Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel 3)

He would never turn anyone, never give them the life he had to endure. She had a choice, he hadn't. He'd been born this way to a servant, who'd died giving birth to him. When he'd been human he'd been told that his mother had lain with her employer and that the man he'd known as his father was just her bitter husband. It wasn't until much later that he discovered that his mother's master had been a vampire. The bastard could have saved her life if he'd simply changed her just before he was born.

After he went through his transformation he went back to the city where his mother had worked, but no one had seen the Lord since his mother passed away. He searched for a few more years, but it had been pointless. The man had vanished into thin air and Caine had grown tired of looking for him. In the end it hadn't mattered anyway. He'd gotten his answers and even discovered there were others like him. If rumor was true, there were some that even worked for the Sentinels like him and from what he heard, were happy.

It didn't matter to him that other Pytes learned to accept what they were since he knew exactly how quickly happiness could end. He also wasn't stupid enough to change someone who was already a prisoner. They'd keep her weak, but make sure that she was fed just enough to do as they asked. Then again this was Danni and he knew the stubborn woman would fight them every inch of the way and develop memories that would haunt her centuries later. He'd been there and done that and didn't want that for her.

If he couldn't get her the hell out of here then he'd have no choice, but to sit back and watch her die. It was better than having no escape and being trapped in a never ending hell.

"This should make you feel better, Danni," the vampire said as men walked into the room, keeping as far away from him as possible, as they carried in fresh towels, soaps, a first aid kit, a small red cooler, a clean shirt, a blanket and what appeared to be a small plastic crate overfilled with prepackaged food and bottled water.

"If you need anything else, please don't hesitate to ask," the vampire said, sounding more like a concierge than a captor. "You may ask for me if you need anything else. My name is Lucan."

"Lucan?" he said.

"Yes?" Lucan said, arching a brow.

"You can tell the little ass**le that works for you that the next time he comes near her, he'll be missing more than just an arm."

With a simple nod in acknowledgement he left as quietly as he came, leaving him to wonder what the hell he was going to do now.

*******

"I just want to go to sleep," she mumbled, weakly shoving his hand away.

With an aggravated sigh, Caine pulled her up into a sitting position and held her there by her arm as he once again held the saltine cracker to her lips.

"Eat," he said in a tone that told her that if she didn't do exactly what he wanted and soon, she'd probably find herself pinned to the bed and force fed.

Glaring, she took the cracker with a shaky hand and stuffed it in her mouth. Her stomach growled viciously in demand for its share when the salt hit her tongue. Before she realized what she was doing she grabbed the sleeve of saltine crackers from Caine and started to devour them.

"Slow down," he said, gently prying the crackers away from her. "Take a small sip," he said, holding a bottle of water in front of her.

Knowing she had no other choice she accepted the water and sipped it slowly. When he took the water away she held her hand out in silent demand. With an arched brow he pulled another small stack of crackers out and placed them in her hand. She wasted no time in shoving one of them in her mouth.

When she tried to put another one in her mouth he sent her a look of warning that she decided not to ignore. With a small groan of aggravation, she slowed down. To help keep her mind off her stomach's demand to shove all the crackers in her mouth, she studied Caine as he searched through the small plastic crate filled with food.

She watched as he studied each item, sniffed it, probably making sure that it wasn't tampered with, before returning the item to the crate and moving onto the next one. While he was occupied she allowed her eyes to run over him, noting the dried blood covering his arms, chest and the side of his face. She wondered if he'd been injured, but knew it was pointless to look since any injuries he had would be healed by now.

"You need to shower," he said, voicing her thoughts.

When she looked up and met his eyes he frowned and looked down at himself. "I guess you're not the only one," he said, not sounding too happy about that fact.

She had a feeling he didn't want to shower in front of her, which was kind of ridiculous given their situation, but he hadn't showered or used the toilet in front of her once since they found themselves in this situation. She assumed that he was taking care of his needs while she was sleeping. Since she doubted that he was shy, she assumed that he still saw her as that little girl that used to wait for him to come home from patrol at four in the morning and demand that he go kick the monster in her closet's ass so she could go back to sleep.

It was probably for the same reason he hadn't allowed her to die. Somewhere inside of him he had a soft spot for the girl that she'd once been and couldn't stand around to watch her die. As much as she appreciated him saving her life and the fact that he was acknowledging her existence at the moment, he needed to realize that she wasn't that little girl anymore if they were going to figure out how to get out of here.

He sighed heavily as he grabbed her by her arms and stood, dragging her up onto her unsteady legs.

"Only one what?" she asked, trying to stuff another cracker in her mouth.

"That needs a shower."

With a frown he grabbed her crackers and tossed them into the crate, earning a killing glare from her. He simply ignored the glare and her useless attempts to pull away from him so she could go back to her food. He half-dragged/half-carried her to the shower. Without a word he leaned her against the wall as he grabbed the toothbrush that she'd been using and loaded it up with toothpaste and shoved it in her direction.

Knowing when to take a hint and barely fighting back the urge to check her breath, she started brushing her teeth, wondering what the hell they were going to do now. The good news, as far as she could tell, was that Caine was going to work with her to figure out an escape plan, well, that's what she hoped at least.

She doubted the man acknowledged her existence simply because he was bored. He didn't have any friends and didn't bother making idle chit chat during missions when most people did anything to keep their minds off the boredom that came with long waits. Hell, even she couldn't just sit on her ass waiting, but he could.