PS03 - Tall, Dark & Heartless (10 page)

remote in his hand.

"No need. Take the anklet off and I'd be glad to go with you," she said tightly as she elbowed one of the men in the gut. He

released her with a gasp. As she turned her attention on the other man holding her, new hands grabbed her.

"Bind her hands," Greg said in a bored tone as he gestured towards her.

Several pairs of hands clamped down on her biceps as an arm wound around her neck and yanked her back into a large

cool body. Every time she tried to fight against their hold the arm around her neck tightened considerably until she was left

with no choice but to stay still or pass out. Since there was no way that she was going to pass out and leave herself at the mercy

of the asshole in front of her, she stopped struggling.

As her hands were bound by rope she locked eyes on Greg, refusing to look away or allow him to intimidate her. No

matter what he did to her, she would not react in any way. She sure as hell wouldn't scream for help from the bastard that made

it more than obvious that he couldn't care less what happened to her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as several vampires rolled a large clear rectangular box filled more than

halfway with water and chunks of ice towards them. Knowing that he was watching her, she refused to react when it was rolled

in front of her. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he had in mind.

"Now, I know what you're thinking," Greg said, holding up the small remote.

"That you're overcompensating?" she said innocently.

Instead of zapping her like she'd expected he simply chuckled.

"Ah, Danni, always a bitch," he sighed heavily. "I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to worry. Your cuff is

completely water proof so the water won't short it out and I can zap you all I want without worrying about accidentally

electrocuting you. Isn't that great?" he asked brightly.

"Super," she said with forced cheerfulness and a huge taunting smile just to piss him off.

It worked.

His smug little grin was immediately replaced with a scowl in her direction as he gestured to the men holding her to place

her in the tub. As she was raised into a lying position and held over the tub she tried to struggle, but it was no use. Taking

several deep calming breaths she did her best to prepare herself for what lay ahead. Just when her breathing was even and she

got some control over herself the bastard went and zapped her, distracting her so that when she was lowered into the ice cold

water she wasn't prepared for it.

Her scream of agony was quickly cut off by ice cold water. She swallowed a mouthful of water before she could stop

herself. It caused her to gag and inadvertently swallow more water. Just as her lungs began to burn, she was pulled out of the

water.

She wasted no time in turning her head and coughing up the water she'd swallowed. Barely a second after she coughed up

the last mouthful of water he zapped her again, but this time she somehow managed to bite back the scream of agony that

threatened to be her downfall.

When she was lowered into the water this time, she managed to hold her breath. She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to

focus on anything other than the cramps spreading throughout her chest. Just when she didn't think she could hold her breath any

longer she was hauled out of the tub. She took a deep breath as she felt a surge of electricity shoot up her leg. She barely

registered the men holding her suddenly letting her go as she dropped back down into the water.

Somehow she managed not to scream as she ground her jaw shut and tried to relax against the surge of electricity that

made her body go taut with pain. It hurt so much, so damn much and she wasn't sure how much more she could take before she

broke down. Her only hope was that she'd pass out, but she doubted he'd allow even that. Before the last surge of electricity

left her body, they grabbed her and pulled her out once again.

Fingers gripped her chin, painfully, forcing her to open her eyes. "Scream for him, bitch. Scream for help and I'll stop,"

Greg snarled.

"Go to....hell," she bit out as she fought to catch her breath while the pain intensified until it seemed to seep into her

bones.

"Thanks to you, I won't have to," he said coldly as he zapped her and she was once again shoved beneath the water and

quickly released.

When she was completely submerged in the water he zapped her again and again. With each shock water made its way

down her throat and into her lungs. Her lungs began to burn as her head started to pound and her thoughts became fuzzy and

frantic. She opened her eyes as she intensified her struggles, desperate for air as she was zapped again. Her movements

became wild and ineffective as the pain worsened.

Just when she didn't think she could take another second the water above her turned red and she let go.

Chapter 8

"I'm going to kill that bitch," Greg muttered as he gripped the prescription bottle between his knees and popped the top

with his hand. He dropped his head back and dumped two pain killers into his mouth. He swallowed them dry as his eyes

narrowed on the flat screen monitors.

He watched as the bastard paced the long room, his eyes shooting from the unconscious woman lying on the bed to the

locked door where his men made a hasty retreat over eighteen hours ago as they dragged him out of the room. From what his

men told him, Caine had been pacing the room the entire time. His eyes remained a fiery red and his fangs had yet to retract.

Although it pleased him that the bastard reacted, he wasn't happy with the results. He looked down at his freshly wrapped

stub where his left arm should be and ground his jaw. An eternity as a cripple, he thought bitterly. If the Master had changed

him when he'd asked him to, he wouldn't have to worry about this. His arm would have grown back with rest and blood, but as

a human he had no such hope. He'd been fortunate that one of the vampires here had been a doctor in his human life. The man

was talented with a scalpel, but not talented enough, he thought bitterly.

It was all that bitch's fault, he thought acidly as his eyes once again landed on her unconscious form. If she had screamed

for help when he told her to, he wouldn't be facing a very long life without half his arm when he was turned. All she had to do

was show a little weakness and make the Pyte protective of her, but the bitch fought him nearly to the end.

A few more seconds and she would have been dead. He'd been fine with that, more than fine actually. As he shoved her

down to the bottom, careful to release her when the electricity flowed, and continued to release surges of electricity into her

body he'd actually been relieved that the bastard hadn't muttered a sound in protest. It meant that he was free to finally kill the

bitch.

He knew the Master wouldn't be pleased, but if Caine wasn't willing to help Danni then it was obvious that she wouldn't

be useful for their plans. He'd just resigned himself to enjoy killing her and finding another female when an unholy roar shook

the room. Before he could turn around he found the arm that had been holding the bitch down torn from his body. As his men

fled the room, dragging him behind them, he watched as the cold bastard pulled Danni out of the water.

"The Master said not to hurt the woman again," Lucan, the Master's right hand, said in a cold tone.

Greg ground his jaw as he forced his eyes to remain on the monitor. He hated the bastard almost as much as he hated being

forced to deal with him since the Master refused to bother with him until he finished this project. The Master didn't deal with

minions directly. That was Lucan's job.

He hated being considered a minion almost as much as he hated being the human child of a Sentinel, but that would end

soon. After he completed this project and he was changed, he fully planned on showing the Master the error of his ways and

taking Lucan's job. In time, he'd take his rightful place as Master.

********

"Get up, Danni," Caine commanded, but she couldn't. She was too tired and weak, although that's not what stopped her.

The small sparks of pain going off in her head let her know that she wouldn't be getting up again for quite some time. She

turned to bury her face against the soft mattress as the light began to bother her. It didn't matter that her eyes were closed, she

couldn't tolerate any light right now. She knew from experience that it was only going to get worse before it got better.

As much as she would love to find out why Caine decided that she was worthy to speak to again, she decided to give into

her exhaustion and pain and go back to sleep. If she was lucky she'd sleep through this migraine. That would only happen if

Greg decided to leave her the hell alone.

The idea of him taking his anger and frustration out on her while she had one of her migraines turned her stomach. She

probably would have vomited if her body hadn't chosen that moment to drift off.

*********

"Are you going to stay awake this time?" Caine asked tightly as the sounds of chains being dragged across the floor teased

her now thankfully, dull headache.

She slowly rolled over onto her side and frowned at the sight that met her. Caine's eyes were bright red, his fangs were

down and for some godforsaken reason, he was prowling back and forth like a caged animal.

Her eyes shot over to the glass case that was filled with light pink water. Was that her blood? she wondered as she tried

to sit up, but couldn't. She was too weak and tired, a nasty side effect from one of her migraines that had only been made worse

by starving and the fun little torture Greg had thought up.

As she tried to find the energy to get up and use the bathroom she looked at the pink watery mess on the floor. When she

couldn't detect any pain that would go along with that much blood loss she wondered what the hell happened. She looked back

at the tank for a clue and that's when she saw it.

"Look away," Caine snapped and she was helpless to disobey at the moment. Her stomach was already queasy. She didn't

need to stare at half an arm floating in the water to make it worse.

"What happened?" she asked, proud that her voice sounded normal.

"Greg left us a parting gift," he answered and she didn't have to look back to know that he was still pacing back and forth.

The sounds of his chains dragging across the floor gave him away.

Her lips twitched despite the nausea that threatened to take over. She curled onto her side, using her right arm as a pillow

as she pressed her left hand against her stomach in an attempt to stop the hunger pains that were starting to make their presence

known. She just needed a little more rest then she could make her way to the shower and fill up with water while taking a cold

shower thanks to Caine, she thought with a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong?" Cain asked, sounding almost.....concerned?

Had hell frozen over? she wondered idly as her stomach began to cramp down. As much as she'd love to lay there and rest

for a while, if she didn't get to the shower area now she'd probably be too sick to do it later.

She rolled over onto her side, took a deep breath and sat up as she averted her eyes from the morbid scene to her left

since the last thing her stomach needed was dry heaves. Using her trembling arms she pushed herself onto her shaky legs, but

didn't get far before her butt landed back on the mattress again.

"What are you doing?" Caine demanded.

"Why do you care?" she snapped weakly, hating being this weak, this whole situation, and the inevitable future that she

faced.

She needed to get out of here before it was too late. This wasn't the way she wanted things to end. As long as she'd still

been able to work, to function she'd been fine, but this situation was anything but fine.

Every minute she spent in here was a minute of her life wasted, a minute she would never get back and if things kept

progressing the way they were, she wouldn't have to worry about dying of starvation or even Greg killing her because the

cancer would. She'd already gone at least two weeks without her medication, medication that was supposed to slow its

progress, help her keep her strength up and give her a fighting chance to leave this world doing what she loved doing.

She thought about telling Caine the truth, wondering if maybe there was enough concern for her left in him that he'd help

her escape so she at least had a fighting chance, but she knew he wouldn't. He didn't care and nothing was going to change his

mind.

She was nothing to him, just another human that didn't matter and was going to die someday. It would be foolish to think

that he'd care enough to take a risk for her. Not that he would die, but they could torture or starve him.

"Why the hell did you let that asshole do that to you?" he suddenly shouted, making her wince as a bolt of pain shot

through her head. Great, now it was time to lay down again.

Carefully she lay on her side, facing the room, noting for the first time that her shirt was damp. No wonder she was