Sin of Fury Page 3

  With anger, at his brother for being angry over the picture. With longing, missing her and her smile. With pain, because of her betrayal. With hate, because of that bastard. His fingers itched to wrap around Talon’s throat, to tear away every limb that had touched her.

  It had been so long ago, it was amazing that the hate and betrayal was still so fresh. Auro would never know how it felt to lose someone who meant the world to them. It always amazed him, that his brother could be so close-minded. Now it only angered him.

  Amena and Auro were the only ones who understood him. He loved them both equally, had cherished them. It had torn his heart when he realized that Amena was only a whore, using him for his power and position.

  He laughed bitterly, hands tightening around the picture frame. How would she feel now, knowing that he had been so lowered in status, no one knew who he was? Before, grown, battle-scarred men had turned their head away with fear for meeting his soulless gaze. That had been his one pride, and he had not known that Amena called to the dark like he called to death.

  Darkness had taken her. Death kept him alive.

  Lyne stared down at the faded picture, knowing that the time for him to rid himself of her was growing closer.

  He had promised himself that when they finally got Talon, he would give her up, forget her. By then, his revenge would have been exacted. It had taken longer than Auro had thought to find the man, and Lyne had only grown more attached. Even through death she held his heart in her grasp.

  The last time they had been too late. A raid from France had been Talon’s downfall. A reputable baron with a beautiful wife, he had been the envy of many and, as Lyne was later told by his serfs, kept a strict hand and was horridly loyal to the king.

  That loyalty had been his downfall. Lyne could remember running through his manor, praying that they weren’t too late. When he had barged into the room, he had known immediately that he hadn’t made it.

  Talon hadn’t known about his powers, his ability to take over legions, hundreds, even thousands of men. The woman that he had died with had not been his real love, but some woman that his parents had arranged for him. The sex had not unleashed his powers, and before the raid. Auro had been ecstatic. The turn of fate had been in their favor, he had boasted as they made the long travel to Talon’s hold.

  Auro had been wrong.

  The flames had eaten the two alive. Lyne had stared in despair, in fury... They had been too late, once again. His chest tightened with remembered pain. His mind turned back to Amena, their last failure, a shame.

  “I’m such a fool,” he whispered. His anguished whisper turned into an angry roar. The picture hit the wall with a bang. Glass flew at him, the explosion not bringing relief as he had hoped, but pain. He was truly done with her. No longer would his thoughts dwell on Amena.

  Dropping his eyes to the picture, he stayed still. The silence within the room was deafening after the shattering glass. The faded piece of paper floated to the ground, the frayed edges brushing the wall delicately. He had held it softly for so long, had taken care of the picture as if it were the real woman. Now it was time to forget. To move on. To conquer and kill Talon.

  It was the time to forget about the whore who had ruined him and sent him into his endless life.

  ~*~

  “Are you as happy as I, brother?” Lyne asked over his shoulder.

  His tunic was stained with blood, his dark brown hair matted with dust and other unmentionables. The two braids on either side of his face were longer than the rest,

  just as Lyne’s were.

  Auro nodded shortly, looking up at Lyne’s hut. He shared it with his wife, Amena, while Auro had the one adjacent to them. The separation had been painful for them both, but Auro had refused to be around them on their wedding night and every night after that.

  “Come now,” Lyne teased, a lilt in his voice. “We shall have a feast! A feast greater than the Gods could hope for!”

  His boast went unheard, for Auro was staring around them with a new look.

  Suspicion.

  “Did you tell Amena that we would be back today? Alix said his squire was taking missives for the families back with him. Surely you sent her a letter?”

  Lyne shook his head. “I was hoping to surprise her,” he said, starting to frown. The house was too quiet, he thought absently. The normal laughing voice was not accompanied by her maids, nor was anyone walking about.

  He frowned at his brother. “Should I have?” he asked tentatively. Surely she would have been home, tending to the household. Had she taken ill? he thought, leaving his brother in the greeting room. Throwing the curtains back to gaze into his room, he saw the unwrinkled bed sheets.

  There was only one thing on the bed, a woman’s tunic. He walked into the room, barely noticing when his brother left the house. The fabric was soft against his nose as he breathed in her scent, his longing for her coming back in a rush.

  He put the chiffon down slowly.

  “My love?” he called out, praying that she was playing a game with him.

  After waiting for several minutes, he came to the conclusion that she wasn’t. His anger ignited. Lyne strode from the room, mind racing. His general had come back early, after the first invasion. He hadn’t said why, and Lyne could really care less.

  Maybe he would know what happened to his wife, he thought as he strode to the General’s hut. Several people backed away from him, mothers grabbing their children. Men turned their eyes away, looking down. It was normal for them, but this time… this time, it was because of something else—he knew it.

  He knocked for several minutes, yet no answer came. Growing impatient, he opened the door and strode inside, knowing he was breaking the rules of etiquette.

  The room was clean, spotless. A chair sat in the corner, a cart next to it. He walked deeper into the house, forgetting about the war that he had just come from and the fact that his general would be angered by his intrusion.

  He walked farther into the place, his senses alert. The darkness of the house was unsettling, causing him to stay quiet. With his hand on the hilt of his sword, he stalked to the back of the house. The sounds that he heard brought him to a halt.

  Lyne paused, hand stilling on the doorknob.

  A deep voice mingled with a soft, breathy one on the other side. His face paled, hand turning numb.

  Through the thing walls, the sound of slick flesh sliding together could he heard.

  His ears rang. Feeling a raging, boiling anger rising within his body, his very soul, he shoved the door open.

  He would never forget what he saw.

  Naked and covered with a sheen of sweat, chest thrust into the air. Her legs were on either side of his body, the dark contours glimmering with sweat in the light. Her hair hung down her back, so pale it was almost colorless. Ragged moans were coming from the man under her slick body, and her hips were grinding against his pelvis.

  One dark hand was wrapped around her waist, the other on her breast. Even Lyne, standing from the doorway, could hear how loudly she was breathing. The man under her wasn’t in any better condition.

  Lyne stared for all of three seconds. Shock hit him. Next the pain. Then the unadulterated fury of knowing that his general, one of the most trustful men in the world, was fucking his wife. His face devoid of all emotion, he strode into the room.

  It took only a few seconds for the couple to register him completely. Amena screamed, the passion in her eyes quickly turning to fear.

  Her terrified eyes stared up at him as his hand reached forth. She shrank back instinctively, whimpering, and scrambled off the general’s lap. Lyne grit his teeth against the pain he felt when he noticed the bite marks around her neck and breasts. He made to follow her. Amena glanced desperately at her lover for help. The general, however, just sat there, watching them with dispassionate eyes. He didn’t even blink when Lyne charged at her, didn’t even care that the woman he was fucking just a few seconds ago was probably in mortal
danger. Amena scrambled back, her naked back hitting the wall, her eyes flickering to the general’s impassive face, begging for help she wouldn’t receive. She screamed in pain when Lyne’s hand latched onto her hair.

  “Lyne, please…” she begged, her voice high with panic. Her hands wrapped around his wrists, trying to stop the yanking.

  He only snarled, tightening his grip. “I come home,” he started, looking at her naked body in disgust, “and I find my wife fucking someone, other than me?”

  His roar had her flinching. Amena dug her nails into his arm, trying to get him to let go. Lyne turned away from her in disgust and looked at the general. He was laying on the bed, watching indifferently. His hand was holding his head up, and he was laying on his side, still erect and damp with his wife’s sweat and juices.

  Lyne stared at him, ignorant of his wife’s fearful cries and pleading. “You don’t care—at all?” he asked, the anger in his voice earning a raised brow.

  “If you hadn’t intruded into my home, this wouldn’t be happening,” the general said carelessly, waving his hand. “Continue, if you may.”

  His face contorted with rage. Hands numb, a red haze coming over his vision, he dropped Amena and lunged for the general. The urge to kill him was so overwhelming --the general, one of the strongest and most dangerous men Lyne had ever met, had grown to respect despite his hard demeanor-- his chest felt like it was boiling.

  The strong fist that connected with his face made him shout, head falling back. Blood fell from his nose, the rush of pain that hit behind his eyes almost making him gasp. Instead of surrendering as he should have, he drew himself up to his full height and met the General’s gaze, the lure of retribution almost making him attack again.

  “Leave!” the general roared, surging to his feet. Disgusted eyes met Amena’s and then Lyne’s. The fury in them was evident. “Leave here! If you so much as think that you can lay a hand on me without being punished—think again. Get out of here!” he shouted, the power radiating from the man startling and only fueling Lyne’s anger.

  Amena’s eyes widened with terror. She dragged herself to the General’s side, wrapping her arms tightly around his leg. “Please, lover! Don’t let him—“

  The General’s eyes connected with her pale ones, the repulsion radiating from him in waves as he jerked from her grasp. “Take your whore, you foolish bastard! Take her and leave my land! You made a grave mistake for ever coming into my house and daring to lay a hand on me.”

  Lyne stared at him, wishing with everything inside of him that he could kill him. His own weakness sickened him. He vowed to get stronger, to annihilate the general who had wronged him so. Right then, he knew that he would do whatever he could to get his revenge.

  Snarling, he grabbed Amena by her hair and dragged her roughly away from the general. Her pain-filled screams rang through the room, and when he would have felt his heart soften towards her, he remembered how she had been screaming for the general—with pleasure. His heart hardened, hate flowing through his veins. A growl of disgust mixed with her cries for mercy as he dragged her from the room.

  He shoved her out of the door, watching unfeelingly as she slammed into the wall, a small gash appearing on her forehead. Eyes turning dead, the same time that his heart froze, he picked her up by her arm and shoved her into the street, naked as the day she was born.

  The ultimate shame that came over her face was not enough for him. Lyne looked back at the house, the dark interior as eerie as the silence that it permitted. Feeling his face flush with rage as women and men turned to look upon the once happy couple, he took his sword from its sheath.

  The cold slide of metal, the sick, gut-wrenching feeling that coursed through his body, and the pained eyes of his wife were not lost to him. Amena cried out in horror, scampering back, her hands trying to protect her modesty even as she ran from her enraged husband. She tripped and almost fell, catching herself with her arms at the last second. Hunched over and heaving, she threw a panicked glance over her shoulder.

  Lyne advanced towards her, his eyes dead. The love for her that always seemed to shine in his expressive eyes was gone, probably forever. She crawled forward on her hands and knees, sharp, tiny rocks embedding into her skin and leaving abrasions that bled and dyed the cracked soil with blood. One of the men from the crowd kicked her in the stomach, jeering. She lurched and fell onto her back. The crowd laughed and screamed obscenities at her. Amena looked up at the sky with tears in her eyes. She was dead, finished. She had no one to blame but herself.

  Her attempt to escape ended when she saw Lyne staring down at her. Sobs racked her body. Ashamed, she was so ashamed. Her vision had gone oddly constricted, the sides blacking out until there was only her husband’s face. The betrayal she saw there cut her. But she wouldn’t be here to regret it, would she? The fight drained out of her. She was tired.

  Amena lay still. She was gone. She was finished. But she would be avenged.

  As he stared around the gathering crowd, cheers and boasts ringing the dusty air, the wind picking up, Lyne saw Auro.

  Silently, calmly, he leaned against the back of a building, watching with an emotion that Lyne could not begin to make out. The sword in his hand felt heavy, the hilt seeming to burn into his soul as he now stared down at the still woman staring up at him with pleading eyes.

  His heart stopped in his chest. The knowledge that Auro had known this would happen hit him, almost bringing him to his knees. The welling tears in his eyes refused to fall, rage and betrayal taking their stead.

  As he brought down the sword, the crowd crying louder along with his wife, his whisper was lost among the ominous howls of the now-raging wind.

  “You will know this pain one day, Talon.”

  ~*~

  Auro looked up at the soft slide of the door. The candle burning beside him flickered in the breeze, the words of his book fading from sight for only a second. He set it down slowly as his brother entered the library with soft steps.

  Lyne was quiet as he sat down, something that Auro was wary about. There was a small puckered cut on his hand, and he knew immediately what Lyne had done.

  “I am done.” Lyne spoke quietly, head bowed.

  Auro smiled, putting his hand on Lyne’s shoulder. “I am glad, brother. I knew it would only be a matter of time til you were completely done with the remembrance of that whore.”

  Lyne nodded, bringing his pale face up to meet Auro’s soft eyes. “I do not know why I held onto her for so long,” he murmured, brow stooping over his expressive eyes. Auro smiled again, more adoring this time. It was a pleasure to know that he was the only one who could read his brother so well. Any other man would have thought Lyne was as dead as a corpse inside, but he knew better.

  “Sometimes… I get so angry, Auro. I want to kill everything. I know that is what you wish, but when it came to Amena… Auro, it was so bad…” His voice broke on her name, just as his heart pitched.

  Lyne was finally over her memory, yet the piece of his heart that she had taken with her, had crushed and torn…it would never be the same. Auro knew that if the time came—and it would—Lyne would become the more superior wrath. His fighting was more extensive and his emotions, so uncapped and free, would take over his common sense. One day, Lyne would be greater than him.

  It bothered Auro naught. His strength and anger would be what kept them alive until they had Talon’s full power.

  “Lyne,” he started, brushing his thumb along his brother’s jugular. Matching crimson eyes met his. “What news of the woman have you found?” He had let his brother have the honor of seeking the woman.

  Suddenly, Lyne’s eyes seemed to sparkle. “The best! It seems, my brother, that she has been living under our noses the entire time.”

  Auro cocked a brow, his fingers tangling in the thin hair at the nape of Lyne’s neck. “Is that so, dear one?”

  Lyne nodded, leaning back into the chair. “Remember the woman’s nurse maid, the last time arou
nd? The weird occurrences that she spoke of, and how they corresponded with Talon’s former birth?”

  He nodded, pleased at the turn of the night. “Oh, I remember. How could I forget?” he asked dryly, already knowing that his brother’s information would sound foolish at best.

  “She was originally born in Florida,” Lyne started, ignoring his droll comment.

  Auro nodded, telling him to go on without words. The smile that Lyne gave him was salacious. “My men reported back to me that the nurses who birthed her were willing to give them some interesting information. Before I get to that, I would like us both to recall what the midwifes told us the time before last.”

  He waved his hand for Lyne to continue when he looked pointedly at Auro to make sure he was listening. “Yes, well, they said the fires flickered, then burst. The candles through the room exploded, and even some of their utensils seemed to spark with life.”

  Auro knew the words were spiced to make his claim more interesting, yet he listened with interest, appeasing his brother. “They were not born in the same year, mind you, but at the same time—midnight. Don’t shake your head at me with that foolish smile, brother. What I’m saying is serious.

  “He was born at midnight, on the first of January. Same for the woman, but she was born only several years later. Six years apart, yet their birth is concurrent. Just as it was all of the other times—it was the one thing that we never accounted for.”

  Auro knew he was right, but couldn’t bring himself to believe what Lyne was saying. It was a silly notion, one that he would not be able to support until he saw the proof. “How do you know that that is what’s linking them, brother? Millions of babes are born at the same time,” he pointed out, moving his hand down his brother’s shoulder in a caressing motion.

  Lyne smiled, taking Auro’s hand to place a small kiss upon his knuckles. “The night those two were born, the hospital lost its electricity. They were born in two different hospitals, the only babies born that night, and they both caused a great amount of lost energy. Our men reported back to me that by the time the children were out, the wives had turned into something close to demons. The way that the nurses described it, they said, was as if the mothers had become possessed—“