Shit.
“For my fire, he had to kill my family.”
Dee surged to her feet. “Why didn’t you just do it yourself?”
“Because they knew what I was.” Spoken with sadness.
Dee stared into her eyes and knew, too. It wasn’t that Nina was an Ignitor.
She was a monster. Down to the soul.
“They wouldn’t let me get close enough to kill them. They left me—I was sixteen and they left me.” Nina’s lips flattened. “It took me so long to track them.”
And longer to find a vamp willing to take them out.
Grim’s hard laugh filled the room. “Tore didn’t know. For once, the bastard didn’t know the game.”
Dee swallowed back the sick rage that boiled in her throat. “You’re one fine actress, Nina.” She’d known just how to act. Just what to do. From the corner of her eye, Dee saw that Grim had risen to his feet. He had her stake gripped in his hand. The only thing that separated the two of them was Nina’s small line of flames.
“Thanks. I owe you for that bit,” Nina said.
Dee’s breath caught. What?
“I saw you. That night, when your family burned…”
They’d been dead long before the fire.
“I was there, watching.” A cold smile. “And making those flames dance. Grim wanted a sample of my power, and I gave it to him.”
But she would have been—
Around sixteen. Close to Dee’s own age.
Guess it hadn’t taken her that long to find her vamp. He’d just taken his sweet time killing for her.
The better to control his weapon.
“I had a sister, too,” Nina murmured. “I wonder—Grim, did she beg like hers?”
Dee snapped. She raced right through the fire, barely feeling the lick of the flames as she went after that burning bitch.
She punched Nina. A hard hit right in the jaw and down, down she went, those eyes closing, the flames dying and—
“Kill her. Fucking kill her,” Grim ordered.
Arms grabbed her, held tight. Her claws raked against flesh that was warm and strong and familiar.
Her heart stopped as his scent filled her nostrils. Simon.
“S-sorry…” His gasped whisper, right in her ear.
Then his fangs sank into her throat.
The flames drew him closer. Zane moved easily, keeping low to the ground and staying in the shadows. He’d expected to see more vamps around the place. He’d taken out two, had found the signs to indicate Dee and Simon had eliminated at least two others.
The fire flared higher and he caught the faintest of sounds beneath the crackle. A whimper.
His blood seemed to ice. He rushed through the open stable doors, heading through the thick curtain of smoke.
A broken, twisted doll lay on the ground. She’d curled into a ball and the flames were closing in on her. He’d know that long mane of white-blond hair any place. Hell, no.
He ripped off his shirt and began beating at the fire. Trying to shove it back as best he could.
Too big. Too strong.
Zane sucked in a sharp breath and tried to focus his energy. He was strong enough for this. He had to be.
The whisper of wind blew across his face. Wind he’d stirred. With a push, he sent the wind against the fire and the flames shifted, chasing to the left with the force of the wind.
There, just enough. He jumped through the flames. Zane grabbed Catalina and threw her over his shoulder. She was so stiff, so still.
He covered his mouth with her shirt and ran back through the fire. Can’t keep it down. Can’t stop it.
The smoke, a thick wall of gray, blocked his vision but he shoved forward. If he couldn’t find the doors, he’d just tear down a wall. He’d—
“Going somewhere?” A vamp loomed from the smoke, teeth bared, claws out.
No time for this shit.
He hadn’t heard Catalina draw a breath. Hadn’t heard a sound from her since that faint whimper.
Keeping one arm secured around Catalina, he grabbed the vamp and heaved him back into the fire.
Then he took out a wall and got his witch to safety.
It’s all right, Cat. I won’t let the flames get you.
Her worst fear. One that had come true too many times for her.
And for him.
The fresh air slapped him in the face and a shout broke from the line of houses. More vampires, coming fast.
He ran for the woods and really hoped Jude would appear to cover his ass.
In the distance, a tiger roared.
About fucking time. Jude had better have his sexy little lady by his side, because they were going to need her to take out these bloodsuckers.
Chapter 16
Dee’s body trembled against his and Simon tightened his hold around her slender form.
Her blood flowed onto his tongue and with it, their link strengthened. The voice that had been shouting in his mind since he’d followed Dee inside this hell finally quieted, and his focus shifted back to—