Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel #3)(127)

She was definitely in over her head here. She had a Pyte, a large Sentinel and Kale Quinn, a well-known mercenary in their world, trying to take Caine away from her. She really wished Caine could help her, but he couldn't so that meant that she had to suck it up and distract them long enough so that she could figure out a way to get them out of here. She had a feeling that they weren't about to simply let her walk out of here with Caine.

"You're not taking him," she said, allowing her fangs to slide down and her eyes to burn as she prepared herself for the fight of her life.

"I don't want to have to hurt you, Danni," Chris said calmly. "Move aside and let me do my job."

"No," she said firmly.

Chris slowly nodded before he said, "Grab him," and just like that the fight was on.

He was quick, really quick, but then again so was she. She'd trained all her life with Sentinels and knew how to fight, but with the added Pyte strength and speed she could more than hold her own against them. That gave her an edge, but this man fought harder and faster than any Sentinel that she'd ever seen. He was quick, blocking all of her shots and when she blocked his he recovered quickly and took a different approach. He reminded her of the way Caine fought, which was probably the only reason why she was able to hold her own against this Sentinel. Caine trained her to fight and he made damn sure the lessons stuck.

She was pretty sure that she could use her strength against him, but the damn man wouldn't stop moving! When her vision began to dim and muscles began to ache she knew that she was in trouble. It had been more than ten hours since she fed from Jax and she was using too much energy to fight with this Sentinel. She wasn't going to last very much longer.

The next time he threw a backhanded punch she didn't move fast enough and paid for it. The blow hit her in the side of her head and just like that the familiar pain that she couldn't seem to escape from brought her down to her knees. She gripped her head in her hands, trying to fight back the pain as she struggled to get to Caine. She had to protect him, keep him safe and stop them from taking him away.

"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.