The New Path.

The man took a letter from the envelope and unfolded it, he immediately recognized the author's handwriting. An invisible rune in his palm lit up with fire, this was the first time since their agreement when it made its presence to be felt so clearly. This could only mean one thing - it was time to fulfill the agreement.

"Dear Armand,

Knowing your ingenuity, I am sure that you understand what I will tell you further. If you are reading these lines now, it means that everything I have done has not gone in vain, and my little hope has still not died out. Thank you so much for being my friend all these years, even when I was not around.

All my life I have lived with a great burden of responsibility and thought that I had no right to personal happiness. Some people think that seeing the future is a gift, but for me, it was a punishment.

Sometimes I felt jealous about ordinary people because they could live so carelessly, without thinking about what they were saying, and without taking into account the consequences of their actions. After all, for people it is so convenient to live in blissful ignorance and deceive themselves, blaming fate and others for what is happening to them.

I did not want to be like them and could not. I knew my fate, but even this did not stop me from striving for my goal. Until I met him... "

Armand was reading the lines of the letter, and it seemed to him that he heard the voice of Amelia in his head, as calm and confident as once upon a time at their first meeting. This woman was truly one of the most amazing people he met throughout his long life.

"... I realized that even if I could not change the path that fate led me on, I was able to change the attitude with which I went this way. Therefore, even if you cannot change your past and the way you are, nothing prevents you from living the way you want it.

Look at the world in a new way, open your heart and then even the familiar path can appear before you as a new unexplored journey.

I'm sure you understand what I mean. You are free, Armand Taubert. You are free.

Amelia T."

Many times the man imagined what he would feel when his desire finally came true, but he did not assume that this would happen so suddenly.

Armand folded the letter along the same lines that it had been folded before that, and put it back into the envelope.

His gaze met Lina's. There was no hint of the inherent causticity in her eyes, now in her gaze, only anxiety and worry were read.

"Ummm, is everything all right?" Lina asked in a slightly trembling voice.

Armand put the envelope with the letter into the inside pocket of his jacket and smiled with a sincere and charming smile, "If you treat me to tea, then everything will be just wonderful."

"Oh, of course, I'll bring it now," the girl was a little bit confused and hurried to the door.

"Lina," her name, suddenly flying off the man's lips, made the girl stand still. "Thank you," Armand added almost in a whisper.

Lina said nothing and only nodded her head in response, trying to hide behind the door as quickly as possible, before he could see her reddened cheeks.

. . .

The girl was changing the focus of her attention, looking now at the tea petals in her glass, then out the window. She was doing that in order not to face the man sitting opposite her.

This man made her heart pound at a furious speed at every meeting, and although she already knew about him for many years, to see him next to her was an unusual feeling for the girl.

The man did not require special observation to notice a change in her behavior. It seemed that all the arrogance inherent in the girl and acrimony evaporated, and in front of him there was a modest lady, who was not used to communicating with men closely.

"Miss Jones, do you mind if we keep names above titles?" Armand asked, his smile was hidden by a porcelain cup, which he brought to his lips to take a sip of fragrant tea.

"It makes no difference to me," she replied, trying to seem indifferent, although, in reality, it was not so. She brought the cup to her lips, copying the actions of the man.

"Lina," Armand set his cup down on the table, sat up straight in his chair, and gazed steadily at the girl, "We are both adults, so I won't be going around the bush and I'll say it directly. Marry me."

"Khem-Khem, WHAT?!" A sip of black puer was clearly not at the right time, as she almost choked on surprise when she heard these words. "You... you... you... you are a fool, or what?!" was the only thing that the girl could utter clearly.

"I like you. I really like you. Well, actually, I like a lot. A whole lot." The man leaned forward, not looking away, and pronounced each word slowly and clearly as if casting a bewitching spell on the girl.

Lina's cheeks flashed fire. That's exactly why she did not want to be alone with him! Since when has this man become so self-confident?!

"My friend, do not you think that you skipped several stages at once? In general, why did you get the idea that I like you?!" she was indignant at his absurd straightforwardness.

"Isn't that so?" The man raised an eyebrow, the corners of his lips turned in a playful grin, his seductive low whisper sounded in her ears like a bell ring, "You think I didn't hear your heart pounding every time you are close to me?"

Lina opened her mouth to say something in her defense but was so amazed at his comment that she simply closed her mouth without saying a word. And how could she forget who she was dealing with? The girl knew perfectly well what this man was capable of, but it did not even occur to her that he would use his abilities to study her.

It seems that time is changing even such highly moral and well-mannered people as Armand Taubert, since he did not even stir an eyelid, fiddling in her hidden emotions without even asking her.

"I could have expected that from anyone, but not from you," the girl put her cup on the table in exasperation and got up from the chair to leave the room. But before she had time to grab the doorknob and open the door, the man was behind her.

BANG!

The door slammed shut, Armand's palm was pressed against the door, the girl's attempt to escape apparently failed. Lina took a step to the side but was immediately blocked by the second hand of the man.

"What are you doing?!" she turned to express everything in his face, using the most imaginative turns of foul language, but the fury of the girl came to naught when she faced his languid look and a bewitching smile.

His eyes were as captivating and beautiful as before as if she were looking into the clear blue sky. He was so close that his breath, like a warm breeze, gently caressed her face.

"Please do not run from me," the man whispered, his fingers sliding across the girl's cheek, removing from her eyes several small locks that popped out of her hair. "Who are you?" he asked the very question that tormented him from the first moment he saw this woman in an art gallery.

Lina turned away, pretending not to hear his question.

"I know that it was you then, in the gallery, when the fire took place," Armand stroked her cheek with care and tenderness, barely touching the girl's skin. "I remembered your fragrancy, I distinctly heard your voice, even if you spoke in a whisper. I see that your aura is not like the one of ordinary people. If Amelia asked you to give me this letter, I'm sure that you know what kind of person I am."

In addition to the immortal body, Armand's sensory organs were strengthened by several times, and it took him several decades to learn how to control them. Therefore, if desired, he could see, hear and feel everything much more sharply than ordinary people.

"I don't understand what you mean," Lina pushed her face away from his palm, refusing to admit things that were obvious to both of them. After so many years of silence and loneliness, she could not gain the courage to open to another person like that. Everyone had a past, and she would prefer to hide her past, especially from the man standing next to her.

Armand dropped his hands and took a step back. A chill ran through the hands of Lina, she caught herself thinking that she would again plunge into the warmth that came from the man. He turned and walked back to the table. His calm and indifferent look, his back turned to her after such close contact, caused an incomprehensible feeling of anxiety in the girl's chest.

The man looked around the table in search of the desired item. On the one hand, he did not want to take such extreme measures, but, seeing the girl's clear stubbornness, he could not come up with anything better at the moment.

Lina frowned as the man lifted a knife from the table and twisted it in his hands. A metal blade gleamed in the sun, Armand turned his head toward the girl and, not taking his eyes off her, with all his strength thrust the knife into his palm.

"What the hell are you doing?!" The shocked girl rushed to the man, "Idiot! Fool! How did you even think of such a thing?! You are so many years old, and you behave worse than in childhood!" Lina began to chastise him as if he was a naughty child.

"Do you know how I behaved when I was a child?" Armand mockingly raised an eyebrow, but could not hide the notes of discomfort in his voice. No matter how invulnerable his body was, he felt pain just like the others.

"I just said that! All children behave the same in childhood," the girl grabbed a napkin from the table and pressed it to the man's palm, scarlet blood instantly saturated the tissue, the wound was too deep.

"Auch, it hurts," Armand portrayed a pained face, it seemed as if tears would flow from his eyes.

"Ugh, you can not look at me like a homeless puppy whom I left to get wet in the cold rain, huh? Do you think your compassionate look will work on me?" Lina looked reproachfully at the man and regretted it. Armand's eyebrows were closed, the corners of his lips were down, he let out a doomed sigh and lowered his shoulders.

The girl's heart sank from such a picture. The man looked so sad that his photograph at that moment could be used to collect donations somewhere in the subway passage.

"This is more painful than I thought. Help me, please," he whispered, and two flashes of eyelashes on his puppy eyes were enough for the girl to give up completely.

"Gosh, you are like a little child," Lina sighed and clasped his damaged hand with her palms.

Armand felt a pleasant chill run down his body, the pain began to recede. Warm green light from the girl's palms enveloped his hand. She gazed steadily at the spot where the wound was, and for a moment it seemed to the man that the color of her eyes had changed, they shone bright blue, but in the next second, they had already returned to their usual shade.

Lina flinched in surprise when his second hand touched her head, Armand ran a hand through the girl's hair, "Thank you. Thank you very much for helping me then in the gallery. Thanks to you, I did not have to endure the infernal pain for several hours and did not have to report to the firemen how I managed to survive in that fire. Thank you," he said softly, his voice filled with sincere gratitude.

"Yeah," the girl nodded and wanted to remove her hands, but Armand was faster. The man grabbed her palm and pulled it toward himself, his second hand was on her back. Lina was standing in the middle of the room, clasped in a tight hug.

"I know how it feels when you lose the people who are dear to you, I know how it feels when the days fly by one by one, and you, like an empty shell, look at all this and feel nothing. For the first time in many decades, I felt what it was like to feel like a living person. The moment when I first saw your eyes, when I saw you, my world was again filled with colors as if I could rise from the abyss of the sea and breathe the fresh air."

Armand lifted the girl's chin and looked into her eyes, "Human life is a very fragile thing, and I, like no one else, know its price. That is why I want you to be near me, I want to know you, be with you, feel you... love you," the man whispered.

Someone might have thought that he was crazy, telling such things to a girl when he sees her for the second time in his life, but, according to Armand, the crazy people were the ones who were afraid of being rejected or laughed at, were losing precious minutes and hiding their true feelings, sometimes over the years.

Over the years of aimless walking on the planet, he has repeatedly encountered such cases and every time he watched with bitterness how people hurt each other while loving each other. These fools did not understand and did not see their happiness, their true feelings were lost in the maelstrom of everyday things, gradually fading and turning pale.

Instead of thanking each other, they spilled out their grievances and frustrations, and he looked at them and recalled with pain in his heart a person whom he could never tell how much he loved her.

Therefore, now, no matter how absurd his words may seem, he did not need to be a genius to understand what turned upside down in his soul when he saw this girl. He heard the beat of his heart, he listened to the beat of her heart. They were beating in unison, tuned by an invisible tuning fork.

Armand smiled and whispered, "I love you, Lina Jones."

The girl's body trembled, Lina closed her eyes and a lone tear rolled down her cheek. Armand did not know the reason for this, but whatever it was, he wanted to do everything possible so that this fragile girl in his arms cried only with happiness.

The man's hand on the girl's waist pressed her even tighter, he felt the warmth and every bend of her body. Armand ran a hand across the girl's cheek and left it on the back of Lina's neck. She never tensed and pushed him away. The man smiled and leaned toward her.

Lina felt as if warm sparkles began to crumble over her body when Armand's lips touched her lips. Tenderness, affection, love - the kiss seemed so weightless that her body became lighter than air. She raised her hands and hugged the man in response.

Her small gesture made the movements of the lips of the man more intense, tenderness was replaced by passion and desire. She felt his heat seize her body, and she was gladly ready to surrender to his sweet spell.

Lina did not notice how the man's lips captured all her attention and was unpleasantly confused and embarrassed when he suddenly pulled away from her. "We'll continue later," Armand whispered in a slightly hoarse voice, kissed the girl in the nose and freed her from his arms.

In the next instant, the room door opened wide and the joyful Elena and Liu Yang went inside. Lina instantly bounced off the man and turned away. Still, in this insolent fellow, there were some traits of upbringing, since he noticed the approach of strangers and saved the girl from a possible embarrassing scene, in which they could be caught.

"Um, didn't we interrupt?" Elena scanned the couple with an appraising look, it was obvious that something hot was happening here, judging by Lina's pink cheeks and Armand's beaming smile, like the one of a Cheshire cat.

"A little."

"Not at all." They answered at the same time, which caused even greater embarrassment.

Elena did not answer and just smiled maliciously, her eyes fell on her friend's contented face. Armand winked back at her, as a sign that they understood each other's thoughts.

"No, you didn't interrupt at all," Lina repeated her answer, ignoring a man shining next to her who could provide even more electricity to at least half of the metropolis. "I see you talked well?"

"Yes, thank you, Lina. You have no idea what this means to us," Elena answered and looked at Mrs. Lee with a smile.

"I'm glad," the girl nodded in response, "So what, what are the plans?"

Elena and Liu Yang looked at each other.

"I think it's time to come back home."