Chapter 70

Chapter 70

“Did you know that Sentinels usually die within months of losing their mates?” Michael asked as he carefully placed the tip of the syringe against the small chest of the little boy that never should have been born as he glanced up to find Caine watching his every move through bright red eyes as he struggled to stay where he was.

“Yes,” Caine said hoarsely, swallowing hard as his gaze locked on the needle pressed right above his son’s heart.

Nodding, Michael began pacing the room even as he couldn’t help but smile sadly down at the little boy in his arms. “I should have died years ago, but I couldn’t let you get away with what you did to my mate, but you don’t remember her, do you?” he asked, watching as Caine was forced to reach over and stop Danni when she moved to climb off the bed.

“What the hell did you do?” Noah demanded, moving to go after him only to stop when Caine bit out, “Don’t,” before the human could do something that would put a stop to this before it even had a chance to start.

“You didn’t answer my question, Caine. Do you remember her?” Michael asked, shifting his attention back to the Pyte that had haunted his dreams for over a century.

“No,” Caine said harshly, his gaze never leaving his son as he took Danni’s trembling hand in his and murmured, “It’s going to be okay,” as she struggled to stay in control.

“No, it’s not,” Danni mumbled weakly.

Smart girl, Michael thought, wishing that he’d been able to keep her out of this. She didn’t deserve this, not after everything that she went through, but she’d sealed her own fate when she’d fallen in love with the asshole that was going to know what it felt like to lose everything.

“How many Sentinels have you killed, Caine?” Michael asked, watching as Danni’s beautiful gray eyes turned red and decided that they should probably get started before she had a chance to go into bloodlust. “Drink the blood, Danni.”

“What did you do to the blood?” Caine asked, his murderous gaze flickering to the bags of blood on the bed next to his mate before quickly returning to the needle pressed against his son’s chest.

“The same thing that I did to the demon blood,” Michael said, unable to help but smile sadly down at the small baby in his arms.

So many times over the years, he’d found himself imagining what it would have been like to hold his son, wondering if his son would have had Julia’s beautiful blue eyes, her curly black hair, and infectious smile only to feel his heart break every time he remembered the way she’d begged him to save their son as she took her last breath. He never got to hold his son, never got to find out what color his eyes were or watch him grow up and raise a family of his own, and it was all because of the Pyte watching his every move.

“You made the cancer come back,” Noah said, shaking his head in disbelief as his gaze shifted to the bags of blood and-

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Michael said, noting the calculating look in the human’s eyes.

“The cancer was gone,” Danni said hollowly as she pulled her hand away from Caine’s and reached for the blood that he’d injected with the remainder of Danni’s cancerous blood.

For years, he’d waited for the perfect time to strike, knowing that there was nothing that he could do to make the Pyte pay for what he did. If he’d been any other man, Michael would have killed him, but Caine wasn’t like other men. He was impossible to kill and hadn’t cared about anything or anyone, leaving Michael with no choice but to wait, and while he did, he found out everything that he could about Pytes. He’d spent years searching through the Council’s library, reading every scroll, book, and journal that he could get his hands on, looking for answers and when that wasn’t enough, he decided to get his own answers and he found them in a small boy named William.

He’d heard stories of a fourteen-year-old boy who’d stopped growing sometime before he’d turned ten and whose mother had died a horrifying death during his birth. He’d found the boy living in the street, covered in bruises, nursing a broken arm, and terrified of his own shadow. It had taken time to gain William’s trust, earning shy smiles as the boy slowly began to trust him, allowing him to take him under his wing, teaching him how to read, and gave him a purpose in life.

In time, Michael had grown very fond of the boy. Watching William go into his transition had been bittersweet for him, but he knew that it would only be a matter of time before it happened. When William turned sixteen and fell into a coma, he’d stayed by the boy’s side for the first two weeks, holding his hand while he’d watched the changes occur until finally, he’d resigned himself to do what needed to be done.

Before William finished his transition, Michael had the boy moved downstairs to the lab that he’d had built in secret and began his work. By the time that William opened his eyes, Michael had already mourned the small boy with the shy smile that he’d grown to love and focused on finding answers. Thanks to William, he was able to find out so much about Pytes, how they developed, why their blood was so dangerous to others, and most importantly, the key to their regeneration.

He now knew that the key to everything was a combination of a very thin tissue that was found throughout the body, a hormone in the blood, and a small section of cardiac muscle located in the center of the heart. It had taken quite a few experiments to figure out how it all worked. There was still some uncertainty, but he now knew how Pytes were able to heal themselves, how they could survive mortal wounds, and how they were able to survive being burned until they were nothing more than ash.

He also knew why Pytes didn’t generate a new body from limbs after they were severed from their body or why they didn’t form a new body for every speck of ash after their bodies were burned. Their bodies had what he liked to think of as a fail system. If you cut a Pyte’s heart out, the other two systems worked together to form a new heart, but if you burned the body down to ash with the heart intact, the body would be regenerated from the cells in the heart first. When he removed the heart, it took longer before the body began regenerating itself from the ash. He realized that the tissue in the heart acted like an accelerant for Pyte recovery and regeneration. If you removed the heart, it took at least ten times longer for the body to repair itself.

Thanks to William, he also knew just how much damage Danni’s cancer could do to a Pyte. It had taken some time, but he’d figured out the right combination of demon blood to protect the cancer. He’d also learned how to hide the changes in Danni’s hormones, ensuring that she became pregnant to complete Caine’s downfall.

The only thing that he hadn’t been able to do was get his hands on enough Occultus demon blood needed to pull this off. The small sample that he’d stolen from the Sentinel labs in Madrid hadn’t been enough. He’d needed something to hide the cancer and the Rasha demon blood that made the cancer stronger and the only thing that could do that was Occultus blood.

The problem was that Occultus demons were rare, expensive, and normally avoided Sentinels at all costs. He’d tried to find another source to cover the scent, but nothing else worked, leaving him with no choice but to cross a line and do something that he swore that he would never do. But then again, the Council hadn’t left him with a choice.

They could have put a stop to this a long time ago and followed through with the promise that they’d made him, but instead, they’d welcomed the Pyte with open arms. When he found out that Caine was at the Manhattan compound, he’d thought that it was finally over, but he’d been wrong. The Pyte had been given free rein of the compound, allowed to come and go as he pleased, all while the Council praised their new pet.

It made him more determined to find a way to make the Pyte pay. For a long time, he’d considered putting his new knowledge to good use and lure Caine into his lab. That all changed when he received an email asking for help finding a way to destroy the cancer that had followed Caine’s new mate into her immortality and he realized that he’d finally found a way to make Caine pay. For the past two years, he watched Caine suffer, giving him hope only to take it away again and again, and now, he was done playing this game.

“Don’t do it,” Caine said, swallowing hard as he moved to stop Danni from drinking the blood, but one look at Michael had him going still.

“She drinks the blood or I’m going to kill your son,” Michael said with a pointed look at the baby sleeping in his arms. “And this time, you won’t have a fucking Ion to save her.”

“You fucking coward,” Caine bit out between clenched teeth as he visibly struggled with the need to give in to bloodlust and rip his throat out, but they both knew that he would never do anything to risk his child.

“Start drinking,” Michael bit out coldly.

“Don’t fucking do this!” Caine shouted, only to swallow hard as he watched Danni’s fangs lower as she raised the bag to her mouth. “Please, god, don’t do this…”

“You’re going to pay for what you did.”

“Then punish me!” Caine said, reaching for the blood only to stop when Michael pushed the needle just far enough to break the skin and tore a cry from the small baby in his arms, making the threat clear.

“Take care of Ash,” Danni said, swallowing hard before she bit into the bag.

“Don’t fucking do this!” Caine shouted, looking terrified as he watched his entire world come crashing down around him.

“It’s already done,” Michael said, watching Danni take her first swallow and-

“You really didn’t think that I was that fucking stupid, did you?” came the coldly whispered words as the large hand that was suddenly covering his hand squeezed, breaking every bone as he lost his hold around the baby.