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

by R. L. Mathewson

  Dread filled Danni as she listened. She knew exactly what that meant. If the tunnel was still intact and the nest had a way out then all their planning would be for nothing. If this nest escaped then there wouldn't be any second chances to do this again. Worse, if they fucked this mission up it was all their asses and Danni couldn't afford a suspension right now.

  Not now.

  "I'm a quarter of the way through the tunnel now, Danni. I might need help closing the emergency hatch that opens on C-24." Greg said, sounding out of breath.

  The idea of saving his ass after he screwed up with the blueprints naturally rubbed her the wrong way, but not enough to risk screwing this mission up. Not when she had everything riding on this assignment.

  "I'm on my way," she said, throwing one last glance in the direction of the nest.

  "Received."

  Ignoring the throbbing pain in her head, she turned and sprinted in the direction of the new emergency tunnel. She pulled her sidearm out and kept it ready. At this point the area she'd already covered was no longer secure and she'd have to worry about minions, vampire slaves whose sole purpose in life was to please and care for their Master, patrolling the tunnels for intruders.

  If she or any of her teammates came across one their orders were shoot to kill. Not that she'd do it any differently. She wouldn't. Since minions willingly gave up their humanity and killed for their Master without question, they weren't to be trusted.

  About three hundred years ago the Sentinel Council changed their rule of capture, interrogate, and reform minions to kill on sight. The rule was decided after a large group of minions managed to trap twenty Sentinels in the Catacombs of Paris and burned them alive. Not surprising ever since then, the Sentinels and their human members held no sympathy for minions. If she had any sympathy for them it would have flown out the window eight years ago when two minions shot and killed her parents in broad daylight.

  Hunting down their killers and taking them out had been the first and only unsanctioned minion extermination she'd ever committed. At the time she hadn't cared what the council did to her. They could lock her up for life on one of their many private islands used to punish and reform Sentinels or they could have killed her for all she cared at the time. She'd hated the minions who took her only family away from her too much to follow the rules.

  For months after she'd killed them she'd kept her focus on training and patrolling as she waited to be called in for the killings. When six months passed and nothing happened, she figured the council decided to look the other way.

  "What's your location?" Greg suddenly demanded, sounding nervous. Not that she could blame him. He'd fucked up big time with the blueprints.

  She slowed her pace to check the dark tunnel to her right before proceeding down it. "I'm about twenty yards from G-8's opening."

  "Good. I'll meet you at the opening," he said, sounding relieved.

  Danni frowned. What the hell was he doing at the opening? He was supposed to be investigating the hatch to C-24. Maybe the tunnel was actually blocked. In that case he should have radioed her sooner than this so she could take up her original position.

  Twenty feet from the opening she slowed her pace when she spotted Greg pacing. When he spotted her he gestured for her to come to him. Shoving aside her annoyance she walked over, stopping five feet from him.

  "What's the problem, Greg? I thought you were checking out the hatch," she said, holstering her weapon.

  Greg watched the action with a weird little smile playing on his lips. "There's no hatch," he announced with a careless shrug of his shoulders.

  Great, he'd fucked up. Again.

  "I'll go check it out. Maybe you missed it," she said, stepping past him. The sooner they found and secured any unmanned escape routes the better. She was eager to get back to her position knowing they'd need her. Right now her and Greg's assigned positions were unprotected. If they didn't move their asses, their teammates would be left fighting with two less men and since they were humans fighting against vampires that was a very big deal.

  The only comfort she had was knowing that Caine was there to protect their unit. He couldn't watch everyone's back, but he could definitely even the odds. That is unless he was incapacitated with a bullet in the head or heart. Then they'd all be screwed.

  Shit.

  Just thinking about her team being left defenseless against the large nest was enough to make her antsy. She quickened her pace, wanting to get this over with only to come to an abrupt stop when she reached a tiled wall at the end of the tunnel.

  "I thought you said this was finished," she said, turning around to face the man who fucked up once again. "What the hell.....," she mumbled as the tunnel filled with light behind Greg.

  "I lied," Greg said.

  Slowly she pulled her night vision mask off and let it drop to the ground by her feet. She squinted against the bright light and quickly counted twenty men forming a group behind Greg, effectively blocking off her one and only exit.

  "What's going on?" she demanded, already knowing she'd walked into a trap. She reached down to pull out her weapon.

  "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Greg said, sounding smug. The sounds of guns cocking made her pause.

  She ran her eyes over the small crowd and wasn't too surprised to see that Greg's new friends were vampires. Although she'd liked to say she'd seen this coming, she couldn't. Greg was a ruthless bastard and an all around grade A asshole, but she'd thought he was loyal to the Sentinels and their cause.

  "Why?" she asked, hoping to buy a little time.

  Greg gestured two vampires forward. They quickly disarmed her and took away her radio before she could protest. Not that she would at the moment. She wasn't an idiot. She needed to buy time, assess the situation, and try to figure a way out of here. She also needed to get to her team before they found themselves in a similar situation.

  "It's nothing personal, Danni. I had certain requirements to meet and you," he said with a lazy hand gesture in her direction and a sigh, "were just a means to an end."

  "What the hell are you talking about?" she demanded, taking in a slow deep breath as black spots danced around her vision. Sharp pain shot through her head and down her neck nearly dropping her to her knees. She fought against the need to let the darkness take over so she could escape the pain, but she knew that if she gave in this time she might not wake up again.

  She needed to keep it together and figure a way out of this situation, or at the very least, warn her teammates.

  "You're going to help us," Greg explained.

  Danni let out a humorless laugh. "You're insane. There's no way in hell that I'm helping you."

  Greg smiled that cocky smile she hated. "Oh, but you already are. Thanks to you the Master will finally have what's rightfully his."

  "Master," Danni mumbled. She glared at the man she'd stupidly wasted one too many months on. "You're a goddamn minion," she said with open disgust.

  "Oh, I'm so much more." He looked thoughtful. "Well, I will be soon."

  It wasn't hard to figure out what he was talking about. "You're going to be turned into one of them." She shook her head in disgust.

  He shrugged, taking a step closer to her. "Why not? We both know we've been fucked over. Neither one of us should be human. Our parents are Sentinels for fuck's sake!" he shouted, losing his calm for the first time since he started this little game.

  "We should have been given their status. At the very least we should have an extended life, but God decided to fuck us over instead. It's bullshit!"

  "That's not how it works and you know it," she said, cringing as her head seemed to pound in tempo with her heartbeat.

  "We're born to His fucking guards and he makes us weak! It doesn't matter what we do or how hard we try, he doesn't care! But I'm going to fix that soon, tonight if possible."

  "Whatever the Master promised you is bullshit. You know most of them don't keep their promises to minions," she ground out between clenc
hed teeth. She had to talk some sense into him, not that it would do her much good right now. If he sided with her right now the vampires would just drain him, drop his body and her predicament would still be the same.

  Greg shook his head stubbornly, taking another step towards her until he was less than a foot from her. "He'll come for you and then the Master will make sure I get my reward."

  "Who the hell are you talking about?"

  "Caine," he spat out.

  Her brows arched in surprise as she stared at him. Surely he was kidding. After a moment she realized he was dead serious.

  This was worse than she thought, not just because she knew she was as good as dead, but this prick was doing something so monumentally stupid that by all rights she should bitch slap him for it.

  One of the Council's fears, and the main reason the Council allowed Caine to help, even though they clearly didn't trust him, was Caine falling into the hands of a Master. As a Pyte he could decimate their numbers, but that wasn't their biggest concern.

  The large army of stronger vampires he could make was. It was the reason the Council put a condition on his release. If he made even one vampire, never mind the one and only Pyte he could make, they promised they would throw him into a crate, fill it with cement and drop his ass off in the middle of the ocean where he would remain for eternity.

  For the first time in years she was actually relieved that Caine had cut her out of his life and didn't care for her anymore. It probably just saved thousands of lives.

  "He's not coming," she said evenly. "Whatever you have planned won't work, Greg. You know he hasn't spoken to me since I was a kid. This little plan of yours isn't going to work and when the Master finds out he's going to be seriously pissed off."

  Greg shook his head ruefully. "Oh, he'll come, Danni. I'll make sure of it."

  She sighed heavily. "I see. Then I should probably go ahead and get this out of the way."

  "What-" he started to ask only to be cut off when she backhanded him. He stumbled back several feet, tripping over his own feet and falling on his ass.

  "That felt good," she said with a smile, not caring one damn bit what they did to her now. As long as they didn't get their hands on Caine she could accept whatever the hell they had planned.

  He glared up at her. "You fucking bitch!" he roared, jumping to his feet and charging after her.

  She waited until the very last second to step to the side, sweep her leg out and strike out with her fist landing the blow right to his throat. He slammed into the wall behind her, choking and gasping.

  Leaning over, she promised him, "If the Master is ever stupid enough to turn you I will happily stake your ass."

  She landed a solid kick to his stomach as several strong hands grabbed her and yanked her back. Her arms were yanked behind her back and cuffed. They gagged her and shoved her to the ground. She did her damndest to cause as much pain as she could dish out, but there were too many of them and her vision was dimming as the pain in her head exploded. Just as the knife flashed in front of her she happily blacked out.

  Chapter 3

  "What the hell is going on?" one of the human males whose name Caine never bothered to learn, demanded.

  "They must have been tipped off somehow," a woman who normally jumped anytime he came within ten feet of her, said.

  Caine slowly walked the perimeter of the large room. The floor was covered in thick undisturbed dust and broken tiles. He gazed around the room looking for the exits that should have been there, but weren't. The room was a dead end and someone was fucking with them. He had a good idea who that someone was.

  "Return to the compound," Caine said, sighing. He really didn't have time for this shit, well he did, but that didn't mean he wanted to waste his night fixing whatever the little asshole fucked up. He had several bags of type AB positive waiting for him in his room and a few books he wouldn't mind reading again. They weren't exciting plans, but they were his and he'd be damned if the little shit was wrecking them.

  "We need to wait for Greg," another male said.

  "He probably fucked up again and Danni's fixing it. She'll figure it out and let us know what we have to do," another woman said.

  "She should have been put in charge of this assignment, not Greg 'the fuck up' Mitchell."

  Caine couldn't agree more, but now was not the time to discuss what should have been done differently. Wonder boy had screwed up again and this time he dragged Danni down with him.

  He should leave her here to deal with whatever problems the little bastard created. It would serve her right for getting involved with the little prick in the first place. If she had listened to him all those years ago she wouldn't be in this mess right now. But no, she let that little bastard use her and she bailed his ass out time and time again. He would have let the little bastard fall flat on his face, but not Danni. The damn mission always meant everything to her.

  As soon as he heard the little bastard had fucked up again, yeah he switched channels and eavesdropped, he should have looked into the situation. But he didn't want to get involved with either one of them and he figured that she could deal with his bullshit and fix this problem. Obviously he'd been wrong.

  "What do we do now?" a woman asked, sounding scared. Caine looked heavenward, praying for patience he damn well knew he didn't have. Why had he agreed to babysit the human unit?

  Because as soon as he heard Greg was leading this mission he knew something was going to go wrong. Even as a boy Greg seemed to have a knack for causing problems and screwing over the people who fixed them. Everyone knew he was an incompetent fuck up, but that didn't stop his parents from pulling strings for him.

  As much as Caine would like to go home and relax with a bag of blood, he knew he had to figure out what the hell went wrong here. First, he needed to find Danni and make sure the bastard wasn't going to try and blame his latest screw up on her. Then he was going to have to have yet another "word" with Greg.

  "All of you get the hell out of here and get back to the compound," he ordered, eager to go have another "talk" with the prick. When they didn't move fast enough, he snapped, "Now!"

  Thankfully that got them moving. No doubt they were going to bitch and whine to their parents once they reached the compound. Not that he cared. Actually, it might work out for him in the end. Maybe they'd start assigning some other dumb bastard babysitting duty. One could only hope.

  Pulling out his knife, just in case he ran into an ambush along the way, Caine flashed the two miles of tunnel in under a minute. He paused ten yards away from the tunnel entrance and inhaled deeply and quickly cursed up a storm.

  Fucking hell.

  They'd run into the nest. He could smell Danni and Greg's scent, more importantly their blood among the heavy, cloying, earthly scent of vampires. From his position he could see there was a dead end where Greg promised there would be an opening. Granted, neither human would have seen that with their night vision goggles until they were relatively close.

  He scented the air again. "Great," he muttered as he headed in the direction where their scents were fresher. For a moment he considered calling for backup, but then realized his backup would be the human squad playing dress up and decided against it. The last thing he needed was the added responsibility of watching over them.

  With a few exceptions humans really had no business fighting vampires, but just like human parents, Sentinel parents were known to overindulge their children. Considering these little human groups weren't allowed to go up against demons or shifters, one would think their parents would realize their children had no business fighting vampires either, but they figured with the right amount of training and of course a babysitter, that missions like this were perfectly safe.

  They weren't.

  This little fuck up should prove that. Sentinels not only trained to keep their asses out of problems like this, but they also had a natural ability on their side. They would have sensed the trap long before it sprung. A Sentinel would
have caught the subtle earthy smell vampires gave off and would have made damn sure they weren't in the position to be trapped. No amount of training could give any of these humans that advantage.

  A half mile later the scent suddenly changed direction. It didn't take Caine long to figure out that they'd gone through the small manhole. He closed his eyes and focused. Above him he could hear the sound of two heartbeats. One of them was racing and giving off a huge amount of adrenaline. The intoxicating aroma had Caine's fangs dropping. He ignored his response and focused on the second heartbeat. It was strong and steady.

  He nearly sighed with relief when he realized the second heartbeat was Danni's. Even though he knew one day she would pass away like everyone else he wasn't ready. It probably had to do with the fact that she was the only human he'd known and cared about when she was a child. Whatever it was he wasn't ready for her to be gone. That day would come and when it did he would forget about her like all the rest. Until then he owed it to that little bossy girl, who used to demand extra kisses for bruised knees to make sure it didn't come sooner than it should.