Blind Destiny: Grimm's Circle, Book 7 [retail mobi]

Dedication

For everybody who has asked, “When is Luc getting his story?” Here you go. And all of those who are asking about Mandy and Will? It’s coming, but it’s going to be a while. Quite a while.
 

Always, for my family. I thank God for you.

Prologue

The woman stood alone in a courtyard of blood.

The bodies that surrounded her looked more like meat than anything else.

The man watching her from the shadows had lived through enough slaughters to recognize the one before him now.

These people had been alive not that long ago. If he had only arrived sooner, he could have helped. It made no sense. Why was he here
now
?

Perhaps whoever had killed them would come back for the lone survivor.

She stood there, drenched in blood, her head bowed.

Frowning, he eased closer, uncaring of the blood and gore. Some would fear it would stain the pristine white garments he wore, but the clothes never stained. Never showed signs of wear or weather. The wonder of that no longer puzzled him, nor did he consider it a wonder. Just another observation in his long, wretched existence.

He stepped in a puddle of blood and not even a drop trailed behind him as he continued forward, his steps soundless on the earth.

He no longer completely moved in this world.

A fact he had yet to fully accept. A fact he’d never completely understand.

Who are you
? He eyed her closely, almost willing her to lift her head, to take notice of him.

Who are you…who am I? Why am I here
?

And that, if he were honest, was the question that bothered him the most.

Oh, he had a vague idea. He was here because something had led him here, to this isolated home, perched on a lovely mountainside. From a distance, it had been rather imposing, a sign of wealth and power.

Death and hell had waited within. Not too long ago, he never would have been able to sense the evils that had taken place inside here.

But not that long ago, he had been a dead man himself.

Not that long ago, he never would have seen what was about to happen.

It was a knowledge he hated, the way he saw it unfolding in his mind. As though he had split into two people, the part of him that still clung to his mortal coil was terrified and desperate to flee from this hell place. The other part watched was what to come—the way the woman went to her knees, her fingers sliding through the thick, red mess that was blood and earth.

Then both sides of his brain reconnected.

His mind did not understand what she held at first.

But then he saw the glint of the blade, and he knew.

He went to move—

No
.

He could even hear the scream forming in his mind.

That was not the answer. No other knew that better than he.

But he could not move.

He physically could not move.

She has to take this step.

He shook his head, denying the voice that whispered to him from within.

Yes. Because once she does, once she is almost past hope, you can reach her. Then, you will offer her the choice.

As she plunged the blade into her chest, finally, he could scream. Their screams mingled as one and as the inexplicable bonds controlling him loosened, he rushed to her side.

He slid an arm beneath her and even as he touched her, he felt it. The buzz of something…
more
. He did not know how to describe what it was, but he knew it was powerful.

And as her gaze held his, he saw everything…

Everything she was, everything she had ever done.

And she looked into his eyes and saw everything
he
was. Everything
he
had ever done.

“No…”

They whispered it as one.

Chapter One

There were very few people in the world that Will could say truly knew him. And only one of them could he call friend.

That one person was Sina, and she was almost as old as he was. Just a few short years separated them. A few decades, maybe a century. He had no way of knowing. Those first years had been lost to insanity and he barely remembered them.

They were almost a matched set, he supposed. Ancient creatures, not all right in the head, not then. Not now.

For the longest time, it had just been them, struggling to adapt to what they were meant to do, what they had become.

What would come later, as more and more of them were made.

They’d fought together often in those early days. Bled together. Came as close to dying as they were likely to, as long as they insisted on holding on.

Not that he had much choice.

Too much to atone for.

But Sina could let go. She wouldn’t, though. She’d be here until the bloody end. He knew this, because he knew her.

And she knew him, even without benefit of her oh-so-canny abilities of the mind.

Thankfully, she couldn’t read his mind. Not anymore. She’d been able to, that one time, when she hovered at death’s door and he’d been stunned at what she’d done, what she was.

She’d seen enough, that one night. But that was the only time she’d ever read him deeply.

It didn’t matter. Sina didn’t have to
read
him.

She
knew
him.

And that was even worse.

She’d know what was coming if he approached her.

Will was no fool.

So instead of going to her, he decided to approach the matter in a more roundabout fashion. Sometimes the straightforward approach just wasn’t the best way to handle things.

Especially with creatures who were older than dirt and reacted very poorly to change.

The night smelled of rain.

Honeysuckle.

And wet dog.

Luc laughed as Krell flopped down next to him with a happy sigh after he’d shaken the water out of his fur. “You just can’t stay out of the lake, can you?”

Krell nudged his thigh.

Obligingly, Luc scratched the dog behind his ears. “If you wanted to get wet, all you had to do was wait a little while. It’s getting ready to storm.”

Those words had no sooner left his mouth than it happened, tension gathering in the air. It wrapped around him tighter and tighter while next to him, Krell whined, inching closer. The dog had been around too long not to know what that meant.

Luc sighed. The bad part with not being able to see—he had long since acclimated himself to relying on his other senses, honing them to a fine skill. He could sense Will’s arrival a good two minutes before others could. It had nothing to do with psychic skill and everything to do with the way the feel of the world changed.

Tighter. Hotter. And somehow…brighter. Even though Luc’s world had been wrapped in darkness for hundreds of years.

In the seconds before Will made his appearance, the tension lessened, almost like the calm before the storm. Then it swelled to a crescendo and Luc’s ears popped as Will’s portal appeared.

Not that Luc was watching—he could have. Krell wasn’t just there for companionship. In all the centuries since Luc had become a Grimm, a guardian angel, he’d developed an ability to connect with others and use their eyes. Usually, he limited it to a specific partner, or to his companion animal, but he could use the eyes of anyone he saw fit.

He just chose not to.

Just as he chose not to look at Will. He didn’t need to see the bastard. Actually, he’d rather not talk to him, either.

Will rarely came bearing good news. Curling his hand into the thick fur of Krell’s neck, Luc murmured, “Perhaps you and I should have gone into town tonight, gotten rip-roaring drunk.”

“You can’t get drunk,” Will said.

No, that was true. Pity, that. Something he missed from his mortal years.

The Grimm all looked human enough. Even their fearless leader Will, with his pure white hair and silver eyes—granted, Will looked like a freaky human, but still, human was human.

They had all been human at some point in their lives. They’d chosen to become what they were—taking the step to become a Grimm, fighting against the demons that slid through the veil separating the mortal world from the netherplains.

That change was a drastic one, though. Altering them until the human appearance was just that—an appearance. A wound that would kill a mortal, they could heal in minutes or hours. They could go days, weeks without rest if they had to. And those were just the physical changes.

All of them were reborn into this life with gifts.

One of Luc’s was the ability to connect with others to use their sight.

His other gift—peering into the minds of others—was normally rather reliable.

Of course, he normally didn’t try to peer inside Will’s impenetrable mind.

It was like trying to peer at anything with his sightless eyes…he saw nothing.

“Yet you still can’t help but try to look, can you?” Will asked.

Luc shrugged. “Habit.” Stroking a hand down Krell’s back, he said, “If I hadn’t had that gift to rely on for the past few centuries, it wouldn’t be second nature.”

“True.” There was a pause and Luc could hear the other man coming closer.

As Will sat down beside him, Luc muttered a quiet oath. So the boss wasn’t there for a quick chat. Fuck it all.

Will laughed quietly. “You’re still mad at me.”

“Oh, it’s not so much that I’m angry. I just don’t like you, Will.” The hand stroking Krell curled into a fist. He was angry, though. Not just over the loss of Perci. That was a pride thing just as much as anything else. He was angry at Will, angry at himself, angry with Perci even, for how long they’d let each other suffer.

“If you would but be honest with yourself, you would realize she has been lost to you for a very long time,” Will said quietly.

“Oh, I know that.” He sighed. “Knowing it in here…” He touched a hand to his temple, then laid it against his heart. “Doesn’t make it any easier to accept in here.”

“Truer words,” Will mused. “Does it make it any easier for you to know that she is happy? Happier than she has been for a very long time?”

Luc closed his eyes. “It makes it easier. Yet it hurts like a son of a bitch. I couldn’t help her, and I’m arrogant enough for that to sting. But I love her enough to want her happy, no matter what the cost.”

For the next few moments, no words were spoken. It had been more than six months since Perci had left. Six months. But it had been hundreds of years since he had lost her. They had been married once, long ago. Back in their mortal life. They had come through the change from mortal to Grimm together, but they hadn’t been together as man and wife since their mortal years. The wounds they’d received, the murder of their children, Luc’s torture at the hands of his stepmother, Perci’s abuse—it had left scars that went too deep.

Luc had accepted those losses, and he might have been willing to let go, but the woman he’d loved, he couldn’t help her, and she couldn’t move on. She’d carried those hurts so deeply.

She was happy now, though. With another man. A new Grimm, and a man Luc would like to hate.

It was a bitch that he just couldn’t.

“So what brings you to my humble abode, old man?” he asked Will after the silence had stretched on just a little too long.

“I’ve a job for you.”

“Well, I figured you hadn’t come out just to have a beer.” Luc rose to his feet. “But if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to go have one.”

“Haven’t we already established the fact that you can’t get drunk?”

“I’m not drinking to get drunk—I just like the taste of it. And you can talk while we walk,” Luc pointed out. He snapped his fingers for Krell to join him and reached down, resting a hand on the dog’s head, seamlessly connecting their minds and looking around.

Sure enough, clouds had rolled in. He could feel the wind slapping against him and it had a cold bite to it. Maybe he’d lay a fire at the chalet. A fire, while he had that beer, and listened to whatever insane job Will had laid out for him.