Retribution by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page B

blue silk duvet that was so light, it felt like moving air. The furniture was the kind of high-end quality that looked like an antique, but wasn’t. There didn’t appear to be any windows, yet the ten-foot ceiling seemed too high to be a basement. And the French tray above her had a beautiful mural painted inside it of a lush forest scene with gilded deer.
    I’ve died and gone to a palace.…
    That was what it seemed like. The room she was in was bigger than her entire house.
    Biting her lip in trepidation, she slid off the bed and wandered around. Her first stop was the door that someone had locked. Not that she was surprised. Far from it. She’d have only been shocked had it opened.
    Abigail closed her eyes and tried to use her newfound powers to feel what was around her.
    Nothing showed. Which meant nothing. She was still too new to her powers to fully command them.
    “You were right, Hannah,” she whispered. “I should have honed them better before I took off after Brady.” But from the moment Jonah told her he had the updated dossier that told them where Sundown was patrolling, she’d been impatient.
    Now she was paying for that stupidity.
    Where am I? She had no clue to anything. While the room was lush, it didn’t have much in it other than the bed and a dresser and armoire along with two chairs and a coffee table. There was no phone, computer, or clock.
    Had Sundown kidnapped her? It was the most likely scenario since she doubted she’d been abducted by a prince, and that made her heart rate speed up. Why would he do that and not kill her?
    Unless he wanted to torture her  …
    Yeah, that would be more his speed. Dark-Hunters were said to be vicious killers who lived to hear their prey beg for mercy while they died. Though to be honest, this didn’t look like a torture chamber. It looked like a palace. The kind of place Jonah would love  …
    And then she felt sick as her thoughts turned to Perry and Jonah, who’d been with her when she attacked Sundown. No doubt they were both dead. Tears choked her at the thought of their loss. They’d been good friends to her for many years. Better than she deserved some days. She could barely remember a time when they hadn’t been part of her life.
    Now they were dead because of Sundown, too. Damn him!
    She cursed as she ran through their last few minutes together. Jonah was the one who’d first identified Sundown on the street. She’d wanted to go after him immediately, but Perry had come up with the idea to get him down to the drain so that they could ambush him and keep their actions out of sight of any passersby or police.
    Why hadn’t it worked? Her powers should have been enough to defeat him. It was like something else had shielded him from her attacks.
    Frustration welled up inside her until she sensed someone approaching her room. She quickly returned to the door and glanced about for something she could use as a weapon. There really wasn’t anything unless she yanked a picture off the wall, and those were so large and unwieldy, they wouldn’t do her any good. Not to mention, they were actual paintings and didn’t have a glass front for her to shatter and use. He didn’t even have a lamp in here to bash him over the head with. The light came from overhead cans that were on a dimmer switch. She’d turn the light off completely, but that wouldn’t help. His eyesight would be much better in the dark than hers.
    It didn’t matter. She’d beat him down by hand if she had to. He would not defeat her this time.
    She pressed herself back against the wall as the door slowly opened.
    *   *   *
     
    Jess paused as he saw the empty bed. Having survived numerous ambushes in his human life, he knew she’d be nearby, waiting to jump him.
    And not in a way a man wanted an attractive woman to jump him.
    Since she wasn’t in his line of sight, she must be behind the door. That thought had barely finished before she kicked it into him with everything she