Tall, Silent & Lethal (Pyte/Sentinel #4)(72)

She needed him.

Not that she planned on letting him know that. That would give him too much power and right now, he already had more than enough power over her. She was new to their world, unsure of herself and completely dependent on him. It wasn’t something that she was comfortable with, but for now she would endure it.

Biting her lip, she watched him disappear around the corner. It took everything that she had to keep her butt on the couch, which apparently hadn’t been all that much, because not even two seconds later she was moving to get off the couch and follow him and-

Scream her head off!

“What’s wrong?” Christofer asked, looking puzzled as he sat down next to her, shifting the large sketchpad on his lap as he got comfortable.

Still gasping for air, she looked from him towards the hallway where she saw him disappear only a few seconds before and then back to him to find him shooting her a curious look as he opened the sketchpad to a blank page. Having absolutely no idea what just happened or how he got back so fast without her seeing him, she decided to just sit there, struggling to catch her breath as she shot another curious look between him and the hallway.

“Oh,” Christofer said with a frown. “Did I forget to mention that we could move pretty quickly when we need to?”

Gaping at him, she nodded her head, because she was pretty sure that she would have remembered being told that she now had the Road Runner’s skills.

With a shrug, he said, “Well, we can move pretty quickly for short periods.”

“Apparently,” she mumbled, shooting one last look between him and the hallway. For about thirty seconds she flirted with the idea of seeing just how fast she could move, but with a shrug she returned her attention to the television, deciding that with her luck she’d most likely end up running through a wall.

A few minutes later her breathing had calmed down and she’d managed to find an Indiana Jones movie to watch. She relaxed back and focused on the movie while Christofer continued to scribble in his sketchpad. This was actually nice, she thought as she shifted on the couch and-

Let out another embarrassing squeal as all the lights went out and she suddenly found herself enveloped in hues of blue.

“Did I forget to mention that everything turned blue in the dark?” Christofer asked conversationally, but she didn’t miss the amusement in his tone or the way his lips twitched.

“Bastard,” she muttered with a scowl as she decided that her sanity couldn’t take another surprise tonight and got off the couch and headed for the hallway, forcing herself to keep moving no matter how badly she wanted to turn around and run back to the couch and into the bastard’s arms.

*-*-*-*

“This isn’t so bad,” she mumbled, squeezing her eyes shut even tighter as she pulled the blankets all the way up to her chin and shifted onto her side as she tried to convince her brain to fall asleep quickly with promises that everything would be back to normal by tomorrow morning.

Apparently her brain wasn’t buying a single syllable of bullshit that she was giving it. Tomorrow wouldn’t be fine and most likely the day after wouldn’t be either. She wasn’t sure that anything would ever be fine, not when she was now confined to a life of secrecy and drinking blood out of coffee mugs.

How exactly was she supposed to hide what she was? she wondered with a disgruntled groan as she shifted onto her side and-

Let out another scream!

“Shhh, it’s just me,” Christofer whispered soothingly as he gently pushed her hair out of her face and gently cradled her face in his large, warm hand.

“That’s why I was screaming!” she snapped, reaching up and shoving his hand away even as she noticed that her heart wasn’t beating frantically against her ribs and her breathing was normal when she should be freaking out and struggling to take her next breath after finding a man suddenly lounging in bed next to her.

She shouldn’t be feeling her body start to relax, but that’s exactly what it was doing. As soon as her body registered that Christofer was in bed next to her, she’d felt herself begin to relax, her breaths evening out and her eyelids becoming increasingly heavy in a matter of seconds as she struggled to remain awake so that she could finally give him a piece of her mind for all the bullshit that he’d put her through and for continuing to scare the shit out of her. It soon became apparent that finally telling him off wasn’t going to happen, at least not tonight.

Not when it felt so good to lie next to him.

But her pride refused to accept this situation, needing to put up the façade of a fight for self-preservation, because even as she muttered, “Get out,” she knew that if he tried to leave her right now that she would tackle his ass to the ground and make him stay. At least, for tonight, she told herself, once again more than willing to lie to herself so that she could take the comfort that Christofer was offering without hating herself.

“Is that what you really want, mein Schatz?” he asked softly as he lightly ran the back of his knuckles along her jaw, sending a wave of pleasure through her body that had her unconsciously shifting closer to him, greedy for his touch.

“Yes,” she whispered harshly. She reached out to push him away, but as soon as her hand touched the warm bare skin of his shoulder, she found herself wrapping an unsteady hand around the back of his neck in a desperate attempt to keep him close.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he promised her as she registered the feel of his large warm hand mimicking her hold on him. He gently pulled her closer until his forehead was touching hers.