What’s coming for me.
She found his hand. Turned it over. Then, in the dark, her lips met his. She tasted blood on his lips. And he felt—cold.
Cain never felt cold.
“The fire,” she whispered against his mouth. “I need . . .”
A small spark sputtered to life in his hand. Like a weak candle lighting the room.
And revealing the monsters that waited for them.
Eve’s gaze swept to the left. To the right. She saw the fangs. The claws. The monsters coming. Just a few feet away. Waiting to pounce on her.
Too many.
Vampires.
These didn’t look like others she’d seen. They didn’t just have sharp canines—all of their teeth were razor sharp. And the nails breaking from their fingertips looked like long, black knives.
What the hell? This wasn’t the way vamps were supposed to look. This was something totally foreign to her.
“K-kill . . .” Cain rasped.
She lifted her gun. The bullets she had left might slow the vampires down, but it wasn’t going to stop them all.
She could still hear what she’d told Cain earlier. If a vamp ever tries to bite me again, I swear I’ll kill him myself. Eve had meant those words.
There were too many to kill. She wouldn’t be able to take them all out, no matter how hard she tried.
The vamps were ignoring Trace’s body. Because he’s already dead? They were focused only on her and Cain.
And on Cain’s blood. There was so much blood. She could feel it beneath her fingertips. With that faint light from Cain’s fire, she could see the broken bones in his arm. His twisted legs . . .
“Kill . . . me . . .” Cain whispered.
Her gaze flew to his face. “No!”
Another slice over her back. Eve screamed and turned back, firing her gun. A vampire cried out, the sound like an animal’s shrill cry of pain and rage.
She’d made a hit. How many bullets did she have left? Not enough.
“Come . . . back . . .” Cain’s voice. So low. Pain-filled. “I can . . . stop . . . them . . .”
Yes, the fire could burn through the vampires, she knew that. But I don’t want to be the one to kill Cain. She couldn’t be the one.
Another swipe of claws over her skin. Eve fired the gun. Caught another vampire and heard that same high-pitched cry.
“Eat . . .” A whisper from the darkness. From the vampires that were shuffling closer.
Her hands were shaking. “Stay away from us!”
“Kill me . . . Eve . . .” Cain’s voice. So weak. Broken. “Kill . . . me . . .”
But she couldn’t. She couldn’t look into Cain’s eyes and pull the trigger.
He’ll come back.
Cain’s body jerked. His breath rushed out.
Gulping. Slurping.
A vampire was drinking from Cain’s leg. Eve fired again. “Stay away from him!”
That feeding vampire fell back with a screech. But the others inched closer.
“My . . . fire . . .” Cain’s voice was weakening even more. He was hurt too badly. She knew he wasn’t going to survive much longer. Either her bullets took him out or he kept suffering. He kept facing agony as the vamps tried to drain him.
Her cheeks were wet. From blood or tears? Both. “I’m . . . sorry . . .” She couldn’t let the vampires eat his flesh. Not during these last desperate moments. She couldn’t do that to him.
“Come . . . back . . .” His words were a bare whisper. One she had to strain to hear as she leaned over him. “You . . . run . . . ”
She nodded.
“Don’t want to . . . hurt . . . you . . .”
But he wanted her to shoot him.
She lifted the gun to his heart. The fire in Cain’s hands was flickering, fading, and the vamps were closing in as the darkness spread once more.
Their claws reached her, tearing into her skin. Cain’s body jerked and shuddered, and Eve knew they were attacking him, too.
“I’m sorry,” she told him, crying hard, unable to stop her tears. Eve pulled the trigger.
“Remarkable,” Richard said as he watched Eve kill her lover. The gray images played before him on the screen, the gritty, night-vision surveillance cams making the forms of the vampires look like long, desperate shadows.
Shadows with glowing eyes. Shadows that were grabbing Eve. Poor Eve. She’d used her last bullet on Cain. She was still trying to fight back, but she couldn’t seem to summon any fire on her own.
Not like her mother.
How disappointing.
Flames began to flicker around Cain’s body. The regeneration process had begun, but the phoenix had better hurry. If he didn’t rise soon, Eve would be dead long before Cain was able to draw breath again.