"You put up a good fight, but it's time to let us do our job," Chris said soothingly as he reached out and touched her arm, sending stabbing pain through every nerve in her body. A scream tore through her throat as she dropped to the ground.
As she fell she saw the look of surprise and concern cross Chris' face before black spots took over her vision. She fought it as long as she could, but the unholy roar that shook the room sent her spiraling into darkness.
Chapter 47
"Get him the f**k off of me!" Chris yelled seconds before the scent of his son's blood reached him.
"Get the f**k away from his mate!" he heard Kale snap, losing his cool for the first time since he met the man.
He shoved the human to the floor. "If you move from this spot I'll rip your throat out."
When the man sent the front door an appraising look, Ephraim decided to do this the easy way. He backhanded the man, instantly knocking him out, and not caring enough to make sure that the man fell over gently before he took off for the stairs.
"I can't get away from her with him on top of me!" Chris yelled as Ephraim rounded the corner and nearly tripped over his own two feet.
This was the first time he'd ever encountered someone like himself, a Pyte. It was still a bit of a shock, but seeing a Pyte in the throes of bloodlust as Caine tried to tear Chris was a little unnerving. Kale's attempts to pull the Pyte away from Chris were useless. The man looked possessed as he focused his rage on Chris and while Ephraim flashed over to the trio he couldn't help but wonder if that's how he looked when he went into bloodlust. He sure as hell hoped it wasn't, because it was rather unsettling.
"Could use a hand here, Dad," Chris ground out, shoving against the Pyte so that he could reach for his gun, but the Pyte wouldn't back off and if it wasn't for Kale struggling to pull the Pyte away Chris would probably already be dead.
Ephraim moved to join in the fight and tried to drag the Pyte away from Chris when something occurred to him. When he was in the throes of bloodlust he acted on baser instincts and he knew challenging the Pyte would only make this worse. He knew if he was in Caine's position what would set him off and what would probably bring him down.
Madison.
His mate was the only thing that his body and mind seemed to be able to register when bloodlust took over and he prayed like hell that it would work for this Pyte, because he was taking a hell of a chance by going near this man's mate right now. He moved past the struggling trio and frowned down at the female Pyte with confusion as she lay still on the dirty floor, taking shallow breaths. He knelt down next to her and inhaled deeply, searching for a cause for this and found none. There was a small bruise on her cheek, but that was it. He couldn't scent any blood from her, marrow leaking from broken bone or anything that should be causing this woman's distress.
Carefully as he could, he picked the woman up in his arms and stood. He walked past the trio and wasn't too surprised when the Pyte's head snapped up. Intense glowing red eyes narrowed on him. Caine shoved Kale off of him and walked after Ephraim, keeping his eyes locked on his mate as he moved. Ephraim knew the man wouldn't attack as long as Ephraim held her, but the moment he hurt her or put her down all bets were off.
"I'm not going to hurt her, Caine, but I need you to calm the hell down before you hurt my son," Ephraim said calmly as he slowly backed down the stairs to the downstairs foyer.
Caine growled, but didn't attack him so he kept going and thankfully the Pyte kept on following him. He nearly sighed with relief when he saw Chris round the corner with one arm thrown over Kale's shoulders, limping pretty badly as they followed to make sure the Pyte didn't step out of line again.
"Where's the human?" Kale asked as he helped Chris down the stairs, making sure to give the pissed off Pyte plenty of space.
"Passed out near the front door," Ephraim said, keeping his eyes locked on the male stalking him.
"Looks like he split," Chris said, wincing as he reached up and placed a hand over his ribs. Ephraim could smell the bone marrow from here. Chris had at least four broken ribs.
Kale sniffed the air and glared accusingly at Chris. "She's going to blame me for this bullshit! You know that, don't you?"
"You deserve it for not taking better care of me," Chris said with a sniff which was immediately followed by a groan.
Kale's eyes narrowed to slits. "Bastard."
"We'll have to hunt him down later," Ephraim said, chancing a look over his shoulder to make sure the human wasn't sneaking up on them. He'd never had this much of a problem scenting the air before, but then again this house was a dump. When he walked in the house with Chris and Kale he'd been worried about losing the element of surprise on the Pytes, but after a few seconds he was more worried about losing his lunch as a hundred foul odors competed for his attention and he knew the Pytes were probably having the same problem and wouldn't scent them until it was too late. That was probably the reason the human got the drop on the couple.
"What's wrong with her?" Kale asked as Ephraim stepped onto the cracked hardwood floor.
"Sick," the Pyte said on a harsh whisper and Ephraim nearly sighed with relief that the Pyte was coming out of it, but that of course meant new problems. With Chris hurt they couldn't take off after Caine and of course the Pyte might just try and kill Chris and Kale to save the woman and escape. He could understand that the man had no choice when he was in bloodlust, but if he laid another finger on his son, Ephraim was going to make the man pray for a death that would never come.
"Pytes can get sick?" Chris asked, shooting him a questioning look.
As far as he knew they couldn't. Since he made his transformation he'd never been sick and neither had Madison. Hurt, weak, hungry, yes, but sick? No.
"Then let us take her to a doctor to get looked at," Ephraim suggested as he stepped through the open doorway and started the slow process of going down the set of cracked brick stairs.
The Pyte followed and thankfully there were only a few people hanging out in the rundown neighborhood so he didn't have to worry about starting a panic when people saw the Pyte's still healing bloody chest. They were going to have to give him blood to help him heal and make sure that he didn't slip back into bloodlust. The woman was going to need blood, too.
The Philadelphia Compound was going to have to handle the two Pytes, because there was no way that he was driving them to New York or Boston when his mate was waiting for him in their new home and days away from giving birth to his sons. He also didn't like the fact that his family was now scattered and no one had any real protection. Jill and Grandma were in New Hampshire with only Priests in the house for protection. Madison, Marc, Izzy, and Jessica were in the new house with Joshua, who was locked up but he couldn't trust him to protect the family right now and his son was hurt and needed a doctor.
"Why don't I take them in so that you can go home?" the shifter suggested when they reached the nondescript Sentinel van.
"What's the bounty for these two?" he asked, not buying the shifter's bullshit that he wanted to help for their sake for even a second.
The man was a mercenary and the only thing besides junk food, and surprisingly Izzy and her babies that he seemed to care about, was money. No one knew why the shifter was obsessed with it, but it seemed to be his main focus in life. Ephraim knew that if he handed the Pytes over to Kale, that the Philadelphia compound would never see them and that made him wonder who the shifter planned on turning the Pytes over to.