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

by R. L. Mathewson

  "Look, I understand that you're upset, but there's nothing I can do for her. I'm very sorry for you loss, but....but.....what the hell?"

  "You'll be even sorrier if you don't move your ass," Caine said, allowing his eyes to burn and his fangs to slide down as Jax shot the doctor a fanged, yet pleasant, smile.

  *********

  "Danni, it's time to wake up."

  She ignored Caine's soothing tone as she struggled to continue with the most restful sleep she'd ever known. There was no pain, no sorrow and nothing to fear here. There was only peace and she wasn't about to let it go so easily.

  "Wake up, baby," Caine said a little more firmly this time as she tried to turn away from him and return to her peace only to discover that dull throbbing pain was chasing away her peace until the beautiful peace was nothing but a distant memory and it took everything not to scream.

  What the hell was going on? she wondered as she curled up onto her side in an attempt to hide from the pain.

  "It's okay, baby. I've got you," Caine said as she suddenly found herself scooped up and placed onto his lap. She greedily took the comfort he offered by burying her face against his neck and grabbing onto his biceps and holding on for all she was worth.

  "It hurts," she mumbled pathetically against his warm skin as her mind registered something in her arms. She turned her head to look only to wince and bury her face right back where it belonged when the bright light burned her eyes.

  "Shhhh, I know, baby, but we're making it better," he said soothingly as the scent of shifter, Jax by the scent of him, and human teased her nose. She inhaled a little more deeply to try and sort through the rest of the scents and immediately regretted it as more pain shot through her head.

  "Just relax," an unfamiliar masculine voice that reminded her of warm honey said softly as something cold and gooey was pressed against her back, making her squirm and register the fact that she was completely naked in a room with three men. That concern was quickly forgotten by the stranger's next words. "The cancer is still wrapped around her spine."

  Cancer?

  The cancer was gone, long gone, or at least it should be. Caine turned her into a Pyte. His blood should have fixed all the damage and made it so that she would never die so why the hell was this man saying that she had cancer?

  "Give her more of your blood, you cheap bastard!" Caine snapped.

  "I am!" Jax snapped back, voice sounding a little slurred. "I'm trying to make it as fast as I can."

  "Eat faster!" Caine hissed, probably realizing that she'd probably black out if he yelled right about now.

  "I think we should add human blood to the mix," the human said, sounding intrigued when he probably should be nervous right about now since it was more than obvious that the man knew that they were not human judging by the way he said "human blood."

  What was going on and where in the world were they? she wondered as she risked scenting the air and immediately stopped when sharp pain stabbed behind her eyes.

  "Just relax, baby," Caine said seconds before she felt him shift and heard him swallowing something. She didn't need to look to know it was blood. Was he giving her blood, too? She moved her arms and yup, she definitely felt IVs in her arms.

  "What's the quickest way to get this in her system?" the man asked.

  "Probably a feeding tube," Jax said with an unmistakable slur to his voice this time.

  "No," she said weakly, cringing into herself as pain exploded in her head. She didn't want a feeding tube down her throat and there was no way that she was going to allow them to-

  In seconds she found herself on her back and two pairs of hands holding her down as her mouth was pried open and a slick tube was placed in her mouth. She tried to fight back, but she couldn't. She could barely move. Why was she so weak?

  "Swallow," the honey rich voice said and when someone pinched her nose shut she was left with very little choice in the matter. While it was guided down her throat she squeezed her eyes shut tighter as she tried to block out the bright light that permeated past her lids.

  "I'm sorry, baby," Caine whispered as he released her arm and covered her eyes with his hand, blocking out the light for her. When she felt cold blood settle in her stomach seconds later it was joined by a wave of exhaustion.

  "Just sleep, baby. When you wake up this will all be over," Caine promised and for the first time in years she gave her trust over to another person.

  Chapter 41

  "What is she?" the doctor asked, again.

  Caine ignored his question and asked one of his own. "Is the cancer gone yet?" They'd been locked up in the room for five hours trying to feed Danni, stretch out their blood with human blood, and telling the fucking cops who wouldn't take a hint to get lost.

  Before the man could answer, the pounding at the door started up again. "Dr. Philips, this is the police! Open up!"

  Instead of yelling for help, the man shot a glare at the door. "I already told you that I'm with a patient!" he snapped, not sounding too happy with the interruption.

  "Check quickly, doc," Jax said as he snapped the lock off the large bay window, that was probably meant to keep the room sunny to distract the blood donors from thinking about the needle shoved in their arms, and slid it open.

  With a frown the man did as he was asked. Caine scented the air and nearly groaned. There were about fifteen men on the other side of that door and they needed to get out of here before things got any worse.

  "The tissue appears to be gone," the doctor said as he gently moved the handheld device down between Danni's breasts, leaving a trail of gel behind. "It's amazing," the man said and the only reason Caine didn't rip his throat out then and there was because he knew the man was talking about Danni's recovery and not her breasts.

  "Thanks for your help, Doc," he said, tossing the red cooler filled with bagged blood to Jax.

  "Meet you outside," Jax said, shifting the cooler in his arms as he stepped up onto the windowsill.

  "What the hell are you doing?" the doctor demanded, moving to stop Jax. "We're three floors up."

  With a chuckle, Jax jumped.

  Since the man hadn't pissed him off he decided to let him live. "Come on, beautiful," he said softly as he wrapped a thick hospital blanket around his beautiful mate and picked her up.

  "Where the hell is he?" the doctor asked as he peered out the window.

  "Gone," Caine said as he hopped up onto the windowsill.

  "Stop!" the doctor yelled, reaching out to stop him, but Caine was already moving to jump and the men outside the door were done waiting. Before he reached the ground he heard the door slam open and the men run into the room.

  He hit the small patch of grass, running and didn't stop until he spotted Jax's navy blue SUV. He'd barely managed to jump in the backseat before Jax hit the gas.

  "You're going to have to hide out with us for a little while," Jax said as the sounds of sirens drew closer.

  As much as he would love to have a little help nursing Danni back to health he couldn't do that to Jax or his pack. They'd helped him with his mate and were now relocating because of them. They'd done enough.

  "Just get me to a motel and lend me some money and I'll owe you one," he said as he looked down at Danni just as she curled into him and let out a little content sigh.

  "Don't be stupid, Caine. You're going to need help."

  He opened his mouth to argue, but Jax cut him off. "She's weak, really fucking weak and from what you've told me you've got a shitload of trouble coming your way. My pack will be able to change tonight and tomorrow we're going to figure out what to do. We can guard her and while I'm regaining my strength you can help protect my pack," Jax said, knowing just what to say to make him fold.

  Jax was weakened thanks to them and until he got a little rest and had a chance to shift he wouldn't be able to protect his pack if they'd led trouble to Jax's doorstep. He also liked the idea of having extra help to protect Danni.

  "In the morning you c
an feed off my pack and regain your strength and get Danni back to normal," Jax added, sealing the deal.

  "Fine. Two days should be more than enough," he agreed as he gently picked up Danni's hand and brought her finger to his mouth. He gently pricked the finger with the tip of his fang before swiping the drop that formed up with his tongue. When the flavor hit him he nearly gagged.

  "Still there?"

  "Yeah, but not as strong," he said, pressing a kiss to the tip of Danni's rapidly healing finger in apology for causing it harm before he placed her hand back beneath the blanket.

  "I guess we're going to have to help her along," Jax said with a resigned sigh.

  "It's going to take all night and a hell of a lot of blood to wash this out of her system."

  "Sounds like fun," Jax said with a groan.

  He doubted that anything they did in the next twenty-four hours was going to be fun, but at least he'd have his mate back.

  ********

  Ten more minutes and she'd get up, she thought sleepily as she rolled over on the rather firm mattress. Not even a minute later she was fully awake, throwing the covers off of her and making a mad dash for what appeared to be a tent opening.

  Thankfully it wasn't zipped closed because at that moment precious seconds counted. She stumbled out of the tent, catching her knee in the oversized tee shirt someone dressed her in and nearly landed face first in the mud as the scents of sex and shifter hit her hard. A quick look around to take in her surroundings had her frowning and then nearly gasping as the urge to find a bathroom tripled.

  Why the hell did she feel like she was about to burst? she wondered as she stumbled through the camp, trying to avert her eyes away from the naked shifters making out or worse as she tried to get her ass to the cover of the nearby trees before she embarrassed herself. An erotic moan and a familiar scent had her head whipping to the left and locking on the couple across the small opening.

  What she saw had her seeing red, literally.

  A naked woman writhed in Caine's arms as he held her from behind. Danni watched in disbelief as the woman licked her lips and grinded her bottom back against Caine as she ran her hands over her breasts and between her legs. The scent of the woman's arousal was so thick that she nearly choked on it.

  That son of-

  Tree, she definitely needed to find a tree and soon. Then she was so out of here.

  What. An. Ass, she thought as she abruptly turned and switched directions so that she could storm off in the other direction. She quickly found a tree to hide behind and relieved her bladder. Once that was done she continued moving her ass as she put as much space between her and the asshole as she possibly could.

  She actually thought that she meant something to him. It was a moment of stupidity on her part. If he didn't care about her then that was fine with her, she decided as she carefully scented the air, making sure that there weren't any humans around since she really didn't feel like having a repeat of the other day. When she didn't smell anything other than dirt, grass, trees and the lingering scents of animals and shifters she decided to keep moving her ass.

  Caine could go fuck him-

  His deep chuckle of amusement as she let out another one of those embarrassing squeals simply pissed her off as he threw her over his shoulder and kept on going.

  "A bath sounds like a great idea, Danni," he said, sounding amused and happy.

  She rolled her eyes as she slapped her hands on his jean encased ass and moved to get off his shoulder and get a face full of dirt when he slapped her ass, shocking the hell out of her and making her squirm in a not so unpleasant way, which she promptly ignored.

  "Behave," he warned on a growl as he rubbed her ass.

  The scent of the woman's arousal and several other's registered in her mind and if she hadn't already decided that enough was enough that would have done it for her. She was leaving, but first she was going to finally have it out with Caine. Once that was done she was out of here and she was never looking back. If they crossed paths somewhere down the line he'd better move his ass out of her way or she was going to-

  "I love the way you squeal," he said, chuckling as he moved her until the lower half of her body was completely submerged in the surprisingly warm water.

  "It's a hot spring," Caine explained as if she asked or cared as he settled her on a smooth flat rock in the water and stood up.

  She moved to climb out only to stop short when he sent her a glare of warning. With a glare of her own she crossed her arms over her chest as she watched with disinterest as he pulled off his soaked blue jeans and tossed them off to the side next to a large duffle bag that he must have been carrying and decided to toss before he scared the hell out of her.

  "Take off your shirt," he said casually as he reached for the bag and pulled out a bottle of shampoo, conditioner and body wash. He placed them on the grassy edge of the small pool as he watched her expectantly.

  "The shirt, lose it," he said, picking up the bottle of shampoo and squeezing a descent amount into his palm.

  "Go to hell," she snapped, having had more than enough of this nonsense and moved to climb out of the warm water that actually felt incredible on her skin only to come to a sudden halt as Caine ripped the shirt clean from her body.

  "I've already been there, thanks," he said as he gently grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. Before she could ask what he was talking about he dunked her, he actually dunked her.

  She came out of the water sputtering about a hundred things she was going to do to his balls, but he simply ignored her as he planted her ass right back on the rock and began to massage shampoo into her hair. Neither one of them spoke for several minutes as he continued to lather her hair. Honestly, she was afraid that if she opened her mouth that she'd say something that she'd regret.

  Not that she actually cared whether or not she hurt his feelings or said something that she couldn't take back, she didn't. She just didn't want to let him know how much she cared about him or how much it hurt to see another woman in his arms. Instead, she'd just settle for kicking him in the balls the first chance she had.

  "Rinse," he said and she was smart enough to do it herself, since she knew damn well that he'd have no problems with doing it for her.

  When she was done, he started working the conditioner through her hair, taking his time to massage her head and if she wasn't so pissed at him she'd probably be in heaven right now. The man had incredible hands after all and if she didn't currently hate him she'd probably be begging for his hands to move elsewhere.

  "Leave it in," he ordered as he stepped back and dunked himself. Before she could do something like hold him under he was back up and reaching for the shampoo.

  With a bored sigh she sat back and looked around the rather pretty glen that under normal circumstances she would probably find extremely romantic. There were wild flowers surrounding them, a babbling brook somewhere close by and beautiful oak trees enclosing the area. It was really was quite beautiful, she thought with a sigh.

  "I found it yesterday while I was patrolling the area," Caine said, cutting into her thoughts and drawing her attention to the fact that the man was practically scouring his skin off.

  "What the hell are you doing?" she demanded as he continued to scrub every inch of his skin raw.

  "Trying to get that woman's scent off of me," he said, surprising her.

  Well, at least he wasn't going to pretend that he hadn't been holding another woman in his arms not even thirty minutes ago. It earned him a few points, but not enough for her to ever give him another chance.

  "If it bothers you so much then maybe you shouldn't have touched her," she said in an offhand tone when all she really wanted to do was scream at the jerk for breaking her heart, because that's exactly what he did she realized with a start.

  She was in love with Caine.

  But he didn't love her, or apparently care enough about her to wait until she was out of the picture to screw another woman. That was just
great. Thanks to him she'd be nursing a broken heart for eternity. Well, that really sucked.

  "Didn't have much of a choice, baby. I had to overfeed so that my blood was strong enough to make you better," he said, confusing her.

  "What are you talking about?" she asked, reaching out and covering his hand with hers to stop him from scouring his skin raw. With a sigh he stopped and even allowed her to push his hands away.

  She grabbed the bottle of body wash to have something to do while she thought over what he said. The last day or two was kind of fuzzy. Had she been hurt? Which of course made her wonder if Greg and his Master managed to catch up to them.

  "What do you remember?" Caine asked, cupping her face in his large warm hands.