Cassie could hear voices crying out. Terrified screams. She cast one last look at Dante. “You’d better find me,” she whispered then turned and ran for the others.

The flames seemed to chase her as she ran.

“You won’t have Cassie! You won’t!” Jon was snarling. Cassandra was gone.

Dante couldn’t remember everything, but he knew . . . the man was a threat that had to be stopped. A phoenix, but one who burned too hot and too bright.

A phoenix could only die when he rose.

Yet the man was burning himself from the inside out.

Jon grabbed him. “I won’t let you go to her!” He shook his head and said, “Her voice, she tempts me, always tempts . . . calls to me. Shaw said . . . Cassie had to be mine. That she could never get away.”

“Cassie isn’t yours.”

The flames rolled across the ceiling.

Jon’s head kept frantically shaking. “I won’t let her belong to you!”

“And I won’t let you live.”

Growling, Jon lunged at him.

Dante lifted the gun that he’d found lying so conveniently near his body when he’d risen. He’d deliberately kept his flames low because he hadn’t wanted to melt the weapon. Not when he had plans for it.

For Jon.

He fired at the man, a shot that took him down.

The flames kept burning.

Dante didn’t leave, even as the ceiling began to groan. The walls to collapse.

He didn’t leave.

There was a job to do.

The only way to truly kill a phoenix . . .

The fire was raging out of control. Alarms were shrieking. Smoke thickening the air.

Another part of the ceiling gave way and slammed into the floor.

Dante still didn’t leave. He couldn’t.

Not until Jon came back.

The only way to truly kill a phoenix . . . is when he rises.

Flames consumed the building. Cassie stood back, watching the fire as it raged higher. Glass exploded as the windows blew out, and the roof sunk in.

Dante hadn’t come out yet.

The fire won’t hurt him.

She just . . . needed to see him.

“Cassie!”

Her head jerked to the left. Cain and Eve were running toward her. It figured that a phoenix had been able to sniff out the flames.

“Where’s Dante?” Cain demanded.

She glanced toward the flames.

Cain swore and ran for the fire.

She wanted to run with him.

Eve caught Cassie’s hand. “What happened?”

So much. A revenge-crazed siren who’d wanted death for them all. A phoenix gone mad. A healed vampire. “Dante is making sure that we aren’t hunted.”

Another section of the roof fell away. Cassie saw the sparks fly high into the air.

Please, Dante, come back to me.

A growl sounded behind her.

The guards had run—fled as quickly as they could. Charles, Jamie, Vaughn, and Keith had gotten away. She’d sent them back to Keith’s house. But someone else was there.

Someone, something.

Another growl.

Trace.

“He hasn’t attacked anyone,” Eve said quickly. “He caught up with us outside of Belle, and I’ve been keeping him near me. But I think . . . his beast is close.”

Cassie could see it. He still hadn’t returned to a normal size—normal for him, anyway, and Trace’s claws were out even as his eye blazed with the hunger of the beast.

She slipped away from Eve and headed toward him.

Another growl came from him.

“Maybe it’s not about a cure,” Cassie whispered. Not this time. Maybe it was all about soothing the beast. She pulled in another deep breath. “Trace, control the beast.” The more she used her power, the more she focused, the easier it seemed to be for her.

His eyes flickered, shifting from that glow to a man’s stare. Once. Twice.

Then the beast was back.

“Trace, control him.” She pushed harder with the power that had been locked inside her for too long.

“Uh, yeah,” Eve muttered, sounding nervous. “I think it might be harder than—”

The glow faded from his eyes. His claws . . . retracted. His thick muscles didn’t vanish, but he sucked in a deep breath and said, “Cassie.”

She felt the ripple of shock slide over Eve.

“Yes, Trace.” Yes! “And it’s okay. Everything is going to be—”

A loud boom shook the night. Cassie’s gaze flew back to the building.

There was nothing there. Just fire.

“Cain!” Eve screamed and she ran for the flames.