PS02 - Without Regret (6 page)

the baby for herself and would have done anything to get the baby had she lived. It was the same reason why they hid Marc and

Madison’s existence.

From conception to about age sixteen Pytes were at risk since it was the only time they could be killed. After that they were

truly immortal and were equally feared by every species on earth, well the species that were aware of them. Humans for the

most part were still blissfully unaware of the world they really lived in and it was Chris’ job was to make sure it stayed that

way.

That job would be made a hell of a lot harder if a Pyte ever decided to create an army.

That was every Sentinel’s fear, stronger, faster vampires and they’d do anything to make sure it never happened. Anything. If a

Master ever got his or her hands on a Pyte child the council would do whatever it took to get their hands on that child before

the transformation and if it appeared the child could not be reformed before it reached its immortality it would be destroyed.

Other Masters, demons and shifters acted just as violently when it came to Pyte children. If they couldn’t have them for

themselves they would do whatever it took to destroy them before they became unstoppable since an army of stronger vampires

could just as easily wipe out the demon and shifter population.

Chris’ eyes shot to his father just as the other man gently rubbed Madison’s stomach almost as if he couldn’t help himself. He

really didn’t know how his father had managed to survive to his transformation.

Before Ephraim’s transformation he’d never consumed blood and it had made him very weak. He’d been very fortunate to

survive. Most Pyte children weren’t so fortunate and died from simple human accidents or illnesses.

His brothers would never have to worry. He would make damn sure they made it to their transformations.

Chris thanked god everyday that no one outside their family except for a few select Sentinels knew about Marc’s existence. If

word got out about Marc every Master in the world would storm their house to take the young boy. That was why he trained

twice as hard and patrolled twice as long as everybody else. He’d do anything to protect his family.

“There hasn’t been a minion or a Master around here in eight years. This is the safest place for her to be, especially since we’ll

have to increase security for the babies.” He gestured to Madison, who was thankfully still calm. Chris really wasn’t sure he’d

survive another pregnancy with the woman. Best friend or not, if she woke him up again at three in the morning to talk about

how sore her breasts were, he was making a run for it.

“I’d like you and Ephraim to question her since I haven’t managed to get anything from her. I’m hoping she can give us

something to work with. It will also be your job to train her, quickly,” Eric stressed the last part.

“What do we know about her?” he asked, deciding that the best plan was to get this shit over with and get her trained. As much

as it pleased him to finally have his mate, his partner, he had a job to do, one that he took very seriously, especially when his

family’s safety was on the line.

Eric opened his mouth to answer when Joshua came skidding into the room. “She’s locked herself in the bathroom downstairs

and she’s on the internet!”

Chapter 4

She stared intently at the small screen, waiting for her program to do its thing. There was absolutely no warning, not even a

little scraping sound. The door to the bathroom was there one second and completely gone the next.

Her grip tightened around her candy bar as she slowly looked up, too frightened to look up quickly and yet unable to look

away. Her eyes ran over loose blue jeans, unbuttoned blue jeans, that hung low around a lean tan waist and up over a very well

defined set of abs with a thin light pink line that intersected a small circular scar almost hidden completely by a dusting of

black hair and up to where two large muscular arms folded over yet another impressive area of the body. A large Celtic tattoo

marked half the left peck and just below two very angry looking scars. Her eyes moved over his arms and she inwardly

whimpered at the combination of scars, muscle, and tattoos running up and down both arms. Forcing her eyes to continue north

she noted the rather angry patch of pale skin on the right side of the man’s neck and then further up to a rather handsome face

with seriously angry green eyes.

Isabella swallowed nervously even as her body began to tingle.

Wait a minute her body only reacted this way once and that was to…..

A small whimper escaped her. This couldn’t be. She narrowed her eyes on the man before her. Gone were the wet underwear,

Grizzly Adams’ beard, and messy hair. The man before her was clean, shaved and too damn good looking for her peace of

mind.

She whimpered again.

The man reached out and she automatically scooted back on the lace covered chair, hugging her candy bar to her chest while

leaving her little computer balancing precariously on the edge of her knees. Even in her drug hazed mind she had priorities.

Chocolate came first.

The man’s sinfully wicked mouth kicked up into a lazy lopsided smile as he reached forward and snatched the computer away.

Never taking her eyes off him, she stole a quick bite of chocolate. Chocolate at this moment was very necessary. Her mind

understood that. It was the only way she was going to survive this moment with this man.

What in the hell was wrong with her?

God, she needed more chocolate. The three king size bars she had stored away in her bag were not going to be enough if she

had to spend any real time in this man’s company.

She took a fortifying bite of her lifesaving chocolate as she watched the man pass the computer back to Eric, who was glaring

at her. The man in front of her looked somewhat amused as he studied her.

“Cuff her, Chris,” Eric said, not sounding very happy at all.

The god…er, man named Chris sighed unhappily. With a wave of his hand he gestured for her to stand up and come to him.

Taking another bite of chocolate for strength, she shook her head.

“Come on, sweetheart, make it easy on everyone,” he said in a deep timber voice that she could have happily listened to all

day. “The faster you come out of there the faster I can get some beauty sleep.” Did the man not own a mirror? Not that he was

beautiful, but he was handsome in a very sexy bad boy kind of way. If he got any hotter she was afraid she’d be limited to

monosyllable words and grunts.

Again she shook her head and this time when she tried scooting back her chair banged against the tiled wall.

There really was nowhere to go, but that didn’t mean she had to make this easy on them. She was a prisoner and it was a

prisoner’s job to escape or make their captors’ lives a living hell so they had no choice but to release them, at least she thought

she heard that somewhere. Right now it sounded like good advice so she was going with it.

His smile deepened as he eyed her. “Oh, I bet I can find a way to get you out of there,” he murmured. Before Isabella could ask

what he had planed he reached over and snatched the candy bar right out of her hand.

Seriously the man took her chocolate! His hand touched hers as it retreated and she was mentally promising herself kickboxing

lessons so she could stop the next bastard that did that when something stung her.

She was vaguely aware of his curse when she looked down and raised her shirt yanking the waist of her cargo pants down to

look at the area that hurt. She expected to find a bee or a spider or something, but there was nothing.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Her once light brown birthmark was now bright red. She ran the pad of her forefinger over it

and moved to do it again when a large tan hand pushed her hand aside.

She was a bit surprised to find Chris kneeling in front of her, staring intently at her little crescent moon and cross birthmark.

Well, at least they looked like a crescent moon and cross to her. The easy going smile he gave her a minute ago was completely

gone and replaced by a look of deep concentration as he ran the tip of his finger over her mark.

A startled gasp escaped her as intense green eyes met hers. His hand dropped away from her and he stood abruptly, never

taking his eyes off her. It was almost as if he was afraid she would disappear if he looked away for even a second. A little odd,

but nothing compared to the oddities of the last twentyfour hours.

He gestured with the candy bar, her candy bar, for her to stand up. Again she shook her head. He glared at her as he took a huge

bite out of her candy bar. Oh, when she got those kickboxing lessons she was so coming after him!

“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard-“

“Thanks,” a very beautiful woman with gorgeous silky black hair and a golden tan to die for said as she snaked a hand around

Chris and stole the candy bar out of his hand. Isabella’s jaw dropped as the woman took a bite of the candy bar and closed her

eyes in utter rapture, but that’s not what shocked her. No, not even close. The woman was only wearing a sheet.

Her eyes darted from the woman who looked like she just came from a marathon of sex to Chris, who was only wearing jeans,

unbuttoned jeans at that. The first time she saw him he was only wearing boxers, probably just something he threw on after

doing the mattress mambo with this woman. The way the woman took her candy bar from him indicated they had a close

personal connection.

Yeah, they were definitely lovers.

She thought over her reaction to this man, one she’d never had for another man and she had her answer, finally. They drugged

her food with some kind of hallucinogen laced with an aphrodisiac. They were probably hoping to use sex to get her program

out of her.

Not in this lifetime.

Well, she may have considered, maybe using sex with this man as a means of escape. Not to see if she would enjoy it of

course, that would have been a plus, but after seeing the priests she kind of hoped this was a celibate cult. She was going to use

his lack of sex to her advantage and try to get him to help her escape. Well, she could trash that plan since he was obviously

getting some from the Native American beauty behind him, who was nibbling the candy bar as if she was savoring it for

eternity.

A horrifying thought occurred to her. What if this was the opposite of a celibate cult. What if this was like one of those orgy

cults she heard they had in the seventies and they drugged her expecting her to sleep with everyone, including women?

Oh, heck no! She so did not swing that way! Just because she couldn’t get off with a guy didn’t mean she was willing to accept

a substitute.

Chris sighed heavily. “I thought you were supposed to stay upstairs, Madison.”

The woman snorted and held up the last inch of candy bar. “Chocolate,” she said simply as if that explained everything.

“Ephraim left to get me some, but I couldn’t wait any longer.”

“Now you have it, so go!” Chris snapped.

“I want to help,” Madison said, pouting.

“No, just go. I’ll handle this.”

“But, what if-“

“No!”

The woman’s lower lip started to tremble.

Chris groaned while Isabella slowly slid to the right, trying to get as far away from the odd couple as the large bathroom would

allow.

“I just wanted to meet her,” Madison said softly.

“Now’s not the time, Madison,” Chris said firmly.

Madison dropped a hand to her flat stomach and gently rubbed. “I hope your brothers don’t inherit this surly attitude of yours,”

she muttered.

Isabella’s brows nearly shot to her hairline as she eyed the woman’s hand lovingly rubbing her stomach.

Brothers? That meant she was not only sleep with him, but his father as well.

Ew!

“Anyway, I just wanted to meet your wife,” the woman named Madison said with a heavy sigh.

Seriously, ew! This woman was actually sleeping with father and son? That was just—wait, what?

“You could have met her later, Madison. Right now there are a few things we need to handle,” Chris said, looking at her

intently.

He thought she was his wife? There must be a mistake.

There was no way this guy was delusional enough to actually think that she was his wife. Madison nibbled the chocolate bar as

she gave her a little wave. Her eyes shifted to Chris, who was watching her almost possessively.

“Hi, I’m Madison Williams,” Madison said, reaching out to offer her hand.

Isabella desperately tried to squirm away from her, them, this crazy situation, but there was nowhere to go.

This was crazy. She couldn’t do this. She wanted to go back to her life, back to her computer and programs and endless supply

of caffeine and chocolate.

“Just go upstairs and wait for dad. You’re scaring her,”

Chris said, looking at the other woman while he gestured towards her. Deciding it was now or never, she took action.

Grabbing her bag, she literally dove for freedom through Chris’ parted legs, knowing if she was going to escape it would have

to now while he was in the midst of a lover’s quarrel.

“Um, what are you doing?” Chris asked, sounding very amused.

She shifted and squirmed, trying to get the rest of her body through his legs only to discover that she was stuck. Damn breasts!