Phoenix Fury Box set

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Cassie was afraid.

Dante could see the fear on her face and hear it in the rapid breaths that slipped from her parted lips.

“You truly had no idea of just what you are.” He’d wondered for a long time. She’d seemed so unaware of her power. If she’d wanted, she could have used it to her advantage numerous times.

With just the sound of her voice, she could soothe any shifter. But she hadn’t tried to soothe. Had never used that soft, seductive whisper that sirens loved so much.

Actually, she had used that voice, but only when she’d been naked with him.

And his phoenix had stayed buried so the man could claim her.

“Your voice is your power. When you inject it with the magic that’s deep inside you, Cassie, you can command anyone.”

“I don’t want to command.”

No, she wouldn’t.

“Remember, that’s where your power is.” If she needed that strength, he damn sure wanted her to use it. “When you sing your siren’s song, when you do it right, no one can hurt you.”

She still had doubt in her eyes.

“You’re not going to age anymore. At least, the sirens I’ve met stopped aging in their late twenties.” Dante shrugged. They stayed young and attractive—the better to keep luring in their prey.

Even though Cassie was only half-siren, he suspected the same aging rule would hold true for her. All the other siren traits were there—buried, but there—so it stood to reason she had that perk, too.

“How many sirens have you met?”

“Three.” He wouldn’t mention that he’d killed the first one. She’d been his brother’s lover, and they’d both been bent on Dante’s death.

The siren and his brother had burned.

He’d risen.

“And you’re sure, absolutely sure, that I’m—”

“I know what you are. If the werewolf could manage more than one word at a time, he’d tell you, too.”

She looked shattered. “My mother…?”

“Sirens don’t usually bear children with non-paranormals. They find humans too—” He broke off. How to put this? There was no tactful way. “They find them too weak for breeding.”

Cassie flinched. “Uh, did you just say breeding ?”

“Your father experimented on you. I suspect he experimented on himself, as well. He could have changed his body enough to fool her, but once she found out the truth…” The siren would have left him.

A siren’s prey wouldn’t have allowed that rejection. Without her, Cassie’s father would have gone insane.

Maybe he had.

“He killed her.” Cassie’s voice was whisper-soft.

Dante wanted to kiss Cassie again. She looked so lost. So hurt. But she needed the truth. He would give her that from now on. “I suspect he did.”

Her lips trembled. “If I were truly a siren, wouldn’t I have used my power on you before?” Pain pushed through her words. “When you came back to me, when you rose, wouldn’t I have made you remember me?”

Not if she hadn’t realized her power. “The next time I rise, just kiss me.”

She shook her head. “Through the fire? Yeah, right. I’ll just go through the flames and put my mouth on yours.”

“You might be surprised at what happens when you put that sexy mouth of yours against mine.”

She opened her mouth to speak—

And he kissed her. Dante had to kiss her. She was so close, and though she didn’t realize it, everything about her was pulling him in. Making him want, making him need, and pushing him to the very edge of control.

His hand rose, sank into her thick hair, and he brought his lips down on hers. Her mouth was open, so he pushed his tongue inside and tasted all of the sweetness that waited for him.

Luring me in.

Her taste was addictive. She was addictive. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to let her go. He wanted her naked. Wanted in her.

And what a phoenix wanted, he got.

A moan built in her throat. The sound was sexy, driving up the heat of his arousal.

She can handle my fire.

The phoenix didn’t want to consume her. He just wanted her.

He rose from the exam table. Still kissing her. Then he was stripping her even as Cassie kicked away her shoes. He shoved down her jeans. Ditched her shirt. Yanked away her bra and panties.

“Dante?”

She stared up at him. Need was bright in her green eyes. Her cheeks were flushed. Her lips red from his mouth.

He kissed her again. He couldn’t stop.

Couldn’t.

He put her on the table. Licked her breast and loved the way she gasped his name. He should go slow with her. Unfortunately, slow wasn’t an option for him.

He pushed between her legs. Found her wet. Hot. His fingers thrust into her. Withdrew. Thrust. He kept licking her tight little nipples. So sweet.

She arched up against him. Nearly jumped off that table. “Want…you!”

And there it was. That hard push of power in her voice. The siren’s call that she didn’t even realize she’d given. Lust exploded through him, burning hot and wild, and nothing—no fucking thing—could have made him leave her.

His siren called.

He answered.

Dante thrust deep into her. He withdrew, then thrust again. Harder.

Her nails sank into his shoulders, and he loved that bite of pain.

“You feel so good,” she gasped.

She felt like the best dream he’d ever had. And her voice—sex and pleasure—temptation. Lust. Her voice drove him on as she whispered his name.

She was coming. He felt the ripples of her release around him and couldn’t hold back any longer. He exploded within her. The fire burned inside him but never— never— touched her.

The phoenix couldn’t hurt the one he wanted as a mate.

Nothing could hurt Cassie.

He held her tightly, his mouth against her neck, his arms locked around her, as the release pumped through him. He wanted to keep her there, right in his arms. Forever.

He would be keeping Cassie. Finally, Dante could almost understand his brother’s obsession.

Almost.

Would he kill for Cassie?

Yes.

In an instant.

He’d kill to protect her. He’d destroy anyone who sought to hurt her.

Her fingers were on his back. They slid over his skin in the softest of caresses. Her heartbeat drummed at a frantic rate—he could feel the wild thunder—and her breath panted out softly.

“I used to wonder what it would be like with you,” Cassie confessed.

Dante forced his head to lift. His gaze held hers.

“It’s better than I imagined.” Her smile was so wide and beautiful.

He stared at her a moment, feeling lost. Was it her siren’s song? Was she still pushing power through her words?

No, he realized. It was just…Cassie.

Her hands kept caressing his back. “You always feel so warm.”

The fire always burned within him.

Her gaze held his. “Should I ever worry about your flames?”

No, not you.

But before he could speak, a loud alarm pierced the air and echoed around them.

“Not again!” Cassie cried.

Yes, fucking again. But at least he’d had her before more chaos came calling.

Adrenaline flooded through Dante as he carefully pulled away from Cassie. Who had found them—or who was being attacked this time?

Cassie yanked on her clothes and rushed toward a series of monitors. She tapped on a keyboard and the images on those screens sharpened.

Dante stared at the image of a tall, muscled man. A man who had his arms wrapped round the shoulders of a dark-haired woman. As he stared at that screen, tension gripped him. An instinctive, battle-ready edge that could only mean one thing.

Another of my kind.

“They’re here early,” Cassie said as she frowned at the screen. “I didn’t expect Cain and Eve to arrive until—” Her words ended in a startled gasp as Dante picked her up and carried her toward the small supply closet.

“Dante? Dante, what the hell are you doing? Put me down!”

Red began to coat his vision.

Another phoenix, a male, near his siren.

No.

He put her down—inside the closet. She gaped at him with disbelief in her green eyes, appearing for all the world like she thought he’d just gone insane.

Maybe he had. “Stay here.”

Her jaw dropped. “Those are my friends out there! Hell, no, I’m not going to—”

He slammed the door. Locked it. Cassie would not be getting in the middle of his battle.

“What the hell are you doing?”

He heard the sound of her small fists pummeling the door. More thuds—was she kicking it, too? It sure sounded that way.

“We just had sex!” she shouted. “You can’t do this to me! You can’t lock me in here!”

He could. He had. And the sex had been phenomenal.

“Let me out of here!”

“I will,” he promised. “Once the threat is gone.”

Dead silence. Then she yelled, “That’s why you came. Not to help me. You wanted me to lead you to the other phoenixes!”

His hand pressed against the door. “We’re a dangerous lot. Not to be trusted.”

“Yeah, tell me something I didn’t just figure out when you locked me in the closet !”

His hand dropped. “He would have turned on you. With your siren blood, it would have been only a short time before he realized what you were. I’m protecting you.” Dante spun away from the closet.

It had been so long since he’d battled another phoenix. Dante didn’t know exactly how old Cain O’Connor was, but the guy couldn’t be as old as he was.

So Cain wouldn’t be as strong.

More pounding came from the closet. “Dante, no ! Don’t do this! Cain and Eve are here to help! Dammit, don’t!”

Dante would do anything to keep her safe.

Killing had always been easy for him. When he’d watched his brother die, he had sworn to never be fooled by another of his kind. Cassie wouldn’t understand just how deceptive a phoenix could be.

He knew.

“Dante!”

He left her.

***

The sound of his footsteps faded away. Cassie had her left ear flattened against the door and knew when he left her. Actually left her locked in the closet.

Damn him!

The only light she had spilled beneath the door, showing her pretty much nothing. She spun around and fumbled in the darkness as her heart raced. She didn’t have much time. Dante was going after Cain, and she would not let Cain die.

He used me.

She’d thought—so foolishly—that Dante had wanted to help her, but all along, she’d just been a means to an end for him.

A siren? Total BS. Another line he’d spewed so that she’d trust him. The absolute worst part was that she could still feel the jerk inside her. Her sex was flushed and sensitive. From him.

And he’d just locked my ass in a supply closet.

She’d gone from having an absolutely mind-numbing orgasm one minute to being shoved into a dirty supply closet. Dante’s after-sex technique sucked on so many levels.

Her fingers closed around the wooden pole of a mop. She tried ramming the mop into the door. The thuds were louder than they’d been when she’d used her fists, but the door didn’t open.

“Help!” Cassie screamed. This can’t be happening. I can’t actually be trapped like this.

Eve was her friend. Cain had been nothing but good to her.

And Dante…

The two phoenixes couldn’t battle. When they did, only one survived.

“Help!” Cassie screamed again. She was very much afraid that no one was coming to her aid.

***

“Help!”

The cry reached Trace’s ears, and his beast tensed. He knew he was more beast than man. He knew that his control was gone, and, some days, he almost wished for death.

Almost?

The cry pierced through the rage his beast carried, reaching the man inside. There was something about that voice. Something that spoke to the beast and the man.

Cassie.

Her image appeared in his mind. Her dark hair. Her soft hands. She’d never hurt him. Always promised to help. And when she whispered to him, things did seem better. The rage cooled within him.

But something was wrong.

He opened his mouth and howled.

Cassie shouldn’t be crying for help. Cassie couldn’t be hurt. She was his last hope.

He howled again and jerked at the chains that bound him. The silver burned, cutting deep into him, but he didn’t care.

Help her.

The beast snarled and his muscles burned. He pulled and pulled…and the chains began to snap.

***

Dante wasn’t going to bring the battle down to Cassie. She would be safe in the little underground lair that she’d made for herself. Silently, he rode the elevator up to the old barn. The other phoenix would not know that he was coming. His guard would be lowered.

The better for me to attack.

Cassie had been calling for help when he’d left her. Her cries had twisted his gut, but he hadn’t stopped. He remembered, too well, what it was like when another phoenix came for you.

Brother…why? I meant you no harm.

But his brother had just laughed. As long as you live, you’re a threat. Didn’t you learn anything from the others?

Once, there had been a dozen phoenixes in their village. They’d been the power, until they turned on one another.

The fire led to bloodlust. Fury. The need to dominate and control. For days, their village had been turned black with ash.

Others—humans down the mountainside—had started to spread rumors of dragons attacking.

There had been no dragons.

Dante stared down at his hands. Saw fire.

Only us.

He hadn’t wanted to kill his brother. Wren had given him no choice. Dante had been burning. Wren and his siren had come at him as he rose. Come for his head and his heart.

They’d almost taken his head.

But his phoenix hadn’t been ready for death.

The phoenix who stands last is the only one with power. Wren’s panting words to him . I will stand last. I will have the power. You, brother, will have hell.

Dante squared his shoulders. The elevator doors opened. Cain had his back to him—such a mistake. He saw the man’s dark hair, a shade very similar to Dante’s own.

Cain spun toward him. His eyes widened. “You’re not—wait, where’s Cassie?” He grabbed the woman with him and shoved her behind his back.

Dante’s nostrils flared. The woman’s scent… speaking of dragons. He hadn’t caught that particular scent in centuries. These two were even more of a threat than he’d first thought.

Dante stepped forward. The elevator closed behind him. His gaze slid to the woman as she peered over her man’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” Dante told her. “I don’t want to kill you.” He shook his head. “Leave now, and I will spare you.” Even though he knew what she was.

“Who are you?” the woman asked, voice cracking.

Dante lifted his hands. The fire was burning so brightly now. Spinning. Flaming. “I’m death.”

A rough laugh burst from Cain. “Am I supposed to be impressed by that shit? I can conjure, too.” In an instant, he had fire flaring in his own hands.

Dante smiled. He hadn’t expected much of a challenge from this one. He’d been wrong. “What have you had? Maybe fifty risings? And probably all during your captivity at Genesis.”

Cain’s dark eyes narrowed— his eyes look like mine— as he glared at Dante. “Did Cassie tell you about me?”

“I can smell the risings. Hell leaves its own stamp on us.”

“That why I can smell brimstone on you?”

“I’ve risen more times than you can imagine.” Maybe that was why he had to fight so hard to cling to his sanity. “And I will be the one who rises again. You will be the one to stay in hell this time.”

“No!” The woman tried to lunge away from Cain and attack, but Cain pushed her back. The fire didn’t burn her. Of course, it didn’t. One sniff, and Dante had known that the woman had dragon shifter blood in her body. There was no mistaking that scent. Fire wouldn’t harm her.

There were still plenty of other ways for her to die.

“She doesn’t belong in this battle,” Dante said softly. “Send her away. Face me on your own.”

“Why the hell are you doing this?” the woman yelled. Eve. Cassie had called her Eve.

Cassie…

Help!

Was she still crying for help?

“It’s what we do.” The answer came from Cain. His voice was grim. “Our kind—we kill. I told you that before.”

“We’re here to help Trace!” Eve shouted. “This isn’t supposed to be about killing!”

She almost reminded Dante of Cassie.

“Step back,” he warned her.

“Swear that she will stay unharmed,” Cain demanded.

Dante inclined his head. “When I kill you, I will let her live.”

“No!” Eve’s voice was nearly a shriek.

Cain laughed again. The flames died above his hands. “No, dumbass. I meant don’t hurt her during our battle. While I’m killing you. ” He reached under his jacket and yanked out a gun.

He lifted the gun and aimed at Dante.

***

The closet door swung open. Because Cassie was aiming again with her mop, she tumbled forward, and the mop clipped Charles on the side of his head.

“Ow!” He frowned at her. “See if I rush to your rescue again.” He hurriedly stepped back as he adjusted his lab coat. “You don’t attack your rescuer, Cass. You know that, right? It’s bad form.”

She shoved him out of her way and rushed toward the security screens. “He’s got a gun.” Of course, Cain would have come armed. He wasn’t the type to take chances. That gun was aimed at Dante.

Hands slick with sweat and body tight with fear, Cassie whirled away from the monitors and ran for the door.

“You’re welcome!” Charles called out behind her.

“Thank you!” she yelled and flew for the elevator. She had to get up to the top level. If Cain shot Dante, she didn’t even want to think about what would happen next.

Fire.

Rising.

Death.

Not Dante’s. She didn’t actually think anything was strong enough to kill him permanently, not after all she’d seen during his years of captivity at Genesis.

She didn’t want Cain to die. He’d been a captive at Genesis, too. Tortured, hurt. Cain had just found happiness with Eve. Neither one of them deserved to have that happiness snatched away.

Cassie jumped into the elevator. “Hurry, hurry,” she whispered under her breath. She realized that she was still clutching the mop. As weapons went, it wasn’t exactly a major threat.

Not that she had a whole lot of options.

She sucked in a deep breath and hoped that when those elevator doors opened, fire didn’t greet her.

***

Charles watched Cassie vanish. He wasn’t sure how the woman had wound up in the closet. When she stopped running, he’d be sure to get that story from her.

He glanced over at the monitors. Oh, hell, that looked like a situation he didn’t want to—

The door crashed open behind him. Charles spun around. His hand automatically flew to his chest.

He’s out. Fuck, fuck. He’s out!

The werewolf stood before him. If possible, Trace’s features had become more twisted into the form of a beast. He was bigger than before. Charles was sure of that. And the werewolf ’s claws were much sharper now, too.

Bad. So very bad.

As Charles stared at him in horror, the beast dropped down onto all fours and let out a deep, rumbling growl. When those glowing eyes locked on him, Charles was pretty sure that he saw his own death reflected in that terrifying gaze.

“No, please,” Charles begged. “Please, I tried to help you. Don’t you remember that?”

The beast snarled.

Charles ran forward and dove into the closet. He yanked the door shut behind him just as claws drove through the wood, coming through about two inches away from his head.

So damn bad.

***

The bullet exploded from the gun and rushed right at Dante. He couldn’t help it. He smiled as he pushed his flames hotter. Higher.

The bullet melted before it could ever touch him.

Above the crackle of the flames, he heard Eve’s shocked gasp.

“When you’re as old as I am, the power is so much greater,” Dante murmured. He let his flames flicker away so that he could meet Cain’s stare once more. “Want to try again? Feel free to shoot every bullet in your gun.”

Cain’s hold tightened on the weapon.

“But you should know, they won’t hurt me.” Dante tilted his head. “Though they will piss me off.”

Eve’s hands fisted in the material of Cain’s shirt. “Cain…” Fear threaded his name.

Dante heard the grind of a motor. The elevator. Lifting up once more.

He couldn’t have an enemy at his back and one at his front. He leaped to the side, not sure who he would see when the doors slid open. Cassie was safe in the closet so—

The doors parted to reveal Cassie’s worried face.

“Cassie!” Dante roared. He tried to leap toward her.

Too late. His roar had revealed far too much.

Cain had rushed toward her, too. Cain reached her first. Cain wrapped his arms around Cassie and pulled her close against him.

Dante hadn’t intended to make the phoenix shifter’s death particularly brutal. In that moment, he changed his mind.

Eve had frozen, but Cain hurried back to her and pulled Cassie in front of him—in front of them—like the shield that she was.

“You want to let her go,” Dante snapped.

Cain shook his head and put his gun to Cassie’s head.

The fool.

“What are you doing?” Eve demanded. “That’s Cassie ! She’s helping Trace!”

The elevator doors closed.

Cain shook his head again. “She set us up, don’t you see that? Lured us out here so he could attack.”

Cassie’s wild-eyed stare landed on Dante. “I didn’t,” she swore. “I didn’t know what he’d planned.”

Dante saw betrayal in her stare, and that look made him feel strange. His chest ached. “Move the gun away from her head,” he ordered.

The gun didn’t move.

“Cain!” Eve snapped.

“Don’t move the gun,” Cassie said in the same instant.

What?

“Eve, call up the elevator,” Cassie ordered softly. “You, Cain, and I will get inside it. Dante won’t hurt us as long as I’m in front of you two.”

She was choosing to protect those two? Even as that jackass pressed a gun to her head?

Cassie held Dante’s gaze. “I’ll lock the system down once we’re inside the elevator. He won’t be able to follow us.”

No, no. That would not happen. “Cassie…” Her name was a warning growl from Dante.

Cain slowly advanced with her and Eve toward the elevator.

“You don’t follow us,” Cassie said to Dante. “You just get the hell out of here. Don’t look for us, and we won’t look for you.”

He didn’t think Cain was going to agree to that plan. The expression on his face promised retribution.

Dante wasn’t leaving him alive. “That’s not happening,” he vowed.

“You used me,” Cassie accused with a shake of her head.

Had her voice broken? It had. Broken with pain.

“I trusted you, but you just wanted to hurt them.”

“No,” Dante said. “I wanted to kill the phoenix.” It was what he’d been taught to do. The only way he’d survived. The phoenixes in his village had turned on one another, battling in a fury of bloodlust and fire.

Until only one remained.

Because of the siren.

Cassie didn’t realize that she was the danger that would destroy so many. He knew what powers she held inside herself. He’d known from the beginning.

Maybe he should have just killed her, but that act had always been beyond him. She made him weak.

Just as Zura had made his brother weak.

It doesn’t have to be this way! We can be strong together.

Hadn’t he tried to stop his brother? Hadn’t he tried to use reason before fire? Until there had been no reason left. Just flames.

Wren hadn’t wanted them both to live. He hadn’t wanted them both to be stronger.

I’ll be stronger on my own. Wren had told him those cold words, even as his fire burned hell-hot. And I’ll never fear you turning on me.

The elevator’s doors opened. Eve stepped toward those doors then stopped. “Trace?”

The wild scent of the wolf hit Dante. Impossible. The werewolf is chained below. He is—

The werewolf shoved something, someone—the human, Charles, a very bloody Charles—onto the ground and leaped out of that elevator. The werewolf looked different, far more savage and animal-like, as he lunged for Cassie.

“No!” The bellow was Dante’s. But he was too far away.

The werewolf hit Cassie and Cain and sent them both tumbling to the ground. Cain’s weapon fired, the bullet exploding, and Eve screamed.

The wolf didn’t stop. He grabbed Cassie and yanked her back.

Dante attacked. He lifted his hands and conjured the most powerful fire he had within him. The werewolf wouldn’t survive the blast. Cassie had thought to save this beast? There was no saving a being that intended to hurt her.

No saving…

Dante’s fire launched out.

The werewolf dropped Cassie and rushed toward Cain, moving so fast—incredibly fast—as he dodged the flames. The fire barely singed him. The werewolf’s claws swiped over the other phoenix, cutting him deep. Cain swore and fire swirled over his fingers.

Eve grabbed his arm. “That’s Trace!”

“That’s a fucking dead wolf,” Dante shouted. Cassie was bleeding. The wolf ’s claws had cut her and the wolf was—

“Help!” That cry was more beast than man. Far more. “Help…Cass…” the werewolf growled. Then he was curling his powerful body around hers.

Dante stepped toward them.

The werewolf bared his teeth. “Kill…”

His claws weren’t near her throat. He had wrapped his arms around Cassie’s stomach.

“The change is…even worse,” Eve said in horror. “I thought he was getting better.”

The wolf had looked better. Before.

He seemed to be turning more into the beast as Dante watched. Thick, dark fur burst from his skin, and the werewolf opened his mouth to snarl with the pain of his change.

“Trace.” Cassie tried to push free of his hold. “Trace, you’re hurting me.”

The phoenix within Dante began to attack with his flaming claws. Wanting out.

Trace stiffened.

“Let me go, Trace. Please.”

Trace shook his head. The transformation seemed to have halted with Cassie’s words.

The siren’s song is controlling him. Dante stalked toward Trace.

“Help,” Trace growled. “Cass…”

Dante took another step.

Trace’s head snapped up and his glowing eyes locked on Dante. “Kill.” The werewolf’s teeth snapped together.

“Come on and try,” Dante invited. “Let’s just see what you’ve got.”

Trace freed Cassie.

Yes.

Then the beast was running for him.

Dante lifted his hand and sent flames right at the wolf.

“No!” Cassie screamed as she ran after Trace.

The man-beast fell, rolling on the ground and howling as he tried to put out the flames that flared over his body.

“Stop!” Cassie shoved at Dante. Her shove sent him stumbling back in surprise. “Don’t hurt him! Don’t you see? He’s protecting me!”

He was—what?

Cassie shoved Dante again. “Stay away from him! From me!”

He couldn’t. He couldn’t ever stay away from her.

She fell to her knees beside the werewolf. Smoke drifted from him, and dark burns covered his arms. “Trace?”

His head turned toward her. “Help” he whispered.

She put her hand on his bulging shoulder. “You did help me. Now just relax. Please relax, and let me help you.”

The werewolf’s claws were too close to her. Dante surged forward.

Cassie’s head immediately turned toward him. Tears glistened in her eyes. “Stay away! Haven’t you done enough hurting for one day?”

She stared at him as if—as if he were the monster.

He was, but Cassie had never looked at him that way before.

“Cain, help me,” Cassie said.

Cain, still bleeding, hurried toward her.

“We need to get Trace downstairs. I have to treat him. He’s…changing. I can feel it.”

Transformation was the way werewolves healed from injuries. It was instinctive for them. The wounds Trace had received from Dante’s fire were pushing that change.

“If he changes fully,” Cassie added, as worry threaded through her voice, “I don’t know if we will be able to get him back. I have to give him some tranqs to get him calm and stable.”

The werewolf wasn’t fighting. His head was tilted toward Cassie, and the beast seemed to hang onto her every word.

Siren.

“It’s okay,” Cassie soothed him. “I’ll take care of you.”

Dante heard the special, almost lyrical notes in her voice that a siren got only when she charmed.

The werewolf ’s breathing eased.

Cain was close to them. He frowned down at Cassie and blinked a few times.

Yeah, you heard it, too.

“Will he make it?” Eve wanted to know. She’d helped Charles to his feet. The human was pale, scratched, but suffering no mortal wounds.

Dante knew her question was about Trace.

“I hope so,” Cassie replied, still using that same tone. The tone that calmed Dante’s phoenix, that had Cain looking confused…and had the wolf lying still beneath Cassie’s probing touch.

And the woman claimed she wasn’t a siren?

She had them all under her spell.

Once she realized just how strong she truly was, Cassie could prove to be incredibly dangerous.

As dangerous as Zura, when she’d gone mad with her power.

She turned us on each other. Made us fight until only ash was left.

All with the power of her voice.

The phoenixes had learned a lesson that day—stay away from their own kind. They weren’t immortal when their own were close enough to kill.

It had taken just the whisper from a siren to start that war.

“We have to get him to the lab,” Cassie said.

Cain bent to reach for the werewolf’s shoulders.

Trace snapped at him, biting the phoenix and drawing a curse from Cain.

“Trace, no !” Cassie commanded. “We’re helping you!”

He stilled instantly.

Cain frowned down at the beast. “If he bites me again, I’m kicking his ass.”

“Cain.” Eve’s voice was worried.

Dante grabbed the wolf before Cain could reach for him again. He slung Trace over his shoulder and ignored the claws that sliced into his skin.

Cassie stared up at Dante with shocked eyes.

“You want him back in his cell?” He was actually tossing another paranormal in a cell? After what he’d been through? But…yes, he was. “Then lead the way,” Dante said.

Cassie just stared blankly at him then shook her head. “Give him to Cain. I can’t trust you.”

That ache was back in Dante’s chest. Worse than before. But he gave her a grim smile. “You have it wrong, sweetheart. We’re the ones who can’t trust you.” Not once she started to use all her power. Not once she realized that she could control and kill with a word.

Cain frowned at Cassie but then he glanced back at Dante. “You going to try to kill me as soon as the elevator touches down?”

“No. I’ll wait till we drop off the wolf.” Dante focused hard on Cain. “Then you and I will leave the others. There’s no sense in harming them.”

“No!” Eve immediately yelled.

Cain gave a curt nod.

Cassie stomped her way toward Dante. “The hell you will. Dante, you aren’t hurting Cain. You aren’t hurting anyone.” She jabbed his arm.

No, she jabbed a needle into his arm.

An icy liquid shot through his body, chilling him and quenching the fire of the phoenix that always seemed to burn so brightly within him.

The werewolf fell from his arms. Dante’s knees hit the ground.

“I won’t let you hurt anyone,” Cassie said as her voice broke with pain.

Pain that he had caused her?

“I never wanted it to be this way.” Soft and sad.

He tried to turn his head and look at her, but couldn’t. His body slid down and crashed onto the ground beside Trace.

“You didn’t give me a choice.”

“Damn.” Cain’s impressed drawl. “I didn’t expect you to be so cold, Cassie.”

“Neither did he. And that was Dante’s mistake.”

Deep inside, the flames of the phoenix died away.