Tall, Dark & Furious (Pyte/Sentinel 6)

For a moment, the vampire stood there, watching as the Pyte released his bite so that he could pull the small woman in his arms as he begged her to breathe. Ephraim watched as the vampire slowly turned his head and sent the small woman sitting in the corner a look of longing and just when Ephraim thought that he was going to reach for her, he turned his head and took one last look at the Pyte before he walked away.

Chapter 45

Williams Mansion

Upstate New York

“Bring her in here,” Ephraim said as he shifted Nathan off his shoulder and carefully placed him on one of the beds as Trace hesitated by the door.

“What have we got?” a human male asked as he walked into the room and began checking Nathan as he sent Ephraim a questioning look.

“Sentinel,” Ephraim said as Trace’s father quietly stepped into the room and moved to stand by the wall, looking anywhere but at him.

“He’d got a gunshot wound to the shoulder, one to the abdomen, and one to the leg as well as multiple lacerations,” the human said as he inspected Nathan for injuries.

“He needs Sentinel blood to heal, but we need you to take the bullets out so that he has a chance, Noah,” Eric, the Sentinel in charge of this area, explained as he joined Trace by the door.

“It’s okay, Trace. We’ll take care of her,” Eric said softly with a warm smile as he gestured towards one of the beds in the room.

“I can’t,” Trace said, shaking his head as he tightened his hold around Samantha, terrified that if he put her down or stopped touching her that he would never be able to hold her again.

He just wasn’t ready to let her go yet.

Eric gestured for Ephraim to join them. “Can you scent a change in her?” Eric asked as the other Pyte, and he still couldn’t believe that he’d finally met someone like him, slowly leaned in and inhaled.

“She’s going to be fine,” Ephraim promised him with a reassuring smile.

Nodding, Trace stepped out of the way as Kale stumbled into the large room and dropped down on one of the small beds with a pained groan.

“I haven’t had these in years,” Jacob said around a mouthful of whatever he was eating as he walked into the room, carrying a bag with M & M on it and leaned back against the wall next to him.

“What’s wrong with him?” Noah asked, nodding towards Kale, who looked like he was going to be sick again as another Sentinel walked into the room and began working on Nathan. They made quick work of removing the metal from the Sentinel’s body. While Noah sewed him up his wounds, Eric helped run a clear tube from the Sentinel’s arm to Nathan’s arm seconds before blood filled the tube.

“The asshole refuses to shift,” Jacob said with another heartfelt sigh and a, “These are so good,” as he tossed another handful of the small multi-colored pebbles in his mouth as Kale raised his hand and extended the middle finger in the other shifter’s direction.

“You’d already be healed if you shifted,” Jacob pointed out with a shrug.

“Fuck off,” Kale said with a groan as he buried his face in a pillow.

“What’s going on?” a small woman with a very noticeable limp asked as she walked into the room and-

“Hey!”

Absently plucked the small bag of pebbles out of the shifter’s hand and slowly made her way to the bed where Kale laid, groaning in pain. When she was a few feet away from the bed, Kale released a groan, shoved the pillow aside and reached over, picking the small woman up, carefully placed her on the bed next to him before he promptly buried his face back in the pillow and continued groaning.

“Diluted silver nitrate. He needs to shift, but he’s refusing, so that means that he’s going to have to wait it out, Izzy,” Eric explained while the woman absently nodded as she tossed a handful of the colorful pebbles in her mouth, looking thoughtful.

“He’s very stubborn,” Izzy said as Kale cracked one eye open to glare at her as he reached over, grabbed the bag from her and promptly hugged it against his chest as he continued to glare.

“Does he need more blood?” Izzy asked, gesturing towards Nathan as she began rolling up her sleeve.

“Not from you, my little munchkin,” Chris said as he walked into the room carrying Indie in his arms and-

“Indie?” Noah said, immediately coming to Chris’s side and took the small woman from him as movement from his right caught Trace’s attention. He watched as his father moved to take a step towards them only to noticeably stop himself and forced himself to step back against the wall, but his eyes never left the small woman that had saved them all.

“What the hell happened to her?” Noah demanded, sending Ethan a questioning look.

“They beat her and drowned her,” his father said hollowly as he watched Indie with something close to regret.