PS03 - Tall, Dark & Heartless (21 page)

reminded her of her birth mother, Candy. She never wanted to be like that woman and this situation came damn close.

While Candy would have been more than happy with other people taking care of her and supporting her, Jill was not. She

liked to earn her own money. It was the reason why she turned down her father's offer of a trust fund. She wasn't useless and

refused to let anyone think that she was.

There was a time when it wouldn't have bothered her to have someone else take care of her, but after Ephraim came into

her life, things changed. He treated her with respect, didn't hesitate to tell her when she was being foolish, but most of all he

was the kind of man that she wanted for herself one day. She wanted a man to love and respect her. She knew the only way that

would happen is if she respected and loved herself and that would never happen if she led a pointless life.

"Shhhh, Angel, don't cry," Logan said soothingly. Until then she hadn't realized that she was. This was humiliating. She

was strong, independent and didn't give into drama or any nonsense anymore. She certainly never felt sorry for herself, but it

looked like she was doing just that.

"I'm sorry," she said, clearing her throat awkwardly. "I should go."

He shook his head. "No, you should stay," he said as he gently pulled her face closer until he could brush his lips over

hers through the bars, startling her.

"Stay," he whispered against her lips.

"I can't," she said, but made no move to leave.

"Stay with me, Angel," he said, brushing his thumb over her bottom lip and God help her but she couldn't say no. As much

as she wanted to, she couldn't. She needed him almost desperately.

"Okay," she said with a small nod as she allowed him to kiss her again.

Chapter 17

"How much do you want me to give them, sir?" Jonathan, a vampire who'd been a doctor when he was human, asked.

"As much as you can give them without killing them," Lucan said, not bothering to look up from his computer screen, but

he didn't need to look up to know that the five "volunteers" for this little project noticeably relaxed. He could smell the stench

of fear in the room weakening with every passing second.

"It needs to stay in their system for at least ten minutes to make sure that it hits their bloodstream," Jonathan explained.

"Leave it in for twenty minutes before drawing their blood," Lucan said, not bothering to watch as Jonathan injected each

minion with a large dose of the aphrodisiac.

As the drug did its work he double checked the Master's holdings and looked into what the other Masters' activities were.

Several months back all the Masters grudgingly agreed to form an alliance, all in the hopes of bringing down the Sentinels,

shifters and everyone else that got in their way. While the Master had been giddy at the prospect of going to war and finally

ridding the world of the Sentinels, Lucan had been against the entire thing.

An alliance done right could have been beneficial for everyone, but that's not what the others had in mind, especially not

his Master. His was one of the weakest and for many reasons. He had no shifters under his control. He only had a small army

of vampires that Lucan had to keep in line, but they feared the Master because he was prone to emotional outbursts. His Master

also had an annoying habit of thinking with his cock and focused too much of his attention on the minions under his control for

sex, for everything else the Master simply ignored them.

This situation with the Pyte was one of those times when Lucan was forced to step in before the Master got in over his

head and with the minion in charge it was definitely headed that way. For any other Master, Lucan would have commended him

on acquiring a Pyte. It was a smart move that would not only guarantee the Master's ability to keep his territory protected, but it

would also allow them to rid his territory of any unwanted shifters and demons. If he did it right, the Master would also be able

to shove the Sentinels out of the area as well, but he knew his Master would fuck that up.

The man was too violent and out of control, which was why Lucan kept his mouth shut and didn't complain when the

Master would leave their small compound without a word, leaving everything on Lucan's shoulders. Truthfully there wasn't

much to do except guard the Master's favorite minions.

Their territory was small compared to most. When Lucan first came into this life, their territory had rivaled some of the

most powerful Masters at the time, but years of neglect and focusing too much attention on other things had cost them. If it

hadn't been for Lucan's watchful eye they would have nothing and his Master would have probably ceased to exist long ago.

With a Pyte, that could all change. They could take back their territory and expand into the areas the shifters and demons

used as their playground. It would also make anyone think twice about going against his Master and
that
would make all of this

bullshit worth it. Four centuries of babysitting a Master who was prone to kill or torture anyone and everyone over the smallest

slight had taken its toll on him. He would love to ensure that his Master was safe and to do that, he had to ensure that this plan

worked. He needed this plan to work.

"No fucking," he said on an exasperated sigh when he heard the men begin to moan. He needed the aphrodisiac to remain

undetected and if the men found release, their blood would be tainted by the increase in hormones and this plan would fail and

he couldn't allow that.

*********

get control fast enough to hide what she was. So, that meant bagged blood was out, at least for now.

As soon as her strength was up, they were going to make their move. Once the chain was off he would be useless for a

good five to ten minutes, shorter if he did it with a stomach full of blood and had some extra blood on the side. Then again if

she took too much from him and they cut his supply short it would take a hell of a lot longer to re-grow his foot and they'd be

fucked because there was no way the vampires outside their door would miss the scent of blood. He would have removed his

chain sooner, but there had barely been enough blood as it was for Danni's transformation.

"I'm not hungry," she bit out through clenched teeth as she rubbed her hands roughly down her face as she paced right in

front of the door.

"You need to feed," he said, getting to his feet and walking towards the clearly agitated woman. It wasn't too difficult to

figure out what had the woman on edge. She was a fresh turn who needed blood, more frequently and for the last....well, he

didn't know how long it had been, but he was willing to guess it had been at least twenty hours since she fed from him. She

refused to take any blood from him when she clearly needed it.

He caught the scent of human males and knew by the way Danni licked her lips that she smelled them too. It shouldn't

bother him that she was responding to other men, but it did. He didn't like the idea of her holding onto another man as she drank

from him while the bastard touched her. No, it wouldn't do for her to feed from another male.

She'd only feed from him and only while they were stuck in this hell, but once they got out of here he was going to have to

take her somewhere well away from everything and everyone and make damn sure that the stubborn woman could protect

herself. He'd also have to help set her up with blood delivery and then he'd have to go into hiding for a century or two or at

least until the Sentinels forgot about him.

He'd ignored part of his sentence and changed someone into a Pyte. Granted, he hadn't been thinking about the Sentinel

Council when he changed her and even knowing what they had planned for him didn't make him regret saving her. Losing Danni

would have been a blow that he knew damn well that he never would have recovered from. He couldn't imagine living for

eternity with her loss on his shoulders.

As long as he got her out of here before their captives figured out what he'd done, everything would be alright. He'd

fucked up and given her his curse, but maybe she would luck out and never face the bullshit he had. In fact, he planned on

making sure that she remained safe for the rest of her life. He'd set her up in a small town without any shifters or demons within

a two hundred mile radius so that he wouldn't have to worry about someone detecting what she was.

He'd have to check up on her from time to time to make sure that she was okay. That was fine. He knew how to stay good

and gone so that no one, including Danni, would know that he was around. He'd also have to move her to a new location when

the locals started noticing that she wasn't aging, but he'd handle that when the time came. The only thing that mattered now was

getting her somewhere safe and to do that they needed to keep her little change a secret.

"Danni, you need to feed," he said, stepping into her path and blocking her, but of course she just walked past him.

"I'm not hungry," she snapped.

"Uh huh," he said, watching as she discretely scented the air and licked her lips in a way that had his cock twitching and

forcing him to fight back the urge to kill any male that caught her interest.

He gritted his teeth in irritation. She shouldn't be affecting him like this. She wasn't his and he sure as hell didn't want to

keep her, but he couldn't help the way his body and mind were responding to her, like she was
his
. The only explanation that he

could come up with was the change. He'd never changed anyone before. He was just having a primitive reaction to the fact that

his blood flowed through her veins. Once they got out of here his reactions to her would lessen and he wouldn't care what the

hell she did or with who she it with, just like before he changed her.

So that wasn't entirely true. He'd cared who was around her, a little. He didn't like the losers she spent time with, but he

never interfered, and no he didn't count the little "talks" that he had with Greg as interference. He just really enjoyed beating the

shit out of the little prick and of course he would have to make it a special point to hunt the little bastard down once he was

freed and have another little talk with him. Only this time he wouldn't stop talking to the bastard until he was screaming his

name in agony with his last breath.

"Back the hell off, Caine. I said I wasn't hungry so leave me alone," Danni said as she forced her eyes away from the door

and continued her pacing.

"No, what you are is about five minutes away from bloodlust," he drawled as he reached out and grabbed her by the arm

only to have her shove his hand aside and move to the other side of the room where she folded her arms over her chest and

leaned her forehead against the wall, keeping her back to him.

"Danni," he said tightly. They didn't have time for this shit. They might have been able to keep their captors in the dark so

far, but he doubted that would last very long. She needed to feed and get her strength up to his level if they were going to have

any chance of getting out of here. He wanted her out of here before they figured out what she was. If he could get her out of here

and leave them believing that she was human then she'd have a chance, but God help her if they found out that she'd been

changed.

Not only would she have to worry about this Master coming after her, but every power hungry Master in the world,

because he knew without a doubt that word of her transformation would slip out. Either vampires who wanted a new Master or

thought she would be able to change them, make them more powerful, would spread the word or the minions under this

Master's protection would give away the information in hopes of being rewarded with immortality. The only way to avoid all

the unwanted bullshit that would follow was to get her strength up and get her the hell out of here and fast.

He had to get away from her. If he couldn't get away from her then he'd have to go back to treating her like nothing more

than an old obligation. Ignoring her for the majority of the time had worked for him and made it possible for him to be away

from her. He needed to get back to that point, to the point where she didn't matter. He moved to go after her and force her to

take blood from him, something he wasn't exactly eager to repeat, when he smelled a new set of vampires nearing the door.

With an annoyed sigh, he walked back over to his section of the wall and sat down. He threw Danni a look of warning, but

she missed it since her face was now buried in the far corner of the room. Fine, whatever, as long as she didn't give away what

they did, then she could have her fucking tantrum. He didn't care.

Thankfully she didn't make a move as their food was brought in and left in the middle of the room. He didn't spare her a

glance as he walked over to his cooler and began the process of overfeeding. They didn't have time for this shit. If she didn't

want to feed then that was more than fine with him. He'd overfeed now and take care of the problem of the chain. Instead of

putting this off for a couple of days to give her a chance to grow accustomed to her new situation, he was going to get her out of