PS01 - Tall, Dark & Lonely (44 page)

He didn’t wait for her answer before he flashed away.

*******

A low whistle caught his attention. He turned just as Ephraim slithered behind him. With one swift move he had the man

disarmed and pulled back against him in the dark corner of the dining room. His fangs scratched the man’s neck, making him

shudder.

“Make a sound and I’ll make this a very painful death.”

The man only nodded.

“Good, how many are in my house including vampires?”

“Five men and the Master.”

Ephraim chuckled darkly. “You’re not lying to me now, are you?” He allowed his fang to drag across the skin, leaving a small

paper thin cut that he knew would sting. The man gasped.

“I’m not lying,” he hissed.

“Then why are you telling me the truth?”

“She said you would change all of us. That we would all be day walkers like you.”

“You’re taking a chance telling me her plans.”

“Yes, I don’t see any reason not to tell you.” The man’s voice was unsteady.

“Because you want to remain on my good side so that I’ll change you?”

The man nodded.

“What’s the plan for the women and children?”

He didn’t answer. His entire body went rigid. “She told you that you would feed off of them?”

The man nodded stiffly.

“Did she fail to mention that a change takes several days to occur?”

“N-no.”

“But you came here with the intentions of killing and feeding from my children?”

He smelled the first real wave of fear spread through the man’s body. “I-I…no…I…”

“Thanks for your help.” He covered the man’s mouth with his hand and sunk his teeth in his neck. He needed sustenance to

endure anything he was about to encounter so he did what he hadn’t done in over a century. He drained the body until the man’s

heart stopped. For his family he would do anything.

With that done he moved into the kitchen after the next man. Four dead bodies later he moved around the second floor. He

quietly crawled up the wall towards the ceiling and glided across the ceiling making sure to keep away from the chandelier that

hung in the middle of the foyer.

Silently he rolled over onto his back so that he was looking straight down at the scene bellow him. His eyes took everything in.

The first man had lied of course. Below him were five heavily armed men with their guns aimed at the small group huddled in

the middle of their circle. The scent of blood hit him hard.

Sentinel blood.

His eyes focused on the half naked body lying in Eleanor’s lap. In that moment he thanked god that the boys copied his dressing

habits. He could see the wound clearly, a shoulder wound. It was a bad wound nonetheless. From the burn marks around the

wound he knew it had been a short range shot. It probably cauterized the wound enough to slow the bleeding.

Chris’s left arm hung lifeless by his side. His right hand was clenching and unclenching into a fist. He kept his eyes focused on

Caroline as she paced the large foyer. Satisfied that Chris was fine for the moment he looked at the rest of the hostages.

Joshua knelt by his Grandmother in the middle of the circle where he would be more protected if they started to shoot. Jill

cried softly as she kept her back to Joshua’s side, keeping him covered from yet another side. He was so proud of her at that

moment. In spite of all the shit Candy put those kids through and Jill’s trust problems and pessimism she was turning out be a

really good kid.

Candy he was going to kill. She was slowly adjusting herself behind Joshua not to protect him but to push him slowly out of the

middle of the circle to take his spot. He watched with fury as she gently but insistently pushed at Joshua's back. With each

movement she moved in to take his spot until Jill and Grandma adjusted to cover him again. They shot Candy a warning look.

“I’m scared!” Candy cried. “Just let me take his spot. Look, he’s not even upset! I am! Let me sit there!”

Joshua nodded. “She can have my seat I’m not afraid. I don’t care if she’s a vampire or not. I’m not scared.” His small eyes

were focused on Caroline in an act of defiance.

“There’s no such thing as vampires, Joshua. Stop trying to scare me!” Candy screeched.

He went to move out of his spot when Chris reached out and grabbed his arm. “You sit right there and do not move!”

“But.-“

“But nothing. If you really want me to be your big brother then you’ll listen to me. You do not move an inch for her or I’m

telling Dad and you know he’ll be pissed. You keep your little ass in the middle and do not move. She’ll be fine!”

“I don’t care about her. I just don’t want her panicking and getting you guys shot,” Joshua muttered.

“We’ll be fine. Just stay put so we know you’re okay,” Chris said, sucking in a deep breath. The movement had cost him.

“So, you want him to be your brother, do you?” Caroline asked. “Does that mean you want Ephraim to be your Daddy?” she

asked mockingly.

“Yes,” Joshua said firmly.

Ephraim quickly took in the rest of the room. No vampires other than Caroline. He was not surprised. She wouldn’t want to

share. Her aspiration was to be the most powerful vampire with large armies beneath her. In short, she wanted to be Queen

with him as her king.

She wouldn’t take the chance of involving another vampire afraid the chance would be stolen from her. He closed his eyes and

listened. He couldn’t hear any other heart beats inside the house. He focused more on the outside and found one, probably the

driver.

“What if I told you that your
Daddy
was just like me, but worse?” Caroline asked, clearly enjoying tormenting his little boy. He

was absolutely going to kill her.

He watched as Joshua folded his arms across his bare chest. “You’re a liar.”

Caroline giggled. “Oh, I assure you I’m not. Why do you think we’re here? We need his blood.”

“He’s nothing like you!” Joshua yelled.

She threw her head back and laughed harder. “Oh, we’ll see, won’t we?”

“What’s going on here?” a new voice asked.

Ephraim’s eyes shot to the hallway beside the stair. He was going to spank her ass until she couldn’t walk, then he was going to

do it some more.

Madison stepped into the room.

*******

Did he really think she could sit back and wait? She spent the last half hour pacing the room before she had enough. After

sticking a small cross in her bra and a stake in the back of her pants she decided enough was enough. She crept up the stairs and

then rushed into the foyer, knowing that it wouldn’t take Ephraim more than a few seconds to sense her and force her back.

Her only hope was that Caroline wouldn’t be able to sense the change in her. Ephraim promised vampires couldn’t smell Pytes

only shifters could. Their scents were invisible to vampires. Madison prayed he was right. He said all vampires suspected they

were human until they tasted their blood or of course changed in front of them.

Caroline smiled triumphantly in front of her, showing her fangs off proudly. With a wave of her hand she sent two men to drag

Madison into the small group sitting on the floor. The scent of Chris’s blood hit her hard. She didn’t have a lot of practice with

the scent of blood, but she knew enough to know that his was different. It smelled sweet and inviting, too inviting. It was a

natural booby-trap Sentinels had. The blood would kill a vampire on the first bite.

“So very nice of you to join us. You’ve just made my job of hunting you down a lot easier. Now we just have to wait for

Ephraim. I assume he’s going around the house trying to kill my men?”

“I have no idea where he is,” she said.

Caroline stepped in front of the guns and bent down. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply above Madison. She knew. She

knew she’d changed. Her plan failed. Madison was about to hit the woman, hoping to knock her out so she could save her

family when Caroline reacted a bit differently than she'd expected.

“You bitch!” Caroline snapped. She stepped back with her eyes shimmering silver. Damn it, she did know. They were going to

shoot the kids now.

Madison put an arm around Jill and Joshua hoping it would be enough to protect them. She knew it wouldn’t be. She had to

figure out a way to use her new abilities to get them out of here.

“You’ve been with him! I can smell him all over you! You bitch!” she shrieked again.

Madison turned to look at Caroline and did her best to hide her relief. “He’s mine,” she said firmly, hoping to keep the woman

distracted long enough to figure out how to get everyone to safety.

Caroline’s face contorted in anger. “Not for long I guarantee that.” She walked away until she stood directly in front of their

little group. She snapped her fingers. One of the men lowered his gun and brought her a chair. She sat down, crossing her legs

at the ankles and leaned in with her chin resting on her fists.

“I want to see the looks on their faces when you tell them what Ephraim really is.” When Madison made no move to speak

Caroline added. “If you don’t tell them I’ll shoot them one by one starting with the old woman.”

Chris tried to sit up. “You lay still,” Eleanor hissed.

“I’ll tell them,” Chris said, sounding a little stronger.

“Even better.” Caroline grinned. “I would love to hear this explained by a Sentinel.”

“Sentinel?” Jill and Grandma asked at the same time.

“Er…” Chris was at a loss where to begin.

Caroline jumped in. “I’ll explain him and then he’ll explain Ephraim.”

Ephraim watched carefully. His mind calculated every single possibility while he kept track of the conversation. He knew

Madison was going to throw her body over her brother, sister, Chris and Eleanor too if she got the chance. He also knew that if

she was severely injured her body would reject the baby.

He should have reminded her that her body would reject the baby to save itself, but there hadn’t been enough time. There were

no words to describe the pain from a bullet or a knife wound and he didn’t want her to find out first hand either. If she was shot

her body would rush to fix it and kill their son.

Now he was kicking himself for his stupidity. If she’d known how painful an injury was as a Pyte she never would have come

out here. Well, that wasn’t true she probably would have for the kids. He made a rule right then and there to always tell her

everything from now on.

“I’ll give you the quick version so we can get to the real juicy stuff.” Caroline said in a tone that was friendly and excited as

she let them in on what she probably thought was a juicy secret. “Chris here has a big secret.”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Candy inch further away from Chris. She probably thought he was a monster in disguise

ready to pounce on her.

“Chris is what we call a Sentinel. I'll explain Chris, but no interruptions. I want him to explain Ephraim as soon as possible.”

She cleared her throat. “Thousands of years ago Lucifer found a way to place a demon in disguise among humans.” She raised

her hand when Jill’s mouth opened. “I said no questions.” Jill shut her mouth and reluctantly nodded.

Caroline’s minions looked very interested in this tale. Something told Ephraim that she didn’t like sharing information. The

men took small steps closer to their Master in hopes of not missing a single word.

“Now this is just the story. I obviously wasn’t there when all of this went down. I’m just a result. God found out and was

pissed. He decided to send, I guess you would call them half angels, warriors in his place to earth. He couldn’t on his own

interfere. It’s a long ago agreement that earth was a chess board. They could add, but not subtract. They also couldn’t interfere

once the game was in play.”

“Once Lucifer released his demons since he knew that he would never be allowed to release anymore. Rules as I said.” She

waved a dismissive hand. “As I said it's all very complicated. So he made sure his demon could multiply on his own through a

blood exchange.”

“Now God had to play by these rules as well. I know, doesn’t seem fair does it?” she asked with a wicked smile that showed

her fangs. “Instead of depositing all of his half-angels all at once he set it up so that ten of these half-angels would come to

earth every ten years.”

“Five pairs of mates made up ten warriors. They’re born as a twin to a human baby. They require a human soul to bring them to

earth. I believe Chris’s twin died in the womb.” She looked at Chris for confirmation, he nodded. “Our Chris here is an

unmated Sentinel. You see he has never met his mate and probably never will.” She threw Chris a taunting smile. "Mostly

because I plan on hunting her down and tearing her throat out for fun."

Chris' scream was feral as he tried to get to his feet and attack her. Grandma, Madison and even Jill held him down. It took

Joshua's little hand in his to finally calm him down. Caroline continued as if nothing happened.

“Now, normally a Sentinel will live to be around two hundred and look about twenty-five for the rest of their lives. They’ll

begin to age quickly when their job is over. Then they are sent back. Rumor has it they are born again. Their mates are also

born again as their mates. They’re what you would call soul mates. Now unfortunately for Chris he is not going to live to see