Tempted By Fate

by Cynthia Eden

  She wasn’t happy any longer.

  His hand flew out and locked around her arm. The silver chains were still around her wrists.

  “I should have mentioned my no touching rule first,” she muttered, frowning at him.

  He stared at her arm. “You were hurt.” The wound hadn’t healed, not completely, not yet. He could see the red slash that went across her lower arm. A slash that had come when a bullet grazed her tender skin.

  “It’s not a big deal. I just don’t heal as fast as you do. We both know I’ll be fine.”

  She’d be fine and those who took her would be dead.

  He noticed then that her hand was clenched—her fingers were fisted around something. He turned her hand over and her palm opened.

  “Thought you might want these,” she said. Blood-covered bullets were in her hand. “They’re not normal bullets. Normal bullets wouldn’t do much to you, right?”

  “No, they wouldn’t.” He took the bullets from her. They were heavy and oddly warm to the touch. Leo tightened his fist around the bullets and he squeezed, crushing the bullets until only dust remained. Then he lifted his hand toward his nose and inhaled… “Angel feathers.”

  “What?”

  “The bullets are made from angel feathers.” An angel’s feathers were rich with power, and those jerks had used that power…to attack me. He opened his hand, and the dust flew away in the breeze.

  “Those weren’t angels,” she announced with a firm nod. “I saw one of them transform into the shape of a panther. Angels can’t shift like that. Their wings looked like angel wings, though.” A faint line appeared between her delicate brows. “And they were using me as bait. They wanted to lure you to that place. They wanted to kill you.”

  He gave a bitter laugh. “Good thing I’m so hard to kill.” Leo didn’t think his enemies had been angels, either, but they’d taken feathers from an angel in order to make their weapons. Another sin against them.

  “You’re hard to kill, yes, but you can die.” She pulled her hand away from him. “We both know that.”

  “We both know that the only way I die is at my brother’s hand.” He wanted to touch her again. Wanted it so badly. He ached just staring at her. She didn’t understand what all the long centuries had been like for him.

  And what if she had disappeared while he’d been unconscious on the ground? What the hell would he have done then? “You…didn’t leave me.” He edged closer.

  She stiffened. “It’s not what you think.”

  “You dug the bullets out. Trust me, I’m grateful. But then you stayed.” A slow smile curved his lips. “You stayed for me.”

  Spots of red color flared on her cheeks. “You were unconscious on the ground. For all I knew, those winged jerks were going to swoop in and grab you.”

  “You stayed to protect me.”

  She gave a rough laugh. “We both know my magic isn’t the most helpful in terms of physical confrontations.” She lifted her wrists and the broken chains dangled and clinked. “I couldn’t even get out of these.”

  His fingers curled around the chain on her right wrist. With one pull, he shattered that silver.

  She swallowed. “I am not impressed by your strength.”

  He took her left wrist. A hard jerk had the chain breaking apart.

  “I do not think it’s sexy,” she added.

  A rumble of laughter came out of him. “I have so fucking missed you.”

  Fear flashed on her face. Instantly, his laughter vanished. He swung around, putting his body in front of hers while he searched for danger. But no one was there. They were alone—in the middle of pretty much nowhere. He’d flown as far as he could during the dark, and then he’d dropped from the sky when he’d lost too much blood.

  “You said that before,” she whispered from behind him. “But I thought you were just delusional.”

  He looked back at her.

  She gave another nod. “I still think you’re delusional. You didn’t miss me, not really. I think…I think it just pissed you off that I’d gotten away. That I vanished.”

  He turned to fully face her. He didn’t like being out in the open, and he was about to get them the hell away from that place, but first… “Pissed doesn’t begin to cover the way I felt when I couldn’t find you.”

  She slipped back, but a tree was behind her, so there was no room for her to retreat too far.

  His hands closed around her shoulders. “I nearly tore this world apart for you.”

  “Ego.” She shook her head. “You couldn’t stand that I—”

  “You mattered.”

  Her lower lip trembled. “Liar.”

  Not to her. He’d vowed never to lie to her again.

  “Look, I have no clue where I am, okay? Just take me to my bar. Or rather…take me back to whatever the hell is left of Resurrection. Then we can go our separate ways.”

  His gaze was on her lower lip. The trembling lip. “You still care.”

  “I care about a lot of things. I care about little kids and puppy dogs and moody teens. I care about too many things. I’m Fate, remember? Caring is part of the massive load I carry on a daily basis.”

  “No. You care about me. That’s why you dug the bullets out. That’s why you stayed to protect me.”

  She didn’t speak.

  And he realized that all wasn’t lost. Not yet. There was still hope.

  Because there was…Fate.

  His head lowered toward her.

  Mora’s hands immediately flew up and pressed to his chest. “What are you doing?”

  “Kissing you.” Technically, he wasn’t, not yet, but he would be kissing her, soon.

  “No. Absolutely not. Take me to Resurrection, now.”

  Fear quivered in her words. He hated that she feared him. Everyone else feared him. Mora had once been different.

  “They wanted to use me as bait. The redhead—he was the ring leader. And whoever that jerk was—didn’t exactly catch his name—he was planning to torture me. No, I didn’t look into his future to figure that shit out. The guy just told me. Not like I could use my power on him, anyway, not with him using silver to bind me. The SOB was using the old, let’s-hurt-the-girl routine to get at the guy. I hate that routine, and I am not going to be part of your war.” She exhaled. “Take me back to Resurrection.”

  “I’ll have to fly you back.”

  “Whatever. Just do it.”

  “You’ll have to put your arms around me.”

  Jaw tight, she inched closer to him. Her breasts brushed against his chest as her hands rose to circle his shoulders. Arousal flooded through his body. He’d had more lovers than he could count in his very long life, but when he closed his eyes at night…

  Her face was the only one he ever remembered. Her body was the only one he craved.

  She didn’t get just how fully she’d marked him so long ago.

  Mostly because she seemed to only remember his betrayal.

  “I’ll need to carry you.” His voice had deepened. That happened when he got aroused. The slant of her eyes told him she knew that fact. She remembered. Leo cleared his throat. “It’s easier to fly that way.”

  “Carry me. Just…do it, okay? But don’t enjoy it.”

  Impossible. Carefully, he lifted her into his arms. And Leo finally eased out a full breath. His heart wasn’t racing. Tension wasn’t gripping him. Peace—as close as he ever came to the feeling, anyway—swept through him. Mora did that. She’d always calmed the beast he worked so hard to keep chained inside.

  Most didn’t know about his beast. They thought his brother, Luke, was the one who held the terrible monster inside of himself. When Luke let his control go, his brother fully transformed. Not into a wolf or a panther or any of the typical shifted beasts.

  Luke became a dragon.

  And since Leo and Luke were twins…I become the same thing. His beast was just as powerful as Luke’s and just as dangerous. Usually, Leo had to fight that beast, almost every
single moment. But not when Mora was near.

  He swept high into the air, and Leo let his wings break from his back. He could control his shift, and he didn’t have to transform fully. He could just use the dragon’s wings to fly without the rest of his body changing. The wings beat against the air around him and took him higher and higher.

  “Humans have to see you,” Mora murmured. Her arms were still looped around his neck. “I mean, you’re flying in broad daylight. Don’t they ever just look up and see you?”

  “I cloak myself from their eyes.” Occasionally, he’d get sloppy and forget to use that magic, but humans were such interesting creatures. If they saw something that didn’t coincide with their versions of reality, then they tended to ignore the object—or creature—right before their eyes. They were very helpful to him that way.

  “Are you cloaking me from their eyes? Or does it just look as if a woman is flying through the air?”

  He stared down at her. “I will protect you from them. I will protect you from everything.”

  Her hold tightened a bit on him. “I get the feeling you aren’t talking just about humans, are you? It’s those guys from last night. You think they’ll come after me again.”

  He did. He also thought… “I’ll kill them.”

  Her gaze searched his. “Since when does the Lord of the Light speak so easily about killing?”

  “Since they threatened you.”

  She looked away and didn’t speak again, not until he lowered them to the ground, right outside of the charred remains that had once been Resurrection. Very little was left of the place—the flames had obviously burned hell-hot. He saw two blackened walls that were still standing…and plenty of ash. So much ash, drifting in the wind.

  “It’s gone.” She’d pulled away from him the minute her feet touched the ground. Now Mora hugged herself as she stared at what had once been her bar. “In one night, the whole life I’d built for myself is just…gone.”

  I can build it again for you. I can give you anything you want. His hand rose and curled around her shoulder. “Mora—”

  She knocked his hand aside as she spun toward him. “You did this.”

  Leo blinked.

  “You brought your danger to me. The men who took me last night—they must be the same ones who set Resurrection on fire. You led them to my door and this…” Her hand gestured behind him. “This is what’s left. Bait. That’s what I am. Something to hurt you.” Then she laughed. “A crazy idea, of course, as if you’d care what happened to me.”

  I care more than you think. “There is nothing here for you.” His voice was flat and cold, and he knew he was saying the wrong words, but Leo couldn’t help himself. With Mora, everything always came out wrong. “I showed you this place, now we should leave. You can scry for me, and see if my fate has changed.”

  She swiped at her cheek.

  Instantly, the wind seemed to quiet. The sun seemed to dim. His heart slowed.

  Mora…was crying?

  “If I scry for you, will you leave me alone?” Her words were so soft.

  No. But since he didn’t want to lie, Leo kept his mouth closed.

  Voice still low, she said, “I don’t want to be in your war.”

  He understood that but…His hand lifted and his fingers carefully brushed over her cheek—catching the tear drop there. “It’s too late for that. The fools who hurt you will pay.”

  “I don’t care about vengeance. You know Fate isn’t supposed to take sides.” Her lips twisted. “Fate isn’t supposed to feel at all. When you feel, when you realize just how much you are truly responsible for in this world, the weight of it all can crush you.”

  He stared at her. Leo wished he could take this burden from her.

  She took a step back from him. His hand fell to his side. Mora gazed at him and said, “You hunted me so that you could see if your future had changed.”

  “You change things, I’ve seen it happen. You alter—”

  “You’ve seen, but you don’t understand.”

  “Then make me understand.” Frustration boiled through him.

  “Fine. This is how it works. I save one person. Wonderful. Great. Fabulous. But by saving that one individual, I alter the lives of a dozen more. For every action, there is a reaction—often a deadly one. I think I’m helping one child, but then I end up hurting a dozen other humans in his place. There is always a price for the things I do. And when I change what is supposed to be…” Her breath heaved out. “That price is brutal.”

  “Mora…”

  “I saved a woman last week.” Another tear trickled down her cheek. “I…I shouldn’t have. But she was at my bar. She was having a drink and she seemed so sad. I touched her hand—” Now Mora looked at her own fingers. “With humans, it’s easy. I can touch them, and I can see what’s coming. I can do that with most paranormals, too.” Now her gaze slid to him. “Just not with you. You were a mystery that I could only unlock when I scried.”

  “What happened to the woman?” He should have let that go, Leo knew that but—

  “I told her that the man she was with would kill her. I didn’t need to see the bruises hidden under her make-up to know that she was in an abusive relationship. I saw her fate, clear as day. He was going to attack her. A jealous rage was going to overtake him, and he was going to hit her again and again until she was gone.” A sob slipped from her. “I warned her. I told her to run…and she did. She tried to hide from him by going to her sister’s house.”

  That story sounded like it had a happy ending but…

  “When her lover couldn’t find her, he lost control. His rage erupted and he attacked two of his coworkers. They are in the hospital right now, fighting to survive.”

  Shit. “What about the lover? Where is that bastard?”

  “In jail, where he killed a guard who wasn’t aware of just how dangerous Jeremy Gallows truly was.”

  Leo stepped toward her. “That isn’t your fault—”

  She laughed, and the sound tore at his heart. “Of course, it is. I’m Fate. I’m the reason everything happens, or haven’t you heard?”

  “I’ve heard that humans and paranormals have choices.” He’d clung to that truth for his whole life. “Fate is what can be, but in the end, we’re the ones who decide what actually happens. The human you warned, she had the choice to go to the cops. She could have alerted them. A different outcome could have come from your warning to her. People make the choices. You don’t control us all.”

  Her lashes fell. “You think I can scry for you, and you’ll be able to change what’s waiting.”

  “I know I can change it.”

  “So confident. Or maybe you’re just arrogant.” She still wasn’t looking at him. “And the men after you…you think you can stop them all? Kill them, and just keep right on going with your life?”

  “I’ve killed before, Mora, and I’ll do it again.”

  Her gaze rose to his. “No…remorse?” Her expression flickered, fear coming and going on her beautiful face.

  “It’s been a very long time.” His jaw clenched. “You don’t know me any longer.”

  She gave a bitter laugh. “I’m not sure I ever did.”

  Once, he would have sworn that she knew him better than any other.

  “You’re keeping secrets from me.”

  The charge was true, so Leo didn’t deny it.

  “The same way you did before. When I put my soul bare before you, but you kept your secrets so close.” She glanced away from him. “You know who those men were, don’t you?”

  “I will deal with them.” That was all he could say.

  “The sins from the past. They always come back, like ghosts, desperate to get their revenge.” Her breath expelled in a soft sigh. “I’ll scry for you, Leo. I’ll see what’s waiting. But then, I want my peace.”

  He forced his hands to unclench. “I would give you the world…”

  She shivered. “Leo…”

  He couldn’t
hold back, not any longer. Not with her. Not with her standing right in front of him and tears gleaming in her gorgeous eyes. Not with her lips trembling, not with her body shaking. Not with the one woman he wanted more than anything so close.

  Leo bounded forward. He caught her in his arms and pulled her against his body. “You know I would give you anything, if you just give yourself to me again.”

  Her eyes had widened. “L-Leo?”

  “I have hungered for you. I have longed for you. You haunt me, do you realize that?” His voice was a rasp. His heart thundered in his chest. “I wake up at night, reaching for you. But you’re not there. You’re never there.”

  “You turned me away. You left. You’re the one who betrayed me.” Anger sparked beneath the tears in her eyes. “And you dare come back to me now—”

  “Give yourself to me,” he said again. Did she know how strong his need for her had become? A desire that twisted and enthralled. One that left him desperate for her. Only her. Always. “And I will give you everything.”

  A motorcycle’s growl rumbled in the distance. Mora’s eyelids flickered. She stared at him for a moment, as if she were staring at a stranger. “You’re not the same.”

  “That’s what I’ve been telling you.”

  The growl of the motorcycle grew louder. Company was coming their way. He glanced toward the sound, wondering if it was time for another battle, but he only saw a lone rider heading in their direction. Not one of the men who’d abducted Mora but…

  Leo’s eyes narrowed. I know that man. Because the dumbass wasn’t wearing a helmet, Leo recognized the human who’d been at Resurrection when Leo first arrived. The dark-haired male who’d seemed too comfortable with Mora.

  “I’ll scry for you,” she said, and her voice drew his gaze back to her. “Because I want to see what the hell is going on with you.” Then she reached out and touched him.

  Her power is in touch. He knew that—or at least, her power usually was in her touch. When Mora put her hands on her prey, she could see the individual’s fate. What twists and turns waited. Humans were always easy for her to read. She’d told him once that paranormals took more effort.

  And she’d said that she couldn’t read me through touch at all. She’d enjoyed that about him. She’d liked not knowing what would come or so she’d said. The only way Mora had ever been able to see his future was to scry with his blood. He’d pushed her to see, so long ago. But he hadn’t liked the fate that she’d described for him.