Retribution Read Free Page B

is cruising for us, begging us to bite them and turn them. Did I ever tell you about that time when—?”
    “Sundown,” Andy snapped. “I—”
    “You need to check that tone, boy. Remember, I used to kill people for a living, and I ain’t been up long enough to have much tolerance right about now. Knock it down a notch before I forget I’m supposed to actually like you.”
    Andy let out a long sigh. “Fine, but answer me this.”
    Dang, when had the kid turned into the Riddler? He should have curtailed all those Batman reruns when Andy was a boy.
    “Did any of those others ever come after you guys in the past leading a Daimon entourage?”
    Now, that got his attention. While it wasn’t unusual for Daimons to use humans as servants or tools from time to time, it wasn’t normal for them to follow one.
    Jess set the coffee down on the stainless steel counter. “Come again?”
    “Yeah  … this one travels in a pack of Daimons, and has been slaying every Hunter they can find. She’s taken out three here and four others in Arizona and Oklahoma.”
    Jess took a full minute to digest that. “How do you know about this?”
    “I was contacted by Tawny, who got it from her mother.” Now, to most, that’d sound bizarre. But like Andy, Tawny was a multigenerational Squire. A few thousand years back, the Squire network had been set up to provide a “normal” cover for the nocturnal Dark-Hunters during the daylight hours when they were sleeping. The Squires helped them to pass for humans, and most of all, the Squires shielded their existence from the rest of the world and took care of their day-to-day necessities so that they could focus on their job. Killing Daimons and freeing the human souls they’d stolen before those souls died and were forever lost.
    But the best part about the Squires was that some of them were Oracles who could speak directly to the gods and get information from them that the Dark-Hunters could use to track and kill Daimons.
    Tawny’s mother happened to be one of those Oracles.
    Deciphering what the gods said, however, was another matter.
    Jess leaned against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell me exactly what her mother said.”
    “She said that there’s an ill wind coming and that you should guard your back. Lionel didn’t fail to make it home before dawn. He was murdered and that his killer, a human leading a Daimon guard, was on the hunt for more of his kind.”
    Lionel was another Dark-Hunter who’d been assigned to Las Vegas. He died three nights ago, after he’d failed to make it to shelter before the sun rose—at least that was what they’d been told. Immortality had its price, and while the things that could kill them were few, those few were an ugly way to die.
    Jess rubbed his thumb against his brow. “And the gods spoke that plainly?”
    Andy hedged. “Well  … not exactly. You know how they are.”
    Yeah, they always spoke in riddles that were tougher to unknot than a two-headed cobra. “So how—?”
    “It’s taken them days to decipher it, but she swears she’s right and that you need to watch your back.”
    That, he’d been doing since the day the goddess Artemis resurrected him. Bart had tutored him well on guarding every angle of his body and staying alert no matter what or who. Jess wasn’t about to ever be a victim again.
    “Andy—”
    “Don’t Andy me. I believe her. She’s one of the best Oracles we have.”
    He was right about that. But  …
    “We all make mistakes.” And Jess had made more than his fair share.
    A tic started in Andy’s jaw. It was obvious he wanted to throttle Jess, but he knew better than to even try.
    “Fine,” he said, finally relenting on the matter. “Whatever. You’re the one they’re after, so it’s none of my business. Plenty of other Dark-Hunters to work for. They’re probably a lot less irritating, too.” Then he changed the subject entirely. “I repaired your tracker and