Once Bitten, Twice Burned(61)

“Yes.” Her chin lifted. “I’m safe.”

Her brother couldn’t seem to tell when Sabine was lying.

Odd. Ryder could tell instantly. Trying to protect the human, Sabine? If she’d wanted to protect him, she should have stayed the hell away from New Orleans and her brother.

The scent of smoke drifted into the room. Ryder spun around, following that scent back to the broken door just as that door was tossed aside.

“Fire!” It was the human he’d sent outside. Douglas? “There’s a fire in the bar!”

Rhett swore and stormed right toward the growing smoke. Ryder didn’t try to stop him, but he did grab for Sabine when she tried to go after her brother.

The other humans rushed out, following the cries that had erupted from the bar patrons.

“Let me go!” Sabine twisted in Ryder’s grasp. “I have to help! This bar . . . it’s everything to Rhett.”

No, it wasn’t. “You’re a vampire now,” he reminded her, holding her tightly. “That means you burn too easily. Fire can kill you now.”

She froze. Her eyes widened.

“And when it kills you, Sabine, you won’t be coming back.” There would be no more do-overs for her.

The cries grew louder. The scent of the smoke thickened.

Since she wasn’t fighting him any longer, Ryder let her go.

She immediately ran for the broken door. “I have to help him!”

Damn it. He grabbed her and yanked her back—just as flames raced toward them. The bar was turning into an inferno, burning far too fast.

That’s what happens when you light up a place filled with booze.

His gaze swept through the smoke and flames. Most of the humans had already gotten out. They’d broken through windows. Crashed through the front doors. Rhett was still there, trying to use an extinguisher to battle the fire that just kept rising.

“I have to help him,” Sabine whispered.

No, what she had to do was get her sweet ass out of there. Ryder spun back around. He kept his hold on Sabine, knowing better than to make the same mistake twice. The room they were in was about twenty feet long, and, hell, wouldn’t it figure? No windows. No exit doors.

And, just his luck, the room was filled with bottles of liquor.

The fire snaked inside the room with them.

He caught Sabine’s chin. “We’re getting out of here.” Because the place was about to combust. “You stay with me, got it?” I’m not losing you again.

“Not without Rhett! I won’t go without—”

The streaking fire had nearly reached the boxes and bottles of alcohol.

Ryder pulled Sabine from the storage room. They leapt over flames, rushed over fallen tables. The exit door was in sight. Big, gaping—

“Help!”

And, yes, there was a human, yelling for help. Figured. Ryder tried to shove Sabine toward the exit.

She shoved back—and rushed right toward that screaming human. It was her brother. He was on the ground, trapped beneath what looked like a big chunk of the ceiling.

The ceiling was falling now? Talk about your bad days. Before she reached Rhett, the wood around her brother began to burn. He screamed in pain then, his face contorting as he burned.

Ryder grabbed for Sabine because he knew what she was going to do. But she moved too fast. She slipped away from him. Then she put her hands right on that burning wood and tossed it away from her brother.

Tossed it away without so much as a blister appearing on her skin.

Then she was reaching for her brother’s hand. Hauling him up. Holding him easily when the guy had to weigh over two hundred pounds.

Ryder helped another human—the redhead, Douglas—get toward the door. They all stumbled out in a rush of smoke and flames.

Humans were outside. Choking. Gasping. Staring with wide eyes and whispers as The Rift burned.

His gaze swept the crowd. This fire had started too suddenly. Erupted from nowhere. Burned and consumed.

One person in the crowd wasn’t staring at the inferno with shock and horror. One person wasn’t covered with ash.

A man stood with a slight grin tilting the corners of his mouth. His dark hair brushed over his shoulders and his eyes . . . they burned.

Another phoenix. One who’d followed her. One who’d just made a building burn down around her.

The bastard had a death wish.

The phoenix was turning away. Oh, the hell he was.

“Ryder!”

He realized that he’d already started after the guy. Sabine had grabbed his arm, holding him now. “You can’t,” she whispered.

Sure, he could.

“If he’s like . . .” She shook her head. “You can’t kill him, but he can kill you.”

Maybe.

Maybe not.

But either way, no one was going to send out an attack like that against Sabine.