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

Manhattan, New York

Present Day

"That dumb bastard is going to get us all killed," Kelly murmured as they crouched down in the wide tunnel. Danni couldn't agree more. Kelly jerked her head to the far right where one man stood apart from the others, looking bored.

"Except for him of course."

Danni looked at the only Pyte in the unit and she couldn't help but note the differences. Where some of the men, especially the lying rat bastard, who was leading the merry group of humans probably to their deaths, went overboard with their weapons and gear, he kept it simple. He wore a black tee shirt, black combat pants, and boots with only a knife at his side. His short bronze hair was naturally spiky with a mussed look most of the other men paid top dollar to achieve. The black spiral tattoo that started at the fingertips of his right hand and ran up his arm, over his shoulder, around his neck and finished along his jaw made him look dangerous. It also made his pale grey eyes look more menacing. While most of the men tried to look tough with spiky hair and tattoos he was the only one that carried it off, making the rest of the men look like country club kids playing dress up. Considering they were full humans working for the Sentinels the description was probably fitting.

Most of the members in this unit were children of Sentinels who either thought they were natural bad asses or had something to prove. Although she was the daughter of a Sentinel couple, she was neither here to prove herself, or to seek attention. The simple fact was that it was in her blood. She may not have been born a Sentinel, but she was born for this job. This was her life and she loved it.

Except for tonight of course.

Tonight she really wished she'd given into her headache, one of many lately, and stayed home. No doubt she could have helped prepare the infirmary for tonight's casualties. Sharp pain shot behind her eyes causing her to drop her head in her hands.

"Are you okay?" Kelly whispered.

"Yeah, just a side effect of listening to longwinded ass**les for too long," she explained, hoping Kelly would just drop it.

Thankfully she did. "I'm surprised he let you in on this, you know considering...," she trailed off.

So was Danni.

She really expected the lying bastard, a.k.a. Greg, to get back at her by keeping her off this mission, but of course that would have been stupid since they both knew she'd probably save this mission if, when, he f**ked up so he could get all the glory. She could really care less who got the credit, except she was afraid that he'd get promoted and would end up her boss. She really wouldn't be able to live with that. If that ever came to pass, and with his brownnosing abilities it was a likely possibility, she'd transfer to another human unit run by the Sentinel Council.

"Let's go over the plan once again to make sure that everyone understands the mission," Greg said. A collective groan rose up from the small group, echoing throughout the tunnel and causing sharp pain to shoot through Danni's head.

She rubbed her temples even as she had to ask herself if he was serious. They'd gone over the plan at the compound twice, once in the van on the way over here, and this would make it the third time in the tunnel. Danni looked at her watch and groaned.

In an hour the sun would set and the vampire nest they were about to invade would be able to escape the old underground tunnel system. Then they'd be out of luck in getting everyone in this particular nest together again. Once a nest broke up, it never formed again. The damn vampires would scatter, not trusting anyone for awhile, because they could never be sure who tipped off the Sentinels in the first place.

There was no way in hell Danni was going to sit here and listen to Greg ramble on nervously, giving her a killer headache and letting this nest full of ra**sts and murderers go free. Those were the crimes this particular nest was guilty of committing. Before any nest could be attacked or destroyed they had to be charged with a crime, which had to be proven. The last thing any Sentinel wanted to do was kill a group of "baggers", vampires who lived off bagged blood. They usually made very good allies, because they saw nests like this one as a threat to their peaceful existence.

"-if we keep to the south tunnels I think we can-"

Danni stopped listening as she closed her eyes and took deep calming breaths. Her headache was on the verge of becoming unmanageable. If they didn't move their asses and do this soon, she'd be completely useless. Maybe she should-

"What do you think you're doing?" Greg suddenly demanded.

Her eyes flew open half expecting to find Greg looking at her. Instead she found Greg glaring towards the right side of the tunnel. She followed his eyes and wasn't too surprised to find Caine throwing one of the explosive packs over his shoulder as he made his way to the tunnel entrance.

Actually, truth be told, she was a bit surprised the Pyte actually sat here listening to any of Greg's repetitive bullshit in the first place since he couldn't stand Greg. Never had. That had been very clear to her even when she was a young child when Caine had appointed himself as her self-appointed protector. Anytime Greg came too close to her, Caine would stare the boy down until Greg had no choice but to piss himself and run away. Caine never explained why he disliked the little boy so much and she never asked, too happy to have an adult to spend time with her and one that actually cared about her. That happiness ended abruptly when she was seventeen and he suddenly acted like he didn't know her.

The familiar ache started in her chest at the reminder of that lost friendship. He'd been her idol, her protector, and teacher. Losing his friendship was still one of the most painful experiences of her life. Her eyes darted to Greg. Thanks to the life lesson Caine taught her about being foolish enough to let someone get close to her, she'd been able to handle the humiliating end to her relationship with Greg three months ago.