Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel 3)

No matter the situation, Caine was always cool, calm and collected. He never let anything get to him and could wait any situation out patiently. She'd never seen anyone like him. Then again, for a Pyte, time probably didn't mean much in the long run. When she was a child she used to take it as a challenge to see how long it would take her to make him respond. It didn't matter what effect she elicited from him, she just liked to make him react.

She used to spend hours following him around, waiting for the perfect moment to scare him. Each and every time she went to jump out and scare him he turned the tables on her and somehow scared her, making her scream and laugh until he was forced to put her down before she puked. She could never figure it out. Then of course when she was nine, one of the Sentinels let it slip about his enhanced hearing and speed.

After finding out that useful piece of information she marched right up to him while he was sparring with two Sentinels, uncaring that they were practicing with knives and demanded to know if it was true. When he confirmed it, she called him a big cheater and stormed off only to turn around so she could stomp on his foot.

For the next few years she focused her efforts to see if she could make him laugh or angry enough so he'd lose his calm facade and react in some way. Although she did manage to make him laugh countless times she didn't have much luck making him mad. Well, not intentionally anyway. She seemed to have a knack for pissing him off without trying though, she thought with a sad smile as she focused on the here and now.

When she finished brushing her teeth she rinsed her toothbrush off and moved to push away from the wall so that she could put it back, but Caine saved her the trouble. He dropped her toothbrush back in the small tote and turned the shower on. She prepared herself for cold water to shoot past her, but instead felt heat as the water flowed out of the showerhead. Frowning, she looked over and spotted the hot water knob attached at an awkward angle. She threw him a questioning look, which he simply ignored.

"Take your shirt off," he said as he bent over and pushed his boxers down. When they reached his feet he shoved them several feet down his chain, no doubt to keep them dry, she mused as she felt her eyebrows arch clear to her hairline.

Well, it seemed Caine stopped thinking of her as a little girl, she noted as he grabbed a bar of soap. Her eyes dropped down to his bare bottom before she could stop herself and she damn near groaned.

His ass was perfect.

It was round, tight and smooth and she'd bet every cent she had that she could bounce a quarter off that thing. She'd always known that he had a great body. Like the rest of the men, he often trained without a shirt and of course, she caught sight of him after his night obsession with swimming laps a few times over the years so she'd already known he had a great body. She never imagined he would-

"Are you quite done yet?" he demanded when he turned around, unfortunately before she could look away from his ass so she ended up getting a view she never expected.

She swallowed hard as her eyes landed on the hint of silver poking from behind the tip of his uncircumcised penis. Caine pierced his penis? That was something she'd never expected, she mused. Her focus moved up to the very large, thick soft shaft and she felt a moment of sympathy for any woman that had been split in two by the damn thing while moving her focus up to the root of his sex surrounded by dark hair.

Well, that answered that about where the tattoo ended, she supposed as she looked up and met his glare. "Nice tattoo," she said, unable to bite back her smile when a muscle in his jaw began to throb and his eyes shifted red.

Chapter 11

As he rounded the corner and spotted all the men that belonged in the security room standing outside in the hallway he couldn't help but wonder how much more bullshit he was expected to handle.

Playing babysitter to a minion he fully planned on killing wasn't exactly his idea of an appropriate task for a man of his skills, but the Master needed him here, so here he stayed. The only thing he didn't understand or appreciate for that matter, was allowing the minion to live now that his usefulness had come to an end. It was more than obvious that the man would only hinder their progress from this point on.

One good thing that had come of the man's barbaric tactics was proof that the girl meant something to the Pyte. When the Master first brought the human into their fold, he hadn't trusted him and had actually considered snapping his neck several times during their short meeting so he wouldn't be forced to listen to the man's incessant whining.

He was willing to admit that the man had chosen well. The Pyte obviously cared about the young woman. That much was clear by the way the Pyte guarded her. Lucan had understood the unspoken threat quite well. If he had moved so much as an inch towards the girl, his heart would have been ripped from his chest. The threat both amused and intrigued him.

What was so special about the woman that he was willing to risk his blood supply? He knew all too well what it felt like to go through bloodlust and from what he heard it was much worse for Pytes. He couldn't imagine voluntarily suffering any type of discomfort over a woman, but this man, this Pyte had been willing to kill him and the annoying minion even though he knew he would be dooming himself to a lonely existence filled with an unquenchable thirst.

The minion told the Pyte if he tried anything that they'd kill the girl and leave him to rot for years, but the truth was, it made the girl more valuable in his eyes. As long as the Pyte continued to show preference for the girl he would keep her alive.

"The Master demanded privacy to speak with Gregory," a vampire explained before he could ask why the vampire had abandoned his post in the security room.

He arched a brow at that, but said nothing as he opened the door to the security room and stepped inside. He ignored the glare Gregory sent his way and stepped in front of the large flat screen monitor bolted to the wall which he'd set up to handle the video conference calls. His Master watched his approach through the cameras aimed on him.

"Master," he said, inclining his head in respect as he looked up and met the eyes of the man who had changed his life forever.

"Gregory has been sharing some rather disturbing news with me," the Master began. His pale baby blue eyes shifted to Greg, who was no doubt gloating behind him before landing back on him. "He's claiming that you are interfering with my plans."

"How so?" he asked, knowing the key to dealing with his Master was to remain in control of his emotions and showing absolutely no fear. Like most Masters, his did not tolerate weakness or stupidity, but unlike the rest, his Master was led by his emotions. It was a dangerous way to rule and one that could have cost him his life hundreds of times over the centuries, if Lucan hadn't stepped in each time.