Fated Absolution (22 page)

He was able to undo the chains about her with the help of Morrigan and soon he was cradling her broken body next to his. He walked outside the chamber where they had been taken and fell to the floor in her life’s blood and sobbed for the woman and the pain she had endured.

He sobbed for all that she was, and could have been.

“I have no wish to live, Morrigan. I cannot anyway. She was my life blood, I cannot survive without her. I don’t even want to. As soon as she is buried, I will meet the sun. You should know this now. I will not go on without her.”

Morrigan jerked around so fast he nearly dropped his precious burden. She was upon him so quickly he was hard against the wall before he could think to move.

“You will have her death mean nothing? You will let her sacrifice to save you be for nothing? You fool! You do not deserve her. Her last breath, her last thought was for you, for you to live, and by all that is magic you will, do you understand me, you will.”

She turned back around and walked on, he could do nothing but follow her from the deep caverns.

Once they were out of the caves and onto green grass and under the full moon she had him lay Maddy onto the ground. He did so, reverently smoothing out her tattered clothing and wiping her hair from her battered face.

Raising her arms above her head, Morrigan started chanting again. Her voice was clear and strong, she called for her sisters seven.

“I beseech thee; sister’s mine, to come to me now. I beseech thee, for the one who
would lead us all. Come to me and heal her now, come to me and let her live. I beseech
thee; sister’s mine, to come to me now.”

She repeated this twice more, then sat at the foot of Maddy’s body and waited with her head bowed low. When Kyle started to speak, he heard the thunder roll in, rumbling and bowling across the sky. Then the earth moved, it shifted and danced beneath his feet as he stood to protect Maddy’s body from the rain. Next came the lightening, streaking across the sky in bold strikes, hitting the earth were they stood.

And just as quickly as it rolled in, there were three women standing before him. One as black as the night, another in white as the lightening, the last as green as the grass.

“Kyle Shane Dixon, meet Mother Nature.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic,” the one in white said. “You always were one for the flare. I can’t believe that you’ve not changed in all these millennium. We aren’t Mother Nature, my dear boy, we are the Fates. I swear Morrigan. I don’t know what to do with you sometimes.”

“The Fates.
The
Fates. Right and I’m Saint Nick. Morrigan, what’s going on? Let me take her home.” Kyle leaned down to pick Maddy up but was stayed by a hand on his arm.

“We are the Fates Kyle, we’ve come to finish Madison’s destiny. And yours if you answer correctly.” Fate-One, the one in white kneeled down at Maddy’s head, Fate-Two, the one in black at her left, Fate-Three, in all green at her right. They motioned Kyle at her feet.

“I know what you’re thinking, we can’t be the Fates,” the one in white said to Kyle with a wink. “Well the books and movies have it all wrong, young man. Sharing an eye? Can you image how unsanitary that would be, one of us holding it out so the three of us can see? Nasty business.

Then there is the whole short, fat and ugly hag routine. Do we look, short, fat or ugly to you? W
e
do not
!”

Green Fate pulled things from her pockets as she talked. The other three women did the same, including Morrigan.

“And we don’t even get along, not once in all these years. That’s why we have to be called together, and we make such a racket. We have to try and outdo each other when we make an entrance.” Black Fate was putting Maddy back together and when Kyle made to stop her she smacked his hand away.

“Please, just leave her be, I want to take her home with me.” He made to pick her up again and Green Fate stopped him. “I don’t know why you’re here, and frankly I don’t care, no offence, but I just wanna take my beloved home.”

“We’re here to save her. She is the future for us all. Tell us her name and well bring her back to you. Her full name.”

Kyle looked at each woman in turn. He wanted to believe them, he did. But Maddy was dead. Bringing her back was not an option. He thought these women to be cruel, cruel beyond bearing.

“You’re right Kyle, bringing her back is not an option. And we’re not being anything but helpful,” Morrigan nodded her head at him as she spoke. “You must give them a name Kyle.

Give it to them and they will give this woman life.”

“Her name? You’d like a name to bring this woman back? I don’t understand any of this.

What happened to that man? What happened to Button?” His head was spinning.

They were asking him something, asking him for something that he didn’t know the answer to even though he knew that it was important. Fate-One had said he must answer correctly, if he did she’d come back. What did she mean?

He stared down at Maddy and thought about all the time they had missed out on fighting.

His stupidity mostly, keeping them apart. He loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his lives with her as his mate, to have children with her, to drink from her, and have her drink from him.

With a clarity that overwhelmed him he knew what they asked, “Her name is Madison Shelby Dixon, my mate.”

“Good boy,” White fate said excitedly. “Now stand back and watch us work. Give us her breath Morrigan and the knife. Kyle my boy, you must do as I tell you and nothing more or nothing less, understand?” He nodded.

She was in full charge now he could see. He had a moment of terror when she reached into the sky but when only the wind blew softly he felt better. The four women started to glow, their bodies were glowing brightly in the night sky.

“Take this knife and cut your wrist when I tell you to. Cut it in an ‘x’ across the wrist where the vein is closest to the skin,” she told him showing him just where to make the cut.

“Then you’ll need to tell this woman her name. You’ll need to tell her that you give her this blood for her life, all right?”

“Yes, I understand. My blood for her life. Yes.” He kept murmuring it under his breath and waiting for the signal.

“Ah, it was used in love,” the woman said when Morrigan handed her the small orb of blue light. “Her last breath was used in love. Very poetic, yes very nice indeed.”

They worked on his Maddy for ten minutes, chanting and touching her. Kyle watched their every move. When Black Fate nodded to him, he leaned up and cut his wrist deep just as he’d been told.

When she took his arm and laid it across Maddy’s mouth he said in a clear voice,

“Madison Shelby Dixon, I give my blood for your life.”

Nothing happened for several seconds. Kyle didn’t dare breathe and no one moved in the little circle surrounding Maddy. Then suddenly she took a small taste, then another. After about three deep draws from him he saw her chest rise and fall with breath, still he held his own. He looked to the Fates and when White Fate smiled at him then winked, he drew a deep breath himself.

“You have done well grasshopper,” Green Fate said.

For about ten seconds no one moved, and then the three fates burst out laughing. “You should have seen your face, it was priceless,” one of them said hilarity still evident in her voice.

They continued to roar with laughter until Maddy moved.

“Hello my dear, how are you?” White Fate had been watching the closest, next to Kyle.

She seemed to be waiting for her to wake.

“Kyle! Where’s Kyle? Morrigan said she’d save him…Kyle?” She started thrashing around and trying to sit up, but Green Fate held her down.

“You’re still a bit weak child. Just rest here for a bit longer. Kyle, please be a dear and come closer so that she can see you.”

“I’m here, love, right here.” He moved up to her face so that she would stop moving and rest as they’d said.

He had to touch her he realized and reached tentatively to do so. Her skin was warm and soft, and leaned in to kiss her cheek. Her fingers brushed against his cheek and he moved his face closer to her.

“I thought you were dead. I thought he had killed you. He said that you were to watch and then he’d kill you.” He pulled her into his arms and held her close to him.

He looked down at her face and noticed for the first time that she was healing. Her eye had been put back in its socket before he’d fed her and was now staring up at him without any apparent damage to it. The bruises and lacerations along her cheeks were pink, but those too were fading as he watched. Her arms and legs also looked to be whole and mending. He wondered what sort of magic could do so much in so little time.

“The magic we used was secondary to her healing process,” Morrigan said softly to his unasked question. “Your blood, it’s mostly your blood. Given freely and with love it has healed her more quickly than we could. In a day or two she’ll be completely healed.”

“Perfect timing if I do say so myself!” The man from the sublevels had come up behind them and now had jerked Kyle back and had a blade to his throat. “Put her down and lean back away from her. You, bitch, move back. I’ll kill him if you don’t.”

The Fate’s and Morrigan moved away as they’d been told. Just as they raised their hands in unison, Kyle shook his head. This fucker was his.

“You won’t take her from me again. I won’t let you or anyone else try and separate us again. In fact, you’ll not leave this clearing.” Kyle hadn’t moved an inch after laying Maddy back down on the grass. He knew she was too weak to fight and he was going to protect her at all costs.

“You think not,” the man snarled, spittle spraying on Kyle’s face. “She was promised to me bloodsucker, and I’ll have her. She’ll breed me a son, and then if I’m happy maybe I’ll let her live, but first I’m going to fuck her until she is fat with my seed.”

“You know, you keep saying that I was promised to you,” Maddy said as she scooted away from them. “How and by who? I have a right to know before my mate kills you don’t you think? Because for as much as this has been fun, I think you’ve more than outstayed your welcome, buck-o.”

“Oh so brave aren’t you. All right, I’ll tell you. By who? Seems a reasonable enough question. Our daddy gave you to me. He said that I was meant to be the seventh times seven, and granted all the powers you’ll receive. It shouldn’t matter that I’m not a female he told me. A male should be in charge anyway. Females are much too emotional and flighty, he said and I agree. So he thought that if I were to impregnate you that my son would take your power and be in charge. We did a great deal of research on it and there is nothing in the books that say that it can’t be a male. Killing you would be easy enough, you’re a weakling and so many women die in childbirth. Then you met him.”

Kyle shook his head at Maddy when she started to stand. He wanted her to appear weak in the event that he needed her. Kyle had learned one thing tonight and it was that they could accomplish more as a couple than they could as a single.

“Robert failed me in that,” the man continued. “Bad, bad Robert. He was to keep you safe for me and in your place, but he failed. It took us so long to find you. That fucking bitch Heather Spring did a good job hiding you away, but going into law, that was perfect. The law! Ha! What a laugh we had over that. You see our dear dad was a lawyer, and you just followed along in his footsteps.”

“She didn’t want me to go into law. Grammie said that I needed to have a safer, less stressful profession. You’re the reason, the reason she’s dead too aren’t you?” Maddy had sat up now and was leaning against the tree behind her. Kyle could see that she was stronger looking, her wounds all but gone.

“Well of course not. Robert killed her and that other woman too. But that was your fault.

That woman died because you kept changing cars all the time. If you’d of just stayed in the one car, then I’d of had you sooner and that innocent woman wouldn’t have been killed. So, it’s entirely your fault she died. But back to me—it is all about what I’m going to do, is it not. Robert was to make sure you were not seeing anyone. He had to be punished for that. And that’s your fault too. He’s dead too because of you.”

“You’re mad. Stark raving mad,” Kyle said hoping to distract him for a few seconds, diverting his attention away from Maddy. “You’re a sandwich short of a picnic lunch, no air in the tires raving mad. I don’t know why that surprises me, but you are.” When he turned to him, Kyle leaped.

Using his extraordinary speed, he was at the man’s throat in seconds. Jerking his body around so that he faced away, Kyle pulled his head up, exposed his neck and tore out his throat with the claws extending from his fingers. It was over in seconds. Dropping his body to the ground, Kyle looked up to the sky and roared in triumph.

“You’ll need to take his head, Kyle.” Breathing hard he turned to her voice and looked into the face of the woman he would love forever. “Take his head. If you don’t, he may come back. He had enough—”

He kissed her. He’d meant only to taste her, to brush a kiss across her mouth, but one touch and he needed more. Opening his mouth over hers, he deepened the kiss and felt her respond as well, opening to him. The world faded to nothing.

An annoying yank at his arm had him pulling away much sooner than he wanted. He turned to look at Morrigan and the Fates, and growled at them.

“Later big boy. Right now we have some unfinished business to take care of. First and foremost, Madison is correct, you must remove his head. And I have to give Madison her gifts, and to you yours.” Morrigan was smiling at them both. The Fates looked disappointed.

“I don’t know why you couldn’t let them finish,” White Fate said with a pout. “It was just getting interesting. How often do we get to see a couple enjoy themselves? Never is how often.

Spoil-sport!” Having groused some more, the Fates moved forward as one and circled the couple.

“Melody, Queen of yada yada, come now, the night ain’t getting any shorter.” White Fate winked at Maddy. “See that’s how it should be done, just short and simple, wham bam, thank you ma’am.”