Tall, Dark & Lonely (Pyte/Sentinel #1)(111)

Joshua nodded. “She can have my seat I’m not afraid. I don’t care if she’s a vampire or not. I’m not scared.” His small eyes were focused on Caroline in an act of defiance.

“There’s no such thing as vampires, Joshua. Stop trying to scare me!” Candy screeched.

He went to move out of his spot when Chris reached out and grabbed his arm. “You sit right there and do not move!”

“But.-“

“But nothing. If you really want me to be your big brother then you’ll listen to me. You do not move an inch for her or I’m telling Dad and you know he’ll be pissed. You keep your little ass in the middle and do not move. She’ll be fine!”

“I don’t care about her. I just don’t want her panicking and getting you guys shot,” Joshua muttered.

“We’ll be fine. Just stay put so we know you’re okay,” Chris said, sucking in a deep breath. The movement had cost him.

“So, you want him to be your brother, do you?” Caroline asked. “Does that mean you want Ephraim to be your Daddy?” she asked mockingly.

“Yes,” Joshua said firmly.

Ephraim quickly took in the rest of the room. No vampires other than Caroline. He was not surprised. She wouldn’t want to share. Her aspiration was to be the most powerful vampire with large armies beneath her. In short, she wanted to be Queen with him as her king.

She wouldn’t take the chance of involving another vampire afraid the chance would be stolen from her. He closed his eyes and listened. He couldn’t hear any other heart beats inside the house. He focused more on the outside and found one, probably the driver.

“What if I told you that your Daddy was just like me, but worse?” Caroline asked, clearly enjoying tormenting his little boy. He was absolutely going to kill her.

He watched as Joshua folded his arms across his bare chest. “You’re a liar.”

Caroline giggled. “Oh, I assure you I’m not. Why do you think we’re here? We need his blood.”

“He’s nothing like you!” Joshua yelled.

She threw her head back and laughed harder. “Oh, we’ll see, won’t we?”

“What’s going on here?” a new voice asked.

Ephraim’s eyes shot to the hallway beside the stair. He was going to spank her ass until she couldn’t walk, then he was going to do it some more.

Madison stepped into the room.

*******

Did he really think she could sit back and wait? She spent the last half hour pacing the room before she had enough. After sticking a small cross in her bra and a stake in the back of her pants she decided enough was enough. She crept up the stairs and then rushed into the foyer, knowing that it wouldn’t take Ephraim more than a few seconds to sense her and force her back.

Her only hope was that Caroline wouldn’t be able to sense the change in her. Ephraim promised vampires couldn’t smell Pytes only shifters could. Their scents were invisible to vampires. Madison prayed he was right. He said all vampires suspected they were human until they tasted their blood or of course changed in front of them.

Caroline smiled triumphantly in front of her, showing her fangs off proudly. With a wave of her hand she sent two men to drag Madison into the small group sitting on the floor. The scent of Chris’s blood hit her hard. She didn’t have a lot of practice with the scent of blood, but she knew enough to know that his was different. It smelled sweet and inviting, too inviting. It was a natural booby-trap Sentinels had. The blood would kill a vampire on the first bite.

“So very nice of you to join us. You’ve just made my job of hunting you down a lot easier. Now we just have to wait for Ephraim. I assume he’s going around the house trying to kill my men?”

“I have no idea where he is,” she said.

Caroline stepped in front of the guns and bent down. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply above Madison. She knew. She knew she’d changed. Her plan failed. Madison was about to hit the woman, hoping to knock her out so she could save her family when Caroline reacted a bit differently than she'd expected.

“You bitch!” Caroline snapped. She stepped back with her eyes shimmering silver. Damn it, she did know. They were going to shoot the kids now.

Madison put an arm around Jill and Joshua hoping it would be enough to protect them. She knew it wouldn’t be. She had to figure out a way to use her new abilities to get them out of here.

“You’ve been with him! I can smell him all over you! You bitch!” she shrieked again.

Madison turned to look at Caroline and did her best to hide her relief. “He’s mine,” she said firmly, hoping to keep the woman distracted long enough to figure out how to get everyone to safety.

Caroline’s face contorted in anger. “Not for long I guarantee that.” She walked away until she stood directly in front of their little group. She snapped her fingers. One of the men lowered his gun and brought her a chair. She sat down, crossing her legs at the ankles and leaned in with her chin resting on her fists.

“I want to see the looks on their faces when you tell them what Ephraim really is.” When Madison made no move to speak Caroline added. “If you don’t tell them I’ll shoot them one by one starting with the old woman.”

Chris tried to sit up. “You lay still,” Eleanor hissed.