Once Bitten, Twice Burned

  The vamp frowned at him. “What?”

  “Malcolm.” He’d already been out in the open long enough. He didn’t trust the vamps not to attack. The primals were out there on the streets of New Orleans, two according to his intel, but if those two had already bit and infected other humans . . .

  We have to stop this.

  Ryder was his only hope.

  Keith turned away. “The guns are gonna stay on you until I’m clear.” Not his first ball game with the undead.

  But the coming battle might just prove to be his last.

  “I’m going back to the bar,” Ryder said. He glanced at Sabine’s brother. The guy was pale, but not fighting.

  Why would he fight now?

  Sabine lightly touched Rhett’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  She kept apologizing to the guy.

  Ryder shook his head. “Rhett, I want you to take your car and get out of New Orleans.” The link was effortless. Humans were so easy to control.

  Rhett rose to his feet. His gaze drifted to Sabine.

  “Go to Memphis,” Ryder instructed. He could just think the instructions and Rhett would obey, but he said them out loud so Sabine would know all of the plans. “Find a club called The Blue Jay. Tell the bartender that I sent you.” Rhett would fit right in there, and Jay would make sure the guy was safe, until Ryder sent for him again.

  Rhett nodded. “I can . . . feel you.” He rubbed his temples. Almost clawed at them.

  Stop.

  Rhett’s hands dropped. “In my head. You’re . . . in my head.” His eyes were wide with horror, but he made no move to attack Ryder.

  You want to fight me. You can’t. So you just need to walk out that door. Get in your car. Drive to Memphis.

  Slowly, very, very slowly, Rhett started to walk. But then his gaze drifted to Sabine. Guilt was written all over her face.

  Tell her you love her.

  Ryder didn’t even know why he sent the command, but Rhett’s voice rasped, “I love you.”

  Sabine’s eyes squeezed shut, as if she couldn’t bear to look at her brother. “I love you, too, and I swear, I’ll make this up to you. I swear.”

  Rhett lifted his hands. Pushed hard against his temples once more. “In . . . my . . . head.”

  Stop.

  “Hurts,” Rhett whispered, sounding lost.

  Sabine opened her eyes, frowning at him. “What hurts?”

  Perhaps this human wasn’t as weak as he’d originally thought. Walk away, now. Ryder focused harder and actually got the guy to move. One foot. Another.

  A few more steps, then Rhett opened the door.

  Don’t look back.

  Rhett’s body trembled. The human had one strong will. Stronger than any Ryder had encountered before. “Keep her . . . safe,” Rhett rasped. “Or I’ll . . . stake you.”

  You can try. Ryder gave another hard mental push, and Rhett left the cabin.

  Sabine stared after him. She didn’t speak until she heard the car crank up. Then drive away.

  “Thank you.”

  She shouldn’t really thank him. Once Rhett got far enough away, the guy might just be able to fight that compulsion.

  And come back.

  So they didn’t have time to waste. “We need to get to the bar.”

  She nodded.

  He crossed to her. Caught her shoulders in his hands. “I’m going to have to kill today.”

  Her breath whispered out. “Keith—”

  Perhaps, but first he had a few other priorities. “I can’t let my enemies go any longer.” The longer he waited, the more dangerous they became. When you were betrayed, you had to strike back. A fast and brutal strike. “If I don’t go after them, they’ll come for me. And for you.” Because needing her so much was a weakness that others would try to use against him. “Wyatt and his scientists used you against me in Genesis. No one else can do that. Ever.”

  “Wh-what do you mean?”

  “Vampires sold me out before, so vampires are dying today.” The trap should be set. He’d given the orders. Put the plan into motion.

  Now it was time to kill.

  “If you don’t want to watch what’s coming, then you need to stay here.”

  “They’re—you think they’re going to try and kill you?”

  He laughed at that question. “You’re not the only one with enemies on your trail. They’ll try. They’ll fail. I’ll succeed.” Because the minute he got close enough to the traitorous vamps, the battle would be over.

  He’d compel them. Control them. End them.

  Maybe he didn’t want Sabine to see this fight. Watching him control her brother had been bad enough. Watching him get a group of vamps to stake themselves . . . well, that wouldn’t exactly be a warm and fuzzy memory for her.

  “Stay here,” he said, voice deepening. Not so much a question any longer, but an order.

  She shook her head at him. “You need me. I’m coming.”

  “I don’t—”

  “I’m coming with you, Ryder.” Shrugging, she said, “Besides, if I stay here, all alone, who knows what could happen? Maybe Rhett was followed, maybe—”

  Hell. “Just don’t try to stop me.”

  She shrugged again. The shrug was no answer. They both realized that.

  “Sabine.” Her name came out on a sigh. “Don’t try to stop me. They’ve got this death coming.”

  Her brows lowered. “How can you know that you’ll be targeting the right ones?”

  “Because I have a spy in their camp.” One who had been assigned the job of rooting out the vamps who’d sent him to hell. “And that vamp is ready to serve the others up to me.”

  He just had to go in.

  And deliver his justice.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Bran’s Castle didn’t look nearly as . . . exciting during the day. There were no glasses filled with blood. No vamps lurking in the corner.

  There wasn’t much of anything happening there. The place could have been any human bar.

  “Ryder.”

  Okay, so maybe there was one vampire lurking around. Sabine turned and saw Grayson heading out of the back room. The scent of blood followed him.

  “We’ve got a big problem,” Grayson snapped. He shot her a quick glance.

  She tried to look cool and in control.

  “Where are they?” Ryder demanded. He sounded cool and in control. She wanted to be like that.

  “Julia’s getting—shit, forget about them a minute, okay?” Grayson ran a shaking hand through his hair. The mussed look suggested he’d been yanking a hand through his hair for a while now. “A human came by, looking for you. He said that he had what you wanted.”

  “Keith,” Sabine whispered. But how could he have what they wanted? Rhett was gone. Safe.

  “The guy asked that you meet him, at midnight tonight, in some place on Chartres.”

  “Screw him,” Ryder said as he headed toward the bar. “I don’t need—”

  “Malcolm.”

  Ryder froze. Then he turned, his movements tight, and stared back at Grayson. “Why the hell did you just say his name?”

  “Because your human friend told me that Malcolm sends his regards.” The vampire was sweating. His hands shoved through his hair again. Fear. “But that’s total bullshit, right? I heard the stories. Your brother is dead.”

  “Dead and buried,” Ryder agreed. His jaw had locked.

  “So why did the guy say that?”

  “Because he’s trying to rattle us.” Ryder rolled his shoulders as if pushing away tension. “Keith knows that he doesn’t have what we really wanted, and he’s trying to draw me out for a fight.”

  “Who the hell is he?” Grayson wanted to know.

  “He’s just a human who thinks he can manipulate me. But that’s not going to happen.” Ryder shrugged. “Now where’s Julia?”

  Grayson opened his mouth to speak.

  Sabine beat him to the punch. “You’re just going to ignore this? Wha
t if—what if Malcolm is somehow alive?” Malcolm. The guy scared her. Scared her more than Genesis, and that was saying a whole lot.

  “He isn’t alive.”

  “How would Keith even know—”

  “Because we all use spies to get our dirty work done.” Ryder cast a quick look at Grayson. “Keith said he had a person at Genesis. That person could have talked to some vamps there. Could have heard about my brother. His existence wasn’t exactly a secret.”

  “More like a legend,” Grayson mumbled.

  Ryder frowned at him. “Malcolm isn’t a threat that we need to worry about. The vampires after me—”

  “The ones who are planning to cut off your head,” Grayson supplied, rather helpfully, Sabine thought.

  “They’re the threat that we eliminate first.” Ryder crossed his arms and studied Grayson. “So what did you find out?”

  “There are six . . . here in New Orleans. They’re all young, fairly new changes, and they—”

  The bar’s front door flew open and slammed into the wall. “And they’re not as stupid as you think,” Julia snarled as she rushed inside. “I knew all along you were still sided with this bastard!”

  Sabine eased back, taking a few fast steps closer to Ryder.

  She wasn’t fast enough.

  Because Julia wasn’t the only vampire to come rushing in that door. Three others followed her and two burst in from the bar’s back door.

  Ryder just stared at them all. The vamps were armed, some with guns, some with stakes. They looked pissed and scared and determined.

  Ryder laughed at them and said, “You’re exactly as stupid as I thought. I just needed Grayson to get you all together, to pull you out into the open.”

  He glanced at the vampire with the stake. Ryder’s eyes narrowed.

  Sabine knew exactly what he was doing. Telling him to kill himself.

  The vampire raised the stake. Started screaming, “Stop it! Stop it!” His hand curled toward his own chest.

  Ryder glanced away from him. Stared at a redhead with scruffy hair. The man lifted the gun he held to his head.

  She didn’t want to see this. Ryder had been right when he’d tried to get her to stay away.

  “What are you doing?” Julia screamed. Her scream wasn’t directed at Ryder. It was directed at the vampires—her men—who were turning to flee.

  But those men suddenly froze in place.

  Ryder.

  “All vampires have blood that links to me,” he said simply. And his control, his power, it was terrifying.

  Terror was exactly the emotion reflected on Julia’s face. “That’s why we have to kill you,” she whispered, licking her lips. “If we’re ever going to be free, you have to die. He was right.”

  He?

  But Sabine didn’t get to question her. More glass exploded because more vampires were attacking, only these vampires were different.

  Too many teeth.

  Too many claws.

  Primals. And not just the other two that had escaped from Genesis. At least seven primals had just leapt through the broken glass of the windows and rushed into the bar.

  “We brought some backup,” Julia said. She smiled, flashing her fangs. “I bet you didn’t see that coming.”

  No, they hadn’t.

  The primals ran forward, attacking, but they weren’t going for Ryder.

  All of those black claws, those sharp teeth—

  They’re coming for me.

  They closed in as Sabine screamed.

  Keith paced around the small apartment. Midnight would be coming all too soon. They had to be ready. He glanced to the left, at the woman who stood so still and silent near the window. “You’re sure you can do this?”

  She turned toward him. Small, with golden skin and wide, almond-shaped eyes, she didn’t look particularly strong.

  But sometimes, strength wasn’t physical.

  For her, it was all mental.

  “If you bring me the phoenix, I should be able to save your son.”

  Yes, he noticed her very careful should be. Because Cassandra Armstrong wasn’t going to make a promise she couldn’t keep. She was already nervous, already so scared he’d caught her hand shaking when she’d injected Vaughn with a sedative.

  But Cassandra wasn’t going to break and run. She’d dealt with plenty of supernaturals before.

  And she was his only hope. “She’s coming.” Little Sabine Acadia. Who would have known that she’d be the key to saving so many people?

  “Is she coming . . . willingly?” Cassandra asked carefully.

  Not exactly. But he nodded anyway. When it came to his son, willingness didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but saving Vaughn. Stopping him from being a monster.

  But he didn’t tell Cassandra that part. She wouldn’t understand. She hated what Wyatt had done. She was on some quest to help the supernaturals, to make up for all the wrongs that Genesis had done to them.

  Good fucking luck to her.

  He just wanted his son back.

  And he’d do anything, use anyone, if it meant that Vaughn could be more than just a killing machine.

  When those bastards closed in on Sabine, something broke inside of Ryder. He didn’t care about control or caution. He had only one thought.

  Kill them.

  So the vampire with a stake at his own heart and the vampire with the gun at his head—they both turned instantly . . . and attacked the primals.

  Julia screamed, even as she, too, lifted the weapon she’d tucked in her jeans and fired on the primals.

  All those vampires who’d thought to take him out, Ryder turned them on the primals.

  Take them out. Get their attention. Stop them. Kill them.

  “Fucking bloodbath,” Grayson muttered. He tried to run forward and attack the primals, too.

  Ryder grabbed his arm. Grayson was his oldest friend. That meant something. Even in the roar of his fury. “Stay back or you’ll die, too.”

  “Staying the hell back,” Grayson agreed as he jumped behind the bar’s counter.

  A primal sank his teeth into Julia’s throat. She screamed and fired her gun right into his heart.

  One primal was already on the ground, a stake in his heart. Another primal had just ripped a gun away from his attackers.

  But there were still others. Still too many vampires . . .

  Get them away from Sabine.

  Because he couldn’t hear her screams anymore. She had to be okay. Too many bodies were in his way. He couldn’t even see her.

  Ryder tried to reach her mind. Sabine.

  A wall of flames flickered in his mind’s eye.

  Still flames. With her, he was starting to realize that would always be the case.

  Then a vampire—a primal—flew back through the air. A stake was embedded in his heart.

  “I’m not”—Sabine shoved her hair back over her shoulder and wiped away the blood that dripped down her chin—“helpless anymore. Not human . . . So back away!”

  But they weren’t backing away.

  The primals were slicing right through the other vampires, the other fools who’d been stupid enough to think they could control these predators.

  But Ryder could attack. He could kill. Now that he knew Sabine was alive, he could actually think again.

  He shoved his claws into the chest of one primal. Had his heart before the man could scream.

  There were so many screams around him.

  Ryder sliced the throat of another.

  Sabine had a chair in her arms. When a primal vamp came at her, she shoved it at him. The chair leg sank into his chest.

  The vamp fell to the floor.

  The primals were dying. Those still living should have tried to run, but they just kept trying to get to Sabine.

  Ryder grabbed the next bastard who was attempting to bite his woman.

  “Need . . . her . . .”—the primal’s eyes looked blind—“her . . . blood . . .”

  “You’re no
t getting it.” Ryder sliced his throat. Took his head. Dropped his body. Moved on to the next target. “None of you are getting to her.”

  But the primals were so close to the one thing they wanted most—Sabine’s blood. And they were fighting with a wild ferocity as they realized that death was stalking them.

  Because he sure as hell was.

  Then one primal made the mistake of driving his fist into Sabine’s jaw. He yanked the makeshift weapon from her hands and shoved his fangs into her throat.

  The world became a sea of red rage for Ryder.

  He tore through everyone in his path. His claws sliced. His teeth bit. Flesh tore. Screams surrounded him.

  Get to her.

  Sabine’s arms came up. “Get away!”

  The faintest tendril of smoke appeared between her and the primal.

  Ryder reached out and grabbed the bastard—even as the primal started to howl in pain.

  The primal’s chest was burning.

  From the inside?

  Ryder swung him around. The guy sliced out with his claws, digging deep.

  And Ryder just laughed. Then he picked up the still-smoking bastard and tossed him across the room. The man slammed into the bar.

  Grayson lunged up and staked him.

  Ryder stood there, chest heaving, fury boiling his blood. His head turned, and he met Sabine’s wide-eyed stare. She had her hands at her throat. Her lips were trembling.

  As she stared at him, there was no missing the fear in her gaze.

  His racing heartbeat began to slow. Ryder shook his head and glanced around. Bodies littered the floor. Blood. So much blood.

  All of the primals were dead. Their eyes stared sightlessly ahead. Some of them . . . His chin lifted. He didn’t remember even making the brutal attacks, but he knew the kills were his.

  I lost it. When they went for her . . .

  And the vampires that had thought to attack him? All but one of them had already died. The only one left was Julia. She lay sprawled on the floor, a giant chunk of wood in her chest. Her gasping breaths seemed to echo in the room.

  Ryder didn’t want to touch Sabine. Not yet. Not with so much blood on his hands. And there was still one more piece of business to finish.

  He turned away from her. Walked toward Julia’s desperate form. His shoes slid in the blood that surrounded her.