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

by R. L. Mathewson

  Not.

  He couldn't do this. What if something happened to his brothers or what if Izzy died or her baby died? It was too soon for Izzy to have her baby. Sentinel females only carried their babies for four and half months and this was a month too soon. The baby wasn't ready yet, but it was coming and he couldn't do anything for it. If his father or brother were here they'd know what to do.

  Even Kale would be better than nothing. Well, for Izzy. He knew the shifter would never hurt Izzy or her baby, but he didn't trust the man with his brothers. The man hated Pytes and that meant he would hate his little brothers, too.

  "Where's my baby girl?" Chris asked, his voice cracking and scaring him even more.

  "She's lying on the floor," Marc said, throwing a concerned look at the little girl who hadn't stopped crying since she took a tumble to the floor in Izzy's arms ten minutes ago.

  Everything had been fine. The women were smiling and talking while they walked around when suddenly Izzy began screaming and fell. Marc saw her try to protect the baby as she fell, but the baby still got hurt and Marc wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to upset his brother anymore than he was, but he was in over his head and didn't want the little girl to be hurt or die, because he kind of liked having her around and it would kill his brother if something happened to her.

  "I-I can't stop the bleeding," he said, shooting the little girl a nervous look as her cries intensified and felt his stomach drop. The cut on her forehead wouldn't stop bleeding. He'd tried everything from band aids to ice like his Great Grandma showed him, but she was still bleeding. He really wished she was here right now. He really wished Jill was here too. His sister was smart, sweet and kind and he didn't care that she made friends with that vampire and he didn't know why everyone was making a big deal about it. Jill was always kind and helpful to everyone.

  "Why is she bleeding, Marc?" Chris asked, his voice steady, but he knew his brother well enough to know that he was probably panicking.

  "Izzy was carrying her when she fell and she hit her head, Chris. I'm trying to take care of her, but mom went into labor when she tried to help and both women need help and...and....I don't know what to do!" he said, feeling close to crying, but he held it back. He was the man of the family right now and he had to take care of everyone.

  "What the hell do you mean she's bleeding?" he heard the shifter yell and had to take his ear away from the phone because it was so loud.

  "Marc, we're coming home and we'll be there as soon as we can. Just.....just make them comfortable," Chris said before hanging up and leaving him all alone.

  He took off his Yankees tee shirt, the one Chris got him last year when they went to Yankee Stadium and bundled it up before he pressed it gently against Jessica's little head. As carefully as he could, he picked her up, but she wouldn't stop crying and Izzy and his mom couldn't take care of her right now because they were both on the floor, holding their large stomachs and screaming every couple of minutes, Izzy more so than his mom.

  God, he was so scared. He didn't know what to do, but he couldn't leave them like this. He just couldn't. His eyes strayed to the grand staircase and he knew that he shouldn't do this, but he didn't have any other choice. Joshua was supposed to be a doctor. He was smart and would know how to handle this. No matter what anyone said he knew his brother loved them and was still there. He'd let Joshua go and make him promise to help and he would and this would snap him out of his shock and he'd have his brother back.

  It would work out. Everything would be okay, he told himself as he held the baby tighter against him as he walked up the stairs, careful not to go too fast and risk falling with the baby in his arms.

  "Shhh, Jessica," he said, not knowing what else to do. "Everything will be okay."

  On shaky legs he walked down the hall to the room they set up for Joshua. He shifted the crying baby in his arms and grabbed the keys to unlock the door and set Joshua free. It took a few tries, but he managed to get the door unlocked and opened it.

  Joshua sat on the edge of the double bed, looking the same as he had in the Boston Compound cell. He just sat there, not moving or saying anything, but Marc knew that he could hear everything that was going on. It was impossible to miss the sounds of a screaming infant and two women.

  "Joshua?" he said, trying not to sound too scared. "I know that you're not happy about what happened to you and I'm sorry," because it was his fault, "but I need your help. Mom and Izzy are in labor and Jessica got hurt and I don't know what to do so I'm," he took a deep breath, "I'm going to let you go and you're going to help them."

  When Joshua didn't say anything or react in any way he decided to take that as an agreement. He carefully laid Jessica on floor against the wall and removed his bloody tee shirt away from her face so that she wouldn't think that he just left her. Once that was done he gripped the key tightly in his hand and approached Joshua, looking for any sign that his brother wasn't going to help him. Joshua didn't say anything or even look at him so as fast as he could he unlocked his leg shackles and then the ones attached to his arms. When the last one hit the floor he jumped back and nervously gestured for Joshua to go help.

  "Okay, let's go," he said, trying to sound firm as he gestured again to the door.

  Slowly, Joshua looked up at him through dull blue eyes that used to light up when he smiled or laughed. A pang of grief shot through him at the loss of the man Joshua used to be. He really missed his brother, he thought as Joshua stood up without a word and headed for the door.

  "Wait!" he cried out as he ran over to the crying baby and picked her up. He rushed after his brother and knew that everything was going to be okay. Joshua was going to take care of everything, he thought with a shaky sigh as he carefully walked down the stairs.

  He opened his mouth to tell his mother and Izzy that everything would be alright when Joshua walked past the women without so much as a glance and kept going until he was ripping the large front door off its hinges and letting it fly back, not caring where it landed. Seconds later it slammed Izzy in the hip, causing her to scream out in pain, before it slammed into the wall and came to a halt.

  "Oh, no," he muttered as he watched the man that used to be his brother walk off and he knew that he'd just made everything worse.

  *******

  "Is she still bleeding?" she heard someone shout.

  "Yes!" came the answer as scents and sounds finally managed to filter through her head as she struggled to open her eyes.

  The scent of human, Sentinel and Pyte blood teased her senses as she opened her eyes and wondered if she was dreaming. For a moment she simply lay there and watched as Caine and the other Pyte male crouched down near a beautiful woman, with jet black hair and a flawless tan who was obviously pregnant and obviously in labor, scream as she gripped her stomach. She allowed her eyes to move over to the Sentinel, who only managed to kick her ass because she'd been weak at the moment, crouch by another, a much smaller, woman along with Kale Quinn, who looked ready to pull out his own hair as the small blonde beauty screamed. A much different cry caught her attention and she looked over to find a little boy, maybe twelve years old, holding a crying baby in his arms while he helplessly looked on.

  One look around told her that they were in a very large, expensive home with the front door missing.

  "I'm going to fucking kill him!" the Sentinel, was his name Chris? shouted as he looked over the blonde woman's side. She didn't have to ask to know that the woman was a Sentinel and probably his mate or that she was bleeding pretty badly.

  "It hurts!" the woman cried out and Danni had no doubt that it did. She was still very new at this, but she was pretty sure that she could smell bone marrow. Something had done a lot of damage to the pregnant woman and judging by the look on Chris' face that someone was going to die a horrific death very shortly.

  "He's dead," Kale growled out as he peered over Chris' shoulder to see the damage. His eyes flashed an intense silver as he forced a grim smile for the small wo
man and took her trembling hand into his.

  "I'm sorry....I'm so sorry," the boy choked out as he held the crying baby against him.

  Deciding that she'd lounged around for long enough, she gave her head a good shake and rolled over, surprised that nothing hurt, but then again she could taste a faint taste of blood in her mouth and knew that Caine had fed her. That was good, it meant that she had enough energy to get this situation under control.

  She got to her feet as she kept her eyes on the chaos in front of her. Honestly, people really needed to have contingency plans for this kind of thing, she thought as she stretched her back.

  "Kid?" she said, startling the little boy, but thankfully getting his attention and giving him the distraction that he needed. "Are there any beds set up yet?" she asked, already noting a lack of personal effects, which meant that they either weren't into decor or they'd just moved in.

  "Y-yes," he answered nervously, which was understandable since her shirt seemed to be covered in Caine's dried blood. Speaking of Caine, she looked over and met his worried eyes. Before she did something stupid like run over to him and throw herself into his arms and kiss him she focused her attention back on the boy who looked seconds away from crying.

  "Good, you're my assistant," she said in a firm tone. "Give me the baby and go make sure there are clean sheets on the bed and then find me a first aid kit, clean towels and some needle and thread. When he didn't make any moves to listen to her she snapped at him. "Now!"

  That got him moving. He nodded jerkily as he rushed over to her and placed the wailing child in her arms, looking relieved. As soon as the baby was out of his arms he was running to hopefully go do what she asked. She turned her attention to Caine and the other Pyte.

  "Caine, the two of you need to take her to a bed and let her get comfortable. I'll be up in a minute to check on her," she said, moving her attention to the woman sobbing softly on the ground.

  "Let's go," she heard Caine say and knew that the other Pyte was in agreement. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the two men carefully pick up the woman and in a second they had her flashed out of the room.

  "If one of you gentlemen would be so kind as to hold this beautiful girl and maybe get her a bottle I'd be more than happy to have a look at the Sentinel," she said, smiling down at the baby as she checked the little girl's wound. It was a small cut, deep, but not deep enough to need stitches, which was a good thing because she'd never stitched up someone this young before. The drying blood on the girl's scalp was a bit frightening, but she knew from experience that head wounds always looked nastier than they really were.

  "Please help her," the Sentinel said, his jaw set in a grim line as he looked down at his sobbing mate.

  "Fine," Kale said, getting to his feet, "but I'm not leaving Izzy."

  "I just need you to hold her so that I can help her," Danni said, passing the baby over to large man who took the baby and held her as if she were the most precious thing in the world.

  She walked over to the screaming woman and prepared herself for anything, but she hadn't been prepared for this. If she didn't lose her leg this woman would probably never be able to walk again. They were going to have to get her to a Sentinel doctor and soon.

  "I'm going to have to close up that wound to slow the bleeding down and I'm going to need some of your blood," she said to the Sentinel, who looked like he could use a doctor as well, but this woman came first.

  "You know what you're doing?" Chris asked as he pushed damp hair out of his mate's face.

  "Yes," she said with absolutely no hesitation. She wasn't a doctor, but she had trained as a medic so that she could go out on more patrols with the Sentinels.

  "Then save my mate and child," he said, looking very much like a man who would die without them and she didn't want to be the one to deliver the blow.

  Chapter 49

  Several days later.........

  "Don't do this, Master," Lucan ground out as his bound arms were given a vicious yank, further straining his muscles. A few feet away in the same position, Greg continued to cry even as he pissed himself.

  "G-give me another chance!" Greg pleaded as the Master walked around him.

  "I can't even begin to tell you how disappointed I am in you, Gregory. First, you screw up my plans for the Pyte and I would have probably been able to forgive that if you weren't such a lousy fuck," the Master said, chuckling as several minions and vampires joined in.

  Greg opened his mouth, probably to promise to blow the Master, but the Master being the Master had already grown bored with the male. After his men found the human trying to sneak back into town they grabbed him and brought him here where the Master did things that turned even Lucan's stomach. He'd been about to walk out of the room when the human spilled the news that the Pyte was now in the hands of the Sentinels once again and the Master turned his fury on Lucan.

  Lucan forced himself to watch as the Master reached out and gripped the human's jaw and with a powerful yank, snapping the human's neck, killing him almost instantly. When the lifeless body slumped sideways the Master kicked him out of the way and with a heartfelt sigh walked over to where more than a dozen vampires held Lucan down on his knees.

  "It looks like my dog is finally out of tricks," the Master mused as he stopped in front of him.

  Lucan trembled with his own rage as he forced himself to remain kneeling. He would not dishonor his mother's memory by striking out against his Master, but the moment he earned his freedom he would kill the crazed vampire before him who'd relished in allowing each of his men to take turns torturing him.

  They whipped him, stabbed him, threw holy water on his back to make sure that his back healed slowly, broke his hands and feet only to force blood down his throat so that he would heal and they could do it all over again only the next time around they made damn sure that they got more creative. His hands and feet were smashed with a sledgehammer, his back whipped with a whip dipped in holy water until he could barely hold back his screams, his throat slit, and he'd been stabbed over a hundred times, each stab carefully placed so that his heart was left undamaged, but this time they hadn't given him any blood to sustain him. This time they were preparing him for the agonizing death that the Master would deliver.

  "It's like déjà vu, isn't it, dog?" the Master asked with a smile as he looked down at Lucan and he couldn't help but dart his eyes away. Even when he knew death was imminent he couldn't force himself to break the habit.

  "I can't say that I regret saving you all those years ago since you've been quite useful to me, but I guess that usefulness has come to an end."

  "My freedom?" Lucan asked, keeping his eyes locked on the floor as he ground his broken jaw until he thought it would snap again.

  "Is it important to you?" the Master asked in a taunting voice.

  He didn't answer. He would not beg for the freedom he earned. He'd served his Master well in this life and in the last and he would have it before he took his last breath.

  "That's what I thought," the Master said, sounding amused as he turned to walk away. "Have fun, boys."

  ********

  The Williams' mansion

  "They're here," Ephraim said quietly as he cradled the sleeping baby boy in his arms.

  Caine nodded once as he watched the long line of cars, vans and SUVs drive up the long driveway. "Hopefully they can fix Izzy's leg," he said just as softly as his heart sped up with fear.

  Three days was a long time to wait for the sentence that he knew was coming. Facing eternity trapped at the bottom ocean was nothing compared to an eternity without Danni. He loved her more than anything and would happily take this punishment if it meant that she was going to be taken care of.

  "I know you said that you wouldn't, but if you decided to-"

  "I'm not going to run," Caine said, cutting the other Pyte off while he watched the cars turn off to park on the side of the driveway. "If I run, Danni will follow me and she's too sick to make it on her own righ
t now. I don't know why the cancer won't die out, but maybe they can figure it out and give her the life that she deserves."

  He moved to step away from the window and the man that he envied, a man who could freely hold his mate and cherish her whenever he pleased, only to pause. "While I'm gone will you-"

  "I'll watch over her as if she were my own," Ephraim promised.

  "I'm going to go say goodbye," he said, heading for the double parlor doors.

  "Last time I looked she was still trying to beat the hell out of my son," Ephraim said on a light chuckle that made him smile.

  Danni was a stubborn woman and he was probably going to miss that about her most. She hadn't take her loss to the Sentinel male well and for the last couple of days she'd been doing her damndest to kick Chris' ass, but so far there was no clear winner. Chris seemed to welcome their matches. He was stressed out over his mate's condition and when he wasn't fawning over her or taking care of his children he was looking to take his anger out on someone. He'd sparred with the Sentinel twice already and he had to admit that the man's fighting skills were very impressive.