Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Manhattan City Emergency Room

“Tell me what I’m looking at, Izzy,” Kale said several hours later as he stared down at the little girl plugged into every machine known to man as he popped one of the graham crackers that he’d helped himself to from the nurses’ station in his mouth. He followed that by washing the crackers down with the can of Coke that he’d helped himself to from the nurses’ lounge before tossing the empty can onto the gurney of the drunk frat boy passed out behind him.

“I honestly don’t know,”Izzy said with a sigh as Kale adjusted his earpiece and glanced around the busy emergency room, noting everything from the belligerent drunk being taken down by security to the orderly on the far side of the room wearing expensive Italian loafers, trying to pretend that he wasn’t watching Kale’s every move.

Whoever this little girl was, she’d already drawn the attention of at least one Master. She was also dying, Kale thought as he listened to her heartbeat begin to slow down as she struggled to take her next breath. She’d be dead in an hour, probably less, which meant that he’d just wasted another hour on bullshit instead of grabbing the little bastard and bringing him back to Las Vegas so that he could collect the five-million-dollar bounty.

“Why am I here?” Kale asked, tilting his head to the side to take in the bruises marring her small, pale neck, the thick casts encasing her small arms and legs and couldn’t help but wonder what kind of sick fuck would do this to a child over a fucking television.

“Because Tattletale picked up some irregularities in her blood,” Izzy said before asking, “What does she look like?”

“Like a little girl who interrupted a burglary,” Kale drawled, shifting his attention to the piece of shit handcuffed to a stretcher across the room, who was bitching about being hungry.

“Maybe she was bitten? Or accidentally ingested vampire blood?”Izzy asked, sounding just as confused as he felt and making him wonder if her pride and joy, Tattletale, the computer program that she’d accidentally created that could infiltrate any computer in the world had finally fucked up.

Kale sure as hell hoped Tattletale hadn’t fucked up because he was counting on it to help him hunt down more Pytes. For every Pyte that he could get his hands on, the Council was paying him a large enough fee to resist the urge to encase the fucking monsters in cement and drop them at the bottom of the ocean where they could rot for eternity. As for the Pytes that hadn’t reached their immortality yet…

He would make sure that they never did.

Not that Izzy knew that because if she ever found out, she would never let him near Tattletale again.

Then again, he had absolutely no intention of telling her.

“Her attackers are human,” Kale said, shifting a little closer and slowly scented the air around her only to frown because there was definitely something different about her.

He scented the air again only to end up shaking his head because whatever it was, it was too weak for him to separate it from the stench of illness, unwashed human bodies, and bleach filling the busy emergency room. For a moment, Kale considered tasting her blood, but since he didn’t know what she was, he didn’t want to take the risk.

“Then I’m out of answers,”Izzy said, which made two of them.

“Whatever she is, she’ll be dead soon,” Kale said with a sigh as he shifted his attention back to the orderly to find him gone.

“Are you going to grab her?”

He looked back down at the small child and shook his head. “Let her die in peace,” Kale said, already dismissing the little girl and deciding to return to the high-rise and grab the little bastard before his father had a chance to sneak him out of the city.

“Okay, but the Council will probably send a team to grab her,”Izzy said on a tired sigh.

“Probably,” Kale said, already knowing that it would be a waste of time and not really caring as he sent the little girl one last look of pity before he turned around and walked away.

For a moment, Kale considered tearing her attacker’s throat out, but this wasn’t his problem. The humans could handle their own trash, Kale decided, heading back towards the lobby as he debated calling in a team to help him grab Andrew Vane since his father had probably already tripled security in the building after he’d left. He could-

“Kale?”

“Yes?” Kale said, shoving a drunk out of his way as he headed for the lobby doors.

“Her second blood results were just run through the system. Grab her,”Izzy said, making him groan because he wasn’t in the mood to deal with any of the Council’s bullshit tonight. If they were so damn curious about the little girl, then they could send a team to retrieve her body.

“Already gone, sweetheart,” Kale drawled as he stepped outside the hospital and-

“She’s a Pyte, Kale. Grab her,”was all Izzy had to say to have him turning around and heading back into the emergency room.

“Hey!” the drunk snapped as Kale shoved past him and made his way back through the double-security doors.

As soon as he stepped back inside the emergency room, his attention locked on the little girl that wasn’t going to make it out of this hospital alive. He didn’t stop to ask Izzy how it was possible that the little girl was a Pyte, because he simply didn’t care.

He didn’t care that what Izzy said should have been impossible or that she was a child. She was a Pyte, dangerous, and there was no way in hell that he was going to allow her to live. As he approached her, Kale thought of another time and another little girl left broken and dying because he hadn’t had the balls to do the right thing.

Never again.

He would never let what happened to his sister happen to another child. He’d made her a promise and he was damn well going to keep it. He didn’t give a fuck what the Council wanted. They could have all the Pytes that had already reached their immortality and pretend that they were keeping the rest of the world safe, but he knew better.

“Kale?”Izzy said, trying to get his attention, but he barely heard her as he reached the bed and shoved the curtains shut behind him.

Eyes shifting to silver, Kale reached down and wrapped his hand around the small, pale throat and-

“Son of a bitch!” Kale snarled as he tore his hand away from the delicate throat that he’d planned on snapping in two, to drag his sleeve up the arm that felt like it had just been seared by a hot iron only to forget how to breathe when he saw it.

“Oh, fuck no…” Kale bit out while he watched a black mark etch itself across his wrist while he ground his teeth against the pain tearing through his arm.

In a matter of seconds, he was good and fucking marked.

“Kale? Kale, what’s going on?”Izzy demanded while Kale stood there, staring down at what appeared to be a trinity knot tattooed on his wrist as he shook his head in disbelief because this couldn’t be happening.

Chanting that lie in his head, he quickly grabbed the small arm closest to him and tore off the cast only to feel his stomach drop when he spotted the matching mark on the little girl who had just ruined everything.

Absolutely fucking everything.

“Kale? Answer me!”

“I’m fine,” Kale said weakly as he stared down at the angry mark on the pale, delicate arm of the little girl that he was now mated to and realized that he was anything but fine.

This couldn’t be happening.

“They’re sending a team,”Izzy said while Kale stood there, dumbly nodding while he stared down at the little girl as he made a decision.

“Cancel the team.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s already dead,” Kale bit out as he reached for her.