Eternal Flame (15 page)

“Zane?” Jana’s soft voice. Lost. Confused.

But he knew she wasn’t lost. The woman was just biding her time as she planned her next move. Damn, he loved that about her. She was a fighter. In a few more seconds, he knew she’d be going after Beth.

Provided he didn’t beat her to the punch.

“It’s rare that a hybrid demon has your strength.” Beth studied him like he was some kind of bug. No, an experiment. To her, that’s probably all he was. “You know that makes you a valuable commodity.” Her head tilted back. The better to watch him. “And to think, I originally thought Jana was the prize. I didn’t realize what I’d found in you.”

“Oh? Is that why you gave your goons the all clear to kill me when they slammed their semi into us that night?”

The woman didn’t blink. “Back then I thought you were expendable.”

Great. Expendable.

“Here at Perseus, we put humans first. Jana’s a human, so she was the priority.”

There it was again. Only the emphasis wasn’t so subtle on the ”
was the priority.”

Beth sauntered toward him. The woman actually put one of her fire-engine-red nails on his chest. “You have all of a demon’s strengths, but inside, where it matters, you’re human.” She stared up at him. “You’ve killed demons before. You killed your own father.”

He was aware of Jana stiffening in Davey’s hold.

“You kill them, you hunt them.” Beth let her hand fall away. “Because you hate them, don’t you? You want to wipe the bastards off the earth.”

Well, wasn’t she a warm Christmas card greeting. “I
am
a demon.”

“Your mother was human. That wasn’t some bullshit cover story that you fed Nancy. It was the truth.”

So she’d done her homework on him. Was he supposed to be impressed?

“Zane?” A different note had entered Jana’s voice. One he hadn’t heard before, but he could still identify it.
Worry
.

“Your father killed her,” Beth said. “He showed you just what those freak demons are at their core. But you showed him just how strong humans can be. Because it was your human side that fought back.”

Her smile was too satisfied as she continued. “It’s your human side that let you walk through the door. We want that human side. We want you.”

He laughed then. He couldn’t help it. “You actually think I’m gonna work for Perseus? Lady, you’re out of your mind.”

“Uh, yeah, Zane, she is,” Jana said.

Beth’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think you understand. You’re a wanted man right now. The FBI is after you, and the Baton Rouge PD thinks you were involved in the arson at Night Watch. They think you’ve been working with your lover, Jana Carter, a known criminal, to set a series of fires in Baton Rouge
and
New Orleans.”

She paused and glanced over at Jana. “Just so you know, there was another fire in New Orleans tonight. Witnesses
will
say they saw you at the bar right before it burned. You and

Wynter.”

“It’s their M.O., Zane.” Jana’s lips tightened. “They make their recruits become the hunted. Make them run out of options.”

“No.” Beth said this instantly. “I’m not trying to make you run out of options—”

“Bullshit, Beth!” Jana fired back. “You took every one of my options away. You set me up for fires, and you turned me into a wanted woman!”

Beth inhaled a deep breath. “You set the first three fires.” One blond brow rose. “You’re not innocent, Jana. Don’t pretend to be for your new lover.” Then Beth made a mistake. She sauntered too close to Jana.

Oh, he saw it coming even before Jana shoved back against Davey with her upper body and slammed both feet into Beth’s stomach.

The blonde doubled over, gagging. Davey swore and hauled Jana back.

“Get her out!” Beth lifted her head. Her eyes glittered with fury. “Put her in containment.” Her gaze darted to Zane. “Put them
both
in there. Let them calm the hell down.”

“I’m plenty calm!” Jana shouted. “Calm enough to kick your ass even without the fire, calm enough to—”

“The last time I had you on my table, you were begging to live.” Beth’s scarred hand was over her stomach, and her eyes were icy cold. “You’ll be begging again soon enough.”

Jana’s chin notched up. “And you’ll be burning.”

Beth’s lips trembled, a small move, and he knew that she understood Jana’s words were a promise.

“Can you still feel the fire on you, Beth?”

“Get her out!”

“Can you?”

“Out!”

They were thrown in a meat locker. Well, that’s what it felt like to Zane anyway. A small, tight, metal room, with the temperature set to chill.

“Bastards,” Jana snarled even before Davey swung the door shut. A four-inch-thick steel door. She glanced over her shoulder at Zane. “Can you get us out of here?”

He let his powers push out, let them ease against the door and he immediately felt the containment field. “They’ve had a witch here.”

“Of course they have.” She shoved her hair out of her eyes. Her hand shook. “Probably the same witch who’s protecting Beth from you. Did she set up a field around the room?”

He nodded. “I can’t get out.” Flat. Well, technically, he could get out, but not without his psychic blast hurting her, maybe killing her, because in order to overcome the spell, he’d have to let his power surge through at full level.

He walked closer to Jana and skimmed his hand carefully down her bruised cheek. The bruise would be there for days. Humans. It took them so long to heal.

She flinched at his touch.

His gaze held hers. “Why did you follow me?”

She swallowed.

“You could have run.”

The blue of her eyes seemed so deep and dark. “And left you alone?” Her shoulders dropped a bit. “No. I couldn’t do that.” She brought her body close to his. “You know they have cameras on us. They’ve got this room wired for sound and video.”

He couldn’t see the cameras but he believed her.

“They’re watching us. Waiting for us to make a mistake.” Her voice dropped lower. “They like to use your weakness against you.”

Davey already thought he knew Zane’s weakness.

“I came back,” she said, her voice clear and loud. “Because Perseus ruined my life.”

True. But … her eyes said something different.
I wasn’t leaving you alone
.

“Are you really a hybrid?” she asked him.

His back teeth clenched. “Yes.”

Jana nodded. “And a level ten?”

That he wouldn’t answer. Not with those cameras on them.

She leaned up on her toes and pulled his head down toward her. Her lips feathered over his lips as she breathed, “Come in…”

Wrong time, wrong damn place, but at those words, a hot surge of need fired his blood. Her body was close, pressing so softly against his, and her rich scent was all around him.

But she’d been hurt. Drugged. And he fucking wasn’t planning on performing for an audience.

“Come in,” she whispered again. “I need you to see …
me
. “

It took a moment for the real meaning of her words to sink in, but then he understood. She wasn’t talking about sex. Not talking about pleasure.

She knew how strong level-ten demons were, and she was giving him permission to go inside her mind.
Come in
. Giving him permission to learn her every secret, her every thought.

I need you to see … me
.

Jana eased back and stared up at him.

Come in
.

His power wouldn’t work against the spell locking them in the room, but there was nothing locking him out of her. So Zane took a breath, stared into her eyes, and went
in
.

Straight into the fire.

T
he fire was all around him, burning so hot and fast. Screams echoed. Screams that came from him-no …her
.

The fire he saw, the twisting orange and gold flames-it was in Jana’s mind. Her memories.

Paint peeled off the walls, boiling and dripping even as she screamed for the fire to stop. Screamed and choked on smoke. Screamed for help that didn’t come
.

And the flames wouldn’t stop
.

Zane sucked in a deep breath and fought through the memories. Jana’s first fire. He could see the charred body of her stepfather. Hell.

Another scene flashed in his mind’s eye.
Jana hunched over a wooden table as tears trickled down her cheeks. “I-I didn’t mean for it to happen!”

A balding man in a suit loomed over her. “So you admit you started the fire!”

“I didn’t mean to—”

“You started the fire. He died.”

Her eyes squeezed closed. “I want my mom.”

“Too damn bad because she sure as hell doesn’t want you. She knows you’re a killer, and she never wants to see you again.”

Jana’s fingers trailed up Zane’s chest. He knew she was right in front of him, but the images of the past were all he could see then.

Jana walked forward, one foot in front of the other. The juvie facility was behind her, the hard gray walls looming like thick fog in the light. Her clothes were clean, her steps slow. She stared at the cab that waited for her
.

“Where to, Miss?” the driver called out
.

She didn’t speak, but Zane heard her thoughts so clearly, heard her
-I don’t have anywhere to go.

The images whirled through his mind. Jana, a few years older, with dark red hair now. She was in a diner, and a guy was yelling at the waitress. No one said anything when he started cursing at her. But when the waitress ended her shift, Jana followed the woman
.

Jana watched through an open window, and she saw the waitress and her two kids … and the man who’d come to the diner, drunk, to make trouble for her. The woman’s husband
.

Only the guy wasn’t just yelling now. He was hitting the wife and the kids
.

Anger fueled Jana’s blood. Hot, thick fury and the charge she’d swore never to feel again coursed through her
.

“The charge can come from anger, from rage…. It’s so easy to stir the power. You just need the right stimulant.” Her voice echoed in his ears as her fingers trailed down his chest.

When the wife ran out of her house, holding the kids, bleeding, she found Jana in her yard. “I can make sure he never hurts you again,” Jana said
.

The woman stared back at her with terrified eyes and a broken jaw. Then she nodded. She didn’t question Jana, didn’t say so much as a word. But then, maybe she couldn’t speak. Her jaw had doubled in size and the skin had already started to darken
.

“Take the kids away,” Jana ordered. “They don’t need to see …”

Then she walked into the house. The man came at her, swinging hamlike fists
.

She trapped him in fire. Fire that she stirred, and he screamed and said she was a monster
.

“If you ever go near her or the kids again, I’ll burn the flesh right off your body. You won’t even know I’m there watching you until you smell the smoke. Smoke that will be coming from inside of you.”

“You should have killed him,” Zane said, the memory of his mother fighting with Jana’s images.

“He killed himself a week later. The drunk bastard drove straight off a bridge.”

And he could see it. Because Jana had seen it.

More images tumbled through his mind. More fires, more threats. Not death, though. Her fires hadn’t killed anyone until …

A vampire grabbed her in a dark alley. She screamed, but no one came running to help her. The vampire shoved her against the side of a building, and he opened his mouth wide. “Ready to die, bitch?”

The fire charged through her once more. “Don’t! You don’t want to—”

His teeth drove into her neck
.

Jana let the fire free
.

“I found out later that the folks from Perseus had seen everything that night. They’d had the vamp under surveillance. In another few minutes, they were going to move in and save me.” Her finger pressed against his chest. “But I saved myself first, and they saw what I could do. I was taken to the hospital right after that attack. Jesus,
a vampire
-I didn’t even realize those guys existed until that night. I thought I was the only freak out there.”

But she wasn’t a freak. Beautiful. Sexy. Dangerous.

“I told good old Nurse Nancy too much, but it wouldn’t have mattered, really. Perseus already had me in their sights.”

The image in his mind changed. He saw …

Jana, sitting in a small chair. Beth sat on the other side of a dark, wooden desk. “You didn’t know about the monsters, did you?” Beth asked quietly
.

Jana shook her head
.

“They’re evil, Jana. They’re strong and they’re evil and someone has to save all the innocent people in their path.” A pause. “You’ve saved people before, haven’t you? You’ve let your flames burn, and you’ve saved lives.”

Jana didn’t speak
.

“We need someone like you, Jana. Someone who is strong enough to fight back against them. Someone strong enough to kill them.”

She flinched at that. “I haven’t—”

“You killed the vampire.” Beth’s lips pursed. “Vampires burn so easily.”

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on here, I don’t know what’s happening—” An edge of hysteria entered her voice
.

Beth rose and walked to Jana’s side. Her eyes were glass hard. “Let me sum things up for you. Monsters are real. They’re evil, and if we don’t stop them, they will destroy everything good in this world.”

“She showed me then. Took me on stakeouts with Perseus guards to see the monsters she wanted me to target. She wanted to point me and aim me and let my fire burn a path through every supernatural she wanted eliminated.” Her breath shuddered out. “When I didn’t play ball, she just reorganized her game. She made me the bait, and the paranormals started coming after me. I had two choices then. Fight back or let them kill me.”

“
Whore, you think I’m gonna let you burn me?” A demon walked from the mouth of a dark alley. His black gaze locked on Jana. “I heard about you. An Ignitor who thinks she can hunt the demons here. Think-fuckin'-again. We’re huntin’ you!” Three more demons sprang from the shadows, and they attacked her
.

And the fire had burned
.

“
I
think she wanted to test my fire. To see if it was strong enough to use against demons.” Flat. She shrugged. “Since demons can conjure the flames, too, maybe she had to know just what her guinea pig could do.”

What could she do? One hell of a lot. She’d burned her way through the demons.

“I’ve never gone up against a demon stronger than a level seven before.” She gazed up at him. Waiting. “But I suspect a level seven or higher could easily beat back my flames.”

Easily.

“Perseus told me the demons I’d taken out were killers. They showed me the photos of their victims. They told me I had a damn gift.” Her lips twisted. “I’d always thought God cursed me, and here these people were telling me I had a gift.”

More fires flashed through his mind. But Jana wasn’t killing. Burning. Warning. But not killing. Demons ran. Shifters fled. No, she hadn’t killed. She didn’t kill… unless she caught the paranormals preying on humans.

A vampire caged a girl up against a tree. The girl-hell, she looked like she was about twelve. Her head was twisted, her neck bared, and the vamp’s teeth were buried deep in her throat
.

“Let her go!”

But he didn’t stop drinking. Didn’t stop slurping down the girl’s blood with deep, greedy gulps
.

So Jana let her fire burn. It raced toward him. She controlled it perfectly. The flames caught his legs but didn’t touch the girl. The vampire whirled back, screaming, and lunged for her. The fire surged up, consuming him as the girl cried and stared at Jana in horror
.

“She didn’t understand that I was trying to help her. To her, I was just another monster.”

As her voice filled his head, he realized then that Jana hadn’t spoken, not out loud anyway, from the moment she’d first whispered,
“Come in …”

He was in her mind, her words floating through his head, and she was guiding him. Showing him the things she wanted him to see. Telling him about her past. Baring her soul. A soul that wasn’t perfect. Tarnished, just like his. But one that wasn’t evil.

“They sent me after a shifter about a year ago. Told me he’d been cutting the throats of co-eds in the area.” Again, her voice was only in his head. Soft, flowing. Jana.

“But I never went for a straight kill on my targets. I watched first, and he-he wasn’t doing anything wrong. I followed him for a solid month, and I never saw him even raise his voice to anyone.”

An image flashed before him.
A man, thin, tall, with bright blond hair. He walked down the road with the streetlights flickering over him
.

“He was a wolf shifter. They told me all wolf shifters were psychotic. That he had to be put down to stop the killings.” Her breath rasped out. Her scent surrounded them.

The man stopped at the mouth of an alley. A woman screamed. He ran inside. Two men had a woman pinned between them. They were ripping her shirt while she screamed and begged for them to stop
.

“He shifted and saved her. Those men will wear his marks for the rest of their days, but the girl didn’t get so much as a scratch from him.”

Not a killer’s M.O.

“When Perseus found out I hadn’t eliminated him, well, they weren’t pleased with me.”

Jana and the wolf faced off. Another dark night, this one with a full moon. Perseus agents were in the background, easing close with guns ready
.

“They set us up to meet. A recipe for death.”

The wolf stared at her, his muscles locked. Saliva dripped from his fangs
.

“I was supposed to burn him.”

The wolf threw his head back and howled. A long, sad wail of mourning. Then he walked to her and lowered his muzzle
.

“He wasn’t attacking me. He wasn’t attacking anyone. So I stood back, and I let him go … and he wasn’t the last.” But Perseus hadn’t liked that.

“Just because you’re a monster, it doesn’t mean you’re evil. I broke into Beth’s office. I found out that she’d been doctoring the files. That wolf-his girlfriend had been killed by a
human
serial killer. The killer slashed her throat, and she bled out before the shifter could get to her. Yeah, the shifter
had
killed, but he killed the bastard who murdered his girlfriend. Not anyone else. All those other girls … a human murdered them all.”

But Perseus had still put the shifter on their hit list.

“Guess the powers that be at Perseus didn’t like that I started questioning their orders. …”

Jana lay bound to a hard metal table. Two men in white lab coats loomed over her
.

“But I was tired of being their pit bull.”

“You should have just done your job, Jana. Killed the freaks and done your damn job.” Beth’s voice. She stepped forward, her arms crossed over her chest. “We don’t tolerate failure here.”

“Bite me.” The words came, slow and sluggish because they’d drugged her
.

Beth’s lips tightened. “The wolf is going to die. It’s a matter of time. He’s going to die and so are you.”

Then the two men reached for her, scalpels in their hands
.

“They liked pain.” She swallowed. “I wasn’t the … only one they worked on. While I was with them, I saw-I saw the supernaturals they brought in. Those doctors cut them open. Hell, they did it while they were
alive
. They cut them, and they tortured them just to see how much pain they could take. We were all just experiments to them.”

And he saw the blood-soaked images. One after the other.

“They made a mistake with me. They needed to keep me conscious while they cut into my head, and they didn’t drug me heavily enough.”

The damn scalpels glinted. Each bastard had one gripped in a white-gloved hand. “Today we slice into that brain. Let’s see if she’s wired to burn.”

Jana’s eyes had gone to the men. Marked them. Even as Beth’s high heels tapped across the tiled floor, Jana let the power swell. The heat spread through her as the charge grew, burning hotter, hotter as it swelled with her rage. The fire erupted
.

He jerked back, almost feeling the flames on his skin. But, no, that hadn’t been real. The room was cold. Ice cold. Jana stood before him. Just her. No flames.

“They’ve improved on their drugs since my last … stay.” Again, he heard her thoughts because he was still in her mind. “They’re keeping the room cold to further lock down my power. Unless I can charge up, I’m going to be powerless, and they
know
that.”

She stepped forward. Closing the space he’d created when he stumbled back. “I need to get warm.” Whispered in his mind. The fingertips she pressed to his cheek seemed so cold. Not like Jana’s hot touch.
“Help me.”
When she exhaled, he saw a faint puff of white near her lips.
Too cold
.

He wanted to help her. After what he’d seen … fuck, life wasn’t black and white, he
knew
that. Jana wasn’t the heartless assassin he’d originally pictured. But he’d already known that, even without slipping into her past.

His
gift. He didn’t just pick up on thoughts when he went into someone’s mind. He
saw
the person’s life. Hell, that was one of the many reasons he never went inside a human’s head.

Sometimes, you didn’t want to see the dark deeds that should stay hidden.