It wasn't the first time, and he doubted it would be the last. He'd known when he had adopted her that one day she would die, and when she'd been Called he'd known that her time had been even shorter. But when he outlived everyone around him, even the other Immortals, by as much as he did, the only thing that really mattered to him was how she had died.
Old age would have been the best possibility, of course, even though old age in this day and age was nothing like what he'd used to think of as old age – living to 85 was rare, not an average in this time. An accident, not deliberate on anyone's part, would have been acceptable too, or an illness. Once she was Called he knew that she would likely die at the hands or paws or teeth of a demon or vampire. He wasn't happy with it, but he couldn't protect her forever, only make sure she lived for as long as she could.
There were a lot of ways that he would have considered acceptable for her to die, even if he wouldn't have been happy about them – what kind of a father could be happy at his daughter's death, no matter the cause? But this? This worthless death at the sword of an Immortal who wanted to force him into the Game? That would never be acceptable.
And while he might have forgotten how to lean on someone enough that his life changed completely when he lost them, he had never forgotten how to fight.
