PS03 - Tall, Dark & Heartless (3 page)

They didn't trust him and for good reason. Twenty-five years of good behavior wasn't enough to erase five hundred years

worth of destruction no matter how many lives he'd saved. He didn't bother getting pissed about it, because he didn't hide from

his past or tried to excuse it. He knew exactly who he was and what he'd done. Hell, if he were them he wouldn't trust him

either.

The Council would probably trust him more if they could control him or had some leverage over him, but they couldn't

and didn't. They all knew that nothing short of a bullet in the head or heart would incapacitate him long enough for them to

throw his ass back into a cell. Then they'd have that little problem of keeping his ass locked up until they could figure out what

to do with him. Considering how easily he escaped twenty-five years ago, he didn't have much faith in them getting the job

done right this time around.

Remorse wasn't enough to make him stay here and bust his ass day after day and they all knew it. He could just as easily

do this on his own or do the whole self-denial, self-punishment bullshit in the mountains, living off squirrel blood to make up

for his past sins. Truth was, this job was nothing but a rest stop for him until he figured out what he wanted to do with the rest

of eternity. There wasn't much he hadn't done or seen in his nearly thousand year existence and now he was truly stumped on

what his next step should be.

It's funny how twenty-five years hadn't changed that. When he'd escaped from his cell his only thoughts had been to get

away to clear his head. He could still hear the blaring alarms that echoed throughout the large mansion as he made his way to

the front door since he refused to crawl out of a window like some coward.

Somehow he ended up in one of the residential wings. Women grabbed their children and fled behind locked doors as he

stormed down the hall. He remembered cursing at himself for his stupidity at getting caught in the first place when this little

girl, a toddler really, with pretty violet eyes and midnight black hair stepped into the hall right in front of him, halting his

escape.

She looked up at him for a moment, just studying him. He waited for her to scream for help as she ran away crying from

the monster stalking the halls. What he hadn't been prepared for was the little girl nodding firmly as if she'd decided something

important and grabbing his hand.

He'd been so shocked by her reaction to him that he'd let her drag him down the hall without protest. Over the centuries

grown men had pissed themselves when they saw his red eyes and fangs, but that small little tot had dragged him down the hall

like he was her favorite pull toy.

When she pulled him into her family's living quarters he expected a pair of seriously pissed off Sentinels to attack him, but

there had been no one. The only sound in the luxury apartment came from the cartoon playing on the large living room

television. She pulled him into the small kitchen and pointed expectantly to a cabinet. Reluctantly he opened it, thinking her

parents really fucked up on the whole "stay away from strangers" talk.

To this day he could still remember the sweet sound of her voice as she said, "Hungie."

Hating himself for not leaving her in the hallway and hauling his ass out of there when he had the chance, he grabbed the

damn rainbow box and let himself get bossed around by the little midget. Five minutes later she was happily eating her bowl of

rainbow puffs while sitting on his knee in front of the television.

Twenty minutes later two dozen Sentinels stormed the apartment and he willingly went with them, happy to get away from

the singing and dancing dog on the television. The little girl who clung to his neck as they drew their weapons may have had

something to do with his surrender. For the first time in centuries he hadn't wanted to see another living thing hurt and that

confused the living hell out of him, leaving him with absolutely no idea what to do with himself.

After that he decided to hang around to figure some things out. The little girl quickly became his shadow. He hadn't said

anything to run her off mostly because she didn't get on his nerves like everyone else did. Soon he found himself drinking

imaginary tea with teddy bears, kissing skinned knees, and teaching her how to beat the shit out of the school bully.

Those had been the best years of his life. Then......then she just had to go and change everything by growing up. One day

she'd been the sweet girl complaining about her math teacher and the next minute she'd been a desirable woman. He silently

cursed his own stupidity for thinking about her, something he did at least a dozen times a day.

Not that he cared about her. He didn't. He never allowed anything or anyone to matter to him. She was just an old

responsibility and since he was still hanging around he kept an eye out for her just to have something to do while he tried to

figure things out.

It meant nothing.

Just like that little "talk" he'd had with the dipshit a month ago and the half dozen or so other talks he had with him over

the previous four months. He hated the little shit and gladly welcomed any reason to beat the hell out of him. Kicking the crap

out of Greg entertained him almost as much as the bullshit stories the little bastard made up to cover his injuries. Greg didn't

want anyone to know that the Council's "bitch" had bested him.

He walked towards the ladder, smirking as the human posted there to guard the entrance backed up anxiously. Every

human and Sentinel feared him and rightly so. He was a monster and it was in his nature to destroy. Given the smallest

inclination and would do just that.

Chapter 2

"Danni, what's your location?"
Greg demanded.

She pressed her finger to the small button on her headset and answered as she surveyed the dark tunnel that opened to the

right. "I'm in section C-23."
Where you assigned me, asshole
, but she didn't say that out loud mostly because she didn't want to

prolong this conversation.

Crouching low, she adjusted the resolution of her night vision goggles. After making sure the tunnel was clear and no one

was sneaking up behind her she bypassed the tunnel opening and continued forward. She was about a thousand yards from

where they believed the nest was located.

That nagging feeling she'd been doing her damndest to ignore since she heard about this mission a week ago snuck up on

her again. Something about this didn't feel right. It wasn't just the fact that Greg was put in charge, even though that had been a

shock. The location was the main problem.

Why would a group of vampires choose to live in an old tunnel system that had been abandoned over a century ago instead

of in any of the thousands of buildings above them? Last time she checked Manhattan hadn't been lacking in space. They could

find dark spaces to keep out the sun in thousands of other locations.

Of course there were homeless vampires that thought themselves no better than animals, but those were a minority. To

actually have an entire nest turning their backs on human comforts was rare. Then again, they were on the local Sentinel shit

list.

Her crew wouldn't even be here if something big wasn't going down. Normally a Sentinel unit would clear this nest with

the human squad as back up. With their natural speed and strength the Sentinels were the only ones who could easily handle a

nest this size. Things changed a little over eight months ago when an alert went out and every Sentinel in the world found

themselves battling to stop the Masters from uniting. That left human units like hers with handling nests like this one for the time

being.

Over the years Danni had managed to tag along with various Sentinel units as part of her training. It didn't take long for her

to figure out that she was out of her league. They moved faster, hit harder and fought without a second's hesitation. She'd known

then if she was ever going to be considered worthy to fight alongside them permanently, she'd have to set herself apart from the

other humans working for the Sentinels.

So, for the past eleven years since Caine stopped training with her, she trained twice as hard and patrolled more hours

than anyone in her unit until patrolling and fighting became second nature to her. Her hard work hadn't gone unnoticed. She was

asked several times over the years to aide on missions like this one. More so in the past two years, but that would all change

soon.

"I need you to head over to section G-8,"
Greg said in a hard tone he probably hoped she'd obey.

She snorted. No such luck. She wasn't one of those mindless drones who did what they were told without question.

Especially since she knew that particular section of tunnel led to a dead end and more importantly it was located in the

opposite direction of the nest.

"That's a dead end," she said, continuing forward.

"Negative. Go to channel 14B. All others continue with your assignments."

Danni rolled her eyes as she crouched with her back to the tunnel so she could scan the area while she had this asinine

conversation. It only took a second to switch over to the secured channel they used to cut down on chatter and prepared herself

for whatever bullshit he was about to throw her way.

She knew this tunnel system backwards and forwards, a skill she'd forced herself to learn. It saved time instead of having

to find a safe spot to take out a map and of course kept her ass safe on more than one occasion.

"That section has no bisecting tunnels or access to manhole covers. It is a dead end and in the opposite side of where I

need to be," she explained, unable to hide the irritation in her voice as her headache flared once again.

"
I just got my hands on the blueprint of this tunnel system from 1907. It shows G-8 was finished as an emergency

escape route. It wraps around and connects to C-24
," Greg explained.

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