Tall, Dark & Heartless

Chapter 36

"What the hell are you talking about, Caine?" she asked, taking a deep breath in hopes that it would calm her down.

She couldn't believe that she just lost it like that. After all these years she should be a master at ignoring her feelings, but after the last couple of days, too many things had happened to her and somehow her control slipped. If he hadn't come after her she could have had the meltdown without the added benefit of mortification and moved on with her life. Now she had to deal with the knowledge that Caine had witnessed this auspicious occasion. But, apparently that wasn't good enough, because now he was hell-bent on confusing her.

"Your parents' killers, Danni," he answered quietly as she pulled back to look up at him. "I know what you did."

"So?" she said with a careless shrug as she grabbed the top of the sheet with one hand and wiped her eyes with the other. At least her tears weren't coming as fast and her sobs had died down. Hopefully by the next time she ran into him, say five or six centuries from now, he'll forget all about this horrifying moment. She could hope at least.

"The Council found out about it, Danni," he said, making her breath catch. A moment later she slowly released that breath and forced another careless shrug as common sense prevailed.

The Council knew and if they cared they would have done something. Since they hadn't done anything or so much as mentioned it to her then they obviously didn't care. It wasn't as if she made a habit of performing unsanctioned kills so there really was nothing to worry about and obviously they knew that. The only thing that she didn't know was why Caine was bringing this up.

"What's your point, Caine?" she asked, wiping at her eyes again as she walked past him and continued to head towards what she hoped was the main road, but it was kind of difficult to tell since the property was surrounded by woods and there didn't seem to be any neighboring houses. Maybe her newfound skills would come in handy, she hoped as she inhaled deeply and caught the scent of what she thought was car exhaust so she kept on going, hoping that he'd just let her go.

"You were sentenced to die, Danni," he said softly, stunning her enough that she stumbled over a small rock, but of course Caine flashed in front of her and caught her before she landed face first on the dirt road.

As he helped her to her feet she couldn't help but notice that his erection had finally died down, which was actually great since the damn thing was distracting. Well, it was distracting even in this state, but thankfully Caine had given her something to hold her attention.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded as she stepped back away from him and pushed her hair out of her face.

"You're a human who broke their rules, Danni. You killed two minions, humans, without permission. When the Council found out about it they took a vote and decided to make an example out of you," he explained as his eyes slowly shifted from grey to red.

"I-I wasn't notified. There was no trial," she argued even though she knew that it wasn't required. She wasn't a Sentinel so their rules and protection didn't apply to her. As a human she received the Council's protection as long as she didn't cross the line. The moment she had, all bets were off and the Council would do whatever it took to protect their cause.

"They didn't need one, Danni. We both know that," he said, sounding frustrated as he rubbed his hands down his face. "You should have come to me for help, Danni."

At that she had to let out a humorless laugh. Go to him? Was he kidding?

"You cut me out of your life, Caine. How the hell was I supposed to go to you when you made it more than obvious that you wanted me gone, huh?"

"You should have come to me, Danni," he bit out angrily. "You were in deep shit and you knew it and you sure as hell should have come to me when you found out that you were dying!" he roared, his fangs shooting down as he got in her face. "I would have protected you, Danni, and taken care of everything," he said, cupping her face in his large warm hands as she struggled not to break down again.

Once was more than enough.

"No, you wouldn't have!" she snapped, moving to shove him away, but he refused to move. "You made it clear that I didn't mean anything to you when you walked away from me, Caine, so why the hell would I go to you?"

"Didn't care?" he repeated in hoarse voice. "I never stopped caring about you, Danni. As hard I tried I couldn't."

"Then why did you leave me all alone?" she cried out, her eyes watering with fresh tears and she didn't care. Let him see her as weak. She didn't give a damn, because after this she was walking away and he could go f-

"Because if I didn't I would have killed you, Danni," he said, momentarily stunning her into silence. She couldn't even work her mouth enough to ask him to clear that little announcement up and she desperately wanted to know why.

"Your blood, Danni," he said simply as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I couldn't ignore it any longer, sweetheart. I had to shove you away or-"

"Risk draining me," she finished for him, her voice hollow as she registered what he was saying. It didn't take her long to figure it out thanks to her upbringing. "How long?"

Thankfully he understood what she meant. "Since the moment you walked into the hallway and started bossing me around," he said, chuckling softly as he pressed another kiss against her forehead. "It got worse as you aged until it became too much to ignore."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, wondering how close he'd come. Probably very close if he had to push her away, she realized. Then a thought occurred to her. "You pushed me away because you cared about me?" she asked, trying not to get her hopes up.

"God, yes," he said, kissing her temple.

All these years she thought he hated her, grew bored with her when in reality he was only trying to protect her. It was sweet, really.

He let out a strangled shout of pain as she stomped down on his instep. "You bastard!" she snapped, shoving him down and when he moved to get up she slammed her foot down on his chest and shoved him back down.

"I could have protected myself!" she snapped, barely resisting the urge to kick him in the ass. "I didn't need you to play the martyr. If you had just told me, we could have figured out something together. You didn't need to break my heart, you jerk!"

"How exactly would you have done that, huh?" he asked as he grabbed her by the ankle and gave it a good pull and a slight twist that had her releasing another one of those embarrassing squeaks as she lost her balance and fell down. Thankfully, Caine caught her and quickly positioned her to straddle his stomach.

A piece of sheet separated them, but she could still feel heat radiating off of him and welcomed it. It was a chilly summer 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-