Phoenix Fury Box set

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

When a guard saw him and shouted out a warning, Dante decided—

Screw the subtle approach.

—even as the shriek of an alarm blasted through the night.

He rose from the shadows. Lifted his hands and sent fire flying toward the thick fence and its barbed wire. The flames blasted right through that flimsy protection, and he walked straight ahead, clearing a path with his flames as he went.

He kept the fire burning. When a guard tried to shoot him, Dante sent flames his way. The guard yelled and ducked for cover. Humans. So predictable. Give them something to fear, and they always broke. It had been that same way for centuries.

More guards came at him. What did they hope to accomplish? Did they think they’d take him down with their bullets long enough to subdue him? Not happening. This wasn’t some weak, confused moment after a rising. He wasn’t going to let those bullets hit him.

His flames were burning bright and hot, and he melted the guns in their hands.

More screams from the humans. They always screamed.

He looked up and saw the lens of a security camera focusing on him. Dante stared into that lens. He knew the fire lit his face. It probably made him resemble the devil. Like he hadn’t been called the devil a time or twenty in his lifespan. “You have something I want!” Dante yelled. “Give her to me or…” He lifted his hands and let the flames dance. “I will burn this place down around you all.”

***

“He’s bluffing.” Dr. Shaw peered over Jon’s shoulder at the computer screen. “Isn’t he?”

“No, he isn’t.” The fire-throwing bastard. Dante had risen with his memories intact. And he’d also risen very, very pissed.

“I-I thought you left him—”

“I guess the phoenix didn’t like to be left behind.” Understatement.

“But we just started the experiments on Cassandra. We need more time!”

More time. Jon leaned forward and pressed the intercom button so that he could communicate with Dante. “If you burn us, you kill Cassie, too.” Had the phoenix’s fury blinded him to that fact? “Do you really want her to die?”

Dante’s face was a stark, intimidating mask of fury as the flames surrounded him. “I want Cassandra.”

“Why is he fixated on her?” Dr. Shaw asked. “Are they lovers? Are they—”

“The phoenix would destroy any lover he took to his bed.” Jon had read that tidbit in the research notes he’d acquired. “His fire is too dangerous.”

“Five seconds, and I start burning down buildings!” Dante roared.

Jon flipped the switch that connected him to all the guards on a secure frequency. He knew his message would be sent to their earpieces. “Shoot him. Full force. Do not let that bastard—”

Before any bullets could fire, Dante swept out with his fire. It rose—and the security screens went dark.

Jon’s gaze flew around the monitor bank. Every security screen had gone black, and there were over fifteen cameras installed out there. The facility was for research, not long-term containment. It sure couldn’t hold off someone of the phoenix’s strength.

“I don’t think he’s going to wait for her to come out.” Dr. Shaw edged toward the door.

No, he wasn’t. The phoenix was coming in, and Jon knew he’d burn anyone who got between him and Cassie. Jon also knew he couldn’t lose Cassie. She was vital to his mission goals. “Take him down!” he ordered his men once more then rushed from the room and ran back toward the lab. Toward Cassie.

He shoved open the door. She was still strapped on the table, and her gaze was still fixed on the light. He grabbed the scalpel and sliced away the straps that held her down. He dragged her up, but her head sagged back weakly. “Cassie!”

She didn’t respond.

“I’m going to destroy your phoenix, you know that, right?”

Still nothing.

“Lieutenant Colonel?” Dr. Shaw’s voice shook. She’d been racing behind him in the hallway. “He won’t get in…will he?”

Yes, he will. “He’s going to smell her blood on your hands.”

The other doctors were there, too. They’d backed away the instant Jon had grabbed the scalpel.

Bluntly, Jon told them, “He’ll probably try to kill you all first.”

There was a sharp gasp and two of the doctors immediately ran for the door.

Fools. What had they thought would happen? That paranormal research would be a safe occupation?

“B-but we didn’t—” Dr. Shaw began, sputtering as the faint color leeched from her cheeks.

Jon pulled Cassie into his arms. Wherever she’d gone in her mind, Cassie wasn’t even close to coming back yet. “You cut her open.”

“You told us—”

“Get her blood off your hands, Shaw! Get the smell off you, or you’ll be dead once he breaches the interior perimeter.” But the increasing shrieks of the alarm told him that the perimeter had already been breached.

Water immediately began to pour from the sprinklers positioned along the ceiling. Ah, right. The phoenix’s flames had been detected. The spray of water wasn’t going to do much to stop him, though. Jon knew that he had to get Cassie out of there. They’d escaped on the helicopter before. They could do it again.

He just had to run fast enough. But he could do it. No problem. The others who smelled of Cassie’s blood…the others who were now heading into the path of the phoenix as they tried to flee— they would be his perfect distraction.

Sometimes, a leader had to lose a few soldiers in order to win a war.

Or, in this case, the doctors had to die so he could survive.

He lifted Cassie higher into his arms and ran from the room.

***

“My Cassandra…” Dante inhaled, then stilled as he caught her very distinct scent. It had often drifted to him when he’d been held in that pit at Genesis.

She smelled of sunlight and flowers. Life. Hope.

Except…her scent was deeper and tinted with the faintest trace of copper.

Blood.

“Stop!” The barked order came from behind him. “We’ll shoot—”

A bullet slammed into Dante’s shoulder. They weren’t going to shoot. The asshole was already shooting at him. Too bad the guy had horrible aim.

Dante twisted and sent his flames racing toward the trigger happy idiot. The man dropped his weapon. Ran away as fast as he could.

Dante turned to the right and followed Cassie’s scent. Someone had hurt her. Someone would pay.

Two men in white lab coats raced down the hallway. They stopped as soon as they saw him. His eyes narrowed. They had Cassie’s blood on their gloved hands.

“Please!” A desperate plea from a man in his early fifties, with graying hair and a paunch. “She’s alive! I swear, she’s alive.”

Dante grabbed him. Slammed the bastard against the wall and kept him there with one hand shoved against the SOB’s chest. Dante knew that hand would burn him—it was burning as smoke rose from the asshole’s shirt. “What did you do?”

“Sh-she was just here for some research. We didn’t know, we didn’t—”

“We knew!” The shout came from the second man. He was tall, thin, and balding. “But what choice did we have? The lieutenant colonel calls the shots. He made us—”

The rage in Dante was swelling ever higher. “You both hurt her.”

The second man screamed—a high, terrified cry. He yanked something out of his lab coat pocket and lunged for Dante. The man aimed a needle toward Dante’s arm. “This’ll stop you!”

Dante caught the syringe. Snapped it in half. “No,” he said, slowly, definitely, “but I will stop you.”

The bastard’s jaw dropped. He spun around to flee.

Guards rushed around the corner. Half a dozen of them. They took one look at Dante and opened fire.

He used the two men in lab coats as his shields. They fell, bodies riddled with bullets, even as he sent his flames out toward his attackers.

Her blood…

He kicked in the door nearest him. Found another hallway waiting. Water poured from the ceiling, but it didn’t stop his flames. Nothing was going to stop him.

***

Jon dropped Cassie into the chair in the back lab. She barely seemed to breathe and that scared him.

He hurried toward the small cabinet on the right wall and used his private code to bypass the security system in place for the particular resource he wanted. A hum, then a beep, and the metal doors swung open. The dosages were there, just waiting for him.

He grabbed a syringe and drove the white-hot liquid right into his vein.

“What are you doing?”

He spun around to see Dr. Shaw standing in the doorway. She had never realized that he’d been one of the test subjects at Genesis for years. Her surprised gaze was on the needle he’d just shoved into his arm.

“I’m taking precautions.” He hadn’t been one of the dumb bastards who’d signed up to receive the modified vampire transformation. He hadn’t wanted to spend his days and nights drinking blood.

He’d wanted power. Strength.

So he’d gone into the Lycan program.

Until something better had come along.

His back teeth clenched as the dose burned through him. It was always a burn, one that seemed to be destroying him from the inside out. But it didn’t destroy him. It made him stronger.

“What was in that syringe?”

Dr. Shaw was one of the newer recruits. Someone that Uncle Sam had hoped would be able to match Cassie’s wonderful brain. There was no match.

The alarms kept shrieking.

“A brew that one of your predecessors created,” Jon told her. Unfortunately, that predecessor was dead. Killed when the last main Genesis lab had been torn to the ground.

Jon headed back toward Cassie.

Dr. Shaw blocked his path. The woman had been running and some of her blond hair fell from the sleek twist she usually kept at her nape. “I don’t want to die.”

“Then you need to get the hell out of here.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “You’re going for the helicopter, aren’t you?”

Yes, he was.

“Take me with you. You know I can help you—I understand the genetics of the werewolves and their mating characteristics so I can—”

He wasn’t interested in the werewolves any longer, but Dr. Shaw still might be helpful. He nodded. “But run fast, doctor. Run very damn fast.”

She nodded, her eyes wide. A woman with a strong instinct for self-preservation. He liked that. Maybe there was more to her than he’d anticipated.

He grabbed Cassie and lifted her over his shoulder. He—

Cassie drove a scalpel into his back.

He yelled at the unexpected pain, and his hold slipped on her. She fell, slamming into the floor.

Cassie shoved back her hair, and he saw that she was very much awake and aware and far, far from dying.

“Dante’s here, isn’t he?” Cassie smiled up at him. “And you’re terrified.”

Jon would have been terrified if he hadn’t been staring at his perfect weapon. He pulled the scalpel from his back and gripped it in his hand. “He’s never tried to kill you, not in all those long years when you were with him at Genesis…so I’m betting he won’t kill you now.” Actually, he didn’t think the bastard could kill her. “But I will,” Jon told her quietly. “I will slice your throat open right here, right now, and I’ll let you bleed out before your phoenix can get here.”

Cassie stared at him, and Jon knew she saw the truth in his eyes.

“Dr. Shaw already has your samples. I don’t need you alive.”

Cassie swallowed. Her gaze cut toward the blond doctor.

There was a soft click of sound. Jon looked over and saw that Dr. Shaw had a gun pointed at Cassie’s head. Well, well, the doctor kept surprising him.

“I’m not dying for someone I don’t even know,” Dr. Shaw said, but the gun trembled in her hand. “So let’s all just get out of here and get on that helicopter.”

Cassie rose, but her knees buckled, and she hit the floor once more.

Ah, so she wasn’t as strong as she wanted him to think. Jon caught her arms and lifted her toward him.

Her scent rose, filling his nose, and for an instant, he stilled. That scent—he’d always enjoyed her scent. His eyes narrowed on her. “Do you want me to kill you right now?”

Cassie shook her head.

“Then do what the fuck what you’re told. Don’t fight me, don’t cry out, and I’ll let you live.” He scooped her into his arms because he didn’t want her slowing him down. “Come on, Shaw,” he barked to the other woman. Power and strength had flooded through him with the injection. He barely felt Cassie’s weight. His steps were surer, faster, and he lifted his foot and kicked open the door that blocked him from the helipad.

The blackness of the night waited for him. He knew the chopper was less than fifty yards away.

***

Dante heard the helicopter’s blades spinning. His head snapped up as that steady beat slipped past the blare of the alarm. Cassie had been taken from him on that helicopter before.

He wouldn’t let her go again.

He ran through the hallways, following the sound. No one tried to stop him. The humans turned and cowered when they saw him. He didn’t care about them.

Only her.

Outside once more, he raced toward the helicopter. Its lights cut across the clearing, flashing on him, then sweeping away.

The helicopter began to rise.

No. No, it can’t leave.

He’d have to track her again, and Cassie was already hurt. The scent of her blood…

“No!” Dante yelled, and his flames flew out, hitting the whirling blades of the helicopter. The burning blades began to spin slower and slower. The chopper slammed back down to earth with a jarring crash.

He jumped toward it and ripped open the nearest door. Saw Cassie slumped and strapped in the backseat. Another woman was there—a woman with a gun that she lifted toward him. Her face was cloaked in the shadows.

He snatched the gun from her. Tossed it behind him and yanked Cassie out of the seat. Her eyes were closed. Her body was limp.

The chopper had fallen only ten feet—surely that wouldn’t have been enough to-to—

“Cassie?” He put her down on the ground. Ran his hands over her as he checked for injuries. And there were injuries. Cuts and scratches all over her. “Cassie. Cassie, open your eyes.”

The beast that lived inside of him was clawing to be free. He could taste the ash rising on his tongue. The only thing holding that beast in check was Cassie.

Come back to me.

She’d been the only thing to ever hold him in check.

She’d been eight the first time she came to him. A little girl with big green eyes and a trembling voice. I don’t want him to kill anyone else.

She’d tried to save Dante even then.

He’d died.

She wouldn’t die now. He wouldn’t let her.

Her eyelashes flickered.

Yes. “Cassie?”

Her breath whispered out and her eyes opened. “Knew…you were coming…”

Hell, yes. He pulled her against his chest. Held her tight right next to his racing heart. Over her shoulder, Dante saw the blond female stumble out of the helicopter. She fell onto her knees, but pushed forward, all but crawling away.

The man who’d been piloting the helicopter shoved from the wreckage. He didn’t try to crawl away. He stood there and glared at Dante. “Do you remember me, bastard?” he shouted.

Dante didn’t let go of Cassie.

“I’m the one who took her from you. This time— all the times. I’m the one she was going to marry!”

What the fuck?

“You think she’s yours. You’re wrong. She’s been working you from the beginning. It’s all part of an experiment. Every single moment.” The man smiled and lifted his hands. “But you can’t see her for what she is, can you? Because she’s got you fooled.”

“No…Dante…” Cassie whispered.

“Her injuries are from samples that she ordered us to take. She wanted to see how her body had changed since you were dumb enough to give up your tears to her in New Orleans.”

Dante rose, making sure to put his body between Cassie’s and—“What is your name?”

“Lieutenant Colonel Jon Abrams.”

“You’re a dead man, Lieutenant Colonel.”

He laughed. “And you’re already a wanted criminal. Thanks to me, your face is on every TV in the nation. You think you can walk away from here? Cassie won’t go with you. She lured you to this location. Wanted to keep doing the tests on you.”

“Dante, I didn’t. ” Cassie said, her voice growing stronger.

It sounded like she was backing away from him. He heard the rustle of her footsteps and realized that she was retreating.

Leaving him to face off against the other man.

“Do you know why she wants to study you so much?” Jon took a step toward him. “Because her lover is sick. Not sick so much as transforming. If she can’t help her werewolf, she’ll lose him, and Cassie doesn’t want to lose Trace.”

Trace. The name was familiar…Wait. The cabin and the warehouse—both had been owned by a man named Trace. Wasn’t that what Cassie had told him?

“Cassie uses anyone she can in order to get what she wants. She used you. She used me. She’s not the damsel in distress that you seem to think.”

The helicopter was burning behind Jon. The flames rose into the air, and Dante saw that men with weapons were spilling out from the shadows. Oh, so now they thought they were brave enough to fight?

Or were they just eager to die?

“Dante…” Cassie’s voice called out quietly. “Get away from him.”

What? “I’m not afraid of the human.”

Jon took another step forward. “But I’m not just human.” His hands lifted, moving in a fast blur, and knives slashed into Dante’s chest.

No, not knives. Claws .

“I stopped being human long ago. I guess Cassie has a thing for monsters, huh?” Jon’s teeth had elongated. He lifted his claws again—and came for Dante’s neck.

Dante sidestepped, twisted, and surged up ready to send his fire right into the man’s heart.

A shot rang out. A blast that ripped past the fire and the shouts from the approaching men.

Jon froze, then he looked down at his chest. A dark shadow bloomed in the middle of his shirt. Growing bigger, bigger. He lifted his head. “Cas…sie?”

Dante spun around and saw that Cassie had grabbed the gun that he’d tossed aside earlier when he took it from the blond. Cassie still had that gun aimed at Jon.

“I told you, Jon…” Cassie shook her head. “You should have left…the program.”

It sure looked like he’d left the program right then.

More gunfire erupted—from the guards rushing toward them. Seeing their boss get shot down had driven them over the edge. A bullet sliced across Dante’s arm as he jumped toward Cassie. Using his body, he shielded her. “I’ll stop them.” A deadly promise.

There would be no more running.

No one would be left alive to hunt them.

“Dante, no!”

But he’d turned his back on her. Lifted his hands. It would be easy enough to send a wall of flames rushing toward their pursuers. They’d be dead in moments.

So simple.

He’d killed before like this. Taken out an army that came after him. A different life. The same beast inside. The fire had raged and raged.

He’d eventually been captured, and later, accused of witchcraft. Of working with the devil.

“I am the devil,” he rasped as his flames began to rise.

In that other life, they’d hung him.

He’d come back and burned in front of them.

“I won’t run,” Dante said.

The shots stopped firing. Maybe the fools finally realized they were facing a creature they couldn’t ever hope to defeat.

Goodbye.

Some were turning tail and running away. Dumb. They’d never be able to run fast enough.

“Dante, no !” Cassie jumped in front of him and grabbed his hands. “Don’t do this!”

“They took you. They hurt—”

“They’re people. Some of them might hate what they’re doing, some don’t even know what’s really happening. You can’t just kill them all!”

Of course, he could. With barely a thought. “Watch me.”

“No!” Cassie held him tighter. “Let’s get out of here. Let’s just go. ”

Running wouldn’t work. “They’ll come for you again.”

“No, no, with Jon dead…” Her head turned toward the downed Lieutenant Colonel. “They won’t come for us. We can vanish.”

Running wasn’t his style. They’d hurt him by taking Cassie. Now they should hurt.

“Please,” Cassie begged. “Let’s get out of here.” She drew in a ragged breath. “I don’t…I hurt, Dante. Please just take me away from here.”

Jaw clenching, he nodded. He’d take her away. Get her safe and secure, and when she wasn’t watching— when she can’t see just how dark I truly am —he would come back to finish the war these bastards had started.

There would be nothing left but ash.

She smiled at him—the sight weak and trembling—but so beautiful.

He pressed his lips against hers. Sank his fingers into her hair. The beast wanted to be free to burn and destroy, but as he held her, Cassie soothed him. She always had.

From the very first moment, when his cell door had opened and he’d looked up at a lost child, she’d soothed the beast inside.

She wasn’t a child anymore.

But she was his.

He lifted her into his arms. Cradled her carefully. As they approached more barbed wire, he sent out a ball of fire to blast an exit. No one followed. No shouts or gunfire filled the night. Those behind him were too scared to fight.

Good. But I’ll return.

He wouldn’t give his enemies a chance to come for him again.

He’d spared enemies before, only to see them attack later when they thought he was weak. So much fire and death. So many centuries. No wonder he had tried to push away the memories.

He found the motorcycle that he’d left behind. He put Cassie on her feet and saw that she still gripped the gun in her right hand. He stared at the weapon. “I could have killed him.” She hadn’t needed the man’s death on her.

I’m the one she was going to marry.

He’d wanted to kill the bastard.

“I tried to save him, tried to tell him to leave…” She exhaled on a heavy sigh. “It took me too long to realize that Jon didn’t want to be saved.”

Dante pulled the weapon from her hand and put it in one of the motorcycle’s saddlebags. He climbed onto the bike and gripped the handlebars. “Will you be able to hold on to me?”

Cassie climbed on behind him. “Yes.”

He wasn’t sure he believed her. The lieutenant colonel’s words replayed through his mind. You think she’s yours. You’re wrong. She’s been working you from the beginning.

Her hands curled around Dante. Held tight.

He revved the motor. Rocks and dirt flew out behind him as the motorcycle sprang away from the patch of trees. He didn’t bother with the headlights. He could see just fine as he raced ahead.

Cassie’s body was warm and soft behind him. Alive.

Going after her—getting her back—had been his only thought when he’d risen from the flames. He’d always believed Cassie was his and his alone. But as the motorcycle pushed forward ever faster, a dark suspicion began to grow in his mind.

I’m the one she was going to marry.

Cassie hadn’t said the man was lying.

Her lover is sick. Not sick so much as transforming. If she can’t help her werewolf, she’ll lose him, and Cassie doesn’t want to lose Trace.

Cassie had said that she had to get to Mississippi. That there were those in that area who needed her.

Dante’s left hand rose and reached back to curl around her. He held her as tightly as she held him.

He’d seen much in his years on the earth. Things he hated. Beings he wanted to destroy.

He’d only once ever found something that he craved.

And he’d vowed to himself—once he realized just how important she was—that he would never let her go.

If Cassie had been lying to him, if she’d been part of his torture, she would pay.

But she would not get away from him.

***

The fire came to him, consuming, burning, destroying. The scorching flames burned from the inside out, and as he died, Jon saw hell.

Monsters were there. Beasts made of flames that struck out at him. Hitting and slicing. He tried to fight—

Only to find that the flames surrounded him. Suffocated him.

He tried to open his mouth to scream.

But had no voice.

Only flames.

So many flames.

Rising and rising…burning…but not destroying. Not anymore.

Creating.

“Lieutenant Colonel!” A woman’s voice. Shouting. Shocked.

His eyes opened. At first, everything seemed tinted by red. By the fire.

He blinked and tried to clear his vision.

“What have you done?” the woman whispered. “You were dead…”

He was standing, his body naked, with a circle of flame around him. He looked past the flames and saw a woman standing there. A woman with disheveled blond hair. Fear covered the delicate curves of her face. “You’re like him,” she said as she stumbled back a step.

Jon could only stare at her.

“The injection . What were you putting into your veins?”

He lifted his hand.

“Do you…” She took another quick step back. “Do you even know who I am?”

His skin was unmarred. No blisters. No burns. He glanced down at his chest.

No bullet hole.

“Yes,” he said, speaking slowly. “I do know who you are.”

Even more, he knew what he was. The serum that he’d taken—so many of those painful doses—had actually worked.

He’d become like Dante. Only better.

When Dante rose, his memory was often gone. This was Jon’s first rising, and he remembered—

“I remember everything,” Jon whispered. The flames were still around him. He waved his hands. More fire appeared. Beautiful fire. Red and gold and orange.

He heard voices shouting in the distance. The fear in those voices carried on the wind.

“It’s your men. They were running—”

Running away, instead of trying to stop Dante? “Where is…Cassandra?”

“He took her.”

While my men had cowered.

He started walking toward the sound of those shouts.

“Lieutenant Colonel?”

The blond woman…Dr. Shaw. He could still use her. “Stay back,” Jon ordered. Things were about to get hot. If he accidentally killed the doctor, that would be unfortunate.

She froze.

He swept by her and let his fire grow.

“What are you doing?” Her horrified question followed him.

He didn’t respond. He just let the fire loose. Let it race toward the old base.

As the fire grew, the rush of power filled him. He could feel…something…inside himself. Something different from the beast he’d carried since his first experiment at Genesis. This new creature was clawing at him with fire. Struggling to get out.

“You want out?” Jon asked as he lifted his hands. “Let’s see what you can do.”

He stopped fighting the beast and let it take him. The flames leaped from him as he surrendered. The buildings caught fire. An inferno that lit up the sky. Booms burst in the air. Screams echoed.

Those who’d run and left him to his fate—they now had their own hell waiting for them. But they wouldn’t rise.

He’d make sure of it.