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

by R. L. Mathewson

  He wouldn't......

  He did!

  With a chuckle he yanked her sheet away and flashed away from her just as the sounds of engines running reached her ears. She looked over her shoulder and was a little surprised when she didn't see any sign of them. Then she remembered her damn Pyte abilities, the ones that she couldn't quite control yet. Seconds later the sounds of the engines became painfully loud, but she couldn't see any cars yet.

  "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," she mumbled in a rush as she cupped her ears, hoping that would block out the sounds, but it only managed to get worse by the second.

  She heard Caine mutter, "Fucking hell," somewhere close by and could have happily kicked him in the balls when the words shot through her head with the power of a sledgehammer and dropped her to her knees.

  "Looks like you need to eat," she guessed he said softly, but it sounded like he was screaming it in her ear.

  "Stop yelling!" she snapped and then of course immediately cringed into herself. "I just ate a bag of blood a little while ago," she reminded him with a whisper since she really didn't want to experience that little culinary feat again for a while.

  "Are you hungry, Danni?" he asked with another damn shout as he picked her up in his arms.

  Instead of answering him or even looking at him since her damn eyes were starting to hurt from the light, she settled for nodding her head. She was a little hungry, but she wasn't ravenous like yesterday.

  "Are you close, Danni?" he asked and thankfully she didn't need any clarification to figure out what he meant.

  She shook her head, because this didn't feel anything like when she was about to lose control and go into bloodlust. This felt like when she first woke up after the change, but magnified by a hundred with the added bonus of the pain she used to suffer from, thanks to the cancer. She turned to bury her face against his chest to block out the sounds of the engines, their breathing, the wind and damn near everything. Every sound intensified and fought for her attention and the sunlight felt like a bright light, burning her eyes even with her lids closed. Seconds later, her sense of smell decided to join the party.

  Her stomach rumbled violently as his scent was practically shoved down her throat. Unfortunately for her, or rather fortunately for him, the scent of the dirt, grass, trees, smoke, oil and about a hundred different scents made themselves known. The combination quickly took care of any hunger she might have felt a minute ago and decided to make a contribution of its own to her headache.

  "Alright, looks like it's another bag of delicious cold blood for you," he screamed, well, he probably didn't scream it, but it sure as hell felt like he did.

  This sucked, she thought just before the sounds of car doors opening and slamming shut sent her into oblivion.

  Chapter 37

  Boston Compound

  "Dad, calm down!" she pleaded as he moved past her with another armful of her clothes and shoved them into one of the bags he'd thrown onto her bed.

  "There's nothing to calm down about, Jill. You're going home to your grandmother," Ephraim said as he stormed past her to grab the rest of her clothes.

  "You're being ridiculous, Dad. Madison will be having the babies soon and not too long after that Izzy's going to have her baby. Sending me home when everyone finally is about to need me is pointless," she said as she walked past her father and grabbed a disheveled pile of shirts to return them to the bureau.

  She wasn't about to be sent home, not now, not after being forced to stay here every single day for the last several months. She'd given up her job, her apartment, her life to be there for her family and she wasn't about to have all that be for nothing. She was staying and seeing this out. She was not about to let one moment of stupidity wreck that.

  "What the hell were you thinking, Jill?" her father suddenly roared as he kicked the bottom of the large solid bed frame, sending it flying across the room and slamming it into the wall with a sickening crack followed by the sound of glass shattering. She didn't need to look to know that the bed was probably embedded in the wall.

  She looked up at her father to meet his red eyed glare and immediately wished that she hadn't. She cringed when she saw the expression on his face, the one that used to make her feel worthless. Dissapointment. Her father was disappointed in her and she couldn't blame him, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

  "I thought you were smarter than this, Jill," he said, rubbing his hands down his face.

  "I am, Dad. If you'd just let me explain-"

  "Explain?" he cut her off with a pained chuckle. "I would love to hear how my daughter came to let a fucking leech feed off of her and mark her as his fucking property!" he snapped, his red eyes glowing more intensely with each word.

  "I'm not his property," she hastily explained, hoping to calm him enough so that they could sit down and discuss this.

  Once she explained the situation, her father would understand and realize that this whole thing was just a simple misunderstanding. Maybe she shouldn't have given Logan her blood, or at the very least maybe she should have taken some out of the infirmary, but she didn't want to risk getting caught and getting banned from the lockup unit.

  She'd miss the friendship she'd built with Logan, but most of all, she'd miss seeing Joshua. He was the reason why she was still here and if they took away her daily and nightly visits to him then she would truly be useless and she wouldn't be able to handle that.

  "You know what it means when you let a vampire feed from you, Jill," her father said, focusing his attention back on packing her things. He grabbed the clothes away from her and tossed them onto the bureau.

  "I'm not his, Dad. If you would just-"

  "I'm done listening, Jill. I'm taking you home to your grandmother tonight," he said before adding quietly, "I really thought you were past all this."

  "What are you talking about?" she demanded as she stepped in front of him, cutting him off as he moved towards the bathroom to get the rest of her things.

  "I'm talking about all this bullshit Candy shoved down your throat, but apparently I was wrong," he said, shaking his head in disgust as he moved past her.

  She reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him. "I'm nothing like her," she said firmly.

  She wasn't.

  Over the past ten years she'd worked hard to make sure that every last ounce of her biological mother's influence was gone. She worked her butt off, she put her family first, was responsible, didn't drink, and wasn't a slut. In fact, she hadn't slept with a man since that horrible night when she was fifteen. Now she understood that she was too stupid and immature to know any better. That was a mistake that she never planned on making again.

  She was nothing like Candy. Candy only lived for herself and that definitely wasn't Jill. She always put everyone else's needs and wants ahead of her own and she bent over backwards to help anyone who asked, which is exactly how she got herself into this little mess. It was one of the tiny little problems she was trying to work on.

  She was a sucker for a sob story.

  Everyone who worked or lived at the Corner Street shelter would agree wholeheartedly to that. She'd lost count of how many times she gave people chances that really didn't deserve one. It was the reason why she was written up at work at least four times a month when she worked at the shelter. It certainly didn't help that she was quick to forgive.

  Thanks to her father, Madison, Grandma and especially Chris she was given a second chance at life and she felt like a hypocrite not giving someone else a chance. That didn't mean that she was a complete pushover no matter what anyone thought. She believed in giving second chances, but she never gave out third chances. Once someone burned a bridge with her that was it, she was done.

  So far, Logan hadn't hurt her or let her down and when she found out that he was suffering she couldn't just sit by and let it continue. He made it easier to handle this situation and she couldn't just sit by while he was in pain. It probably wasn't the wisest decision that she'd ever made, but she m
ade sure that he understood that she was only helping him and that she wasn't signing on to serve him.

  "Then how do you explain giving yourself to a vampire?" he asked softly, looking down at her with open pity before pulling his arm away and once again moving towards the bathroom. "Get ready. We're leaving in ten minutes."

  "Dad,-"

  "Change of plans," Chris announced as he strolled into her room, carrying Izzy, who was noticeably fuming, and Kale hot on his heels and looking close to committing murder.

  "You're not going," Kale gritted out.

  "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, cupcake," Chris drawled lazily even as he ran an assessing eye over Jill to make sure that she was okay. Once he was satisfied that their father hadn't made her cry he let her know with a frown that they'd be having a talk later, probably a very loud talk.

  "Chris," Izzy said with a put out sigh, "put me down. I can walk."

  "It took me an hour to lure you off that bastard's lap with a candy bar. I'm not about to go through that bullshit again," Chris snapped at his mate, somewhat surprising Jill since her brother normally went out of his way to keep his cool around his mate.

  "It doesn't count!" Izzy snapped, pointing an accusing finger at Kale. "He took it!"

  "You took my cake, woman!" Kale snapped back, which wasn't at all surprising since the two sugar addicts were constantly coming to blows over something.

  "And I'll do it again, you bully!"

  Chris rolled his eyes in exasperation as he made his way over to the desk and pulled the chair out with his foot and sat down, quickly rearranging Izzy on his lap so that she could lay her head against his shoulder while he laid a possessive hand on her large stomach.

  Jill couldn't help but smile at the sight. For a while there, she thought her brother was going to doom himself to a life of misery by sending his mate away, but thankfully Izzy convinced him that she was worth the risk. She was happy for him and for Izzy. She was especially happy with her little niece, Jessica. She loved that little girl as if she were her own.

  When Chris wasn't carrying Jessica around she was with Izzy and if for some reason Izzy couldn't watch her, then her father and Madison, Eric and even Kale watched her. Jill would have loved to have at least filled in as the baby's nanny while she was here. It would have made sense since she had no other duties and really hated not having anything to do, but it seemed that she wasn't the only one who fell in love with the little girl.

  Sometimes she felt like she had to take a number just to spend any time with her adorable niece. Of course, it made the time she did have with her niece more precious. It didn't really matter because one day she planned on having a houseful of children that she could love and cherish.

  She would make sure that her children always knew how much she loved them. She would do her best to be like Madison, who had done whatever it took to raise them and always let them know how much they meant to her even when Jill acted like a spoiled little brat. One day she'd find a good man and settle down and she'd make sure to cherish every minute of it.

  "Don't worry about packing her up, Dad," Chris said, drawing her attention and gaining her undying gratitude. At least she could count on her brother to see reason, because sending her away would be-

  "I have four Sentinels waiting by the elevator to escort her home. She still has some things at the old house, so there's no need to pack her things just yet," Chris said, leveling a glare on her that dared her to argue and if she was anyone else other than his sister that look would actually frighten her.

  "That's not your decision to make, Chris," she said firmly. If he thought that he was going to boss her around and intimidate her like he did everyone else then he had another thing coming.

  "Chris,-" Izzy started on a sigh only to get cut off by the man Jill fully planned on having a word of her own with when they no longer had an audience. She no longer did the drama nonsense, not like when she was a kid. Now she kept her cool and her tone soft and friendly as she told him to go to hell.

  "I'm not arguing this about this, Munchkin, so save your energy to give me a proper goodbye in about an hour," he said, pressing a kiss against Izzy's temple as she openly glared at her mate.

  Jill wasn't exactly surprised when Izzy didn't listen to her mate. "She's not going," Izzy said stubbornly as she struggled to get off Chris' lap.

  "Yes, she is," Chris said, trying to bite back a smile as Izzy continued to struggle to get off his lap, but her large breasts and equally large stomach prevented her from doing very much other than cause her to get good and mad as she kept dropping back on his lap every time she made even slightest bit of progress. Even Jill had to admit that it was kind of amusing to watch the woman shoot her mate a murderous glare as tried to rock hard enough to give her the momentum to jump off his lap.

  "Help me get up so that I can kick your ass, Chris!" Izzy snapped.

  "Yeah, let me get right on that," Chris mused as he pulled his mate closer to him and made it impossible for her to do much more than pout.

  "Just so you know, I'm kicking your ass the first chance that I get," Izzy muttered as she tried to fold her arms over her chest, but her large breasts and stomach got in the way.

  "I'm quaking with fear, my little Munchkin," Chris said against the top of her head as he kissed her.

  ”Look, I know everyone's mad and I understand why," Jill said, deciding that this might be the best moment to get a word in before her brother or father started yelling.

  Her father opened his mouth, but it was the shifter that spoke. "You don't know who you're dealing with, little girl," Kale said, surprising her since the man had barely acknowledged her existence since they met months earlier.

  "I'm not dealing with anything," she said, shooting her father a pleading look. "If you'd just let me explain you'll see that this is just a misunderstanding," she said, using the same calm tone she used to use when she counseled clients down at the shelter.

  "You're going home, Jill. End of story," Ephraim said firmly and she knew that her only hope was getting to Madison and talking this over with her. Madison would help her. Madison was-

  Madison was going to kill her, Jill decided exactly ten seconds later when she watched the very pregnant woman come storming into the room, Madison's eyes lit up in a fiery red as she went right for Jill, her little brother running behind her as he tried to catch up with his mother.

  "Tell me that your brother was wrong," Madison said as she waddled over to her.

  "Madison, I-"

  "You're going home to your grandmother," Madison said and Jill would have argued except for one thing.

  She used the tone that Jill hadn't heard in years, not since she was a fifteen year old drama queen screwing up her life and disappointing everyone around her. It felt like a physical blow, knowing just how easily her family readily saw her as the same old screw-up.

  Maybe they never truly saw her as anything more than a screw-up and all these years they'd just been waiting for her to mess up. All her hard work to change herself and to grow into a better person was for nothing. The first time she screwed up in years and her family was ready to write her off.

  Maybe it was for the best if she left and gave them time to cool off. She could go back to her old life where she felt useful and didn't need to depend on a vampire to feel needed.

  It was time to go home, she thought as she simply nodded and walked out of the room, ignoring her father and brothers as they asked her to come back. There was nothing to talk about as far as she was concerned. She walked down the large hallway, taking several deep breaths and resisting the urge to give into the tears and feel sorry for herself. No matter what they thought, she wasn't that girl anymore and never would be again.

  Chapter 38

  "What the hell is wrong with her?" Jax whispered as he stuffed another white powered donut in his mouth.

  "If I knew-" Caine began tightly only to be reminded when his mate let out a pained cry to lower his damn voice or risk he
r scaring the hell out of him again by passing out. Since it was something he'd rather not experience any time soon he dropped his voice down to a whisper. "If I knew what the hell was wrong with her I wouldn't have asked for your help, asshole!" he softly hissed out.

  "Good point," Jax whispered with a nod as he shoved another donut in his mouth.

  A whimper drew their attention back to the naked woman currently curled up in the fetal position with a pillow pulled down on her head. Since she hadn't been able to do much more than whimper and groan since she gained consciousness, he assumed the pillow was meant to block out all the sounds and probably the light as well. He couldn't figure out why she was reverting back to the point when she woke up after he changed her. Her senses should be somewhat under control by now. They shouldn't be bothering her and they sure as hell shouldn't have been so bad that they caused her to pass out.