Cynthia Eden - Burn For Me

His eyes bulged, but then he ran up the stairs.

He was smarter than he appeared.

She hurried toward the guard station. Heard some order on the intercom system about using something called an SP-tranq. Whatever. She got down on her knees as she yanked open the drawers, shoving her hands in. She found key cards—had to be for the cells—grabbed them, and jumped to her feet.

More guards rushed by her, but she just tucked the gun down next to her leg, and they barely glanced her way. They were too busy fleeing to pay her much attention. No, they were hauling ass.

And leaving the paranormals as prisoners. Not on my watch . The test subjects weren’t just going to be left to die.

She found the first room down a twisting hallway. A two-way mirror let her see into his room. A man. Tall. Muscled. Pacing back and forth. Back and—

He whirled to face her, and Eve caught sight of his gleaming fangs.

Hell.

“Fresh blood …” he whispered.

Okay. Eve hesitated. Maybe freeing him wasn’t the—

Smoke drifted toward her. The vamp’s head snapped up. He wasn’t looking right at her, not the way Cain had, but the vamp sure seemed to be … smelling her. “Fire.”

Yeah, his sense of smell was working just fine.

And even though he was a vampire … I can’t leave him. Vampires were just like humans—some good, some bad. She just had to keep reminding herself of that. He doesn’t have to be bad.

Eve rushed around the corner. Flipped through the key cards and tried to find the one that would give her access to his cell. This holding room didn’t have a manual code, not like Cain’s. The door looked thicker, heavier, and—

The third card she swiped had the lights near the door’s handle flashing green. She brought her gun up in an instant even as the door flew open.

“Don’t bite me!” Her quick yell.

The blond vampire had already lunged forward, but he froze at her yell—or maybe he froze at the sight of her gun. Didn’t really matter why to Eve.

Freezing was good. Better than biting. “I’m here to help you.”

His eyes narrowed. “Says the woman with the gun aimed at my chest.” His fangs were way too sharp.

“Look, that’s just to—”

He ripped the gun from her hand in a lightning-fast move. Grabbed her. Shoved her back against the door and yanked her head to the side.

“Hungry …” Cain had said something like that, too, only he hadn’t raked his fangs against her skin the way Dracula was doing.

“I’m … helping …” Eve muttered. “ Trying … to … help …” Damn the vampires. Always biting the hands—or the necks—of those who helped.

“Need … you …” the vampire rasped.

Then he was the one being yanked away. The vampire’s body hit the wall with a thud. “Too fucking bad,” Cain snarled at him. “Cause I saw her first.”

Uh, what?

Cain offered her his hand. Eve glanced at his open palm, then back at his blazing eyes. She didn’t move toward him. Right then she wasn’t sure who was safer—the guy who’d almost torn out her throat, or the man who was destroying the whole building.

“You have to get out of here,” Cain told her, a muscle flexing along his jaw.

The vampire rose slowly to his feet.

“Touch her again”—Cain’s deadly focus was on the vamp—“and I’ll turn you to dust.”

A very real threat. Vampires and fire didn’t mix so well.

Cain stopped waiting on her to take his hand. He grabbed her wrist and hauled her to his side. “Come on.”

Every instinct she had screamed for her to run from the fire, but … “There are others. They’re trapped and—”

An explosion shook the building. A fierce detonation that had the walls shuddering and thick cracks breaking across the ceiling.

The vampire stared at Cain for an instant, then when the screams started—screams that seemed to come from everywhere—the vamp shoved past Cain and Eve and raced away.

So many screams … and more explosions.

“He’s not letting us out.” Cain’s grip was unbreakable. “The fucking bastard … Wyatt is gonna kill everyone before he lets his experiments get away.”

Wyatt was blowing up the lab? She shook her head. This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this should have happened. “We have to help the others!”

A chunk of ceiling fell down, barely missing her leg. Cain pulled her down the hallway. She fought him, dragging in her heels. “No, the others—”

She choked on the smoke.

They were almost at the stairwell.

“Please …”

The one word stopped him.

“They’ll die.” Unless they were like Cain, and that was highly doubtful. She’d never met anyone else quite like him.

He grabbed the key cards from her hand. “Then I’ll get them out.” A push sent her into the stairwell. “You get that sweet ass out of this place.”

Another explosion rocked Genesis, and Cain left her—rushing back down the winding hallway even as the building began to collapse.

The smoke was thicker than Seattle fog as Eve fought her way down the corridor toward Wyatt’s office. The coldhearted bastard was trying to kill everyone, even his own research teams. The detonations had gone off with near perfect timing. Sealing doorways. Destroying equipment.

Burying evidence.

He wasn’t going to get away with this. She wouldn’t let him. People deserved to know the truth—and the truth was that vampires and shifters weren’t the only monsters.

Some humans could be the worst monsters out there.

Her lungs burned as she shoved against his office door. Locked. Sealed tight from the inside. Eve snarled as she pushed against that door. Just—

The door opened with a hiss, and she fell inside. The place was perfect. Freaking pristine, while hell stalked the hallways outside.

She stumbled to Wyatt’s desk and yanked up the laptop that looked like it had been waiting for her.

“I was wondering when you’d come my way.”

She whirled around. The bookcase to the left wasn’t a real bookcase. Wyatt had rigged the place, all right. Given himself the perfect exit, one hidden so easily.

“There’s no data there.” He inclined his head toward her and the laptop. “I erased those files.”

More screams. Cries for help.

Eve shifted forward, moving onto the balls of her feet, then she went completely still when she saw the gun in his hand.

“You really fucked things up for me.” Wyatt sighed. “And to think, I had such hopes for you.”

What? Hopes to do what—torture and maim her? Freak. “It’s over, Wyatt. Your facility is burning. Your people are dying— it’s over. ”

Wyatt shook his head. “I’ll take my data. Go forward, but you …” That gun didn’t waver. “You’re not going anywhere.” His clinical façade was cracking right before her eyes as the rage swept through him.

“Why?” The question tore from her. “Why are you doing this to them?”

“Because they don’t deserve to be the ones with the power.” Disgust tightened his mouth. “They won’t be the strong ones. They won’t destroy us!”

Sounded like the doc had some personal issues going on. She could understand. Seeing as how vampires had killed her family, she wasn’t exactly warm and tingly when it came to all the supernaturals. But killing them?

Torturing them?

No.

“We don’t get to play God.” She edged behind his desk. The laptop was clutched in front of her. Like it would stop a bullet.

“Some of us do.” Wyatt’s response, arrogant and so cold, drifted across the room.

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re gonna blame all of this”—her free hand waved toward the smoke filling the room—“on them, aren’t you?” He was setting up the explosions to make it look like the paranormals were the ones who’d attacked. I bet he blames everything on Cain.