CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Caine turned and saw his daughter in Quillan’s clutches. The little girl wasn’t crying. She wasn’t even moving. She just lay limply on Quillan’s shoulder, dazed and frozen with shock and fear.
Caine lunged at Quillan, but the vampire held Sarah up and pressed his fangs to her soft neck. “I’ll rip out her little throat,” Quillan hissed with an ugly smile.
Two shots rang out behind him. Caine pivoted to see Tia firing another shot at Nelo, but the vampire was too fast. Nelo dodged her shots and Caine saw the vampire’s blood red eyes fix on Tia.
Caine growled a warning as Nelo came at Tia. The vampire moved so fast he was just a blur. Tia fired and missed.
Nelo had his hands around Tia’s neck. Caine flew at the vampire, but his jaws clamped down on empty air.
Nelo was gone. He had teleported away with Tia.
Caine heard Quillan’s mocking laughter. “Go, werewolf. Go after the human female. She is your mate, your one and only, isn’t she? Go get her.” Quillan made a shooing motion. “Leave the phoenix. This young phoenix isn’t yours. She isn’t any of your concern. Go and save your mate. Forget about the phoenix.”
Caine stared at Sarah lying completely still in Quillan’s arms. Quillan had guessed correctly that Tia was his mate, but his wolf hadn’t claimed and marked Tia as his. The mate bond between them had not yet been established.
It wasn’t Tia who had called to him and led him here. It was Sarah, his daughter, his pup.
The bond between a wolf and its pup was unbreakable, and his wolf would track Sarah to the ends of the earth. Sarah wasn’t a wolf, but she was his pup. The moment he adopted her, his heart had claimed the little girl as his daughter and his wolf had bonded instantly with the child.
Sarah was his daughter. He had heard her cry and felt her distress.
Caine had just finished a very enjoyable dinner with his mother at her favorite restaurant when he heard a soft cry in his head. His daughter was crying out for him. He could hear the fear and pain in her cry, and Caine had almost upended the table as he rushed out of the restaurant.
He had driven his mother to a neighbor’s house and asked the neighbors not to let Amanda out of their sight. “Stay here, don’t go home,” he’d ordered his mother.
The moment he ran into the empty house, he knew that both Tia and Sarah were gone. He let his furious wolf rise to the surface, and his wolf led him straight to the old museum building at the fringe of the city.
Caine snarled at Quillan. The vampire was wrong.
He wasn’t going to forget about the phoenix. The phoenix was his. Sarah was his daughter. His baby girl. He had tracked her down and he knew he would find Tia here as well.
Tia would never leave Sarah. She would protect the little girl with her life.
Caine’s heart was tearing into two. He wanted to go save Tia, but he couldn’t leave Sarah. Caine had faith in his brave, strong mate. Tia was a fighter. She wasn’t weak and defenseless.
But Sarah couldn’t fight back. She was a phoenix, but she was still just a baby.
Caine leaped at Quillan and his claws raked down the vampire’s thin leg. Quillan’s reflexes weren’t as fast as Nelo’s. The silver bullet in his leg was weakening him, draining him of his energy and powers.
Quillan held Sarah up as a shield as Caine slashed at him with his claws. Caine pulled his claws back just in time. He’d almost ripped his daughter in half!
Quillan snarled and bit into the baby’s arm. The vampire groaned in ecstasy as Sarah’s blood oozed into his mouth.
Caine roared in fury. Sarah whimpered and struggled weakly as Quillan drank more of her blood.
The vampire’s eyes blazed and he reached out and swiped his long nails down Caine’s side. Caine attacked viciously, but Quillan had grown stronger and faster. Sarah’s blood had revived him, and the vampire was now a deadly, formidable foe. All his powers were coming back to him, and Quillan held the baby up in one hand like a trophy.
“Rebirth,” he laughed. “So this is what rebirth feels like. Once I finish all her blood, I will finish you off. Run while you can, werewolf,” he taunted. He bared his fangs in a bloody smile and whispered, “Run.”