Читать книгу Gideon - Jacquelyn Frank - Страница 9

Isabella turned and looked over her shoulder when she felt the air pressure in the room change with a distinct pop. She instantly knew who her guest was, even before the smoke had cleared. Bella cried out happily, dropping her watering can onto the window shelf and flinging herself through the remaining mist of sulfur to hug her newly arrived friend.

“Legna!”

“Bella, it is so good to see you,” Legna greeted her happily, hugging the petite Druid carefully in order to avoid squashing her rounded belly. They were acting as though they had not seen each other in ages, rather than a week. It was probably because Bella was so happy to see another woman that she was projecting it enough to affect the sensitive empath. Sometimes Legna got swept up in others’ enthusiasms, and she did not mind. It was one of the better emotions to get caught up in.

Isabella laughed, pulling back to look at her friend, tossing back her heavy head of pitch-black hair, the tresses gleaming like raven’s feathers as they immediately snaked down the length of the Druid’s spine. Isabella barely reached Legna’s shoulder, so petite compared to the empath, who was very close to being six feet tall. All Demons were tall. Bella often complained that talking to them gave her a crick in her neck, but Legna had noticed Bella’s neck never seemed to hurt when she had to reach for her mate’s kiss.

“You are such a liar,” Bella accused without zeal. “I look like I am carrying a small basketball under my dress. I’m only five months pregnant and I’m already tired of waddling around.”

“Well, far be it from me to remind you, but that baby is half Demon. Five months is only a little bit over first trimester, by Demon standards.”

“Okay, just for reminding me of that, you are no longer my friend. Poof yourself out of here right this minute,” Isabella commanded, her hands on her hips in mock indignity as she glared at the beautiful woman across from her. Magdelegna chuckled, moving with her fluid grace in order to circle the little Druid’s shoulders with a comforting arm. “And,” Bella sighed wistfully as her arm circled Legna’s waist, “you have to go and have a perfect figure on top of it.”

“Now, now,” Legna soothed and scolded her. “How is Jacob?” she asked, guiding Bella to a comfortable couch in a cozy conversation area near a beautiful window of stained glass picturing the wilds and wildlife of a forest. The empath felt the care that had gone into the piece, saw the detail, and it was all very breathtaking. Moonlight struck through it, sending silvered colors over them as they sat on couches close to but opposite one another.

“Busy.” Isabella exhaled hard, trying to shove her heavy hair behind her ear with impatient fingers. “I should be helping him. I am supposed to be his partner. It says so in black and white…or…well, actually it’s kind of a grayish beige scroll with little red—” Bella gasped, then growled in frustration at herself because she had found a tangent. “The point is, I am destined by this wondrous lost Demon prophecy I discovered to be the one that changes all of Demon destiny by working at his side. Instead, I’m stuck here, sitting on the couch, watching and feeling everything that happens to him from a distance. It really bites.” Bella pulled up her legs, crossing them in a meditation position. “I’ll tell you this, if he gives me one more order with that W word again, I’m going to divorce him before we even finish the wedding.”

“The W…? Okay, Bella, as usual you have lost me. W word?”

“Yeah. W,…as in Wife. Ugh! He’s always saying or thinking things in this high and mighty way and tacking the word ‘wife’ onto the end like it’s some kind of password that lets him order me around.” Bella noted her friend’s still perplexed expression, so she screwed up her face, attitude, and voice into an uncanny approximation of Jacob. “‘I do not want you hunting in your condition, wife. It is too dangerous for you and the babe to accompany me, wife. I have told Elijah that there are to be no more training lessons until after the birth, and do not argue with me about this, wife, because my mind is set.’” Isabella sagged back with a frustrated sigh. “Oy! It’s just so obnoxious and so…high-handed! You know the honeymoon is over when you go from ‘my love,’ ‘my little flower,’ and ‘my heart’ and become simply ‘wife.’”

Legna smothered the urge to chuckle. Her little friend’s famous sarcasm always tickled her, and it was meant to tickle. Bella had a way of hiding behind her wit and humor. She was stating things that clearly disturbed her, but she mocked them in such a way that anyone who did not know her would treat it as little more than a comedy routine.

Legna knew her better.

“Now, Bella, you know Jacob adores you. He naturally wants to protect you. He literally worships the ground you walk on.”

“Ha ha,” Bella said dryly. “Earth Demon. Worship the ground. Cute. Really cute.”

“Well, come on now. Seriously. As a Demon of the Earth, Jacob has a great affinity with nature. Of all of us, he is the one who knows the most about life and death and the way nature replenishes and selects her perpetuation. He has a respect for it that transcends every feeling he has with perhaps the exception of his love for you. But he is also a hunter, born with the ability to capture any prey by using the senses of the most skilled predatory animals. Knowing the nature of such beasts, carrying their insight with him always, it is part of him to understand the dangers that lurk in the tall grasses.

“Like it or not, Bella, you are vulnerable right now. I know you are powerful and becoming quite skilled in your own right, but what position would Jacob be in if in the course of your work, in a dire circumstance, you should come into danger, be held hostage, or even become mortally injured? I can come up with dozens of scenarios, and Jacob can imagine far more with four centuries of experience as Enforcer to draw on. You have been Enforcer for five months; he has four hundred years behind him of this, the Vampire wars for a century, the Lycanthropes for three…There is unusual peace now, save for the necromancers, but there are many variables and you are very precious to him.

“And anyway, what self-respecting male would not be anxious for a beloved mate who is carrying his child—a child who by being born will represent the first of its kind? Human and Demon DNA have never combined in any way before. Yes, you are half Druid as well, but still…I could understand why Jacob would be a little concerned…and a little overcautious.”

“Well.” Isabella nibbled on a nail, a sure sign of her own state of nerves. “Maybe I wouldn’t mind so much if I were really his wife.” She laughed wryly because she knew that the Imprinting went far deeper than ceremonial words could reach. She knew that Legna was aware of this as well. “We still have about a month to go before we can finish our rudely interrupted wedding ceremony. If my sister teases me one more time about being the ‘out-of-wedlock, impregnated tramp’ of the family, I am going to have to murder her and dump her body in a cornfield somewhere.”

“Bella,” Legna scolded, giggling softly at her friend’s pique. “Your sister Corrine is no paragon of virtue since she and Kane Imprinted, I assure you. She and Kane came to our home for a meditation training session with me, and I was occupied a few minutes longer than I expected. Well, by the time I got to the parlor, I could sense…” Legna’s head dipped and she blushed softly. “Let us say it would have been imprudent of me to walk in.”

“You’re kidding!” Bella gaped at the empath for a moment. “In Noah’s home? A governing seat where Demons come and go all day long?”

“At least they closed the parlor doors.” Legna chuckled. “She’s chafing at the bit for Beltane just as much as you are, believe me.” Legna rubbed her friend’s knee in a very effective gesture of comfort. “Besides, you know that you are Jacob’s lifetime partner in all the ways that matter. To him, you were his wife the moment you first touched.”

“Well, I’m thinking someone is going to have to do something about that Demon law about weddings only taking place on Beltane and Samhain,” the Druid groused. “It is seriously cramping my reputation. Say”—she snapped her fingers in inspiration, her violet eyes sparkling with mischief—“I seem to recall you being the King’s…uh…cousin? No, no, that’s not it.” Bella made a great show of tapping a finger to her chin in thought. “Um, oh yes! His sister!” she said, as if she hadn’t remembered all along. “Surely you could encourage him to discuss the matter with the Great Council.”

“Bella, you goose.” Legna laughed. “I wish I had that kind of power over my dear brother. However, I do not. No more than you have over Mother Nature and her plans for the duration of your pregnancy.”

“You mentioned it again!” Bella scolded with a dramatic screech of exasperation, making Legna sigh and smile with amused patience. “Well, at this point I would be happy if we ended up with an average between the time required for a human gestation and the Demon gestation of thirteen months. Anything is better than thirteen months.”

“What has Gideon told you?” Legna asked, unable to resist avoiding Bella’s violet gaze as she mentioned the powerful medic’s name. She turned her attention to smoothing out the aqua silk of her gown’s long skirt, her fingers tracing the rich golden embroidery swirling over it in a repetitive pattern. “Is he still personally monitoring you?”

“Yes, he is. Actually, that alone is enough to make me a little nervous.” Bella exhaled a little shakily. “I was talking to Hannah and she said that in all six of her pregnancies, she was never monitored so closely. And certainly not by the most Ancient and highly skilled medic in all of Demon history. They say that Gideon has forgotten more about healing than all the other medics combined will ever know.”

“Well, perhaps Gideon is merely making an extra effort because it has been so long since a Druid and a Demon have mated. And yes, I am sure the fact that you are half human does make your case unique, but I am also certain he only means to be cautious. You know how direct he is. If there were something to worry about, he is not one to keep you uninformed.”

“True. He would at the very least inform Jacob if there were something to be concerned about, wouldn’t you say? Jacob and I have very few secrets between us, what with our ability to share one another’s thoughts.”

“I must admit, Bella,” Legna confessed, “that even though I am a Mind Demon, I am quite grateful I can only read emotions, unlike my male counterparts who can trade thoughts as you and Jacob do. I am positive that I would not want to know everything someone was thinking. Trust me, knowing everything they are feeling can be quite troublesome enough. And as for Jacob being able to read your thoughts, I do not know how you bear it. I am not so certain I would enjoy someone else having access to my most private ruminations. I suppose the closest I come to that is with Hannah and Noah. We have always had a strong sense of one another’s needs, desires…pain. But I promise you, there are things that have crossed my mind that I hope Noah never finds out about.”

Legna gave an impish wiggle of her brows, making Bella laugh.

“I’m familiar with that particular desire,” Bella said with a nod. “Still, there’s something comforting about the vast openness of the sharing and honesty between Jacob and me. And…” She paused, her face softening with a warm, beautiful thought, her skin, like pale satin, flushing with a gentle glow. “My love, my mate, lives within me always, Legna. I’m never completely alone, even when he tries to give me solitude. And I don’t even mind. Part of me realizes that, for the rest of my life, I will never be alone again. Better still, I will never be lonely. It’s compelling in a way I can’t possibly describe. My sister is only just beginning to learn this for herself. I have tried to help her, but I always fail to describe it to her adequately.”

“Your description lacks nothing, Bella,” the empath confessed quietly, a catch of emotion in her throat and a shine of bittersweet happiness in her eyes for her friend.

“Corrine’s power acquisition is taking much longer than mine did. Gideon believes it’s delayed because of how close she came to dying.”

Bella shuddered as she remembered the image of her sister lying close to death in her bed, gray and gaunt from the energy drain she had suffered. A Druid only came into power when his or her Demon mate came into contact with them for the first time. At the time Corrine and Kane had encountered each other, no one had realized she was a Druid, destined to be with Kane and destined to wither away without his nearness and energy to replenish her.

“It has been taking time, Gideon says, for her connection with Kane to rebuild and repair itself. He likened it to having brain damage, where the brain has to reroute function in other ways to compensate for the damage.” Bella shook her head. “I watch her struggles and I am so frustrated for her. I want her to be as happy as I am. I want her power to come so she will know what we have inherited. As a logical person I know it will take time, but as a sister—a pregnant sister at that—I want to yell out to the Fates, ‘C’mon already!’ She’s already been through so much.”

“She has come very far already. She is looking healthy and does not become weak as quickly,” Legna soothed her.

“Gideon said as much, but he also said she may have more setbacks and that we should be prepared for that. He explained that the damage has made her pathways to power fragile. But you know this. This is why you are teaching her meditation and focus techniques. It is by his prescription.”

“It will never cease to amaze me, the extent of Gideon’s knowledge. He is the only Demon in all the world who was alive during the time of the last Druids. In spite of it being over a millennium ago, he still remembers such details of the connections between Druid and Demon, and of the healing processes of a race he thought was obliterated. It boggles the mind to think he was only a fledgling himself at the time.”

“Yes. It’s quite remarkable.” Isabella leaned forward, lowering her voice to a whisper. “But Gideon holds a great deal of weight on his soul over having been a part of the original massacre of the Druids. I believe he feels he should have known better, in spite of the fact that the entire world was fairly savage at the time and he was a mere fledgling following the orders of the Elders of the era.”

“War never makes sense when the aftermath is studied a thousand years later. It is a testament to his strength that he has survived in spite of all the deaths, Summonings, and worldwide upheavals of a millennium. A thousand years.” Legna shook her head with amazement. “Even those Demons who are past their fifth century have difficulty comprehending such a lifetime.”

Isabella nodded, sitting back once more and absently rubbing her distended belly. “So you are certain he would tell me if he had concerns about the baby?”

“Positive,” Legna affirmed with a curt nod. “There may be a great many things about Gideon I do not understand, or even like, to be honest, but his straightforwardness is admirable, even if somewhat harsh from time to time. Besides, Jacob would not tolerate anything less than total forthrightness, and Gideon would respect that. Their friendship is still much strained, in spite of Gideon’s welcome return to mainstream Demon life and his Triumvirate seat on the Great Council. However, Jacob’s latent hostility would not keep Gideon silent if speaking was called for.”

“I know,” Bella said softly. “I don’t think that Jacob has quite come to terms with Gideon’s rude behavior around me in the beginning of our relationship.”

“But he would be foolish to turn away the most skilled medic in Demon history when that Demon offers to oversee the pregnancy of his beloved mate,” Legna pointed out. “And Jacob is no fool. No matter how deeply his Imprinted instincts have made him come to distrust other males who come too close to you, I believe your safety is paramount to him. He wouldn’t let anything stand in the way of that, not even if it were Prince Charming himself who needed to tend you.”

Isabella tossed back her head and laughed aloud at that, appreciating the mischievous sparkle in the other woman’s eyes. Legna was impressively unmoved by the power of the male Demons who surrounded her night in and night out, century after century. Isabella had appreciated that from the moment she had met the female Demon.

This brave characteristic in her friend had served as a model for Bella, teaching her to put her foot down and stand up for her rights and perspective even before her own ability to absorb and use the powers of those around her had come into play. Other Demons had learned to respect her long before they had been forced to respect the magnitude of her awesome ability to render anyone from any Nightwalker race completely powerless.

Luckily, this was the same power that had forced Isabella into being included in Legna’s terrifying Summoning during her and Jacob’s aborted wedding ceremony. It was that same power that had nullified the damaging effects of the pentagram that had caged them together.

Even though the experience had been terribly harrowing, Isabella was constantly grateful to have had a hand in sparing her friend the fate of being Transformed. Among other things, it would have destroyed Jacob to be put in the position of hunting the sister of his King, forced to destroy her before she destroyed others. Jacob’s relentless sense of duty and his respect and love for Noah would have made his course clear, but Jacob carried his failures hard, and he would have blamed himself for not doing more to save one so important to the man he looked on as a brother as well as monarch.

No one meant as much to Isabella as Jacob did. Perhaps not even her sister Corrine, whom she loved with all of her heart. Jacob was her heart and her soul, and she would be deeply affected if he were to ever suffer that magnitude of pain. Worse yet, the responsibility could have fallen to Isabella herself, destined by that newfound ancient prophecy to hunt the Transformed. She had been born with the genetic code for her special abilities just for that purpose, unaware that they were lying dormant, waiting only for the day she and Jacob finally crossed paths.

Jacob had experienced the untenable situation of enforcing those he had once been friendly with. There had even been times when he had been required to destroy them after they had been perverted into the monsters a pentagram’s black magic forced them to become. But Isabella was so much softer in the heart and so new to her Enforcer role; she had not yet been confronted with destroying a Transformed Demon she had once known and cared about.

It was her deepest fear that she wouldn’t be able to do so when the time came, and Legna immediately became aware of the weight on her friend’s heart as the expecting woman considered the possibility. She did not mean to intrude, but Legna’s power was always “on” just like Bella’s was, and the effort to control it came when trying to shut it off or lower its effect. She had allowed herself to relax too much during their conversation and had inadvertently picked up on Bella’s serious emotions.

Legna kept her countenance, not sharing her knowledge with her friend about her fears. Isabella was half human and used to a more private lifestyle than that of Demonkind. Legna had come to realize that Bella was disturbed by the seemingly intrusive habits of those Jacob knew.

In fact, the biggest offender was Gideon. He would never wait to be given leave to come and go, no matter how many times Bella lost her temper with him. It was his nature to believe his way of thinking was correct and the ways of the human woman were utter nonsense. After all, he had survived ages and a great many threats more impressive than the temper of a hybrid Druid female.

Just then, as if bidden by Legna’s thoughts, a strange silver light sparkled into the room, winking instantly into the form of the great medic.

Instinctively, Legna surged to her feet. Whenever she and the Ancient occupied the same space, she could not fight the urge to go on the defensive. She and Gideon had a history of hostility, born out of a brief moment of foolishness and painful words. It was a moment that Legna could not allow herself to forget, for all her forgiving nature, and one that Gideon continually denied ever happened quite the way she remembered it.

It wasn’t exactly Gideon in the room. It was an astral projection of him. This was the way a Body Demon traveled quickly. In this form, they were able to sense and feel everything around them. The only thing that limited a Body Demon’s astral form was the inability to use their inborn powers of healing others. He was powerless, to an extent, in this form, but Legna had learned never to underestimate the eldest of her kind. It seemed the longer they lived, the more potent they became and the more tricks they learned. She wouldn’t put any ability she could conceive of past the great Ancient.

“Legna,” he greeted her coolly, nodding his silvery head with respect, his starlight-colored eyes flicking over her form briefly. “You are looking well.”

“I am well, thank you,” she returned just as cordially.

Gideon turned to Bella, giving her a slight bow as well.

“Enforcer. You are well, I trust?”

“Yes. I would be better, however, if you could somehow manage to squeeze the concept of knocking on the door into that vast intellect of yours,” she remarked sardonically, clearly not expecting it to happen anytime soon.

“I do not recall Legna striking upon the door before her entrance,” the Ancient noted offhandedly.

That caused both women to exchange startled looks and then face him with dual accusing stares.

“Just how long have you been here, Gideon?” Legna snapped, her irritability escaping her control and eddying outward in a tangible ripple of emotion.

“Obviously long enough,” he replied, clearly unperturbed, “to know you did not knock when you arrived.”

It seemed to make perfect sense to him, while causing both women to seethe.

“You mean to tell me you were floating around my house all this time? Spying on us?”

“Hardly. I arrived only moments before Legna did, and when she appeared I thought I would be kind enough to allow you both some minutes to visit before I intruded.”

“Gee, you’re all heart,” Bella said tartly. “Did it not occur to you for even one second that our conversation was a private one, and that it was rude to listen to it?”

“No.”

Legna and Bella both exhaled large breaths of frustration at the male Demon’s unconcerned shrug.

“There was nothing of an extremely private nature within the conversation that I can recall,” Gideon added, his bright eyes glancing over both women as if he were trying to figure out an illogical puzzle. “Your obvious irritation is senseless.”

“Yeah,” Bella said dryly. “It would be…to you.” She clearly gave up, waving the matter aside with a hand. “So, to what do I owe this pleasure?” she asked of the medic.

Legna didn’t immediately hear his response. Her ears were ringing with her continued outrage. The last thing she would have ever wanted in a million millennia would be for Gideon to hear her defending him or his behavior, touting how skilled and majestically Ancient he was. He was already so infuriatingly arrogant! But he had flown around in his nonvisible astral form, listening to her reassure her friend about his abilities, no doubt basking in it and preening the whole time.

Gideon’s eyes flicked over to her, the strange silver light within them giving her an eerie chill, almost as if he had just been privy to the rancor of her thoughts. It is an illusion, Legna argued with herself. It was a disarming trick he constantly used to maintain the upper hand and a position of advantage. He always seemed to have a bagful of these subtle psychological tricks at the ready, but she was a Mind Demon broaching Elder caliber come half a century or so, and she’d be a simpleton if she could not recognize them.

Legna turned her back on the implacable mercury stare, dismissing him and the entire conversation he was having with Isabella. She folded her arms across her slender stomach, moving with a soft whisper of silk and poise to gaze out of the window and down the cliffside, taking in the English coastline through a portal of colored glass. It was easy for her to move in and out of touch with much of her power, but in the end it was all innate, all reflex and instinct at the ready and seeking input. It required enormous effort to truly shut down all the depths of her extrasensory abilities, but she began to do so, using the crash of the surf on the sand and rocks as a metronome for the meditative process. Legna had no choice. She had to lock it all down, because whenever the medic was in her presence her senses were always overwhelmed. She knew he had powerful mental barriers. Anyone who watched his detached, emotionless manners could see that all of his essence and emotion was slammed in a protected prison that he had no interest in accessing in the slightest, even in the privacy of his own mind, it seemed.

With Legna being an empath, such a void should be disturbing yet quiet. But it was not. Instead, his energy seemed to grasp at her, tendrils of it reaching and clutching almost painfully before letting go. Every time a connection was made, impulses fired her mind with images and impressions she had no hope of comprehending. It was like an electrical overload, one she never felt with anyone else. Jacob, Noah, Elijah…other Council members…all so powerful in their own right, but none with this vibrating force of presence that made her psyche ring like tones through crystal. Crystal shattered when the pitch ringing through it reached a certain resonance. That was how she felt, as if she might shatter if she stayed too long in his company. So she never went near him if she could avoid it and she always escaped the room he was in as quickly as she could. She could not stomach the idea of his power touching her psyche in such ways.

This was one of those times, however, when she could not make a graceful exit. Isabella needed her there. The Druid’s heart was beating fast with her worry and it was a clear, impassioned desire in her mind that Legna stay. So she did, keeping close enough to comfort Bella and focusing on the tide and sea to comfort herself.

Gideon watched as Legna stared out of the window and down at the coastline. He could see the heated changes in her body chemistry, the flush of her skin that intensified with what was obviously an irritable emotion. He knew he had offended her yet again, but he had long ago resigned himself to the fact that he always would. She was an overly headstrong female, persistently thinking and behaving in ways that made little or no sense to his more rational and logical mind. It had gotten worse, he had noted, since the Druid had come into their midst. Isabella had almost no reservations about saying whatever she felt aloud, with little thought to the respect his position or those of many others usually garnered. She was young, raised human, and it was expected for her to have immature and somewhat barbaric ways. Bella was also a stranger to their culture, so it was a somewhat excusable type of behavior. Legna had no such excuse. She had been raised in the Demon way, knowing all the protocols and societal expectations of her.

Gideon held up his simple conversation with Isabella as he continued to study the perturbed female Demon. In the eight years he had been in seclusion, she had grown astoundingly in her powers and abilities. Demons often went through great surges of development during their lifetime, a series of almost adolescent growth spurts, and she was young enough as an adult to experience these. Yet Gideon could not remember seeing such an unexpected leap in strength and ability in a Demon since…well, since her brother’s youth. Their genetic stock was predisposed to such things, but Noah was of Fire. Fire had its own rules when it came to growth within because of the way the Demon could draw energy from outside sources. Demons of the Mind were a young breed, the eldest and first born of the ability only recently lost to them at the age of 405. Since Lucas’s birth, Demons of the Mind had become a regular and frequent element for the young. The guidelines of their development were set down in expected patterns well before Legna’s birth.

The medic also knew that Legna was aware enough of this growth and the peculiarity of it to make a pretense of being somewhat weaker than she really was. He wondered at that, curious as to why she would deny such remarkable aptitude. He had been observing her somewhat closely these past five months, since his reemergence and her Summoning. However, her continued hostility toward him kept him at a suitable enough distance to prevent him from making a complete diagnosis of her metabolic development. Just as she could read emotion, Legna used the powers of her mind to put up impenetrable barriers around herself, strong enough to keep even Gideon’s formidable powers somewhat at bay.

That was only part of the obstacle, though. The other part was within Gideon himself. When it came to Legna, he found himself compelled to reserve any action that, should she sense it in any measure, she might take as an intrusion…a violation. He had made the mistake with her once in the past, and would be hard-pressed to ever repeat it. Despite what Isabella and Legna thought, he was quite capable of learning from his mistakes…when he chose to.

Gideon turned back to Isabella, noting the nervous way she was stroking the distended belly that housed her developing child. He had been aware of her fears and concerns even before overhearing her conversation with Magdelegna. However, contrary to what Legna believed, he was quite capable of holding his thoughts to himself when he thought it would be better for his patient. He was incapable of lying, even if he had seen use in it. The truth of his concerns over the hundreds of things that could go wrong with Isabella’s pregnancy would give her little peace of mind and could potentially have ill-reaching ramifications. So he kept his counsel, offering no false comfort and no frightening truths. He would allow her to continue to draw her own conclusions, so long as it did not reach a pitch of worry that would be detrimental to her health. Unknowingly, Legna’s affirmations of his straightforward nature had been advantageous to both him and the mother-to-be.

“I see no need to arrive in person this week,” he informed Isabella. “However, if you should require anything or experience any concerns, you may contact me immediately.”

Gideon took a moment to do a last visual check of the breeding woman, his fingertips touching her chin, turning her head to the side gently as he inspected her pulse and blood pressure with a momentary glance. He briefly ran a hand over the swell of her belly, and then he stepped away from her, dropping his touch from her before the male Enforcer sensed his mate had been touched by another male and showed up in an agitated swirl of dust. Jacob had made no secret of his possessiveness of Isabella. This sometimes occurred in an Imprinting, depending on the nature of the element the Demon came from and factors in personality. Jacob’s affinity with nature made him very susceptible to surges of territoriality when it came to that which he held most precious. The Enforcer was capable of curbing the emotion when absolutely necessary, so it would not become overly detrimental or antagonistic. Bella herself did not even bat an eyelash worrying over things like jealousy. She was probably the most trusting soul Gideon had ever met, her hopeful youth and unblemished naïveté sometimes so pleasing, even while it made her vulnerable to the future pains that came with being a part of their species.

Gideon had just moved a significant distance away from the little Druid when a violent dust devil swept into the room, coalescing with a twist into the form of the Enforcer. Jacob was a male of awesome power, and though his was a lean, athletic build, he radiated that fact from every pore. The Earth Demon could manipulate mighty forces of nature, such as gravity itself, with a mere thought. Next to Fire Demons, Earth Demons were the most powerful of their kind. This was why he had been chosen to be the one to hunt the renegades of his own race. The implacable depths of his dark, warning gaze as he fixed it on the medic said much about what being forced to hunt down and sometimes even destroy those he had once called friends had made him capable of. Gideon and Jacob had done battle only once. It had been enough to give them both a healthy respect for each other’s abilities, as well as creating an underlying tension between them that might never resolve itself.

“Gideon,” Jacob greeted coolly, moving in the blink of an eye to enfold his beloved mate into the protection of his embrace. When he looked down into her face, he softened in that remarkable way Gideon didn’t think he would ever get used to. It almost relieved him when Jacob’s nearly hostile gaze returned to him. “I thought we had agreed you would warn me before you visited with Isabella,” he said, his tone so even that it was every inch threatening.

“I had expected Isabella to warn you herself. After all, she is the one in constant mental contact with you. Not I.”

“And you are capable of projecting yourself to me before you appear to her just as easily.”

“You were hunting, Jacob. I decided to let you finish your task in peace. This was to be only a brief visit. And as you see, we are thoroughly chaperoned.”

Gideon gestured to Legna, who, in a remarkable way he had begun to notice, had managed to make herself go completely overlooked. Even Isabella seemed to suddenly realize she had forgotten all about her friend’s presence. But now the stately, graceful woman was turning a soothing smile on the tense people half a room away from her.

“Jacob, it is good to see you.”

Jacob grinned at Legna, nodding his head. “How is Noah?”

Legna quirked a brow. “Did you not see him in the Council?” She glanced from one Enforcer to the other, then to Gideon. “I understood that Noah was in Council with you all this morning, discussing the necromancer threat.”

“Yes, we were. But he was…unsettled, after discovering Daniel beneath the Council table,” Jacob informed her.

“And he had words with Councillor Ruth, as usual,” Isabella added, rolling her eyes in reflection of her feelings about the cantankerous Elder. “We all did. I swear, that woman gives me ulcers.” Isabella hugged her mate to herself in comfort. “I believe she still blames Jacob for the death of her youngest daughter’s mate. It’s unfair. How could any of us have known any sooner than we did?”

Legna’s spine straightened suddenly, the strong emotions that burst from Jacob forcing her to catch her breath as they pummeled her. She realized then that Jacob had never forgiven himself for that lost life.

Before Bella had come to them, Jacob’s primary duty had been to keep Demons and humans apart, believing as they all had for thousands of years that humans were too fragile to withstand the seduction of a Demon. During the Hallowed moons, the full moons of Beltane in May and Samhain in October, Demons were compelled by a mystical explosion of sexual compulsion. It was believed that it was originally meant to perpetuate their species, but because of Demon foolhardiness, the Druids meant to be their ease and their mates were all murdered in war. So the madness of lust had grown out of proportion with time, and this lust could be directed in lawbreaking directions, no matter how strong the Demon’s moral codes and self-control.

Even Gideon—powerful, invulnerable Gideon—had not been immune. So it had been the Enforcer’s role to track down those who attempted to break that law, punishing them for it, keeping humans and even other Nightwalker species safe from this uncontrollable, animalistic nature that overcame his fellows. This past Samhain, the same time that Bella first was becoming revealed to them, Jacob had prevented Ruth’s daughter Mary from seducing a human man, punishing her severely, as the infraction called for. All the while, the Enforcer had been unaware this human man was actually part Druid, destined by fate to be Imprinted with Mary. Jacob had had no inkling that their brief contact before the actual enforcing had triggered the dormant Druid genetics in the would-be victim. How could he? There had been only one Demon among them old enough to know the true nature of Druids, and Gideon had never expected that an exterminated Nightwalker population had actually become hybrids in the human population.

These alien genetics blossomed into dominance, overwriting existing DNA from that of a mere human into that of an awakening Druid. Once this happened, a Druid became mortally dependent on their Demon mate’s elemental energy, just as the Demon became dependent on the Druid’s love and ability to bring peace to them during the Hallowed moons. Once mated in the Imprinting, that Demon would never fear the Enforcer again. As a pair, they would grow as content and powerful as Jacob and Isabella were becoming.

Unfortunately, Mary’s mate, kept away from the fledgling Demon as she was punished and held under watch until Samhain passed, had starved from the deprivation of his mate’s energy, dying before Jacob could rectify the mistake.

There was no way Jacob could have known, and yet Ruth would not forgive him. Worse, Jacob refused to forgive himself. He could not bear to see crime or injustice go without rectification. It was what made him the miraculously capable Enforcer of Noah’s laws that he was. He was invaluable to Legna’s brother. But it was also what made him so unforgiving of himself when he felt he had failed.

Legna knew it would just take time before Isabella’s sweet, loving emotions for him would heal him of his guilt. Even now she was sharing thoughts of comfort with him. Legna felt an oddly hollow pumping to her heart as she absorbed the eddy of the Enforcers’ love for one another. She realized then that just as there had been truth behind Noah’s joking about their relationship, there was truth for her as well. She envied them. It was a heartbreaking craving shadowed with a malevolent flutter of jealousy. She turned away once more, ashamed and inundated by her own emotions for a change, and guarded her face from prying eyes as inexplicable tears burned in her eyes.

She had to be tired, she excused herself, trying to shake off the ache that continued to beat through her. She felt foolish. She scolded herself for allowing things to affect her as if she were some green fledgling not yet trained in controlling her own powers and emotions. Pressing harsh fingers into her damp eyes, she turned to the others.

“Isabella, we will visit again soon. There is something I have forgotten to take care of and I must hurry to complete it before dawn.” She didn’t even hug her friend good-bye or acknowledge the men in the room. With a familiar flourish of her elegant hand, she teleported away in a flash and a small cloud of sulfur.

“She is getting good at that,” Jacob remarked, the peculiar exit making him forget his own thoughts. “She is not yet an Elder, but she leaves less and less of a display behind every time I see her teleport. She is strong for one so young.”

“For those of us who can call being almost two hundred and fifty years old ‘young.’” Bella laughed, cuddling up under Jacob’s possessive arm even tighter. “Compared to you guys, I’m an infant!”

“Fledgling, little flower,” Jacob corrected, giving her forehead an affectionate kiss to go with his endearment for her.

“I am afraid I must also take my leave,” Gideon interjected, his mind fully on Legna’s unusual departure. He had seen something. Something within the empath that was not quite clear to him, but it was potentially physiologically alarming. It had been an impression more than anything, his power weakened by his astral state. Still, it had his interest, and he was compelled by an urge to confront Legna. This impression troubled him. If Gideon had learned anything in his vast lifetime, it was that his instincts were rarely wrong.

“In the future, Jacob, I will exercise more care when approaching your mate. My apologies.” With a curt bow, Gideon vanished in a brilliant flash of silver light.

Jacob and Isabella exchanged perplexed looks and thoughts. But after a moment, Bella’s eyes began to drift over Jacob’s body and the nature of her thoughts changed significantly, punctuated by a sexy, mischievous smile.

“Want to make love to a basketball?” she invited.

Jacob threw back his head and laughed, all painful memories banished in an instant, minimal feelings in the face of his beloved’s wink and smile.