Chapter Three
Chapter Three
Cassie jerked on fresh clothes as quickly as she could. She’d thought about running right after Dante, but running out stark naked wasn’t her best plan ever, especially with the sun getting ready to rise. Luckily, Trace seemed to keep his safe houses stocked with clothing for both men and women.
She had searched the drawers and found underwear. Jeans. A T-shirt. Tennis shoes. And—
She heard the thud of a fist hitting the back door. Her head snapped up. Dante? Coming back? Hope had her rushing toward the door, but caution—the caution that had saved her life plenty of times over the last few years—had her glancing at the security feeds before she opened that door.
Trace Frost—the shifter and computer genius who actually owned the warehouse—had wired the safe house so that he could see just who came calling. She inched carefully toward the bank of security screens.
Oh, no.
Dante wasn’t on the other side of the door. Four men were—men with bared fangs.
Vampires.
Her eyes squeezed closed for an instant. My blood. She had been so intent on getting away from the motel room and putting some space between her and that damn tracking device that she’d forgotten all about the blood. And the fact that her blood was like a homing beacon for vampires.
Her eyes flew open when she heard more powerful pounding. The door shook, nearly buckling inward, and the whole building actually seemed to shudder.
She jumped back. Weapon . She needed a weapon, fast. Those vampires weren’t going away.
Another frantic glance at the monitors showed that the vampires were repeatedly slamming their fists into the door. Since vampires had enhanced strength as one of their little bonus features, those were some very powerful fists.
Cassie rushed toward the dresser. When she’d been searching for clothes, she’d noticed a nice little surprise hidden in a drawer. She shoved the T-shirts aside and her fingers curled over the gun that had been stashed inside. A gun—and wooden bullets—all conveniently stored and ready for her. Her fingers fumbled a bit as she loaded the wooden bullets into the gun.
The door shook again.
She slid the last bullet home.
The pounding stopped. Silence, punctuated only by her heaving breaths. Carefully, Cassie crept over so that she could see the security feed once more. Trace had set up cameras all around the perimeter of the place. He wasn’t a fan of being caught off guard.
Neither was Cassie. She kept the gun in her right hand. A few taps of the keyboard had the image on the screens splitting and then shifting focus so she could see from the four cameras that were positioned around the property.
Camera one—at her back door—showed nothing. Where had the vampires gone?
Camera two—the lens that should be focused on the street—showed…a vampire. There you are. His fangs came toward the camera and the image turned to static.
Her heart pounded faster.
Camera three—on the front of the building. She didn’t see any vampires there, but—
Wait. Yes she did see them. Their shadows were crawling along the warehouse’s roof. She heard the scratches above her—from their claws?
Camera four…she leaned toward the screen. That camera was locked on the second floor of the warehouse, on the windows to the left.
The windows that were—
She heard the shatter of glass, and the scratches and rustles suddenly became much louder.
The vampires weren’t outside any longer. They were inside. And they were coming for her.
She moved quickly, putting her back against the nearest wall. They were coming down the stairs, so she’d be ready for them.
“Get out of here!” Cassie yelled up to them. “I don’t want to hurt you!” She didn’t. Her job was to help, to cure. Not to kill. She’d left the killing to her father. He had pretty much made it his life’s work. She was trying to pick up the pieces and mend the lives that he’d torn apart.
The vampires rushed down the stairs. Their fangs were out, fully extended, and hunger twisted their faces.
That was what her blood did. It made them desperate. Drunk.
Crazed.
Her blood-stained shirt was still in the bathroom, so she wasn’t surprised when the first vampire ignored her entirely and ran in there.
But the second and the third? They locked their hungry gazes on her…and advanced.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Cassie repeated again. “Please, leave.”
The vampire closest to her—a man with blond hair who looked like he was barely twenty—just laughed. “But I don’t want to leave.” He lifted his hands. He was sporting wickedly sharp claws. “And I do want to hurt you.” He surged toward her.
She shot him.
***
Dante froze as the thunder of a gunshot echoed in his ears. He was in the middle of the warehouse district, walking through the night, trying not to look back—
But that gunshot had come from behind him.
Cassie?
He heard the roar of another gunshot. Another.
He didn’t think. Didn’t hesitate. He just turned and ran back to her.
No one takes her from me.
Even when he walked away from her.
I’m coming. Hold on, Cassie. Hold on.
As he ran, another image flashed through his mind. A memory. He’d had flashes before, like scenes straight from a movie that he watched instead of lived. And in this scene…
Blood covered Cassie’s chest. She stared up at him, emotion filling her beautiful eyes. An emotion that he didn’t want to face.
“It’s…okay…”
He could barely make out her words. But he knew she was lying. Cassie was such a terrible liar.
The wounds on her body were too deep. There was too much blood. She would never survive.
He could save her. He had to save her. There was no way that Cassie could die.
Only…
The life drained from her eyes. He saw it vanish. “No!” His roar. He yanked her against him. Held her as close to his body as he could. Her blood soaked his shirt and his skin.
She wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t moving.
He was too late.
She was gone.
The image vanished as swiftly as it had appeared, leaving behind the bitter taste of fear in Dante’s mouth. He wouldn’t be too late. Couldn’t be. He pushed himself, desperate to rush back to the woman that he’d so foolishly left moments before.
He reached the back door. Tried to swipe his hand over the hidden keypad that Cassie had used before. But the damn door wouldn’t open.
Another shot thundered.
“Cassie!” Dante yelled her name.
He heard snarls and shouts and…
“Help!” Her voice. She was still alive. She’d better stay that way.
He slammed into the door. It wouldn’t give. It must have been reinforced.
Fine. If it wouldn’t give, then he’d just burn it down.
Because he was getting to Cassie. “Hold on!” Dante shouted to her. “Just hold on!”
He wasn’t ready to have her die in his arms a second time.
***
She was out of bullets. She was also a terrible shot. Cassie hadn’t hit even one of those vampires in the heart.
She’d just blasted them until her gun clicked. Two of the vampires—the blond and a bald guy—were on the floor. But the others were closing in on her.
Crap.
Smoke began to drift in the air. Her head whipped toward the back door. Dante was out there. That was his smoke. She’d heard his shout. He wanted her to hold on—hold on to what? The vampires were right freaking there!
One grabbed for her. She slammed the gun into the side of his head and managed to break free of him. Then she raced for the wooden table in the corner. The vampire she’d hit grabbed her legs and she fell, face-first, onto the floor. She ignored the pain from that impact and grabbed out with her hands. She caught the side of the wooden chair and yanked it back.
The vampire was pulling her toward him even as the chair slammed into the floor—slammed and broke apart.
She stretched for one of the broken pieces of wood.
The vampire was practically drooling. “Got to taste…got to taste… ”
“No. Trust me, you don’t want a taste!”
He didn’t listen.
His fangs came at her.
She drove the makeshift stake into his chest. That close, her aim was dead-on. He screamed, but the cry choked off as his body stiffened.
His blood pulsed out of his chest as she shoved him away from her. Cassie jumped to her feet. And realized that she was surrounded.
Three vampires, including one that she recognized.
“Hello, bitch,” said the redheaded female vamp that Cassie had last seen in Taboo. “Didn’t think you’d get away from me, did you?”
Sometimes, Cassie truly thought that she had the worst luck in the world. She bent and scooped up one of the chair’s broken legs. “This is your last chance to walk away.”
The smoke was thickening. Dante was outside, probably growing more pissed by the moment. The angrier he got, the more powerful he would become. She just needed to buy a little more time. Time for him to burn his way through the wall of the building.
“One of us will walk away,” the vampire promised Cassie with a click of her too-sharp teeth. “But it won’t be you.” The redhead ran toward her.
Cassie screamed and brought up her stake.
The redhead just ripped that stake out of her hand and laughed. “Amateur hour is over, honey. Time for you to play with the big girls.” The stake was thrown against the wall. The redhead grabbed hold of Cassie’s hair and yanked back her head, baring her throat. “You should never have come between me and my snack.”
That snack had just burned his way through the back side of the warehouse. As Cassie gasped, flames leaped around them. The fire raced up the walls, burning hot and bright.
Over the female vampire’s shoulder, Cassie saw Dante surging toward them. The flames were reflected in his eyes.
“You should run,” she whispered to the vamp.
“And you should die,” the redhead returned, then she sank her teeth into Cassie’s throat.
Cassie cried out as the woman tore into her neck. The bite was brutal, and she felt the knife-slice of those teeth as they sank deep into her jugular. She tried to push the redhead away, but the vampire was too strong.
Cassie’s eyes were still open, and her wild stare saw that the other vamps were rushing toward Dante. He sent balls of fire flying toward them. The flames hit the vampires, and they ignited.
“Get…off…me!” Cassie yelled as she twisted in the redhead’s hold.
The redhead jerked her head up. Blood dripped down her lips. Her eyes widened with horror, even as a tendril of smoke rose from her mouth. “What…the hell…are…you?” She stumbled back.
Cassie had told her to run. “I warned you…” She put her hand to her throat and tried to stop the gushing flow of blood that she could feel on her neck.
Dante lunged for the female vampire, coming with his fire and fury, but there would be no time for his attack.
She hit the floor. The vamp was screaming. Every bit of color bleached from her skin, and her body stiffened, contorting, and she died…thirty seconds after tasting Cassie’s blood.
What…the hell…are…you?
“Poison,” Cassie managed to reply, then her knees buckled.
She didn’t hit the floor, though. Dante was there. There with the fire in his eyes and a touch that should have scorched her, but didn’t. His arms wrapped around her, and he lifted her high into his arms.
“Tell me that you’ll heal,” he ordered, voice thick.
He’d come back for her. She swallowed, but felt the pain of that small movement rock through her whole body. “I’ll…heal.” If that was what he wanted to hear, then she’d give him the words.
“You better not be lying to me.”
She tried to smile. Then she realized that the fire was still burning. Seeming to rage out of control, the flames had raced up the walls and were rolling across the ceiling.
The fire surrounded them.
It had pretty much destroyed Trace’s safe house.
“Dante…”
His hold tightened on her. “I’ve got you.”
Even though the fire crackled around her and blood dripped down her neck, she felt safe. Her eyes closed. She didn’t want to see the flames. She felt the heat lance over her skin, a hot wind, but there was no more pain.
A few moments later, she could taste fresh air again. They were outside, and Dante was running toward the Jeep. The faint light from dawn lit the sky.
He put her into the Jeep and started to rush around to the driver’s side. “No.” She grabbed his arm. “My blood—”
“When are you going to heal?”
She had no idea. “My blood…lured the vampires here. The men who are after me…after us…can use vampires to track us.” Cassie shook her head. “The blood will lead them to me. As long as I bleed, I’ll make you a target.”
“If anyone comes after you, I’ll turn them to ash.”
Her breath caught.
He leaned in toward her. “Do I look like I’m afraid of vampires?”
“No.”
He’d touched them. They’d burned. End of story. Vampires were particularly susceptible to the flames.
He started to walk away.
She grabbed his arm again. Yes, they needed to go. The flames currently stretching high into the sky would attract humans and paranormals, but first she had to know. “Why did you come back?” Tell me it’s because you needed me. That you couldn’t stand the thought of something happening to me, that—
“Hell if I know.”
She glared at him.
But he didn’t even notice. He’d pulled away. Hurried around the front of the Jeep and jumped into the driver’s seat.
They drove away with a squeal of tires.
***
Cassie wasn’t bleeding anymore. She really could heal at an amazing speed. But Dante didn’t know if he believed that her healing talent came from him.
Or from his tears.
He might not remember his life, but he didn’t exactly think that he was a crying kind of guy.
They’d stopped at a pharmacy earlier. She’d run inside, bought a cheap new T-shirt, changed, and ditched her bloody old one. She came back out with only a faint red mark on her neck.
At the moment, they were driving on the interstate. The wind whipped through the Jeep, the sun beat down on them, and—
She was sleeping.
He slanted a glance toward her. She’d pulled her long hair back into a ponytail, but tendrils had escaped with the wind, and they blew lightly around her face.
In sleep, she looked innocent. Delicate.
But then, she’d looked delicate in his dreams, too. Right before she’d killed him.
Did she have dreams? Nightmares? He’d like to know.
“Stay on the interstate,” she said, her voice barely rising over the whipping wind. “We need to head down south.”
Huh. So she wasn’t sleeping. “What’s south?”
“People who are counting on me.” She shifted in her seat, stretching a bit. When she stretched, the T-shirt pulled across the round curves of her breasts in the best way.
His fingers tightened around the steering wheel, and he forced himself to focus on the road. He had been driving for four hours already. He eased toward the nearest exit, thinking that they’d gas up, and head out again.
“You are coming with me, right? You aren’t planning to ditch me at this exit?”
There was no missing the worried edge in her voice.
He hadn’t thought about ditching her, but then, he didn’t exactly know why he was still with her. Why he felt the need to stay close to her.
Dante slowed down the Jeep as they turned toward the lone service station that sat at the top of the hill. He wasn’t even sure what state they were in, but the Jeep’s engine had started to sputter, and he was worried that sound meant the vehicle wouldn’t make it much farther.
“How the hell do I know,” he asked, not answering her question, “how to drive? How to tell that it sounds like the radiator might make it a few more hours? I didn’t know my own damn name before you told me, but—”
“It’s a type of source amnesia.” Her words were soft. “That’s what I figured, anyway. You can remember how to do things, like drive a car or—or kiss.” She cleared her throat. “But you don’t remember when or where you learned those skills. It’s all the specific, explicit memories that you lose when you burn.”
“They come back.” Hadn’t she said that?
“Usually. You never told me what it was like when you burned. You never told anyone for certain, so I don’t know what happens to you. Where you go.”
Hell.
“There have been times when you came back, and all of your memories were with you. It was rare, but it happened.”
“And when it didn’t?”
“They were usually back in a week.”
Usually? He got the feeling Cassie was being deliberately vague, and he sure wasn’t in the mood for any games.
Dante waited until he’d braked the vehicle then turned his full attention to Cassie. No one else was around, so he figured he could be honest with her. “I don’t know if I should help you or kill you.”
Her eyes widened. “I…didn’t realize that killing me was an option on the table.”
It wasn’t. He’d said the words to get some kind of response from her. Any response. Her words before had been too careful and quiet. Like she was hiding what she really felt.
She was still hiding. The slight flaring of her eyes wasn’t good enough for him. “Who are the men hunting you?”
“Hunting us ?” she corrected carefully. “That’s what you meant, right? Because they’re hunting both of us. Not just me.”
He locked his back teeth.
“Those men work for the government. A very secret group that humans don’t know about. The paranormals who know about them? Let’s say they probably all wish they’d never heard of those bastards.” Her gaze darted behind him. There wasn’t anything to see back there. Just a field of wheat.
“What do they want with you—us?” Dante asked.
Her gaze came back to him. “They want us to make them an army. An unstoppable army with your fire and immortality.”
That explained why they wanted him. “Why you ?”
Her smile was broken. “Because I’m the mad scientist that they believe can create this army for them.” She climbed from the Jeep.
He followed her. “Why the hell would they think that?”
“Because my father already made them one army of enhanced ,” Cassie stressed the word as she tried to shove back her loose tendrils of hair, “vampires. Of course, that turned into a freaking nightmare, but the guys in suits just don’t learn, do they?”
Her father ? Dante caught her arm and turned her toward him.
Her gaze lingered on his. “Every time you rose, I always wondered…will this be the time he remembers nothing? When the memories just don’t ever return?” The mask was falling away.
He didn’t speak.
“Maybe—maybe there are some things you’d rather not remember. There sure are things I’d prefer to forget.” She smiled.
He knew it was a fake smile because her eyes didn’t light up. So much for her mask sliding away.
“I’ll go pay for the gas. Good thing you had some cash on you, huh?”
He’d stolen the money. Not such a “good” thing. But Dante was realizing he wasn’t well acquainted with good. He handed her the money. As soon as his fingers brushed hers, he felt the connection again. A surge of lust and need that seemed to pulse all the way through his veins.
She tried to pull away from him.
He didn’t let her go.
“Do you think I don’t remember that we were lovers?” Dante asked the question deliberately. Again, wanting to see her response.
But she shook her head. Her fake smile fell away. “We were never lovers, Dante.”
Yet he knew her taste.
When she attempted to tug away again, he let her go. He watched her walk away from him and toward the station. Enjoyed the sway of her ass, and then he called, “Cassandra!”
She stopped. Looked back at him.
“We will be,” he promised her. He saw her swallow.
“You left me hours ago—just walked out. Now you think you’ll sleep with me?” She shook her head. “You aren’t that irresistible, no matter what you believe.” She headed into the small station.
His eyes narrowed. We will be.
***
The bell over the door jingled when Cassie entered the station. She glanced toward the counter and saw the clerk staring her way.
Older, balding, with a faded shirt and a grizzled jaw, he seemed to be studying her a bit too closely.
She gave him a smile as she tried to put on her friendliest face. “Twenty dollars’ worth of gas, please.” She headed toward the counter. A glance to the upper right corner revealed the surveillance video that was currently showing Dante as he put gas in the Jeep.
She slid her cash across the counter and glanced up at the TV that had been mounted behind the counter. A sports show was on—a basketball game.
“Where you headed?” the clerk asked, taking the money and ringing up the sale real fast.
Cassie kept her smile in place. “My boyfriend and I are going to visit some relatives in Georgia.” She didn’t actually have any relatives anymore. They were all dead.
Her stomach growled, and Cassie realized she couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten. Turning away from the clerk, she headed toward the snack aisle. Chips and chocolate were on her agenda.
The basketball game kept playing behind her. She also heard the rustle of footsteps.
“Authorities are still looking for the two suspects wanted in connection with an arson that killed four people in Chicago…”
That wasn’t the basketball game. That was a newsflash that she’d rather not have airing. Cassie kept walking. No chips and chocolate for me. It wasn’t the time to panic.
“Federal officials have identified one of the suspects as twenty-nine-year-old Cassandra Armstrong, an ex-doctoral student from Tulane who—”
Ex-doctoral? Bullshit. She’d gotten that doctorate—and an MD.
Cassie turned for the door and found her path blocked by the store clerk. He had a shotgun in his hands.
“That same news story has been on every fifteen minutes for the last few hours. They’ve been running a picture of you every time it airs.”
The gun was pointing right at her heart.
“Did you kill those four people in Chicago?”
They were dead, though they hadn’t exactly been people. Or, well, humans, anyway. Cassie hesitated. “Does it matter that they were trying to kill me?”
The clerk was between her and the door. Dammit. She should have realized that her story would be fed to the media. It was a strategy that had been used before.
Give your prey no place to hide. Let everyone hunt them.
She was being hunted, all right.
“Cassandra Armstrong is considered armed and dangerous. She should not be confronted. If you see her, you should call…” The news reporter quickly rattled off a number that Cassie was certain would also be flashing on the screen at that moment.
“You don’t look dangerous to me,” the clerk said, frowning.
Appearances could be deceiving. “This isn’t your fight. Just step out of my way, and let me go.”
His hold tightened on the gun.
She had a handy new healing technique, but would she heal from a gunshot wound to the chest? Cassie didn’t think she wanted to find out.
Sweat beaded the man’s brow. “You…killed those people.”
The bell jingled behind him.
Oh, crap . If he swung at Dante with that gun—
“No!” Cassie cried out, then she slammed her body into the store clerk’s. They tumbled onto the floor, but she got up faster than he did. And she came up with the shotgun in her hands.
The man’s eyes seemed to bulge out of his head. “I-I got a wife…kids…”
“Cassie?” Dante was behind her.
“You’re gonna keep that wife and kids, sir. I’m not hurting you.” She backed up and bumped into Dante. “You just stay on the floor. Count to one hundred, and forget you ever saw us.” She would not have this man’s death on her conscience.
Her conscience was already messed up enough.
“One…two…three…” The man closed his eyes as he started to count. He didn’t get up off the floor.
Cassie shoved her elbow into Dante’s rock-hard abs. “Let’s go.”
He was staring at her with a furrow between his brows. Another shove had him moving. When they were at the Jeep, she tossed the shotgun into the nearest trash can and jumped into the vehicle.
Cassie thought Dante would gun the engine and get them out of there. He didn’t move. He was in the driver’s seat, and he was just…staring at her.
“What?” Cassie snapped.
“You jumped on that man…”
That was obvious.
“You were…saving me?” He seemed stunned.
“Yes, well, when you die, it’s not exactly pretty.” And if he’d risen, he would have blown up that whole gas station. “Now can we please get out of here? I don’t buy for a minute that the clerk is counting all the way to one hundred before he springs to his feet.” More likely, he was already calling the cops on them.
“You should have killed him.”
“No.” She grabbed for the key and cranked the ignition. “He was a human. One who was just trying to do the right thing.” Been there, done that. “He didn’t deserve to die.” Her gaze sought Dante’s. “Now come on. Get this thing moving.”
He held her gaze a moment longer. Then the Jeep jerked forward. Finally. They left the gas station with a squeal of their nearly bald tires. Left the shotgun.
She was very afraid that trouble would be following close behind—trouble in the form of Lieutenant Colonel Jon Abrams. Jon was the leader of the group Uncle Sam had gunning for her, and Jon was also the man who’d once said he loved her.
She hadn’t believed him. Despite the fact that he was a damn good liar.
Once upon a time, he’d been her would-be fiancé. Now, he was the man who wanted her to make him an unstoppable army.
Sorry, Jon, that’s not going to happen.
Sadly, she knew from bitter experience that he didn’t give up easily. Especially when he wanted something badly enough.
***
“And you’re sure the woman you saw was Cassandra Armstrong?” Jon asked as he stared across the counter at the shaken store clerk.
The clerk—Tommy Wells—gave a quick nod. “That was her. She—she jumped me. Took my gun before I could call the cops.” His head hung a bit in shame as he gave the confession. Tommy’s cheeks flushed an even deeper red and he muttered, “She had a guy with her. Big bastard who looked like he wanted to rip me to pieces.”
“This bastard…describe him.”
Tommy pointed to the height chart near the door. “Six foot three, freaking linebacker. Black hair, dark eyes, a face that I don’t ever want to see again…”
“Don’t worry, if you see him again, it won’t be for long.” Black hair, dark eyes, the right size.
Tommy frowned. “What do you mean it won’t be for long?”
“If he comes back, the man’s here to kill you.” But Jon didn’t think the phoenix would be coming back. He was running with Cassie. Sticking to her like glue. The phoenix’s obsession with Cassie hadn’t lessened over the years. Jon would use that obsession. It would be what finally broke the phoenix known as Dante.