Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel 3)

Her stomach rumbled violently as his scent was practically shoved down her throat. Unfortunately for her, or rather fortunately for him, the scent of the dirt, grass, trees, smoke, oil and about a hundred different scents made themselves known. The combination quickly took care of any hunger she might have felt a minute ago and decided to make a contribution of its own to her headache.

"Alright, looks like it's another bag of delicious cold blood for you," he screamed, well, he probably didn't scream it, but it sure as hell felt like he did.

This sucked, she thought just before the sounds of car doors opening and slamming shut sent her into oblivion.

Chapter 37

Boston Compound

"Dad, calm down!" she pleaded as he moved past her with another armful of her clothes and shoved them into one of the bags he'd thrown onto her bed.

"There's nothing to calm down about, Jill. You're going home to your grandmother," Ephraim said as he stormed past her to grab the rest of her clothes.

"You're being ridiculous, Dad. Madison will be having the babies soon and not too long after that Izzy's going to have her baby. Sending me home when everyone finally is about to need me is pointless," she said as she walked past her father and grabbed a disheveled pile of shirts to return them to the bureau.

She wasn't about to be sent home, not now, not after being forced to stay here every single day for the last several months. She'd given up her job, her apartment, her life to be there for her family and she wasn't about to have all that be for nothing. She was staying and seeing this out. She was not about to let one moment of stupidity wreck that.

"What the hell were you thinking, Jill?" her father suddenly roared as he kicked the bottom of the large solid bed frame, sending it flying across the room and slamming it into the wall with a sickening crack followed by the sound of glass shattering. She didn't need to look to know that the bed was probably embedded in the wall.

She looked up at her father to meet his red eyed glare and immediately wished that she hadn't. She cringed when she saw the expression on his face, the one that used to make her feel worthless. Dissapointment. Her father was disappointed in her and she couldn't blame him, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

"I thought you were smarter than this, Jill," he said, rubbing his hands down his face.

"I am, Dad. If you'd just let me explain-"

"Explain?" he cut her off with a pained chuckle. "I would love to hear how my daughter came to let a f**king leech feed off of her and mark her as his f**king property!" he snapped, his red eyes glowing more intensely with each word.

"I'm not his property," she hastily explained, hoping to calm him enough so that they could sit down and discuss this.

Once she explained the situation, her father would understand and realize that this whole thing was just a simple misunderstanding. Maybe she shouldn't have given Logan her blood, or at the very least maybe she should have taken some out of the infirmary, but she didn't want to risk getting caught and getting banned from the lockup unit.

She'd miss the friendship she'd built with Logan, but most of all, she'd miss seeing Joshua. He was the reason why she was still here and if they took away her daily and nightly visits to him then she would truly be useless and she wouldn't be able to handle that.

"You know what it means when you let a vampire feed from you, Jill," her father said, focusing his attention back on packing her things. He grabbed the clothes away from her and tossed them onto the bureau.

"I'm not his, Dad. If you would just-"

"I'm done listening, Jill. I'm taking you home to your grandmother tonight," he said before adding quietly, "I really thought you were past all this."

"What are you talking about?" she demanded as she stepped in front of him, cutting him off as he moved towards the bathroom to get the rest of her things.

"I'm talking about all this bullshit Candy shoved down your throat, but apparently I was wrong," he said, shaking his head in disgust as he moved past her.

She reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him. "I'm nothing like her," she said firmly.

She wasn't.

Over the past ten years she'd worked hard to make sure that every last ounce of her biological mother's influence was gone. She worked her butt off, she put her family first, was responsible, didn't drink, and wasn't a slut. In fact, she hadn't slept with a man since that horrible night when she was fifteen. Now she understood that she was too stupid and immature to know any better. That was a mistake that she never planned on making again.

She was nothing like Candy. Candy only lived for herself and that definitely wasn't Jill. She always put everyone else's needs and wants ahead of her own and she bent over backwards to help anyone who asked, which is exactly how she got herself into this little mess. It was one of the tiny little problems she was trying to work on.

She was a sucker for a sob story.

Everyone who worked or lived at the Corner Street shelter would agree wholeheartedly to that. She'd lost count of how many times she gave people chances that really didn't deserve one. It was the reason why she was written up at work at least four times a month when she worked at the shelter. It certainly didn't help that she was quick to forgive.

Thanks to her father, Madison, Grandma and especially Chris she was given a second chance at life and she felt like a hypocrite not giving someone else a chance. That didn't mean that she was a complete pushover no matter what anyone thought. She believed in giving second chances, but she never gave out third chances. Once someone burned a bridge with her that was it, she was done.

So far, Logan hadn't hurt her or let her down and when she found out that he was suffering she couldn't just sit by and let it continue. He made it easier to handle this situation and she couldn't just sit by while he was in pain. It probably wasn't the wisest decision that she'd ever made, but she made sure that he understood that she was only helping him and that she wasn't signing on to serve him.

"Then how do you explain giving yourself to a vampire?" he asked softly, looking down at her with open pity before pulling his arm away and once again moving towards the bathroom. "Get ready. We're leaving in ten minutes."

"Dad,-"

"Change of plans," Chris announced as he strolled into her room, carrying Izzy, who was noticeably fuming, and Kale hot on his heels and looking close to committing murder.

"You're not going," Kale gritted out.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, cupcake," Chris drawled lazily even as he ran an assessing eye over Jill to make sure that she was okay. Once he was satisfied that their father hadn't made her cry he let her know with a frown that they'd be having a talk later, probably a very loud talk.