Retribution (Book 3 of The Dominion Series) by S. E. Lund Read Free Book Online Page A

drug is so new. It's only after he is able to escape Soren's watchful eye hours later that Michel learns the drug was too powerful for a child of my size. It eats away at my longer-term memory. It almost kills me, causing my brain to swell, affecting my breathing so that I'm intubated.
    He visits me in the hospital and makes a vow then and there that he'll hide me from Soren and this life as my mother begged. He'll do whatever he can to prevent me from being brought into this world of vampire hunters and Adepts. He owes it to my mother, whose trust he couldn't help but betray.
    He vows that he'll kill Soren one day if it's the only thing he does before he dies.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    "A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years."
    Rupert Brooke
     
    "Eve, no …"
    Michel pulls out of the stupor he was in from the combination of my blood and his orgasm, but it's too late. In that strange suspension of time I experience, I'm able to relive the entire memory, even though in reality only a few seconds pass. I see enough to know that he killed my mother. That it was him who made me forget, not my own weak mind.
    " You killed her.”  I struggle beneath him, but he holds me firm. I stop fighting him and stare up at him, my vision blurry. “ You killed my mother. But how…” I search his face. "I read you in the SCU that time I was tested. I saw your last kill…"
    "I'm so sorry ," he says, panic in his voice.
    "But my journal says I read you, when you drank my blood that first time, and I almost died. I thought Soren killed my mother."
    He shakes his head.
    "Tell me!"
    Finally, he closes his eyes and exhales heavily. "I'm eight hundred years old. I know how to block someone. Control what they see."
    Numbness fills me, my body tingling as if I'm going to faint. "Have you ever once told me the truth?"
    Again, I struggle beneath him, my horror growing with each minute.
    “Eve,” Michel says. “It wasn't me. It was Soren's compulsion. I would never kill your mother. You must see that from the memory!"
    I can't even look at him, turning my head away, my emotions starting to choke me. He tries desperately to turn my face back, but I keep my eyes closed. Even his attempt to release some kind of calming hormone fails to comfort me.
    "Let me go ."
    "No," he says, "not until you understand."
    "How can I ever understand?"
    He finally rolls off me and I crawl away from him, his semen slick on my thighs. I run to the bathroom and kneel down to vomit in the toilet. He follows me and stands over me, holding my hair as I retch.
    When I'm finished, I turn around and push him away. "Leave me alone!"
    "No," he says and lifts me up, using his superior power to restrain me. His expression is almost desperate but also angry. He presses me against the wall, taking my face in his hands and I’m powerless to stop him.
    “ I didn’t kill her, ” he says. "Soren did. I was just his weapon."
    “Don’t,” I say. "How can I be with you knowing this?"
    “Eve, don't do this,” he says and turns my face back. “You're not thinking straight. You must understand I was compelled to do it."
    "You were with him."
    "I was trying to find a way to stop him."
    "I'm leaving."
    "I won't let you," he says. "I’ve paid such a high price for you. For all of this.” He waves his hand to the cottage, pointing outside to the ocean. “I can’t have you misunderstand. I can’t have you hate me.” He presses his body against mine and his voice is almost a whisper. “I can’t bear it.”
    A rush of something like Nirvana floods through me and it's so intense, I can’t keep my eyes open. All my anger and sadness dissipate and I feel nothing. When I open my eyes again, I’m staring into his blue ones, and his eyes are wet.
    “Eve, I love you. I think I’ve loved you since I saw you perform on stage in London. I know that sounds wrong, but you can’t know what it’s like to watch mortals being born, growing up,