Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2)

by Straight, Nancy

  “Renny it’s me, I need to see you right away, can I come to your house?”

  Samael’s voice was full of acid, when he said, “Remember what I told you: the Council has been trying to destroy me for millennia. If they know I am in you, you can bet they’ll murder you. Rewsna is not your friend.”

  Rewsna hesitated and asked, “Max, did you and Lauren have a fight? I tried to contact you both earlier and you are both blocking me.”

  I knew I didn’t want to keep this a secret, but I also didn’t want to spring it on her over the phone, “Yeah, we had a fight. It’s really important that I see you. Can I come over right now?”

  She didn’t answer right away, and finally said, “Max, why are you blocking me? I’m a telepath. If you just open your mind, it will save you a trip. Just show me what happened.”

  Samael’s words were quick, and I could hear his panic when he rumbled, “Max, Lauren is fine, you didn’t go to her house last night. I planted the image to torment you. Don’t tell Rewsna or we’ll both be dead!”

  I hated him. I couldn’t tell if it was the truth or a lie. It seemed so real. If anything happened to Lauren, even if Samael did it, it would be my fault. I couldn’t live like this.

  It took a little longer to answer than it should have, but I finally responded with, “I’m not blocking you intentionally. I noticed it right after you rescued me from the bank vault. I tried to communicate with you in the van on the way to your house, but you didn’t respond.”

  I could hear the skepticism in her voice when she said, “You’re doing it right now. Max, I really don’t like telephones. You never know who might be listening in.”

  Samael sounded worried, his voice nearly pleading with me, “Max, if you ever want to see Lauren again, don’t tell Rewsna anything. If Rewsna finds out about me, you will not get a second chance. You need to hang up the phone now, before she figures it out. I was in another surrogate years ago. I left before they made the connection. By the time they realized I had been hiding in him, I was long gone; it didn’t stop them. They sliced him into pieces.” Samael showed me the visual of a man in khaki trousers and a button down shirt on a dirt road with ten people all with knives approaching him.

  The man was unfamiliar to me. He stood screaming out, “He’s gone, he’s not in me anymore, he’s gone…” I watched the entire assault, the most gruesome scene I had ever seen; surprisingly, a more disturbing image than finding Lauren at our campsite after Samael’s attack.

  Back to reality, I answered, “Renny, you’re right. I think I hear Lauren pulling up in the driveway. I need to talk to her.” I hung up the phone just as Samael had instructed.

  “Okay Samael, you’ve got five minutes to convince me not to call her back. You had better make this good.”

  “It will take longer than five minutes, but I’ll be as quick as I can. The world is in perfect balance - most of the time. Lauren is very unique: she has the power to change people’s destinies. Your friend Renny contacted her when she wasn’t supposed to. Renny caused Lauren to change a person’s destiny, I believe you knew him as Paul? When she altered the course of his life, she put several things in motion that were not supposed to have occurred.”

  “The man who killed Paul was supposed to have also killed a second family. He was stopped and that family lived. They were Sylvia and Wyatt Gordon. The two are not supposed to be alive. Because their lives were not mapped beyond their own murder, the two essentially cheated death. Death has come to call on them many times since that night, and each time the two have again escaped. You may think this very lucky, but when death comes calling, someone always answers the door. Sylvia was driving late at night and death sprung out from the side of the road looking like a deer. She swerved and death took a family in a mini-van instead. One of the children in the minivan would have grown up and found a key protein that cured cancer. He and his destiny have been wiped from this earth.”

  “Rewsna likes to refer to me as the Beast.” I could hear in his voice that he liked this nickname. “The truth is, my methods may not be appreciated, but someone must make sure that destinies are not altered. I could have killed Lauren three years ago. I didn’t. I spared her life while I unscrewed all the damage she had done. She was suspended in time: she did not feel pain, or death, or anything for that matter. I needed to right the wrongs she had created before she could do any more damage. I had planned to put the destinies right, then teach Lauren not to interfere.”

  “Rewsna broke her free from my bond and told her half-truths. If you asked Lauren if she was hurt in any way, she would tell you that she never felt any pain.”

  I could feel myself believing Samael’s words, then the image of Lauren at our campsite came back and I reminded him, “You nearly shredded her body. I saw her, I was with her. She was ripped to pieces.”

  “Max, you needed to believe that it was a bear attack. It had to look convincing, so convincing, in fact, I shifted into a bear to do the assault. I can assure you I had already cut her off from her body before I did any damage, before one drop of blood was ever spilled. Lauren felt nothing.”

  I relived the attack one more time, recalling the screams that echoed to me down the mountain. The screams I still carry with me. “Ahhh, Max, your perspective of the events is much worse than Lauren’s.”

  “I don’t see how. She was the one who was left in pieces behind a bush.”

  “I gave her a choice: a quick death or a cursed life. Incidentally, she didn’t choose either. I made the assumption she would rather live. Those screams were simply the fear of what was to happen to her, not screams during my assault.” The fear I could sense in Samael’s voice while I was on the phone with Rewsna had been replaced by stony conviction. I had a tough time believing him.

  “It’s not just Renny that calls you the Beast. If you aren’t such a bad guy, why did your demons attack me and my family? Why did Lauren hide from you? If all this was for her protection, why did you target all her family and friends? I saw the marks on her neck that you put there. It looks like you tried to kill her.”

  “I can assure you, if I wanted to kill her, she would be dead. I was merely giving myself enough of a headstart to get to you before she did.”

  “What about tracking her down? Why the persistence? If you were only trying to help, you could have simply picked up the phone.”

  “Max, do you really think it’s that easy? You are a simpleton, aren’t you? Keep in mind, every encounter I have had with your precious Lauren has left me significantly weaker, so much so that I had to develop a parasitic relationship with you. You do know she tried to murder me, right?”

  “She was defending herself.”

  “Right, hiding in the bushes outside my home, ambushing me without warning, and shooting at me while I was unarmed; sounds incredibly close to self defense, doesn’t it? Luckily, she hesitated and I was able to escape. I decided not to count on luck again. She took from me my ability to see others at a distance, she is able to block me and my servants from her mind. I find Lauren to be incredibly dangerous. My only option was to seek shelter in you – the one person on earth she will never permit harm to come to.”

  His last words felt like a punch in the gut. I knew he was right, but when he said the words, I remembered how I had sent her away yesterday and how badly I had hurt her. “I want you out, I want you to leave her alone forever. I want my life back.”

  “Well, my friend, people in hell want ice water. We don’t always get what we want.”

  I picked up the phone, and he could see my action playing out before him. “No!” echoed through my head, and my hand dropped the phone involuntarily. I reached to pick it up and my fingers would not grasp it. In the last several weeks, I had experienced a bunch of new sensations, but watching my fine motor skills disappear before my eyes was terrifying. This was the first time Samael had controlled my body. Although he wasn’t making my hand do anything, he wasn’t allowing me to control it either.

 
; “Samael, you’ve spent the last few minutes trying to convince me you aren’t such a bad guy. A little advice: don’t go near Lauren, don’t control my body, and ignore my thoughts – don’t comment on them.”

  “Those are three very reasonable requests. I can abide by all three. I only ask that you not tell Rewsna or any of her friends about our little arrangement.”

  I spent the next several hours alone with my own thoughts. If Samael was listening in, he gave no hint that he was even remotely interested. I did research on the internet for demonic possessions, and he didn’t laugh or comment on any of the techniques described for exorcism. It was one o’clock before I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. I looked in the cupboards and refrigerator, and, unless I wanted to eat sweet pickles and crackers, there weren’t many other options.

  I grabbed my keys and decided to go into town for a late lunch. I stopped at Burger King and saw a customer come out in an old green army jacket. I thought of the robber who shot Lauren three years ago. A wave of sadness washed over me as my thoughts migrated from Lauren’s robber to my time in Afghanistan and the friends I had made there. I had not contacted anyone since my return. I hadn’t even watched the news to see any updates. Since I got back I had been all-consumed with Lauren.

  A little two-seater BMW drove past me in the parking lot. I did a double-take to see if it was Seth. It wasn’t. A flashback to when Lauren and I had first met, right after the shooting: Seth had given her a ride home from school. He lifted her out of his passenger seat and twirled her around in the air a few times. She looked happy and carefree. Seeing her with Seth, I had gotten crazy jealous and took off.

  Remembering that Samael could see and feel everything I could, I made my thoughts return to the war I recently left. Opening myself up too much to him couldn’t possibly be a good thing.

  I knew being alone with my thoughts was a terrible idea. I would just be opening myself up to more information for Samael. Before Lauren’s accident I had been an EMT, a pretty decent one, too. There were days that I worked so hard that I could think of nothing except my job, what I was going to eat, and how soon I could get some sleep. Given my current circumstances, getting back into that mode wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

  Instead of returning home, I drove to the Charleston emergency dispatchers’ office to see if they were as short-handed as we had been before.

  To my amazement, when I opened the door to the head honcho’s office, the man behind the desk wasn’t my old boss, but Randy Newton. “Wow, either that is the fastest promotion I’ve ever seen or you’re taking a nap in the wrong office.”

  Randy looked up from an enormous stack of papers. Recognition wasn’t immediate, but when he realized who I was, his expression was more than welcoming. “Max, I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again! What is this, old home week? Come in, sit down.”

  I was pleased that he both remembered me and wanted to hear what I had been up to. “Actually I got back to town a month ago. I was in the Navy Reserve and got activated for a year, spent it in Afghanistan. But after a month back I think I’ve watched about as much television as I can stand, so thought I’d stop by and see if there were any openings.” Actually, I hadn’t watched television hardly at all, but telling him I’d been chasing and evading a demon might have gotten me a quick boot out the door.

  Not surprisingly, I could see the relief on his face. They must still be as understaffed as I remembered. Without missing a beat, Randy asked, “How soon can you start?”

  “I need to dig my uniforms out of storage, but I think I could be ready tonight if you needed me.”

  Randy reached for his clipboard with a schedule hanging off, “Great! How many hours do you want and is there any time you can’t work?”

  “I’d like as many hours as you can give me, and I don’t mind working the eves.” Eves was what we called the 7pm to 7 am shift. “But put me wherever you need to.”

  “I could really use you tonight at 7. Are your certifications up to date?”

  “As a matter of fact, that year tour in Afghanistan as a Corpsman kept me up to date, and I have a few more quals than when I left.”

  We chatted for a little while longer before I stepped out. Randy was a guy I had met in a coffee shop with Lauren not long after she had been shot by a robber. Out of the blue Randy introduced himself and sat down with Lauren and me. By the end of our conversation, he said he wanted to volunteer to be a paramedic. I remember him being really excited at the time. I introduced him to the dispatcher the next day and then took a leave of absence a few days later. Volunteers come and go, but it turns out he made his way up the ladder from driver, to paramedic, to dispatcher and was promoted to the lead dispatcher last year.

  Randy and I finished catching each other up. I didn’t go into any great detail about myself, but he was just as talkative as he was the day I first met him. I think he would have given me a day-by-day review of everything I had missed in his life the last few years, but I told him I needed to go find my uniforms and make sure I was ready for tonight.

  I got back to the house and quickly found my old box of uniforms. They didn’t smell too musty, but I looked at the clock and decided I had time to do a quick load of laundry. I dug through other boxes I hadn’t looked through since I taped them up three years ago. I would probably need to find an apartment downtown again: nothing fancy but something close to the hospital. I could commute for a while, but it’s nearly an hour one-way from my house in Ridgeville without any traffic or accidents.

  It was 5:45 when I was showered, dressed and ready to go to work. It hit me that I hadn’t thought of Lauren much all afternoon. I hadn’t heard Samael’s voice since this morning when we made our little agreement. I had felt like the old me for the first time in longer than I could remember.

  Since my return from Afghanistan, I had been so consumed with Lauren and all the events going on that it never occurred to me that I wasn’t myself. I spent every waking moment beating myself up about either not being by her side when she woke up or my inability to protect her when Samael came after her. After what I said to Lauren last night, I don’t think I’ll see her anytime soon, and with me sharing my head with Samael, that’s definitely for the best.

  I thought back to the year I was in Afghanistan; the only thing constantly on my mind was staying alive or treating other people who had been blown up, shot, mangled or had any number of other injuries. That had been a bit of a hiatus because Lauren was on my mind, but not at the forefront, more like a dull ache that I could ignore for hours at a time. At least until there was down time in my schedule, then the thoughts of Lauren occupied my every second, and my heart throbbed with pain.

  The year before I left for war, I had spent every waking moment praying she would wake up from her coma and had slept nearly every night on a crappy couch in her room. I really hadn’t allowed myself to be me in so long, I was almost giddy tonight at the idea of doing something I loved for no other reason than it made me feel good about myself. I told myself I was going to be okay, I’d get back to the way I was before Lauren. I wouldn’t obsess about her anymore, I wouldn’t reminisce about our precious few nights together, I wouldn’t even let her enter my mind. At that thought I silently wondered if I was making this vow because I really wanted to be over her or if I didn’t want to share any part of her with Samael. It didn’t matter, my life was now my own, even if my thoughts were community property.

  My first night back at work, my new partner Dale and I responded to four calls. One was a car accident without injuries, the second was an old man who had accidently overdosed at home, the third was a mother who had suffered burns from a grease fire, and the forth was an accidental shooting . Those four calls each commanded all my attention, and, before I realized it, I had finished the paperwork and our relief showed up. Somewhere in the mix I could feel Lauren watching me. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but I was busy enough that I didn’t feel the need to savor it either.

  D
ale and I hadn’t spoken much all night, only when it was necessary to communicate with the people we were called out to assist. As we were walking to our cars after our shift, he asked, “Are you hungry? You want to go get a bite to eat?”

  I started to say no, when I realized there was no one waiting for me at the house and no reason to be in a hurry to get back. “Yeah, that sounds good. How about the Waffle House down the street?”

  It didn’t take long to see why Dale and I hadn’t talked much all night. He had the personality of a postage stamp. Nice guy, but he wasn’t going to be someone I wanted to spend my off-duty time with. As I sat across from him at the table, I saw an advertisement for a gym. I decided I would much rather be working out right now than sucking in all these carbs, trying to make conversation with Dale.

  Chapter 32

  I pulled into my driveway and the exhaustion began to set in. I had been up for twenty-six hours, and I welcomed the sleep that I would soon find. I noticed an envelope jammed in the door. I recognized the writing as Lauren’s and felt my heart begin to speed up.

  I opened the envelope and read.

  Dear Max,

  I’m not sure what happened. I realized I could either stay home and wonder or I could try to find out what I did and why you’re so mad. I see that you’ve got your old job back. Same hours as before? Call me when you get home. I really need to talk to you.

  I miss you,

  Lauren

  I crumpled up the letter and threw it in the trash. Talking to Lauren would be useless. I couldn’t share with her why I had to make her leave. I couldn’t trust myself to be near her, or rather I couldn’t trust Samael to be near her.