Without Regret

“Hands up!” a familiar voice commanded.

He looked over his shoulder and damn near sagged with relief as he watched Eric storm into the room with a group of Sentinels. They made quick work out of dealing with the rest of the demons and shifters. When he didn’t see his father he frowned. He would have thought his father would have been the first person here.

The man hated to miss a good fight after all.

When two Sentinels went after Kale and the vampire, he found himself stepping in to block their path.

“They’re prisoners,” he said. “Secure them and bring them to the compound.”

With a careless shrug, Kale held out his wrists. He’d heard stories about the man and suspected it wouldn’t be a week before the man broke out. The vampire was another story. He fought, but a group of ten Sentinels armed with holy weapons managed to finally restrain him.

As the vampire was walked past them, he looked at Izzy and said, “Don’t forget your promise.”

“I won’t,” she said softly.

He was about to ask her what her promise was when she let out a bloodcurdling scream that had the hair on the back of his neck rising. He put his good arm around her and held her up when her body tried to drop to the ground.

“Eric!”

In seconds the man was there picking Izzy up into his arms.

“What have we here?” Eric asked as he made his way quickly to the tunnel.

“She’s about to pop,” Chris said, following closely behind.

“Well, I’ve thought that for weeks now. She is rather large,” Eric said, chuckling.

“I hate you both,” Izzy muttered as she buried her face against Eric’s shoulder and let out a scream that had them hauling ass.

**********

“I need two gurneys!” Chris yelled when the van’s backdoors flew open.

Several Sentinels took off to get them.

“What happened?” one of the doctors from the clinic asked as Chris carefully stepped out of the van, holding the most precious thing in the world.

His left arm still hung uselessly by his side, but his right arm was more than capable of holding his tiny daughter. She was wrapped up in the clean black tee shirt that he found in the van and she was the cutest little thing he’d ever seen.

“Our fearless leader passed out and hit his head when the baby crowned,” he laughed, gesturing to Eric, who was holding his head and glaring daggers at him.

“Here, let me take the baby for you,” a nurse said, reaching out to take the baby from him.

He glared down at woman, who dared to come next to his precious baby girl. “Get your own.”

With an annoyed sigh she focused her attention on helping Izzy out of the back of the van and onto the gurney. She was exhausted, her hair was a mess, she was covered in sweat and he couldn’t for the life of him remember her ever looking more beautiful.

“Can I hold her again?” she asked, reaching out for the baby.

When he only pressed baby kisses to the top of his daughter’s fuzzy head she rolled her eyes and dropped her arms. “You’re going to have to learn how to share,”

she said, sounding tired, but looking very pleased.

“No, I don’t. If you want to hold one then we’ll just have to get you knocked up again so you can have one. This one’s mine,” he said, earning a soft chuckle as if he was kidding.

He wasn’t.

This was his precious baby girl. He couldn’t help, but smile when she opened her eyes and flashed those brilliant green eyes in his direction. She was so beautiful, so perfect. He couldn’t wait to have more, and he might share those with Izzy, but he wasn’t sure yet.

He walked alongside of Izzy as she was rolled into the compound. When he still didn’t see anyone from his family he frowned. Where the hell was everyone? he wondered as they stepped into the clinic.

That’s when he got his answer.

Praying that he wasn’t seeing what he thought he was seeing, he moved forward, holding his baby girl in his arm as he broke through the circle surrounding the first bed and felt his heart drop.

Oh god……

“He’s going to be fine,” Madison said through tears as she pushed Joshua’s soaked hair out of his face. He turned his head and snarled at Madison, baring his long fangs and flashing his silver eyes in warning to anyone that came too close. He tried to lunge at them, but the thick heavy chains that secured him to the bed and floor kept him from doing just that.

“I-I didn’t know he’d received shifter blood when I tried to change him,” Ephraim said hollowly from his side.

“What the f**k have I done?”

Epilogue

“I should have known I’d find you in here,” Chris said from the door, not sounding very pleased, she noted.

She finished taking a sip of her Coke to blink innocently up at him. “What? I was just taking a break,” she said, giving him a hurt little smile that usually worked, but apparently not today.

“Why do you have to take your break down here with him?” Chris demanded, propping one hand on his hip while his poor arm in the pink cast that she may have tricked the nurse into using, hung by his side. Two surgeries so far and it looked like he might have to have another one. She felt so bad, not for the pink cast that amused her, but for everything else.

“What the hell did I do?” Eric demanded as he lounged back on the recliner and continued to try and beat her high score. After three weeks it was just sad that he hadn’t accepted defeat yet.

“Not you! Him,” he said in disgust as he pointed to Kale who was too busy blowing raspberries with Jessica to care. “And why is he holding my precious baby girl?”

She had to bite back her smile as Kale shot Chris an innocent look. “Why wouldn’t I be holding my goddaughter?”

“She’s my goddaughter, ass**le,” Eric muttered as he of course lost.

Kale let out a snort of disbelief at that. “She’s mine.”

“No, she’s not,” Chris said, walking into the room and with one arm scooped Jessica out of Kale’s arms.

“It’s just so sad that you don’t think so,” Kale said, tsking as he stole her Coke and finished it off in one gulp.

“I told you both that you have to share,” she said, wondering how many times they were going to have this argument.

“I don’t want him to be Jessica’s godfather,” Chris muttered as he leaned down to press baby kisses all over Jessica’s little face.

“Now that’s just ridiculous. Who would make a better godfather than a mercenary shifter?” Kale demanded as he grabbed an unopened box of Twinkies and dug in.

It really was nice to have someone around who shared her love for junk food, she thought when he grudgingly handed her over a Twinkie.

“How about the Sentinel Captain of this area? I can protect her better than you can,” Eric muttered back, pouting. She knew it had nothing to do with sharing the title with Kale and everything to do with losing the game. For such a serious man he sure was a big baby when it came to losing.

“The lady said we’re sharing so get over it,” Kale said around a mouthful of Twinkie.

“Fine,” Eric said, catching the Twinkie Kale tossed to him.

She looked between the two men and had to shake her head in disbelief. She couldn’t believe how two men who were supposed to be enemies could become fast friends.