Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel 3)

She would die in a bed in a Sentinel sickroom by herself. The few friends that she had would probably visit, but in the end she had no one. Her parents were long dead, they hadn't had any other children and all their family had long ago died. She didn't want to die alone. At least if he had allowed her to die she would have died with him by her side. She could have found comfort in having the only person that ever meant anything to her by her side when she drew her last breath.

Oh, God.....

Her chest heaved almost painfully as she tried to draw a breath, but couldn't. The grief that had threatened to overtake her since she heard the faithful words uttered from the doctor's mouth broke free. Before she knew it a loud agonizing sob broke free and she was helpless to stop it. The last person she wanted to see her like this was Caine. He'd be disappointed that she wasn't strong. She needed to be strong. She needed-

"Shhh," Caine whispered in her ear as his arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her back against him. "It's okay, Danni."

"I'm just tired," she lied, humiliated that he was seeing her like this. She didn't want him to think that she was weak. She wasn't. There was nothing weak about her and she would face this like she faced any mission, head on and with no regrets.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were dying, Danni?" he asked quietly, but there was no mistaking the rage in his tone.

She bit her lip as she struggled against the urge to turn in his arms and cry against his chest the way she did when she was a child and her whole world seemed to be falling apart around her. But she wasn't a child anymore and more importantly, she could no longer seek shelter in his arms.

"There's nothing to tell, Caine. I don't have much time left," she said with a casualness she didn't feel as more tears streamed down her face.

"You should have told me, Goddammit!" he practically roared as he turned her in his arms and pressed her back against the cool tile wall.

"It had nothing to do with you!" she cried.

"Bullshit!" he said, giving her a little shake. "I could have gotten you help! I could have found someone to make you better!"

"It was already too late by the time I went to the doctor," she said hollowly, giving him a sad smile and a shrug.

"You don't know that!" he said, looking pained. "I could have found someone to take care of you, Danni. I could have made damn sure that you beat this thing. You didn't have to go through this alone!"

She shoved him back, but he wouldn't budge. "I am alone, Caine. I've been that way for more than ten years now. Did you think finding out that I had less than six months to live would change that? It doesn't. Whether it's here or on a stretcher at the compound I'm going to die soon and there's nothing anyone can do about it. So just let it go and forget about it so that we can focus on getting the hell out of here."

Instead of moving away from her like she'd hoped he would he came closer, cupping her face in his large hands. "Do you have any idea what they would have done to you if they'd found out that you were dying, Danni? Hmmm?"

"Killed me or let Greg torture me," she drawled, trying not to let him know how terrified she was of the latter.

His eyes glowed a more intense red and his jaw clenched as he stared down at her. "Do you think this is funny? Do you have any idea how much pain and damage he could have done to you before he decided to end it, Danni?"

"I would have pissed him off enough to end it quickly," she admitted, but instead of appeasing him that only pissed him off more.

"We'll never know now, will we?" he demanded, confusing the heck out of her.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You got your cure, Danni. You're not going to die," he bit out coldly.

"I-I don't understand," she said as her eyes tingled uncomfortably and the lighting in the room suddenly turned, tinting everything in shades of red.

"Don't you?" he asked with a cold chuckle that sent shivers up her spine.

She could only stare at him and shake her head.

"Congratulations, Danni, you have true immortality now," he said dryly.

Chapter 15

"What the hell did you just say?" Danni demanded as he walked away from her, but he didn't bother to answer her. There was nothing to say.

He'd f**ked up.

In a moment of weakness he'd panicked and did the one thing he swore that he'd never do, he changed her. When her heart stopped beating all he could think about was the misery and pain he would feel from not being able to see her everyday and know that she was okay. Saving her life had nothing to do with her and everything to do with him.

He hadn't been ready to let her go. In forty or fifty years he might be ready, but not now. When her heart stopped beating he'd done his best to get it started up again by performing CPR, something the Sentinel Council demanded all their employees learn. When that hadn't worked he did the only thing that he could think of without really thinking about it.

Before his panicked mind could comprehend exactly what he was doing he bit into his wrist and pressed it against her lips as he sank his fangs into her neck. When he tasted the cancer in her blood he nearly choked, but somehow managed to ignore the acid taste of the poison that was quickly killing her, and drank her blood. When a minute passed and he still didn't taste his own he pressed the heal of his free hand back on her chest and continued to do compressions, forcing her blood to pump through her body and mix with his.

Just as he was about to give up, he tasted his blood and knew that there was nothing else he could do. When her heart began beating on its own again a minute later, a selfish part of him was glad. He would never have to witness her death or live in a world where she didn't exist, but then the part that still cared for the little girl that she once was realized the hell he'd just put her in.

He'd given her the life that he hated and now she had a future filled with pain and misery awaiting her. Instead of letting nature take its course he'd intervened and given the only person who'd ever meant anything to him a life of hell.

"You know what I said," he said softly, mindful of the vampires stationed on the other side of the door.

"No, I don't. So why don't you explain it to me," she demanded and he knew without looking back that she was moving to cross the room to get in his face and lay into him for what he'd done, but he couldn't allow that to happen. Before she could move so much as a foot he was back in the shower, pressing her against the wall and placing his lips near her ear.

"I think it would be for the best if they didn't know that you've been changed, don't you?" he asked in a cold whisper as his grip tightened around her slender biceps, noting the lean muscle. "Unless you want them to come in here right now and shoot you in the head and tie you down so that they could try getting the baby that I refuse to give them."