“Her blood—it was different. Tasted different from anything I’d ever had before. I didn’t know what I was doing. I couldn’t stop. I tried and I tried, but I couldn’t. . . .” Ryder’s eyes squeezed shut, but there was no missing the torment on his face. “Then she was still, and I couldn’t get her to open her eyes.”
“You drained her,” Cain said. His legs were braced apart. His hands loose at his sides.
Eve couldn’t tell if he was about to attack the vampire—or give the guy a free pass out of the cabin.
No free pass. Eve still had her weapon ready.
Ryder’s eyes opened. Darted to her, then back to Cain. “I called for the guards. Begged them to help, but they wouldn’t touch her.”
Eve bet that had been on Wyatt’s orders. The doctor had been waiting, probably eager to see what would happen next.
“Then she burned.” The quiet words came from Cain.
Ryder nodded stiffly. “I was fighting the guards, trying to get back to her. I thought . . . I thought I could try to turn her.”
Turn her. Eve felt nausea rise in her throat. No matter what else happened to her in this life, she never wanted to become a vampire. Not that most people survived the brutal turning, anyway. If they did, the vamps would have taken over the world long ago.
Ryder jerked a hand through his hair. “Then I smelled the smoke. The fire was everywhere. Wyatt was in the hallway, watching her, smiling. Smiling when she burned, and—”
“When she came back,” Eve said, cutting into his words. She’d seen the same thing with Cain. Wyatt, standing back in his pristine lab coat. Studying the death scene with a steady gaze, then smiling when the fire brought his subject back to life.
“I have to get her out of there.” Ryder’s gaze was on Eve again. Pleading. Demanding. “You saw her, I know you did. When Wyatt took you, you saw her.”
Eve shook her head. “There were only guards. I didn’t see anyone else.”
Ryder lurched back. “You’re lying.” Anger flashed in his eyes and his claws rose up. “Tell me where she is!”
Eve’s hold tightened on the chunk of wood. Why did she have to get stuck with the crazies?
“You need to feed.” Cain’s voice was quiet, calm, such a contrast to the vampire’s frantic words.
Ryder impatiently shook his head. “He did . . . something to me. I can drink other blood. I f**king have. Over and over. But it doesn’t quench the thirst. It just makes me crave her more. Wyatt did something.”
Yes, but with Wyatt, there was no telling exactly what he’d done. Anything was possible with Dr. Frankenstein.
“He wanted me addicted to her.” A hard rush of breath escaped Ryder. “I am. And I’m getting her out of there. I’m not going to let Wyatt keep hurting her!”
“How do you know she wasn’t at Genesis when it burned?” Eve asked him. How do you know Wyatt still has her? Maybe the woman had escaped—from Wyatt and from the vampire who’d killed her.
But Ryder was adamant. “He had two labs. I know he did. I heard him talking . . . he was transferring her to the second lab for more study.”
Study or torture? Eve figured they were the same thing in Wyatt’s twisted mind.
“He wants you,” Ryder said, focusing on her with a sudden intensity that made her breath catch. “He’ll keep coming after you. He won’t stop. Once he gets you, we can follow him back to the second lab and—”
Cain punched him in the jaw. The vampire flew a good five feet back and slammed into the side of the fireplace. Two bricks fell to the ground.
“She’s not bait.” Cain’s deadly growl.
No, she wasn’t. The vamp needed to get that bit clear, yesterday.
“He’s hurting her,” Ryder snarled back at him. He pushed to his feet then, voice ragged, said, “I hurt her. I owe her. I have to get her out of that hell.”
Eve knew the vamp would be willing to trade her life in an instant, if it meant he could get his phoenix back. He was like a drug addict, desperate for his next hit of magic blood.
“You aren’t using Eve,” Cain snapped at him. “Think of another plan, because she isn’t your ticket inside Wyatt’s lab, got it?”
The vamp had better get it.
Ryder’s gaze darted between them. “You’re just gonna leave her with him? She’s like you! She’s one of yours!”
Yours? Eve stiffened a bit and glanced at Cain from the corner of her eye.