The Seducer (Men of the North Book 4)

by Elin Peer

  “But why would they allow computer programs like that to begin with?”

  “We don’t know for sure. Humanity has always been curious by nature. We suspect that they were more occupied by seeing what they could invent instead of asking themselves if they should.”

  I wasn’t sure why she was telling me all this, but I liked her soft voice and the way she spoke to me as if I was an adult. Being twelve, I hated it when people spoke as if I was slow-thinking, just because I was young. Samone made me feel good about myself.

  “You may wonder why I am talking to you about all of this,” she said as if she had read my mind. “But it’s simply to underline how history has shown us that humans are capable of doing horrible things to themselves and others. That’s why our leaders in the Council are chosen with great care from among those who exhibit high morals and integrity.”

  “You want me to become a Council member?”

  “No.” She smiled. “I’m here to talk to you about becoming a priestess, like me.”

  My eyes flew to her tattoos and I smiled.

  “Just like Council members, priestesses are chosen as children too. While Council members learn about laws and human rights, we have a different focus.”

  I tilted my head, listening with full attention.

  “Our real title is spiritual counselors, but people kept referring to us as priestesses and somewhere along the way we adopted that title, although it isn’t very accurate since we don’t practice religion,” Samone pointed out.

  “What is religion?” I asked.

  “That’s a good question,” she said and leaned back. “It’s a doctrine that prescribes a way of living built on rituals created to give a sense of security.”

  “I don’t understand,” I admitted, but Samone just smiled patiently and explained. “In the olden days people would live their lives depending on which religion they were born into. Some had rituals that included when and what to eat, what clothes to wear, how often to pray, who to socialize with, and who to marry. Often the priests would tell horrible stories about awful things that would happen if people broke these traditions.”

  “Was it true?” I asked with a small frown.

  “No, but it was a way for the priests to gain control, and unfortunately it divided people because every religion claimed to be the right one, and the others to be wrong.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “That’s silly.”

  Samone nodded. “Yes. Some believers were extreme and killed people in the name of their religion. Others broke free and became agnostics who claimed neither faith nor disbelief in a God. Or they became atheists who dismissed religion and swore by science only.” She angled her head with a sad expression. “Many atheists were just as divisive and some were even arrogant because they saw themselves as superior to the religious believers, whom they called degrading names.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “Mostly they saw religious people as naïve and mindless sheep. Today we don’t judge that harshly.” Samone smiled at me. “We understand that there were many beautiful parts of religion that people enjoyed, such as a strong community and a sense of connection.” She paused and looked at me. “That was the part that people missed when all religions were banned after the war.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I waited for her to continue.

  “The thing is…” Samone sighed. “When you study religion you’ll see that there is a pattern. No, let me phrase it in a different way. There’s a root. It’s almost like a message was delivered to humanity and it became the foundation of all religions before it was shaped by different agendas.”

  I sat up straighter. “What was that message?”

  Samone smiled again. “Kindness and love.” Lifting her hand, she tucked a strand of my red hair behind my ear. “The Christians said, ‘In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you,’ the Buddhists said, ‘Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful,’ the Hindus said, ‘This is the sum of duty, do not do to others what would cause pain to you.” Samone looked up as if to remember. “And the Muslims said ‘Wish for others what you wish for yourself.” She looked at me with a serious expression. “It’s the same in all religions, but maybe my favorite is from Judaism where a prophet said, ‘What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbors; this is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary.’”

  “What is the Torah?”

  “A religious rule book that offered comfort to the believers of that faith. The Christians had a book they called the Bible, the Muslims called their book the Koran.”

  “I see.”

  “Athena, people have a need for connection and community. That will never change. Modern people don’t live by religious ideas anymore. That doesn’t mean we are better than the ones who did. You have to remember what drew people to religion in the first place was always the core message about kindness and love.

  “If you choose to become a priestess, you’ll have to carry that message in your heart and take on a destiny of servicing people when they are in need of guidance. I will teach you everything I know, and some day you will pass it on.”

  I nodded with eagerness, thinking that the way this woman radiated kindness and beauty, she was everything I wanted to be.

  “Take some time to think about it,” she insisted. “It’s not easy to put your own needs aside.”

  The sound of a distant male voice had me looking up. “I need you, Athena. Come back to me, come on, baby, wake up.” I knew that voice but I couldn’t place it.

  “Did you hear that?” I asked Samone, but my voice had changed, and looking down at my body, I saw I was no longer a child. “What’s going on?” I asked with confusion, staring at my hand.

  “As I said, you have a decision to make.” A wrinkled hand stroked mine. Looking up I saw Samone had aged too. Still beautiful and radiant, her eyes shone with love for me, and it released powerful emotions of my own.

  “I need you, Athena.” The masculine voice was pleading, but there was no one here but Samone and me. I looked around. Besides the stone bench that Samone and I sat on, there was nothing. Just whiteness as far as the eye could see.

  “Why did you choose this setting?” I asked because virtual reality had so many nice options.

  “This isn’t virtual reality,” Samone said with a chuckle.

  “Then where are we?” I asked, my brows drawn together with great empathy for the man’s obvious distress.

  “At a crossroad,” Samone spoke in an unhurried manner. “Where you go from here will be determined by the decision you make.”

  “I love you, Athena, do you hear me?” The man’s voice was loud and clear this time.

  A warm feeling spread in my body, and the familiarity grew stronger. “I know him.”

  Samone stood up from the bench, and reached her hands out to me. “So what is it going to be?”

  Shaking my head with confusion, I took her hands and said, “I’m already a priestess; I made that choice as a child.”

  “Sometimes we have to choose a path more than once in our lives,” Samone said. “No one will judge you if you give up now. I did.”

  “You didn’t give up, Samone, you…” I blinked as my memory returned. “You died.” As soon as I said the words, my eyes darted around again, taking in the whiteness. My eyes filled with tears, and the grief that had consumed me when I lost her made me press both my hands to my heart. “Samone,” I said in a thick voice and flung my arms around her. “Oh, Samone, I’ve missed you so much.”

  She was taller than me, and held me in her arms while she stroked my hair in that maternal way of hers. “I’ve missed you too, my love.”

  I didn’t want to let go of her. “You taught me so much,” I muttered against her chest.

  “I did; it was my privilege to train you, and see the wise woman you became. I invited you to train with me. Now your next trainer is asking you to make a choice.”

  She looked up as the male voice sou
nded again. “Athena, baby, come on, open your eyes for me.”

  “Finn!” Laughter erupted from my insides. It was so good to hear his deep voice again.

  “Sounds like your trainer is calling you,” Samone said, but that just made me laugh more.

  “I think this is the first time that you got something wrong, Samone. Finn isn’t a spiritual teacher. He’s an annoying, self-confident, and traumatized Nman.” My smile widened.

  Samone stroked my cheek. “The best trainers are the ones that push you. I have a feeling that this man will test every part of your patience and tolerance, and if you let him he will make you an even better person.”

  “Finn?” I asked in disbelief, but Samone just leaned in and placed a kiss on my forehead.

  “It’s time to choose,” she whispered.

  “Athena, do you hear me, your pulse is really weak. I need you to fight, baby. Come back to me. I love you.”

  “He loves me,” I said with my body tingling from the warmth that spread from head to toe.

  Using a singsong voice, Samone said, “That’s a powerful invitation.”

  I gave her a wide smile, and put words to the truth in my heart. “I love him too.”

  Her smile was one of satisfaction. “You have made your choice.”

  CHAPTER 28

  Destruction

  Finn

  I sat for a small eternity inside Magni’s drone with Athena’s unconscious body in my lap. Her complexion was getting healthier, but her pulse was still dangerously low.

  I kept checking to see if she was breathing, while caressing her, and calling her back from wherever she was.

  “Athena, come on baby. Wake up.”

  The tiny flicker of her eyelashes made me raise my voice and cup her face with my right hand. “That’s it, you can do it, just open your eyes for me.”

  Her eyelids remained closed but moved with her eyeballs rolling from side to side.

  “That’s right, open your eyes, and look at me,” I instructed in an eager voice, and drew a huge sigh of relief when she finally did.

  As if I were a homesick toddler, my eyes wouldn’t stop leaking as I squeezed Athena’s body tight against my own.

  She mumbled something inaudible against my chest, and I released her a bit. “What was that?” I asked her.

  “You love me,” she whispered before her eyelids flickered and closed again.

  “No, no, no, you stay right here,” I ordered, using my thumb to open her eyelids again. “You’re damn right I love you,” I exclaimed with my nose itching from all the crying.

  Athena was struggling to come back to the surface, her eyes rolling back and her body still limp. I kept coaxing her until she was fully conscious.

  “You’re my spiritual teacher,” she muttered.

  “Your spiritual teacher?” I repeated as my hands flew to her head again. I had already searched her scalp for bumps but there was nothing. “Did you hit your head?” I asked with great concern.

  “You’re my spiritual teacher and you’ll make me a better person,” she mumbled in a raspy voice.

  “You’re confused.” I smiled a little. “You’re already the best person I know. There’s nothing spiritual about me. I’m just a big brute, remember?”

  “Uhmm.” She nodded a little.

  “I’m the guy who can’t take anything seriously, and who you send outside in the snow because I say the wrong things.”

  Athena squeezed my hand and locked eyes with me. “Was it an earthquake?”

  “Yes, a big one. I came as soon as I could, but it took a while because I was up at the border. Thank God I had Magni’s hybrid or you would have bled to death before I got here.”

  Athena moved her head carefully to look around. “I remember this drone,” she said, and it made sense because Magni had used his drone for some of the journey when he kidnapped her.

  “What’s that?” she asked, her eyes looking down at the donor unit.

  “You had a bad cut on your leg and you lost a lot of blood,” I explained and carefully removed the needles from our arms. “You should be fine now.”

  “I can’t believe that you are here.” Athena whispered and licked her dry lips. “I thought you were going home.”

  “I was. Hans and I were at the border when the earthquake happened and everything turned into chao–”

  “Wait,” she cut me off, eyes wide open. “Is Hans okay?”

  “Yes, don’t worry about him. No one had any severe injuries. It was mostly structural damage to the border.”

  She tilted her head. “What do you mean structural damage?”

  “I mean I could see through to the Northlands. There were literally pieces of the border missing.”

  She widened her eyes and exhaled through her nose. “That’s not good.”

  Caressing her face, I smiled. “Maybe it will speed up the integration between our countries. All I care about right now is keeping you safe.”

  A gasp escaped Athena. “Oh Mother Nature, Karina and the children. Are they all right?”

  “Easy,” I warned when she tried to sit up.

  “Do you know?”

  “No. I came straight here for you.”

  Sitting up and brushing her hair back, she pointed to the cockpit. “Please tell the drone to take us to their family unit.”

  “What about your leg?” I asked. “I don’t want you moving around on that injury.”

  She frowned and looked down. “It doesn’t hurt much.”

  I signaled for her to take a seat and strapped her in. “That’s because I pumped you up on painkillers.”

  “Finn,” she said in a pleading voice. “Karina and the children might be hurt.”

  She was right. I had flown over this area on my way here and seen the destruction.

  “Let’s go!” I said and got in my own seat.

  Athena started crying as we flew over the area, pointing to collapsed houses and mentioning names of people I didn’t know. She wanted to check in on all of them but I made her go to Karina’s house first.

  It was hard to understand that this was the family unit that we had visited last week. Three of the walls had collapsed and everything was in a shamble.

  With an arm around her waist, I supported Athena from the drone. A group of people stood huddled together inside the ruins, their heads bowed.

  “What happened?” Athena cried out, limping toward them with my help.

  They turned, and I was relieved to see Tristan between Karina and another woman I hadn’t seen before. Their faces were all gray from dust, and dark lines revealed that they had cried.

  “She’s dead.” Karina’s face cracked into a sob that had her shoulders bobbing up and down. Marita was in her arms and the baby began crying with her mother.

  “Who’s dead?” Athena exclaimed and looked down to the person that the group had been gathered around.

  “Jo…Joseline,” Karina stammered between the sobs, and was comforted by the woman I hadn’t met before.

  Tristan looked at me and with a sad voice he explained. “Joseline was one of the mothers at the family unit where Karina grew up. She was visiting us for a few days.”

  Part of the older woman’s body was covered in the rubble from the wall. I didn’t need to examine her closer to see that she had passed on. “Did anyone else get hurt?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Tristan pointed ahead to another group of people. “Martin, is keeping the younger children away from Joselin’s body. Some of them have cuts and scratches. Samuel might’ve broken his arm, I’m not sure.”

  “Did any of you get hit in the head?”

  “Yes, Martin did and he threw up before.” Karina was hard to understand because of all the crying.

  “Look, the hospitals are probably overflowing at this point,” I pointed out. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  I treated several of the children for minor injuries. The only man in the family unit, Martin, had a concussion and was pale. I gave instruc
tions to some of the older children on how to care for him. My last patient was Samuel who insisted his arm was broken. It wasn’t. He was in shock and cried a lot, so I took time to comfort the boy and distract him a little from the horrible situation they were in now that their home was destroyed.

  Later, when I saw Athena, Karina, and Tristan working to remove all the debris from the dead woman, I hurried back to them.

  “Here, let me do that.” I made sure Athena sat down and rested her leg. “What were you thinking?”

  “What’s wrong with your leg?” Karina asked Athena. “You don’t look too good, and you’re limping.”

  “I’m fine. You’ve got enough to worry about with your house being destroyed.”

  With empty eyes, Karina glanced over the rubble. “A few hours ago we were all fine. Now our lives are completely changed.”

  Tristan and I worked together to pull the dead woman free. Karina kneeled down next to her and with tears running down her cheeks, she stroked the old woman’s hair and whispered soft words of love.

  “Randa Christine, where will you go?” Athena asked the woman I hadn’t been introduced to yet.

  “Martin’s mom lives two hours east of here, and he already spoke to her. Her house wasn’t affected and she has offered to take us all in.”

  “I don’t want to go there,” Tristan objected and turned to us. “Can I stay with you, Athena?”

  “I’m afraid my mill was destroyed too.” Athena sighed and rested her body against mine. She looked fatigued, and I made a quick decision.

  “I’m taking Athena home with me for a few days.”

  They all looked at me in surprise.

  “Can I come too?” Tristan asked at the same time as Athena protested going.

  “I need to stay here with my people,” she said in a weak voice.

  Giving her my most determined look, I nodded toward her leg. “You can come back when you’re healed. Until then you’re no help to anyone.”

  “So can I come?” Tristan asked again, and turned to the woman next to him, who was already arguing against it.

  “But, Mom, it’s just for a few days, and you know I really want to go.”

  “Tristan is welcome to come with us,” I assured her. “I understand that you would be worried but I’m a doctor and I take full responsibility for him.”