Tall, Dark & Lonely (Pyte/Sentinel #1)(59)

Loud growls filled the air. She watched as the black man shook his head violently while keeping his teeth in Ephraim’s neck. Blood began pouring from that wound at an astonishing rate.

His eyes shut and he roared. “Go now!” It was soon followed by a scream of agony. The man on his torso pulled back dissatisfied with the flow of blood and ripped into Ephraim’s arm.

“No! Ephraim!”

His head dropped to the side. He was out. The vampires tightened their hold on him so that he wouldn’t drop to the ground. They weren’t about to lose any blood when they were this close to their goal.

“We have to get help, Madison!” Chris tried to drag her back.

The blonde woman pulled back smiling. The bottom of her face was covered in red blood and shined grotesquely under the headlights. “Oh, don’t rush off on our accounts we’d….we’d..” Her hand went to her stomach. She moaned softly and then groaned. “Why does it hurt?” She dropped to the ground and started screaming.

One by one the men released Ephraim to grab their stomachs. They were thrashing and screaming as Ephraim fell to the ground with a loud thud.

“Grab him!” Madison finally managed to get away from Chris. He was too stunned to hold her at the moment.

Madison reached Ephraim. “Oh, god no.” His throat was practically ripped out. He was covered in so much blood. “Chris!”

“Madison, you have to leave him! He’s going to turn into one of them.” Chris’s eyes were focused on the blonde's open mouth as she screamed. Her fangs glimmered in the light.

“Chris, I need your help!” Madison screamed.

That made him jump and reluctantly focus on her. “Okay, okay, okay, let’s just get out of here. We’ll bring him to the emergency room.”

“No, I have something else in mind.”

********

“A tub? Are you crazy? I can see his f**king windpipe and you put him in a tub?” Chris’ body shook. “He’s going to die, Madison! We have to get him some help!”

“No, he needs to be here.” She left him to go into his room and grabbed the key hidden under his DVD player and unlocked the mini fridge.

“I’m calling 911, Madison. He needs help.” Chris grabbed Ephraim’s phone and began dialing.

Madison lunged for the phone. “No, trust me.”

“Trust you? He’s dying and you want to do what? What the hell are you going to do?”

She turned her back on him and packed her arms with bags of blood. “I’m going to feed him.”

“A-are those what I think they are?” his voice sounded weak as he stared nervously at the blood in her arms.

“Yes, don’t worry, Chris, he’s a good guy.”

“He’d better be,” he mumbled.

Madison went into the bathroom. She heard wood snap behind her. “What are you doing?”

Chris walked into the room holding a homemade stake. “Sorry about the chair, but you understand.” He stood protectively over Madison with the stake raised and ready to drive it into Ephraim should he make a wrong move.

“Let me feed him and everything will be fine.”

“No one’s stopping you.”

“Punk,” she mumbled.

“How are you going to feed him? He’s unconscious,” Chris pointed out.

“Good question. I could pour it down his throat, but he wouldn’t swallow. I need his fangs to come out.”

“He has fangs?” Chris squeaked.

“Yes, now if I could get them to drop we’d be in business.” She gently pried his mouth open and pressed the bag to his teeth.

“What are you doing?”

She sighed. “I was hoping his teeth would come out if he felt the bag against his mouth.”

“He needs to smell blood I bet.” Chris pulled out a pocket knife. “Here cut the bag.”

She opened the knife, but paused. “He needs something stronger than bagged blood to get him going.”

“What are you talking about?”

Madison pressed the knife to her wrist. “Just trust me.”

“What are you doing? No! Madison, don’t!” He reached out for the knife too late. She nicked her wrist. Blood began welling up in the area.

“Now what?” Chris asked.

“I-“

Two strong hands clasped around her wrist, pulling her into the tub. She fell on top of Ephraim. Seconds later her wrist was in his mouth. She felt two sharp points pierce her skin and tried to yank her arm away. One hand released her arm, but the other tightened painfully.

She looked up to see Ephraim stare at her with fiery red eyes. He looked pained.

He watched in agony as Madison tried to pull away from him. He couldn’t stop. He couldn’t. Blood lust more powerful than he’d ever known was taking him over. His brain was screaming to release her, but he couldn’t.

The scent of her blood called him out of the darkness. He didn’t know what he was doing until her blood rushed down his throat. It was the sweetest most enticing flavor he’d ever experienced. It was a thousand times better than he imagined it would be.

“Let her go!” Chris yelled. He brought down a stake aimed at Ephraim’s chest and Madison's arm. Ephraim’s hand shot out and pushed Chris away, hard. He would have hit Madison’s arm.