Tall, Silent & Lethal (Pyte/Sentinel 4)

“How much b-blood am I supposed to drink a day?” she forced herself to ask.

“Four bags a day should help you stay in control,” he answered, knowing damn well that’s what she was worried about, losing control.

She seemed to consider his words before she asked, “And you’re sure that there are no other options?”

His gaze lingered on the kitchen island covered with open food containers and shook his head, wishing that there was another way to do this for her. “This is the only way.”

“Okay,” she said, shifting nervously as she watched him cut a small hole in one of the bags and pour the red liquid in two cups before he carefully placed the opened bag of blood in a plastic bowl by the sink.

“And this will stop the cravings?” she asked, sounding hopeful and he should have lied to give her this small amount of comfort, but he didn’t.

“No, but it will make things more tolerable,” he said, deciding not to use the fact that the scent of her blood probably still had the power to shred every last ounce of his control if he allowed it.

Since that most likely wouldn’t comfort her, he handed her a cup of cold blood and held his up in a mock salute. “Cheers,” he said, chuckling as she shot him another glare.

“I hate you,” she ground out as he hid his grin behind his cup and took a long, leisurely sip of his blood. He watched her every move, afraid that she would balk at the idea of drinking blood and he’d be forced to-

“Oh my God!” she choked out as she pulled the mug away from her lips after taking him by surprise and swallowing a large gulp of the cold, metallic liquid that admittedly took some time getting used to. “That’s disgusting!”

“Yes, it is,” he agreed with a pleased chuckle as he took another sip of his blood just as she did, further shocking him.

He’d expected her to throw the cup in the sink and go back to her “experiments” or play twenty questions with him again, no doubt hoping that she’d stumble across something that he’d missed, but Cloe it seemed, was determined to get through this. She wanted control of this thing and was willing to do anything to get it. Although he knew that she hadn’t fully accepted what happened to her or was even happy about it, he was relieved that she was no longer fighting him on this.

It was going to make taking her with him a hell of a lot easier if he knew that she could take care of herself or at the very least, he mused as he took another sip of blood, keep herself from attacking everyone in sight.

Chapter 30

“Are you sure that you’re okay?” Christofer suddenly asked and she’d just barely stopped herself from flinching.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said absently as she pulled her legs up and shot another nervous glance around the large penthouse, her gaze pausing on all the doors and the large windows before reluctantly returning to the large flat screen television above the fireplace where some horrible romantic comedy was playing.

“Are you planning on staying up?”

“Uh huh,” she murmured, struggling not to glance around the large open space to make sure that everything was still as it should be.

“Do you want some company?” he asked, pushing away from the kitchen island.

She shrugged, trying not to let him know just how much she wanted him to stay with her. She didn’t want him to know how badly their little “talk” had affected her. When he’d volunteered to answer her questions, she’d been relieved and admittedly a little excited to find out what else she could do now. A lot of the stuff that she’d learned like being able to see in the dark, being able to float and having inhuman strength had definitely helped take the sting out of her new predicament, but the other things that he’d explained to her had scared the hell out of her.

Not that he knew that.

As he explained things to her along with the new dangers that went hand in hand with her new existence, she’d forced herself to sit there and listen, making sure to nod at the appropriate times while she’d struggled to make sense of what he was telling her. She knew that there was still a lot of information that she didn’t know, that he most likely didn’t know either, but what she knew now had her terrified to take so much as a step outside of this building.

The monsters that had haunted her dreams and memories all these years, the ones that everyone including her therapists had claimed were just a figment of her traumatized imagination were in fact, real. Christofer hadn’t been able to give her much information about them other than they were apparently very real. A part of her had always wished that the therapists and doctors had been right, that her injuries were just an unfortunate circumstance from the fire, but deep down she knew that she hadn’t imagined the terrifying memories from that night.

Until Christofer had explained what he’d learned, she’d been able to pretend that there was a possibility that those monsters really didn’t exist, but now there was no point in pretending any longer. She’d been attacked by shifters, aka werewolves.

When he’d shared that bit of information with her, she’d had to force herself to pretend that the news didn’t bother her when all she wanted to do was run to the rooms where her bags had been placed and tear through her stuff until she found her medication and make everything go numb. She hadn’t taken them in years, because she hated the way that they made her feel. She should have just thrown them away years ago when she’d decided to stop taking the damn things, but part of her had been afraid that she’d need them again.

So, she kept them in her bags, refilled them when they expired and pretended that she was fine. Only now, things weren’t fine and she couldn’t stop thinking about them. The only thing that stopped her from getting them was the knowledge that she would need a level head if she was going to get through this and the fact that Christofer had explained that medicine, drugs and alcohol would no longer affect her.

After digesting that depressing information, she’d asked him more questions, hoping to distract herself from the knowledge of what waited out there for her. A few hours later she had more than enough information to keep her busy freaking out for a while. Now she was freaked out, stuffed from drinking too much blood, exhausted and too damn nervous to close her eyes.

She tried to tell herself that the worst was over now, but she had a feeling that Ephraim and his group were going to prove her wrong. They’d brought them here for a reason and tomorrow morning she’d no doubt find out that reason and probably tumble headlong into a nervous breakdown.