Tall, Silent & Lethal

Page 46

At least he didn’t have to worry about these two Pytes creating any little bastards that he’d eventually have to put down before they hit their immortality, he mused, shaking his head in disgust at Ephraim’s attempts to explain their world to this woman. He really should have saved the whole “we heal from everything” part of the speech until the end. Even Kale knew what the woman was going to do as soon as Ephraim had made that little announcement.
Sure enough, as soon as Ephraim had finished explaining how Pytes could heal from absolutely everything, and he would know, the seriously pissed off, but curious, woman had stormed into the kitchen to find out for herself. He’d known exactly what she was planning when she’d eyed that large butcher knife and he could have easily stopped her, but….well, he really hadn’t cared enough to try.
“Lying bastard!” Cloe yelled, struggling to get away from Ephraim, who was still trying to get her to drink some blood.
He probably should have explained that Pytes only heal quickly if they’d fed recently or drank blood after they were injured. Otherwise it could take a while for their injuries to heal. Since this woman had only been turned a few days ago and refused to drink blood, she didn’t have enough blood stored away to handle even a tiny scratch never mind that huge gash on her palm.
“Get the hell away from me, you bastard!” Cloe snapped at Ephraim as she continued to struggle to get away. The trio, who were only f**king this up more, were trying to slow the bleeding down before Cloe could slip into bloodlust from blood loss and they had to deal with more bullshit.
A small chime brought his attention back to his phone and the job that was waiting for him. He didn’t have time for this bullshit. He had a job waiting for him and he needed to get going. He looked over at the Pyte who should be handling this and sighed.
The bastard sat on the loveseat, looking bored. Christofer’s focus was on the floor to ceiling glass window and his eyes were a calm crystal blue instead of the fiery red that he’d expected. Kale was curious how the Pyte managed to control that reaction, looking as though he didn’t give a rat’s ass that his mate was being manhandled by three other men, but he knew the truth. The Pyte was just barely holding himself back. The scent of fury poured off him in waves. His heart was pounding against his chest even as he appeared relaxed, bored.
Interesting…..
Curious to see if he could break through that façade, and admittedly a little bored himself, Kale walked over to the small group, keeping his attention on the Pyte in front of him, reached out and with the very tip of his finger. He’d barely touched Cloe’s arm when he suddenly found himself soaring through the air courtesy of a seriously pissed off Pyte.
Chapter 26
“Get him off me!”
“Man the f**k up!” Chris snapped as he tried to pull Christofer off Kale and failed, judging by the way he was suddenly sent flying through the large room.
“Grab his legs!” Ephraim ordered Caine as he moved to grab Christofer by the arms and-
Went flying across the room to join Chris, who was just getting to his feet before stumbling and falling back on his ass next to his father. With a muttered, “Should just let him tear the shifter apart,” Caine grabbed Christofer by the legs and yanked him back and-
Landed on top of Chris and Ephraim with a pained grunt just as the two of them struggled to get back to their feet. Sighing heavily, Danni moved to make an attempt to pull Christofer off Kale, but all three men on the floor yelled, “No!” in unison.
Sighing in disgust, Danni walked past Christofer and Kale, and picked up the bag of blood that Ephraim had dropped in order to rush to Kale’s aid. With another roll of her eyes and a muttered, “pathetic,” she walked past the trio still struggling to get to their feet, plopped down on the couch and tossed the bag of blood on the coffee table.
“Fucking hell!” Kale groaned as he shoved Christofer back in order to gain some ground, but within seconds Christofer was back on top of him, beating the shit out of him.
“Is he in bloodlust?” Chris asked, panting heavily as he shoved Caine off his legs and finally managed to get to his feet.
“Don’t you ever f**king touch her again!” Christofer snapped, laying punch after punch on Kale’s face and chest as Kale returned the favor, punching Christofer, landing several nasty blows that had Cloe wincing and wondering what she should be doing. Then she remembered that she was supposed to be standing there, bleeding all over the kitchen because the bastard just getting to his feet had lied.
“Does that answer your question?” Ephraim asked, groaning as he stretched his back, a loud crack accompanying the action.
“He’s coherent,” Chris said, sounding impressed as he gestured for his father and Caine to get back in there.
With a snort, Caine stumbled past them and headed to the fridge to grab two bags of blood before returning to the living room section of the large open space. He tossed Ephraim a bag as he joined Danni on the couch. Ephraim watched the fight for a good minute while he drank the blood, at which time Cloe had to force herself to look away before she got sick. Not because the sight of him drinking blood disgusted her, but because her stomach actually growled viciously at the sight.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She tried to focus on the pain in her hand, but the cold water had numbed it by this point. It made it difficult to focus on anything but the tantalizing scents around her. They teased her, making her realize just how hungry she was. She didn’t want to notice how good the air smelled. Even the overly sweet scent coming from Chris was mouthwatering. She’d never considered herself one of those girls with an uncontrollable sweet tooth before.
As she slowly inhaled, savoring his scent, she had to wonder just how much sugar he had to ingest to end up smelling like pure sugar. She didn’t know much about Sentinels other than they weren’t human, but she couldn’t imagine that ingesting sugar like it was going out of style could be good for him. Turned off by the idea of eating something overly sweet, she moved onto the other scents competing for her attention.
She scented a heavily metallic odor and immediately wrinkled her nose in distaste. It didn’t take much to figure out that she’d smelled the bagged blood the trio on the couch was drinking. If they thought that she was going to willingly subject herself to that crap then they were out of their-
An enticing aroma grabbed her attention. Her stomach growled viciously as she breathed in the slightly spicy scent with just a hint of that metallic odor, but this time her stomach didn’t turn in disgust. Instead her stomach rumbled, demanding the delicious treat that she was scenting. Confused, and really hoping that she was smelling a medium rare steak cooking somewhere in the building, she opened her eyes to find her focus already zeroed in on its source.
And that’s when she finally lost it.
*-*-*-*
“Cloe, open the door,” he said, sighing heavily in exasperation as he reached up and wiped away the blood dripping in his eye.
“Just leave me alone,” she said softly, too soft for the human ear to pick up, but he didn’t have that problem.
He could hear everything going on in that room, which was how he knew that Cloe, the woman terrified of enclosed spaces, was hiding in a closet. It was enough for him to know just how poorly she was handling this new situation. It also made him feel like more of an ass**le for not helping her. She hated him and if she didn’t, she should.