Enduring Retribution e-book Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman is stronger than I thought and she just kicked my ass. But I think I hurt her. Badly. She needs blood now.”
    “No, he isn’t. What’s going on, Pete? What’s happened? Are you hurt, in danger?” Aaron asked.
    “No. She’s below on the courtyard. I can’t…my vine didn’t protect me from her. I don’t understand.” Pete looked down again. “ She needs a vamp, sire, or she’s dead.”
    “You mean the woman from the restaurant? I’m finding someone now, Pete.” P ete could feel Sara close to Aaron, their combined magic almost palatable even through a mental link.
    “Tell me what you know about her, Pete. Is she marked? Do you think that’s why the vine didn’t harm her?”
    Pete didn’t know how to answer Aaron. “Honestly, I don’t know. God, she’s powerful, Aaron. She just threw me across the room like I weighed nothing, and she did something to the two wolves with me. I threw a power ball at her and she ended up on the pavement below my room. She’s still alive, but I can’t feed her. I…she hurt me. Not badly, but enough that I’m a little weak but all right. There’s something about her, Aaron. I need someone here to heal her before she dies.”
    She felt Aaron’s comfort and strength as he sent it to her. “Let me see what I can do. Just wait for a few minutes, all right?” Pete could feel when another person of strength and magic entered the conversation, and wondered about it.

    Pete didn’t answer about the sigil, hers or the woman’s. Pete didn’t know why hers didn’t hurt the woman, and she had no idea if the girl had one or not. This was a very strange night, she decided.
    Pete was a wood nymph and she was marked as such. Her mother, part Fae, had mated with a nymph and Pete had been born of that union. Pete’s mark had protected her and Dominic, her mate, when they had needed it, but it hadn’t with the girl.
    The vine, a beautiful work of art of thick ivy, covered most of her body and down her arms and legs. Pete’s face was covered in green leaves and looked like a very well done tattoo to humans and some beings alike. Whenever Pete or Dominic had become threatened, the vines would cover them protectively and hurt, even kill those that caused them harm.
    “Tristan can materialize anywhere over long distances. I can only manage short hops and it will take too long for me to get there,” Aaron told her. “ He is leaving now.”
    “Thank you, master. I will explain when I get back home. Please tell Dominic that I’ll be there soon and that I’m all right.”
    Pete felt him laugh. “I’ll try, young lady, but you had better be bringing him back something naughty to appease him with. You know how he can be.”
    Pete snorted. All the vamps she knew, and some wolves, were very worrisome. She wouldn’t be surprised if they all met her at the airport.
    ~~~
    To say Pete was surprised would have been an understatement, if the look on her face was any indication, Tristan thought. One minute she was begging Aaron for help, the next there stood a strange vampire in her room. Tristan was slightly surprised to find the woman looking so pale.
    “Oh thank goodness, she’s down here,” Pete said in way of greeting. “I hit her with a power ball and knocked her out the door. The ball goes to what I want it to, and will track. And since she didn’t have the good sense to just cooperate with me in the first place, when she ran in front of the door, bang! The sucker got her.”
    Pete was moving at vampire speed down the stairs toward the back of the hotel. Tristan was close behind. Pete was babbling, but it was a nervous babble, one that said she was scared that he might not be able to save her. Tristan didn’t know why this injured woman was so important to them, but he would do what he could.
    Tristan stopped ten feet from the girl who lay broken on the grass. He could smell her blood and feel her immense pain. She was breathing, but just barely. Her pulse had slowed and