Free Destiny Redeemed by Gabrielle Bisset Page A

heartless, selfish prick he’d been? Suddenly,
everything he’d ever been came back to haunt him.  He’d found someone to care
about and now his past could chase her away. He knew the risk. If she couldn’t
accept his past, he’d lose her. But he knew he had to try to tell her.
    “I’ve
manipulated people, hurt people, used my powers to only my benefit.”
    “Hurt?
What kind of hurt?”
    Amon
hung his head to avoid her wide eyes that seemed to beg for the truth. He had
no choice. He had to hope she would see he was a different man now.
    “I
was responsible for the death of Sevine’s human friend. I used my tempuster
power to manipulate someone into falling in love with me when I knew she had a
destined one she loved and who loved her.”
    Amon
stopped for a moment and then said, “I was in Nil because I belonged there.”
    Silently,
he waited for her to respond, but for a long time she said nothing. Sure he
finally understood what Gethen had tried to tell him earlier, he moved to
leave.
    Gently,
Thea placed her hand on the back of his neck and began to trace the muscles to
his shoulders. “Amon, in actuality, I’m not better. I may not have done what
you did, but I’ve let them die.”
    “No...you
don’t understand.”
     “I
was born with my powers, Amon. I’ve never been anything but a healer. But
because I’m under the control of the Council, I’ve been forbidden from helping
others they deem unworthy. So I’ve watched people die all out of blind
obedience when I could have saved them. I’m ashamed to say that if Markku
hadn’t brought me here, I would have refused to help you.”
    Amon
looked at the sadness in her face and knew she was wrong. She was so much
better than he, but she was like him in one way.  He heard the regret in her
voice and understood. They were both blessed with immense power, but neither
one had fulfilled the promise of greatness they possessed. Never before in all
his lifetimes had he met one who seemed like such a kindred spirit.
    He’d
finally met someone like him, but it wasn’t meant to be. Destiny had already made
her choice.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Seven
    Ryu
let his weight fall back onto the old couch, and he relaxed before dealing with
his assignment. As the late afternoon sun streamed into his rooms, it
illuminated just how little care he’d taken with his home for the past year.
Dust stuck to the tacky circles on the coffee table and settled in the
scratches and gouges of the furniture’s legs.
    On
the table next to his beer lay the file on Amon Kalins. Ryu had skimmed it
earlier, gleaning some basic information to add to that he’d gained from his
meeting with the Council. Kalins was definitely a bigger fish than his usual
fare, but he’d be caught for the same reason all his other assignments—but
one—had been. Because he was good at his job. Great at his job was more like
it. Because with only one exception in all his lifetimes since he’d been
released from Nil, he’d never let anyone escape.
    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