Until Death We Do Part

Dark-Hunter Series - Book 18

Short Story in Love At First Bite Anthology

By Sherrilyn Kenyon

St. Martin's Press - October 2006


Once, Esperetta had loved her husband fiercely. He had rescued her, and she had thought he had loved her too. Until she learned he had deceived her. He had brutally killed her father. He had used black magic to bind her to him, and as long as he lived, she lived. Since he had given his soul for vengeance and was a Dark-Hunter, she too was eternal. For over five centuries, she had learned of the cruelties he purposely inflicted on her. He had given the story to Bram Stoker. He had perpetuated the horrible legends of her father. She would rail against him, but would never confront him. Now he had gone too far.

Over the course of five hundred years, Velkan's love and hope that Retta would return to him, had changed to hatred but also despair. She had run from him, and never allowed him to explain the truth. She had thrown everything he had given up in his face, and would never forgive him. After Retta returns to their homeland and him, Velkan confronts her and realizes that he feels a conflict of hate as well as love. It doesn't matter what reasons are behind her return, time has not erased the memories of their short time together. When Retta is in almost hopeless peril, Velkan knows that he cannot abandon her. She is his wife.

A reunion story does not get any better than Until Death We Do Part. The emotion is intense, both the remaining feelings of love, and the understandable bitter taste of betrayal. I had been looking forward to Velkan and Retta's story since meeting them in Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter of the Month Club, and was not disappointed in the least.

Until Death We Do Part is a short story in the Love at First Bite Anthology. This anthology also includes: Ride the Night Wind by L. A. Banks, The Gift by Susan Squires, and The Forgotten One by Ronda Thompson.

Kathy Andrico - ReaderToReader.com