PS02 - Without Regret (19 page)

“To make you ask questions,” Kale said distractedly as he scanned the one room apartment.

There was nothing homey about the room. There were no pictures lining the walls, nothing notably personal about the room in

any way. There was no couch. The only place to sit in the room was the worn faux black leather desk chair and the unmade

twin bed shoved up against the wall.

As he stepped away from the two vampires and their damn scent he closed his eyes and inhaled slowly, taking in every scent in

the room and working through each and every one of them.

“Don’t fucking move,” he snarled when one of the vampires tried to move closer to him. After a small hesitation he heard the

man move back, which was the only thing that saved him from getting his heart ripped out, for the moment at least.

He focused his attention back on the scents and knew Logan was right. The woman didn’t know she was a Sentinel. There was

no scent of old blood, gun powder, silver or one of the hundreds of scents he’d detected in other Sentinel homes. He opened his

eyes and strolled around the room, noting that nothing in the room, not that there was much of it, was breakable.

From what he could see in the open cabinets of her tiny kitchen, all of her eatery was made from plastic and paper. Among the

scattered items on the small tiled section of the kitchen were several unopened package of paper plates, cutlery and plastic

cups. He walked over to the cabinets, stepping on plastic forks, dozens of take out menus and a few cans of food and opened

the one and only drawer in the tiny kitchen, already knowing what to expect and wasn’t disappointed.

“A woman after my heart,” he murmured as he picked up a box of Twinkies and inhaled deeply until he could scent the

chemically altered filling through the thin cardboard and plastic packaging. His stomach growled viciously at the enticing odor.

After testing the scent one last time to make sure it hadn’t been fucked with, he ripped open the box and started to dig into the

tasty treat.

He ignored the dirty looks Logan’s men were sending him and strolled around the room only pausing when he came across

some papers that were anything but personal. They were random print outs about computer codes. Interesting, he thought as he

demolished the entire package of Twinkies and headed to her small dorm size fridge, praying that she had the life saving elixir

that he needed and knew she would.

It was pretty bad when the only person that hadn’t pissed him off today was the untrained female Sentinel that he was going to

hunt down and hand over to Logan to no doubt be tortured and killed, he mused as he grabbed two cans of Coke out of her

fridge.

“This was a waste of time!” the second, slightly larger man complained, sounding distressed. “The Master is going to be

furious that we wasted an entire night and have nothing to show for it.”

“You think so?” Kale asked casually, finishing both Cokes as he made his way to the only window in the room. He opened the

window and stepped out onto the small fire escape.

“Where the hell are you going?” the man demanded, still standing across the room, completely oblivious to the coming attack.

Kale looked down at the large leather banded watch on his left wrist and tsked softy as he shook his head in disgust.

Whoever was running the Seattle compound was truly lacking, he thought as he looked down at the alleyway bellow him and

watched as a half dozen Sentinels spread out. Even two hundred feet up and he could smell the almost too sweet scent of their

blood, but the two vampires inside didn’t have a clue, which was yet another reason he hated working with leeches, especially

leeches less than five centuries old. They didn’t know shit and still had the instincts of a human.

“Are the two minions that were following us stationed downstairs?” he asked, unable to scent them from here, but knowing they

hadn’t gone very far. Since his vampire buddies here would have to find cover in two hours, well they normally would have,

Logan would have to rely on minions to keep track of him until sunset. Of course Logan could hire demons or other shifters to

watch him, but they both knew that just wouldn’t end well and Logan wouldn’t want to waste a valuable commodity like a

demon or shifter since their loyalty was difficult to come by for a vampire and Logan knew he’d kill them without hesitation.

Humans on the other hand……..

Well, Logan was like most other Masters in that he really didn’t give a flying fuck about his minions unless another vampire

poached them. They were a dime a dozen and easily replaceable. Besides if they were truly worth anything Logan would have

changed them, not accepted them as slaves.

The men shared a surprised look. Really, it shouldn’t be a shock that he’d scented the two humans that reeked of vampires

since it was his goddamn job to notice those types of things. Besides, having a really pissed off vampire on his ass for the last

nine hundred years had really gone a long way in helping him hone his Alpha senses.

Kale cocked his head to the side and listened to the small ding of the elevator followed by the sounds of about ten people

moving quietly, yet efficiently through the hall in their direction. When they were close enough for the vampires to scent them

he gave the two vampires who didn’t have a chance in hell a mocking grin and propelled himself over the railing and fell two

stories before he grabbed hold of a railing.

Biting back a yawn, Kale pulled himself over the railing just as the sounds of fighting reached his ears.

He barely gave them or the Sentinels covering the lobby a second thought as he quickly found a way back inside the building.

While he broke into the dark apartment he realized how difficult it was going to be to find Isabella McGuire. From what he’d

read and seen the woman had no family ties, no real friends, and trusted no one, making her damn difficult to track down, he

thought with an anticipatory grin as he strolled past the smiling infant holding out her arms in silent demand.

Isabella McGuire was going to be a challenge, but that was more than fine with him since the beast in him loved a good

challenge.

************

never stop.

She couldn’t believe how good that felt. Never in a million years would she have believed her body could respond to a man

like this or even feel this good. Her previous attempts at sex had left her uncomfortable, bored, and feeling inept. Right now

she couldn’t even think about anything but the way Chris felt against her, warm, solid and so damn good that it had her licking

her lips and thrusting her hips up to take his fingers deeper into her body.

For the first time in her life she wanted a man. She wanted sex, hard, hot and fast and most importantly now. Even though

Chris’ fingers felt so damn good she needed something else from him. She fisted his short hair, reveling in the feel of silk and

brought his mouth to hers. He let out a loud groan of approval as he devoured her mouth on contact.

His fingers left her and before she could mourn their loss he’d replaced them with something harder and much bigger. Panting

hard against his mouth, she spread her legs wider for him, praying he’d put her out of his misery soon and”Izzy, wake up,” a

deep semi-familiar voice said, drawing her away from the most intense pleasure she’d ever experienced.

“Go ‘way. I’m busy,” she mumbled, rolling over, or at least trying to roll over, but soft cushions prevented her escape so she

just gave up where she was and tried to drift off again, but the jerk who woke her up wasn’t having that.

“I’m sorry, Izzy, but dad and my brother who won’t stop glaring at you asked me to look you over and I can’t do that with you

asleep,” he said, sounding amused which was really a buzz kill for her moment of sexual bliss.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled against the cushion as she tried to move tightly against it and away from the man sighing heavily

behind her and trying to turn her on her back.

“Izzy,” the man said patiently, “you have to get up so I can look you over.”

“Sleeping,” she mumbled pathetically when he finally managed to turn her on her back. She tried to slap away his hands, but he

only laughed.

“Geez, Chris, I thought you were kidding,” the man said, chuckling softly as he gently caught her hands and placed them by her

sides.

“Just do your job, Josh,” she heard Chris say tightly, making her wish he’d use that deep chocolate voice to say naughty things

to her again. She really liked the naughty things he said and did to her, she thought with a content little sigh as she felt herself

start to drift off again.

“Such a killjoy,” Josh mused softly somewhere near her, but since she refused to open her eyes she had no idea where he was

or what he was doing and at the moment she simply didn’t care.

“Wake. Up,” Chris bit out coldly, sounding really pissed off, which pissed her off since she was pretty sure she was the only

one in the room who had any right to be pissed, but she wasn’t exactly sure why she should be pissed at the moment, only that

she had every right to be.

“Go. Away,” she snapped back, snuggling back against what she was assuming was a very comfortable couch and effectively

dismissing him.

“You may not want to do your job, sweetheart, but you’re not going to fuck with mine. Wake. Up,” he said, sounding closer and

reminding her just why she was so angry with the man.

Her eyes snapped open as molten hot anger surged through her veins. She ignored Joshua’s handsome concerned face and

focused all of her anger on the jerk standing over her with his arms crossed over his chest while she pushed herself up into a

sitting position, noting that her broken fingers hurt considerably less now. It was more like a dull pain, but that didn’t matter

right now.

Right now what mattered was giving the bastard before her what he deserved. She stood up, never taking her eyes away from

Chris as he glared down at her like she’d done something so monumentally stupid like take unarmed person to a freakin’

werewolf party.

“You and I are going to have ourselves a little talk, Munchkin,” Chris bit out.

Isabella opened her mouth to tell him exactly where he could go when everything suddenly hit her. Before she’d

embarrassingly passed out and effectively ruined her spur of the moment escape plan she’d understood on some level of what

she was seeing and what it all meant, but now that it was over and she was away from the situation in what appeared to be a

rather homey sitting room it all hit her with frightening clarity.

All of it.

Her stomach rolled violently as she remembered the moment her world changed, remembered men turning into beasts, the stale

hot breath that fanned her face, teeth running down her neck, Ephraim’s red eyes and fangs, the bloody stump and being told that

she wasn’t human.

She clamped her hands over her mouth and prayed that this was just another dream.

Chapter 15

Chris opened his mouth ready to get this shit over with and get her out of their home and lives when she got to her feet,

wobbled and lost all the color in her face.

Joshua cursed softly as he reached out to steady Izzy only to have the damn woman stumble back away from them as she stared

at them through impossibly wide eyes.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Joshua said soothingly as he moved closer to Izzy only to have the damn woman shake her head

stubbornly and stumble back as her skin took on a distinctly green tint.

He really didn’t need this shit, Chris thought as he stepped past his brother who was trying to calm his little mate down and

scooped her up. He headed for the door, ignoring the fact that she’d tensed right up at his touch. As much as he’d love to leave

his unwanted little mate with his brother, whose charm and easy going smile would probably keep her calm until it was time

for her to leave, he couldn’t.

Thanks to her he had too much shit to do and very little patience at this point. It was bad enough that she was defective and

she’d pretty much screwed him over, but now thanks to her he had too much bullshit to deal with and he was all out of patience.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Madison suddenly demanded, coming down the stairs with Jill hot on her heels.

Chris looked past the women and wondered where the hell his father was and why he wasn’t keeping his hormonal wife

occupied like he promised. Would this night never end? he wondered as Madison stormed right up to him. Thankfully her eyes

were still a beautiful caramel and not the fiery red that would probably frighten the hell out of his mate. It also meant that she

was still in control of hormones, temper or whatever the hell was responsible for her little mood swings.

“What the hell is wrong with you bringing her out there without any training or at the very least telling her what the hell was

going on?” she demanded, folding her arms over her chest.

His adjusted his mate in his arms, not that she was heavy, she was far from heavy, but he felt the bizarre need to cradle her

closer and he was too damn exhausted at the moment to fight it. The sharp pain running up his arm from her weight against his