Without Regret (Pyte/Sentinel #2)(11)
Author: R.L. Mathewson

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 br**sts 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.