Tall, Silent and Lethal

by R. L. Mathewson

“Do it,” Christofer whispered hoarsely, his expression pained as he waited for her to strike like that would somehow make them even.

  Nothing ever would, she realized with disgust, forcing herself to walk away from him.

  “Cloe, I-”

  She cut off his apology with a slam of the bathroom door in absolutely no mood to hear any of his bullshit apologies. There was nothing that he could say or do that would make up for what he’d done to her, what he’d made her.

  *-*-*-*

  “Cloe-”

  No answer.

  Not that he’d expected one. He’d royally fucked up. There was no excuse for what he’d done to her. He’d viciously attacked her, could have killed her, probably technically had and now she was-

  “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” Cloe muttered frantically as the bathroom door was suddenly thrown open and Cloe was rushing out, a towel loosely wrapped around her.

  “What’s wrong?” he ended his question in a pained groan as Cloe turned around and dropped the towel, taking his breath away.

  “My ass!” she snapped accusingly, her eyes flashing a crimson red as she shot him a murderous glare that had his hands reflexively twitching to cover his defenseless balls. “Look at my ass!”

  Against his better judgment, he allowed his gaze to move down her scarred back, over her curvy hips and finally land on the body part in question. Somehow he found the willpower not to lick his lips, knowing that she wouldn’t appreciate the gesture. He forced himself to look over her ass, taking in every curve, the beautiful tanned skin, the fullness of each cheek, looking for a flaw, something wrong, but all he saw was perfection.

  “What am I looking at exactly?” he asked after a minute of staring at her ass and finding absolutely nothing wrong.

  “It’s bigger!” she snapped, looking more pissed by the second.

  He opened his mouth to answer her, but he really had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that so he just stared at her beautiful ass. It was full and round and definitely not something that he should be looking at or fantasizing about right now. He’d just lost his sister, had fucked up Cloe’s life and they were in the middle of some fucked up situation with absolutely no clue on how to fix it.

  “Doesn’t it look bigger to you?” she demanded, looking all kids of pissed. She peered over her shoulder to glare down at the offending body part while he tried to come up with some way to tell her that this was the first time that he’d actually seen her ass in all its glory since she’d purposely kept her back to the wall the last time he’d seen her naked.

  He cleared his throat, deciding that it was probably best not to remind her of that incident and asked, “Is anything else different?”

  “Everything!” she snarled as she turned around and faced him, damn near making his knees buckle

  Damn……..

  Her breasts looked fuller, her nipples larger, darker, her athletic stomach that he’d admired in the pharmacy looked more defined, but no less feminine, the thatch of butterscotch curls between her legs looked silkier, more inviting, her hips a bit fuller, her legs looked smoother, toner and damn him if her toes didn’t look cuter.

  “It’s Saturday,” she said accusingly, dragging his attention away from the adorable toes and back up to her face and the reminder of what he’d done to her as she glared up at him with shimmering red eyes.

  “Okay,” he said, because he had no idea what day it was and absolutely no idea what else he should say.

  “I’ve been out cold for three days,” she said, gesturing to her beautiful legs, “and they’re smooth!”

  “And that’s a problem because…..?”

  “I haven’t shaved since Monday!”

  “Still not seeing a problem,” he mumbled, his gaze running over every inch of her.

  She opened her mouth, no doubt to point out something else just to confuse him when they heard a throat clearing outside their door.

  “It’s the changes,” Ephraim explained from the other side of the door, reminding them both that they weren’t alone. “Your body is at its peak now. It’s part of your natural allure.”

  “By making my ass fatter?” she demanded, shaking her head in disgust as she snatched up her towel and stormed back into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her and saving him from having to stumble his way through another apology.

  “Poor bastard,” he thought he heard Chris mumble as he pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering how in the hell he expected to handle a mate when he’d never been able to handle his sister.

  Chapter 24

  Manhattan, New York

  Later that day………..

  “Get that away from me,” Cloe bit out as she glared at the bastard holding a bag of blood out to her.

  “You need to drink this,” Chris, aka Kidnapper Number Two, as she liked to think of him, said in clear exasperation as he gave the bag a little shake to entice her.

  “And you need to shove that bag up your ass, because I’m not drinking it!” she snapped, having had more than enough of this bullshit for one day.

  No, actually that wasn’t true.

  When she’d woken up in Christofer’s arms a few hours ago to find a tube shoved down her throat and blood being pumped into her stomach was when she’d finally had enough. All the crap they added afterwards was just icing on the cake that made her already fucked up life even worse.

  Apparently the bastard, Christofer, had not only lost control and gone into bloodlust, meaning the prick hadn’t been able to keep his fangs in his pants, but he’d also managed to turn her into a Pyte. She still wasn’t clear on what that was except for the fact that it wasn’t exactly a vampire and now, she was a monster that needed blood

  Anyone else and it would probably feel like they’d won the lottery, but for Cloe it meant that she was the same as the monsters that had destroyed her family now. It made her sick to realize that her very survival depended on drinking human blood like some parasite.

  “Alright,” Chris said, tossing the bag of blood across the small space of the cargo van, where they’d tossed her ass in when she’d refused to willingly go with them, to Caine, aka Kidnapper Number Four. “Listen up, cupcake, because I’m only going to explain this to you once. I need to get you into that building,” he said, pointing towards the tinted side windows and the large building they’d been parked in front of for the last half hour.

  “I’m not going in there,” she ground out even as she absently wondered when her vision would go back to normal, because this whole seeing everything in shades of red thing was really starting to freak her out a bit.

  Ignoring her, as he had been doing for the last six hours, Chris continued. “The plan is to get you inside and up to the penthouse without notice and preferably before the sun sets in twenty minutes. Once inside-”

  “I’m. Not. Going. In. There,” she bit out, sick and tired of being ignored and bossed around.

  They swore up and down that they weren’t kidnapping her, but every time she tried to leave or asked them to just let her go, they’d refused. She just wanted to go off somewhere by herself and process everything, to mourn Marta, make peace with what happened to her, but they refused to let her do that. She understood their fears, well, most of them, but she wasn’t going to hurt anyone and she sure as hell wasn’t going to go around announcing that she was now a freak of nature. She just….

  She just wanted to be left alone.

  “Okay,” Chris said, nodding as he pursed his lips up in thought. “Then let me put it this way, I want to get home to my very pregnant mate and children. I can’t do that until I have you and your mate,” he said, gesturing towards Christofer, who was sitting in the back of the van, still staring down at that creased paper in his hands while she tried to secure their freedom and seriously pissing her off, “secured in that building. The longer that you drag your ass and pout, the longer that my mate and children go without my protection,” he snapped, sounding seriously pissed off and sta
rtling her, because up to this point he’d been relaxed and even tried to coax a smile from her a time or two.

  “Chris,” Ephraim sighed heavily from the front of the van, sounding like an exasperated father dealing with his child, which if everything they’d told her was to be believed was the case.

  Chris rubbed his hands over his face as he muttered a, “Sorry.”

  “Izzy is only a few weeks away from having twins,” Danni, the only female of the group, explained absently as she pulled out a gun and double checked the barrel. “Prolonged time away from her and their babies turns this big baby into a prick,” she finished, shooting Cloe a wink as the rest of the men, all but Christofer and the man sitting across from her who wouldn’t stop glaring at her, chuckled.

  “We’ll explain everything once we get inside,” came the muffled announcement from her left, which had her turning her head to her left and her jaw dropping.

  “Sorry,” Caine said with a shrug as he paused in draining the bag of blood that she’d refused, “but I skipped lunch.”

  “T-that’s okay,” Cloe mumbled, not really sure what to say as she swiftly turned her attention straight ahead at the bastard glaring at her, but that was definitely better than watching a man slurp down some O positive, she decided, trying not to cringe or gag.

  “We need to get inside,” Danni announced once Caine had managed to drain the bag.

  With a nod, Caine tossed the empty bag back to Chris who caught it with a flick of his hand and shoved it into the front of the black backpack sitting between him and the seriously pissed off man who wouldn’t stop glaring at her. At this point she seriously had to wonder what that was about. She opened her mouth to ask him what his problem was, but a slight growl and a flash of silver eyes had her rethinking that decision and deciding that perhaps getting out of the van and away from the perpetually angry bastard was for the best. Of course, that didn’t mean that she was planning on going along with their plans to lock her up.

  With a feigned sigh of resignation, she nodded and said, “Fine. Let’s go inside,” making sure to sound putout.

  “Let’s do it,” Chris said, gesturing for Caine to unlock the door and climb out.

  She forced herself to sit there, waiting for her turn to jump out when all she wanted to do was to shove her way to freedom and make a run for it, but she knew better. They’d just grab her and carry her ass inside and she wasn’t having that. Trying to hide her excitement, she waited and watched as Christofer stepped out of the van, looking somber as he stood there, hands in his pockets as he stared down at the pavement while he waited for everyone else to climb down. If he hadn’t come close to killing her, she’d probably feel bad for him, but-

  Okay, fine. She did feel bad for him. He’d just lost his sister, someone that Cloe knew that he loved very much. She still didn’t know all the details, mostly because he’d refused to talk to anyone right now and no one else would say anything except that it had been unexpected. Cloe certainly hadn’t expected the feisty old woman who’d made her laugh to pass on so soon. She’d been so full of life, so kind and sweet. She hadn’t even known Marta that long and she was going to miss her terribly. She couldn’t even begin to fathom what Christofer was going through right now.

  “Let’s go, princess,” Chris said, gesturing rather impatiently for her to step out.

  “That’s not my name,” she said evenly as she carefully climbed out of the van, keeping her eyes downcast to hide the red glow as well as to hide her intentions.

  “Aw, but you’re such a dainty little princess,” Chris said mockingly, petting her head condescendingly as she stepped out of the van. He reminded her of an older boy in foster care she used to know named Brian, who used to love nothing more than to torment her when none of the adults were around.

  So, of course she felt obligated to handle the overbearing bastard the same way that she used to handle Brian when the jerk used to pin her down and let his spit hang a mere inch away from her face before he sucked it back up and did it again.

  She went for his balls.

  “Mother fucker!” Chris growled, cupping his balls as he dropped unsteadily to his knees even as he glared at her, not that she was waiting around to watch his reaction.

  She wasn’t.

  She tried to make a run for it as soon as she’d managed to take him by surprise. By take him by surprise she of course meant that she’d taken advantage when his phone started chiming and he’d rushed to answer it. As soon as he had the phone in his hands, she’d turned around and brought her knee up, sending his balls up through his throat. Startled that it had actually worked, she’d decided to press her luck. Unfortunately for her, she’d barely managed to turn around when she found herself picked up.

  “Let me-Hey!”she started to demand her freedom only to squeal at the end when Ephraim, the bastard that interfered with her escape attempt, tossed her a good ten feet over pavement that she seriously did not want to land ass first on, to the brooding bastard standing off to the side.

  She opened her mouth to demand that Christofer put her down, but could only gasp as she struggled to catch her breath. She grabbed onto his shoulders and buried her face against his chest, in no way admitting defeat. She just needed a minute or two while she struggled to catch her breath and calm her racing heart before she made another run for it.

  “My balls,” Chris croaked.

  “Quit your bitching,” Kale, who seemed to love to glare, said with a touch of an Irish brogue that she refused to find sexy. “You should have seen that coming,” he snapped, stepping up to the side, blocking off one of her escape routes as he shot her a look that practically dared her to try something.

  “I expected it,” Chris managed to get out as he sucked in a breath.

  “It really shows,” Caine said dryly as he moved to block her other side while Danni moved past him, obviously intent on blocking her from the back.

  “I got distracted,” Chris snarled, holding onto his father’s arm while the two of them took the position in front of her to complete the trap. As soon as they were in position, Chris bent back over, gasping for air and keeping a tight hold on his father’s arm.

  Meanwhile, people came and went, walking past them as though they weren’t there. It was a little unnerving that that no one seemed concerned about a woman being tossed about or kidnapped. They did however seem putout with the fact that their group wouldn’t move and they were forced to alter their path and walk around them.

  “You got distracted,” Kale mimicked with obvious disgust.

  “Izzy texted me and-”

  The name Izzy was barely out of Chris’ mouth when the scowling jackass to her right and Ephraim were both on Chris, trying to tear the cellphone out of his hand.

  “Let go, you bastard!” Kale snapped, trying to wrestle the phone out of Chris’ hand while his father simply reached down, pinched the back of Chris’ hand, which earned a yelp from Chris before he was forced to release the phone. Ephraim pressed his finger to the screen seconds before he typed something.

  “She’s fine, you insensitive bastards!” Chris snapped, shaking off his hand as he got to his feet with a glare aimed at the men focused on his phone and stumbled past her to take up Kale’s abandoned spot.

  Both men sighed heavily with obvious relief as Ephraim tossed the phone back to Chris. “Just a reminder to pick up some fudge from that shop that she likes,” Ephraim muttered, rubbing his hands down his face.

  “Which I would have told you if you hadn’t attacked me, you betraying bastard!” Chris practically snarled as he continued to shake off his hand with a wince as he shifted his legs.

  “I thought you told her not to text you unless it’s an emergency,” Ephraim grumbled as he gestured for Christofer, who was still oddly quiet throughout this whole exchange, to precede them inside the large, and obviously, upscale building.

  “I did,” Chris gritted out, keeping stride with Christofer as they headed inside.

  “She�
��s pregnant,” Danni said dryly. “To her, fudge is an emergency.”

  Ephraim chuckled as he pulled up the rear alongside Kale, who was once again glaring at her. How did she know this? Because while everyone else was chatting away and Christofer was voluntarily walking them to their doom, she was struggling to get free. She kicked, shoved, pinched and squirmed, but nothing worked. He’d barely even grunted when she’d kneed him in the chest when she’d tried to climb over his shoulder to take a chance with a pavement dive.

  “Let me go, Christofer!” she said, squirming wildly in his arms, but other than tighten his hold around her, he didn’t seem to react at all.

  Fed up, Cloe decided to take a chance that someone, anyone, might actually give a damn in this city. “Somebody, please help me! They’re kidnapping me!” she shouted as Christofer stepped inside the opulent building and the gold encased glass door closed behind her with a whoosh.