Tall, Dark & Heartless: A Pyte/Sentinel Series Novel

by R. L. Mathewson

  Thanks to her he had to recover that night in one of the cells with bagged blood practically shoved down his throat and she was put under in-house arrest for three months. After they released him he hunted her down, but he didn't say anything to her. He just watched her for a moment before he turned around and walked away.

  For the entire three month punishment he refused to speak to her, but he was never far away. He walked her to school. Was there waiting for her at the curb when school let out. He walked her home and straight to her bedroom where she was expected to stay all night. Before he went out on patrol he brought her dinner from the cafeteria, no dessert, and sat with her. She also knew that he checked on her while she slept, but never once spoke to her during those three months.

  The day her confinement ended he picked her up from school like any other day, but this time instead of walking with her to her room, he led her to one of the workout rooms and had one of the Sentinels who'd been injured that day, thanks to her, spar with her. When he was done wiping the floor with her, which sadly hadn't taken more than a minute, she realized that she had no business going on patrol.

  As she lay on the ground, hugging her arm to her chest and panting, she nodded in understanding. Caine let out a little grunt of acceptance as he reached down and picked her up and of course called her a "Dumbass" for good measure.

  "You're done," Caine said, grabbing her attention back to the present "You are so fucking done," he said in that guttural voice that she knew so well from the nightmares that still plagued her from that night. "That life is over for you," he snarled.

  Reluctantly she nodded, knowing that it was true. The life she'd known was over, but not for the reason he thought. The reason why her life was over chose that moment to make an appearance.

  Chapter 13

  Her gasp of pain drew him out of the beginning stages of bloodlust faster than should have been possible. Up until a few seconds ago he'd been struggling against the urge to finally give in after all these years of hell and rip into her throat. He'd been close, so damn close to losing control when she grabbed her head.

  Before he realized what he was doing, he was in front of her, taking her into his arms. He looked down at her and noted her pale complexion, her eyes squeezed tightly shut and her normally beautiful full lips drawn into a thin line.

  "Danni,-" he started to ask her what was wrong, but her cry of pain gave him the clue he needed. She had another migraine, one of many lately. A few months ago he spotted her sitting with her head in her hands in one of the back stairwells at the compound. He hadn't been sure what was wrong and he hadn't asked her since that meant getting involved. Since that day he'd seen her popping aspirin several times a day.

  The night they'd fallen into this damn trap he'd seen her grabbing her head again and popping aspirin like it was candy. She'd done her best to be discrete about it, but he hadn't missed it. That was why he put an end to Greg's bullshit and moved to get the mission over with. She was ill and too damn stubborn to keep her ass in bed where it belonged.

  He'd wondered about the migraines for a while, but figured that if she was sick, she wouldn't be working. Then again this was Danni, he thought dryly. She'd probably climb out of her deathbed to kick someone's ass. When she wasn't struggling to breathe or looked like she might be sick, he planned on asking her.

  Of course he could simply taste her blood to see if there was anything wrong with her, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop after just one taste. He wondered if she suffered migraines like his aunt used to, understandably so with a cottage full of children and a farm to run. She'd lived to a ripe old age and if he had a say in it, then so would Danni.

  They just needed to figure out how to escape, he thought with aggravation as he carried the tense woman in his arms to the mattress, trying to ignore just how good she felt in his arms. It had been so long since he'd held her in his arms and he was a little dismayed that it didn't feel as good as when she was a little girl curled up in his arms, demanding that he carry her around because she was concerned that all the blood he drank was going to make him fatter than Santa Claus. She'd been a sneaky little thing, he thought with a sad smile.

  She shifted in his arms, pressing her face against his chest and he barely fought back the urge to groan. Danni sure as hell didn't feel as good as the little girl he'd used to allow to boss him around, she felt better. A hell of a lot better and he realized that he wasn't really thinking of her as that little girl at the moment. He was thinking about how her warm body felt against his, the way her ass felt against his arm as he held her and how badly he wanted to trace her curves with his tongue. The realization that he was starting to feel attracted to her startled him out of his thoughts and forced him to focus on their escape.

  They needed to get out of here before the assholes that were holding them realized that he didn't plan on fucking or turning her. When it finally dawned on them that their plan wasn't going to work, they would either go after Danni or kill her off and try this sick plan on a new woman. He wanted to get them both out of here before it came to that.

  He wasn't worried about himself. If he didn't have Danni to worry about he'd tear his foot off right below the cuff and make his escape. It would hurt like hell, but he'd done it before and his foot grew back within an hour or two. He hated the pain and the disturbing sounds the action made, but he would do that before he allowed anybody to keep him locked up like an animal ever again. The only thing that prevented him from doing it now was Danni.

  He considered ripping Danni's cable in half, but he wasn't sure if he'd be able to tear through all the wires before it could send a surge strong enough to kill her before he severed the connection completely. Then he'd have to worry about getting his cuff off and he knew he wouldn't be able to pull it off before vampires made it through the door. They had no weapons of any kind and were locked in a room with a surveillance camera watching their every move.

  That was their biggest obstacle, he realized. They needed to get rid of the camera and then figure out the next step without an audience. He laid Danni gently on the mattress and pulled the blanket over her, keeping his back to the cameras. Before he did anything he had to talk it over with her, because she was going to be the one to pay for his actions.

  "Danni?" he whispered, wishing that he could put this off, but he couldn't. He wanted to get her out of here before they decided to torture her, or worse. He wouldn't put it past that sick fuck to suggest to the Master he worked for that the vampires under his command fuck Danni to see if one of them could manage to get a child on her. It was rare, very rare for a vampire to get a human woman pregnant, but it did happen. That's exactly how he came to be. His father was a vampire living the life of a Lord and his mother was nothing more than a maid serving in his home. His father used her, impregnated her and discarded her and her husband, who also worked for him at the time.

  "What?" Danni asked weakly.

  "I need to take out the security cameras so that we can start working on getting out of here," he said softly.

  "Do it," she mumbled, turning to bury her face against the mattress and he had to wonder just how badly her head hurt.

  "They'll punish you, Danni. I need to be certain that-"

  "Just do it, Caine. Don't worry about me," she bit out tightly as she curled into herself.

  He opened his mouth to tell her that he wasn't worried about her, but that would have been a lie. Of course he worried about her. He'd never stopped. Pushing her out of his life had been for her own good. At least he thought it had. Now he realized what a big mistake it had been to simply pull away from her.

  As soon as he realized that he could no longer be near her without putting her life in danger he should have done what he was planning on doing now. He should have dragged her kicking and screaming if necessary, out of the compound, thrown her stubborn ass in the back of a van and taken her somewhere far away from all this bullshit. He should have set her up with a new life, somewhere saf
e where she could live her life in peace.

  At least now thanks to her little confession about patrolling, and what the hell was wrong with the woman, he knew he would have to hire extra guards to keep her safe. It was either that or put her out in the middle of nowhere in a house with nothing around her in a hundred miles radius. Actually, he might just do that. At least he'd know the damn woman wasn't putting herself in danger that way.

  "Just do it," she muttered, reaching out blindly towards him. Thinking that she needed him, he moved closer only to find himself shoved back. "Hurry up," she snapped, not even bothering to open her eyes.

  It was nice to know that some things hadn't changed, he thought dryly. She was still a bossy little thing and why that knowledge made him smile he didn't know, but it did. He stood up and walked over to the far left corner where the camera was positioned so that it didn't miss a single thing. When he was about four feet from the corner his chains pulled tight.

  He forced himself not to look back, knowing this could very well be the thing to push the prick over the edge and kill Danni, but he had to take the chance. Danni knew the risks as well as he did, but he still waited a minute before he did anything to give her a chance to change her mind. Unable to help himself, he looked back, needing to make sure that this was truly what she wanted.

  Of course he found her glaring at him and gesturing for him to get on with it, he thought with an inward groan. He turned around just as he allowed his body to float. When his head was about to touch the ceiling he shifted into a horizontal position that brought him up close and personal with the camera.

  He heard the electricity surge through the wire before Danni muttered a curse. It was a warning and one he had to ignore. This was their only chance to escape. Praying like hell that they didn't decide to kill Danni, he reached out, caught all three wires in his hand and yanked hard enough to take the camera, which were fastened into the wall, with them. He dropped the ruined camera on the ground and turned just in time to see Danni's back bow as a silent scream escaped her.

  When the humming of the electricity didn't stop he knew they were going for the kill. He flashed to the other side of the room, grabbed her by the ankle and nearly released her just as quickly when a surge of electricity ripped up his arm and forced every muscle in his body to contract almost violently. There was no doubt in his mind now they meant to kill her.

  Grinding his teeth as the electricity shot to his heart and threatened to rupture the organ, he gripped the wire and yanked it. He focused on pulling that chord until every last particle of fiber and wire was free from the anklet around Danni's leg. Gasping for air, he tossed the wire to the side and ripped the anklet off as well. He didn't know if it could still do any damage and he sure as hell wasn't about to find out.

  He dropped the anklet to the floor and turned to get the cooler. They needed to move and with her still down for the count he would have to take care of them both, which meant he needed to quickly fill up on blood so he could speed up his recovery time after he took care of his chain problem.

  "Danni, I'm going.......to....," he stopped mid-step as his brain registered the silent room, the too silent room. Danni wasn't thrashing, screaming, groaning, or breathing for that matter.

  Her heart also wasn't beating.

  *******

  Boston Compound

  "When did they go missing?" she heard Chris ask as he paced the room, but barely paid attention as she ran the program she'd created for the Army last year and prayed that it worked.

  Unfortunately, given how extensive the list of fake IP addresses was she knew it could be hours before her program was able to eliminate all the fake ones and lock down on both the source of the video and the receiver. She also needed to get out of this room before Chris' pacing drove her crazy.

  Normally it wouldn't bother her. She'd just lose herself in one of her programs, but she hadn't been outside in months, so little things like her mate pacing and cursing up a storm now made her crazy. Well, that and her hormones. She couldn't believe she let the big jerk get her pregnant again.

  Okay, so she hadn't been exactly pushing the condom issue. She didn't like using them. She wasn't an idiot. Before Chris she always used them. She didn't like playing Russian Roulette with her life, but Chris was her mate, had a clean bill of health and most importantly, felt incredible inside of her.

  The one time she demanded that he use a condom he'd been amused until he slid inside of her. Before he completed the first stroke he pulled out, ripped the condom off and shoved her against the wall before he started pounding inside of her. Since they had sex at least five times a day, it was difficult to pinpoint the exact incident that led to this pregnancy. Of course, she remembered the morning she discovered that she was pregnant, again.

  Waking up at the exact moment her mate dragged in her father-in-law, Ephraim, to not only confirm the small circle on her skin just below her ear that indicated a pregnancy, but also to find out the sex of the child had been an unforgettable moment indeed. At least Ephraim had looked as uncomfortable as she felt, but then again she had been buck-naked curled up in bed at the time. When he not only confirmed the pregnancy but then announced that she was pregnant with a boy, Chris had been ecstatic, the exact opposite of how he'd reacted to her first pregnancy. She knew he'd been afraid that he would turn out to be like his mother or worse and didn't want to hurt his kids. The foolish man actually thought that he would fail his children.

  She loved seeing him happy. Then again, she would have loved a hug and a kiss at that moment, but Chris had to go get Jessica and share the news with their infant daughter that she was going to be a big sister. He eventually got around to giving her that kiss and much more later. So she kind of forgave him for it.

  "I'm going for a walk," she said, stepping in front of him and forcing him to pause in his pacing. With a firm nod he leaned down and gave her a quick hard kiss that had her toes curling before he went right back to chewing out the person on the phone.

  She slipped out of her office and into what she liked to call, 'The Geek Pit" and quickly made her way towards the door, hoping none of them noticed her escape. They were a really good group of IT techs and she was glad to have them working for her. She just couldn't stand the fact that they acted like they were her groupies. Every day they bombarded her with a thousand questions, most of them about her infamous program Tattletale, the program that started this little war that was keeping her and the rest of her family locked up in the compound.

  When she made it into the hall without anyone spotting her, she let out a sigh of relief and quickly made her way towards the back elevators. She wanted to go upstairs and get Jessica, but the text message that Madison sent her a half hour ago let her know that Jessica was curled up in her grandfather's arms and fast asleep. As much as she would love to hold Jessica right now, she knew that Ephraim needed her more. Ever since the incident with Joshua the man had been struggling to keep it together and seemed to be able to relax the most when he had his granddaughter in his arms.

  Thankfully Madison's due date was getting closer and he'd soon have his two baby boys to keep him occupied. The man deserved a break and she wished he'd accept that he couldn't have known that Kale had given Joshua his blood before he gave Joshua his as well. Anyone would have done the same to save their child. It was tragic what happened to Joshua, but it wasn't his fault. They still weren't sure what the mixture of shifter and Pyte blood had done to Joshua and until they figured it out, Joshua was going to have to remain locked up.

  "Come on, freak, fight back!" she heard a boy yell, followed by the sounds of laughter.

  She rounded the corner and wasn't too surprised at the sight before her. Marc, Chris' eleven year old brother, was standing in the middle of a group of five teenage boys, who were enjoying making his life a living hell. Marc was a really sweet kid, a cutie pie in her book with his jet black hair and ocean blue eyes. He was also a Pyte, a young Pyte who hadn't made it through the transfo
rmation that would turn him immortal yet. That would thankfully happen in about five years. Until then, he was just as weak as any human boy, one that needed blood to grow normally, but he was still pretty much human. He'd also been on the receiving end of this type of nonsense ever since they moved here.

  "What's the matter? Don't want your game back?" Seth, a little creep that she'd love to put over her knee, said as he held up the handheld game system that she'd given Marc just yesterday.

  Marc just stood there glaring at the boy, but didn't make a move against him. They both knew that he'd probably be able to take the boy and a few of his friends down since Chris had trained him, but the boy refused to hurt anyone. Well, anyone human that is. If the boys had been Sentinels or shifter children instead of humans he probably would have taken a swing at them by now, but Marc just didn't think the training he had received from his father and Chris was a fair advantage over the human boys.

  The boy was just too damn sweet, she thought with a sigh as she stepped up to the group, reached over the boy's shoulder and yanked the game out of the bully's hand. The boy reacted automatically and went to swing his fist at her as he turned. She caught his fist in her hand, giving it a light enough squeeze to catch his attention.