“And now you’re not,” Izzy said, her focus still on the drawing. “Who is she?”
“Jessica,” he said, smiling fondly down at the beautiful woman that the little girl that liked to steal his nose would one day turn into.
“My Jessica?” Izzy asked with a watery smile.
“Yes,” Christofer said, carefully removing the paper from the pad and handed it over to her.
“She’s beautiful,” she said, carefully tracing the picture with her fingers.
“That’s my baby girl?” Chris asked as he walked into the room and leaned over the couch to get a better look just as a contraction tore through Izzy, one that she had no hopes of hiding.
“Uh oh,” Marc said, his hand pausing mid-grab as he reached for another handful of popcorn. His eyes darted from Izzy, who was even now trying to pretend nothing was wrong. She blindly reached out and grabbed Christofer and Caine’s hands as she attempted to give Chris one of her sweet smiles.
Unfortunately for her, the bloodcurdling scream that escaped her lips ruined it for her. In an instant, Chris’ adoring expression for the image of what his precious baby girl would one day turn into was gone and in its place was a stone cold killer who sensed his mate’s distress. He considered saying something, but he knew that if he opened his mouth right now that he’d embarrass himself with a pained moan or a whimper.
For such a small little thing, Izzy had one hell of a grip!
“Tell me,” Chris said coolly, “that you’re not in labor.”
Izzy opened her mouth, no doubt to lie her adorable little ass off to buy herself more time out of the infirmary, but instead she ended up crying, “Daddy!”
Within seconds, Ephraim was there, kneeling in front of Izzy as Christofer was forced to grind his jaw shut as another contraction tore through Izzy’s small body.
“So soon, baby girl?” Ephraim asked, reaching up and gently cupping Izzy’s face as she nodded with a broken sob.
“Is there anything that I can do?” Marc asked, falling back into his old role as Izzy’s protector.
“Go get Cloe,” his father said, getting him out of the room, which was for the best since it probably wouldn’t do for the boy to see two grown men cry.
Holy shit, she had a strong grip!
“What the hell is going on here?” Kale demanded, dropping his backpack to floor as he walked over and knelt beside Ephraim and took Izzy’s hand away from Caine.
Caine sighed heavily as pulled his hand away, and fell back against the couch, hugging his abused hand to his chest while Christofer was forced to sit there and suffer through another contraction. When he felt the first bone in his hand snap, he held his breath, forcing himself to take it as Izzy screamed her way through another contraction. He couldn’t help but sag in relief when Chris suddenly reached over and scooped Izzy up. He carried her out of the room with Ephraim and Kale hot on his heels.
“She break your hand?” Caine asked, shaking his hand to work out the pain.
“Yeah,” he said, wincing as he felt his bones in his hand snap back in place with an audible crack.
“She’s a violent little thing,” Caine said with a fond smile as he continued to shake out his hand.
“That she is,” Christofer agreed, nodding slowly as he turned his head to study the Pyte. After a moment, he decided that it was time to end this game and get to the point.
“What do you want?”
*-*-*-*
“That’s my precious baby girl!”
“She’s my godchild!” Kale snarled, his eyes shifting silver as he leaned down, keeping his eyes locked on Chris as he planted baby kisses on the newborn’s forehead.
Eyes narrowing to slits, Chris snuggled his newborn son in his arms. “Fine, but you’re not holding my precious baby boy.”
“Oh,” Kale said, pausing to press another kiss to the sleeping baby’s head, “I’ll be holding him next. You can count on that.”
“We’ll see,” Chris said, making a show of kissing his son’s head.
“Yes,” another kiss to the baby girl’s forehead, “we will.”
“Can I hold one of the babies?” Izzy asked, sounding exhausted with a hopeful smile only to end up dropping her arms by her sides, muttering about the “big babies” and curling up onto her side as both men snapped, “No!”
Cloe bit back a smile as she stepped past the men caught up in a glaring match and checked on Izzy who’d already fallen asleep almost instantly. Poor thing, she thought, pulling the blanket up and tucking Izzy in as she shot Ephraim a smile. “How’s the hand?”
“Healing,” he said with a wince, cradling his hand against his chest as he stood up. “Since I’m probably not going to get a chance to hold one of my new grandchildren until later,” he said, sounding amused as he got to his feet, “I think I’ll go help Madison with the children.”
Cloe glanced at the clock and noted the late hour. It had taken Izzy ten hours to deliver the twins and now Cloe was exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to stumble her way to her room and fall asleep in Christofer’s arms, but she had to check on Danni first.
She hadn’t seen Danni all day, hadn’t had the chance to check up on her to make sure that she was okay. In the last of couple weeks she’d watched as the woman slowly wasted away and knew that it was only a matter of time until she slipped into a coma. It was a process that she was too familiar with and one that she didn’t want to see Danni fall victim to, especially since there would be no escape for her.
She wished there was more that she could do for her, but there wasn’t. Medicine was like poison to them, blood transfusions seemed to make her sicker. They couldn’t use normal cancer treatments to treat her. Cloe couldn’t help but wonder if-
“Get her off of me!” she heard Christofer’s pain filled roar as she climbed the steps to the living quarters.
“Stop moving and I will!” Caine shouted.
“Grab her before she-fucking hell!”
She was up the stairs and down the hall before she realized that she was running. She skidded to a halt in front of Caine and Danni’s room. She raised her fist to knock, but then shook her head, calling herself an idiot as the sounds of a struggle became louder. She grabbed the knob and threw the door open and then….
Stood there.
She just stood there, trying to take in everything that she was seeing. Christofer lying on the floor, his clothes ripped to shreds, Danni’s arms wrapped around his bicep, holding his arm tightly so that he couldn’t pull his wrist away from her bite while Caine had his arms wrapped around Danni, trying to pull her off Christofer, pleading with her to let him go.
“All right then,” she muttered, around a yawn.
After noting that Danni’s color had improved, she turned around, shut the door behind her and headed down the hall towards her room where she planned on spending the next hour lounging in a hot bath and enjoying the box of fudge that she’d swiped from the glowering bastard’s bag.
Chapter 60
“How’s Danni?” Cloe asked, not bothering to open her eyes as she raised one leg out of the water and laid it across the top of the tub. The white bubbles sliding down her smooth tan leg drew an appreciative smile from him.
“Hungry,” he said, wincing as the torn skin marring his wrist quickly knitted together. He reached back, grabbed a handful of his ripped shirt and pulled it off, letting it drop to the floor to join Cloe’s small pile of clothes.
“I take it that your blood worked?” she asked, bringing that beautiful long leg of hers back into the water so that she could sink lower in the deep tub.
“Like a charm,” he murmured, kicking off his shoes as he unzipped his pants.
“I was wondering when Caine was going to get around to asking you for some of your blood,” she admitted on a sigh as she sank even lower in the tub.
“Me too,” he said, surprised that Caine had been able to hold off this long.
Then again, he’d also been terrified that Chri
stofer’s blood was Danni’s last hope. Caine hadn’t been in a rush to find out that even that wouldn’t help her. He’d wanted to hold onto any hope that he could for as long as possible, but after refusing to eat for the fifth day in a row, Caine had lost the luxury of time. Christofer had considered offering his blood to Danni several times over the last couple of weeks, but like Caine, he hadn’t been ready to find out that his blood was useless, which as it turned out, it was.
The first attempt to feed Danni his blood had failed miserably. She’d barely managed to swallow the first mouthful of his blood when she’d reacted violently, leaning over the bed and spitting it up in a trashcan just as she had done after every other attempt. Caine, looking like his whole world had been destroyed, had been willing to accept defeat.
Christofer hadn’t.
He refused to let another woman in his life down. He’d be damned if he was going to be forced to sit back and watch as another woman suffered. He hadn’t been able to save Marta and he would have to live with that for the rest of his very long life.
Caine shouldn’t have to.
“How long did it take for your blood to work?” she asked as he shoved his boxers down and stepped out of them.
“A couple of hours,” he said, pressing a hand to his upset stomach at the reminder of what he’d had to do to make his blood work.
He paused by the tub, wondering if he should go downstairs and binge on a few bags of bagged blood to work the rest of the demon blood out of his system. His stomach took the decision out of his hands. Placing a hand over his increasingly upset stomach, he leaned back over to pull his clothes back on when Cloe’s hand covered his, stopping him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, releasing his hand to reach over and run her wet fingers through his hair.
His first instinct was to lie to her and tell her that everything was okay. He didn’t want to burden her with his problems, but he couldn’t lie to her. He knew that lying to her, even a small lie, would hurt her and he’d rather spend an eternity in the lab than to cause her anymore pain. She would find out that he’d lied of that he had no doubt. By morning everyone would know about the miracle cure that had helped Danni get better.
“Demon blood,” he groaned, wincing when sharp pain shot through his stomach.
“Demon blood?” Cloe asked, moving to her knees so that she could reach over with her other hand and gently run her fingers over his lightly whiskered jaw as she ran an assessing eye over him.
“Yeah,” he said, pressing his hand tightly against his stomach. “My blood alone didn’t work. So, we decided to see what would happen if we mixed my blood with the demon blood the Council had originally given her to help keep the cancer at bay.”
“How much did you drink?” she asked softly, gently cupping his jaw.
“Twenty bags,” he admitted, closing his eyes when his stomach rebelled at the reminder of all that acidic blood that he’d forced himself to consume.
Drinking the blood had been time consuming. It had taken him a lot longer to drink the bagged demon blood than the cold human blood that he normally consumed. The taste and the texture was not only different, but it had filled him up a lot faster. He’d managed two bags an hour, force-fed Danni his blood and then started the process all over again. They’d been prepared to do it all night, but by the third feeding Danni was with it enough to be able to feed herself. By the fifth feeding…….
She’d been ravenous.
Thank God she’d decided that she preferred Caine’s blood to his, he thought wincing as more pain shot through his stomach, reminding him that he needed to dilute the demon blood in his system. It shouldn’t take much since Danni had nearly cleaned him out with the last feeding.
“Baby, you’re in pain,” Cloe said, sounding worried as she continued to fuss over him.
“It will be fine,” he said, opening his eyes as he reached up and covered her hand against his jaw. He forced himself not to smile, knowing that she’d just fumble for an excuse for the endearment. So instead of letting her know just how much the endearment meant to him, he leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers. “A bag of blood should take care of it,” he promised her as he pulled back so that he could quickly get dressed. He wanted to be back in time to join her before she-
“Why don’t you drink from me?” she suggested, knocking him on his ass.
*-*-*-*
“Danni,” Caine said, groaning long and loud as Danni moaned against his skin, her arms wrapping around him as she pulled herself onto his lap.
With a little sigh that had his lips twitching, Danni gently removed her teeth from his neck, pressing a soft kiss against the tender skin as it started to heal. “Did I take too much?” she asked, resting her forehead against his shoulder.
“No,” he said, shaking his head, ignoring the black spots dancing along his vision as he turned his head so that he could kiss his mate.
Danni chuckled, moving to sit up so that she could look him in the eye as she said, “Liar.”
“I’m a little hungry,” he admitted, returning her grin as he leaned in to kiss her, unable to help himself.
She looked so………
Beautiful.
Her hair was fuller, silkier. Her face flushed beautifully against her tanned skin. Her body had filled out in the last few hours and smooth muscle once again shaped her body. Her breasts were fuller, larger than he’d remembered. Her hips were curvier than he’d remembered them ever being. But, the thing that him sighing with relief was the sound of her heartbeat.
It was beating strongly against her chest.
“Thank God,” he murmured, brushing his lips against hers.
“Can you smell the cancer?” she reluctantly asked as she pulled away just far enough so that he could see her nervously nibbling on her bottom lip.
He met her frightened gaze and held it, along with his breath, terrified that Christofer’s blood had strengthened the cancer right along with Cloe’s body. Realizing that he couldn’t put this off, he slowly exhaled and then, keeping his eyes locked with hers, he inhaled, scenting the air around her.
“Well?” she asked, holding her breath as she waited for an answer.
His lips pulled into a grin as he leaned forward and kissed her.
“Gone.”
“Gone?”
“Gone,” he repeated, grinning against her lips.“Be sure,” she said, pulling back so that she could search his expression, looking for any sign that he was only saying what she wanted to hear.
He reached up and threaded his fingers through her hair. “I can take you to the Boston Compound right now, sweetheart. We can probably get the test results within a day or two,” he offered, moving to get up and set her aside when Danni pushed him back down with a firm shake of her head.
“That would take too long,” she said, reaching up and moving her hair back away from her neck.
“What are you suggesting?” he asked, not sure that he wanted to be the one to tell her if the cancer was starting to spread again.
She sighed as reached down and took his hands into hers. “You know what I’m suggesting.”
He opened his mouth, but nodded. “No matter what I find, remember that Christofer promised to supply you with blood everyday if you need it.”
“I know,” she said, giving him a small smile.
“And remember,” he said, leaning in to kiss her again, “that I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said, her smile genuine this time.
He kissed her one more time before he pulled back, tilted his head to the side and leaned in so that he could press a kiss against her neck. “Ready?” he asked her, though he was preparing himself for the acidic taste of her blood.
“Yes,” she whispered, threading her fingers through his hair, holding him close.
He pressed one last kiss to her neck as he allowed his fangs to slide down. Sending up a prayer, he opened his mouth and struck.
*-*-*-*
A low growl shook her out of her thoughts.
Caine’s arms tightened around her as he released another sexy growl that had her licking her lips. When he suddenly stood, bringing her with him, and turned around, slamming her against the wall, she may have let out an embarrassing squeal. A gasp escaped her when he tore her shorts and panties clean from her body, but it was quickly forgotten as a scream of pleasure tore from her lips as he suddenly filled her with a hard thrust that had them slamming back into the wall.
She chuckled breathlessly as she asked, “I guess it’s good?”
His answering moan had her smiling and closing her eyes in relief and thanking God for stubborn Pytes like Christofer.