Right of Retribution: Book 3 Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Book listing

  Chp.1

  Chp.2

  Chp.3

  Chp.4

  Chp.5

  Chp.6

  Chp.7

  Chp.8

  Chp.9

  Chp.10

  Chp.11

  Chp.12

  Chp.13

  Chp.14

  Chp.15

  Chp.16

  Chp.17

  Chp.18

  Chp.19

  Chp.20

  Chp.21

  Chp.22

  Chp.23

  Chp.24

  Chp.25

  Chp.26

  Chp.27

  Chp.28

  Chp.29

  Chp.30

  Chp.31

  Chp.32

  Chp.33

  Chp.34

  Epilogue

  Authors Note

  Right of Retribution 3

  By William D. Arand

  Copyright © 2021 William D. Arand

  Cover design © 2021 William D. Arand

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by an electronic or mechanical means - except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews - without written permission from its publisher.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2021 William D. Arand

  All rights reserved.

  Dedicated:

  To my wife, Kristin, who encouraged me in all things.

  To my son, Harrison, who’s turning into a little gamer.

  To my daughter, Amelia, who really loves to shout “Da-da!” into my ear while I sleep.

  To my family, who always told me I could write a book if I sat down and tried.

  Special Thanks to:

  Travis Ledlow

  Bill Brush

  Sarinia Phelps

  Eric Beauregard

  Evilynn Thales

  Niusha Gutierrez

  Books by William D. Arand-

  The Selfless Hero Trilogy:

  Otherlife Dreams

  Otherlife Nightmares

  Otherlife Awakenings

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Super Sales on Super Heroes Trilogy:

  Super Sales on Super Heroes 1

  Super Sales on Super Heroes 2

  Super Sales on Super Heroes 3

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Monster’s Mercy Trilogy:

  Monster’s Mercy 1

  Monster’s Mercy 2

  Monster’s Mercy 3

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Dungeon Deposed Trilogy:

  Dungeon Deposed

  Dungeon Deposed 2

  Dungeon Deposed 3

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Swing Shift Trilogy:

  Swing Shift

  Swing Shift 2

  Swing Shift 3

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Right of Retribution Trilogy:

  Right of Retribution

  Right of Retribution 2

  Books by Randi Darren-

  Wild Wastes Trilogy:

  Wild Wastes

  Wild Wastes: Eastern Expansion

  Wild Wastes: Southern Storm

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Fostering Faust Trilogy:

  Fostering Faust

  Fostering Faust 2

  Fostering Faust 3

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Remnant Trilogy:

  Remnant

  Remnant 2

  Remnant 3

  Omnibus Edition(All Three)

  Incubus Inc. Trilogy:

  Incubus Inc

  Incubus Inc 2

  Incubus Inc 3

  Cultivating Chaos:

  Cultivating Chaos

  Cultivating Chaos 2

  One

  Kneeling on the ground, with her wide, white, angelic wings covering her, the woman continued to sob loudly.

  Warner didn’t really know what to say or how to continue. His mind had already gone through a great deal in the last day and this was too much for him.

  The wings slowly parted and Warner once again saw the woman who had appeared on the plane of Retribution.

  She had black hair, wide green eyes, and was very well put together in the hips, waist, and chest departments.

  Not to mention, she was strikingly pretty.

  She was unfortunately wearing nothing more than a hospital gown. Otherwise, there wasn’t a stitch of clothing on her person, which could be good or bad, depending on your point of view.

  Blood was liberally splattered across the gown and covered it down to the hem. One half of a pair of handcuffs with a broken link at the end dangled from her wrist.

  To Warner, it looked as if she’d jerked her arm away with enough force to shear the metal apart from the strength of it.

  “Why?” she asked in a whimper. “Why’d you do this to me? I just… I was just working there. I didn’t hurt anyone. Not really. I just did my job.

  “I don’t even know what I am anymore. What’d you turn me into? What’d you convert me into?”

  “You’re an Angelic being. More than a Nephilim, less than an Archangel,” said the first spirit of the plane.

  “A very strong Angelic being. She could easily battle the Swordsinger with a little training and practice,” added the second voice.

  “Not to mention her beauty, don’t forget that,” finished the third, who seemed to have a different priority.

  “Warner, just bring her home. I’ll have a room ready for her before you get here. Well, not really a room, but at least a place to sleep,” said Daria, reminding Warner that the burner phone was still against his ear. “We’ll order pizza, talk everything out, you handle Madison and Aelia, and we’ll move forward. Just like we always do.”

  “Right, yeah. Yeah,” Warner agreed.

  “Good. I love you. I’ll see you soon,” said Daria.

  “Love you too, see you soon, Tarja,” murmured Warner.

  Daria chuckled then hung up the phone.

  “—do you mean a Nephilim?” asked the woman in a growl, looking around in every direction. “I was just a Vampire. There’s no way I could be something like that.”

  “She can hear us,” said the first spirit.

  “Does that mean we should ignore her then? We’re only supposed to respond to the owner. She’s merely a tool,” replied the second spirit.

  “What owner?” the woman asked, her wings spreading out further. “And who’s a tool? I’m no tool!”

  Rising to her feet, the woman’s wings were now widespread. The white glow that surrounded her began to grow in intensity. In addition to the white, there were also a great deal of golden hues mixed in, as well as a thin line of red that circled at the edges of the power.

  “Stop!” commanded Warner in a loud voice, feeling weary and mentally exhausted.

  After having battled Warin—the previous Lord of Retribution—to the literal death, spoken to the Architect and discovered that he was indeed Fate-Smithed and of unique status, then been gifted his life back by the same being who killed him and receiving the full rights of Retribution, Redemption, and Vengeance, Warner was in no mood to listen to this argument.

  “Name?” Warner asked, pointing his burner phone at the beautiful Vampire-turned-Angel.

  “Alina,” said the woman, her mouth now fixed in a firm pout. Her full lower lip was actually sticking out and her brows were down low in a frown. “
Alina Floarea. And… don’t yell at me. I’m the victim here. Not you.”

  Warner couldn’t actually deny the truth of her words. She was correct.

  He had indeed tried to slay her. Likely for something she could have rebalanced given time.

  Then I threw up in her mouth and took her life away anyway.

  “I… you’re right,” Warner conceded with a long sigh. “You’re right, Alina. I took your life from you. I sentenced you for something that you could have probably worked off given a chance.”

  Look no further than my ex-gun-runner Aelia. Or Maddy. They’re no different at all.

  “Yeah! Yeah… you did that,” Alina said, her pout becoming less severe with an accompanying nod of her head. Her wings that had sagged with her command rose up once again. “I barely graduated high school and you took it all from me!”

  Alina shook herself once when she finished speaking, then noticed her wings and the broken handcuff on her wrist. As if she had forgotten they were there and then remembered all over again.

  “Well, I guess it isn’t all bad,” Alina grumbled, her wings slowly dropping back down to her sides. “It’s nice to be in the sun without feeling nervous about it.

  “And… uh… smashing my ex in the face. That was a lot of fun. Hehe. I literally busted his nose wide open into like… two parts.”

  Alina made a spreading motion with her fingers, splaying them apart. Her emotions were shifting far too quickly for Warner to feel comfortable. He had the feeling that she was on an incredible edge and nearly hysterical.

  Beyond even that, she was also incredibly exhausted and would likely fall asleep as soon as she laid down.

  “Let’s… take you to my home,” said Warner after a silence began to grow between them. “My wife wants to get you a place to sleep, a change of clothes, and probably put some food in you.

  “How does pizza sound? I promise you’ll be able to digest it as an Angel. Your needs will be less than a mortal’s, but also very much the same.”

  “Pizza,” said the woman in a soft voice. “Pizza without blood. Like… like when I was a kid?”

  “Mmhmm. Don’t worry about toppings. We have a hungry Troll in the house and quite a few people to feed. We order more or less three types of pizza,” promised Warner.

  Slowly, he began walking over to her.

  “Who’re… who’re you? You’re Yellow Eyes, right?” Alina asked as he came over to her.

  “That’s right. I’m Warner and I hold the Right of Retribution,” he said. Reaching out, he tapped a finger against the handcuff on her wrist. With only a splinter of power, he shattered it to nothing more than crumbled metal. The bits and pieces fell free of her wrist and clattered onto the grass.

  “I defeated Red Eyes, took a host of Valkyries as my soldiers, ended the Were-Hyena pack, decimated the Werewolves led by Remus while also killing him, cleaned out the capitol building and the Vamps that had poisoned it,” Warner said, holding Alina’s gaze. “And I did all of that in a span of a month or two.

  “With you at my side, assisting me, I think we could go a great deal more. You are indeed part of my pantheon and will be well suited to my needs.”

  Alina was gazing back at him now. A faint golden glow appeared in her irises as if responding to his words.

  Having gotten so much closer to her, he could feel the power in her. A mirror of his own and a reservoir of sorts for him. The power in her was his.

  All facets of it, in fact.

  Redemption, Retribution, and Vengeance.

  With that being true, it meant he could nearly be in two places at once as Yellow Eyes.

  “Will you help me, Alina?” Warner asked.

  “I don’t know,” she murmured, blinking twice and then breaking his gaze. “I think I want to sleep first. And eat.”

  “That’s very fair,” Warner said and then held his left hand up. With a casual twist of his wrist, he opened a portal back to his garage.

  Alina didn’t look at him, but slowly walked through the open portal.

  “Continue the collection,” Warner demanded of the spirits. “Skip the Valkyries, in case you were thinking of including them. They’re doing something else right now.”

  “Of course,” said the third spirit voice.

  “Not a concern,” agreed the second.

  “Okay,” said the first simply.

  Following Alina through the portal, Warner wasn’t really sure what to expect. He hadn’t seen anyone from his family since he’d gone full Vengeance and slaughtered a great number of people.

  He’d been on the run with Dayine ever since.

  Dayine. I need to call her and Gus and let them know I’m not really dead.

  They probably watched me die.

  Alina had stepped off to one side and was looking around the interior of his garage. Curious and concerned at the same time.

  Moving to the door that led into his home, Warner popped it open and went inside. There was no reason to linger and he figured it’d be easier for Alina that way.

  Directly in front of him were Bodil and Daria. They stood side by side and waited for him.

  “And thus he returns,” Daria said with a grin. Reaching up, she lightly tucked several strands of her pale-blond hair back behind an ear. Her gray eyes held a mischievous look to them and she seemed dressed more appropriately for going to sleep.

  “He returns with another one,” Bodil said with a disappointed slant to her mouth. Her pale-yellow hair fell unbound behind her shoulders. She was dressed in a snug nightshirt that showed off her well-endowed curves.

  “Well, he didn’t do it on purpose and Alina isn’t interested in him like that,” Daria argued, turning to look at Bodil. “Nor is Warner interested in her. No changes need to be made at all. See?”

  The Rune Reader still looked frustrated, though not nearly as much.

  “I’m… what?” Alina asked, standing just behind Warner and to the left.

  “Not interested in Warner,” Daria said, turning to speak directly to Alina now. “He has more than a few women in his love life and we’re rather guarded of what little time he has.”

  “Oh… no. Not interested. Too old for me,” Alina agreed, shaking her head. She looked tired, confused, and very unsure. Then she started to totter to one side and did a small stagger step.

  “Ah, let’s get you changed and ready for bed. After you get some pizza, you’ll go straight to bed. You’ll meet Maya and Lauren tomorrow afternoon and you’ll need your rest,” Daria said, taking Alina by the elbow. “That means sleep as soon as you’re full and that’s that. Otherwise, they’ll run you over. They may be younger than you, but they’ll not stop for anything.”

  Daria led Alina out and away, leaving Warner alone with Bodil.

  “Well,” Bodil said, crossing her arms in front of herself. “Aelia and Maddy will likely be here in an hour for… for pizza and your evening together.

  “Daria and I were just talking about what to do next when you called. And before you ask, yes, she knew you were alive. Probably before you did. It’s hard to think someone is dead when you can still see futures occurring with them, despite what the news said about the whole Yellow Eyes, Red Eyes situation.

  “It was rather fortunate that you left a burnt husk of a corpse that couldn’t be identified. Otherwise, we’d have to be doing a lot more work.”

  “Oh,” Warner said somewhat surprised. “What… uh… what’d the news show, exactly?”

  “Four Angels, fighting. One that looked like Yellow Eyes, but White,” said Bodil, slowly tilting her head to one side as she watched him. “One that was Red, one that was Blue, and one that was Gray. It was a very strange thing to watch on the news.

  “It would appear… that the Para world is being forced into the world’s view regardless of what anyone actually wants right now.

  “Your fight… it was too big to hide. Too much to block and keep out of the public’s view. Too many witnesses, too many cameras, cell phones, t
oo much everything.”

  Warner was very surprised by that news. Surprised and not really sure how to respond to it. As far as he knew, the world as a whole had been struggling to keep the Para world completely submerged and unseen.

  “Right? It’s surprising,” said Bodil with a beautiful frown. “Though… I was… very… upset when you died. Very upset. I didn’t even— there was no time to— well… well, Daria was there thankfully so I found out quickly. She made sure everyone was aware that you weren’t dead. Though Maya is still plenty angry.”

  “Wait… you’re… talking like this happened a bit ago. Didn’t this just happen like an hour or two ago?” asked Warner. “And… I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to die, or anything. I was trying to protect everyone.”

  “It was a day ago. It’s been twenty-four hours, give or take,” answered Bodil and then shook her head angrily. As if she didn’t want to agree with him at all. “You shall not make me a widow before you wed and name me, Warner James. I will call your spirit back from the other side if I have to, just to punish you.”

  A memory from not long ago floated up in Warner’s thoughts. One when she’d requested a very serious demand of him when she was in a place of fear and insecurity.

  “Bodil James, I will care for you to the best of my ability. I shall endeavor to treat you kindly and with love, Bodil James. To you, Bodil James, I will promise to ensure your safety and well-being,” Warner said in firm triplicate. It’d been something she’d asked him to do, but he’d never had the chance to do so.

  The resounding clack of fate settling over him was like a mantle made of gold. It was so heavy that Warner felt as if the sky itself had fallen upon him.

  Bodil took a step toward him and laid a hand on his shoulder. Her fingers dug into him and he could feel her hanging onto him.

  “I know... I know I asked for that, even if I now wish I hadn’t,” Bodil said in a whisper. Her voice had a tremor to it, as well. “But if I ever doubted my fate in any way, that certainly cleared it up in that moment and… and I think I need to take you away. Now. Before Aelia and Maddy get here and take you for themselves.”