Tall, Silent & Lethal (Pyte/Sentinel #4)(134)

“Healing,” he said with a wince, cradling his hand against his chest as he stood up. “Since I’m probably not going to get a chance to hold one of my new grandchildren until later,” he said, sounding amused as he got to his feet, “I think I’ll go help Madison with the children.”

Cloe glanced at the clock and noted the late hour. It had taken Izzy ten hours to deliver the twins and now Cloe was exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to stumble her way to her room and fall asleep in Christofer’s arms, but she had to check on Danni first.

She hadn’t seen Danni all day, hadn’t had the chance to check up on her to make sure that she was okay. In the last of couple weeks she’d watched as the woman slowly wasted away and knew that it was only a matter of time until she slipped into a coma. It was a process that she was too familiar with and one that she didn’t want to see Danni fall victim to, especially since there would be no escape for her.

She wished there was more that she could do for her, but there wasn’t. Medicine was like poison to them, blood transfusions seemed to make her sicker. They couldn’t use normal cancer treatments to treat her. Cloe couldn’t help but wonder if-

“Get her off of me!” she heard Christofer’s pain filled roar as she climbed the steps to the living quarters.

“Stop moving and I will!” Caine shouted.

“Grab her before she-f*cking hell!”

She was up the stairs and down the hall before she realized that she was running. She skidded to a halt in front of Caine and Danni’s room. She raised her fist to knock, but then shook her head, calling herself an idiot as the sounds of a struggle became louder. She grabbed the knob and threw the door open and then….

Stood there.

She just stood there, trying to take in everything that she was seeing. Christofer lying on the floor, his clothes ripped to shreds, Danni’s arms wrapped around his bicep, holding his arm tightly so that he couldn’t pull his wrist away from her bite while Caine had his arms wrapped around Danni, trying to pull her off Christofer, pleading with her to let him go.

“All right then,” she muttered, around a yawn.

After noting that Danni’s color had improved, she turned around, shut the door behind her and headed down the hall towards her room where she planned on spending the next hour lounging in a hot bath and enjoying the box of fudge that she’d swiped from the glowering bastard’s bag.

Chapter 60

“How’s Danni?” Cloe asked, not bothering to open her eyes as she raised one leg out of the water and laid it across the top of the tub. The white bubbles sliding down her smooth tan leg drew an appreciative smile from him.

“Hungry,” he said, wincing as the torn skin marring his wrist quickly knitted together. He reached back, grabbed a handful of his ripped shirt and pulled it off, letting it drop to the floor to join Cloe’s small pile of clothes.

“I take it that your blood worked?” she asked, bringing that beautiful long leg of hers back into the water so that she could sink lower in the deep tub.

“Like a charm,” he murmured, kicking off his shoes as he unzipped his pants.

“I was wondering when Caine was going to get around to asking you for some of your blood,” she admitted on a sigh as she sank even lower in the tub.

“Me too,” he said, surprised that Caine had been able to hold off this long.

Then again, he’d also been terrified that Christofer’s blood was Danni’s last hope. Caine hadn’t been in a rush to find out that even that wouldn’t help her. He’d wanted to hold onto any hope that he could for as long as possible, but after refusing to eat for the fifth day in a row, Caine had lost the luxury of time. Christofer had considered offering his blood to Danni several times over the last couple of weeks, but like Caine, he hadn’t been ready to find out that his blood was useless, which as it turned out, it was.

The first attempt to feed Danni his blood had failed miserably. She’d barely managed to swallow the first mouthful of his blood when she’d reacted violently, leaning over the bed and spitting it up in a trashcan just as she had done after every other attempt. Caine, looking like his whole world had been destroyed, had been willing to accept defeat.

Christofer hadn’t.

He refused to let another woman in his life down. He’d be damned if he was going to be forced to sit back and watch as another woman suffered. He hadn’t been able to save Marta and he would have to live with that for the rest of his very long life.

Caine shouldn’t have to.

“How long did it take for your blood to work?” she asked as he shoved his boxers down and stepped out of them.

“A couple of hours,” he said, pressing a hand to his upset stomach at the reminder of what he’d had to do to make his blood work.

He paused by the tub, wondering if he should go downstairs and binge on a few bags of bagged blood to work the rest of the demon blood out of his system. His stomach took the decision out of his hands. Placing a hand over his increasingly upset stomach, he leaned back over to pull his clothes back on when Cloe’s hand covered his, stopping him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, releasing his hand to reach over and run her wet fingers through his hair.

His first instinct was to lie to her and tell her that everything was okay. He didn’t want to burden her with his problems, but he couldn’t lie to her. He knew that lying to her, even a small lie, would hurt her and he’d rather spend an eternity in the lab than to cause her anymore pain. She would find out that he’d lied of that he had no doubt. By morning everyone would know about the miracle cure that had helped Danni get better.