Before Cassie could think of a reply, Dr. Shaw leaped forward and shoved a gag into Cassie’s mouth. Cassie tried to fight her, but Jon was holding her too tightly.

Shaw secured the gag then pointed to the second operating table on the right. “Now strap her down.”

Jon followed Dr. Shaw’s instructions with that dazed look in his eyes.

“If you can’t talk, then you don’t have any power.” Dr. Shaw smiled at her. “And I don’t want you to have any power at all.”

Jon had strapped her down, controlling her struggles like they were nothing.

“You let the phoenix go, didn’t you?” Dr. Shaw asked her with narrowed eyes.

Cassie glared at her.

“Love—it makes women do some damn stupid things. But no worries.” Dr. Shaw pulled out a syringe. “I’m sure he’ll follow you here. From what I could tell, he’s mated to you, and he’ll follow his mate anywhere.” She drove that needle into Cassie’s flesh.

Fire burned through her blood.

“Does this feel familiar?” Dr. Shaw’s voice was mild. “It’s similar to the dosage your father gave you when you were a child, after the first time he accidentally killed you.” She shrugged. “Or maybe it wasn’t so accidental. Who knows?”

The burn . . .

“Because of your siren blood, the guy actually stumbled onto a serum that would make you nearly immortal. You could heal from any injury. Amazing.” Dr. Shaw actually sounded like she meant that. “Of course, I didn’t exactly know what was happening until I took all of those wonderful samples from you at the ranch. Then I saw just what you could do.”

When I get loose . . .

“The drug I just gave you? I’m afraid it’s going to have the reverse effect on you. No more super healing for you.”

It seemed as if Cassie’s heartbeat was slowing down.

“It’s nothing personal. Well, maybe it is.” Dr. Shaw tapped her chin with a white-gloved finger. “You see, I need to hurt Dante because he hurt me. He took something incredibly precious from me a long time ago.”

Cassie’s gaze narrowed.

Jon was standing stock-still.

Vaughn groaned.

“Once upon a time, I loved a man very much. I loved him so much that I wanted to make sure that no one would ever be able to take him from me,” Dr. Shaw said.

There were tears in her eyes.

“So I took steps to protect my Wren. Only . . . Dante didn’t do what he should have done. Instead of dying, he took my Wren’s life.”

Wren. Dante’s brother.

“The way to break a phoenix isn’t just by going through the fire. It’s by taking their hearts. I’m going to kill you, Cassie, and Dante will lose his heart. Then Jon”—she waved her hand toward the still man—“will finish Dante, and maybe then . . . maybe then, I will sleep for the first time in centuries without hearing the echo of Wren’s last cry—without hearing him scream my name before Dante killed him.”

Oh, shit.

They were so screwed.

He knocked out a guard, and, since he didn’t feel like rushing into the building naked, he grabbed the guy’s clothes.

A little tight, but they’d do.

He inhaled. She was in there.

Waiting for him. Once he had her safe in his arms, he would burn the whole place down.

He didn’t worry about being subtle. He just rushed toward the main entrance. When another guard turned on him with a gun, he melted the gun.

The guard ran.

Dante went inside.

I am Dante. Dante.

The name had come to him because he remembered her whispering it. Good-bye, Dante. The faint words had seemed to drift in the wind.

It wasn’t good-bye. It would never be, for them.

Inside, more guards came at him. He lifted his hand. His fire made them flee, too.

Too easy. Humans were no challenge for him.

They never had been.

He followed her scent. Saw the metal door. She waited behind it. He was so close to her.

So very close.

His fire sent the door crashing in. He surged inside. Found her instantly. On the table. With her head turned toward him, her eyes wild and afraid.

And a . . . gag in her mouth?

He stepped toward her.

“Stop, Dante.”

The voice seemed to slide inside him, freezing him.

She walked from the shadows. Her blond hair brushed her shoulders. Her face—beautiful, cold—seemed familiar.

“Remember me. Remember everything.”

He went to his knees as the images flooded through his mind. Images. Voices. Death.