Samuel's Pride: Hawk Part 9

"I won't." She looked around when she'd realized she'd spoken aloud. The witch had told her that a child, a single child, would destroy her. She'd even told her, in great detail, how it would happen.

She will be born with such beauty that you will pale greatly in comparison. Once she has come into her own, a mate to love her as no one will, life to be happy in as none she'd ever known, and friends to cherish her for what she means to them, not what she can give to them, she will be stronger than her sires will ever be. And loved by all that know her. Temptress had blown her off. Her plan had always been to kill anything that came from her body. And until that one time, it had worked so well.

Temptress was sort of worried about the lion that she'd taken control of. If he wasn't the mate, then who was he? If he was important, a lord or whatever they called the ones in charge in this world, she had broken a huge law. No, she thought, he'd been a s.h.i.+fter and running, so why would she have thought any differently? More than likely he was a n.o.body, not anyone to be concerned about. But at the back of her mind, she had a feeling this, too, was going to bite her in the a.s.s.

She stood in line at the coffee shop. It was her newest addiction. Who knew there was such a wonderful thing as coffee? And those cream-filled thingy's were to die for...just too good to pa.s.s up. The list of the kinds of drinks were amazing too. Temptress had no idea what to order, so would just order the same thing that the person in front of her did. So far she'd been very lucky in that she'd loved each kind.

Her turn came and she did as she usually did, and put in an order for the sweet rolls by simply pointing to them. The man looked at her oddly but turned and ordered her the drink. Then when she moved along, Temptress caught a glimpse of herself in the gla.s.s behind him.

Something was happening. Turning to leave the cafe, she covered her mouth with her hand. Her lips were peeling open; the lower one was split deeply. The use of her magic here in this realm was taking away from her beauty and her energy. Running back to the hotel, she nearly fell twice. The heels that she'd gotten broke on one shoe, and she was left limping along. By the time she was pulling out her keys to get inside, away from staring eyes, she felt her cheek split open and her eye swell shut.

The key wouldn't work. It took her several minutes of crying in frustration to realize she was at the wrong door. By the time she was in the room, she was bleeding badly, and her body was beginning to sag. Something in her mind made her think this was the curse, but she s.h.i.+ed away from that.

Vega was sitting on the side of the bed, dressed, which surprised her. For the past several days he'd only worn a sheet. But when he looked up at her, she could see the shock on his face. Covering herself as best she could, Temptress made her way to the bathroom.

"What the h.e.l.l happened to you?" She didn't answer him as he shouted through the door. "You look like...well, h.e.l.l you look like you're falling apart."

She did not need this right now and snapped her fingers. The magic that she meant to use on herself went to him and she heard him fall. As he did, the sound of him banging against something made her laugh, but a large chunk of her hair fell out. f.u.c.k. She really was falling apart.

When Temptress came out of the bathroom, she had to step over Vega. He didn't look right, and it took her several moments to realize that his neck was bent at an odd angel. When she listened for his heartbeat, she realized that he was dead. Sitting on the side of the bed, she just stared at him.

"Nothing is going right here." Her voice seemed strange, and she realized something else. Her s.e.xy voice, the one she'd worked on for decades to perfect, was not there. The tears that she'd blotted at in the bathroom fell now, and she knew that her make-up, what was left of it anyway, was smearing.

An hour later, Rysdan came into the room. Temptress didn't even bother explaining to her when she asked what had happened. To be honest, and she seldom was, she wasn't sure where to even start. Nothing was going according to plan.

"I cannot bring you anything." Temptress looked at her helper. "There is a magical block on your rooms. I tried to bring through several things, but once I pa.s.sed your doors, whatever I had in my hands was gone."

"Nothing?" Rysdan nodded. "There are things that I need. Now especially. Did you try that book, the spell book that I stole from the witch? It wasn't mine in the first place. That should be easy to get."

"It is no longer there either. A great many of your things are missing. I looked for those two charms you took as well, thinking we could sell them for this money that we need. They are not where you said you hid them." Rysdan sat down as she continued. "Even the clothing that you asked me to bring disappeared when I walked out of your rooms. And when I looked to see if they were back in the closet, they were not."

"Halmar." Rysdan told her she thought so as well. "What am I supposed to do now? He has made it so that I cannot go home. I cannot bring my things to me. How do I live? And where is he?"

"With the girl." Temptress shook her head. "There is a buzz about the kingdom about how he has his child back. Some are even speculating that you are dead and that this child, Awnia, will take your place. Halmar is taking her things as well. I think she has your books."

Temptress felt her anger rise. This s.h.i.+t was going to make it impossible for her to resume her role as a G.o.ddess. If this continued, Temptress had a real fear that the daughter would do just as the witch had said. Destroy her.

"We're going to her place. Where we were told by Vega that she was. I want to go there now." Rysdan didn't move. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

"You might want to check yourself out. I mean...I have no idea what is going on with you, but you're falling apart." Temptress growled. "I don't mind if you don't, but we have no money to speak of, and walking there is going to take us a long time. If you can do something with what you look like, perhaps we can get someone to take us."

"It is either we find her and destroy her with what I have left, or I look good. When she's finished, I will have everything back anyway." Rysdan stood up, but she didn't look like she was convinced. "It's going to be fine. I swear it."

"I thought once you destroyed the mate, that was going to end this." Temptress had a small s.h.i.+ver of fear settle over her. There was something there that worried her. The cat...who was the cat? "I'm taking it that it didn't work out."

"I have no idea. Are you coming or not?" They moved out of the room, and she had Rysdan summon them a cab. She had no idea how they were going to pay for it, but that would have to be low on the list. If she had to, she would make sure that he didn't charge for people to ride in his filth ever again.

Hawk touched his fingers to the soft wood again. He smiled when he heard the people behind him arguing. They could have waited for him to leave, but he was glad for the distraction. The desk he was working with was not happy with them any more than they were with each other. Well, the man who had owned the desk wasn't, at any rate.

"What will they do with my money, do you suppose?" Hawk said he had no idea. "Spend it on stupid things. Things that have no value once they get it. I've seen them toss out more food in the eight months I've been dead than we had for a year when I was growing up."

"People nowadays are very wasteful." He agreed. "I don't know what to tell you about your money. If you tell me, then I'll tell them. I'll even give them instructions on how you want them to spend it if you'd like." The man snorted. "I said I would give them to them, not make them carry them out."

"Do you know I'd have better luck having this desk that you're fondling do the right thing than the lot of them? More than likely they'll listen to you, nod those heads like that stupid plastic dog in the back of our car the missus and I had when we first wedded, and do what they want." Hawk had to stifle a laugh. "You laugh now, boy, but I'm telling you the truth. You have kids?"

"Not yet. I would like some, but we only just found each other." The man told him congratulations. "Thank you. My Awnia is very special. I'm very much in love with her."

"Awnia? What kinda name is that? Never mind. I don't care. What am I...what the h.e.l.l are you doing now?" Hawk turned and looked at the man. His body wasn't formed, but Hawk had been doing this long enough that he knew how to look. "Those drawers don't hold nothing them idiots need to find. Just some old pictures of me and their mother. Vacation and the like."

"They want me to tell them something. I can tell them whatever you like." He moved around the room, touching some of the items that had been left behind by a man who, for all intents and purposes, had led a good life. When he touched a small ceramic dog, he felt the connection to it immediately. "Your grandson."

"Yes. If I could tell him where it was at and have him manage it, I'd do it. But he's just eleven, and they'd take it before he could get it to the bank." Hawk put the dog back and picked up the small-framed picture next to it. "That's him. My pride and joy. s.h.i.+tty parents, but he turned out all right."

Hawk started to put the picture back when one of the living relatives came into the room and moved to the desk, as far from Hawk as she could get. The tall boy beside her was sporting a black eye, and he looked like he would fall apart if someone said something to him. Hawk thought the boy looked depressed. As he walked by him, Hawk brushed against him and knew that the kid wouldn't make it if he stayed with this woman. He looked at the dead man.

"You know something." Hawk nodded once. "They hurting him? If they are, then I want you to take care of it."

"You know I can't." The man looked lovingly at the boy. "There is only so much I can do. I can...there is a way for you to help him if you'd like."

The man told him anything. After Hawk explained twice what he wanted done, the old man laughed. "This is going to be the best thing I've done since I made my first million. Get on with it. I'm ready."

Hawk nodded. "Mrs. Anderson, I've spoken with your father. He said there is no money at all. The desk that you're trying to sell is worthless, and as far as I can tell, there is nothing in it that he might have hidden."

"You're lying. That man was made of money. He'd never share it with any of us, but there has to be something." Hawk said nothing but looked at the young man. "I'm not going to stop looking. I deserve it more than anyone. I had to stay here the last five years with him. All of it should be mine."

"Yours?" The brother to the woman came into the room and snorted at her as he continued. "You only stayed here because you had nowhere else to go. You'd been kicked out of every other place you lived for non-payment of rent. And when Daddy decided that he wasn't paying them off again, you moved in here. I bet he just f.u.c.king loved that."

Just as he'd told him he would, the man moved the small dog. The movement was caught by the boy, but no one else seemed to notice as they argued. Hawk took it from him, making sure that the kid looked at him. When he did, Hawk nodded to the desk.

"You should have it." The boy looked at his mother. "It's for you. He wants you to have it."

"Me?" Hawk nodded. "You see him? You really see him? My grandda? Tell him that I miss him more and more every day."

"He misses you as well. He wants you to have the desk. He said that you and he had a great many conversations around it." The boy looked at the desk, then back at him. "Ask them. Your grandda is going to help you get it."

"I want him back more, but I'll take it." He told the kid to have a seat at the desk, and he moved to stand by the door to help if needed. Hawk had never done anything so underhanded in his life, but these people were hurting the kid and he deserved a chance.

"Mom, Uncle Denton, I was wondering if I could have this." He ran his hand over the smooth surface, and Hawk could see the boy's love for it. "It's not worth anything, and I'd really like to do my homework on it. If I have it in my room, I won't be bothering you at the table anymore."

The kid played it well, and it looked like their plan wasn't going to be needed. Then the woman looked at the man, and he knew that they were thinking how much money they could get for it.

"We'll sell it in a garage sale. Giving it to you will give us nothing, and if there really is no money, we need all we can get."

That's when the dead man made his move.

The drawers next to the kid opened first. The box of envelopes came spraying out of it so quickly that it looked like winter had settled in the room. The pens in the middle drawer were the next thing to go flying. Two of them zipped past the woman and her brother so hard that they stuck in the wall behind them. When they backed away from the desk, Hawk cleared his throat.

"I'm to inform you that if you don't let his grandson have the desk, he'll come to haunt you for the rest of your lives." The books on the wall started to come down. Not one at a time, but by the shelf full. "He said that if the desk stays with the boy, then he'll leave you alone."

"Tell him we will if he tells us where the money is." The chair next to her exploded, leaving padding and material all over the room. The woman stepped back, but Denton wasn't as quick and got hit by one of the legs. His screaming was enough to make Hawk wince.

"He said there is no money." She nodded as she helped her brother up. He was telling her to f.u.c.king give the kid the desk.

"What do we give a s.h.i.+t for? Do you want to be looking around all the time to see if he's going to try and kill us? I sure don't." Hawk looked at the boy, who was still at the desk. "If this doesn't prove to you once and for all that he's a f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d, then nothing will. Give him the desk. But we're not paying you."

This last statement was directed at Hawk. Nodding once, he made his way to the desk. He'd help the kid carry it up to his room. He'd already heard they were going to live in the big house. About halfway up the stairs, with the help of two of the men in the house, the ghost man spoke to him again.

"He'll cherish this." Hawk told him he knew he would. "And he'll know when the time is right where the money was kept for him. I had already talked to the lawyer about setting it up so that my will wouldn't be read until he's eighteen. I'm going to take care of him when no one else would...and just let one of them try to hurt him again."

After he made his way home, feeling really good about what had happened, he reached for Awnia. She sounded happy as well, and told him what she was up to.

Halmar, my father, has brought me some things from his home. He told her that was wonderful. I know. We are sorting through some of the treasures that he has collected. He has been to every place I've been.

You and he are a great deal alike. He felt her joy at that. I'm on my way home. And then I thought that the two of us would go out to dinner. Have a date.

A date? We are already sleeping together, Hawk. A date seems silly. Fun, but silly. He liked that she was still happy, and thought the date sounded fun. I have nothing really to wear out to see people. All my things are mostly what Kennedy calls casual.

You wear casual very beautifully. I'll be home soon, and when I get there, we'll make a trip to the mall first. How does that sound?

Wonderful. He told her he loved her and closed the connection. To have a date with her was perfect. He'd ask her to marry him after they ate, and then figure out the soonest that it could be arranged. Hawk found himself whistling as he drove up the long drive.

Chapter 12.

Halmar was nervous. He'd never done anything so...well, he hated to admit it, but underhanded in all his life. He should have been able to talk to the young s.h.i.+fter, but he'd called in Samuel to help. The big lion had agreed to help him much quicker than he'd thought he would.

"He's going to be all right." Halmar nodded. "You're sure about this? You think he's her mate and this will work?"

"I am. And he is. There is no reason to believe otherwise. She is in love with the man. Anyone can see that." Samuel nodded. "And when I spoke with Vicente, he said that while he loved Awnia, they both knew that they were not mates. This just feels right."

Samuel nodded. Halmar was wondering how much longer it would be until Hawk arrived home when he opened the door from the garage. Halmar could tell that he was suspicious, but he only asked where Awnia was.

"Kennedy and the others came to get her to go shopping. She said something about you and her going out tonight, and I asked Kennedy and Summer to take her. The others went along as well. Halmar and I need to talk to you."

Hawk nodded and asked if they could go to the living room. As they made their way there, he told them about his day.

"Will he inherit it all?" Hawk told him that he would. "And this mother of his, you say that she hurts him?"

"I don't think she'll be able to any more. His grandda said he was going to stay with him until he no longer needed him. I'm thinking the boy will need him forever." Hawk sat down, and Halmar wanted to pace. "You have something to tell me?"

"She's your mate." Samuel groaned when Halmar blurted it out. "I mean, she really is. And the sooner you get this process over with, the sooner she can be safe."

"I think you should have let me tell him." Halmar wasn't one to beat around the trees or whatever shrubbery they used. But Samuel asked him to have a seat and he'd explain. But young Hawk spoke first.

"She is my mate. I've been telling her that for weeks now. I have no idea what this process is, but if I can make it true, then I'd like for you to tell me."

"It's not as simple as that. You have to accept her. And trust her." Hawk nodded at Samuel, but he raised his hand. "It's not like that. You can't just say it, Hawk, but truly do it. Then when you find the piece of her that she's held onto, then you can be her true mate."

"You mean this?" Halmar watched as Hawk dug something out of his pocket. When he laid it on the table between then, he nearly laughed. The boy had it all along.

"Where did you get that?" He told him that Samuel had given it to him when he helped search for Awnia. "And you've had it all this time? Have you worn it? I mean, around your throat?"

"No. It's been in my pocket. I meant to give it back to Vinnie. He asked me for it a couple of times, but I found I just couldn't part with it. What is it?'

Halmar wanted to hug Hawk, but needed more information first.

"It's her. I mean the part of her that's reserved for her mate. It's supposed to contain a part of her heart, the part that beats." Both Samuel and Hawk looked at him oddly. "I'm not explaining this well. Let me tell you a story."

"Will this bond us?" Halmar nodded at Hawk. "If you tell me how it works, then I'll do it. I don't care what it is."

"When she was...she died. Or so we were all told. I never thought of it again. I never...it was only days before her sixteenth year, and she was supposed to come to her own then. But when she fell ill, the witch came to find me and told me she was born for great things. I, of course, knew that, but she said that if and when she found her mate, the gift to him would be gone because of the illness that nearly took her life. But that she could save a part of it for her and keep it safe." Hawk asked what it had been. "Like I said, a part of her beating heart. It's in that."

Hawk picked up the medallion and held it to the light. For anyone else, it just looked like a ruby red stone that sparkled around the room. To Halmar and the one that held his daughter's heart, it would look as if it pulsed. Which, of course, it actually did.

"I thought it was alive the first time I saw it." Halmar's confidence that this was the right thing to do grew. "She never...I touched it to her once. I thought for sure she was going to make me give it back, but she never asked for it. I don't think she knows what it is."

"She does." Hawk nodded at him as he put the medallion in his pocket. "She has no hope that you're the one. Or she's afraid to believe it. Her mother told her that she'd never find you. And I'm sure that she thinks, and I believe it as well, that her mother will destroy you before you can take her."

"We think that's what happened to me that day. Her mother came to find you, because according to Halmar, she is aware of you, and tried to kill me. With her mate dead, Awnia wouldn't be able to fight against her mother, and Temptress would win."

Halmar watched the young man. He was terrified, if he was honest with himself. If this wasn't her mate then all would be lost, because he knew for a fact that Temptress was here. And not just here, but coming soon to find and destroy his child.

"How will she destroy Awnia? She thinks she can, so there must be a way to do it. How?" Samuel looked at him. "Halmar, I'm going to ask Awnia to marry me tonight. And when she says yes, I want to spend the rest of my life with her. To do that, you're going to have to tell me what the f.u.c.k is going on."

"To destroy her, to end her life, she will kill you. And in doing so, Awnia's heart, the part you hold and the part that beats within her chest, will stop. If that happens, Temptress will take all that she is, much like how magic works. Only this will be more than this world can take. She will not just destroy Awnia, but every living creature in this world as well."

"By her fire." Halmar nodded. "And if Awnia wins...when she wins, what will happen to Awnia? Or better yet, her mother? What happens to Temptress?"

"Her age will show first. And it won't be easy either. Each year of her life will come to her; every hurt, every pain that she's had will be put upon her. Any harm that she's caused to others during her lifetime-our children and the people that she killed-will be suffered upon her. Each one of those will not be quick. Their deaths will play out in the way that she inflicted them." Hawk watched him, and Halmar knew that he had to tell him all of it. "Her magic, what she has left, will go to Awnia. And to you as well."

"There's more. What is it?" Halmar had hoped that he'd just be pleased with what he'd already told him. But he should have known better. The boy was sharp.

"She'll take her place in the kingdom. She'll...Awnia will be a true G.o.ddess." Hawk got up to pace. "You and she will need to come to our realm. Live there among your own kind. You could come here to visit, to stay for a time, but it will no longer be safe for her to be here unprotected. And the two of you will need to be protected."

"Why?" Halmar got up to pace as well. Hawk stared at him as he made two pa.s.ses by him. "Halmar, I have a feeling that we're running out of time. Say it."

"She is the last of our kind. To have a mated pair of G.o.ds is so rare that we've not had one since...Temptress and I were the last. If you do not come to the realm and have children there, where we can keep them safe, then our world will die."

"Does Awnia know this? All of this?" Halmar shook his head. "Then you will tell her before I accept this responsibility. I will not trick her into anything. If she doesn't want to go to your realm, I'm just as happy to live and love her here."

Halmar started to argue with him, but Deacon came in the room.