PS02 - Without Regret (49 page)

Marc?” he asked, desperately needing to see his brother and make sure that he was okay.

“Your grandmother refused to leave the house,” his father explained and he couldn’t say that he was surprised or even blame

her. It had been her home all her life. Besides, he also knew she didn’t want to hold them back in they had to make a run for it.

If he didn’t already know that his father wouldn’t leave her there unprotected he’d be tempted to go get her and drag her here.

“Marc’s across the hall with Izzy. I was just about to-“

Whatever she said he didn’t hear or care. He was across the hall in less than a second pounding on the door.

When his brother answered the door wearing nothing more than a pair of jeans, he shoved the bastard aside and stormed into

the large suite.

He looked around the open living room and kitchen space and nearly growled when he didn’t see his mate.

She better not be here. Madison better have made a mistake, because if Izzy was here he was going to personally drag her ass

to the airport and put her on a plane.

She needed to be safe. Fuck that, he needed her to be safe.

“Where the hell is Izzy?” he demanded.

Joshua gestured towards one of the closed bedroom doors on the other side of the room. “She’s in there and I’m going back to

bed,” Joshua grumbled as he yawned loudly and walked towards the bedroom behind them.

He had his brother by the arm before he set so much as one foot in the room. “You have your own suite. Why the hell are you

sleeping here?” he demanded, not liking the idea of his brother sharing a living space with Izzy, even though she wasn’t staying

here another minute.

“I don’t need a whole suite for myself and I don’t think Izzy wants to be alone yet,” he said, shrugging out of Chris’ grip and

continued back to his room, but he wasn’t having that.

“She’s not alone, she has me,” he pointed out as he dragged his brother to the front door and shoved him out into the hall.

“Hey! Wait a minute, I-“

Chris slammed the door in his face.

“You bastard!”

“Get your own mate!” he snapped back.

“I don’t have to! I have yours!” his brother pointed out, laughing and Chris just barely resisted the urge to go after his brother

and strangle him, but he had other matters to attend to at the moment.

He stormed towards the bedroom door and shoved the door open, not bothering to knock. His rage went up a notch when he

spotted her sitting on the carpet with her back towards him in the surprisingly empty room since every room in the compound,

even the ones barely used like the suites in this wing, were all furnished. For a moment he could only watch as his mate, little

brother and Eric sat in a loose circle surrounded by several boxes of pizza, soda, and junk food while they played what

appeared to be “Go Fish.”

“Do you have any sevens?” Marc asked Eric who was ignoring his hand as he stared down intently at a small notebook in his

hands.

“No,” Eric said without looking.

“Yes, you do!” Marc said.

“No, I don’t.”

“You do!”

“How would you know?” Eric asked, taking his eyes away from the notebook to glare down at the little boy.

“Because I looked when you went to get more Cokes,”

Marc said proudly.

“Little sneak,” Eric said fondly as he quickly went through his cards and tossed the seven to Marc before the notebook once

again drew his attention.

“Why can’t I have the IT boys set up the servers?”

Izzy let out a long suffering sigh as she turned around to search through the pizza boxes. If she spotted him she didn’t show it.

“Do we really have to go through this again? Really?”

“It would be faster,” Eric mumbled pathetically as he accepted a slice of green pepper and onion pizza from Izzy.

“Would it make you feel better if I told you that I plan on making them do all the physical labor?” she asked, getting a slice of

mushroom and meatball pizza for Marc and one for herself.

“Yes, yes it would,” Eric said, sounding relieved.

“I don’t know why you’re so worried. I told you that I wouldn’t take the old server down until I was ready to go.”

“You’re ready to go now,” Chris bit out, not sure who he wanted to throttle first. His mate who acted like she didn’t hear him

or the bastard acknowledging him with a simple nod, who he trusted to get his mate to safety.

“Chris!” Marc yelled excitedly as he jumped to his feet and came running full blast into his arms.

He caught the little boy and swept him up into his arms, careful of the slice of pizza in Marc’s hand.

“Hey, little man, I hear you had yourself a little adventure,” he said as his eyes took in the scab lines on his brother’s neck. He

felt his anger boil as the truth of what he was seeing hit him in the gut. The fucking shifter tried to tear his brother’s throat out.

“This big man with glowing silver eyes broke into my bedroom and he had these big claws coming out of his fingertips!” Marc

said excitedly, unaware of the anger simmering to a boil inside of Chris. “He hurt my neck, but I managed to use the silver

pocket knife you gave me for Christmas. I was really scared and started screaming and then daddy was there fighting with him

and I didn’t get to see anything else because Mommy and Grandma came and took me downstairs to the basement, but the bad

man got away and we had to come here!”

“I’m sorry, buddy. I should have been there,” he said, hating himself more than he ever thought possible. He should have been

there to protect his family instead of making a really fucked up situation worse.

“It’s okay. Daddy took care of it,” Marc said, shrugging before he gave the pizza his attention again.

But the shifter had gotten away and that most definitely was not okay. Once he had his mate on a plane and his family settled he

was going after the son of a bitch.

“Put me down I have to help Izzy and Eric,” he said squirming until Chris had no choice but to put him down.

“Why don’t you go see mom and dad for a while? I need to speak with Izzy and Eric alone,” Chris said to the little boy as his

eyes narrowed on his mate’s back.

“Okay,” Marc said, sighing heavily. He started for the door only to turn around and grab a box of pizza before leaving. Chris

waited until he heard the front door close before he turned his attention on the man he was going to kill.

“What the hell is she still doing here?” he bit out.

For the first time since he walked into the room, Izzy looked back at him. “I just have one more condition before I take this

job,” she said, glaring at him as if she had every right to be pissed at him.

“What’s that?” Eric asked around a huge mouthful of pizza.

“Keep this person the hell away from me.”

Chapter 42

“You didn’t tell us the Sentinels had a Pyte working for them!” the Ramjis demon currently missing his left arm and part of his

right hand spat out.

A Pyte? Interesting. He hadn’t known that. That piece of information would have been useful before, but it had no bearing on

the matter at hand now.

They failed him.

He slowly walked around the small group of demons made even smaller. Six demons, they’d lost four in that little skirmish

earlier in the day. They stood defiantly in front of him, ignoring their wounds while they watched him walk around the small

deserted parking lot.

“Where is Isabella McGuire?” he asked softly as he kicked a used syringe out of his path.

“She wasn’t there,” the female Ramjis said, holding her hand over what looked like a rather nasty gunshot wound to the

stomach. “It was a trap.”

Logan nodded. “A trap that you fell for.”

“The scent was strong, very strong,” one of them, he didn’t bother to look to see which one, said tightly.

“Probably because he is her mate,” Logan mused quietly. He looked around their small group pointedly.

“Yet, I don’t see him. Where is he?”

They stilled, the movement was slight, but he caught it nonetheless.

“We were unable to capture him at this time, but we will,” the female swore.

“And why weren’t you able to capture him?” he asked, never stopping his slow pace around them.

“While we were fighting the Sentinel and Pyte a group of Sentinels stormed the warehouse leaving us no choice, but to back

off.”

“And during the ensuing chaos not one of you thought to grab the male Sentinel and bring him to me?” he asked, wondering

what his Angel was doing before he could stop himself. He shoved away all thoughts of her as he focused on the group before

him.

“Shlek and Miori attempted to grab the male, but were unable to succeed,” one of the males explained.

“Why not?” he asked quietly.

“The male fought back, Master.”

“I see,” he murmured, wondering about that. While Sentinels were naturally stronger they usually had problems handling one

Ramjis demon, never mind two of them.

“Our contacts at the airport said that a group of Sentinels moved through there five hours ago with what appeared to be a

prisoner. They were unable to get close enough to scent them through the human crowd, but if you give us a day we can find out

where they-“

“It wasn’t her,” an all too familiar voice said coming from behind him and Logan had to force himself to stop and face the

bastard, careful not to leave the Ramjis demons at his back. They had failed after all and he did have a reputation for being

unforgiving.

Kale walked towards the group keeping his eyes on Logan and barely acknowledging the group of demons that he no doubt

knew had been hired to take him down as well. Judging by the low growls and snarls coming from the Ramjis demons they

were more than eager to complete that part of the job.

“She’s been safely brought into the compound and hasn’t left,” Kale announced with a shrug. “Now it’s just a matter of

waiting.”

“No, she hasn’t. We had men posted to watch all the compound entrances. We would have known if she’d been brought

inside,” one of the demons snarled.

“You obviously don’t know all the compound entrances or you would know that Isabella McGuire is currently a resident in the

Boston compound,” Logan said dismissively as he moved past Logan without an ounce of fear and leaned back against Logan’s

black SUV as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“If she’s in the compound then we can have her within the day,” one of demons boasted as Logan once again began a slow pace

around them. When he came close to the fool he didn’t even hesitate in reaching out and tearing the bastard’s throat out. The

skin and muscle were tougher than a human’s and vampire’s, but no less vulnerable.

His body began to dissolve before it hit the ground. The rest of the demons backed up cautiously as he continued his pace. He

pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and slowly wiped his hand clean of the too hot red blood.

“That was unnecessary,” the female said, but when he approached her she cautiously jumped away from him and averted her

eyes.

“There is no breaking into a compound of that level,”

Logan said, learning that sad truth thirty years ago.

“First off, the compound is protected against demon and vampire invasion. Secondly, they have dozens of entrances and tunnels

and if they don’t want you to find them, you won’t.”

“We could set off a bomb or start a fire,” one of demons suggested and Kale’s sigh almost matched his own.

“Their compound runs several levels below the brownstone. You can torch and bomb that brownstone, but you it won’t matter,

because they will escape below level and out the tunnels.”

“What if we-” one of the demons began, but Kale cut him off.

“We need to wait. That is the only plan right now. If I find an opportunity to get inside I will take it. Leave it to me and I’ll

have Isabella McGuire, soon,” Kale said, pushing away from the vehicle and headed back towards the trash littered alleyway

behind the dumpster.

The demons took a step towards the shifter, but one look from Logan had them instantly stopping. Now was not the time for the

second part of his plan. He needed Isabella McGuire before he moved onto the next phase of his plans and just to make sure the

demons understood that, he ripped out the female’s heart and tossed it to the large male before he walked away.

**********

“Getting ready for bed. What does it look like?” Chris practically snarled as he made his way to the bathroom.

Great. Asshole Chris was back to stay, she thought as she crawled out of bed to go after him. “Well, it looks like you’re in the

wrong room. Actually, you seem to be in the wrong suite!” she said, throwing the closed bathroom door open and nearly

tripped over her own tongue as she watched Chris in all his naked glory step into the glass encased standalone shower.

Chris sighed heavily as he turned the shower on. “I’m sorry, Munchkin.”

“For what”?” she asked cautiously since there really was so much for him to apologize for, but doubted he ever would. No, not

the man who flipped out after Eric informed him that not only would she not be leaving the country, but that she was taking up

residence in the compound.

She still didn’t know what the hell he thought he was going to accomplish by chasing her around the suite.

Well, he probably thought he was going to spank her ass like he kept promising to do, but thankfully Eric, Ephraim, Joshua and