Thea kept her hand over his until she heard him begin to breathe normally again. Exhausted from healing him, she moved to lie back in her original position on her side of the bed, but he stopped her, grabbing her arm.
“Please don’t go.”
The anguish and sadness in his voice struck at her heart, and she let him hold her next to him. She looked up to see his face, but his eyes had shut and he’d fallen back to sleep.
Tired, she reluctantly laid her head on the only available place—his stomach—as she draped her arm over his body. Within moments, she was fast asleep on the stranger next to her in a strange place but more peaceful than she’d ever been.
*
Hours later, Amon slowly opened his eyes and felt the presence of another person on top of him. Looking down his body, he saw pale blond waves spread out over his abdomen and thighs. Slowly it returned to him why Thea would be so close to him. She’d helped him when he’d awoken in pain and must have passed out again because of it.
As he stared at the scene just above his lap, he thought how erotic it looked to have a beautiful woman’s head so close to his cock. After feeling no kindness or closeness in his entire time in Nil, he enjoyed the warm feeling of her next to his body. Her soft breath drifted across his skin near his navel and for the first time in months, he felt himself begin to grow hard.
Gently, he stroked a lock of hair away from her face and followed it down her back. It felt silky against his fingers, and with each stroke he grew more excited. He needed to see the face of the angel who stirred feelings in him he’d thought might be dead forever. Moving her hair back, he saw a beautiful pair of pouty pink lips and long, dark lashes resting on her pale ivory skin.
His cock arched up against her arm that remained across his body. Even if much of him was bruised and battered, he wanted her. Closing his eyes, he let the thought of her kissing him with those lips on his mouth, down his neck, over his chest and abdomen, and finally on his cock take him away.
Amon’s breathing became heavier, waking Thea. As she blinked the sleep out of her eyes, her face registered the embarrassment from her head resting on his lower abdomen. His erection pushed on the underside of her arm, and she sat up abruptly.
“Oh!” she said in a surprised voice.
Amon smiled at the sight of her awake. “Good morning,” he lazily drawled, still enjoying the fantasy he’d created about her.
“Where am I?” she asked as she looked around the room.
Watching her through heavily lidded eyes, he answered, “My house.”
“Who are you?”
“Amon.”
“Amon who?”
“Kalins.”
Thea recoiled from him with a look of horror, crying out as she skittered across the bed away from him.
Chapter Four
The chambers of the Council of Nil had never been in such turmoil. Council members, typically stoic, buzzed around in an uncharacteristic panic, along with pages, sorcerers, and a variety of assistants. By the looks on the Council members’ faces, something had happened that had terrified them.
Ryu Jansen stood watching the scene in front of him, mildly curious as to what had occurred to send this generally staid group into such an uproar. As he scanned the chamber, he saw fear more than anything else. Not knowing if what had transpired had anything to do with why he’d been recalled by the Council after being released from his position almost a year before, he waited and watched.
“Bring in the guards who were on duty when Kalins escaped!” the head councilman bellowed.
Underlings scurried out of the room, official papers in hand, to speedily retrieve the men who’d most likely be standing in front of the Council a few hours later to answer the charge of dereliction of duty. Minutes later, Ryu stepped aside as the four men responsible for allowing the escape of one of the most powerful Aeveren to ever live were led in. They stood somberly for what awaited them, their heads hung.
The escape of a prisoner was a rare event, having only occurred a handful of times in all Aeveren history. Like Amon Kalins, the others had been the most powerful of the race, but it hadn’t been their powers that had enabled their escape from Nil. Those were stripped from each prisoner, no matter how great or insignificant, along with the opportunity to have a destined one, upon conviction and sentencing to the Aeveren prison. No, Amon Kalins and the others had escaped because powerful Aeveren had powerful friends, and if those friends were Sidhe or any of the other kinds of beings who could evade Aeveren preventative measures, no amount of guarding could keep them in. In truth, everyone in the Council chambers had known from the moment they threw Amon Kalins into Nil that his incarceration may just be temporary.
Every eye focused on the four guards, large monsters in the shape of men who otherwise terrified prisoners with merely their stares. Now they cowered in front of men half their size but with infinitely more power. Each guard stood silently staring at the chamber’s glossy black marble floor.
The first words the head councilman spoke set the tone of the proceedings. “Gentlemen, how did you let the most important prisoner in all of Nil escape? Whose incompetence is to blame?”
Ryu knew every person in the chamber believed this question to be unfair. That someone as powerful as Amon Kalins had been freed from his time in Nil wasn’t a surprise. That he’d served a year of his sentence was the only surprise. But someone would have to be sacrificed to continue the judicial facade the Council required.
The four guards said little useful in reply to the question. Each one had shared some pleasure in making the last year of Amon’s life as painful as possible and the previous night had been no exception. All any of them could truly know was that when they finally left him for the night, he was in no shape to go anywhere without help.
“Gentlemen, look at us,” the head councilman ordered, his tone less angry than officious. “We need to know everything about Mr. Kalins’ time under your control. For example, may we assume he was treated to the customary welcome by the other prisoners?”
The guards looked up toward those in the upper level of the chamber and nodded solemnly.
“And was he treated to any other courtesies by the other prisoners...or you gentlemen?”
Ryu knew the reputation of the guards, but he also knew what they’d done to the prisoner would bring no reprimand. None of the guards answered the question, but finally the largest guard, an enormous bald man, said, “Kalins wasn’t liked by the other prisoners because of who he was.”
“So it would be fair to say that he would have some distinguishable marks from his time with you?”
Again, the same guard answered. “It would.”
“And what of his last night with you?”
The guard next to him answered this time. “Wherever he is, he can only see out of one eye and hobble around, if he can move at all, since his leg’s most likely broken.” His tone indicated with a sadistic sense of pride that he’d been the one who delivered the majority of Amon Kalins’ last beating in Nil.
The more sensitive members of the Council gasped, but the head councilman noted with pleasure that the man they sought wasn’t as strong as he needed to be to evade recapture. He finished a note he wrote on the file and waived his hand thoughtlessly to indicate he was finished questioning the guards.
“We’ll see you back here later, gentlemen,” he stated cryptically without raising his eyes from the file.
Ryu watched the four guards file out of the chamber room and didn’t envy their fate. His past dealings with the Council had shown him that they knew little of the concept of leniency. That he stood in front of them again might convince some that this was untrue, but he knew better. If they were willing to reinstate him, they wanted his particular skills to deal with their lost prisoner.
The head of the Council stared down at him and pointed to the spot left vacant by the guards. As he took his place, Ryu’s memories of the last time he stood in front of the Council flashed th
rough his mind.
“Welcome back to Nil, Mr. Jansen.”
At six feet tall, Ryu stood proudly facing the Council but as he nodded, he heard the oppressive sound of the words pushing down on him. Welcome back to Nil.
When he’d left, it had been against his wishes but with no regret. He’d known when he’d failed to capture his assignment that he’d be reprimanded, but he’d never conceived of them dismissing him. He wouldn’t have done things any differently given the choice again, though. He’d done what he’d thought was right, and they’d sacked him.
“I’ll skip the pleasantries and get to why we brought you here. As you heard from the interview with those guards, we’ve had an escape.” After a long pause, the councilman said, “Amon Kalins.”
Ryu waited for him to explain more about Kalins but heard nothing. Was he supposed to know who this Kalins was, other than what rumors he’d heard before and what he’d heard here? Shrugging his shoulders, he let the Council know that the man who had them all atwitter was no one to him.
“Don’t be so cavalier, Mr. Jansen. This is your opportunity to come back home.”
Ryu blanched at the idea that Nil would ever be anything like a home. But he knew what the head councilman meant. Finding this Kalins would return his life to him. With forced humility, he accepted that the Council could make things much better for him if he did as they wanted. His exile from his job as a bounty hunter hadn’t been easy. Unlike in the movies when a character makes a choice that goes against the powers that be and has to live with the consequences, he hadn’t retired to the country to sanctimoniously reflect on just how right he’d been. The last year had been hell, and he’d do just about anything to regain even part of the life he’d once had.
He focused his eyes on the Council above. “What do I need to know?”
The councilman grinned in satisfaction. “Amon Kalins is a powerful Aeveren. An ancient. He had the power to travel through time, and may have had other, lesser powers. He was stripped of these powers, of course, when he was here, but we must now assume he has regained them or will shortly. He’s responsible for the deaths of any number of Aeveren. We have no doubt he will murder again, if he feels it serves his purposes.”
Happy to hear a break in the laundry list of negatives for his new assignment, Ryu hoped to hear something that would aid him.
“Those are the bad things, Mr. Jansen. Let’s call them challenges. Now for the good. He’s injured, and because we sent an edict to the healers forbidding them to help him, he’s in bad shape.”
A small murmuring sound among a few of the Council members followed the head Council member’s discussion of the points in Ryu’s favor. He’d hoped for more than the aftereffects of the sadistic behavior of the guards. “Any chance he’d go to a human for help?” Ryu knew that just because he had no problem with humans didn’t mean Kalins didn’t.
“We would know if he did. Our sorcerers have no sign of him, which means his friends from the Soren are probably involved. He’s been known to have a magickian of theirs with him on occasion.”
Crazy motherfuckers.
It had been years since he’d had an assignment that involved that group. Human haters every one of them, they sought to dominate and enslave them.
“How’d he get out?”
Ryu knew instantly that he’d overstepped his bounds by asking, but the anger quickly melted away from the head councilman’s face and he answered, “He has a Sidhe who’s his slave. It’s likely he helped him.”
A tempuster. Those maniacal bastards from the Soren. And a Sidhe. At least this job will be interesting.
“Anything else I should know?”
“Kalins has three lifetimes left. I want them spent in Nil.”
From behind him, Ryu heard footsteps and turned to see a council page with a box for him.
“Mr. Jansen, the tools you’re being given will help you catch Amon Kalins. But know this: you’re being recalled because he’s the most powerful prisoner we had in Nil, and we need you to be the man you used to be. Ruthless. We want him alive, but we don’t care what shape he’s in. Complete this job and you’ll have your pick of local councils. Fail and you’ll return to what you’ve been for the past year.”
Before he could answer, the council members and their entourage left the chamber. Ryu looked down in curiosity at the container he’d been given. Opening it, he found what he’d need—a talisman to travel through time and a knife he knew by the acrid smell rising from the box was coated with Anjer, a poison deadly to the Sidhe. As he looked at Kalins’ prisoner photo, he hummed.
This one will be a challenge.
*
Thea couldn’t believe the name she’d just heard. “Oh no...Amon Kalins?” Full of fear, she quickly backed away further from Amon. Fully awake, the knowledge of what she’d done terrified her.
“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you. And thank you for helping me during the night.”
“No, this can’t be. None of this happened.”
“Thea, relax. Nothing happened between us. All you did was heal me,” Amon said calmly.
“Oh, my God! You know my name?”
Amon looked at her, obviously confused at her reaction to what was natural behavior for healers. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Putting her head in her hands, she sobbed, “Yes, I did. Something very wrong.”
Gethen came in and seeing Thea crying, looked at Amon curiously. “What happened?”
Shaking his head, he said, “I don’t know. She says she did something wrong.”
Both men stood waiting for Thea to explain. Before she could clear up what was becoming a very confusing situation, Markku appeared in the doorway, much to Gethen’s displeasure.
“I told you to stay downstairs.”
“Hey, Amon! You look much better. Must be her,” he said. “Wish I could say the same.” As he spoke, he lifted his bandaged hand to show him his injury from where she’d bit him earlier.
Markku’s voice sent terror through her, and she began to back around the side of the bed in fear. Seeing her move from him, he threatened, “Not so brave now, huh? Don’t worry. I’ll pay you back for this, healer.”
The last word came out in a hiss and Thea backed up into the dresser, knocking over the glass bottles that sat on its top. As they crashed to the floor, Amon shot Markku a nasty look and roared, “Enough!”
Thea froze in fear and saw Markku and Gethen stand quietly, obviously used to Amon’s temper.
“Gethen, please get him downstairs.”
Then turning to Markku, Amon warned, “Don’t threaten her again.”
“Sure, but I came up here to tell you something. They’ve sent out a bounty hunter to take you back.”
Gethen’s face grew ashen, and he turned in fear to Amon.
Smiling, Amon shook his head. “Not to worry, Gethen. I’m getting stronger by the minute, thanks to Thea here, and as soon as my powers return, we can go anywhere and anytime we want and the Council will never catch me.”
Gethen seemed to be calmed for the moment, and Amon turned to Markku. “I want you to find out everything you can about this bounty hunter and let Gethen know when you do.”
“Sure, Amon,” Markku replied obsequiously as Gethen pushed him out of the room. Alone again with her, Amon turned his face toward her, as she stood still cowering near the dresser.
Thea watched the man in front of her with fear, but there was something else too, something she’d never experienced before as a healer. She didn’t just feel sympathetic for him, didn’t want to merely make his pain go away. She felt drawn to him, and not only on a physical level. She could understand that after resting her head on his hard body. He was more masculine than anyone she’d ever met. Even after what had obviously been repeated beatings, he seemed stronger than any man could be. So her physical attraction she understood.
But there was something else. After only a few hours near him, she realized with sadness
that she’d miss him when he released her. But why? She knew little about him, and what she knew wasn’t good. He was Amon Kalins, the escaped prisoner from Nil. She’d been warned, as all other Aeveren healers had, not to help him in any way. She hadn’t had a choice, though. His wretched man had kidnapped her from her home and when she saw him suffering before her, nature had taken over. Healing him had never been a choice but a need.
“Thea, don’t be afraid. I told you I wouldn’t let any harm come to you, and I won’t. You’re safe as long as you’re with me.”
The tone of his deep voice was softer now, but it didn’t make her feel any better. She remained fearful, her fingers tightly gripping the drawer handle behind her.
“You’re Amon Kalins...” she squeaked out as her voice failed her. The hard surface of the dresser pressed against her back when she attempted to take another step back away from him.
“Yes.”
“The escaped prisoner from Nil.”
“Yes.”
Thea’s body relaxed almost against her will. Each affirmation should have made her fear for her safety all the more, but it didn’t. Something in his voice soothed her.
“And you’re a tempuster?” This the Council hadn’t mentioned in its edict to healers.
“Yes.”
In all her lifetimes, she’d never met any Aeveren with the power of time travel. Amon Kalins must be a very powerful man, she realized.
“Is it my ability that frightens you?” he asked in a voice she was sure was intended to put her at ease.
Thea thought about this for a moment and answered in a small voice, “No.”
His being a tempuster was probably the least frightening aspect of him. The truth was she was most frightened of how much she already liked him. She shouldn’t. She knew this. But something about him called to her.
“Then my being a prisoner from Nil?”
Thea drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m not supposed to help you.”
“Why? You’re a healer. It’s your gift. Why would you be banned from healing someone who needs your help?”
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