She threw her head back and laughed harder. “Oh, we’ll see, won’t we?”

“What’s going on here?” a new voice asked.

Ephraim’s eyes shot to the hallway beside the stair. He was going to spank her ass until she couldn’t walk, then he was going to do it some more.

Madison stepped into the room.

*******

Did he really think she could sit back and wait? She spent the last half hour pacing the room before she had enough. After sticking a small cross in her bra and a stake in the back of her pants she decided enough was enough. She crept up the stairs and then rushed into the foyer, knowing that it wouldn’t take Ephraim more than a few seconds to sense her and force her back.

Her only hope was that Caroline wouldn’t be able to sense the change in her. Ephraim promised vampires couldn’t smell Pytes only shifters could. Their scents were invisible to vampires. Madison prayed he was right. He said all vampires suspected they were human until they tasted their blood or of course changed in front of them.

Caroline smiled triumphantly in front of her, showing her fangs off proudly. With a wave of her hand she sent two men to drag Madison into the small group sitting on the floor. The scent of Chris’s blood hit her hard. She didn’t have a lot of practice with the scent of blood, but she knew enough to know that his was different. It smelled sweet and inviting, too inviting. It was a natural booby-trap Sentinels had. The blood would kill a vampire on the first bite.

“So very nice of you to join us. You’ve just made my job of hunting you down a lot easier. Now we just have to wait for Ephraim. I assume he’s going around the house trying to kill my men?”

“I have no idea where he is,” she said.

Caroline stepped in front of the guns and bent down. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply above Madison. She knew. She knew she’d changed. Her plan failed. Madison was about to hit the woman, hoping to knock her out so she could save her family when Caroline reacted a bit differently than she'd expected.

“You bitch!” Caroline snapped. She stepped back with her eyes shimmering silver. Damn it, she did know. They were going to shoot the kids now.

Madison put an arm around Jill and Joshua hoping it would be enough to protect them. She knew it wouldn’t be. She had to figure out a way to use her new abilities to get them out of here.

“You’ve been with him! I can smell him all over you! You bitch!” she shrieked again.

Madison turned to look at Caroline and did her best to hide her relief. “He’s mine,” she said firmly, hoping to keep the woman distracted long enough to figure out how to get everyone to safety.

Caroline’s face contorted in anger. “Not for long I guarantee that.” She walked away until she stood directly in front of their little group. She snapped her fingers. One of the men lowered his gun and brought her a chair. She sat down, crossing her legs at the ankles and leaned in with her chin resting on her fists.

“I want to see the looks on their faces when you tell them what Ephraim really is.” When Madison made no move to speak Caroline added. “If you don’t tell them I’ll shoot them one by one starting with the old woman.”

Chris tried to sit up. “You lay still,” Eleanor hissed.

“I’ll tell them,” Chris said, sounding a little stronger.

“Even better.” Caroline grinned. “I would love to hear this explained by a Sentinel.”

“Sentinel?” Jill and Grandma asked at the same time.

“Er…” Chris was at a loss where to begin.

Caroline jumped in. “I’ll explain him and then he’ll explain Ephraim.”

Ephraim watched carefully. His mind calculated every single possibility while he kept track of the conversation. He knew Madison was going to throw her body over her brother, sister, Chris and Eleanor too if she got the chance. He also knew that if she was severely injured her body would reject the baby.

He should have reminded her that her body would reject the baby to save itself, but there hadn’t been enough time. There were no words to describe the pain from a bullet or a knife wound and he didn’t want her to find out first hand either. If she was shot her body would rush to fix it and kill their son.

Now he was kicking himself for his stupidity. If she’d known how painful an injury was as a Pyte she never would have come out here. Well, that wasn’t true she probably would have for the kids. He made a rule right then and there to always tell her everything from now on.

“I’ll give you the quick version so we can get to the real juicy stuff.” Caroline said in a tone that was friendly and excited as she let them in on what she probably thought was a juicy secret. “Chris here has a big secret.”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Candy inch further away from Chris. She probably thought he was a monster in disguise ready to pounce on her.

“Chris is what we call a Sentinel. I'll explain Chris, but no interruptions. I want him to explain Ephraim as soon as possible.” She cleared her throat. “Thousands of years ago Lucifer found a way to place a demon in disguise among humans.” She raised her hand when Jill’s mouth opened. “I said no questions.” Jill shut her mouth and reluctantly nodded.

Caroline’s minions looked very interested in this tale. Something told Ephraim that she didn’t like sharing information. The men took small steps closer to their Master in hopes of not missing a single word.

“Now this is just the story. I obviously wasn’t there when all of this went down. I’m just a result. God found out and was pissed. He decided to send, I guess you would call them half angels, warriors in his place to earth. He couldn’t on his own interfere. It’s a long ago agreement that earth was a chess board. They could add, but not subtract. They also couldn’t interfere once the game was in play.”

“Once Lucifer released his demons since he knew that he would never be allowed to release anymore. Rules as I said.” She waved a dismissive hand. “As I said it's all very complicated. So he made sure his demon could multiply on his own through a blood exchange.”

“Now God had to play by these rules as well. I know, doesn’t seem fair does it?” she asked with a wicked smile that showed her fangs. “Instead of depositing all of his half-angels all at once he set it up so that ten of these half-angels would come to earth every ten years.”

“Five pairs of mates made up ten warriors. They’re born as a twin to a human baby. They require a human soul to bring them to earth. I believe Chris’s twin died in the womb.” She looked at Chris for confirmation, he nodded. “Our Chris here is an unmated Sentinel. You see he has never met his mate and probably never will.” She threw Chris a taunting smile. "Mostly because I plan on hunting her down and tearing her throat out for fun."

Chris' scream was feral as he tried to get to his feet and attack her. Grandma, Madison and even Jill held him down. It took Joshua's little hand in his to finally calm him down. Caroline continued as if nothing happened.

“Now, normally a Sentinel will live to be around two hundred and look about twenty-five for the rest of their lives. They’ll begin to age quickly when their job is over. Then they are sent back. Rumor has it they are born again. Their mates are also born again as their mates. They’re what you would call soul mates. Now unfortunately for Chris he is not going to live to see his mate never mind tomorrow morning.”