Once Bitten, Twice Burned

And if Cain came into the room, then . . .

Sabine will follow right behind him.

Wyatt had told him that Sabine was coming. The guy was working another experiment. Seeing which phoenix was stronger.

Cain was in the hallway. Sabine would be on her way after him. It was just a matter of waiting for her.

“I hope you enjoy the fire,” Ryder muttered as he turned away. He didn’t need to see the bastard die. He just needed the job to be done.

“It’s not blood that . . . was the cure.” Wyatt’s voice stopped him. “It’s Sabine. Her tears. A phoenix’s tears . . . found out . . . really heal . . .”

Ryder didn’t look back. Why stare at a dead man? He slipped out of the room and got ready to wait.

Hurry, Sabine, I need you.

The cages were open. The beasts out. Sabine saw death all around her. Guards fighting. Dying. Beings with claws and fangs attacking.

She tried to jump away from them. She didn’t want to fight. There was only one man that she had to find.

“Bitch, you’re one of them!”

Hard hands grabbed her. She looked up into the wild eyes of a man—no, not a man. He had fangs and claws—claws that were cutting into her hips. The light glinted off the vampire’s bald head.

“Let me go!” Sabine cried out. She’d put on a white lab coat. Thinking it would let her slip by the guards, just like last time. Only now, the lab coat marked her for death because it wasn’t the guards that she had to worry about. She needed to fear her fellow prisoners.

“I’ll make you beg!” His claws dug deeper, and she gasped. She’d had enough pain. Too much.

Her hands curled around his wrists. “No, you won’t.” Then she let her fire out. His hands heated beneath her touch. Burned. The man jumped back, screaming.

He didn’t attack again. He was too busy trying to put out the fire that licked at his skin. Sabine yanked off the coat. Blood had already appeared in thick patches on the white material. She tossed the coat aside. Kept hunting.

The woman had told her to go to the third floor. Others were fleeing, rushing for freedom.

Instead of running out with them, she continued going up.

Another stairwell. More attackers. She kept her fire ready. When they saw it, everyone stayed the hell back.

Then she was reaching for the door that would lead her to the third floor. The scent of death and blood was so strong there and—

She screamed when she was grabbed from behind. Grabbed, and then shoved up against the nearest wall. The vampire she’d burned—he’d tracked her. There’d been so much blood in the air that she hadn’t smelled him, so many other thudding footsteps that she hadn’t heard him. Before she could scream again, he sank his teeth into her shoulder and tore into the flesh.

Her hands were between them. The fire burned from her fingertips, and Sabine shoved a ball of flames right into his chest.

He fell back, tumbling down the stairs, and the fire consumed him.

Don’t think. Don’t feel.

But it was the first time that she’d ever killed anyone. Bile rose in her throat.

This is what I’ve become.

Sabine swallowed. Pressed a quick hand to her bleeding wound. Her first kill, but not her last. She still had a job to do. Her target. Sabine turned around and with shaking, now bloody hands, she shoved open the metal door that led out of the stairwell. Find the target. Kill him.

As she headed down the hallway—one already reeking of blood and death—a tall, dark-haired male rushed from one of the offices. His face was locked in tense lines of fury, and she recognized him instantly from his photo, even before she saw the flames in his eyes.

Cain O’Connor.

He’s the one like me. Another phoenix. Another who could die and rise and kill with fire.

He was the one she was supposed to destroy. She wasn’t even sure how that was really supposed to work. Could the fire of one phoenix kill another? Because if it couldn’t, Sabine was figuring that she would be pretty well screwed.

Body tensing, Sabine let her fire out. Not just a little ball this time. She wanted to be safe. A circle of flames wrapped around her as the power of the beast that lurked inside began to push past her control.

Through the flames, her gaze met O’Connor’s. On a sigh, she said, “I’m supposed to kill you.” What if her flames didn’t work against another phoenix? How would she take him out then? How would she protect her brother?

But he shook his head. His hair, a little too long, brushed over his shoulders. “I’m not here to hurt you.”