Book Excerpt

Chapter 1

138 years later
Las Vegas, Nevada

“How are you doing?”

Abigail Yager barely understood those words as the doctor stood over her bed, injecting her with a substance that could very well be lethal. But if it worked, it would be worth the risk. “What?”

“Abby? Can you hear me?”

She blinked slowly and tried to focus on Hannah’s question. Everything was blurry. Even so, she could see the way the light played in Hannah’s blond hair, and the concern on her little sister’s beautiful face. “Um… yeah.”

Hannah cursed. “You’re killing her. Stop!”

The doctor didn’t listen.

Hannah started for him, but before she could reach his side of the bed, her older brother Kurt intercepted her. “Stop it, Hannah.”

“We don’t know what that will do to her. She’s human!”

Kurt shook his head. “She needs it. If it strengthens us, it should do the same with her. Besides, it’s too late. At this point it’ll either help her or she’s dead. Plain and simple.”

Could there be any less care in his tone?

Hannah shoved Kurt away. “I’m ashamed of you. After all she’s done for us, you still see her as nothing but a human.” She returned to Abigail’s side and took her hand. “Stay with me, Abby. Don’t leave me alone with an insensitive prick as the only member of my family.”

“I’m not a prick!”

Hannah ignored him. “I need my big sis. C’mon, girl. Don’t let me down.”

Abigail couldn’t really follow the angry exchange they were now engaged in. Honestly, all she heard was her heart pounding in her ears. She saw images of her past playing through her mind as if they were on a DVD. The old two-story house where the three of them had grown up. Of her and Hannah sneaking up past their bedtime to whisper and giggle about their latest celebrity crushes.

So many happy memories of that time…

Her thoughts turned to Kurt and Hannah’s mother and father who’d taken her in after her own parents had been slaughtered. They, too, had died a few years ago from their curse, and there was nothing she wouldn’t do for her adoptive siblings.

And you just might be paying the ultimate price.

“Wait…”

Was that the doctor’s voice?

The thrumming grew louder as she felt something shatter deep within her body. Arching her back, she screamed as every molecule seemed to catch fire.

“What’s happening to her?”

“Get your sister out of here.”

Abigail heard Hannah protesting as Kurt jerked her from the room and slammed the door behind them. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes. She could no longer see anything, and yet she saw everything. There was no way to describe it. It was as if she had a mirror to the world.

“Breathe,” the doctor whispered. “Just breathe. I’m not about to let you die.”

That was easier said than done. Pain lacerated her body. It was as if she was burning from the inside out.

Unable to stand it, she screamed until she could stand no more. This was it. In spite of what he said, she was dying. She had to be. Surely no one could withstand this much pain and live. There was no way she’d survive.

In fact, she felt the darkness coming for her. It was swallowing her whole. Piece by piece. Shredding her completely.

She turned her head from side to side, trying to breathe. Something had its hands on her throat, choking her.

Was it the doctor?

She couldn’t focus. Couldn’t see.

“Stop!” Her cry echoed in her ears.

Then as quickly as it’d come, the pain left her- like a bird that just shot skyward for no reason. It was gone.

Her throat was so dry now. She tilted her head to meet the doctor’s gaze. Concern etched his brow as he lowered the mask on his face.

“How do you feel?” There was only the smallest bit of his fangs showing as he spoke. Something else flashed. A memory of him that was gone so fast, she couldn’t grasp it.

Was it important?

“I need water,” she rasped.

“Do you crave anything else?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“What?”

Abigail licked her lips as the memory of her birth parents’ deaths seared her. Even all these years later, the memory was perfectly intact as if it’d only happened yesterday.

Barely four years old and dressed in her red Sesame Street pajamas, she’d hidden under the bed while the man her parents had called a friend had mercilessly slaughtered them with a shotgun. Those horrendously violent sounds were forever etched in her brain. From where she’d been, she’d seen the man’s black cowboy boots that had caused the floorboards in her room to squeak while he searched her room. Terrified, she’d watched him track blood all over her pink princess rug. She’d held her favorite teddy bear to her mouth and bit him hard to keep from crying out and betraying her location. He’d paused before her dresser and there in the mirror she’d seen his face so clearly. So perfectly.

And as she heard those heavy footsteps leave her home, she’d sworn one thing.

To find that man and kill him as brutally as he’d killed her parents. To make him beg for a mercy she had no intention of giving him.

Retribution would be hers…

“Abigail?” The doctor forced her to look at him. “What else do you crave?”

“The throat of Sundown Brady.”

Book Synopsis

Setting: Las Vegas, NV

Harm no human…

A hired gunslinger, William Jessup Brady lived his life with one foot in the grave. He believed that every life had a price. Until the day when he finally found a reason to live. In one single act of brutal betrayal, he lost everything, including his life. Brought back by a Greek goddess to be one of her Dark-Hunters, he gave his immortal soul for vengeance and swore he’d spend eternity protecting the humans he’d once considered prey.

Orphaned as a toddler, Abigail Yager was taken in by a family of vampires and raised on one belief- Dark-Hunters are the evil who prey on both their people and mankind, and they must all be destroyed. While protecting her adoptive race, she has spent her life eliminating the Dark-Hunters and training for the day when she meets the man who killed her family: Jess Brady.

A gun in the hand is worth two in the holster…

Jess has been charged with finding and terminating the creature who’s assassinating Dark-Hunters. The last thing he expects to find is a human face behind the killings, but when that face bears a striking resemblance to the one who murdered him centuries ago, he knows something evil is going on. He also knows he’s not the one who killed her parents. But Abigail refuses to believe the truth and is determined to see him dead once and for all.

Brought together by an angry god and chased by ancient enemies out to kill them both, they must find a way to overcome their mutual hatred or watch as one of the darkest of powers rises and kills both the races they’ve sworn to protect.

The Story Behind the Story

As a woman of mixed Tsalagi (Cherokee) heritage, I’ve always been fascinated by the beliefs and legends of all the Native American Nations. I spent many hours as a child, combing through the library, reading any and everything I could find that would give me insight into that part of my heritage as well as listening to many stories told to me by my family, all of whom wove great magic with their tongues.

When I first started writing the Dark-Hunter series back in college, I decided to base it around Greek mythology with one notable exception. The Daimons. A cursed vampire-like demon that wasn’t immortal and rather than feed from blood, they fed from something a little more... robust.

The human soul.

While I created the curse and the mythos around the Atlanteans, Apollites and Daimons from my own mind, there was one thing I did borrow from my ancestors. Part of the tsi-noo (chenoo) legend.

When I was a child, the tsi-noo was the bogeyman my mother would threaten me with if I didn’t behave (she also used the Manitou, but that’s another story).

A Wabanaki legend, the tsi-noo began life as a human who was either possessed by an evil demon or one who committed some atrocious crime (usually cannibalism) that caused his heart to turn to ice. Also known as an Ice Cannibal, the tsi-noo stayed alive and grew stronger by consuming humans, especially their souls. This was why my mother told me it was imperative to say my prayers at night and to ask God to keep my soul safe while I slept. If I failed to do so, one could slip into my bed (or my dreams) and steal it away from me... because everyone knew that a child’s soul was the most coveted by the tsi-noo and if you weren’t careful, you could easily give your soul to one. I’m pretty sure all of that last bit was made up by my mother for the sheer fear factor of it as I haven’t been able to find any corroborating story about it.

But as a little girl, the idea of having my soul stolen or being able to lock one up fascinated me and as an adult, I decided to borrow it for my Daimons.

I also incorporated the tsi-noo, as well as several other monsters, into this book. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time. I introduced Sunshine Runningwolf into the series at the beginning (she was the heroine of the second published Dark-Hunter novel, Night Embrace). A woman of mixed Native American heritage, she, like me, treasures both sides of her ancestry. And from the moment, I completed that novel, I’ve been aching to return to my roots and explore them more.

Finally, in this book, I was able to pay homage to many different Native American legends and beliefs, including those of my family, and to explore them more fully.

That being said, I’ve also created my own Native American history for the purpose of the book. The original tribes/clans, creators and Guardians I’ve used, as well as some of the monsters, are not taken from any Native American belief system or religion. This was done out of respect and on purpose.

As a very spiritual person who comes from a mixed religious background, I have a deep and abiding love and respect for all religions and points of view. I would never intentionally insult or otherwise offend anyone.

The Time Untime is a real Cherokee belief that I couldn’t resist borrowing a bit from and it was another story I grew up with. However, I have tweaked it a bit and will continue it on in the 2012 Dark-Hunter that will follow this one.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed my foray into another pantheon. I knew when I sat down to start Jess’s story that it would grab my heart and make me laugh and cry. It did both many times.

As with all of my books, I’m very proud of this one and I hope you enjoy taking this journey with me. Now I must get back to the voices in my head who, I pray, will never leave me alone and who will sing their songs to me for many years to come.

But before I go, I’d like to leave you with the first words my uncle taught me to say in Tsalagi. Wa-do (wah doe). Thank you.

Book Benies

Retribution introduces the Cherokee 2012 prophecy of Time Untime which will be continued and further explained in 2012's Time Untime novel.