Tall, Silent & Lethal

“This shit can wait until we get home!” Ephraim pointed out firmly from the front of the van, no doubt hoping that he’d let it go for now.

“What needed to be done,” Kale said evenly, meeting his red-eyed glare with a silver-eyed glare of his own.

“Don’t start that shit in here. You’ll hurt her,” Chris warned, closing his eyes and letting his head drop back, looking exhausted.

“And what exactly needed to be done?” he demanded.

“He removed the mark,” Danni explained as she removed the bag of blood from her lips and handed the half empty bag to her mate with a reluctant shake of her head that had her mate’s expression shutting down, but not before Christofer caught the flash of fear in the man’s eyes.

“And how exactly did he do that?” he drawled, shifting his attention back to the shifter who was starting to look bored with the conversation.

“By setting her on fire,” Kale admitted with a shrug that had the other three occupants of the van cursing before he added, “But don’t worry, I shot her in the heart first,” with a wink that had Christofer carefully placing Cloe on the floor.

“I see,” he said, the last coherent words that would leave his mouth for an hour as it turned out.

Chapter 43

“You don’t want to do this,” Danni said, licking her lips nervously as she shot another glance down at her unconscious mate.

Instead of arguing with her, he gestured with the handcuffs in his hand for her to sit back down next to her mate. “I’ve never hurt a woman and I have no plans to start now,” he patiently explained as he waited for her to comply.

“I’m going to tear your f**king head off for this!” the shifter that he’d allowed to live for the moment, growled as he once again yanked at his handcuffs.

Since Christofer knew just how much it would piss the shifter off, he ignored him as he knelt in front of Danni, who looked paler, and handcuffed her right hand to her mate’s. He knew that he was probably going to regret it later, but he left her other hand free.

“We’re trying to help you,” Ephraim said, trying to raise his head, but the effort proved to be too much so he just laid there on a bed of pine needles and groaned.

“Yeah, it feels it,” he said dryly, shooting Cloe a quick glance to make sure that she was still curled up safely a few feet away from what was left of the van.

“We f**ked up. I’ll give you that, but we really are trying to help you,” Chris said, releasing a groan of his own as he tried to sit up, but just like his father, he gave up after the first try and settled for falling back on the ground next to his father.

“We don’t need your kind of help,” Christofer said, stepping back to admire his work.

“You need our help more than you know,” Ephraim explained as he tried to roll over onto his side, but since Christofer had cuffed his arms and legs to the men lying helplessly on either side of him, the move proved impossible.

“And why is that?” he absently asked as he walked back to the van lying in a tangled mess on its side and reached in and grabbed one of the coolers that had survived the crash.

He walked back over to the ragtag group of misfits sprawled out on the forest floor in various stages of unconsciousness and placed the cooler down. He grabbed two bags of blood before he sat down on top of the cooler, deciding that it was probably for the best if he overfed before he tried to hike out of here with Cloe in his arms.

“You have no idea what you’re up against,” Danni said, looking pained as she closed her eyes and dropped her head back against the tree.

“Why don’t you explain it to me?” he suggested, glancing down at the bagged blood in his hand with a frown. He was definitely going to regret this later, he told himself as he tossed one of the bags to her.

She didn’t even open her eyes as she said, “I can’t drink that.”

“Why not?” he asked, wondering if the female Pytes had some sort of defect or disorder that he was going to have to watch out for in Cloe.

“I can’t consume human blood anymore,” she said, shifting slightly as she gestured lazily towards her mate. “I need his blood along with demon blood.”

“Then I suggest you feed him,” he said, his upbringing too well ingrained in him to ignore. His father believed that it was a man’s responsibility to take care of the women and children in his care and he’d made damn sure that Christofer believed that as well.

Danni’s eyes flicked open and after a slight hesitation, she reached for the bagged blood with a trembling hand and a murmured, “Thank you.”

“Do all females have this problem?” he asked, standing up so that he could grab another bag and toss it to her.

“No,” Ephraim said with obvious difficulty as he sat up, forcing a whimpering Chris to sit up as well so that he could reach over Caine’s prone body and pick up the other bag of blood.

Before Christofer could tell the ass**le to give the blood back to Danni, Ephraim dropped the bag on Caine’s chest and moved to tilt Caine’s head back and force his mouth open while Danni bit into the first bag and then carefully positioned the bag at her mate’s mouth. The move surprised him, as did the fact that this group of misfits genuinely cared about each other. He’d never really belonged anywhere, he thought with just enough self-pity to make him shake his head with disgust as he stuck the bag in his hand to his teeth.

“Danni was turned when she was dying of cancer. Caine didn’t know about the cancer, not that it would have made a difference since he didn’t have enough blood on hand to kill the cancer,” Chris explained for his father as he shifted, careful of his broken arm and leaned back against the tree that Kale was currently attached to. The shifter’s murderous gaze was focused solely on him, so of course he had to make a big show of enjoying the last sip of blood.

“Tear. Your. Fucking. Head. Off,” Kale bit out, emphasizing every word with a vicious growl.

“Good luck with that,” Christofer said with a chuckle, already knowing that he’d come back from that particular injury without a problem.

“You’ll be putting her at risk if you try to do this on your own,” Ephraim said, returning to that broken record that he just wasn’t buying any more.

“The ass**le removed her mark,” he reminded them as he toyed with the second bag in his hands, wondering what bullshit they were going to spin for him now.

“Yes,” Ephraim snapped angrily as he shifted his gaze to Kale, who was still glaring his way, “he did.”

“Then she’s all set,” Christofer said, tossing the bag in the air as he looked over his shoulder at the deserted country road behind him, wondering just how long he had before someone showed up.

“The shifter that owned her will be looking for her, now more than ever since word has spread about a shifter’s property being stolen by a Pyte,” Chris explained.

“You never know, he might have lost interest over the years,” Christofer said, knowing damn well that he would never lose interest in the woman that was currently pretending to be asleep.

“The shifter didn’t lose interest,” Kale said, his gaze shifting to Cloe. “He’ll be coming for her sooner or later.”