Destiny's Wrath (Destiny Series - Book 3) Read online

  “Samael, you read my mind.” I smiled a rich, welcoming smile when I asked him, “Would you mind lying on the other bed? I’ve seen this play out in my head a lot of times, and am anxious to make my fantasy a reality.”

  He lay down, without reservation, without hesitation, without the slightest idea of what was about to happen. I reached between the mattress and box spring, wrapped my hand around my Glock, slid it out and aimed it squarely on Samael’s chest. It took too long for him to see the weapon and understand what was about to happen. The last time I had aimed in on him, in the freezing drizzle, hiding in his bushes, I had hesitated and then shot wildly – missing him entirely. Samael lived because I had choked. I refused to repeat my mistake from months ago. I squeezed the trigger in rapid succession, three to the chest, three to the head, and waited to make sure the wounds wouldn’t heal themselves. They didn’t.

  The sound of the Glock woke Max from his trance. He sat up quickly, trying to jump out of bed, fearing I was in trouble. I shook my head at him, and he saw the handgun in my hand, the folded up body of Samael lying on the other bed. As we both watched, Samael’s wounds seemed to grow larger by the second. The gaping holes began to sizzle as if on fire. Max asked, “What about. . .”

  I interrupted him. “Killing him isn’t enough. To destroy him, so he doesn’t exist, we have to trust that he’s gone and never coming back. He isn’t real; he’s gone.” Max agreed. He remembered Renny telling us this before: Samael could be killed easily enough, but to destroy him we needed to believe that he didn’t exist, trust that he would never return. In my mind, I knew this was absolutely the case. I did trust that he was gone for good.

  Max eyed my outfit and reached over to my thigh, “So, what’s up with the sexy ensemble? Giving him a heartfelt send off?”

  “Something like that. I needed to get him out of you. There was no way I was going to risk someone on the Council or Cabinet getting a wild idea and trying to kill you.”

  “I guess you wore that outfit for me, even if it wasn’t for me to enjoy? We’ve got a little time, we could put it to good use.” Max’s arms wound around me, tugging me toward him on the bed.

  “Max, I just killed a demon: the same one that hunted me down in a campsite and put me in a coma for over two years, the same one who took you hostage and hid you in a bank vault, the same one who made a teenager kill nine people. I’m not feeling all that frisky right now.”

  “He’s gone. He’s really gone, Lauren. It’s just you and me. I think we should celebrate.”

  I shook my head as my lips found his, “Let’s celebrate later. I think I need to change into something a little more formal before we meet with the Council and Cabinet.”

  Five minutes later we were downstairs and members from both the Cabinet and Council began arriving. The meeting went very well. Max and I shared with both groups what had become of Samael. Both were interested in our achieving Virtue and the interesting way I was able to convince Samael to leave Max and take on his previous form. Renny responded first, “Lauren, that was genius, absolutely brilliant on your part. He was weakest right after regenerating himself.”

  I recognized a face I’d seen before, but did not realize she was a member of the Cabinet: it was Ebony. She spoke in a condescending tone, “So, you killed him. Big deal. He’ll be back in no time. You can’t kill Samael. He immortal.”

  “Ebony, so nice to see you again. I didn’t realize you were a colleague of Dakota’s. What fancy emotion do you represent?” I asked her, trying to keep the disdain to a minimum.

  “Oh, c’mon girl, take a guess.”

  “Boyfriend tempter?”

  “That isn’t an emotion. I tode you I was testin’ him for you. He passed wif flying colors.”

  Dakota interjected, “Lauren, I wasn’t aware you had met Ebony. She represents Deceit, which would make your hostility toward her understandable; she obviously tried to pull the wool over your eyes.”

  “Ebony, you’re wrong. Samael’s dead and he’s not coming back.

  “How you be so shore?”

  “Because I put the bullets in him. He’s dead. I trust that he can never hurt another, and he’s never coming back.”

  “Shooooot, you tell yourself that. He deceived more people in a day than I do in a month. He’ll be back. When he does, nobody goin’ help you. You be on your own.”

  “He isn’t coming back. He’s dead. He’ll never walk this earth again.”

  “Prove it.”

  I thought for a minute. How could I prove that there really was nothing left of Samael? Then it hit me. Every time we had run up against one another, I’d won. The last time, I’d taken all his powers from him, except one.

  I smiled, and visualized the darkest, sleekest, Black Panther I’d ever seen. I pictured bright yellow eyes, razor sharp fangs, paws the size of baseball mitts. I thought of smooth black fur so dark that purple highlights glistened off of it. I went to the floor and transformed into the majestic predator right in front of twenty-one sets of eyes. I had taken his power of shape shifting away: there truly was nothing left of Samael.

  I felt magic, somehow, like there was nothing I couldn’t become. I let out a heinous, “RAAAWR,” as I saw all eyes staring in disbelief. To drive my point home, I began stalking toward Ebony, slowly, creeping toward her with my tail down, looking like I was ready to do a full frontal assault. Out of my peripheral, I saw the desk clerk in the lobby leap over the counter and sprint for the door. When Ebony had backed up all the way to the wall and could crawl no further away, I visualized my body again and transformed back into myself. Mike from the Council jumped up to go after the terrified desk clerk.

  My smugness couldn’t be hidden, “Satisfied?”

  Ebony, probably for the first time in her entire life, was speechless.

  “Trust is powerful. Sometimes you must believe in something you cannot prove. Sometimes you have to convince those that are ill-prepared for a new reality.”

  Renny cleared her throat, “A new reality? You intend to pick up where Samael left off?”

  I shook my head, “No, Samael was the last of his kind. I am no more a demon than I am a saint. I have his magic. When I die, it dies with me.” I stared daggers at the Council members before they could come to the conclusion, “Do not get any ideas about making that day come any sooner than I am ready for it to come. I have his power because I trusted in this outcome. I understand each of you standing before me has a purpose on this earth. There is just as much a need for a Cabinet as there is for a Council. Neither Max nor I will interfere with your regular duties. If there is ever an emergency where I believe it is necessary for the two groups to come together, I will summon you. Until that time comes, I do not wish to see or to maintain contact with any of you.”

  Renny was skeptical. She asked me telepathically, “You remember when we talked about Yin and Yang? Without an opposite of your strength, who will keep the balance?”

  Chapter 24

  My answer to her telepathic question was forceful and confident, “Trust, Renny. Trust that I will make the right decisions. Trust that I will not abuse my powers. Trust that my only desires are tied to enjoying this last lifetime with Max. Trust in me will keep the balance.”

  Dakota didn’t wait for Renny’s response. She said, “Lauren, I trust you. Not because you ask for it, but because you have earned it. The Cabinet will stand ready to assist you if you ever need it. We wish you a happy life and a tranquil eternity.”

  Mike stepped up, stood shoulder to shoulder with Renny, and added, “Lauren, your courage, your unwavering devotion to do what is right, for no other reason than it is the right thing to do, has earned you the Council’s trust as well. We, too, stand ready to serve you in any capacity you require. Enjoy the peace that you have earned. Thank you for destroying Samael and bringing peace to the world.”

  A warmth emanated from within me. I looked at Max and could see he felt it, too. Earning the pillar Trust had little to do with destroy
ing Samael and believing that he would never again walk this earth. Trust was earned through our actions. Trust was given to us freely by two opposing forces of the universe. Max and I were one pillar away from completing our souls and going to the eternal.

  We said our goodbyes. I knew in my heart we would probably never see or hear from any of them again. It was bitter sweet. I would miss seeing Mike, Renny, and Dakota, but had no desire to ever again see Ebony. I’m sure they were all wise, and there was much I could have learned from them, but I had come to trust my heart, and my heart told me my time with them was over.

  As both groups dispersed and Max and I made our way back to our room, I began to wonder. Empathy seemed a strange pillar to have left to achieve. I thought of how best to empathize, to feel deeply for another’s situation. The only way to feel another’s pain was to experience it for myself, right? I felt like I had already been through so much in such a short period of time that fighting another of life’s challenges might be too much, even for me.

  I was twenty-six years old. I’d fought and defeated a demon, a beast, a shape-shifter, whatever he was. I’d won, not with a magic sword or might, but by understanding his weakness and exploiting it. He was drawn to me: he was vile, evil, and nearly everything he touched was tainted. But even Samael was capable of humanity. He felt lust for me; for all I know, he might have been capable of falling in love with me. I began to question whether his destruction was for the betterment of humanity or for me, the removal of someone I feared.

  As I contemplated my decision to kill Samael at the moment he was most vulnerable, Max came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “Now that Samael’s really gone, are we ready to get on with our life?”

  I leaned my head back on Max’s shoulder, “I’m ready to go home.”

  “You want to go to Ridgeville tonight?”

  “Yeah, I think I do. I’m done with this place, and I just want to get back to our lives.”

  Max kissed the top of my head, “Me, too, love. Me, too.”

  We were home just after dark. Rather than get into our normal routine, Max suggested, “Let’s go for a walk.”

  Puzzled, “It’s dark out. Where do you want to go?”

  “I’m just tired of sharing you with everybody. I don’t think there’s anything we have to worry about that’s going to go ‘bump’ in the night.” Max gripped my hand, beaming at me, “If there is, you can turn yourself back into a panther and rip it apart. Let’s just see what we can see.”

  Max’s house sat on over two hundred acres of land, mostly wooded. We followed a path into the thick of the trees until there was scarcely more than a deer trail. We weaved in and out of trees, stumbled more than a few times on camouflaged rocks and stumps, while the silvery light from the moon made it look other worldly and inviting. The forest was thick and the trees high, but enough light shown through the tree branches to give the place a romantic aura.

  Max and I walked casually through the trees, chatting a little about everything that had happened in Greenville. It felt like we had both closed that chapter of our lives and neither one of us felt the need to talk about it in any great detail. Just days ago I had hoped to use my power to bend destinies to try to fix a situation that I couldn’t. As I walked through the night-washed terrain, all felt right with the world. I felt Max’s strong hand holding mine, gently guiding me along. Not in a rush to get anywhere particular, he seemed to be leading me to an obscure area of the property. The woods were so thick that I knew I’d never been in this far, not by horse or golf cart for sure, but the area held an odd familiarity to me.

  We walked into a clearing, the night-washed sky revealing a cabin that looked to be long forgotten. I stared at the lonely cabin for a while, and I looked at Max standing in the silvery light of the moon. The lonely cabin’s mortar had long since crumbled away revealing the thick logs resting on top of one another. The roof, in places, was gone, in others was caved in. Something about this cabin was enchanting, begging me to come closer.

  I only wanted Max, to be held by him, and for him to tell me how much he loved me. His eyes were heavy as they looked down into mine. He cupped my face in both his hands. I felt his lips press firmly onto mine as his body pressed against me.

  “I love you, Lauren. For the first time since we met, I feel like I get to keep you, like nothing in the universe could rip you away from me.”

  I felt the same, “It’s finally just us, the way you told me we would be together.”

  Max shook his head and grinned, “You always say that. You’ve told me lots of times that I came to you in a dream, but you have never really told me about the dream.”

  Chapter 25

  I had shared so much of my life with Max that it never occurred to me that I hadn’t told him about the dream, where he came to me and told me he was my destiny, years before I ever met him. We both sat down on a fallen tree outside the cabin, and I shared the dream that had transformed my life.

  “The first time I had the dream, it was one of those nights where the night’s illumination was so bright that the moon actually cast shadows – like tonight. I was having trouble getting to sleep, so I just kept staring out the window to see why everything was so quiet. There were no cars, no people, no barking dogs: it was as if the entire town were sleeping.

  Eventually, I went to my bed and lay down. When I did, I glanced back near the window I had just looked out and saw a person sitting in my chair in the corner of my room. I was startled at first; I didn’t dare turn on the light because I thought the person in the chair was a stalker who had broken into the house or something.

  After a minute or two, I heard the guy say, ‘Lauren, why are you getting all worked up?’ I didn’t say anything. He repeated himself, ‘Lau-ar-ren,’ dragging out the sound of my name, and I started to really get scared. ‘Come on, settle down. You’re going to give yourself an aneurism.’ I could see his face clearly. The stranger was you. I asked, ‘How do you know me?’ You didn’t answer me at first, so I asked, ‘What do you want?’

  Then you told me, ‘Lauren, relax, I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk. Hear me out and I’ll leave.’

  I was still thinking you were some sort of a stalker, so I tried to barter with you. I’m sure I said something lame like, ‘If you leave now, I won’t call the police. Just go, and we’ll pretend this never happened.’

  Your voice got a little more stern when you told me to just calm down. By then I was still scared, but I didn’t feel like I was in any real danger, so I said, ‘Okay, I’m calm. What’s so important for you to tell me, that you are only able to share it with me in the middle of the night? I’m listening.’

  I was still a little preoccupied, not sure why I was talking to a stranger in the middle of the night in my bedroom. I made eye contact; that was when I saw your eyes for the first time. Realistically you were all the way on the other side of the room, but your green eyes with brown flecks in them were just as clear that night as they are to me sitting by you tonight. You asked, ‘Lauren, do you remember what we were talking about last time? . . . Courage. Have you been working on that one?’

  I didn’t even understand your question, so I asked, ‘What? Courage. What do you mean have I been working on that one?’ That’s when I got the bright idea that the conversation wasn’t really taking place, that I was asleep and having a dream, so I stepped into smart-aleck mode. ‘Courage, hmmm…Nope, can’t think of anything courageous I’ve done recently, other than hanging out with a stranger in my room in the middle of the night. I am, however, open to suggestions if you think I should bum rush you or something?’”

  Max laughed out loud, “Really? You offered to tackle me? How did I take that?”

  “Pretty well. You gave me an odd look, and said, ‘A stranger?’ You looked baffled, which again made me think that this was a dream. The look you gave me made my hair stand on end, which is never a good sign. I finally answered, ‘Yes, a stranger. You act like I should recognize
you. Should I?’

  You laughed at me, not like a little chuckle, but a real belly-laugh, and said, ‘Well, Lauren, it’s nice to meet you. I’m your destiny.’”

  Max squeezed my hand and smiled, “No way, I really just came right out and told you I was your destiny?”

  “Yep. You seemed to be enjoying yourself. Then you went into a really long speech. I had the dream so many times I know the whole speech by heart, ‘We’ve been meeting this way for years; it always amuses me how quickly you forget. I should have realized we would have to play twenty questions before we could continue. So, do you want me to start over with all the answers, or would you prefer to start with the questions?’

  I didn’t say anything, so you offered, ‘Would it be okay if I got us rolling? I’m your destiny. I’m not a figment of your imagination; our physical paths have not yet crossed. They will soon, but when they do I want for you to be prepared. Before you began this life, you chose the difficulties you would be faced with throughout your natural life. Several of these obstacles you chose will be difficult to overcome. Many souls are not strong enough to continue on after an obstacle presents itself. They retreat into themselves or avoid it. Doing so only delays the inevitable. Each soul must learn certain things before it can retire, so to speak, and go to the eternal. These things you must learn are so important that choosing the wrong path will result in essentially starting over with the same obstacle a decade or so later when you are stronger or better prepared. The challenges you face in your everyday life are challenges that you chose before you were born. If you don’t learn from the obstacle the first time it presents itself, it will continue to present itself to you for as long as you live. We chose our obstacles for this life together.’