Destiny Redeemed Read online

  Chapter Nine

  Outside in the hallway, Amon heard Gethen return.

  “Miss?” Gethen called through the closed bedroom door across the hall.

  Greeted by silence, Gethen repeated his question only louder. Behind him a door opened, and he turned to face Amon standing in the doorway.

  “Gethen, what are you doing?” he snapped.

  Stunned by Amon’s tone, he quickly answered, “I was trying to give Thea her new clothes.”

  Amon knew he shouldn’t be uncomfortable with his former servant’s actions. No matter what Gethen was, he’d always been loyal and more a friend than an employee.

  “I’m sorry. It must be the pain I’m in,” Amon lied.

  The two men stood awkwardly looking first at one another and then the hallway floor. After a few moments of tense silence, Amon was thankful Gethen began to speak again.

  “Where is Markku?”

  “I sent him on an errand for me. Here, let me take those clothes.”

  As Amon took the pile of clothes out of his arms, he was sure the other man saw the apprehension in his face. Eager to escape the situation his jealously had created, he moved toward Thea’s door.

  A feeling of guilt came over him and he turned to Gethen. “Thank you for doing this for me, Gethen. I can always count on you.”

  The man smiled, but Amon sensed his outburst had offended his friend and another rush of guilt passed through him. He knew full well there had been no one as true to him in his many lifetimes and treating him like a second class citizen who hadn’t earned his trust time and again was insulting.

  But Amon found himself jealous, nonetheless, something he hadn’t felt in lifetimes.

  As he gently tapped on the door to Thea’s room, he anxiously waited to see her after what he’d seen in her mind earlier. He hoped against hope that Markku would return with the answer he wanted that would vindicate the feelings he’d begun to have for her.

  “Thea?”

  Behind him, Gethen whispered, “Maybe she’s worn out from healing you. You did say it took a toll on her.”

  Amon didn’t respond to the comment and knocked again, this time harder.

  “Thea?”

  Turning the antique doorknob, he opened the door just a crack and peered in. It only took a quick sweep of the room to see no one was there. He thrust open the door and let it bang off the wall. In a few strides he crossed the room, but it was no use.

  She was gone.

  Fearfully, Gethen stood in the doorway, while Amon fought to control his emotions. Not fully healed, he immediately felt exhausted from the anger and betrayal that raced through him. When he finally turned to face Gethen, he knew his eyes had changed to near black he was so angry.

  “I want her found. Now!” he barked.

  “I’ll need Markku’s help. I don’t know where he found her, Amon,” Gethen said plaintively.

  “Then get him back here,” Amon growled.

  Gethen disappeared to contact Markku, and Amon sat down on Thea’s bed. That’s how he thought of it. Thea’s. He looked down at the clothing in his lap. Thea’s clothes.

  How did I get so attached in such a short time?

  Ten minutes later, Gethen roused him from daydreaming about Thea to announce Markku’s arrival. His strength returned, Amon bounded past him into the hall, stopping dead as he collided with Markku.

  “Come with me,” he ordered and yanked the man by the arm into his room, slamming the door behind them.

  Markku stood nervously with his back pinned to the door as Amon paced back and forth in front of the bed.

  “What did you find out?” Amon seethed.

  Markku breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, yeah. I had my man check into your lady. She’s gone.”

  Amon stopped next to the bedpost and steadied himself against it. “Gone?” His voice was barely more than a whisper.

  “Yeah, something she did for a child—you know, a selfless act, and poof! She’s moved on.”

  Amon stared at a point on the far wall and exhaled heavily. “When?”

  “While you were in....the summer,” Markku answered awkwardly.

  Amon waved Markku out of the room and sat down on the bed. Now that he’d gotten the answer he’d wanted, he felt a sadness he hadn’t expected. Sevine was gone. The destined one he’d spent lifetimes with, the woman who’d been his wife for almost half of his time on Earth was gone.

  His shoulders sagged as he dropped his head and sighed his grief. Much of what he’d been to her had been negative, and after the initial anger at her dismissal of him as her destined one in their seventeenth lifetime together, Amon had missed her and mourned the end of them. Now he mourned his behavior once again.

  A soft knock on the door fifteen minutes later brought him back to the present. “Amon, may I come in?”

  Gethen’s tone sounded worried, so Amon quickly opened the door. “Come in.”

  Seated on the bed again, Amon stared off in the distance. In a voice that sounded faraway, he quietly said, “Sevine’s gone.”

  “I’m sorry, Amon.”

  In what seemed to be a new habit for them, the two men remained in silence for a long moment before Gethen spoke.

  “Markku is going to take me to where he found Thea, and I’ll bring her back.”

  Amon took a moment to process what he’d just heard and then thought he heard an edge in Gethen’s voice—an edge that concerned him.

  “I’m going. We’ll leave immediately.”

  Gethen’s expected protest came before Amon finished his statement, but Amon’s hand in front of him stopped his speech.

  “Get ready.”

  As Gethen turned to leave the room, Amon added, “And I’ll handle bringing Thea back.”

  Turning to face him, Gethen fixed his gaze on Amon. “As you wish.” The silent word master hung in the air as he turned back toward the door and walked out of the room.

  As he sat alone, Amon had to admit to himself that jealousy wasn’t the only emotion he was experiencing with Gethen regarding Thea. He also felt fear.

  Lifetimes with Gethen had dulled his memory of the circumstances surrounding the man’s entrance into his world, but Thea’s arrival and the hope that she could be his destined one brought the events of his meeting Gethen into sharp focus for Amon. What had for a very long time meant almost nothing to him now seemed far more important because of his feelings for Thea. As the long forgotten memory of a much younger Gethen’s actions came back to him, Amon’s need to protect her pressed onto his heart.

  The Irish countryside glowed under the silver touch of moonlight and the warm July air hung heavily on Riordan as he slowly led his horse along the path. To his left, in the shadows, he heard the soft rustling of branches. On his guard in the darkness, he warily watched the wooded area for highwaymen lying in wait to descend upon a traveler like himself. Ready to snap the reins and escape at a moment’s notice, his heart pounded in anticipation of the next sound. The horse sensed his apprehension and tensed under him as if to assure him that it understood his thoughts and knew how to react, if necessary.

  The final leg of his journey home, this section of countryside was by far the most remote. Despite being armed, he preferred not to kill anyone that night. As he ambled closer to a bend in the path where wooded areas banked both sides of the road, he quietly took his gun in hand.

  As he rode between the woods, to his right he heard the faint sound of a moan and then another. His hand tighter now on his weapon, he looked into the darkness of the trees and spied the small, yellow light of a fire. A sense of relief washed over him momentarily as he considered the unlikelihood of highwaymen announcing their presence with something as obvious as a fire.

  While he reasoned the owners of the fire to instead be vagabonds, he heard moaning again growing louder as he continued. If someone were hurt, he should stop to aid them, but while he debated the safety of stopping for an injured stranger, a woman’s scream pierced the night, sendi
ng a shock through his body. In a flash, he had his horse at full gallop toward the sound of the woman in danger.

  Moments later, he found the source of not only the screams but the moans. A woman lay on the forest floor in a clearing just off the path. Her long, black hair trailed over her shoulders and nearly hid the knife that stood buried in her chest, surrounded by a red stain that had begun to spread over her pale skin. Naked, her body showed signs of the activity she’d been engaged in at the time of her death.

  As he climbed down from his horse, he noticed the aura that surrounded all Aeveren begin to fade from near her body. In seconds, she’d vanish as all Aeveren did upon their deaths, so he silently said a quick prayer of hope for her safe passage to her next life. Without a sound, she left that lifetime, and he stood staring down at the bloodstained ground in sadness.

  The sound of footsteps behind him startled him out of his grief, and he spun around, gun aimed forward, to see a young man with black hair and a slash from the outside corner of one eye to his mouth. He stood bare-chested, the blood from his wound running down his chin.

  “I didn’t mean to kill her,” he said in a sad voice.

  Riordan studied the man in front of him for a moment and slowly lowered his weapon. The man before him wasn’t Aeveren as he had no aura surrounding him. However, this stranger had killed an Aeveren, and for that Riordan knew he had a duty to his people to see that this murderer of his kind faced justice.

  “She wouldn’t accept me—my kind—but I loved her,” the man said softly as he fell to the ground where the woman’s body had lain. “My Aine...”

  “You killed the woman you loved.” As he spoke the words, Riordan felt them slice into him. He reached into his pocket for a handkerchief and handed it to him.

  The man looked up at him sadly as he took the cloth and pressed it to his cheek. “She refused my love because I’m not one of you.”

  Stunned by the stranger’s ability to know he was Aeveren, Riordan asked, “How do you know what I am?”

  “You show the mark of all Aeveren, the aura.”

  “But you are not Aeveren, so how is it you see what only those of my kind can?”

  “I am Sidhe. We can see what marks all peoples.”

  “Why wouldn’t Aine accept you? We, Aeveren, have no quarrel with the Sidhe.”

  “I could never be her destined one.”

  Riordan watched as tears ran down the man’s face and felt a pang of sympathy for him. No, he could never be her destined one just as Riordan could never get back the love of his destined one.

  “I will not force you to chase me. Punish me as I did my beloved Aine or take me to where your people may punish me.”

  The resignation in his voice touched Riordan. Yes, he was supposed to follow Aeveren law, but he had never been strictly law abiding.

  “Why not simply leave her?” he asked.

  The emotion in the Sidhe’s voice signaled his anguish. “Have you never loved a woman before? Loved her so much you could think of no other in your arms? Loved her so much the thought of her being in another’s arms made you mad?”

  Riordan silently nodded. He had loved Sevine like that. And now he was alone, dismissed from her life, a foreigner in a country he now called home.

  “What’s your name, Sidhe?”

  “Gethen.”

  “Gethen, let us go to your people for your protection or you will be surely punished by mine.”

  He looked down into the confused face of the Sidhe and felt the connection between them. Fate had brought these two creatures, so very different but so similar too, into one another’s lives for a reason Riordan suspected was important.

  Amon sat remembering when he learned of Gethen’s earlier murders of Aeveren women when he was taken to the Sidhe. However, even two additional killings of his kind couldn’t force him to abandon the Sidhe to Aeveren justice. He learned later that he’d murdered those other women out of hatred for destined ones too.

  Even now he didn’t regret protecting his friend, but the possibility of Thea being his destined one brought the memories of Gethen’s crimes back into Amon’s mind. In all the lifetimes he’d shared with him, he’d never had a destined one in his life. There had been many Aeveren women, and he’d always kept a close watch on Gethen around them, but none had been his destined one.

  He’d heard Gethen threaten Thea when she arrived and wondered if he’d sensed something different about her before even Thea knew what she was. As much as he cared for his friend, he’d protect Thea above all else.

  Amon descended the stairs to the front door and looked around for Gethen and Markku. Arguing all the way down the hallway, they stopped just as they met up with him at the door.

  “Amon, Gethen says you insist on coming. Why? I got her once. I can get her again.”

  “No.”

  Markku shrugged. “Okay, but are you sure you’re strong enough?”

  “I’ll be fine. Where am I focusing on?”

  “Alpine Drive. Hunter, New York.”

  “Let’s go,” Amon said gruffly as he grabbed Gethen’s arm to teleport him.

  *

  Thea sat with her legs crossed under her watching reruns of Charlie’s Angels. The tea her sister made her before she’d left was cool enough to finally drink, and she took a mouthful, savoring the lemon and extra honey just as she liked it. Amon was never far from her mind, and she replayed the recent events with him again and again, focusing on the memory of how his body felt under her fingertips.

  She had to think of that. She’d lost her job at the daycare, as she’d expected, and thinking of her new status as one of the unemployed masses wasn’t how she wanted to spend the rest of her night. She’d loved working with the children, and the loss of her time with them hurt even worse than just being fired.

  Usually, when she felt down, she talked things over with Kat to feel better and gain new perspective, but if she talked to her about losing her job, she’d have to talk about what had happened and her feelings for Amon. She barely understood them herself, so how could she explain them to her?

  Thea knew in her heart he was her destined one, but this was all so new to her. She’d loved men before in her forty-five lifetimes, but those relationships had developed over time with love being the result of months of shared experiences. Now she felt more in love with Amon than she’d ever felt with any of those men, and she hadn’t even known him for a week. Was this what meeting your destined one was like? Or was she just foolish or suffering from a case of Stockholm Syndrome?

  All those lifetimes she’d waited for the kind of love she’d seen so many others experience, and now that it seemed she’d finally been blessed with it, she was alone and confused.

  The sound of the phone ringing forced her to push aside her thoughts, and she answered it to hear her sister’s voice on the other end of the line.

  “Thea, I wanted to check on you to make sure you’re okay.”

  “Kat, I’m fine,” she answered in a voice she knew wasn’t convincing in the least.

  “Honey, you don’t sound fine. Won’t you talk to me? What happened to you, Thea?”

  Thea heard the kindness in her sister’s voice and something in her made her want to talk about what had happened.

  “Kat, I was taken to heal someone.”

  “Oh, Thea. Not again. This happened before. Why can’t they just leave you alone?”

  “Because I’m a healer, Kat. That’s what I am in our world.”

  “That doesn’t mean people can just take you whenever they need you! You aren’t everyone’s personal healer, for Christ’s sake!”

  Thea remained silent knowing the anger in her sister’s voice wasn’t directed at her. She loved how wonderfully protective her younger sister was, even if she was wrong.

  “Did they at least treat you well after kidnapping you?”

  Thea wondered how she should answer that. Markku had threatened her, as had Amon’s friend Gethen. But Amon had been kind, even
when he was telling her he couldn’t be her destined one.

  “They were all very kind,” she lied.

  “So you healed whoever was hurt and they thanked you but couldn’t bring you back home, instead leaving you at some greasy spoon in some small town seventy miles away from your house? What the fuck is that about? And you can’t charge people for the healing you do? That’s just bullshit, Thea.”

  Kat continued to rail against her sister’s Aeveren power and the inconsiderate nature of their kind, but Thea had stopped listening and instead was focused on the three familiar male figures whose faces looked far too serious making their way up the sidewalk to her front door. Jumping off the couch, Thea ran to put her shoes on.

  “I have to go, Kat. I’ll talk to you later after I get some rest, okay?”

  “Okay, Thea. I’m sorry I blew up a bit. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “It’s okay. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

  Thea hung up and searched frantically for her purse. She raced over to the closet and slipped her coat on, hoping she could sneak out the back door and escape, but the knock on her front door made her freeze in her tracks. If she ran now, they’d catch her, but she couldn’t just stand waiting to be kidnapped again.

  Her stubborn streak took over and she grabbed her keys on her way toward the back door. As she reached to turn the doorknob, she felt a hand touch her lightly on her shoulder and then heard his voice.

  “Hello, Thea.”

  Chapter Ten

  Amon felt Thea’s body stiffen at his touch and even without probing her mind he knew he needed to brace himself for the onslaught of her emotions. As she turned around slowly to face him, he was secretly thrilled to notice she was still wearing his shirt.

  Maybe this won’t be so bad.

  “How the hell did you get in here? And who invited you in?” she snapped as she stood toe to toe with him, her hands on her hips and her blue eyes blazing.

  Amon saw the genuine displeasure he’d caused and rethought the joke he wanted to make about not having to be invited in like a vampire. It was going to be as bad as he’d anticipated. And as painful if she continued to be angry.

  “I’m sorry, Thea. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” In the hopes of diffusing the situation, he intentionally focused on softening his tone.