Enduring Retribution e-book by Kathi S. Barton Page A

vampire was a master. Tristan nodded.
    “You have to understand something else,” Sara told him after Aaron left the study. “What I’m about to tell you is something we don’t share with anyone outside of this Kiss. I’m going to take you to the magical realm that is part of me, a part of all of us. And you will hear, see, and learn things that could very well rip apart the fabric of magic for everyone. Understand?”

    “No. No, I don’t. I don’t understand anything right now. But I…I’m willing to keep an open mind. I’ll try and keep an open mind.” Tristan shook his head. “My life was so strict, so orderly, and then I met Bailey. You know, Mrs. MacManus, I don’t think it will ever be that way again, and I find myself hoping it isn’t.”
    “Please call me Sara, and honey, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” She reached over to the wall nearest the desk and tore a hole in the air. She just opened a portal and there it was, the castle that all magic was governed from.
    Sara stepped through first and then Tristan. They were met by a company of men, the Royal Guard, she’d told him. They were there to protect her as the queen’s cousin and to escort her and Tristan to the family room.
    Tristan gaped at everything and everyone. When he looked up, there were perhaps six thousand tiny flies, but when he looked closer, he realized they were fairies. Tiny winged men and women going about their business, whatever that might be. Walking in front of him was a centaur and a smallish man and they were deep in conversation.
    “He’s a dwarf; his name is Paul. The centaur is Jakoal. They are in the Courts of Law-making area. And those aren’t fairies, they’re heather pixies.” He looked at her, startled. “Yes I can read your mind. Over here there is nothing you can shield from me.”
    “Why am I here? I don’t understand what this has to do with Bailey and me. You know something, don’t you?” Tristan wasn’t sure what he wanted to think about here, not if she could read his every thought.
    She motioned for him to precede her into the large but cozy room. There were four people already in there waiting for them.
    “This is James and Phillip and their spouses Savannah and Elizabeth. Phillip and Elizabeth are my grandparents. Mel is late, I see. Well, she is the Queen of Magic. Please have a seat.”
    Tristan remembered Bailey telling him to go to the queen of magic or something. He didn’t get a chance to remember before a tray of drinks appeared before him.
    “I understand that you are mated to the Printer. Oh my, that is amazing. What’s she like?”
    Savannah said in awe as she reached for a glass of amber liquid and took a plate of cookies.
    “Like everyone else, we all assumed that the Printer was a male. To think all this time she was a female.”
    “The Printer? I don’t understand. The hit man, that’s my Bailey? Bailey is the Printer?”
    Tristan wished he could drink alcohol and a half glass of clear liquid appeared in his hand. He looked at the woman across from him.
    “Go ahead, young man. Here you can eat food and drink something other than what you normally drink.” Tristan set the glass down with a thud. Savannah grinned as she continued.
    “Yes, Bailey, your mate, is a known assassin in our realm. We call on him…err her to help with our rogues. She was nicknamed the Printer because that is the front she uses, a print shop.”
    “When the information she needs is sent to her partner, it is sent to a print shop called Fine Printings, Inc. We use the girl quite a bit when we have a rogue that needs to be taken care of. I should have made the connection when Pete told us about the woman and Salvatore. She is good, very good,” the man called James said. “I had heard that she is a chameleon. Is that true?”
    Aaron had told Tristan about this man. James had a healthy fascination with all creatures and was working on a book to keep track of them. Pete was actually helping him,