Burn For Me (Phoenix Fire 1)

“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.

Cave-i n.

She tried to sit up, but strong hands held her down. “Breathe, Eve.”

There wouldn’t be much to breathe, not for long. Those bastards had sealed them inside the tunnel. They buried us alive. If she weren’t already choking on dirt, she’d be whimpering.

Cain’s hands slid over her body. She jerked at the touch. She couldn’t see anything in that darkness, but she could feel his body surrounding her. Eve spat out more dirt and managed to rasp, “Cain . . . light.” She needed his fire. She hated this darkness. It was suffocating her.

No, that would be the dirt and rocks.

“Can’t.” His voice was grim. “The fire would burn up the oxygen in here. You need it too much.”

Her heart seemed to stop at those words. “We’re trapped.” Not a question. She’d realized it could happen as soon as those jackasses with guns had started firing. But she hadn’t been able to leave Cain.

He didn’t respond, but then, he didn’t have to. His fingers brushed over her face. She turned in to his touch.

“You should have gone with them.”

“So Wyatt could slice me open?” At least she could talk easily now. “No, thanks.”

Cain’s hand left her. She missed his touch instantly in the dark.

“You’d rather die slowly here with me?” Anger hummed in his voice.

It felt like she couldn’t get in a full breath. Her imagination? Her fear? Or was there just no damn air in there? “I’d rather not die at all.” She reached out in the darkness and her hands clutched him. “But I wasn’t going to leave you trapped in this hole alone.”

Her hands were on his chest. His heart raced beneath her touch. “If I’d been alone,” he growled, “then I could have used the fire to blast my way out.”

“You still can. You know the fire doesn’t—”

“We could run out of oxygen before the fire gets us free. Or the whole f**king mountain could just fall on us. I’ll keep coming back, again and again, keep burning . . . but you won’t.”

Brutal words. Cold. The truth?

Eve pushed away from him. Surprisingly, there was enough room for her to rise to her feet. Her movements were slow, mincing, careful. Once she was at her full height, she stepped forward in an attempt to explore their small space.

Almost instantly, Cain’s hands wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her back against him. “You’re heading toward the cave-in.”

She turned and lifted her hands right out in front of her face. She waved them, and saw nothing. Dammit. “You can see perfectly, can’t you?”

“Yes.”

She touched the rocky wall that had been at the end of the tunnel. So heavy. “Someone put these here. . . .”

“Probably because they didn’t want those vamps ever getting loose.”

She didn’t want to think about the vampires. Or the memories they’d stirred up in her mind. One thing at a time. The only thing she was thinking about was survival. She touched the rocks.

Cain grabbed her hand. “Baby, why do you have a death wish?”

Eve tried to snatch her hand back. She couldn’t. He was too strong. “I don’t.”

“Then why did you stay with me?” In the darkness, his words were more snarls than anything else. So much anger. No, fury.

She had fury of her own. “Why are you so pissed off at me?” Eve demanded. “Because I didn’t want to get my body sliced open by that freak? Or because I’d rather die in the dark with you than—”

He whirled her around and pulled her against him. “You’re supposed to live.” He backed her up two steps. “We’re running out of air. No one is going to come for us. You were supposed to live!”

His eyes started to burn in the dark. Finally. She could see the fire blazing at her. The only light in the blackness.

Was there madness in that light? Maybe. But she had her own madness, too. “I wasn’t going to leave you alone.” Her words sounded calm. How was that even possible? She could see Cain walking that fine line between reason and fury. She had to keep him from crossing over, so she told him the truth. “I knew I’d be safe with you.”

His hands bit into her shoulders. “You’re going to be dead with me.”