Retribution by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page A

have had a normal life. A woman her age ought to be out with her friends, having fun and enjoying her youth. Not coming after Dark-Hunters. Definitely not killing them.
    A smile tugged at the edges of his lips at her ponytail. He didn’t know why, but that reminded him of her as a kid. She’d had a lot of spunk even then. And it was weird to be so attracted to her now, having been there when she was born. He tried not to think about that whenever he was with a woman. On a level he didn’t want to acknowledge, it bothered him. He was old enough to be their great-great-great granddaddy.
    But he wasn’t altruistic enough to be celibate either. There was only so much a man could do. Especially since they didn’t know how old he was. To them, he was another mid-twenty-year-old guy they met in a bar and took home.
    However, Abigail knew.
    And she hated him for it.
    He turned her face toward him. Her eyes opened just a slit, and when he saw them  …
    He pulled back.
    What the hell? His heart pounding, he gently lifted one lid. Sure enough, her eyes were red with yellow threads running through them.
    She wasn’t human after all.
    At least not fully.
    Oh yeah, this was bad. Real bad. Was she the enemy from the west that Ren had been talking about? Prophecy and Oracle warnings never made much sense to him. Trying to unravel them was enough to give even the stoutest mind a nine-day migraine.
    And he was too tired right now to think it through. He needed some sleep before he dealt with this. Or at least a break  …
    He covered her with a blanket, then made sure that she had no way out of this room until he was ready for her leave.
    At the door, he lowered the lights so that she’d be able to see the room when she came to, but not so bright that they’d disturb her.
    He glanced back at her, and his breath caught in his throat. With this light and with her head tilted, she looked so much like her mother that it temporarily stunned him and took him back in time.
    He saw Matilda lying on the bank of the stream where she’d taken him for a picnic not long after their engagement. The sun had been so warm that she’d fallen asleep while he read one of her favorite dime novels out loud to her. Her serene beauty had enchanted him and he’d spent hours watching her, praying for that afternoon not to end.
    I love you, William.
    He could still hear her voice. See her beautiful smile.Clearing his throat of the sudden lump, he shook his head to clear it, too.
    Abigail wasn’t Matilda.
    But as she lay there without the hatred shooting out of her eyes at him, she was every bit as beautiful, and it stirred emotions inside him that he’d sworn he buried.
    Not wanting to think about that, he went to his room and pulled off his coat and weapons. While he undressed for bed, his thoughts sped around his head as he tried to figure out what had happened to her.
    Where she’d been all this time.
    I should have checked her for an ID . Yeah, no duh. That would have given him her address and let him know if she was still a Yager or if she’d married.
    Feeling like a complete dolt, he went back to see if he could locate one.
    He pushed open the door and froze.
    The bed was completely empty, and she was nowhere in sight.

 
     
    5
     
    Abigail came awake with a jerk. The last thing she remembered was being strangled by her worst enemy. Pain hit her hard as she came to terms with what had happened.
    I failed.…
    After all these years, she’d finally found the man who’d ruined her life and killed her parents. And he’d overpowered her with an ease that sickened her. She’d risked everything and even allowed her body to be used as an experiment. Still, it hadn’t been enough.
    I hate you, Sundown Brady. You rotten bastard!
    For a moment, she feared she might have died. But as she focused on the opulent room she was in, she realized she was alive.
    And it was o-p-u-l-e-n-t.
    The bed she lay on was an ornately carved California king with a dark