Ephraim had to turn his head and force a cough to hide his chuckle. He knew that she was lying. He could smell the chocolate and sugar smothering her scent. She was so damn adorable sometimes.
“You’re not getting cake for breakfast so just drop it,” Chris said firmly, probably hoping that his tone would be enough to put an end to the sugar addict’s pleas.
“But-”
“Drop it.”
“It wasn’t me, I sw-”
“Let it go.”
“If you would just ask him, he’d tell you!” she protested, gesturing wildly to the shifter who simply sighed and continued walking ahead of them towards the conference room.
“This is just getting sad,” Chris mumbled, shaking his head in disgust before he leaned down slightly so that he could kiss the tip of her nose.
“Then put me down if you don’t believe me,” Izzy said in a huff, no doubt planning on storming off to get her next sugar fix.
“Nope, sorry can’t do that. I like carrying my munchkin around,” Chris said with a shrug, instead of pointing out that the conference room was a good five minutes away and that Izzy wouldn’t be able to make it there without hurting herself.
As long as no one pointed out the reason behind their obsession with carrying her, Izzy was fine with being carried around. They all came up with some bullshit story to do it and as long as the story was somewhat believable, Izzy accepted their piss poor excuses. It was the only way to save her pride and allow her to pretend that they weren’t all worried about her or that the sounds of her weeping quietly in a corner somewhere didn’t break their hearts.
“I don’t want you carrying me if you don’t believe me, Chris,” Izzy said, crossing her arms tightly over her large chest as she pointedly glared off. “You may hand me over to my Daddy.”
“Izzy-”
“You heard me,” Izzy said stubbornly.
“But-”
“I said good day, sir!”
With an annoyed sigh, Chris turned and handed her over to him. He gladly took her. He loved her a great deal, adored her really. It didn’t matter to him that she was his daughter-in-law, he thought of her as his baby girl, which was probably why she’d requested to be handed over to him, he realized with an inward groan.
“He’s not going to give you any junk food,” Chris pointed out as he walked past them to catch up with the shifter.
Izzy didn’t say anything as she looked up at him with adoring eyes and a sweet smile that had him resigning himself to a junk food run after the meeting.
Chapter 6
“Tell me again why we’re here?” Danni asked as she sat down next to Caine at the large conference table.
“Because the Council called a meeting,” he said, taking her hand into his so that he could press a kiss against her knuckles, noting that she was still wearing the gauze bandage around her wrist.
He considered asking her about it, but decided against it since she would only lie to him. She’d been wearing the bandage for over a week, a week more than she should need it. Although the cancer in her body caused problems and slowed the rate of healing, it didn’t slow it down that much. Whatever injury she had should have healed within a day, especially since he made damn sure that she fed every day, twice a day.
She rolled her eyes as she pulled her hand back, taking his with it so that she could place it on her lap where he knew that she’d spend the next half hour, or however the hell long this meeting was going to last, absently tracing his hand with her fingertips. It was a nervous habit that she’d recently developed when she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to tell him, but he knew.
He always knew when she wasn’t feeling well, but he didn’t say anything, not unless the stubborn woman tried to push herself too hard. Then he’d step in and do whatever it took to keep her in bed until he could get his hands on some more demon blood. Not that the demon blood was helping much these days and the knowledge fucking terrified him.
When he’d changed Danni into a Pyte he’d truly fucked up. He hadn’t known that she was dying of cancer. She should have been given more blood during her transformation, but he hadn’t had enough to give her. They’d been held captive by a Master at the time and as a result his blood had not only given Danni immortality, but the cancer as well. Now his mate was going to live for eternity dying from cancer.
“Since when are we invited to Council meetings?” Danni asked, voicing the question that had been bugging the shit out of him since the damn shifter had started banging on their bedroom door, demanding that they move their asses.
At first he’d ignored the bastard and focused on Danni who had been moaning his name as he took her from behind, but when the banging wouldn’t stop and the bastard told them that their presence was requested, he’d been admittedly too curious to refuse.
Not once in all the years that he’d worked with the Sentinels had he ever been invited to a Level One meeting. That was usually reserved for Leaders, Council members, Sentinels and human squad leaders and not for Pytes like him who’d fucked up over the years and were on probation. Since he normally used his enhanced hearing to eavesdrop on the meeting, he’d never really cared enough to bitch before, but since moving into the Williams mansion he started to care, a lot.
The Williams treated them like family, like equals and he’d never realized before just how good that felt. The Council on the other hand was still having problems trusting them since he’d turned Danni without their permission. His mate beating the shit out of a Council member hadn’t helped either. So while he was officially on probation the Council members had decided that his probation extended to Danni as well now that they were mated.
“Since I was able to get the Council to take you both off probation,” Eric, the Sentinel Leader for New England, said with a wink as he walked into the large room, flanked by five other men. Technically they should be under the watch of another Sentinel leader since they lived in New York, but Ephraim and Chris had refused to work with anyone else.
“We’re off probation?” Danni asked with a mixture of surprise and caution.
Not that he could blame her since it had only been two months since he’d been released from his punishment for turning Danni and he seriously doubted that he’d done anything spectacular enough to earn this. That of course meant….
“We need your help,” Eric said, confirming his suspicions.
“Am I off probation for good or just until whatever bullshit assignment that the Council needs help with is completed?” Caine asked, moving to clench his hand tightly into a fist when he remembered that his mate needed the comfort of tracing his hand with her fingertips.
“Well,” Eric said, not one to bullshit him, as he sat down across from him, “you’re off probation, but if you fuck up again you’ll be punished as though you’d never been released from it.”
“They can’t do that!” Danni argued, her movements on his hand increasing with her agitation.
“So basically if I fuck up there’s no warning whatsoever?” Caine guessed, closing his hand around Danni’s trembling one and giving it a small squeeze to tell her that everything was going to be okay.
“Basically, yes,” Eric said with a nod as he gestured for the other men to sit down.
“How exactly is that different from being on probation?” he demanded, entwining his fingers with Danni’s as he noted that the other men sat on the opposite side of the table with Eric.
“You’ll both be given Leadership status, pay, and-”
“We don’t give a flying fuck about any of that,” Caine said, cutting off the man that he respected. “I want to know what happens to my mate if I fuck up.”
“Her status will be revoked,” Eric said, reminding him why he liked this man so much.
He didn’t play games, didn’t make promises to Caine that he didn’t plan on keeping in order to get what he wanted and wasn’t afraid of him. That didn’t mean that Caine was going to sit back and let the Council fu
ck them over, because he wasn’t.
“You’re not punishing my mate over something that I did.”
Eric shook his head. “The Council can’t keep her at Leadership status and risk giving her access to information that would aide you.”
“I’ve never betrayed the Council,” Danni snapped, sounding pissed and if her tone didn’t give her away, her shimmering red eyes sure as hell did. “I’ve worked my ass off since I was a child to aid the Council. I have never done anything to give the Council reason to question my loyalty. I-”
“You broke a Councilman’s nose when he came to arrest your mate,” Eric pointed out dryly, cutting her off.
“Are we still on this?” Danni demanded with a snort of disgust that had him biting back a smile that she probably wouldn’t appreciate at the moment. “I’m getting punished for something that healed in less than an hour?”
Eric’s lips twitched, but he managed to bite back a smile as well. “Yes, well,” he said, pausing to clear his throat and hide a chuckle before he continued, “they’re afraid that you’d use your position to free your mate.”
Danni opened her mouth to argue, but quickly closed it with a shrug before she admitted, “Well, that’s probably true.”
“The only thing that I care about is my mate getting the blood she needs. Is the council planning on withholding the demon blood from her?” Caine demanded, already deciding that if it was a condition that he would tell the Council to go fuck themselves. He’d focus his time on finding a cure for his mate instead of helping the Council for one more day. He would never risk her being left dependent on a group that could let her suffer just to punish him.
But before Eric could answer, Chris was there picking Danni up and dropping her on Caine’s lap. With a sigh, Chris sat down in Danni’s freshly vacated seat, leaned back and relaxed as he studied the men sitting across from them.
“Jackass,” Danni said, glaring at Chris as she adjusted herself on Caine’s lap.
Chuckling, he shot Danni a wink as he continued to study the men sitting across from them. “Oh, I doubt they’d do something that foolish,” Chris drawled, letting Caine know that he’d heard a good portion of their conversation and wasn’t happy.
He saw the pain in the ass shifter sit down on the other side of Chris. The man didn’t say a word on their behalf and Caine didn’t expect him to. Everyone in the mansion knew how the shifter felt about Pytes and would probably volunteer to take him down if the time ever came. Kale sure as hell wasn’t about to bitch about one of them suffering when he wanted nothing more than to see every last Pyte wiped off the face of the earth.
“No,” Ephraim said, taking the seat to Caine’s right with Izzy in his arms, “I doubt they would.”
Caine nearly sighed with relief. Ephraim saw Danni as a sister and if anything ever happened to him, he knew that the other man would gladly step up and take care of her. He’d move heaven and hell to make sure that Danni didn’t suffer. She was part of the Williams family and they viciously protected their own.
“Do what?” Izzy asked, shifting to get more comfortable on her father-in-law’s lap.
“Relax, gentlemen,” Eric said, taking over the conversation before it could turn ugly. “Even if you broke every single condition of your old probation and Danni broke the nose of every Council Member, we’re not going to make her suffer. She’ll get her blood.”
Caine nodded as relief coursed through his veins. Even though he had no plans of fucking up anytime soon, it was good to know that his mate would be well taken care of in his absence.
“What’s this about hunting Pytes?” Kale asked, sounding hopeful as he managed to shock the hell out of him and apparently Ephraim if the man’s startled expression was any indication.
“What?” Danni asked, frowning in confusion.
Eric sighed heavily as he leaned back in his chair. “The Masters are at war again.”
“They’re always at war,” Caine pointed out, wondering why all of a sudden a war between Masters was enough to grant him his freedom.
“True,” Eric nodded as he gestured to them, “but this time they’re fighting over Pytes.”
“Fuck me,” Chris breathed, obviously realizing exactly what that meant for everyone in the room and for the innocent children living in the house that meant the world to them. “I thought the Council wanted the Pytes to expand their numbers.”
“Have they found any yet?” Izzy asked, voicing their fears.
“We’re not sure yet,” Eric admitted. “We’re hoping that we can use your program to find out.”
“Of course,” Izzy murmured, carefully climbing off her father-in-law’s lap so that she could go to her mate, who would need the comfort that only Sentinel mates could provide.
As Chris picked Izzy up and carefully placed her on his lap, Caine watched as Danni reached over and took Ephraim’s hand into hers, knowing the man was probably seconds away from losing control and going into bloodlust. Ephraim had three young children, young Pytes that were defenseless until they reached their sixteenth year and welcomed their Pyte transformation. They would also be the perfect targets for Masters looking to get their hands on Pytes.
No one bothered asking why the Masters wanted to get their hands on Pytes. They all knew, had feared this happening for years. They wanted to create an army of faster, stronger vampires and they needed Pytes to do that. Some would kill for a chance at true immortality and would do anything and everything to get their hands on a Pyte with the hopes that they would be turned into a Pyte as well, but most of them would be content with just having a Pyte under their control.
It was something that they could never allow to happen.
“What are the Council’s plans for them?” Kale demanded.
“Right now?” Eric asked, before shaking his head. “We have none. Our only plan right now is to remove every Pyte from the Masters grasp that we can before it’s too late.”
“Are you going to force them to work for the Council?” Caine asked, taking his mate’s other hand into his as he prayed that the Council wasn’t going to try to do something so monumentally stupid as to try and force a Pyte to work for them.
“No, but if they want to fight, we won’t stop them,” Eric said and God help him, but Caine wanted to believe him.
“What’s the reward for bringing in Pytes?” Kale, always the mercenary, asked.
“Ten million dollars a piece,” Eric said, not missing a beat.
“Twenty,” Kale said, his intense gaze never leaving Eric as the man turned to glare at him. “And this mission is under my control.”
“Agreed,” Eric said softly, letting everyone in the room know just how far the Council was willing to go to stop the Masters from winning.
Kale Quinn was a vicious bastard and they’d just given him free reign over the Sentinels.
Chapter 7
Townson, MA
One week later…..
Cloe ducked her head to hide her smile as Christofer glared at her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him rubbing his arm. One would think that after a week he’d learn to control his mouth, but sadly he hadn’t. At least it was providing her with endless hours of entertainment.
For the past week they’d seemed to be in a competition. Well, he seemed to think that they were at least. Christofer had taken it upon himself to try and take over her job. She had to admit that it was really interesting to watch him try. Every morning she got up to find the kitchen a mess and a cursing Christofer trying to make breakfast for his sister.
She would hide her smile as she quickly put together breakfast and allowed Marta to choose between the two. For some reason Marta always picked her breakfast over Christofer’s burnt and somewhat distorted versions. Same thing happened at lunch and dinner. Sometimes he would simply give up when he saw her at the stove and storm off to the barn for a few hours. Every time he lost his patience, which was pretty much every time that he saw her, he would say the two words that woul
d guarantee him a sore spot. It was like a compulsion with him now.
Cloe would do something like the laundry before he could and he would get pissed when Marta thanked her. Those two little words were always followed by the thump of Marta’s cane and a few choice words from Christofer as he glared accusingly at her. About five days ago she’d stopped counting how many times she’d been fired. She was pretty sure it was up to two hundred and fifty, give or take a few cane swats.
“I can see you smiling,” he bit out.
She simply shrugged as she focused on her blueberry muffin.
“Fucking tattle tale,” he muttered followed by, “Ow!”