Marta was gone.

Jaw clenched tightly, he forced himself to breathe through his nose as he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to retain the weak grip that he had on his control. His sister, his best friend and the person that he'd loved more than anything was gone. Not only that, but she'd been the one to take herself away from him, leaving him alone. If he'd thought for one second that the men in this room had been the ones that took her away from him, nothing on this earth would have been able to keep him calm, not even Cloe.

He hadn't been ready to lose her. He'd never got the chance to tell her how much he loved her and now he never would. He wanted to scream at the injustice of the situation, unleash his anger on the world, but he couldn't. The woman lying on top of him needed him to keep it together long enough to figure out who these people were and why he was handcuffed, from the feel of it, to a bed in what smelled like a cheap hotel room.

"Just relax, Christofer," one of the men said in a calm, soothing tone that he didn't trust for one G.o.dd.a.m.n minute.

It was the same tone that the doctors had used on him when he'd first opened his eyes in that lab and realized that he'd changed. They'd wanted his cooperation and answers to their questions. As long as Christofer had told them what they wanted to know, they'd been nice to him, which of course had lasted for all of five seconds. He didn't know who these men were and he honestly didn't care. All that mattered was keeping Cloe safe until he could take her someplace- "I'm going to remove your handcuffs," the man said, taking him by surprise.

He opened his eyes and met the icy blue eyes of the man looking down at him with so much pity that Christofer had to force himself to look away, afraid he'd really lose it.

"We ran out of blood a few hours ago," the man explained apologetically as he unlocked the cuff holding Christofer's right hand immobile. "We had just enough to see Cloe past her transition and you through the worst part of your healing. Caine and Danni are getting more blood to help Cloe with the changes and some to take care of that headache that you probably have," he explained as he removed the last cuff, making Christofer realize that his head was pounding.

"You shot me," Christofer said a few seconds later, remembering the last time that he'd woke up with his head hurting this badly.

"You were going after my son," the man said unapologetically, tossing the cuffs on the bed by his side where they could easily be grabbed and used to cuff him back to the bed if he stepped out of line.

"He had Cloe," Christofer muttered, wincing as the pain in his headache intensified.

"Which is why I had to put you down," the man said with a shrug as he sat down on the other side of the bed.

"Oh," Christofer asked, carefully shifting so that he could sit up without disturbing Cloe, "and why's that?"

The man sighed heavily as he said, "Because if I hadn't, you would have killed my son for touching your mate."

Chapter 23.

"Just relax!"

Was he f.u.c.king kidding?

There was a tube down her G.o.dd.a.m.n throat, pumping blood into her stomach! There was no way in h.e.l.l that she was going to be able to calm down, especially not in his arms.

"Just calm down, mein Schatz," Christofer said, his arms tightening around her, pinning her arms to her side and stopping her from thrashing.

"Uck..ooooo!" she snapped at him, wanting to kick the b.a.s.t.a.r.d in the b.a.l.l.s when he sighed heavily.

"Just swallow, Cloe," he said, tentatively pulling one arm away after making sure that she wasn't going to fight him and grabbed hold of the tube.

Realizing that he wasn't going to let her up until she did what he'd asked, she narrowed her eyes on the water stained ceiling above her and swallowed. Within seconds he had the tube out and she was coughing her d.a.m.n head off. With a muttered curse, he sat up and pulled her into a sitting position beside him. Before she could ask for something to drink, a bottle of ice-cold water was pressed into her hand. Coughing uncontrollably, she twisted the cover off, pressed the bottle to her lips and swallowed as she thought over everything that he'd put her through.

That....son.....of...........

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" she snarled between coughing fits, launching herself off the bed to put some s.p.a.ce between them, but the son of a b.i.t.c.h wouldn't give her an inch. As soon as she turned around to tell him exactly what she thought of him, he was off the bed and standing only a few feet away from her, looking miserable.

"I'm sorry," Christofer croaked, standing there with his arms by his sides, looking completely lost as he waited for her to strike.

She took a step towards him and then another until she found herself standing less than a foot away from him, trembling with the urge to slap him. She stared up at him, grinding her jaw shut to the point of pain, but she barely felt it. She couldn't believe this was the man that she'd trusted and allowed herself to care about when he was nothing more than a monster.

"Do it," Christofer whispered hoa.r.s.ely, his expression pained as he waited for her to strike like that would somehow make them even.

Nothing ever would, she realized with disgust, forcing herself to walk away from him.

"Cloe, I-"

She cut off his apology with a slam of the bathroom door in absolutely no mood to hear any of his bulls.h.i.t apologies. There was nothing that he could say or do that would make up for what he'd done to her, what he'd made her.

"Cloe-"

No answer.

Not that he'd expected one. He'd royally f.u.c.ked up. There was no excuse for what he'd done to her. He'd viciously attacked her, could have killed her, probably technically had and now she was- "Oh my G.o.d! Oh my G.o.d! Oh my G.o.d!" Cloe muttered frantically as the bathroom door was suddenly thrown open and Cloe was rushing out, a towel loosely wrapped around her.

"What's wrong?" he ended his question in a pained groan as Cloe turned around and dropped the towel, taking his breath away.

"My a.s.s!" she snapped accusingly, her eyes flashing a crimson red as she shot him a murderous glare that had his hands reflexively twitching to cover his defenseless b.a.l.l.s. "Look at my a.s.s!"

Against his better judgment, he allowed his gaze to move down her scarred back, over her curvy hips and finally land on the body part in question. Somehow he found the willpower not to lick his lips, knowing that she wouldn't appreciate the gesture. He forced himself to look over her a.s.s, taking in every curve, the beautiful tanned skin, the fullness of each cheek, looking for a flaw, something wrong, but all he saw was perfection.

"What am I looking at exactly?" he asked after a minute of staring at her a.s.s and finding absolutely nothing wrong.

"It's bigger!" she snapped, looking more p.i.s.sed by the second.

He opened his mouth to answer her, but he really had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that so he just stared at her beautiful a.s.s. It was full and round and definitely not something that he should be looking at or fantasizing about right now. He'd just lost his sister, had f.u.c.ked up Cloe's life and they were in the middle of some f.u.c.ked up situation with absolutely no clue on how to fix it.

"Doesn't it look bigger to you?" she demanded, looking all kids of p.i.s.sed. She peered over her shoulder to glare down at the offending body part while he tried to come up with some way to tell her that this was the first time that he'd actually seen her a.s.s in all its glory since she'd purposely kept her back to the wall the last time he'd seen her naked.

He cleared his throat, deciding that it was probably best not to remind her of that incident and asked, "Is anything else different?"

"Everything!" she snarled as she turned around and faced him, d.a.m.n near making his knees buckle d.a.m.n........

Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s looked fuller, her nipples larger, darker, her athletic stomach that he'd admired in the pharmacy looked more defined, but no less feminine, the thatch of b.u.t.terscotch curls between her legs looked silkier, more inviting, her hips a bit fuller, her legs looked smoother, toner and d.a.m.n him if her toes didn't look cuter.

"It's Sat.u.r.day," she said accusingly, dragging his attention away from the adorable toes and back up to her face and the reminder of what he'd done to her as she glared up at him with shimmering red eyes.

"Okay," he said, because he had no idea what day it was and absolutely no idea what else he should say.

"I've been out cold for three days," she said, gesturing to her beautiful legs, "and they're smooth!"

"And that's a problem because.....?"

"I haven't shaved since Monday!"

"Still not seeing a problem," he mumbled, his gaze running over every inch of her.

She opened her mouth, no doubt to point out something else just to confuse him when they heard a throat clearing outside their door.

"It's the changes," Ephraim explained from the other side of the door, reminding them both that they weren't alone. "Your body is at its peak now. It's part of your natural allure."

"By making my a.s.s fatter?" she demanded, shaking her head in disgust as she s.n.a.t.c.hed up her towel and stormed back into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her and saving him from having to stumble his way through another apology.

"Poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d," he thought he heard Chris mumble as he pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering how in the h.e.l.l he expected to handle a mate when he'd never been able to handle his sister.

Chapter 24.

Manhattan, New York Later that day...........

"Get that away from me," Cloe bit out as she glared at the b.a.s.t.a.r.d holding a bag of blood out to her.

"You need to drink this," Chris, aka Kidnapper Number Two, as she liked to think of him, said in clear exasperation as he gave the bag a little shake to entice her.

"And you need to shove that bag up your a.s.s, because I'm not drinking it!" she snapped, having had more than enough of this bulls.h.i.t for one day.

No, actually that wasn't true.

When she'd woken up in Christofer's arms a few hours ago to find a tube shoved down her throat and blood being pumped into her stomach was when she'd finally had enough. All the c.r.a.p they added afterwards was just icing on the cake that made her already f.u.c.ked up life even worse.

Apparently the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Christofer, had not only lost control and gone into bloodl.u.s.t, meaning the p.r.i.c.k hadn't been able to keep his fangs in his pants, but he'd also managed to turn her into a Pyte. She still wasn't clear on what that was except for the fact that it wasn't exactly a vampire and now, she was a monster that needed blood Anyone else and it would probably feel like they'd won the lottery, but for Cloe it meant that she was the same as the monsters that had destroyed her family now. It made her sick to realize that her very survival depended on drinking human blood like some parasite.

"Alright," Chris said, tossing the bag of blood across the small s.p.a.ce of the cargo van, where they'd tossed her a.s.s in when she'd refused to willingly go with them, to Caine, aka Kidnapper Number Four. "Listen up, cupcake, because I'm only going to explain this to you once. I need to get you into that building," he said, pointing towards the tinted side windows and the large building they'd been parked in front of for the last half hour.

"I'm not going in there," she ground out even as she absently wondered when her vision would go back to normal, because this whole seeing everything in shades of red thing was really starting to freak her out a bit.

Ignoring her, as he had been doing for the last six hours, Chris continued. "The plan is to get you inside and up to the penthouse without notice and preferably before the sun sets in twenty minutes. Once inside-"

"I'm. Not. Going. In. There," she bit out, sick and tired of being ignored and bossed around.

They swore up and down that they weren't kidnapping her, but every time she tried to leave or asked them to just let her go, they'd refused. She just wanted to go off somewhere by herself and process everything, to mourn Marta, make peace with what happened to her, but they refused to let her do that. She understood their fears, well, most of them, but she wasn't going to hurt anyone and she sure as h.e.l.l wasn't going to go around announcing that she was now a freak of nature. She just....

She just wanted to be left alone.

"Okay," Chris said, nodding as he pursed his lips up in thought. "Then let me put it this way, I want to get home to my very pregnant mate and children. I can't do that until I have you and your mate," he said, gesturing towards Christofer, who was sitting in the back of the van, still staring down at that creased paper in his hands while she tried to secure their freedom and seriously p.i.s.sing her off, "secured in that building. The longer that you drag your a.s.s and pout, the longer that my mate and children go without my protection," he snapped, sounding seriously p.i.s.sed off and startling her, because up to this point he'd been relaxed and even tried to coax a smile from her a time or two.

"Chris," Ephraim sighed heavily from the front of the van, sounding like an exasperated father dealing with his child, which if everything they'd told her was to be believed was the case.

Chris rubbed his hands over his face as he muttered a, "Sorry."

"Izzy is only a few weeks away from having twins," Danni, the only female of the group, explained absently as she pulled out a gun and double checked the barrel. "Prolonged time away from her and their babies turns this big baby into a p.r.i.c.k," she finished, shooting Cloe a wink as the rest of the men, all but Christofer and the man sitting across from her who wouldn't stop glaring at her, chuckled.

"We'll explain everything once we get inside," came the m.u.f.fled announcement from her left, which had her turning her head to her left and her jaw dropping.

"Sorry," Caine said with a shrug as he paused in draining the bag of blood that she'd refused, "but I skipped lunch."

"T-that's okay," Cloe mumbled, not really sure what to say as she swiftly turned her attention straight ahead at the b.a.s.t.a.r.d glaring at her, but that was definitely better than watching a man slurp down some O positive, she decided, trying not to cringe or gag.

"We need to get inside," Danni announced once Caine had managed to drain the bag.

With a nod, Caine tossed the empty bag back to Chris who caught it with a flick of his hand and shoved it into the front of the black backpack sitting between him and the seriously p.i.s.sed off man who wouldn't stop glaring at her. At this point she seriously had to wonder what that was about. She opened her mouth to ask him what his problem was, but a slight growl and a flash of silver eyes had her rethinking that decision and deciding that perhaps getting out of the van and away from the perpetually angry b.a.s.t.a.r.d was for the best. Of course, that didn't mean that she was planning on going along with their plans to lock her up.

With a feigned sigh of resignation, she nodded and said, "Fine. Let's go inside," making sure to sound putout.

"Let's do it," Chris said, gesturing for Caine to unlock the door and climb out.

She forced herself to sit there, waiting for her turn to jump out when all she wanted to do was to shove her way to freedom and make a run for it, but she knew better. They'd just grab her and carry her a.s.s inside and she wasn't having that. Trying to hide her excitement, she waited and watched as Christofer stepped out of the van, looking somber as he stood there, hands in his pockets as he stared down at the pavement while he waited for everyone else to climb down. If he hadn't come close to killing her, she'd probably feel bad for him, but- Okay, fine. She did feel bad for him. He'd just lost his sister, someone that Cloe knew that he loved very much. She still didn't know all the details, mostly because he'd refused to talk to anyone right now and no one else would say anything except that it had been unexpected. Cloe certainly hadn't expected the feisty old woman who'd made her laugh to pa.s.s on so soon. She'd been so full of life, so kind and sweet. She hadn't even known Marta that long and she was going to miss her terribly. She couldn't even begin to fathom what Christofer was going through right now.

"Let's go, princess," Chris said, gesturing rather impatiently for her to step out.

"That's not my name," she said evenly as she carefully climbed out of the van, keeping her eyes downcast to hide the red glow as well as to hide her intentions.

"Aw, but you're such a dainty little princess," Chris said mockingly, petting her head condescendingly as she stepped out of the van. He reminded her of an older boy in foster care she used to know named Brian, who used to love nothing more than to torment her when none of the adults were around.

So, of course she felt obligated to handle the overbearing b.a.s.t.a.r.d the same way that she used to handle Brian when the jerk used to pin her down and let his spit hang a mere inch away from her face before he sucked it back up and did it again.

She went for his b.a.l.l.s.

"Mother f.u.c.ker!" Chris growled, cupping his b.a.l.l.s as he dropped unsteadily to his knees even as he glared at her, not that she was waiting around to watch his reaction.

She wasn't.

She tried to make a run for it as soon as she'd managed to take him by surprise. By take him by surprise she of course meant that she'd taken advantage when his phone started chiming and he'd rushed to answer it. As soon as he had the phone in his hands, she'd turned around and brought her knee up, sending his b.a.l.l.s up through his throat. Startled that it had actually worked, she'd decided to press her luck. Unfortunately for her, she'd barely managed to turn around when she found herself picked up.

"Let me-Hey!"she started to demand her freedom only to squeal at the end when Ephraim, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d that interfered with her escape attempt, tossed her a good ten feet over pavement that she seriously did not want to land a.s.s first on, to the brooding b.a.s.t.a.r.d standing off to the side.

She opened her mouth to demand that Christofer put her down, but could only gasp as she struggled to catch her breath. She grabbed onto his shoulders and buried her face against his chest, in no way admitting defeat. She just needed a minute or two while she struggled to catch her breath and calm her racing heart before she made another run for it.

"My b.a.l.l.s," Chris croaked.

"Quit your b.i.t.c.hing," Kale, who seemed to love to glare, said with a touch of an Irish brogue that she refused to find s.e.xy. "You should have seen that coming," he snapped, stepping up to the side, blocking off one of her escape routes as he shot her a look that practically dared her to try something.

"I expected it," Chris managed to get out as he sucked in a breath.

"It really shows," Caine said dryly as he moved to block her other side while Danni moved past him, obviously intent on blocking her from the back.

"I got distracted," Chris snarled, holding onto his father's arm while the two of them took the position in front of her to complete the trap. As soon as they were in position, Chris bent back over, gasping for air and keeping a tight hold on his father's arm.