Tall, Silent and Lethal

by R. L. Mathewson

  Not until she came into his life.

  She drove him out of his fucking mind and made it difficult to think straight. Sometimes he didn’t know whether he wanted to throttle her or kiss her. Definitely kiss her, he thought dazedly as he stared down at that beautiful mouth that had felt so good on his-

  “Shit!” he snapped as that beautiful mouth struck, obviously deciding that if she couldn’t have the Sentinel’s blood, that his would do.

  She latched onto his neck with a vicious bite, tearing into his throat and greedily swallowing his blood as it filled her mouth. He bit back a grunt of pain as she dug her fangs deeper into his throat.

  “Get her off him!” Ephraim snapped, grabbing hold of his arm.

  “No!” Christofer snarled, shaking off his hold, careful not to dislodge her bite. “It’s the only way to snap her out of it,” he added, gritting his teeth as he was forced to slap his hands against the wall above her and brace himself to endure her attack.

  “If you don’t stop her, you’ll slip into bloodlust next,” Ephraim warned.

  He shifted his gaze from the elevator wall to the lit screen above the double doors, watching the countdown as the elevator made its slow descent to the ground floor. His hands balled into fists as he slowly exhaled, ignoring the black spots dancing along his sight and stood there, giving his woman what she needed. When he felt her mouth gentle against his neck and her arms wrap around his shoulders as she pressed up against him, he closed his eyes and released a heavy sigh, relieved that her loss of control was short lived.

  “C-Christofer?” she murmured, her voice shaky as she pressed her forehead against his chest, her hands fisted in his shirt. “What just happened?’

  “Shhh,” he said, forcing his eyes open only to shut them again as the move made his head spin. He’d lost too much blood over the course of the day to have any hopes of fighting this. “Everything is fine,” he said, his voice sounding hollow and far away as he pressed an unsteady kiss to the top of Cloe’s head.

  “Christofer-” Cloe started to speak, but he didn’t have the luxury of comforting her right now.

  “Take her,” he said, dropping his hands to her shoulders and using the last of his energy to gently shove her towards the elevator doors just as they opened with a chime.

  “What the hell is going on?” Cloe demanded as he forced his eyes open just as his legs gave out and he dropped to the ground.

  “Get her the hell out of here,” he tried to shout, but his words came out as a slurred whisper.

  “Let me go!” Cloe screamed as he was forced to sit there while Chris shoved past his father who stood in front of him, stopping Cloe from going to him. Without a word, he grabbed Cloe and threw her over his shoulder and dragged her off the elevator with Caine right behind him.

  Ephraim stared down at him for a moment longer before he nodded, turned around and walked off the elevator, pressing the “Close Doors” button on his way out.

  Before the doors closed tightly shut behind Ephraim, everything went black as he felt himself falling, the sounds of Cloe’s screams rushing him towards oblivion.

  Chapter 40

  “Get your hands off me!”

  “Hold her back!” Ephraim shouted as he withdrew his weapon and took aim at the closed elevator doors.

  “Let me go!” she snapped, pulling against Danni’s hold as another roar shook the lobby.

  “You’re giving off the scent of fear,” Danni explained calmly as she yanked Cloe back behind the men lined up with their weapons aimed at the quaking double doors of the elevator where Christofer was going crazy from the sounds of it. “It’s making him nuts.”

  “Then let go of me,” she snapped, struggling to get free and to…..to……

  Oh hell, she didn’t know what she was going to do if she managed to get free. She just felt like she needed to do something to fix this. It was her fault that poor Christofer had lost control.

  She still didn’t know how it happened. One minute she’d been trying to ignore the overwhelming sweet scent of Chris’ blood, seriously pissed off to discover that she’d been kept in the dark about something that affected her, and the next she’d felt like she was drowning. She couldn’t seem to think straight. Everything had been fuzzy and muddled. She’d been aware of what was going on, to a point, but helpless to do anything about it.

  It was similar to the moment just before you pass out. Everything starts to get hazy, you feel your self-control start to slip and no matter how hard you try to fight it, you can’t. It takes you over, knocks you on your ass and leaves you helpless. It was something that she never wanted to experience again. She also knew that if it weren’t for Christofer, she would still be trapped in that hazy mess, helpless to stop herself from doing something that she’d regret.

  “Get her out of here,” Chris yelled over his shoulder.

  “They’re not really going to shoot him, are they?” she asked numbly, swallowing nervously as she watched the men and women forming a line.

  “It won’t kill him,” Danni explained, pausing to watch as Caine moved over to the elevator doors and placed his hand over the small key that would unlock the elevator doors and allow them to open.

  “Why can’t they leave him in there until he passes out or the bloodlust passes?” she asked, desperate to find another way to handle this. She didn’t want him shot or hurt in any way.

  “Because there’s no guarantee that he won’t find a way out of there and if he does…….,” Danni started to explain as she was once again pulling her towards a set of double doors only to let her words trail off meaningfully.

  Not that Cloe needed her to explain. She didn’t. She’d been on the receiving end of the last time Christofer went into bloodlust and really didn’t need a refresher course on the subject. She wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but it still didn’t make her feel right about this.

  “Isn’t there anything that we can do?” she asked, running what little information she knew about their kind through her head, trying to figure out a way to knock Christofer out of this without having to shoot him or risk anyone else getting hurt.

  “Blood and time,” Danni answered absently as she suddenly shoved Cloe behind her and pulled out her gun.

  “Okay, so why don’t we try that?” she suggested, sighing in relief. “We could drop a cooler full of bagged blood through the opening in the elevator and-”

  “Not going to work,” Danni said, using her body to push Cloe back against the wall.

  “Why not?” she asked as the first tendrils of panic shot through her as her body registered the fact that someone had her cornered. Apparently she still had a problem with space, she thought numbly as her heart pounded against her chest and her breaths came out choppy.

  She didn’t have a problem when Christofer invaded her space, but for everyone else? Yeah, it was definitely a problem, she thought as her vision went red.

  “Oh…….shit,” Danni groaned, sniffing the air and shooting her a look over her shoulder before her attention shot back to the elevator.

  “What?” she demanded, hyperventilating just a tad bit as she tried desperately to step away, but her trembling legs wouldn’t work for her.

  “You’re giving off a shit load of fear,” Danni said in an accusing tone.

  “If that’s a problem for you then get the hell out of my space!” she snapped defensively, barely noticing when Danni stepped away from her.

  “Yeah,” Danni said, cocking her gun. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

  “What are you……..oh, shit…….”

  “You could say that again,” Danni said, just as the elevator doors exploded.

  “No,” Cloe said, shaking her head as she moved away from the other woman, “I think I’ll just run instead.”

  “That’s probably for the best,” Danni agreed as reached behind her, pressed her thumb to a scanner, opened one of the double doors, grabbed Cloe by the arm and shoved her into what turned out to
be a very long hallway.

  *-*-*-*

  “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” Cloe mumbled incoherently to herself as she blindly grabbed hold of another doorknob, tried to turn it only to be met with resistance. “Shit!” she groaned, dropping her hand away from the door and returning to her mad dash down the long hallway while the sounds of gunshots, fighting and screams of pain echoed throughout the long hallway, letting her know that the battle was still on.

  Somehow she resisted the urge to look over her shoulder to see if the double doors were still standing, knowing instinctively that if she did that, it would be all over. So instead, she continued running down the long hallway, blindly testing doors every ten feet and wondering when her newfound abilities would kick in. Because right now as she ran down the hallway, telling herself that this didn’t make her a coward, she couldn’t help but feel that the ability to move her ass like the Road Runner would really come in handy at a moment like this.

  “MINE!” came the monstrous roar just as she moved to test another door.

  Deciding that perhaps putting a little more space between her and the blood thirsty bastard behind her was in order, she quickly changed plans from hiding under a bed to finding a stairway. Reasoning that there had to be a set of stairs at the end of the hall, she moved her ass and released a high-pitched scream, that she was going to pretend never happened, just as double doors burst open behind her.

  “Oh, the hell with this,” she groaned, knowing that she didn’t have a chance in hell of outrunning him down a clear path. So, she went back to plan A and grabbed the handle of the next door that she came across.

  Hands shaking violently to match her nerves, she grabbed hold of the doorknob of a gray door, not caring where it led and twisted it as hard as she could and kept going until it fell off with a loud snap and the door swung open just as another roar sounded behind her. Swallowing hard, she risked one look over her shoulder and wished that she hadn’t.

  There he was, covered in blood and looking every ounce the monster that she’d originally thought him to be. He wasn’t running after her, she realized, which should have given her a little comfort, but instead it only scared the shit out of her even more. The way those red eyes locked on her as he moved at a predatory gait as he stalked her said it all.

  Sooner or later he would have her.

  It was only a matter of time.

  *-*-*-*

  “Any casualties?” she heard Ephraim ask as she stood there, frozen in fear as she watched Christofer make his way to her, his intent clear.

  “No,” Chris groaned, “we just got our asses handed to us.”

  It was then that she realized that she could hear the sounds and conversations from the lobby and nearly sagged with relief. She opened her mouth to ask for help, but Chris’ next words stopped her.

  “We can’t leave her to handle him,” he said, sounding like he was in a great deal of pain. “He’ll tear her apart.”

  “I wasn’t planning on it,” Ephraim said, sounding winded. “But you’re not going. Keep your ass here.”

  “I’m fine,” she heard Chris grit out.

  “You won’t survive another round with him.”

  “I said I’m fine!”

  “You can barely walk, asshole,” Caine snapped.

  “We need to seal the corridor off and I’m not doing it with her still in there!” Chris shouted, sounding truly worried for her. In that instant he’d earned her forgiveness and respect. She also knew that she couldn’t risk any of them coming to her rescue.

  Closing her eyes in resignation. “I’ve got this. Don’t worry, guys. Just….just have some extra blood ready afterwards,” she said, knowing that she was going to need it.

  She didn’t wait around to make sure that they’d heard her since she needed to move her ass and quickly. So, she opened her eyes, turned around and swore as she found herself facing another long hallway. The only difference between this hallway and the one that she was escaping was the scent of chlorine and the sharp white tiles that lined the walls and floor.

  An idea came to her, one that she prayed would work. It was something that she remembered from her early days in the Girl Scouts. Even though she knew that it probably wouldn’t help, she slammed the door shut behind her, hoping the scent of chlorine would confuse him. She ran down the corridor, ignoring the doors that didn’t look promising and followed the heavy scent of chlorine and the sounds of what she hoped was a filter.

  “MINE!”

  “Oh, shit!” she squeaked, wondering how she’d got herself into this.

  Oh, that’s right, she’d gone psycho on him first and payback was a bitch.

  “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” she said, risking a look back and finding the hallway behind her still empty.

  Another idea came to her, one that she hoped would confuse him and give her a chance to test out one of the new skills that Christofer promised that she could do now. She wasn’t a hundred percent sure that she would be able to pull it off or that it would work, but she was definitely willing to try it if it meant saving her throat from another shredding.

  With that in mind, she grabbed the next doorknob that she came across, twisted the knob until it broke off, shoved the door open, tore her shirt off and threw it inside and ran. A few seconds later she was doing the same thing with one of her shoes and kept doing it until she found herself in just her panties and in front of a double door that clearly led to the pool.

  She yanked the door open, praying that the pool was empty and ran inside. When she spotted the large Olympic size pool, she spared a second to make sure that she was alone. A few seconds later she was running straight for the pool and diving in, praying that her old Troop leader was right about water hiding scents otherwise she was going to be sending the old bitch a strongly worded letter after this.

  Chapter 41

  “Lying bastard,” she sputtered as she came to the surface and grabbed blindly for the edge of the pool.

  When Christofer had explained that she didn’t really need to breathe, he’d forgotten to mention that she could still drown. That tidbit of information would have come in handy, especially before she’d tried to hide from him at the bottom of an Olympic sized pool. If she’d known just how painful it was to hold your breath for, she looked at her watch, five minutes, she would have come up with a plan B. Now she needed to-

  Scream her head off as she was suddenly grabbed by the arms and abruptly pulled out of the pool.

  “Quiet,” the glaring bastard that she didn’t like said softly as he set her on her unsteady feet and shoved her behind him.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded, hastily crossing her arms over her bare breasts as she risked a peek past him and immediately wished that she hadn’t. “Oh, shit,” she muttered, locking eyes with Christofer, who stood directly across from them on the other side of the pool. He watched them through glowing red eyes that looked a hell of a lot more intense than they had when he’d made love to her earlier.

  “Collecting another fee,” Kale said, shoving her back with his body as he took a step back from the edge of the pool and drew his weapon out of its holster.

  “Another fee?” she asked, frowning as she took another step back all while keeping her eyes locked on Christofer, terrified that if she looked away from him even for a second that she’d find herself pinned beneath him with her throat ripped out again.

  “A mover’s fee,” Kale said, shoving her back again.

  “A mover’s fee?”

  “Are you going to repeat everything I say?” Kale snapped, shoving her back again.

  “Probably,” she murmured absently as she watched in utter amazement as Christofer took a step forward and-

  Didn’t fall in the pool like she’d expected.

  “Pytes can walk on water?” she murmured, watching as Christofer walked towards them.

  “No,” Kale croaked, sounding just as surprised as she was. “And he sure as hell shouldn�
��t be able to do it while in bloodlust.”

  “Mine,” Christofer growled, the sound low and sexy and instantly making her think of a hundred naughty things that she wouldn’t mind doing with him as he whispered all the dirty things that he’d like to do to her while using that voice.

  “Or talk,” Kale added while she was busy letting her mind wander off a bit.

  Now was not the time to be thinking of him bending her over, ripping her panties off with his teeth and sinking that wickedly talented tongue in-