Phoenix Fury Box set

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

She tasted of sweetness and sin. Her lips were soft and open beneath his, and her tongue pushed lightly into his mouth.

Mine. It was the thought he’d had when he’d first seen her, surrounded by his flames.

And it was the same thought he had as he tasted her.

His hands were around her, holding her tight, pressing her harder against him. She wore clothes. He didn’t. His had been—burned away? He tried to grab for the memories, but they were just out of reach. All he could remember was fury and fire and—

My need for her.

He deepened the kiss, taking more from her, desperate for that sweet sin. He lifted her up against him so he could control the kiss.

Control her.

She was important, this woman with the dark hair and the green eyes that had shone with her fear, even as she called out to him.

Dante. His name. He’d known it when it came from her lips.

He thrust his tongue into her mouth. Wanted to thrust into her. But that alarm was still shrieking, and water was shooting down on them in this room, too. He lifted his head. Didn’t let her go. The water soaked her, him, but the cool liquid didn’t stop his fire. Only he could stop that.

“If…if you don’t put out the flames, I could die,” she told him, her voice husky.

He killed the flames.

The water continued to pour down on them.

“Th-thank you.” Her voice was…soothing.

The phoenix liked it. Wanted to hear more.

“We need to get out of here. We have…enemies close by. We have to run, Dante. Do you understand that? We have to run.”

He didn’t want to run. He wanted to fuck her.

Her gaze searched his. “Tell me that you’re starting to remember.”

Fire. Screams. Hell.

“Not yet, huh?” She exhaled and rolled her shoulders back. “Okay. At least I’m still alive and the fire’s out. We’ll just do this one step at a time.” She tried to pull away.

He yanked her right back against him and kissed her again. Harder. Deeper.

He wanted more of her sinful taste.

She kissed him back, her tongue sliding against his, and lust burned through him as powerfully as the flames. He would take her there. Learn all of her, experience—

Her hands shoved against him. “We can’t! We’re in danger here!”

She’s in danger?

“Our enemies will find a way to get to us if we don’t move. I told you, we have got to get out of here.”

He wasn’t worried about enemies, but he didn’t want her afraid.

“We have to go now,” she said, her voice seeming to echo with desperation, and he was powerless to refuse her.

She took his hand and rushed toward the smoldering doors. “There’s a secret tunnel.” She stopped and coughed. The smoke was thick. “We need to get to that tunnel, but—” She spun back toward Dante, eyes wide. “Vaughn!”

She was pushing Dante aside. Typing on a computer keyboard and staring at the screens around her, even as the water continued to soak her clothes and skin. “He’s not here,” she muttered, shaking her head. “He has to be… The tunnel!”

Dante saw what she was viewing. A man was running through a small opening in the wall.

“He got out, but we’ve got to stop him! We can’t let him bite anyone.”

Bite?

“Let’s go!” She grabbed Dante’s arm again. Trying to pull him.

He frowned at her. “Mine.”

She slapped her chest. “Cassie, okay? Just call me Cassie and let’s get out of here.”

He’d rather call her his. But he ran with her through the doors and down the hallway. Her wet clothes clung tightly to her body, and his gaze fell on her ass.

“Focus!” she called back to him. “Dante—here.” She tossed him a pair of jeans that she’d just jerked from some type of storage locker.

He pulled on the jeans. She stared at him a moment, and he saw the same fear lurking in her gaze once more.

He didn’t want her to be afraid. Not ever.

“Stay with me.” Her stare held his.

Always.

They ran, twisting through the halls, and he soon found himself in front of the same narrow entrance that he’d seen on her computer screen.

I remember computers. I remember alarms. He knew what all of those things were. Why couldn’t he remember more about her?

Cassie’s taste had been familiar to him.

She slipped into the tunnel first, and he followed right behind her. Though it took a bit more maneuvering for him to slide through that narrow entrance.

“Charles and Jamie left the door open,” she murmured. “That’s how Vaughn saw it. He’s in here somewhere, so stay on guard.” She yanked the tunnel door closed behind them.

Instantly, they were in darkness.

He could see perfectly.

He heard her sharp gasp.

“Your eyes are still burning.”

His beast was very much in control. He wanted to burn and destroy everything in sight but she was keeping him in check.

“You can see, can’t you?” She’d put her hands on the left wall and was carefully walking forward in the dark.

“Yes.”

“Good. Because if you see a very hungry vampire coming toward us, give a warning shout, okay?”

Dante saw no point in bothering with such a shout. “I’ll just burn him.”

“Ah…he’s kind of a friend. So focus on the shout.” She stumbled, righted herself, and kept going. “The tunnel is half a mile in length. Once we get clear, we’ll hit the woods and try to find some transportation.”

Transportation, in the woods?

Her breathing seemed loud in the tunnel. Fear still rode her heavily, and he didn’t want that. He reached out for her and curled his fingers over her shoulder.

He heard a loud boom from behind them—and the whole tunnel started to shake.

“Was that an explosion?” Cassie’s voice was low with worry. Debris began to rain down on them.

From the sound of things, yes, it had been an explosion, and the tunnel was collapsing. Giant chunks of the ceiling hit the ground.

“Dante…”

He didn’t waste time telling her to run. She couldn’t see in the dark like he could. He picked her up, held her slight body tightly in his arms, and raced through the falling tunnel.

The air became thicker the farther he went. He could discern no light up ahead. He said nothing to Cassie, not wanting her to know what he worried—

That they were trapped in the darkness.

More explosions seemed to rock the building behind them. The enemies that Cassie had spoken of—it seemed as if they were trying to blast their way to her.

Dante inhaled deeply, trying to catch a scent past the smoke and dirt. He needed fresh air. Needed an escape for them. Got it. He pushed forward, moving even faster, and then he saw it. Not in front of him, but above him. A thin stream of light coming from the ceiling.

There was a ladder to the left, one built into the wall. Cassie climbed up first, and he saw her hand punch out at the ceiling, only it wasn’t really a ceiling. The wood above them swung open—a trapdoor. And more light shone down on them. She jumped off the ladder, and he rushed up after her.

They were in a cabin, an old, musty cabin. Someone had left a lantern on the floor, and that was where the light had come from.

“We did it,” Cassie said.

Dante wasn’t so sure that they’d done anything, not yet. “This place isn’t safe.” His body was taut, on edge with tension. Because he could feel danger lurking close by.

He went to the door, yanked it open, and stared into the night.

“We’ll have to meet the others.” Cassie crept behind him. “But first we have to find Vaughn. He’s a primal vampire and I can’t let him stay loose on—”

A loud scream split the night.

Dante tensed.

That scream had come from the right, about thirty yards away. In those thick woods.

He stalked forward. The scent of blood teased his nose.

The scream came again, but was abruptly choked off. Dante kept gazing into the darkness.

Cassie ran by him, rushing toward the right and that scream. Her move made no sense to him. Why? Why would she rush to danger?

But if Cassie was going that way, so was he. Dante lunged after her.

***

Gone.

Jon watched the flames consume what was left of Cassie’s secret facility. Oh, but she’d thought she was clever.

She was wrong.

The flames were crackling as they shot higher into the sky. The explosions had started moments before. Destroying. There would be only rubble and ash left when he was done.

“Was she in there?” Shaw asked as she crept toward him. She wasn’t the only one giving him a wide berth. Most of his men looked at him with fear in their eyes.

He’d just risen before them.

They were right to fear him.

“The phoenix wouldn’t let her die.” He was certain of that. “He got her out.” The question was…how?

Jon turned away from the fire. “Every Genesis lab that I’ve ever been in has an emergency exit. Cassie would have made sure that her lab had one, too.”

Shaw inhaled sharply—probably because she knew he was right.

“Get a map of the area. I want to search every building, every cabin, every damn shack within a two mile radius.” An emergency escape had to lead somewhere. When he found that place, he’d find Cassie.

“Are you…are you all right?” Shaw asked him carefully.

“Of course. I’m fine, I—”

She pointed to his arms. His face. “You have blisters on you. From the fire.”

He stilled. He hadn’t even felt the pain, but as he lifted his arms, he saw the marks that ran from his wrists to his elbows.

Phoenixes weren’t supposed to be hurt by the fire. But then, he hadn’t been born a phoenix.

Shit. I need more injections.

More tears from a phoenix.

“Get that search going!” Jon snarled. He’d get his tears, either from Dante or…

The female phoenix.

The weak, nearly broken phoenix who had family in New Orleans. Jon hadn’t forgotten about her. If he couldn’t get to Dante, then he would get to her. In New Orleans, that phoenix had a family that he could use in order to get to her.

He would use anyone or anything if it suited his purposes. And he would kill anyone or anything.

He stormed away from the others. He stared into the night. Cassie was out there, he knew it. With Dante.

Jon inhaled deeply, trying to pull in their scents. One of his first enhancements with Genesis had been his sense of smell. It was even better than a full-blooded wolf shifter’s.

Fucking better.

He inhaled and caught the coppery scent of blood.

Jon smiled. I’ve got you.

“Follow me!” he yelled to his men—those still alive, anyway. His fire had taken out five of them.

***

“Vaughn!”

Cassie broke through the clearing and saw the vampire on the ground. He was moaning, twisting. She rushed toward him—

And found herself jerked back by her phoenix.

“Vampire,” Dante said in her ear. “Don’t get close to him.”

But Vaughn seemed hurt. He wasn’t talking, just making a faint, moaning sound in his throat.

“Did he get burned?” Cassie wondered. She had to get a better look at him.

“I don’t smell burns on him.” Dante pulled her closer against his body. “Just blood. The vampire fed recently.”

Oh, no. Vaughn had gone into that tunnel right after Jamie and Charles. And it wasn’t like there were a whole lot of people running out in the night.

Footsteps pounded. Voices shouted.

“Men are coming,” Dante said. “We either kill them or we run.”

Okay, so there were a lot of people running around out there.

“Vaughn. Vaughn, look at me, ” Cassie commanded as desperation flooded through her.

Dante’s hold tightened. “Your voice. Sin…sweet…”

Cassie cleared her throat. Now probably wasn’t the best time to have a little chat about her voice. “Vaughn, look at me.”

His head lifted. The moonlight fell over him, revealing the deep lines of anguish on his face.

There was blood on his mouth. Dripping down his chin. “Vaughn, who did you bite?”

Yet she suspected the answer… Jamie?

Jamie’s blood had the antibodies in it. “I need to get closer to him.” She fought against Dante’s too-tight hold.

Dante’s mouth was near her ear. “That’s not happening. And those men are coming closer. Are they our enemies?”

“Yes.”

“Then I kill them.” He made it sound so simple. Absolute.

She frantically shook her head. Nothing was simple. “No.” There had been too much killing. The men with Jon, did they even understand what was happening? “They’re just following orders!”

“Then they need to think for themselves.”

Vaughn sank his fingers into the ground as he tried to crawl toward her.

Dante sent a line of flame at him, blocking his path. “You don’t come near her.”

That fire lit Vaughn’s face and she saw—Cassie’s breath choked out. He didn’t have a mouthful of fangs. Not anymore. His canines were still too sharp, but his other teeth actually looked normal.

“Burning…inside,” Vaughn muttered. He shook his head and lifted his hands to wrap around his stomach. “Hurts so much.”

His knife-like, black claws were gone. His fingers were normal again.

“It’s working,” Cassie said, the words heavy with excitement. The cure could revert the primal vampires. It. Was. Working.

“Fire!” The shout came from behind them.

“Let me kill them.” Dante’s breath blew lightly over her ear.

Cassie shook her head once more. There was another way. They could—

“There! Get her!”

She whirled and saw Jon breaking through the line of trees. His face was twisted, not with fear or pain, but with what looked like heavy burns.

“Kill him!” Jon ordered his men.

Kill him… The men all began to lift their weapons without a moment’s hesitation.

They need to think for themselves.

Only they weren’t. They were getting ready to fire.

And she was standing between Dante and those bullets.

Horror flashed across Jon’s face. “No! Not her, don’t hit—”

The bullets were already exploding from their guns. Cassie braced herself. Whatever magic mojo she had inside of herself, she sure hoped it kept working.

Flames ignited in front of her. A giant, white-hot wall that lanced her skin even as the flames stretched high—covering her head—and wide—completely shielding her body.

The bullets never made it through the fire.

“You won’t let me kill them, so we run. ” Dante didn’t give her a chance to respond. He yanked her with him, and they rushed toward the waiting woods. The wall of fire he’d made protected their backs.

Cassie glanced over her shoulder, frantic. “Vaughn! Come with us! ”

He stumbled to his feet. Tried to dodge the fire. His body was trembling, but he was coming toward her.

“You will come back to me, Cassie!” Jon’s voice. Thundering after her.

He was near Vaughn. Too close to the vampire.

He was—

Jon grabbed a wooden stake from one of his men and shoved it into Vaughn’s back.

Cassie screamed and jerked free of Dante’s grip. I’m coming back, you bastard, I’m—

Fire flashed in front of her. Dante’s fire. Blocking her.

“Leave him.” Dante’s order. His hand locked around her wrist. “He’s already dead.”

Vaughn had fallen to the ground. He wasn’t moving.

“But he was cured,” Cassie could only whisper brokenly. “He was…going to be normal again.”

Through the flames, she saw Jon kick Vaughn in the ribs. The fire seemed to be everywhere. Raging so bright.

“Jon!” Her fury broke from her in the scream of his name.

“You will come back to me!” Jon shouted to her.

Dante’s arms curled around her stomach. He lifted her off her feet. Didn’t let her go.

“Cassie!” Jon’s shout blasted over the flames.

But Dante wasn’t letting her go.

Vaughn was dead. And she wanted Jon to be.

***

They’d stolen another truck. An ancient pickup with faded paint and a clutch that didn’t want to work. Sunrise was upon them, the faint trickles of light sliding across the sky.

Dante glanced over at Cassie. She looked pale, and her knuckles were white around the steering wheel. “The vampire mattered to you?”

Her lips trembled. “Yes.” Her pain seemed to fill the truck’s interior.

Dante rubbed his chest. It kept aching, but no wound was there.

“Thank you,” she said, and her gaze cut quickly to him. “I mean, you don’t even remember me, and you still got me out of there. You could have just left me to die.”

“No.” That wasn’t happening. She would not die. “I know your smell. Your taste. I know you are mine. ” An instinctive awareness he’d had since the first instant he’d seen her. Even when she’d looked at him with terror in her eyes, he’d known that she was his.

Her breath whispered out on a soft sigh. “We’re almost to New Orleans. Jon will keep looking for us, but I know a place we can use as a safe house there.”

Jon. The man with the burns. The man that I will be killing.

Dante had just needed to get Cassie away last night. To make sure that she was safe. He hadn’t wanted his fire to hurt her.

“We can stop soon,” she added, and he wondered if the words were to reassure him or her.

Silence filled the vehicle as they came toward the city. Cassie’s body was tense, and she seemed far too breakable. So fragile. An image appeared in his mind. A little girl with dark hair. Cassie’s frightened eyes. She walked toward him.

Her little gown had been soaked with blood.

“Why is there blood on you?”

“He killed me.” She shook her head. “He’s going to kill you, too.”

“You’re not dying!” His hand slammed into the dashboard, sending a crack streaking across the old, brittle surface.

Cassie jumped and glanced at him. “That is the plan, okay? Relax. I’m no immortal phoenix like you. I don’t know how many repeats are left in me.”

She turned the vehicle onto a narrow road. He saw the tops of—angels? Stone angels. Tombstones. They drove past a cemetery and under the interstate.

“The house isn’t much,” Cassie told him, “but we’re not trying to attract attention.”

The steering wheel was shaking in her hand. That truck didn’t have many more miles in it.

A few more moments, then she was turning in front of an old, plantation style home. One that had burglar bars across its windows and garish spray paint on the exterior walls. “Most of the locals think that this place is cursed,” Cassie explained as she pulled the truck around to the back. “So no one comes here much.”

The truck’s driver’s side door groaned when she shoved it open. Dante climbed from the vehicle and followed her up the old steps that led into the house.

Heavy boards crisscrossed the back door. She bit her lip, then glanced at him. “Ah, you think you could…?”

With a yank, he had both boards falling onto the old broken steps.

“Thanks.”

They went inside. Judging by the way the house looked on the outside, he’d expected to see dust, spider webs—anything but the too tidy space that waited him.

“From the front, no one can see any lights on in here.” She’d turned on several lights already. “The windows are tinted, and thick curtains also help to block the interior light. If anyone glances this way, the place will keep looking abandoned.”

Even though it wasn’t.

“I told Charles we’d regroup at midnight, so we just need to lay low until then.” She headed for the spiral staircase. It had probably once been the talk of the town. Now the sagging steps squeaked beneath her feet. “There are a few habitable rooms upstairs. Take the one that you want.”

She wasn’t even looking at him. Just heading up those stairs.

No.

He rushed across the room and caught her hand, stilling her on the fifth step.

“Dante?”

His gaze raked over her. “I saw your eyes…in the face of a child. You said—you said someone had killed you.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Wrong. She knew exactly.

“You sound different when you lie.”

Cassie stilled.

He leaned toward her. His fingers brushed over her cheek. “I like the way your skin feels. Like silk.” He inhaled, drinking in her scent. “And I fucking love the way you smell.”

And the way she tasted.

Cassie’s hands flew up and caught his. “Stop.”

He frowned at her.

“You don’t know how much it rips my heart out every time this happens. You die and you burn and you come back—and you don’t remember me.” Her laugh was too bitter and rough.

That wasn’t the way her laugh should sound. He knew that, even if he couldn’t recall the actual sound of her laughter.

“I got lucky when Jon took me to the ranch. You actually remembered, but it still didn’t change the way you felt about me, did it?”

Dante could only stare at her as a dark tension swept through him.

“I don’t think you do feel.” She swallowed and pulled in a ragged breath. “I think you want and you lust and maybe it is because of what I am.” Her lips twisted. “Siren.” Said like a curse.

His muscles hardened.

“You look at me and see a stranger.”

No, he saw a woman that he knew belonged to him.

As he belonged to her.

“I look at you and see the man who keeps breaking my heart.” She dropped his hand as if he burned her.

He’d burned plenty of people. Not her. Never—

“Why do I love someone who doesn’t even know me?”

It was his turn to pull in a ragged breath.

Even softer, she said, “Someone who can’t ever love me back.” She straightened her shoulders and carefully eased up a few steps. Putting distance between them. “I can’t handle you right now. I’m too raw. And you make me feel too much.”

His hands clenched into fists so that he wouldn’t reach out to her.

“Dammit, remember me !” Cassie suddenly yelled. “I don’t want to be so forgettable to you! I never forgot you! I never gave up on you! I just—” She broke off, and there was more of the bitter laughter that sounded so very wrong coming from her. “You can’t help it. Just like I can’t help loving you.” She spun away. “But I’ve got to learn how to try.”

Dammit, remember me!

Those had been the only words he clearly heard. Those words and her bitter laughter.

He stayed on those stairs as she raced away from him, and images began to flood through his mind.

Cassie had said…she was a siren.

Sirens are dangerous. So dangerous.

A whispered warning that came from within.

He squeezed his eyes shut and saw images of her.

They were in a crowded bar. Her eyes were wide and scared. He leaned close to her. “I’ve dreamed about you,” he whispered. His hold had tightened on her wrists. “In my dreams…you kill me, Cassie Armstrong.”

Another image. Another time. Another place.

Cassie stood in front of a broken mirror. Blood dripped down her arm. “They’re coming. I have to get it out, or they’ll get me.” She drove a shard of glass into her shoulder and his phoenix roared inside.

Cassie and blood. They were bound in his mind. The blood…

“I’m not your fucking experiment.”

She flinched before him. “I didn’t say that you were.”

“But you want to put me in your lab, right? Want to run your tests…cut me open…just like they did.”

“I’m not like them.”

“Aren’t you?”

The images kept coming, rolling through his mind until all he could see was—

“You killed me. You were there when they cut into me. When they tortured me.” She’d stood before him, eyes so wide. “You were in a white coat. In a lab. You were one of them.”

“Let me explain—”

There was nothing to explain. “I should have left you to die when I had the chance.”

Dante glanced to the top of the stairs. The pipes were moaning. Cassie must have turned on the shower. He began to climb those steps.

I should have left you to die when I had the chance.

His words.

They were alone. All alone.

You killed me…

Cassie wasn’t getting away.