him. Cain had expected this.

Eve hadn’t.

The guards weren’t holding her. They were too busy firing and backing away. They must have thought she was afraid of the cave-in. He’d learned Eve wasn’t afraid of much.

She lunged toward him.

No, Eve!

But she ran through the falling debris. Ran straight for Cain and threw herself into his arms. They tumbled back, back, and he rolled them away from the collapsing edge of the tunnel. As the dirt rained down, as the rocks hit him, he covered her with his body and hoped that he’d be able to keep her alive.



“Open your eyes.”

His voice slipped through her mind. So deep. Rumbling. She loved the sound of Cain’s voice.

“Dammit, Eve, don’t do this … open your eyes.” He shook her. Hard.

She opened her eyes, but saw only darkness. A total and perfect black. Eve opened her mouth to speak and choked. What the hell? She spat out dirt.