PS03 - Tall, Dark & Heartless (45 page)

morning and this damn sheet wasn't doing much to keep her warm. Then again, the anger surging through her body was doing a

pretty good job of boiling her blood.

"How were you going to handle a Pyte in full bloodlust? Pushing you away was the only way to keep you safe, Danni," he

snapped as he sat up and wrapped his arms around her, keeping her right where she was when all she wanted to do was push

him back to the ground and walk away, because god help her, but the man was-

Right.

She'd still been a kid when he shoved her away and there was no way she would have been able to handle him. If he

wanted to kill her, he would have been able to and nothing and no one would have been able to stop him. Well, that wasn't

entirely true. Someone could have shot him in the head or heart, but she would have probably been dead by the time they

managed to get off a few rounds.

"Why didn't the Council punish me?" she asked, needing a change of topic before she completely lost it.

"It doesn't matter," he whispered as he pulled her against him, but she wasn't having it. There was something else that he

wasn't telling her and she wanted to know what that something was.

She released her hold on the sheet so that she could reach up and cup his face. "Tell me, Caine."

For a moment he just stared into her eyes and she was afraid that she was going to have to kick his ass to get her answer

when he looked away, clenching his jaw tightly before he sighed heavily and looked back at her.

"I took care of it."

"Took care of it.....," she repeated back slowly, wondering how exactly he took care of an order for execution.

"I took a punishment and a warning," he admitted with a shrug like it was no big deal, but she wasn't buying it. The council

rarely changed their minds about something as serious as executing a human.

"What did they do to you?" she asked him.

When he didn't answer her, she leaned forward and brushed her lips against his. "Please tell me what they did, Caine."

"There's no point, Danni. Just let it go," he said against her lips.

"No," she said stubbornly as she pulled back. "I want to know what happened, Caine, and I want to know about this

warning they gave you and why no one approached me."

"It's cold out here and they'll be returning soon. We should go inside," he said, moving to shift her off his lap so that he

could stand up, but she wasn't having it. He was going to answer her damn questions or freeze his balls off, it was his choice.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tightly knowing that it would be impossible for him to get up with her

like this. "You're not-
hey
!"

Damn floating Pytes!

With another one of those embarrassingly high squeaks that had him chuckling he allowed his legs to drop to the ground

and simply walked her back towards the garage while she held on to him for dear life, not really sure what he was going to do

next and admittedly a little nervous. She really needed him to teach her all these cool tricks, and soon.

"Tell me what happened!"

"No," the aggravating man said as he walked up the long driveway.

"I'm not kidding, Caine," she snapped even as her mind raced to figure out a way to get him to open his mouth and spill his

guts. She'd never had much luck in intimidating him and she doubted that much had changed since he turned her into a Pyte.

"I never thought that you were," he said in a patronizing tone as he pressed a quick kiss to the tip of her nose as she glared

at the man.

"I hate you," she simply said.

He slowed down as he frowned down at her, actually looking a little hurt and making her feel kind of bad that she said

that. "You hate me?"

Before she could answer him he sighed heavily. "Then I guess I shouldn't be carrying you," he said as he pulled her off of

him and quickly placed her on her feet. Before she could get her bearings or figure out what the hell he was doing, he reached

out and grabbed a handful of her sheet.

He wouldn't......

He did!

With a chuckle he yanked her sheet away and flashed away from her just as the sounds of engines running reached her

ears. She looked over her shoulder and was a little surprised when she didn't see any sign of them. Then she remembered her

damn Pyte abilities, the ones that she couldn't quite control yet. Seconds later the sounds of the engines became painfully loud,

but she couldn't see any cars yet.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," she mumbled in a rush as she cupped her ears, hoping that would block out the sounds, but it only

managed to get worse by the second.

She heard Caine mutter, "Fucking hell," somewhere close by and could have happily kicked him in the balls when the

words shot through her head with the power of a sledgehammer and dropped her to her knees.

"Looks like you need to eat," she guessed he said softly, but it sounded like he was screaming it in her ear.

"Stop yelling!" she snapped and then of course immediately cringed into herself. "I just ate a bag of blood a little while

ago," she reminded him with a whisper since she really didn't want to experience that little culinary feat again for a while.

"Are you hungry, Danni?" he asked with another damn shout as he picked her up in his arms.

Instead of answering him or even looking at him since her damn eyes were starting to hurt from the light, she settled for

nodding her head. She was a little hungry, but she wasn't ravenous like yesterday.

"Are you close, Danni?" he asked and thankfully she didn't need any clarification to figure out what he meant.

She shook her head, because this didn't feel anything like when she was about to lose control and go into bloodlust. This

felt like when she first woke up after the change, but magnified by a hundred with the added bonus of the pain she used to suffer

from, thanks to the cancer. She turned to bury her face against his chest to block out the sounds of the engines, their breathing,

the wind and damn near everything. Every sound intensified and fought for her attention and the sunlight felt like a bright light,

burning her eyes even with her lids closed. Seconds later, her sense of smell decided to join the party.

Her stomach rumbled violently as his scent was practically shoved down her throat. Unfortunately for her, or rather

fortunately for
him
, the scent of the dirt, grass, trees, smoke, oil and about a hundred different scents made themselves known.

The combination quickly took care of any hunger she might have felt a minute ago and decided to make a contribution of its

own to her headache.

"Alright, looks like it's another bag of delicious cold blood for you," he screamed, well, he probably didn't scream it, but

it sure as hell felt like he did.

This sucked, she thought just before the sounds of car doors opening and slamming shut sent her into oblivion.

Chapter 37

Boston Compound

"Dad, calm down!" she pleaded as he moved past her with another armful of her clothes and shoved them into one of the

bags he'd thrown onto her bed.

"There's nothing to calm down about, Jill. You're going home to your grandmother," Ephraim said as he stormed past her

to grab the rest of her clothes.

"You're being ridiculous, Dad. Madison will be having the babies soon and not too long after that Izzy's going to have her

baby. Sending me home when everyone finally is about to need me is pointless," she said as she walked past her father and

grabbed a disheveled pile of shirts to return them to the bureau.

She wasn't about to be sent home, not now, not after being forced to stay here every single day for the last several months.

She'd given up her job, her apartment, her life to be there for her family and she wasn't about to have all that be for nothing. She

was staying and seeing this out. She was not about to let one moment of stupidity wreck that.

"
What the hell were you thinking, Jill?
" her father suddenly roared as he kicked the bottom of the large solid bed frame,

sending it flying across the room and slamming it into the wall with a sickening crack followed by the sound of glass shattering.

She didn't need to look to know that the bed was probably embedded in the wall.

She looked up at her father to meet his red eyed glare and immediately wished that she hadn't. She cringed when she saw

the expression on his face, the one that used to make her feel worthless. Dissapointment. Her father was disappointed in her

and she couldn't blame him, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

"I thought you were smarter than this, Jill," he said, rubbing his hands down his face.

"I am, Dad. If you'd just let me explain-"

"Explain?" he cut her off with a pained chuckle. "I would love to hear how my daughter came to let a fucking leech feed

off of her and mark her as his fucking property!" he snapped, his red eyes glowing more intensely with each word.

"I'm not his property," she hastily explained, hoping to calm him enough so that they could sit down and discuss this.

Once she explained the situation, her father would understand and realize that this whole thing was just a simple

misunderstanding. Maybe she shouldn't have given Logan her blood, or at the very least maybe she should have taken some out

of the infirmary, but she didn't want to risk getting caught and getting banned from the lockup unit.

She'd miss the friendship she'd built with Logan, but most of all, she'd miss seeing Joshua. He was the reason why she

was still here and if they took away her daily and nightly visits to him then she would truly be useless and she wouldn't be able

to handle that.

"You know what it means when you let a vampire feed from you, Jill," her father said, focusing his attention back on

packing her things. He grabbed the clothes away from her and tossed them onto the bureau.

"I'm not his, Dad. If you would just-"

"I'm done listening, Jill. I'm taking you home to your grandmother tonight," he said before adding quietly, "I really thought

you were past all this."

"What are you talking about?" she demanded as she stepped in front of him, cutting him off as he moved towards the

bathroom to get the rest of her things.

"I'm talking about all this bullshit Candy shoved down your throat, but apparently I was wrong," he said, shaking his head

in disgust as he moved past her.

She reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him. "I'm nothing like her," she said firmly.

She wasn't.

Over the past ten years she'd worked hard to make sure that every last ounce of her biological mother's influence was

gone. She worked her butt off, she put her family first, was responsible, didn't drink, and wasn't a slut. In fact, she hadn't slept

with a man since that horrible night when she was fifteen. Now she understood that she was too stupid and immature to know

any better. That was a mistake that she never planned on making again.

She was nothing like Candy. Candy only lived for herself and that definitely wasn't Jill. She always put everyone else's

needs and wants ahead of her own and she bent over backwards to help anyone who asked, which is exactly how she got

herself into this little mess. It was one of the tiny little problems she was trying to work on.

She was a sucker for a sob story.

Everyone who worked or lived at the Corner Street shelter would agree wholeheartedly to that. She'd lost count of how

many times she gave people chances that really didn't deserve one. It was the reason why she was written up at work at least

four times a month when she worked at the shelter. It certainly didn't help that she was quick to forgive.

Thanks to her father, Madison, Grandma and especially Chris she was given a second chance at life and she felt like a

hypocrite not giving someone else a chance. That didn't mean that she was a complete pushover no matter what anyone thought.

She believed in giving second chances, but she never gave out third chances. Once someone burned a bridge with her that was

it, she was done.

So far, Logan hadn't hurt her or let her down and when she found out that he was suffering she couldn't just sit by and let it

continue. He made it easier to handle this situation and she couldn't just sit by while he was in pain. It probably wasn't the

wisest decision that she'd ever made, but she made sure that he understood that she was only helping him and that she wasn't

signing on to serve him.

"Then how do you explain giving yourself to a vampire?" he asked softly, looking down at her with open pity before

pulling his arm away and once again moving towards the bathroom. "Get ready. We're leaving in ten minutes."

"Dad,-"

"Change of plans," Chris announced as he strolled into her room, carrying Izzy, who was noticeably fuming, and Kale hot

on his heels and looking close to committing murder.

"You're not going," Kale gritted out.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, cupcake," Chris drawled lazily even as he ran an assessing eye over Jill to make

sure that she was okay. Once he was satisfied that their father hadn't made her cry he let her know with a frown that they'd be

having a talk later, probably a very loud talk.

"Chris," Izzy said with a put out sigh, "put me down. I can walk."

"It took me an hour to lure you off that bastard's lap with a candy bar. I'm not about to go through that bullshit again," Chris