Once Bitten, Twice Burned

She blinked at him. “I’ve heard your voice . . . calling to me . . . through the fire.”

Yes.

He swallowed. Kept his hands light and gentle on her feverish skin. “Stop the fire,” he told her softly.

“I-I don’t know how!” Tears leaked down her cheeks.

His heart ached. They’d been through all of this before. But this time, he knew what to do.

She knew fury and fear and pain.

He would remind her of something else. Love.

“Help me,” she whispered to him. “Please.”

“I will,” he promised. Then Ryder put his lips to hers. He kissed her, pushing all of the love and need he felt into that kiss.

But she jerked her head away from him. Her eyes were even more afraid. “Why don’t you burn?”

“Because you’d never hurt me.” She was shaking. Hurting so much. He had to stop her pain. “And I won’t let you hurt.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you, Sabine.” He kissed her again. Soft, gentle, even as the fire crackled and raged. She stood tense and scared at first, but then her lips parted just a little. Her breath eased out. He took that breath, as he’d take anything that she’d offer to him.

His lips were careful on hers. He held back his frantic need. Held tight to his control. He just wanted her to return, his Sabine, with her memory. Her fire. Her wit. Her beautiful spirit.

Her hands pushed lightly at his chest. He lifted his head.

She stared at him, and the flames seemed to have dimmed in her eyes. “Y-you . . . you have fangs.”

His heart squeezed at the familiar words. That was what she’d said to him before, too, when they’d been trapped in his cell, and that time, he’d told her, “And you’re burning the room around us.” His voice was husky.

From the corner of his eye, Ryder saw a dark form dart through the doorway. Another man. He ran toward the cage. It looked like the man was trying to help Keith. Trying to save Vaughn.

Ryder focused on Sabine once more. If he didn’t stop Sabine, there would be no saving anyone. “Pull it back, love,” he told her, deliberately using the words he’d said in his cell in order to jar her memory. “Pull it back.” Then he kissed her again. “Focus on me.” Just like they’d done before. “Breathe,” he told her. “Slow. Deep.” His hand moved to rest over her heart. “Too fast,” Ryder told her. “Breathe. You’re safe with me.”

Her breath whispered out. Her hands weren’t pushing against him now. They were digging into his chest.

“I . . . remember you.”

He wanted to yank her against him and hold tight. “Good because I love you.” He’d tell her forever. Every day for the rest of their lives.

The flames were gone from her eyes. Around them, the fire was dying. “Vampire,” she whispered.

He nodded.

“You . . . bit me.”

He had, several times.

“You . . . love me.”

He would, always.

Another tear leaked from her eye. “I remember you . . .”

The good? The bad?

She smiled then, and it wasn’t the deadly, dangerous smile from moments before. It wasn’t the phoenix smiling. It was the woman, and her smile was beautiful. She was beautiful. “My vampire,” Sabine said.

Hell, yes, he was hers. Always.

Then her body trembled. He caught her in his arms, lifting her up when she would have fallen. Holding her so tightly against his chest. His heart.

Then he saw the others. Keith and—Rhett? Hell, that crazy bastard who’d run into the flames had been Sabine’s brother? If Ryder hadn’t been so busy trying to stop the inferno, he would have recognized the man instantly. But he’d been a bit . . . distracted.

Rhett and Keith had just opened the door of the cage. Vaughn was rushing out at them.

They were going to get bitten. Become primal. He yelled out a warning.

Even as a shot fired out. The blast hit Vaughn in the chest, and he fell to the floor, unconscious.

“It’s safe now,” Cassie’s voice called. “You can carry him out.” She stood in the broken remains of the doorway, a gun in her hands. “I gave him a tranq.”

The wounds on her neck were all but gone.

She’d been at death’s door, but now she was back. Moving. Barking out orders. That sure as hell wasn’t a normal recovery. Not even normal for a vampire, much less a human.

The tears of a phoenix. Had she really made that SOB Dante shed a tear? It sure looked as if she had.