Free Destiny Redeemed by Gabrielle Bisset Page B

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