Tall, Dark & Heartless

Jax sighed heavily as he shook his wrist yet again. "It was the only way that you'd learn, Danni, now drink up it's getting cold."

"The only thing that I learned is that you're a fu-" her words were smothered by Jax's wrist suddenly being shoved into her mouth, another thing she really didn't appreciate. When she went to back away he simply followed the movement. The glare Caine sent her let her know that if she didn't drink that he'd probably let the shifter chase her ass down again, or put her back in that tree.

Jerks.

As she drank the admittedly delicious blood she glared at Caine, who simply ignored her as he kept a watchful eye on Jax, who appeared to be staring in the vicinity of her br**sts. "Watch it," Caine bit out evenly.

"Just keeping an eye on her breathing," Jax mumbled, keeping his eyes right where they were.

If his blood didn't taste so damn good she'd probably shove him away and go find somewhere to curl up and sleep for a few hours, but his blood tasted good, really good. A minute later it tasted a lot better for some reason. It was richer, fuller and had a slightly different flavor, one she vaguely recalled, but couldn't quite remember as she sucked on his wrist more greedily. She was barely aware of his answering groan or Caine's vivid curse as the scent of the shifter's arousal reached her nose and she realized what changed the flavor of his blood. He was aroused.

When this happened with Caine back in their cell it had made her wet and needy, but with the shifter it just made the meal more delicious and she was actually considering flashing the man to see if it would get any better when the delicious blood and the wrist if flowed from was suddenly taken away.

"But, I wasn't finished yet!" she said, knowing that she was whining as she reached out to make a grab for the flushed shifter as Caine scooped her up in his arms and headed for the black truck Jax said they could have.

"Too bad," Caine snapped, quickening his pace. "We have to go."

She gave up her attempts to climb over Caine to get more of that yummy blood and sighed. "Can I at least say goodbye?" she asked, feeling kind of funny leaving like this after all the shifter had done for them.

"She has a point, Caine. I think a goodbye kiss is order," Jax said from somewhere behind them.

Caine grumbled something as he managed to open the truck door and place her inside. He shut the door and stormed around the front of the truck, all while glaring daggers at the shifter. When he practically tore his door off, she rolled her eyes and buckled up. There was just no talking to the man when he got like this.

"See you in a couple of decades, ass**le," Jax said brightly as he walked past the truck.

Caine actually chuckled as he started the truck up, surprising her. It was really nice to see this side of him, the calmer, carefree side. As he navigated the dirt road she couldn't help but wonder how long this would last.

********

"I'm bored," Danni announced, making him laugh as she undid her seatbelt and snuggled up against him, resting her head against his outstretched arm in the process as he held onto the steering wheel.

"We've only been driving for two hours," he pointed out.

"Two hours with nothing to do. You know how much I hate downtime," she grumbled as she let out a heartfelt sigh.

"If you're bored then look around," he said, taking a hand off the wheel to gesture to the trees that surrounded them on either side. "You might even luck out and see a squirrel," he said in a mocking tone that had her poking him in the side.

"Jerk," she grumbled as she shifted to get more comfortable. He took the hint and dropped his right hand from the wheel and moved his arm so that it was wrapped around her shoulders and she could move closer to him, which was more than fine with him.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she pressed a kiss against his jaw before she settled back down.

"To Philadelphia, where else?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the long stretch of highway before them.

He felt her go still against him. "Where in Philadelphia?" she asked, trying to feign disinterest as she reached up and traced the tattoo lining his jaw with her finger.

"To the house your parents left you, Danni. Where else?" he asked, wondering if she was going to remember anything from that little run-in with the tree.

She tried to move away from him to sit up, but he wasn't having that. He held her right where she was and after a moment she gave up with a sigh and returned her attention to tracing his tattoo. "How do you know about that place, Caine?"

"You told me about it," he said lightly even though at the time he considered spanking her ass for even thinking about going anywhere without him. She of course made that up to him in spades when she announced to the entire pack that was hovering around her that he was the best lay she'd ever had. That could have been the concussion talking, but he'd decided to believe that it was the truth.

"When?" she demanded, giving up on tracing his tattoo to just snuggle against him.

"When that tree knocked you out, Danni. Don't you remember anything?" he asked, getting slightly worried before he reminded himself that she was a Pyte and therefore there would be no permanent damage. If only that damn cancer would remember that and die and leave his mate alone. He still didn't know what the hell he was going to do to help her with that.

He'd never heard of such a thing. Granted, he only knew of a few other Pytes in existence so this could very well be a common occurrence, but he didn't think so. When he'd turned her he f**ked up. If he could go back and do it all over again he would have done things differently. He never would have allowed her to be captured. He also knew that he would have changed her so that he could have forever with her. He would have made sure to have several large refrigerators well stocked with fresh blood for her so that she could have killed this thing once and for all. He really didn't like the idea of Danni suffering for eternity.

"It didn't knock me out!" she snapped before asking more softly and with a touch of hesitancy, "What exactly did I say?"

That she loved him, but that she'd kick his ass if he ever left her again, which made him feel like an ass**le until she shifted topics and went on for about five minutes in a drunken slur about how big his c**k was and how she loved flicking his piercing with her tongue and feeling it rub inside of her when he made love to her, but she probably wouldn't be too happy to hear that she shared that with about twenty shifters who couldn't stop laughing their asses off. So instead he said, "You only talked about the house your parents left you and how no one knew about it," including him. He'd been surprised and furious to discover that her parents had a little love nest only a day's drive away when their asses should have been with their daughter.

After he got over his initial rage, with the help of knocking a few trees down, he thought over what she rambled on about and realized that it would indeed be the best place to take her. No one knew about it, including the Council, because if they had they would have probably sent Danni packing, since Danni's presence as a child had been a bit of a hindrance on the Sentinels running the compound. They all cared for Danni, but having to watch out for another child whose parents were never there had created a problem.