Destiny Redeemed

by Gabrielle Bisset

  Why he’d let that one get by him was something he’d questioned every day for the past year. Never before had he even considered not fulfilling a task he’d been charged with. Until that day, he’d been a machine and a damned efficient one. His job was to catch Aeveren like him—those who’d chosen to break their laws—and deliver them to their punishment, just as he’d been by the bounty hunter who’d captured him.

  But Ryu had taken pity on that man the year before. Something in his eyes, in his pleading, had touched him inside and for the first time, he’d chosen not to be who he’d been for four lifetimes. The man’s crime was a petty one, he’d comforted himself. People shouldn’t be punished for falling in love with humans. He’d never really agreed with mating with them, but then different strokes for different folks. He’d always hated collecting Aeveren women who’d broken this Aeveren edict since invariably they were forced to abandon children. That had never sat right with him. But he’d done his job for the Council of Texas, bringing in Aeveren to answer for their crimes, year after year.

  Then he’d gotten that assignment on Halloween the year before and his life changed from one of contentment, if not happiness, to one of misery. All he had to do was bring him in and be done with him. The guy would’ve been sentenced to a few years in the easy part of Nil, for Christ’s sake. He’d done his time for aggravated assault in the real Nil, not the fucking country club the people he caught went to, and he’d come out alive.

  Why the hell didn’t I just do my job?

  Ryu grabbed the file from the table and flipped it open. No, Kalins wasn’t just some guy who liked venturing out of his race. Page after page of crimes flowed past his eyes. Murder. An association with the Soren, a group Ryu knew the Council desperately wanted to eliminate. Assorted lesser crimes of “abusing the trust” of fellow Aeveren.

  None of this surprised him. Kalins had been born with his tempuster powers and continued to gain more. As he sat in his living room drinking the last of his beer, Ryu angrily wondered how the Council thought anyone given all that power could ever remain good. He knew he wouldn’t be able to. Each time he’d temporarily been given the power needed to capture someone, it had been seductive to want to keep it. Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of power, and Kalins had multiple powers.

  As much as he may envy or sympathize with him, Ryu knew he had a job to do and completing this job would give him his life back. As he read down the list of places he was suspected of hiding in, he mumbled, “It’s either you or me, Amon Kalins. And this time, it’s got to be me who wins.”

  Two hours later he knew everything there was to know about his man. He checked his gear to ensure he had what he’d need. Smiling, Ryu ran his fingers over the talisman that would enable him to travel through time. He’d only been given that power once before, and the person he’d been after had only had his powers for one lifetime, so he’d been pretty easy to catch.

  That poor fuck.

  Kalins wouldn’t be that easy, however. He’d had ample lifetimes to perfect his ability and unlike Ryu’s other charge, he was sure to have people in many places and times to help him. No, Kalins was going to be a challenge, but he knew if a prisoner from Nil with only the powers the Council had given him could capture him just a year earlier, then he certainly could now.

  As he prepared to go, Ryu took one last look around. His eyes scanned the nondescript rooms that had been his prison for the last year, and he silently bid that life farewell. When he caught Kalins, he’d be able to return to the life he’d lost when a moment of kindness doomed him and pick up where he’d left off. Hiking the bag up over his shoulder, he closed the door behind him and left for the Council of New York.

  The chambers of the Council of New York stood in front of him, the beginning of his job to catch Kalins. Located next to all the other local councils, they housed the local council for the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania area, and since his target had a home on the border of two of those states that he frequented more than his homes in the Carolinas and New Mexico, the Council of New York seemed to be the logical place to begin.

  As opposed to the size and grandeur of the Council chambers in Nil, the far more meager chambers he currently waited to enter left him unmoved. While the Council members here sat above as they did in Nil, the New York chambers were brighter and far more bureaucratic looking, almost like that of a courtroom. Ryu reasoned this was because like all local councils, New York handled minor cases, such as petty crimes and relations with humans.

  Sure isn’t like I’m used to.

  He waited as the line of people he stood in slowly shrank, forced to hear the beginnings and endings of each person’s presentation when the guards opened and closed the chamber doors. Like an assembly line of misery, he and his fellow Aeveren waited for the doors to open to walk forward, Ryu one step closer to beginning his journey back to claim the life he’d left behind.

  Over three hours later, he finally entered the chambers of the Council of New York ready to get this portion of his job over with. Frustrated, he stepped up to begin the proceedings only to find that it wasn’t just the décor that seemed more bureaucratic. As he stood waiting, the words of the head councilman’s assistant told him they weren’t going to make this easy on him.

  With a hearty chuckle, the head of the Council of New York turned to Ryu and asked, “What are your dealings with this council?”

  “I’m here about an escaped prisoner from Nil—Amon Kalins.”

  The amusement on the councilman’s face was obvious by his grin. “Escaped prisoner from Nil? Interesting.”

  As he spoke, he turned to look left and right down the long table at his fellow council members to share his delight among them.

  Ryu felt a surge of anger as he watched the show of petty bureaucratic jealousy exhibited in front of him. He didn’t have time for their bullshit.

  “Yes, an escaped prisoner. He owns a home in this council’s area,” he said in a tone he hoped would indicate his distaste for their behavior.

  Instead, he got more governmental obfuscation.

  “We know nothing of any escaped prisoner, and we can assure you that while we have no experience with losing prisoners, we’d certainly know if one from Nil was in our area.”

  All Ryu wanted to do was turn around and leave as it was obvious that the Council of New York had no intention of helping him to apprehend his target. In a show of even further Aeveren red tape, they kept him answering questions on every minute detail of Amon Kalins’ escape, obviously relishing the failure of the Council of Nil with each answer.

  Finally, after they’d exhausted every line of inquiry into a case they had no interest in assisting with, Ryu was excused with no apology for their lack of helpfulness but with a halfhearted good luck with his assignment.

  As he left, he hoped he wouldn’t have to count on their help for anything in the future. And he knew one council he had no interest in working for once he got his life back.

  *

  Amon lay in bed savoring how good his body felt and wishing Thea was next to him. Even the pain he’d suffer if he upset her would be worth it if she were nearby. After she’d healed him earlier, he’d left her room as she’d fallen asleep, not wanting to but feeling wrong for wanting to remain with her. He knew he shouldn’t let himself want her, but he did.

  She was just across the hall—so close, yet so far away. Grimacing, he gave in to his darker nature he’d been fighting and let his mind reach out to hers. He touched her thoughts softly, like a whisper, and waited to find out if he was on her mind.

  Afraid to move and miss something, he sat with his head pressed against the headboard, silent except for the sound of his heart beating against his chest. Without realizing it, he held his breath in anticipation of what he’d find.

  Long moments passed as he waited for her mind to fully open to his. He knew this was wrong. It was an invasion of a person who he wanted to trust him. But no matter how much guilt he felt for it,
he didn’t retreat from her mind. He needed to know if she felt love for him as he was growing to feel for her.

  A soft caress touched his mind—the slightest thought of him. His heart began to beat wildly. He exhaled softly and panted as he began to sense her thoughts. They came in gentle waves that slowly rolled into his mind and joined with his. Her memory of kissing him in his bed. The feel of his hands pulling her to him as she sat on his lap wanting so much for him to be inside her.

  Heat traveled over his skin and his cock swelled. Her memory of how he’d felt—the hardness of him pushed against her—excited him, even more than his recollection of the moment. Her memory showed him how affected she’d been, how much she’d wanted him. His memory only told him how it had felt for him.

  He pushed his hand down the front of his pants and fisted his thick erection. His guilt melted away, and he wanted more. More of her thoughts. More of her feelings. More of her.

  The memory of her touching him sparked in her head. She replayed healing him, but now her thoughts weren’t focused on him as a patient but as a lover. Her fingers skimmed over his skin, and she noted with pleasure how he felt under them, how the friction between them and him excited her.

  His breathing became shallow with the desire to make her thoughts reality. By now, even if he wanted to, he couldn’t leave her mind. To know she wanted him so badly was like a drug. He needed more. As the thoughts in her mind danced into his, he fought the urge to leave his bed and go to hers. He wanted so much to make her his, but the tiny part of him that held on tenaciously to reality stopped him. He’d have to settle for knowing he’d had an effect on her.

  He wanted her to think more of him. He knew he could make it happen. A gentle idea left in her mind of what he would do to her, how he’d come to her to make her body sing with his. But that was pure manipulation, and he wasn’t that man anymore. At least he didn’t want to be that man with Thea.

  As he wrestled with giving her mind a tiny nudge, he felt her mind grow enflamed with her own idea of what it would be like between them.

  She was fantasizing about him.

  Amon sat still as a statue, his hand motionless as it gripped his now stiff cock. Closing his eyes, he let himself get carried away by the fantasy she was creating in her mind.

  She kissed his mouth with a need that almost burned him up. In her mind, he responded with a need of his own she so desperately wanted to fill. She teased him, piquing his desire more, bringing out the male he’d always been and was now fighting.

  Excitedly, Amon saw in her mind what kind of lover she wanted him to be. As the fantasy of him as a dominant lover capable of fulfilling her every desire played out in her mind, his hand stroked his length from base to tip. God, he wanted to give her what she wanted!

  She fantasized about him taking control of her body, his hands pinning her to the bed as she looked up at him, her eyes urging him on to master her passion. As he held her captive, his mouth traveled to her breasts, softly planting kisses across her neck and shoulders along the way.

  Amon heard her voice in her thoughts and his eyes rolled in ecstasy.

  “Please...Amon...give me what I need.”

  Then he heard her answer—what she wanted him to say to her, and he sat riveted to the bed, her thoughts in total control of him.

  He lifted his head from her nipple, his lips damp and shiny, and smiled up at her to answer her plea. “Don’t worry, Thea. I know what you need,” he purred. Without another word, he returned to her nipple to resume the sensual pulls that were driving her out of her mind with desire. She writhed under him, moaning and arching her back toward him to feel the rest of his body touch hers.

  “Althea,” he moaned. “You taste so good.”

  As he stayed in her mind, relishing her fantasy, Amon filed away her real name for future use as he continued to stroke his cock. Althea...

  He kissed her stomach down to where her pants’ button waited to grant him entry. Releasing her hands from his restraints, he slid his forefingers along the inside of the waist of her pants. His touch tickled her, and her body trembled in anticipation of where he’d go next.

  She ran her hands over his head, feeling the soft, new growth of hair. From his forehead to the nape of his neck, her fingertips touched him almost reverently, as if he were someone dear to her. Her fingers trailed along the sides of his face and traced the shell of his ear delicately, exciting him by her care.

  He looked up under half-closed lids and saw her watching the attention he paid to teasing her. The look in her eyes was one of submission. What he wanted was his for the taking.

  As he slowly unbuttoned and unzipped her pants, tugging them off her hips in one slow, smooth motion, he whispered, “I know what my Althea needs.”

  Still alone in his bed, Amon grew more excited each time he heard the words she put into his mouth. He stretched his long, muscular legs down the bed to ease the tension her thoughts were creating in him, and his stomach muscles flexed as he continued to stroke himself toward sweet release.

  With his finger, he traced a line up her damp seam through innocent, white panties. She was ready for him. So ready.

  But he wanted her more than ready. He wanted her needy for him. Slowly, he slid his fingers under the dainty edge of her panties, close to where she so desperately wished he would touch. He stroked her soft, moist folds, exciting her more. She was so soft, so delicate under his fingers—so open for him.

  Her hands pushed on his head to urge him to take her into his mouth, but he resisted with a groan. He wanted to taste her, but he wanted her to wait just a minute more. Her impatience excited him.

  She moaned out his name wishing he’d give her the relief she needed. Spreading her legs wider, she nudged at his mouth to touch her through her panties.

  Amon loved that she desired him like this. His nature was to be dominant, but he’d often had to suppress it, particularly with modern women. That Thea could be so strong and caring yet so eager to let him take control of their lovemaking was something that made him want her even more. How far would she let her fantasy take her?

  He waited for her to continue, stroking his length with more urgency and wondering if she was touching herself across the hall.

  With his thumbs, he opened her up to his eyes, which feasted on the sight of her—soft and pink. He inhaled her delicious fragrance and pressed his lips to her delicate skin, unwilling to wait any longer. Slowly at first, he let his tongue glide over her sex, hearing soft moans coming from above as his tongue created sensations that traveled straight to her core.

  Amon felt himself getting close. He wanted to come as he listened to her fantasy of his mouth pleasuring her, but he wanted more, if there were to be more. Her fantasy was controlling more than just his thoughts now.

  A gentle suck on her swollen nub sent her over the edge into a million pieces, and Amon fought to control his own orgasm, wanting to see if she’d continue. As she recovered in her fantasy, his silent wish was granted and she moved to give him pleasure.

  She swirled her pink tongue over the tip of his cock and then slowly took only the head into her mouth, sucking tenderly as she looked up at him with wide blue eyes. Her hand gripped him and slid over his skin, her touch feeling so good.

  He watched as her blond head and her sensuous waves moved down around his body and back up again. The soft touch of her hair draping over his thighs sent shivers up his back. She slid her left hand out from under her veil of hair and ran it over his abdomen, gently raking her nails across his skin.

  “Thea,” he moaned as he watched her slide her lips to the base of his cock. He fisted his hands in her hair and tugged it gently to direct her speed. She didn’t fight or resist, allowing him to set the pace of her movements.

  Amon needed release but fought his body’s demand by willing himself to stay in her mind when she fantasized about climbing on top of him, ready to have what they’d begun earlier in his bedroom.

  Thea whispered softly in hi
s ear. “Amon, mine. My destined one.”

  God, how he wished that were true! He heard the sweetness in her sexy voice, heard the desire not only for him to physically be hers but to truly be with her. But he pushed that from his mind and concentrated on what he knew he could be for her, if he’d let himself...

  Thea’s fantasy and his desire merged into one, and he let his body go as his cock spilled over his stomach and hand. Better than any fantasy of his own, her thoughts had given him more pleasure than he’d had in a long time. Satisfied, he cleaned himself up and closed his eyes to relax.

  Amon silently summoned Gethen, but found he was still away getting supplies and clothes for Thea. Thea...his time listening to her thoughts had been utterly enjoyable and more than ever he wanted her, but that part of him that still clung to the idea that he could be a decent man stopped him from stalking over to her room and making love to her like no one else had in all her lifetimes.

  That part was also the part of him that held out for the tiniest glimmer of hope that he’d been freed from the cold loneliness his destined one had imposed upon him. Was it possible Sevine had moved on?

  Reaching out to Markku, he sought to find out the answer. In seconds, he heard the heavy footsteps of the magickian as he plodded up the stairs toward his room.

  Markku timidly poked his head through the crack in the door.

  “You need something, big...uh, Amon?”

  Nodding, Amon ordered, “Close the door and get in here. I have a job for you.”

  Markku closed the door and began to listen with interest to the task he was charged with.

  Chapter Eight