Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel #3)(41)

If she was lucky all they'd do was incapacitate her by shooting her in the head or the heart and raping her until she gave them what they needed. But he knew they'd be too greedy to wait the sixteen years needed for her child to make its transformation into immortality so that it could give them what they wanted. They'd torture and starve her until she created an army of stronger vampires. They'd probably keep her chained up and only bring her out when they needed more vampires created. They wouldn't be able to go out in the sunlight, but the vampires Pytes could create would be a lot stronger than normal vampires and would be able to take down their enemies faster.

He watched as her beautiful violet eyes turned back to a fiery red and knew that it wouldn't be long before they figured out that Danni hadn't just been ill this past week. She'd been going through her transformation. It took longer than he thought, but then again her body had a lot of damage to repair. He'd been forced to feed her from his wrist, nearly making her choke on it as he rushed to get the blood down her throat before any of the guards thought to open the door and check on them. To make them think that she was still eating human food he dumped a portion of the food they gave her into the toilet three times a day. In fact, he'd just finished dumping her lunch portion down the toilet when she woke up. They had to hide her change if they had any chance of keeping her safe and judging by the horrified expression on her face she understood that.

"They'll do something horrible to you," she said, sounding close to tears as a tremor shot through her body. "They can't find out what you did, Caine."

Of course she didn't really get it, he thought dryly. He was worried about her and she was afraid for him when right now all she should care about was getting the hell out of here before they figured it out, but she couldn't. She was newly turned and didn't have control of all her abilities yet. She was also weak since the transformation took everything she had and he'd barely been able to keep up with her need to feed. Feeding from the bags was impossible for her now. There was no way she was going to be able to stop feeding the second they sensed someone approaching the door. She'd have to take her blood from him and he'd have to help her learn to control her skills and fast before they figured out that they got exactly what they wanted.

He couldn't stomach the idea of what they would do to her to get what they wanted. Thanks to him, she could never die and in a situation like this, that was a curse. No matter what they did to her she would live and suffer through every single minute of agony without any hope of relief. He knew all too well what kind of hell on earth that could be and he wouldn't allow her to experience it. He'd teach her what she needed to know and then he'd get her safely out of here.

"Listen to me, Danni," he said, gently cupping her face as he forced her to look up at him. "We're going to hide this from them for as long as we can. I'm going to do my best to show you how to survive, but I need you to listen and not fight me on this. Do you understand?"

She nodded her head slowly as she asked, "How are we going to do this?"

"The first thing we need to work on is controlling your eyes and fangs," he said, pushing her wet hair out of her face as her eyes widened in disbelief.

He watched as she ran the tip of her tongue over her teeth and winced when it came into contact with a sharp fang. When she reached up with a shaky hand to run a finger over her fangs, her heartbeat sped up and he knew she was seconds away from a breakdown.

She dropped her hands away from her face as her breathing quickened and she tried to move away, probably hoping that some space would change things. It wouldn't. Thanks to him she was a monster now and for a woman like Danni that was going to be difficult thing to accept.

"Let me go, Caine," she said, trying to pull away from him and move to the side, but he wouldn't let her go. Not when she was this close to losing it and bringing a lot of unwanted attention their way. He needed to get her to calm down before anyone walked into the room and realized what happened.

"Shhhhh, Danni, it's okay," he said, reaching up to cup her face only to find his hands shoved away as she frantically shook her head.

"Get the hell away from me, Caine, and let me deal with this," she said, giving him a shove that would have probably sent a human male flying across the room, but he'd been ready for it. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt like a bitch, but he ignored the pain and focused on getting her to calm down.

"Danni," he said, reaching to cup her face and this time he managed to do it. "I know this a shock, but I really need you to calm down," he said in what he thought was a soothing tone, but the smell of her agitation rising told a different story.

"I am calm, Caine," she said tightly, trying to shove his hands away from her face, but he wouldn't allow it. "If you just get the hell away from me I'd be a whole lot calmer."

"Sorry," he said, stepping closer. "I can't do that, Danni. I can't risk you giving yourself away."

"I'm not going to give myself away. I just need a goddamn second to think!" she snapped as the scent of her agitation spiked.

"Take all the time you need, Danni, but I'm not going to leave your side until you calm down."

She gave him another shove as she snapped, "I can't calm the hell down when your scent is making me hungry, you jackass!"