PS01 - Tall, Dark & Lonely (36 page)

his other wrist and looked at Caroline. “You may do the honors.”

With a smile Caroline did just that.

Chapter 23

“Please stop!” Madison cried. She tried to pull free from her chains and go to him, but they wouldn’t give. Chris grabbed her

and pulled her back.

“Oh, don’t worry, dear, he can’t die.” With a tilt of her head she considered Ephraim. “I believe I could do this forever.”

Ephraim stood erect looking ahead and seeing nothing. He didn’t react. That was one thing he stopped giving to Nichols years

ago, a reaction. The bastard might have had his fun with torturing him, but he never gave him the satisfaction of a response after

the first five years. He would do the same with this bitch no matter how much it hurt.

Holy fuck did it hurt. She was enjoying this too much. The wounds she inflicted on his face, neck and stomach hadn’t healed yet

and weren’t going to for a long time. He was losing too much blood and couldn’t heal fast enough. The sound of his blood

dripping to the ground let him know that he was standing in a rather large puddle of his own blood.

He heard the whip shoot through the air and the snap as it struck his skin. He ground his jaw. “No, please stop!” Madison

screamed. When she wasn’t screaming she was sobbing. It was killing him to have her see this.

She dropped the whip to the ground. “Well, that’s not working. Let’s see what else we have in our toy box, shall we?”

Caroline said cheerfully.

She looked over the table and then back at him. A wicked smile tugged at her lips. She walked over to him and unbuckled his

belt, slowly.

“What are you doing?” Chris demanded.

Caroline ignored him as she undid Ephraim’s pants. He kept his eyes glued to a spot on the wall. “Oh, let’s empty the pockets

before we continue. Wouldn’t want anything to get in our way now would we?”

She reached into his pockets, making sure to give Madison a good view. Her hands reached in and pulled out his keys, cell

phone and Madison noted his sleek black Sentinel cell phone had a green light blinking. That was odd. It usually blinked red

when he had a call or a voice mail. Green meant something else he told her. It took a moment before it came to her. He set off

an emergency signal. She had to hide her smile as Caroline threw it on the floor with the rest of his things.

“Did you tell her about all the fun things we used to do together, Ephraim?” Caroline asked, taunting Madison who was

sobbing softly as Chris held her.

Ephraim ignored her. “It’s too bad all those times didn’t make the baby we wanted, isn’t it?” She smiled. “We must have

fucked day and night. I have to tell you it came as a surprise to me that all that sex didn't make a child. I was told a male Pyte

could reproduce with a vampire I guess they were wrong.”

For the first time in three hours Ephraim spoke. “Yes, from what I’ve been told they can,” he chuckled weakly. “I have a secret

to tell you, Caroline. Do you want to hear it?”

“Yes,” she said cautiously.

He leaned forward until his chains tightened. “First off, I only fucked you twice so don’t try to cause any bullshit and we both

know the only reason I did that is because you lied and said you could bring me to others like myself. Second, I never came

inside you. In fact, I had a hard time keeping my cock stiff in that cold dry pussy of yours. My palm felt better than what you

call a slit. My seed never entered your body.”

She growled and screamed. “Liar!”

“Am I?” He laughed. “Think back, how long did I last?”

Caroline looked like she wasn’t going to answer but then did. She was just as curious as Madison and apparently Chris.

“A minute. You said you were too excited.”

Ephraim shook his head. “Chris, block your ears for a minute.” Chris covered his ears, too afraid for Ephraim not to do as he

asked. “Baby, on a bad day how long does it take me?”

Madison was torn between embarrassment and putting Caroline in her place.

“You’re full of shit. You couldn’t get it up more than once and you only kept it up for a few minutes at the most,” Caroline

declared. She ran her eyes slowly over Madison and then scoffed. “Besides she’s not one tenth as beautiful as I am. I doubt you

could get it up without the help of a pump.”

That did it. “Well,” Madison tried to sound and look thoughtful, “you only last a minute, maybe a minute and a half-“

“I knew you were full of shit.”

“-when I use my mouth, but I believe the shortest time was ten minutes when you had me bent over the front of your squad car

in back of the movie theatre.” She shrugged and smiled. “The theatre was closing soon, we had to rush before the parking lot

filled.”

“You bitch!” She stepped forward to slap Madison.

“I thought you were going to torture me some more. I knew
you
were full of shit.” Ephraim’s weak voice stopped her.

Caroline turned around with a forced smile pasted to her lips. “Oh, I believe I have a wonderful idea. Let’s see how long you

last after all. Madison can time us.”

He laughed weakly. “I would agree that being between your legs again would be torture.”

She reached out and ran her nails down his already bleeding stomach and scratched her way down his body, leaving behind

five fresh lines of blood. His stomach muscles clenched tightly.

“Why don’t you tell me how to turn me into what you are, Ephraim? I know your little secret, your blood will kill me, but I

know there’s a way. Tell me.” Her hand pushed its way under his boxers.

Madison felt her heart breaking. She didn’t want to see this. She didn’t want to see him with another woman no matter what the

reason. It damn near killed her when he finally reacted. He dropped his head back and gritted his teeth the way he’d done with

her so many times.

Caroline began screaming.

“What the fuck?” Chris crawled on his knees to get a better look. “His pants are smoking!”

“Holy water, bitch,” Ephraim ground out. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.”

She yanked her hand out of his pants and began stumbling around the room while she stared at her hand. “Holy shit! Would you

look at that?” Chris muttered.

Madison was looking. Caroline’s hand erupted in flames, seconds later the flame was gone and her hand was a gray ash. She

stumbled into the wall. The bump was enough to disturb the ash that was once her hand. It crumbled to the ground. New

screams left her mouth. “My hand, you son of a bitch! You took my hand away!”

All that was left of her hand was a bump at the end of her wrist. Tears streamed down her face.

“That…will…teach you….to touch….what belongs to…another…woman,” he said, gasping. The pain in his groin was

unbearable. He was burned pretty badly from the feel of it.

“Ephraim, are you okay?” Chris and Madison asked in unison.

He tried to nod. The motion triggered pain in his groin. The sensation shot to his stomach. His legs gave out, leaving his body

hanging by the chains. He gasped desperately before he began vomiting blood.

“Oh god, Ephraim!” Madison screamed.

“My hand!” Caroline screamed as she ran out the back door in the basement.

The two men holding guns looked nervous. The third man ran after his mistress. “What do we do?” one of the men asked.

“We stay here! She’ll be back!” The other man fidgeted nervously.

“Holy shit, I’m an idiot.” Ephraim chuckled weakly.

“What are you talking about?” Chris asked. His eyes were darting between the two very nervous men. The guns in their hands

were shaking. “Hey! Point that damn thing elsewhere before you accidentally shoot her!”

Ephraim pulled in a deep breath as he pushed up with his feet. Once he was standing erect he turned as far as the chains would

allow him. He studied the two men for several minutes before he realized what didn’t feel right about this situation.

He cursed under his breath as he reached up and wrapped a hand around each chain until they were tight. The men watched

with wide eyes as every muscle in Ephraim’s body tightened and twitched.

“Stop or we’ll shoot them!” the man standing over Madison said.

Ephraim exhaled before pulling again. This time a loud creaking sound accompanied the action. “No, you won’t,” he said

simply.

The sounds of guns cocking had Chris and Madison grabbing each other, trying to protect the other. “Ephraim, stop! He’ll shoot

her!” Chris screamed.

“Not with blanks he won’t.” A loud painful grunt erupted from Ephraim as he arched himself backwards and broke the chains

from the ceiling.

The men turned in unison and began firing at Ephraim. He stumbled towards them, but didn’t drop. Madison forced herself to

watch. She scanned his body for bullet holes, but couldn’t tell if there were any fresh injuries since his body was already

covered with large wounds.

Another gunshot and then another. The sound was deafening. With each shot she looked for some kind of sign that he was hit, a

jolt, a stumble, a word, but there was nothing, no reaction.

“They’re blanks,” Chris whispered.

The two men seemed to agree. They threw the guns to the side and backed off towards the door their master escaped from.

“Go, I’m sure she’ll be hungry.” Ephraim dropped to his hands and knees, but didn’t stop moving. “That’s what you were, a

meal. She wouldn’t hire two idiots who’d never handled a gun before to keep them hostage. You were my meal. I’m an idiot.”

“No, she loves us. She would never do that.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” Chris said dryly. “She just left you unarmed with a seriously pissed off Pyte. That’s real

love.”

“Oh fuck!” one of the men whimpered.

“Go, just go,” Ephraim said weakly. He didn’t look at the men as he continued his slow crawl forward. He didn’t stop until he

dropped his head in Madison’s lap. His arms wrapped around her waist. He pressed a tender kiss to her leg.

“Ephraim, oh god, Ephraim,” Madison sobbed as she hugged his head to her body.

“We need to get out of here before psycho bitch comes back,” Chris said. He jumped to his feet and looked up at the ceiling

where their chains hung from. He used his chains to pull himself up to the ceiling. “They’re on hooks!” he said excitedly.

“Can you get them off?” Madison asked, her eyes never left the back of Ephraim’s head.

“I think so…hold….on….just a little-“ The front door to the basement exploded into the room. “Shit!” Chris lost his hold and

fell the short distance to the floor with an,
“Oomph!”

Madison sobbed softly as she watched two men and two women in black fatigues enter the room with their weapons drawn.

One of the women spotted the second door and with a signal to the other woman she walked to it.

“A vampire with one hand and three of her followers went through that door over five minutes ago,” Chris informed them.

The women nodded. “Eric, we’re going to see if we can’t catch up to them.”

“Go,” a man with short spiky black hair said. “We’ll see what we have here.” The two men walked over to them and began

looking them over.

“This one is a Sentinel, unmated,” the other man said after he quickly looked over Chris. He ran a hand through his messy

blonde hair, sighing.

“Release him. What about the woman and this man?” Eric ran his eyes over Ephraim’s torn and bloodied back. The other man

grabbed Madison by the arm, yanking her to her feet. Ephraim rolled off her onto the ground without a sound.

“Hey, be careful with her, she’s pregnant,” Chris snapped.

“Sorry,” the man mumbled. He looked Madison over for bite marks. “One last thing.” He pulled out a cross and pressed it to

her forehead.

Nothing.

“She’s human.”

“Good, get those chains off her then,” Eric said.

“What do we do with this one?” The blond man pushed Ephraim over. He pressed the cross to his head. “I think he’s human.”

Eric sighed as he bent over and pushed Ephraim’s lips apart. “Pretty big fangs for a human, wouldn’t you say?”

“Holy shit!”

“What is he?”

“He’s some kind of bloodsucker.” Eric looked Ephraim over.

“What should we do?”

“What you’re supposed to do. Stake him.”

“No, stop!” Madison pushed away from the man and dropped in front of Ephraim. “Stop!”

“Oh great, a fang banger,” the blond man said with obvious disgust. “Move, we have a job to do. I don’t know what this

creature has told you, but you are in very real danger.”

“Ma’am, I really need you to move,” Eric said as he tried to grab her.

“No! He’s one of you! He’s a Sentinel!”

“No, ma’am, he’s not. He’s a vamp or a demon,” Eric said softly, probably hoping not to frighten her.

Madison wiped her face frantically with the back of her hands. “No look.” She pushed Ephraim over onto his back with great

difficulty. Chris grabbed a shoulder and helped. “See?” She pointed to his tattoo.

“Ma’am, all I’m seeing is a bloody tattoo,” Eric said.

“What?” She looked closely only to realize it was completely covered in blood. She used her hand to try to wipe it away only

to smear it worse. She saw a large bottle attached to the man’s belt and grabbed it.

“Ma’am, wait!” She didn’t listen to him. She flipped open the cap and poured the liquid over his tattoo. The blood washed

away, revealing his tattoo. Then she poured the liquid over his face, washing the blood away from his face and body until his