Tall, Dark & Heartless

Page 57

 

  As soon as he grudgingly agreed to stop cheating she would reward him with one of her big smiles, grab his hand and lead the way. Having to sit back and let a little girl lead him in those activities had been a blow to his pride, but he did it, for her. The first couple of years had been hell for him, especially since the winners of whatever task they were handed always won something and rubbed it in the losers' faces. It f**king sucked to be beaten by Sentinels and humans, but Danni didn't care.

  No matter how many times he tried to convince her to let him help her, a. k. a. "cheat", she wouldn't budge. He offered her ice cream, toys, damn near everything to put him out of his misery. The worst part was when some freckle faced toothless human kid pointed at him and laughed. None of that seemed to matter to Danni. She was determined to do it on her own.

  When she turned nine he'd seriously considered hunting down her parents and making them suffer through that hell, but then something interesting happened. Danni started to win, to really win. At first it was a few times a month and then a few times a week until she was winning every task they were handed and everyone hated them. He hadn't cared, because Danni was proving herself and she was doing it fairly, which really mattered to her. He was happy because he could rub it in the smug little faces of the little bastards. Sure it was petty, but he didn't care.

  Killing someone Danni would consider innocent, even though Caine sure as hell wouldn't call the guy innocent, would destroy her. She wouldn't care that the guy would have killed her had she been human. The only thing that would have mattered to her was that he'd been a defenseless human and she'd given him a horrifying death. This would change Danni, harden her and take away some of her spirit and he couldn't stand by and let that happen.

  He strode over to where Jax was desperately trying to pull Danni away from the dying man as the man's heartbeat began its final countdown. Just before the last weak heartbeat finished he reached down and grabbed the man by the head and with a quick snap, broke the man's neck.

  Danni let out a menacing growl as Jax, sweaty, bruised and a bit bloody, sent him a questioning look. He ignored them both as he pulled Danni into his arms. He scooped her up and moved quickly away from the dead man, hoping Danni wouldn't remember this.

  He ignored her as she scratched and hit him, desperate to get out of his arms and go to her next target which appeared to be Jax. Any other shifter and Caine would have probably just shrugged and let her go nuts, but he had to admit that the man did serve a purpose as well as entertain him on occasion. He tightened his hold on her and took his punishment.

  "I'll go get the van ready," Jax said, sounding relieved as he jogged past him.

  "We'll be right behind you," he said, wondering how long it was going to take Danni to figure out that her prey was getting away.

  It didn't take long.

  She fought him harder. When he stumbled and dropped to his knees, struggling to keep her in his arms he had to wonder if he was like this when bloodlust hit. In the last century he'd only succumbed to bloodlust maybe a dozen times. The last time he went into bloodlust was fourteen years ago when Danni pulled that bullshit and tried to play Superwoman and take on a nest of vampires. When she slammed her elbow into his mouth and knocked out a few teeth he automatically released his hold on her legs to grab her arms, but he didn't move fast enough.

  In seconds, she had him pinned to the ground. He turned his head and spit out the loose teeth and blood even as new teeth took their place. He ignored the stabbing pain in his jaw as the new teeth formed and focused on the feral woman on top of him.

  Danni stared down at him through fiery red eyes and he knew that she really didn't see him. Right now bloodlust was in control and Danni couldn't focus on anything she heard or saw. Blood drove her and he knew that it was only going to get worse if she didn't get more. She'd drained the human, but clearly that wasn't enough to fix the damage from the gunshot and get her out of bloodlust.

  "Danni!" he snapped even though he knew it was useless. If the bloodlust had been a result of anger, he might have had a chance of bringing her out of that by holding her and possibly yelling at her. If that didn't work he would have tried sex, but the bloodlust was a result of damage to her body and blood loss. Given enough time her body would heal and she'd come through the bloodlust on her own, but they didn't have time.

  "Shit," he said, turning his head to the side in offering. He really hated doing this, but there was no way that he could take her near Jax's pack. He couldn't take the chance she'd do something to land them both in a shitload of trouble and force him to take her out. "Just f**king do it," he said, forcing himself to remain still and knowing that this bloodlust was nothing like what she'd gone through last night.

  When she struck, she struck hard. There was no pleasure in this bite, only pain and agony as her teeth sliced through his neck. He forced himself to remain still even as he squeezed his eyes shut and ground his jaw against the pain.

  She needed this, needed him and he would take care of her, always. He couldn't stand to see her hurt and surprisingly it had very little to do with their mating.

  "Take what you need, Danni," he said, hoping Jax was carrying a gun with him because if she continued drinking at this rate he'd go into bloodlust.

  He blew out a breath of relief when she slowed down. Minutes later she pulled away and he knew that his Danni was back. He opened his eyes and looked up at her and felt his heart break.

  She looked so damn frightened as she looked around. Her beautiful violet eyes filled with tears as she looked down at his neck and when they moved to look down at herself she trembled. He knew that she was remembering being shot. That memory would probably never leave her.

  He felt his neck heal as he reached out to comfort her, but Danni wasn't having that. She quickly moved off of him and backed away, but she didn't get far before her eyes fixed on the dead human.

  "Look away," he said, sitting up and moving towards her.

  "What the hell did I do?" she said quietly, her voice breaking.

  "You didn't do anything, Danni. I did that," he said, moving to pull her in his arms only to be pushed away.

  "Don't lie to me, Caine! I can smell his scent on me," she said around a choked sob as she stood up, wrapping her arms around herself. She backed away from the body, her eyes never leaving the man's vacant face.

  He stood up and cupped her face and this time when she tried to back away he refused to let her go. He forced her to look at him and away from the body. "Listen to me, Danni. I know you're confused and scared, but we need to go. "

  When she didn't say anything he snapped at her, "Danni!"

  She looked away from him as she reached up and pushed his hands away and after a slight hesitation he let her. He nearly sighed in relief as she turned her back on the body and nodded woodenly. "Then let's go. "

  He gave her back a gentle nudge in the direction of the pack's camp. Thankfully she moved without an argument. As they walked through the woods for the first time since he was a human he felt awkward. She was upset and he had no idea what to say or do. When she still didn't say anything after a few minutes he sighed and reached out to put his arm around her only to have her shake her head.