Once Bitten, Twice Burned(14)

Ah, she was still singing that song, was she? Still clinging to her humanity, when they needed her beast out. “Wyatt doesn’t think monsters have rights.”

You’re a monster, love. Face it. He got that she didn’t want to give up the illusion of safety that humanity entailed, but Sabine needed to look around. They were prisoners, she’d died, and the only way out was through her flames.

She didn’t want to believe that she was just as much of a beast as he was, but there was no point denying the truth. The woman could freaking burn. Die and burn and live again. Not a talent that the average human possessed.

“Take her blood, Ryder,” Wyatt ordered him. “Take her blood, now.”

There was a feverish intensity in the words. An intensity that made Ryder worry . . . just what had Wyatt done? Why was the scientist so determined for Ryder to drink her then?

He didn’t take his eyes off the guards as he asked Sabine, “Did he give you something before you came in?”

“They’ve been injecting me with drugs all week.”

When he drank her blood, he’d get dosed with whatever brew was in her veins. His fingers fell away from her shoulders.

“I don’t want you drinking from me,” she told him. Her shoulder brushed against his as her body pressed closer to him. “I’ve been having nightmares about you every night.”

Great. So he was the big, bad boogeyman to her. What else was new? But, really, there was no other way for her to picture him. I drained her. The guilt still ate at him. The woman was right to hate and fear him. Hell, she should probably get in line on that score. Plenty of humans—and vampires—felt the exact same way.

He just wished that he didn’t have this need for her. The need had to be coming from her blood. Some kind of side effect that was messing with his head. Temporary, surely?

“I can hold on to my control.” The words were flat, and he hoped they were the truth.

Her gaze slanted up at him. “Didn’t you say that last time?”

Last time he hadn’t known that a phoenix was being offered to him. He focused on the guards as he made his demand. “I want a wooden stake.” Like they wouldn’t have plenty of those handy. In this place, the smart guards should have them all tucked in their boots.

If they were smart. He actually wasn’t certain that any of the guards qualified as smart. If they had any brains, they wouldn’t be keeping him captive. They’d know to run, fast and hard, away from him.

Because he wouldn’t be in a cage forever, and Ryder made a point of always getting payback.

“Why?” Wyatt demanded. “Why do you need a stake?”

Ryder cast his gaze to the two-way mirror. “Because if I can’t stop drinking her blood, then I want her to stake me.”

Sabine gasped.

Ryder smiled. “Like you said, it’s a new deal.”

“You’re insane,” Sabine told him, words tumbling out quickly. “I might be new to this whole supernatural bit, but even I know that vampires aren’t supposed to ask for stakes.”

He shrugged. “You’d rather I just drink from you without—”

“I want that stake!” Sabine shouted.

“Fine,” Wyatt bit out. Static crackled for an instant on the intercom, then Ryder heard the guy say, “Mitchell, give the man his stake.”

A few tense moments later, Mitchell, body sweating and twitchy, edged into the room. He pulled a stake from his back pocket.

The guards should have used these when they tried to take her from me before. Instead of shooting him, they should have staked him. But Ryder knew why they hadn’t. Wyatt had wanted him alive then.

Now? Now it looked like the guy was still playing with him.

Let’s play, bastard.

The stake was the first weapon that he needed.

Mitchell tossed the stake to him. Ryder grabbed it with his right hand. “Now get the hell out,” he ordered the humans with bared fangs. “Before I decide to drop some bodies to the floor.”

They got the hell out. Weapons or not, they were still scared spitless.

Who has the power, Wyatt? He knew the doctor would see the challenge in his eyes. Wyatt kept him locked up tight because he knew that if Ryder ever got free, the humans in Genesis would all be dead.

That’s why you want me to take her blood, isn’t it? Because it’s all about control.

Ryder was ready to rip that control away.

He caught Sabine’s wrist with his left hand and pulled her toward the bed.

Her heels dug into the hard floor. “Oh no, you’re not—”

He was. They were.

He pushed her onto the bed. She immediately bounced right back to a sitting position on the mattress. He almost smiled at her. The woman was fast.