Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel #3)(17)

If he'd been able to push her away years ago and not care whether she'd lived or died then this never would have happened. It was his fault that she was here, why they were here. His sentimental feelings for this woman were used against him. They were a weakness, one he would correct starting now.

"No," she said firmly, her little glare never wavering as she looked up at him.

"No you don't understand or-"

"No, as in you don't control me, Caine. So back the hell off. If you want me to listen to you then you'd better come up with a plan real damn fast to get us out of here otherwise stay the hell out of my way," she said, not backing down one damn bit when he growled.

"Now if you don't mind I'd like to finish my shower."

"Then finish it," he said through clenched teeth as he reached out and shut off the hot water. Then, with a simple flick of his hand he broke the hot water knob off so that he wouldn't have to endure having her scent shoved down his throat again.

"You son of a bitch," she said, looking pissed enough to ring his neck, but he didn't care. Let her hate him. It would make what he had to do so much easier.

"Enjoy your shower," he said, reaching out and turning the cold water on at full blast before he flashed away from her. He ignored her little surprised scream and focused his attention on the cooler.

He wiped the water off his face with his hand as he sat down in front of the cooler. His hands actually shook as he grabbed the first bag of blood. He was so f**king close to going back over to her and ripping her throat open.

Maybe he should do just that and put himself out of his misery, he thought, but just as quickly shoved the thought away again. He didn't want to take the chance on being stuck in here for years without blood and he sure as hell didn't want to deal with whatever annoying female they threw in here after her. For now, he'd tolerate her, but from here on out she was completely on her own. He wouldn't allow her to be a weapon used against him.

"I hope you choke on it," she bit out as she stormed past him.

This was going to be so much fun, he thought dryly as he tore into the bag.

********

Four days, four days without food, anyone to talk to or anything to do besides pace the room and ignore the jerk who sat in the corner. He acted like nothing was wrong. Then again, he wasn't the one starving and a few days to someone like him, who would live forever was barely even a drop in the bucket, but she felt every single minute of it.

It was hard not to, with desperation crawling up her spine while fighting against constant nausea and hunger. She did not want to die here, not like this. She'd fought too hard for too long to let it all end like this. When her time came she wanted to be doing what she loved, fighting.

Spending her remaining days with a man who couldn't stand her was not the way she wanted to go. This was unacceptable and she sure as hell wasn't going to take it lying down. Slowly, she sat up, trying not to wince as sharp pain shot through her head, but she ignored it. It wasn't the worst pain she'd ever felt and it sure as hell wasn't going to keep her down.

She hadn't eaten in four days and she was weakening every hour. If she didn't do something now she wouldn't have any energy to do anything later, if an opportunity arose. It was now or never, she decided, getting to her feet as she fought back a surge of dizziness as nausea decided to make an appearance that sent her back down on her butt.

If this didn't work then maybe they could just knock her out. At least if she was out she could pretend she wasn't starving or sick to her stomach and give her body a chance to rest. Taking a deep breath she tried to stand up again. When her head didn't spin and threaten to knock her back on her ass she took that as a good sign and started walking towards the shower.

As she walked past Caine she did her best to ignore the bastard. Not once since he'd broken the shower had he spoken to her, which wasn't really a shock since he'd been ignoring her for years. It didn't stop it from hurting. The part of her that hoped he still cared for her, if even a little over the years, died a slow painful death over the past couple of days.

He didn't care about her. She'd love to say that he'd never cared about her and just allowed her to hang around him when she was a little girl out of boredom, but she couldn't. There was no doubt in her mind that he cared about her when she was younger, but somehow, somewhere along the line she'd done something to ruin that and she had absolutely no idea what the hell that could be.

Right now she didn't care. Right now she wished she was alone, because she sure as hell didn't find his presence comforting. Actually, it was even more painful having the one person who used to mean everything to her treat her like she was nothing. He used to be her entire world, the one person she could go to for absolutely anything.

Her parents were kind people, but they'd taken their jobs very seriously. While most Sentinels craved having a family to take their minds off work, to have a little peace in their lives her parents hadn't. She'd been a mistake. After a hundred and twenty years her parents had an accident and she was the result.

In the beginning they tried to make her the center of their world, but they couldn't. They couldn't pretend their duty wasn't the most important thing in their lives and even as a child she'd understood they helped people. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt when her parents left at a moment's notice, gone for days, weeks and sometimes months at time. She tried not to let it bother her, but sometimes it hurt knowing that she didn't rate very high in their lives.