Tall, Dark & Heartless

When the humming of the electricity didn't stop he knew they were going for the kill. He flashed to the other side of the room, grabbed her by the ankle and nearly released her just as quickly when a surge of electricity ripped up his arm and forced every muscle in his body to contract almost violently. There was no doubt in his mind now they meant to kill her.

Grinding his teeth as the electricity shot to his heart and threatened to rupture the organ, he gripped the wire and yanked it. He focused on pulling that chord until every last particle of fiber and wire was free from the anklet around Danni's leg. Gasping for air, he tossed the wire to the side and ripped the anklet off as well. He didn't know if it could still do any damage and he sure as hell wasn't about to find out.

He dropped the anklet to the floor and turned to get the cooler. They needed to move and with her still down for the count he would have to take care of them both, which meant he needed to quickly fill up on blood so he could speed up his recovery time after he took care of his chain problem.

"Danni, I'm going.......to....," he stopped mid-step as his brain registered the silent room, the too silent room. Danni wasn't thrashing, screaming, groaning, or breathing for that matter.

Her heart also wasn't beating.

*******

Boston Compound

"When did they go missing?" she heard Chris ask as he paced the room, but barely paid attention as she ran the program she'd created for the Army last year and prayed that it worked.

Unfortunately, given how extensive the list of fake IP addresses was she knew it could be hours before her program was able to eliminate all the fake ones and lock down on both the source of the video and the receiver. She also needed to get out of this room before Chris' pacing drove her crazy.

Normally it wouldn't bother her. She'd just lose herself in one of her programs, but she hadn't been outside in months, so little things like her mate pacing and cursing up a storm now made her crazy. Well, that and her hormones. She couldn't believe she let the big jerk get her pregnant again.

Okay, so she hadn't been exactly pushing the condom issue. She didn't like using them. She wasn't an idiot. Before Chris she always used them. She didn't like playing Russian Roulette with her life, but Chris was her mate, had a clean bill of health and most importantly, felt incredible inside of her.

The one time she demanded that he use a condom he'd been amused until he slid inside of her. Before he completed the first stroke he pulled out, ripped the condom off and shoved her against the wall before he started pounding inside of her. Since they had sex at least five times a day, it was difficult to pinpoint the exact incident that led to this pregnancy. Of course, she remembered the morning she discovered that she was pregnant, again.

Waking up at the exact moment her mate dragged in her father-in-law, Ephraim, to not only confirm the small circle on her skin just below her ear that indicated a pregnancy, but also to find out the sex of the child had been an unforgettable moment indeed. At least Ephraim had looked as uncomfortable as she felt, but then again she had been buck-naked curled up in bed at the time. When he not only confirmed the pregnancy but then announced that she was pregnant with a boy, Chris had been ecstatic, the exact opposite of how he'd reacted to her first pregnancy. She knew he'd been afraid that he would turn out to be like his mother or worse and didn't want to hurt his kids. The foolish man actually thought that he would fail his children.

She loved seeing him happy. Then again, she would have loved a hug and a kiss at that moment, but Chris had to go get Jessica and share the news with their infant daughter that she was going to be a big sister. He eventually got around to giving her that kiss and much more later. So she kind of forgave him for it.

"I'm going for a walk," she said, stepping in front of him and forcing him to pause in his pacing. With a firm nod he leaned down and gave her a quick hard kiss that had her toes curling before he went right back to chewing out the person on the phone.

She slipped out of her office and into what she liked to call, 'The Geek Pit" and quickly made her way towards the door, hoping none of them noticed her escape. They were a really good group of IT techs and she was glad to have them working for her. She just couldn't stand the fact that they acted like they were her groupies. Every day they bombarded her with a thousand questions, most of them about her infamous program Tattletale, the program that started this little war that was keeping her and the rest of her family locked up in the compound.

When she made it into the hall without anyone spotting her, she let out a sigh of relief and quickly made her way towards the back elevators. She wanted to go upstairs and get Jessica, but the text message that Madison sent her a half hour ago let her know that Jessica was curled up in her grandfather's arms and fast asleep. As much as she would love to hold Jessica right now, she knew that Ephraim needed her more. Ever since the incident with Joshua the man had been struggling to keep it together and seemed to be able to relax the most when he had his granddaughter in his arms.

Thankfully Madison's due date was getting closer and he'd soon have his two baby boys to keep him occupied. The man deserved a break and she wished he'd accept that he couldn't have known that Kale had given Joshua his blood before he gave Joshua his as well. Anyone would have done the same to save their child. It was tragic what happened to Joshua, but it wasn't his fault. They still weren't sure what the mixture of shifter and Pyte blood had done to Joshua and until they figured it out, Joshua was going to have to remain locked up.

"Come on, freak, fight back!" she heard a boy yell, followed by the sounds of laughter.

She rounded the corner and wasn't too surprised at the sight before her. Marc, Chris' eleven year old brother, was standing in the middle of a group of five teenage boys, who were enjoying making his life a living hell. Marc was a really sweet kid, a cutie pie in her book with his jet black hair and ocean blue eyes. He was also a Pyte, a young Pyte who hadn't made it through the transformation that would turn him immortal yet. That would thankfully happen in about five years. Until then, he was just as weak as any human boy, one that needed blood to grow normally, but he was still pretty much human. He'd also been on the receiving end of this type of nonsense ever since they moved here.

"What's the matter? Don't want your game back?" Seth, a little creep that she'd love to put over her knee, said as he held up the handheld game system that she'd given Marc just yesterday.

Marc just stood there glaring at the boy, but didn't make a move against him. They both knew that he'd probably be able to take the boy and a few of his friends down since Chris had trained him, but the boy refused to hurt anyone. Well, anyone human that is. If the boys had been Sentinels or shifter children instead of humans he probably would have taken a swing at them by now, but Marc just didn't think the training he had received from his father and Chris was a fair advantage over the human boys.

The boy was just too damn sweet, she thought with a sigh as she stepped up to the group, reached over the boy's shoulder and yanked the game out of the bully's hand. The boy reacted automatically and went to swing his fist at her as he turned. She caught his fist in her hand, giving it a light enough squeeze to catch his attention.

"You want to tell me what you're doing?" she asked when the boy's eyes landed on her and widened. "Or should I just go get my mate and have him handle this......again?"