Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel #3)(76)

"Go," he said, tossing the gun aside and focusing his attention on the deathly pale man in Danni's arms. He heard the man's heart stutter as it struggled to go on, but it was only a matter of minutes now. Danni had taken too much and there wasn't anything any of them could do to save the man. Not that Caine would have helped the bastard after what he'd done, but he knew that killing this man was going to be a blow to Danni.

Even as a child she'd had an ingrained sense of honor that both frustrated the hell out of him and impressed him. At Sentinel Compounds, training and education was very hands on and required both the child's participation as well as the parents'. Since Danni's parents had been very hands off that left him to step up and help her.

During the activities that required adult help she absolutely forbade him from helping her by using his enhanced senses and if she thought for even one second that he was cheating the little dictator would cross her small arms over her chest and glare up at him. That was it, she would just glare at him and for some reason that was always enough to piss him off and get him to agree to stop.

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.