PS03 - Tall, Dark & Heartless (54 page)

some more blood and a really comfy bed and no interruptions for the next forty-eight hours.

"You're pale," Caine said, his frown morphing into concern.

"Because you're an asshole," she managed to say as she closed her eyes and focused on trying to stop panting, but it was

difficult. Should she be having this many problems as a Pyte? She didn't think so, but then again she also didn't think forcing her

to run two hours straight to test her endurance had been very helpful either.

"Ow!" Her eyes snapped open to glare at the jerk as he leaned forward and lightly licked the drop of blood forming on the

tip of her finger off. She opened her mouth to ask him what his damn problem was when he cringed, turned his head and spat

out her blood.

Well, that was kind of insulting.

"Stronger?" Jax asked, pausing in mid-throw of a wrapped up tent. When Caine nodded grimly, Jax sighed heavily,

dropped the tent to the ground and walked over to her and plopped down on the ground next to her.

"Here," he said, holding out his wrist to her. "Just be gentle, I'm fragile."

Still panting, Danni turned her head towards Caine and cocked an eyebrow in question.

He sighed as he grabbed Jax's wrist. "We wanted to see if the cancer became stronger when you pushed yourself too far

or if using your abilities would help your body fight back against it," he explained as his fangs slid down.

"Ow! I said gentle, you asshole!" Jax snapped as he pulled his wrist away. When Caine growled the man rolled his eyes

and offered his bleeding wrist to her.

She slapped it away. "You decided to test this theory behind my back? Why the hell didn't you tell me all this before you

let this jerk shift and chase me all over the damn forest!" she snapped, feeling weaker by the minute.

"It wouldn't have made a difference," Caine said as he grabbed Jax's wrist and placed it right back in front of her.

"Well, she might not have thrown those rocks at me," Jax mused as he gave his wrist a little wiggle, trying to entice a

reaction out of her.

She shot the man a glare. "Maybe if you hadn't been trying to bite my ass every other minute I wouldn't have had to throw

those rocks at you!" she snapped, thankful that the damn shifter only caught up to her twice and the small nips he left on her

bottom had healed already. That didn't mean that she wanted to do that again. She really didn't. In fact, being chased by a

werewolf hell bent on nibbling on her ass ranked somewhere along the lines of being placed in a tree and left to fall by an

insane Pyte.

Jax sighed heavily as he shook his wrist yet again. "It was the only way that you'd learn, Danni, now drink up it's getting

cold."

"The only thing that I learned is that you're a fu-" her words were smothered by Jax's wrist suddenly being shoved into her

mouth, another thing she really didn't appreciate. When she went to back away he simply followed the movement. The glare

Caine sent her let her know that if she didn't drink that he'd probably let the shifter chase her ass down again, or put her back in

that tree.

Jerks
.

As she drank the admittedly delicious blood she glared at Caine, who simply ignored her as he kept a watchful eye on Jax,

who appeared to be staring in the vicinity of her breasts. "Watch it," Caine bit out evenly.

"Just keeping an eye on her breathing," Jax mumbled, keeping his eyes right where they were.

If his blood didn't taste so damn good she'd probably shove him away and go find somewhere to curl up and sleep for a

few hours, but his blood tasted good, really good. A minute later it tasted a lot better for some reason. It was richer, fuller and

had a slightly different flavor, one she vaguely recalled, but couldn't quite remember as she sucked on his wrist more greedily.

She was barely aware of his answering groan or Caine's vivid curse as the scent of the shifter's arousal reached her nose and

she realized what changed the flavor of his blood. He was aroused.

When this happened with Caine back in their cell it had made her wet and needy, but with the shifter it just made the meal

more delicious and she was actually considering flashing the man to see if it would get any better when the delicious blood and

the wrist if flowed from was suddenly taken away.

"But, I wasn't finished yet!" she said, knowing that she was whining as she reached out to make a grab for the flushed

shifter as Caine scooped her up in his arms and headed for the black truck Jax said they could have.

"Too bad," Caine snapped, quickening his pace. "We have to go."

She gave up her attempts to climb over Caine to get more of that yummy blood and sighed. "Can I at least say goodbye?"

she asked, feeling kind of funny leaving like this after all the shifter had done for them.

"She has a point, Caine. I think a goodbye kiss is order," Jax said from somewhere behind them.

Caine grumbled something as he managed to open the truck door and place her inside. He shut the door and stormed

around the front of the truck, all while glaring daggers at the shifter. When he practically tore his door off, she rolled her eyes

and buckled up. There was just no talking to the man when he got like this.

"See you in a couple of decades, asshole," Jax said brightly as he walked past the truck.

Caine actually chuckled as he started the truck up, surprising her. It was really nice to see this side of him, the calmer,

carefree side. As he navigated the dirt road she couldn't help but wonder how long this would last.

********

"I'm bored," Danni announced, making him laugh as she undid her seatbelt and snuggled up against him, resting her head

against his outstretched arm in the process as he held onto the steering wheel.

"We've only been driving for two hours," he pointed out.

"Two hours with nothing to do. You know how much I hate downtime," she grumbled as she let out a heartfelt sigh.

"If you're bored then look around," he said, taking a hand off the wheel to gesture to the trees that surrounded them on

either side. "You might even luck out and see a squirrel," he said in a mocking tone that had her poking him in the side.

"Jerk," she grumbled as she shifted to get more comfortable. He took the hint and dropped his right hand from the wheel

and moved his arm so that it was wrapped around her shoulders and she could move closer to him, which was more than fine

with him.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she pressed a kiss against his jaw before she settled back down.

"To Philadelphia, where else?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the long stretch of highway before them.

He felt her go still against him. "Where in Philadelphia?" she asked, trying to feign disinterest as she reached up and

traced the tattoo lining his jaw with her finger.

"To the house your parents left you, Danni. Where else?" he asked, wondering if she was going to remember anything from

that little run-in with the tree.

She tried to move away from him to sit up, but he wasn't having that. He held her right where she was and after a moment

she gave up with a sigh and returned her attention to tracing his tattoo. "How do you know about that place, Caine?"

"You told me about it," he said lightly even though at the time he considered spanking her ass for even thinking about

going anywhere without him. She of course made that up to him in spades when she announced to the entire pack that was

hovering around her that he was the best lay she'd ever had. That could have been the concussion talking, but he'd decided to

believe that it was the truth.

"When?" she demanded, giving up on tracing his tattoo to just snuggle against him.

"When that tree knocked you out, Danni. Don't you remember anything?" he asked, getting slightly worried before he

reminded himself that she was a Pyte and therefore there would be no permanent damage. If only that damn cancer would

remember that and die and leave his mate alone. He still didn't know what the hell he was going to do to help her with that.

He'd never heard of such a thing. Granted, he only knew of a few other Pytes in existence so this could very well be a

common occurrence, but he didn't think so. When he'd turned her he fucked up. If he could go back and do it all over again he

would have done things differently. He never would have allowed her to be captured. He also knew that he would have

changed her so that he could have forever with her. He would have made sure to have several large refrigerators well stocked

with fresh blood for her so that she could have killed this thing once and for all. He really didn't like the idea of Danni

suffering for eternity.

"It didn't knock me out!" she snapped before asking more softly and with a touch of hesitancy, "What exactly did I say?"

That she loved him, but that she'd kick his ass if he ever left her again, which made him feel like an asshole until she

shifted topics and went on for about five minutes in a drunken slur about how big his cock was and how she loved flicking his

piercing with her tongue and feeling it rub inside of her when he made love to her, but she probably wouldn't be too happy to

hear that she shared that with about twenty shifters who couldn't stop laughing their asses off. So instead he said, "You only

talked about the house your parents left you and how no one knew about it," including him. He'd been surprised and furious to

discover that her parents had a little love nest only a day's drive away when their asses should have been with their daughter.

After he got over his initial rage, with the help of knocking a few trees down, he thought over what she rambled on about

and realized that it would indeed be the best place to take her. No one knew about it, including the Council, because if they had

they would have probably sent Danni packing, since Danni's presence as a child had been a bit of a hindrance on the Sentinels

running the compound. They all cared for Danni, but having to watch out for another child whose parents were never there had

created a problem.

"We'll go there, get you rested and trained and from there.......we'll see," because he had no clue what they should do or

where they should go. They were Pytes and should be able to go and do whatever the hell they wanted, but with Danni's

condition, the Sentinel Council and the Master after them they had to be careful. He hated this, hated having her so weak and

was scared out of his mind that something would happen to him and keep him from taking care of her.

"Okay," Danni said, snuggling up closer to him.

He pulled her closer and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Everything's going to be fine."

He hoped it would at least, for Danni's sake.

Chapter 46

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"Are you sure this is the place?" Caine asked. He looked around the rundown neighborhood as he helped her out of the

truck.

"Yes, this is it," she said, as she looked over the old brownstone. Thanks to the street lamps and her night vision she could

see just how badly the old brownstone had faired since the one and only time she came here.

That was about eight years ago and it was shocking to see how much had changed in that time. The beautiful red brick

facade that she remembered was now the faded background of graffiti tags. The iron railings and fence had since been ripped

out of the ground. The small, yet quaint garden that she remembered staring at while she sat on the brick steps sipping a beer

was now a mess of mud, used condoms, broken bottles and about a dozen other things that were giving off a foul odor. She

could barely make herself look up at the broken windows and the front door that hung off its hinges at an odd angle.

"Stay here, baby. I'm going to have a look around," Caine said, pressing a kiss to her forehead as he moved to help her

back in the truck.

"I'm coming," she said, shifting to the side and heading up the broken brick steps as Caine mumbled, "Why am I not

surprised?"

Before she made it to the top step he was there shoving the door open and taking her hand into his. Neither one of them

bothered with the flashlights in Jax's truck since they could both see better without the interference of the synthetic light.

Years ago when she came here she'd felt betrayed when she stepped inside and got a good look at her parent's love nest,

but now her stomach churned with acid as she took in the changes. The walls were either kicked in, spray painted or urinated

on. There were empty beer bottles and trash everywhere. Whatever wasn't pinned down had been stolen. The once homey

inside now looked like a barren wasteland.

"Let's start with the upstairs," Caine said softly, taking her into his arms. She didn't say a word as he floated them up to the

next level since the once beautiful stairs now matched the rest of the house.

"Stay by my side," he said as he released her only to take her hand into his once again and led her down the long hallway

that looked in worse shape than the first floor.

The scents of urine, sex, body odor, rotting food and a hundred other scents assaulted her nose. It took her a moment to

sort through them and when she did she frowned and glanced around. "We're not alone," she said, looking for the humans that