He felt the familiar tightening in his chest at the memory of Logan, carefree and smiling and shoved it away before he became sick. When everything was said and done the blame lay on his shoulders.

All of it.

After nine hundred years he couldn’t forgive himself or forget about his friend no matter how hard he tried. It was the same reason he took this job and why he would finish it for his friend and foolishly hope that it would earn a mediocre amount of forgiveness from the only friend he’d ever known.

He knew it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference what he did, but he couldn’t stop himself from hoping. When this job was done he’d have to face Logan’s anger once again. Not that he’d let the man have his revenge. He wasn’t a f**king idiot after all.

“Aren’t you going to shift?” one of the leeches asked, drawing his attention.

“No,” he said firmly, focusing his mind right back where it should be, finding Isabella McGuire. He never shifted. Shifting would mean losing control to his baser instincts and he would never allow that. Although he’d still be in control, his needs would be magnified and he’d be worthless. He’d had his last shift over five hundred years ago and had absolutely no intentions of changing it any time soon.

“Then why the hell are you here?” the man demanded.

“To make you ask questions,” Kale said distractedly as he scanned the one room apartment.

There was nothing homey about the room. There were no pictures lining the walls, nothing notably personal about the room in any way. There was no couch. The only place to sit in the room was the worn faux black leather desk chair and the unmade twin bed shoved up against the wall.

As he stepped away from the two vampires and their damn scent he closed his eyes and inhaled slowly, taking in every scent in the room and working through each and every one of them.

“Don’t f**king move,” he snarled when one of the vampires tried to move closer to him. After a small hesitation he heard the man move back, which was the only thing that saved him from getting his heart ripped out, for the moment at least.

He focused his attention back on the scents and knew Logan was right. The woman didn’t know she was a Sentinel. There was no scent of old blood, gun powder, silver or one of the hundreds of scents he’d detected in other Sentinel homes. He opened his eyes and strolled around the room, noting that nothing in the room, not that there was much of it, was breakable.

From what he could see in the open cabinets of her tiny kitchen, all of her eatery was made from plastic and paper. Among the scattered items on the small tiled section of the kitchen were several unopened package of paper plates, cutlery and plastic cups. He walked over to the cabinets, stepping on plastic forks, dozens of take out menus and a few cans of food and opened the one and only drawer in the tiny kitchen, already knowing what to expect and wasn’t disappointed.

“A woman after my heart,” he murmured as he picked up a box of Twinkies and inhaled deeply until he could scent the chemically altered filling through the thin cardboard and plastic packaging. His stomach growled viciously at the enticing odor. After testing the scent one last time to make sure it hadn’t been f**ked with, he ripped open the box and started to dig into the tasty treat.

He ignored the dirty looks Logan’s men were sending him and strolled around the room only pausing when he came across some papers that were anything but personal. They were random print outs about computer codes. Interesting, he thought as he demolished the entire package of Twinkies and headed to her small dorm size fridge, praying that she had the life saving elixir that he needed and knew she would.

It was pretty bad when the only person that hadn’t pissed him off today was the untrained female Sentinel that he was going to hunt down and hand over to Logan to no doubt be tortured and killed, he mused as he grabbed two cans of Coke out of her fridge.

“This was a waste of time!” the second, slightly larger man complained, sounding distressed. “The Master is going to be furious that we wasted an entire night and have nothing to show for it.”

“You think so?” Kale asked casually, finishing both Cokes as he made his way to the only window in the room. He opened the window and stepped out onto the small fire escape.

“Where the hell are you going?” the man demanded, still standing across the room, completely oblivious to the coming attack. Kale looked down at the large leather banded watch on his left wrist and tsked softy as he shook his head in disgust.

Whoever was running the Seattle compound was truly lacking, he thought as he looked down at the alleyway bellow him and watched as a half dozen Sentinels spread out. Even two hundred feet up and he could smell the almost too sweet scent of their blood, but the two vampires inside didn’t have a clue, which was yet another reason he hated working with leeches, especially leeches less than five centuries old. They didn’t know shit and still had the instincts of a human.

“Are the two minions that were following us stationed downstairs?” he asked, unable to scent them from here, but knowing they hadn’t gone very far. Since his vampire buddies here would have to find cover in two hours, well they normally would have, Logan would have to rely on minions to keep track of him until sunset. Of course Logan could hire demons or other shifters to watch him, but they both knew that just wouldn’t end well and Logan wouldn’t want to waste a valuable commodity like a demon or shifter since their loyalty was difficult to come by for a vampire and Logan knew he’d kill them without hesitation.

Humans on the other hand……..

Well, Logan was like most other Masters in that he really didn’t give a flying f**k about his minions unless another vampire poached them. They were a dime a dozen and easily replaceable. Besides if they were truly worth anything Logan would have changed them, not accepted them as slaves.

The men shared a surprised look. Really, it shouldn’t be a shock that he’d scented the two humans that reeked of vampires since it was his goddamn job to notice those types of things. Besides, having a really pissed off vampire on his ass for the last nine hundred years had really gone a long way in helping him hone his Alpha senses.

Kale cocked his head to the side and listened to the small ding of the elevator followed by the sounds of about ten people moving quietly, yet efficiently through the hall in their direction. When they were close enough for the vampires to scent them he gave the two vampires who didn’t have a chance in hell a mocking grin and propelled himself over the railing and fell two stories before he grabbed hold of a railing.

Biting back a yawn, Kale pulled himself over the railing just as the sounds of fighting reached his ears.

He barely gave them or the Sentinels covering the lobby a second thought as he quickly found a way back inside the building. While he broke into the dark apartment he realized how difficult it was going to be to find Isabella McGuire. From what he’d read and seen the woman had no family ties, no real friends, and trusted no one, making her damn difficult to track down, he thought with an anticipatory grin as he strolled past the smiling infant holding out her arms in silent demand.

Isabella McGuire was going to be a challenge, but that was more than fine with him since the beast in him loved a good challenge.

************

“Do you like that, Izzy?” Chris asked against her neck as he slid another finger inside of her, making her gasp and pray that he’d never stop.