Once Bitten, Twice Burned(90)

“And he just what—picked up and left? Left you? Left me? That’s not the way this family does things!”

“He sent Mom out of town to keep her safe. He’s gone to be with her.” She straightened her shoulders. Tell. Him. “He’s the one . . . he’s the reason I vanished, Rhett. Dad knew what I was. All along, he knew.”

“Yeah, he knew you were his kid so—”

He wasn’t listening. After everything that had happened, did he just not want to hear this? Denial could be a powerful thing.

“Dad knew that I was a phoenix.” She kept her voice calm because she had to, but Sabine wanted to scream. “He thought . . . he said he thought that by sending me to the Genesis facility, he’d be helping me.”

Rhett’s eyes had widened. “No, you—you were missing. We were all worried. Mom . . . she went in the hospital—”

Ryder crossed his arms over his chest. Watched. Waited.

“He didn’t tell you what he’d done. Didn’t tell Mom. Didn’t tell me.” She pressed her lips together and remembered the terror of waking up and being tossed at a vampire. Her gaze slid to Ryder’s.

The memory was between them.

A muscle flexed in his jaw.

“Dad said he wanted to help me, but, Rhett, Genesis didn’t help.”

“I saw the news,” he muttered. He ran a shaking hand over his face. “They were torturing—” He broke off and sucked in a ragged breath. “Did they hurt you, Sabe?” Now he was the one to grab her. To hold too tight. “Did they?”

“Yes.”

He blanched.

She wouldn’t tell him what had been done. There were some things that a brother didn’t need to hear.

Some things that a sister couldn’t say.

But Rhett was a smart guy. Always had been. “You know . . . you know the phoenix guy is coming back because they killed you and you came back.”

She nodded.

“Dad . . . he did that to you?” Whispered. Humming with fury.

“He thought . . . he said he wanted to help me. To make me normal.”

He yanked her against his chest. Almost broke her ribs with his fierce grip. “Fuck normal. You’re perfect just the way you are, even if you burn.”

Or bite?

Over Rhett’s shoulder, her stare met Ryder’s. “I want you to leave town, too, Rhett,” she whispered.

He pulled back, fast. “Hell, no.”

“Hell, yes,” she shot right back, voice gaining strength and volume. She eased away, putting some space between them. “You can’t handle this fight.”

His chin notched up. “It sure looked like I handled that Dante fellow pretty damn well.”

Had he? Or had it been a trick? Was Dante tracking them even now? And why? Why wouldn’t he just let her go?

But Ryder strode to her side then, and he faced off against her brother. “You can’t handle vampires. Can’t handle the flames when they come. You’ll die. She’ll mourn. Is that what you want?”

“I want my sister back! I want our life back!”

But Sabine had realized something. Something Ryder had told her before, but she just hadn’t been ready to hear it. “That life is over.” Even once the bastards after them were gone, returning to her old life . . . not an option. “I can’t be the same any longer.”

She looked down at his hands. Already, she’d brought him pain. “You need to get away from me.”

“No, I need to stand by you.”

Didn’t he see? “Vaughn was your friend. He—”

“Was?”

Hell.

Rhett’s whole body had tensed. “Did something happen to the jerk?”

“A vampire happened,” Ryder told him, and Sabine was glad he took that burden from her. “One with a very powerful strain of infection.”

“So vamps have an infection now?”

“These do,” Ryder said, voice flat. “Wyatt created them. Screwed with things he should have left alone. One of those vampires attacked Vaughn.”

Rhett rocked back on his heels. “That’s why he didn’t come back for me.”

Because he was dead.

And if Rhett didn’t get far away, he’d be dead, too. “Please,” Sabine whispered. “Get out of town.”

Rhett shook his head. “I’m not leaving.”

They had to make him go. Had to make—

Ryder caught her hand. Her head turned toward him. She knew exactly what she had to do. What she had to ask. “Ryder, make him leave.”

“He can try,” Rhett snapped and he pushed his way between them. “But it’s not happening. I’m here, I’m staying in this fight, and, shit, that had better not be your panties on the floor.”