Her parents were kind people, but they'd taken their jobs very seriously. While most Sentinels craved having a family to take their minds off work, to have a little peace in their lives her parents hadn't. She'd been a mistake. After a hundred and twenty years her parents had an accident and she was the result.
In the beginning they tried to make her the center of their world, but they couldn't. They couldn't pretend their duty wasn't the most important thing in their lives and even as a child she'd understood they helped people. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt when her parents left at a moment's notice, gone for days, weeks and sometimes months at time. She tried not to let it bother her, but sometimes it hurt knowing that she didn't rate very high in their lives.
Sometimes they just simply forgot about her and forgot to ask one of the other Sentinel couples living in the compound to watch over her. That's what happened when Caine came into her life. The night before Caine came into her life, her parents answered a distress call in Massachusetts and simply took off, forgetting to make arrangements for their three year old child.
She remembered waking up in the morning alone and hungry. After several failed attempts to reach food she'd left their suite of rooms in search of someone tall enough to reach her favorite cereal. When she found Caine stalking the halls with glowing red menacing eyes and fangs she knew he was the one to help her.
When he decided to stick around he somehow turned into her closest friend and ally. If she needed to talk to someone she'd gone to him. Instead of crawling into her parent's bed, whether they were home or not, she grabbed her teddy bear, Mr. Tubby and simply yelled for Caine. No matter what he was doing or where he was in the compound he came to her. He'd scoop her up into his arms and take her downstairs to his subbasement suite where she'd sit on his lap, eat the cereal he kept for her and watched Disney DVDs until they both passed out. As much as she loved her parents, which she did, Caine was the one she could go to for anything and everything and he never turned her away. He kept his duties restricted to New York to makes sure that she was safe.
Until the day she felt her world crumble beneath her feet. Instead of getting schooled at the compound she'd been allowed to attend public school with other humans. Some parents coddled their human children and wouldn't allow them to take part in the human world, but a few others, like hers, felt that since she was human she should live like one, and at least socialize among them. For the most part she'd enjoyed attending school with other humans. It wasn't until her senior year that everything changed.
When she needed Caine the most he started to back away from her until one day he didn't even acknowledge her, leaving her all alone in the world. Her parents were barely home. At that point she'd barely had anything in common with her human friends and found herself leading a solitary existence while she was at school.
At the compound she had friends, Sentinels her own age, but even they started to treat her like she was different, weak, because she was only human. No one cared what she did or where she went, so for a while she stopped coming home to the compound to see if anyone cared or even noticed. They didn't and soon she stopped caring whether anyone else cared. They didn't so she decided to do whatever the hell she wanted. She moved out of her parent's compound suite and took a set of rooms in the basement with the rest of the single adults. She quit school, had Roger in IT create fake IDs for her.
While most teenagers probably would have rebelled by acting up, drinking, doing drugs and having sex, she spent most of her time learning new fighting techniques. She may have been born human, but she'd always known working along the Sentinels would be her destiny and duty. The fact that she was human made her push herself harder and when her parents were murdered she pushed everything else out of her life and focused solely on the job. When she got the news that changed everything less than six months ago she stepped up her game, knowing she couldn't go out without making a difference.
She walked over to the bathing area and turned the shower on to create some extra noise. After throwing one last look at Caine she relieved herself, glad that he refused to look at her. Although she wasn't exactly shy that didn't mean she felt comfortable peeing in front of him. After she was done she washed her hands using the shower, wishing he hadn't broken the damn hot knob off and proceeded to drink as much water as her weak stomach could tolerate. Once she felt full she looked around the mostly bare room, looking, once again, for the best way to either get the hell out of here or to find something to put her out of her misery.
For probably the hundredth time since she woke up in this nightmare she realized there was nothing. There were no windows to crawl out. The air duct was too small, even if it wasn't it was too high for her to reach. The door was locked from the outside so there would be no picking the lock and escaping. Even if that had been a possibility, she still had to deal with the camera watching them every minute of the day.
Must be morning, she mused when she heard the locks click open. Twice a day the door opened and a cooler of blood was shoved inside. It was the only way she knew how to gauge how much time had gone by. Wondering if she could use this little routine to her advantage, she grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste from the small plastic basket and began to brush her teeth.
Instead of the door slamming shut after the cooler was shoved inside it was thrown wide open and Greg came sauntering into the room, grinning from ear to ear as his eyes landed on her. Even as dread filled her, she forced herself not to give him the satisfaction to know that he got to her. No matter what the bastard did to her, she would not react. He might be able to make her life a living hell, but he would never know that.
"I've got a surprise for you, Danni," he announced with relish. "One I think you'll truly enjoy."
Chapter 7
"Are you going to f**k her?" Greg asked with a sneer as he turned his attention on the Pyte. Caine saw Danni tense up when the crude words were spoken.
"No," Caine said flatly, as he leaned his head back against the cool tile.
He had no plans to f**k her, talk to her, or even acknowledge her in any way. She didn't matter to him and the sooner these dumb f**ks figured that out the sooner she would be taken out of here. The very minute that she was out of the cell and no longer his responsibility, he was going to get the hell out of here and punish this whole f**king nest. Then he was going to cut all his ties with the Sentinels and live out the rest of eternity doing something else, something with a whole hell of a lot less bullshit than this.
Greg shrugged. "Then I guess you won't mind if we have a little fun with Danni while you make up your mind?" he asked casually as he watched him from the corner of his eye, probably hoping for a reaction.