Retribution by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page B

sexy and even scarier than the coyotes had been.
    He was also fanged.
    And now all the men were staring at her, making her extremely uncomfortable and self-conscious. She felt like a mouse surrounded by hungry cats who were taking odds on who would be the first to pounce.
    “Do you comprehend the gravity of your situation, my dear?” Choo Co La Tah asked her.
    She did. But that didn’t stop one cold, hard fact. “I don’t want to die.”
    There was no sympathy in the old man’s gaze. “As the Duwamish would say, there is no death, only a change of worlds.”
    “I like this world.”
    “Then you should have thought of that before you took the life of Old Bear. I can assure you, even at his advanced age, he didn’t want to change realms either. And he’s only one of many you have killed who never once harmed you.”
    Her anger snapped at that. How dare he patronize her—something that was made even more pronounced by his accent and proper tone.
    She hadn’t stalked innocent people like some deranged serial killer. She was an avenger who was tallying a sickening score started by the true villains in all of this. “The Dark-Hunters have hunted my people for centuries.”
    “Your people, madam, are human  … most of them qualify for that term, anyway. They are the ones the Dark-Hunters strive to protect.”
    “Yeah, right. They …” Her words broke off as images flashed in her mind. She heard countless humans begging for mercy as they were attacked.
    Not by Dark-Hunters.
    By Apollites who’d killed them so that they could take their human souls and feed on them and live past their twenty-seventh birthday—just as Sundown had told her. The horror of it slapped her hard as their screams resonated through her skull.
    It couldn’t be.
    She shook her head in denial. “You planted those images in my head. They’re not real.”
    Choo Co La Tah sighed. “My people have a saying. Kirha tahanahna ditari sukenah. To deny the presence of the sun doesn’t escape its blister. I admire your loyalty. But sometimes you have to face the truth, even when it hurts.”
    No, she didn’t. Because if he was right, if those images were the truth, then she was wrong on a level so profound that it made her sick. It would mean she’d done horrendous things to people who didn’t deserve it.
    People who’d been protecting the innocent from predators.
    And if that was the case, she wasn’t sure if she could live with herself.
    I’m not a predator. I’m a protector.
    Choo Co La Tah’s eyes were filled with compassion. “I feel your pain, child. But you should have studied Confucius.”
    She frowned at his words. “How so?”
    “Had you taken the time to learn his wisdom instead of war, you would have known that before you start down the road to revenge, dig two graves.”
    She bristled at that. “You don’t understand.”
    “There you are quite wrong. Shamefully, all of us have wanted revenge on someone at some point for something. I’ve lived since before man and buffalo roamed this small planet. I have survived the beginning, bloom, and death of countless enemies, civilizations, and people. And the one truth I have learned most during all of these centuries is the old Japanese proverb. If you sit by the river long enough, you will see the body of your enemy float by.”
    That made her temper boil over. He made it sound so simple. But he was wrong, and she knew it. “Even if he’s immortal?”
    “Especially then. To quote the Tsalagi, you should never allow your yesterday to use up too much of today. The past is gone and tomorrow is at best a maybe. Live for this moment because it may be all you’ll ever have.”
    She curled her lip in disgust. His pithy phrases were easy to spout, but living with her amount of pain was another story. And seeing your parents slaughtered was something no one got over. Ever. “What are you? A fortune cookie writer?”
    The Native American Dark-Hunter started forward, but Choo Co La