Destiny Redeemed

by Gabrielle Bisset

  “How could you do that? How could you give up two lives for me?”

  Cradling his face in her hands, she explained, “Amon, I would give up anything—my life—for your freedom. Two lifetimes is a small price to pay for the three lifetimes we’ll have together now.”

  When Amon put Thea back on her feet, Naomi Cooper took her hand. “I need you to know the hardest decision I ever made was to hand you over to the authorities to take you away all those lifetimes ago. Your father and I would’ve traded everything we had to keep you with us, but your gift made that impossible. We never stopped loving you and prayed every day that you found happiness and could forgive us.”

  Instantly, Thea was a child again in the hills of Italy all those lifetimes ago watching her mother cry as authorities took her away from her home. Memories she’d thought were buried came flooding back, and she began to cry more out of happiness than sorrow.

  As she hugged her first mother, she said, “I never blamed you or papa. I was born with a gift that’s meant to help people. You couldn’t change that any more than I could.”

  “Well, I’m happy to know you’ve finally been given a destined one. I just wish he didn’t have such a ....colorful past.”

  Thea backed away from her and took Amon’s hand in hers. “I know you know him as many things, but all I know is that he’s the man who’s meant for me.”

  Naomi turned to face Amon. “Please promise you’ll be that man and not the man you’ve been for lifetimes, Amon.”

  “Councilwoman, I have no interest in being that man anymore. Thea’s happiness is my only concern.”

  “Then this council will have no reason to bother you again. I wish for nothing more than happiness for both of you.”

  The councilwoman turned to leave and Thea asked, “Will I ever see you again?”

  Naomi Cooper shook her head. “Not as your mother. I’ve already broken the laws by speaking with you like this. But perhaps we’ll see each other again.”

  After she’d gone, Amon tipped Thea’s head up toward him. “You’re lucky my powers don’t work here. If I had known what you were thinking, I wouldn’t have let you go through with it.”

  Thea’s formed her lips into a pout. “I told you what I thought of your reading my mind, Amon.”

  *

  Amon looked out at the isle of Paxos below and the crystal blue Ionian Sea as Markku fidgeted next to him and complained about the heat.

  “Why is it that people always get married in the hottest places?” he asked as he tugged at his tuxedo. “I’m dying in this heat here. Don’t you have a house in Germany? Why couldn’t you get married there? I bet it’s nice there.”

  “Thea wanted to get married here. Just relax. All you have to do is witness. Nobody cares if you sweat while you do it.”

  “I thought I was your best man,” Markku sulked.

  Seeing how unhappy his comment had made Markku, Amon relented. “Technically, you are.”

  As the smile returned to his face, Markku said, “Oh, okay. That’s better.”

  Amon squeezed the bridge of his nose and smiled as he remembered everything Gethen had said about Markku. He hadn’t seen him in six months, but the headache and heartburn he often brought with him had joined him in Paxos.

  He’d questioned Thea about inviting Markku to the wedding, but she’d insisted saying he’d been the reason they’d met in the first place. Even though Sevine’s spell had worn off, he liked to make her happy, so Markku made it onto the guest list and through his own wheedling, made it into the best man spot.

  *

  Thea stared into the full length mirror as Kat and Suzanne fussed over her train and veil. The woman who looked back at her looked like every fantasy she’d ever had about her wedding day to her destined one.

  “Oh, Thea,” Suzanne cooed as she pressed her head up to Thea’s. “You look so beautiful! And I saw Amon. He looks so handsome!”

  Kat, who stood behind her fluffing up her train, agreed. “Sweetie, when you finally decide to do it, you sure do it right. House in Greece, a man who looks like he could be a Greek god, and a wedding that’s more beautiful than any I’ve ever seen.”

  Thea couldn’t argue with that. Her life with Amon was everything she’d ever wished for. She’d even gotten a special dispensation from the Aeveren Council leaders—because of Naomi, she guessed—to relocate to Greece as a healer.

  After all those lifetimes alone, destiny had finally smiled on her.

  *

  Naomi tugged on Amon’s coat sleeve. “It’s time.”

  As he straightened himself and waited to see Thea walk toward him to exchange vows, he thought about how right those who had claimed he was favored by fate were. When Thea appeared in her white wedding gown and veil, she took his breath away. Her long blond hair fell in soft waves toward her waist, just as it had the first time he saw her standing in his bedroom.

  “Amon, are you okay?” she whispered as she took her place next to him to begin the ceremony. “You look a million miles away.”

  “No, just a couple months, angel.”

  When the reception had ended and all the guests had left, Thea sat on his lap on the balcony of their home and they looked out at the boats coming in at dusk. She played with his blond hair, fully grown in since his release from Nil, and his hand slowly moved back and forth on her thigh.

  “Did I tell you how gorgeous you looked in that black tux? I couldn’t take my eyes off you as I walked toward the minister.”

  Smiling, he kissed her softly on the lips. “It’s the tux. It makes any man look good. Even Markku.”

  Thea shook her head. When Amon jokingly tried to defend Markku, she placed her finger on his lips. “I don’t want to talk about Markku, Mr. Kalins.”

  Amon ran his hand along her side and pulled her close to him. “What do you have in mind, Mrs. Kalins?”

  Kissing her, he knew exactly what she had in mind. And he loved her way of thinking.

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Gabrielle Bisset's first book was released in June 2011, and since then readers have fallen in love with her paranormal stories with just the right amount of history thrown in. From her own creations, the Aeveren, to her vampires of the Sons of Navarus series, Gabrielle blends the genres of urban fantasy and paranormal romance in her own unique way. Her stories are sexy and smart, transporting the reader to another world. She lives with her family in Pennsylvania and loves to hear from readers. She can be reached at gabriellebisset@gmail.com

  To learn more about Gabrielle and her writing, you can visit her at her website http://www.gabriellebisset.com/ and follow her blog at http://gbisset.blogspot.com/

  Also by Gabrielle Bisset:

  Stolen Destiny

  Vampire Dreams Revamped (A Sons of Navarus Prequel)

  Blood Avenged (Sons of Navarus #1)

  Blood Betrayed (Sons of Navarus #2)

  Longing (A Sons of Navarus Short Story)

  Blood Spirit (Sons of Navarus #3)

  The Deepest Cut (A Sons of Navarus Short Story)

  Love’s Master

  Masquerade

  BLOOD AVENGED EXCERPT

  Vasilije looked around the room he’d just appeared in, his body alert to any danger. He’d followed the sense he’d gotten before Teagan’s spirit had been extinguished and knew he was in his home in New Orleans. Everything about the place was Teagan—from the Turkish cigarettes he smoked, to the bottle of Guinness that sat on the coffee table, to the spicy, musky scent that identified him as one of Vasilije’s vampires.

  And the beautiful woman staring at him.

  “Who did this?”

  Big brown eyes stared back at him. “I don’t know. It happened so fast. I left to grab another six pack and when I got back, someone had a stake...”

  Vasilije stood watching the stranger as she cried, needing more information but forced to wait until there was a break in her tears.

  “Who are you?”

&nbs
p; The woman dried her eyes and sniffled. “Sasa. I was his girlfriend.”

  At the use of the past tense, she began tearing up again, but Vasilije didn’t have time for it. Whoever had staked Teagan couldn’t have gone too far and any more time wasted with Sasa’s crying may mean he’d lose the fucker.

  He moved to leave and her hand caught his arm.

  “Please don’t go.”

  She looked up at him with such a sad expression for a moment he didn’t want to go. But he couldn’t let Teagan’s murderer escape. Vasilije touched his hand to hers to remove it from his arm, but all this did was make her squeeze tighter.

  “Please,” she begged in a voice that matched the pathetic look in her eyes. “Don’t leave me alone now.”

  The urge to tear his arm from her hold and leave her to her misery spiked in him, but it was overruled by that small part of him that understood her sadness.

  “Fine. Follow me. And keep up. And if I tell you to do something, do it. Do you understand?”

  For a second, she looked surprised and Vasilije thought he was going to hear a string of irritating questions. None came, though, and when he turned to head out the door, she followed silently.

  At the street, he stopped and inhaled deeply, hoping to sense something that would help him find Teagan’s killer. Nothing came. But there’d been something in the apartment...something that he was sure he recognized from long ago.

  Eyes closed, he let his other senses take over, but he got nothing. “What did he look like?”

  “I don’t know. It was so quick. Blond, I think.”

  Vasilije snapped his head to the left to look at her. “Man or woman?”

  Instantly, Tatiana’s threat repeated in his head. Now I take something you cherish. Had she staked one of his vampires in retaliation over Alex? Vasilije doubted even Tatiana would stake a vampire herself, but she wasn’t above having someone else do it.

  “Man.”

  That didn’t mean Tatiana wasn’t behind Teagan’s murder. And who was this woman who claimed to be Teagan’s girlfriend?

  “Did you see which direction he ran?”

  Sasa shook her head sadly. “No, I’m sorry. Are you his sire?”

  “How do you know about that?” he asked, more suspicious than just a minute earlier.

  “Teagan was a vampire, and you just look like a sire would. That’s what you call them, right?”

  As she spoke, Vasilije studied her under the streetlight’s glow, still unsure she was who she claimed to be. Not bad looking, she seemed like someone Teagan could like. He’d always preferred brunettes with big eyes and bigger tits, and although she didn’t measure up to porn star level, she still had a nice body. He could see her as Teagan’s girlfriend.

  “Yeah, I’m his sire and right now I need to find the fuck who killed one of my vampires,” he said looking down the street.

  “What’s your name?”

  Turning to look at her, he raised one eyebrow. “You’re a curious one, aren’t you, pet?”

  “Well, I think I should know your name if we’re going to work together to find Teagan’s killer.”

  Vasilije continued to work on getting any sense of who he was looking for, but nothing came to him. Frustrated, he’d need time to think and find his way around this new place before he could search for the killer, and the last thing he needed was a weepy woman tagging along.

  “Uh, no. We’re not going to be working together to find anything. Just point me to the nearest place I can get something to eat and I’ll be on my way.”

  In a second, her hands were back on his arm and squeezing. “Please let me help. I want to see the person who did this brought to justice.”

  Justice? Vasilije smiled at the idea of justice, sure she would be appalled by what he intended to do to Teagan’s killer. Humans were always more squeamish than he thought they should be, considering their own history.

  “How long were you and Teagan together?”

  “Why?”

  Vasilije noticed her defensiveness immediately. Her body language screamed she was hiding something.

  “You just seem very attached. That’s all.”

  Sasa shifted her weight between her feet. “I was. I mean, we were. Attached. And even though we had problems, we were trying to work things out.”

  “Problems?”

  A sheepish look came over her face. “I forgave him and we’d have worked things out...”

  Sasa’s lip quivered for just a second, and Vasilije was afraid she’d begin crying again. Teagan hadn’t changed in his new home, it seemed. A notorious ladies’ man, his wandering eye had been the reason he’d moved three thousand miles away from the only place he’d ever called home. Obviously, that relationship hadn’t survived since Sasa stood next to him all dewy eyed over his death.

  “I see.”

  “It’s not like that. It doesn’t matter what you think anyway. I just owe it to him to find out who did this.”

  Vasilije smiled at Sasa’s words. She was probably completely unaware that the one she’d caught her boyfriend with was likely one of many. Such blind devotion.

  “Love, I don’t think you understand what’s going to happen when I find the guy who did this. My idea of justice and yours aren’t the same, I guarantee you.”

  Sasa’s eyes grew wide. “Why? Is there some kind of ritual you plan to perform when you punish him?”

  Vasilije’s fangs snapped into position and he grinned to show her the weapons he’d use to punish the motherfucker who killed one of his own.

  “No ritual. Just these and all the blood I can handle.”

  The shock at his words was written all over her face. “You plan to drain them?”

  “My kind of justice, love. So if you plan to stick around, you know what to expect.”

  Sure he’d frightened her enough to change her mind, he began walking toward the nearest main road. Before he could begin searching for Teagan’s killer, he had to find something to eat. Then he’d use Teagan’s house while he was here since it would be set up for someone like him and work out of there.

  “Will you bite me?”

  Vasilije turned to look at her standing there staring at him, the fear gone from her eyes, replaced by something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

  Curiosity? Desire?

  “Only if you want me to, love.”

  As if she’d expected him to say yes and when she heard a different answer her mind instantly moved on to something else, Sasa marched past him, waving him on to follow her.

  “Follow me. I’ll take you where you can get something to eat and I can get a drink.”

  Vasilije grimaced at the idea that this stray woman was now giving him orders. He should have gone with his first instinct and left her. Maybe Teagan had cared for her, though, and would want her to help him. He owed him at least that much.

  © 2011 Gabrielle Bisset

  Find out more about Blood Avenged and the entire Sons of Navarus series, including excerpts and goodies for readers like swag and desktop wallpapers, at www.gabriellebisset.com