Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel #3)(135)

"Put me down, Caine!" she ordered, more than ready to have another go at the bastard.

"Yeah, let me get right on that," he said dryly, keeping her right where she was.

"Care to explain why that mad woman just attacked me?" Dimitris asked, in that crisp accented voice that most women probably found sexy.

"I'd be more than happy to tell you," she offered, trying to get off Caine's back, but he simply ignored her as he answered for her.

"She's not feeling well so let me just go put her in her room and we can get on with this."

"Don't. You. Dare," she bit out. If he tried to take her out of here before she saved his ass she would kill him that's all there was to it.

"I came all the way from Russia to make sure that you're okay and brought my top medical specialists with me to help cure you and this is how you thank me?" the man asked, sounding truly confused.

"No, this is how I thank you for trying to take my mate away!" she snapped, renewing her efforts to escape only to have her ass pinched again.

"I suppose we should get down to business," Dimitris announced with a sigh. "Caine, you knew the punishment that awaited you if you changed anyone, correct?"

"Yes," Caine said with absolutely no hesitation.

"And you did it anyway?" Dimitris asked, sounding truly confused. "For her?" he decided to add in an insulting tone and she went to fling herself off of Caine's shoulder to punch the jerk again she suddenly found herself shrugged off and landed on her feet as Caine did just that, except he went a tad further than she planned to take it.

"Shoot him!" someone ordered as Danni craned her head back and watched as Caine shoved the head of the Council into the corner, his head slamming against the ceiling in the process.

"Don't you ever," Caine growled out, slamming the head of the Council against the ceiling again, "speak of her like that again. Do you understand me?"Caine demanded as he got into the other man's face.

"Put me down, Pyte," Dimitris bit out tightly, not flinching beneath the Pyte's anger or backing down.

Caine's response was of course to tighten his grip around the man's neck and slam him again, leaving her with no choice but to try this floating thing to get him down. She slowly inhaled and focused on going to Caine. Just when she thought it wouldn't work she felt herself move and had to fight back an excited little giggle and focus on getting Caine to calm down before he really did something stupid.

"Put him down, Caine," she said softly, trying not to look down. As cool as this was it didn't change the fact that she was deathly afraid of heights.

"He disrespected you," Caine said, moving to slam the man again, but she moved in to intervene. She pulled Caine's hand away and probably should have grabbed the man with her free hand so that he wouldn't drop, but she had to calm her mate down before he went into bloodlust over this.

"Look, I'm working my ass off here to save you here and you're really screwing this up for me," she said, feeling herself start to weaken just as she started to fall. Caine had her in his arms before she could fall on her ass.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his neck, ignoring the Sentinels they floated over as she held on tightly to him. "Please don't leave me again, Caine. I love you."

"I love you too, Danni. That's why I'm doing this," he said as exhaustion crept up her spine and she knew that she'd overdone it today sparring with Chris and her little attack on the council member and her little floating attempt. Soon she wouldn't be able to do much to keep them from taking him away from her. She needed to fight and hang onto him. If she didn't she'd lose him forever.

"Please don't leave me," she said as her eyes fluttered shut.

"I have to," he said, tightening his hold around her.

"I need you, Caine," she said as she felt herself start to let go.

"I'm doing this for you, Danni. Always remember that, baby. I love you," she heard him say as darkness took over.

********

Five months later......

"Just tell me," Izzy said, sounding more impatient by the minute.

"Why?" Danni asked with a shrug as she slapped a sheathed knife against her ankle and attached it. "You already know."

"Tell me it's a mistake," Izzy demanded, gesturing absently to the raised circle just below her ear.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. It looks like Chris knocked you up again." She was actually surprised that it took him this long to do it. Once Izzy healed from her last surgery two months ago the two of them had been going at it every chance they got and she did mean every chance. She'd lost count of how many times she walked in on them when she wasn't paying attention, or how many times she woke up from Izzy screaming Chris' name.

Then again, Ephraim and Madison seemed to have the same problem, which was why three months ago she'd finally had enough and moved all her things to the West wing, the wing Kale claimed for himself. He wasn't too happy to find her living in his wing two months ago when he came for a visit, but he quickly got over it when Izzy told him to stop his whining or she wouldn't keep his room stocked with ice cold Coke and junk food. The man didn't like Pytes, that much was obvious, but when they patrolled together or went looking for Joshua he seemed not to care what she was.