When the DA had approached her about this position three days ago, she’d quickly realized that they weren’t going to answer any of her questions. She had to admit that it had been a little unnerving interviewing for an unknown employer. After she’d received the phone call late last night letting her know that the job was hers if she wanted it, she’d almost turned it down. If it hadn’t been for her neighbor choosing that exact moment to put his fist through her wall, she probably wouldn’t have accepted the job. But as Big Daddy, as he liked to be called, pulled his meaty fist back, leaving a huge hole in her bedroom/living room/dining/kitchen wall, she’d decided that this live-in position, what little she knew about it, sounded perfect.
After an hour-long argument with her landlord where she’d begged to be released from her lease, she’d packed her possessions into her car and caught three hours of sleep before the messenger from the DA’s office woke her up bright and early at six this morning with the packet and details of her new employer and position. She only had about five minutes to look over the cover sheet before Big Daddy did something that upset the police, again. That was right around the time that she was escorted from the building, interviewed, and sent on her way, which in retrospect was probably a good thing since Big Daddy had set the building on fire and she couldn’t return there even if she wanted to.
She really didn’t want to.
So, now she was starting a new job off by crashing a party thrown by her new boss’s kids, and she wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about that. She really wasn’t thrilled by the idea of living with teenagers for a year. She didn’t hate kids, but she wasn’t exactly in a rush to go out and have one of her own either. Then again, spending a year under the same roof with an obviously spoiled kid might destroy any aspirations of having a family of her own one day.
After a slight pause, she realized that she was okay with that and continued on, stepping over a puddle of fresh vomit and through the large cast-iron gates welcoming anyone and everyone. She didn’t date much, didn’t care to, and if this gave her the excuse that she needed to focus on her job then that was more than fine with her, she absently decided, choosing to pretend that she didn’t see the used condom on the ground.
“Watch where you’re going!” a woman with too much makeup, not enough clothing and was obviously intoxicated, snapped as she stumbled past Kylie.
With a sigh, Kylie continued towards the large two-level brick house, wondering if she was going to end up dealing with the police twice in one day. As she stepped over one of the bodies, hopefully just passed out, lying on the front steps, she couldn’t help but wonder if this job came with hazard pay.
Tall, Dark & Furious
A Pyte/Sentinel Novel
Prologue
Massachusetts Bay Colony - Maine Territory
1665
“Where are you going, Trace?”
Trying not to panic, Trace shut the door before any sunlight could spill inside the small one-room cottage. Licking his suddenly dry lips, he turned around and held up the small leather-bound book his father had given him just this morning after he’d returned from his trip to the city.
“I was hoping to go down to the river to read, Father,” he said, forcing a smile that he hoped would convince his father that everything was fine.
Ethan sighed heavily as he sat on the room’s only bed and ran his fingers through his unruly shoulder-length hair. “Why don’t you stay here and read?”
“I didn’t want to disturb you, Father,” Trace said, wishing he’d lit a few candles so that he could see better since the dim light the small fire in the hearth gave off wasn’t enough to tell if his father was still angry.
“Trace,” his father said in a warning tone, “tell me that you’re not going to go see her, especially after what happened yesterday.”
“No, Father,” he said, lying to his father for the first time in his life, but he didn’t have a choice. If he’d listened to her in the first place, no one would have known they’d been spending time together, but he’d been too stubborn to listen and now, thanks to him she was in real trouble.
“Why do I have a feeling that you’re lying to me?” his father asked warily, getting to his feet and pulling his breeches on.
“I’m not,” Trace said weakly, shifting his gaze to the dirt floor, because looking his father in his eye while he lied made him feel sick to his stomach.
“We need to talk,” his father announced after a short pause as Trace’s eyes shot up at the all too familiar announcement.
Trace took an anxious step towards the small table as his father sat down. “But we’ve only been here four weeks, Father. You promised we’d be able to stay longer this time,” he pointed out almost desperately because he didn’t want to leave the only friend he’d ever had.
While life with his father was wonderful, it was also very lonely. For the first fourteen years of his life, his father had taken him all over Europe desperate to keep him safe. He’d searched everywhere for answers, taking Trace with him and as he did his best to keep Trace’s existence a secret. When Trace was six-years-old, weak, sick, and barely bigger than a toddler his father became desperate to save the child that his wife had so desperately wanted and did something no other vampire would have dared.
He’d kidnapped a priest who’d sworn allegiance to the Sentinels, the group of altered humans placed on earth to fight against vampires, demons, and shifters. With one move, his father had signed his own death warrant, but hadn’t cared. The only thing that mattered to Ethan was keeping his promise he’d made to his wife and protecting their child.
For three weeks, he’d kept the priest prisoner in a cave a mile away from the little tavern where his father had left him in the care of a local whore. His father had paid her to ignore her usual customers and focus on him with the promise of an excruciating death if she failed in any way. Night and day his father questioned the priest, careful to keep Trace’s existence a secret.
The priest refused to answer. At first, his father had been patient with the older man, hoping to coax the holy man out of the answers he desperately needed. It wasn’t until the whore stumbled into the cave, carrying Trace who’d taken a turn for the worse, that his father had lost control. He’d attacked the priest and threatened to turn him if he didn’t tell him what he needed to know to save Trace.
The threat worked. The priest had quickly explained that children like Trace were not human, something his father had feared since his birth. He’d also explained that he was a Pyte, the unnatural product between a vampire and a human woman. He explained that a Pyte would remain weak unless he was fed blood along with human food and if he reached his sixteenth year he would go into a deep sleep and wake up changed into a true immortal with absolutely no way to kill him. The priest had refused to tell Ethan anything else. Instead, he’d pleaded with Ethan to kill Trace before it was too late.
As Ethan struggled with what the priest had told him the terrified whore had pulled a small dagger from between her breasts and tried to stab Trace through his heart. She would have succeeded if the priest hadn’t screamed at her when she’d hesitated. Ethan lunged for her, taking the dagger in his shoulder in the process and before she could scream for help, he’d ripped her throat out.
Using the dead whore’s dagger, he’d slit his own wrist and carefully fed Trace his blood, praying the priest hadn’t lied to him. For two days straight, his father held vigil over him while the priest prayed for his death. Once Trace managed to open his eyes, his father had been determined to do whatever it took to keep him safe until the day that he would no longer have to worry about him.
Ethan had kept his word to the priest even though he knew by doing so that he was unleashing a witch-hunt on the two of them, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to hurt a man of God no matter the reason. He’d made the priest promise to give them a day’s start before he alerted the Sentinels. Once the promise was given, he’d freed the priest, grabbed Trace, and fled. They’d barely made it out of town before the Sentinels had come for them.