Elijah (25 page)

He smiled, a cocky, amused grin that made her remember he was attuned to the things she thought. She made a sound of vicious frustration and purposefully looked in his eyes, refusing to act girlish.

“My people believe that the moment a female accepts the Imprinting,” the warrior said with deceptive neutrality, “she has given her permission to be a part of all that it means. The telepathy is included in that.”

“I did not give my permission for this! You know that!”

“Untrue. The permission was given the moment you moved into my arms of your own free will.

The moment you told me you wanted me and accepted me.”

“I wish I had never said those cursed words!” she bit out vehemently. “You have been throwing them back at me ever since, to the point where I wish you would choke on them!”

Siena realized she had gone too far about a heartbeat before she actually finished saying the harsh words. Elijah’s eyes flared with green fire, causing her breath to freeze in her lungs as he sprang away from the wall and seized her arms with incredible strength. She had never felt anything like the power of those gripping hands. She suddenly realized exactly how much restraint he had constantly been using with her. By feeling this power, she now understood the vastness of his gentleness.

She found herself so close to him that she could see the striations her claws had dotted across his
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cheek. It had been only a glancing blow, the marks only releasing tiny drops of blood that looked like someone had stamped Morse code over his skin.

“You can’t undo what has been done by your own actions no matter how hard you wish it away,” he ground out, giving her a single, harsh shake. “Don’t say things you will come to regret, kitten. We can make this easy between this, or we can make it hard. The choice is yours and you have two days to make it in.”

“You will have to find me first!” she hissed back at him before she thought better of it.

“Very well,” he said coldly, releasing her so suddenly she stumbled backward. “If this is the way you wish it to be, you will only have yourself to blame for it.”

Elijah lifted his arms and with a blink twisted into the nothingness of the wind.

Once again he took his path right over her, whipping through her dress and hair violently, stamping her with his emotions of the moment in a dozen ways at once.

When she was sure he was gone, Siena finally let her rubbery knees give way.

She slowly sank to the floor, her back sliding over intricate carvings of a pair of swans, their necks entwined in such a way that it was impossible to tell which head belonged to which bird.

Isabella lifted her head from its position over the baby’s crib when she heard the windows shudder in their casings. It was not a windy day, so she suspected it was not a naturally occurring phenomenon. She hurriedly kissed her fingertips and touched them to the sleeping infant’s head before moving to close the nursery door and taking quickly to the stairs.

She paused halfway down when she saw Elijah pacing back and forth, his hands running repeatedly through his hair. Now that she was looking for it, Isabella noticed the change in the color that had previously escaped her notice. She rolled her eyes at herself.

Some Enforcer you are, she remarked to herself mentally.

Elijah looked up at that second and looked relieved to see her. He hurried over to her, leaping up the stairs and practically dragging her down them and into the living room. He gave her a little push that sent her bouncing into a seat on the couch.

“I need to talk to you,” he said restlessly, immediately resuming his agitated circuit across the carpeting.

“So I gathered,” she responded dryly.

“I do not know what to do about this insanely stubborn female!” He said “female” the way some would say “nuclear weapons.” “She is determined to drag her paws, kicking and scratching every inch of the way. She will force me into doing something rash and painful, and the very idea of it is burning a hole right through the middle of my chest!” He barely paused for breath. “Iron weaponry is nothing compared to this, I promise you that, Bella. This is exactly why I never sought a mate—you know that, don’t you? I knew it would be nothing but trouble.”

“Yes, I can see how you’d feel that way.”

Her sarcasm went completely over his head.

“All I had to do was watch how Jacob gets turned into knots over you and I just knew it was not for me.” He stopped short and looked at her with sudden sheepishness. “Not to imply it is your fault, of course.”

“Of course,” she agreed wryly.

“But all you have to do is look at the way you had to tell him to back off when you were trying to help me. There’s no sanity, no reason behind thinking and acting like that. I think I even understand what Siena is so afraid of. It is taking me over like some kind of…of…”

“Disease?” Isabella supplied helpfully.

“Exactly! It is like a sickness, and she is the only cure. Her! The most pigheaded, stubborn, irrational, pigheaded—”

“You said that already—”

“—woman in the world!” he finished, a sharp gesture of his hand punctuating his declarations.

“Do I have time for this? I mean, really have time? There are two psychotic female Demons
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running loose out there and I need every last ounce of my attention focused on that if I am to be any use to Noah and Jacob. Any one of us could fall into another of Ruth’s traps at any time, or be Summoned because she knows so many power names. It sickens me to think of her running around with such deadly knowledge. Her next victim is not likely to be as lucky as I was.”

“Yes, there isn’t a Lycanthrope Queen running around in every forest, after all,” Bella added.

“Exactly!” Elijah looked relieved that she seemed to understand. He was completely oblivious of the giggle she smothered behind quick fingers. “And then there is your daughter, poor thing, running around without her names because of all that has happened. At this rate you will be calling her ‘Hey you!’ for the rest of her life.”

Isabella bit her bottom lip, resisting the urge to give in to the smart remark that surfaced.

“And don’t get me started about necromancers and hunters.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she assured him.

“There now, see? How hard was that? You understand, right? You use simple logic. One plus one equals two. There is no other answer, no changing it no matter how hard you try. So the only other choice is to accept the inevitable and move on. In spite of all the trouble this is causing me, I am willing to do that.” He gestured to make an invisible path in front of himself. “Just accept what is what and move into the future. But she refuses to see that.”

At last, Elijah ran out of steam. He plopped down onto the couch next to Isabella so hard she bounced in her seat. He sighed with heavy frustration and defeat, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

“I have a headache,” he complained. “What kind of Demon gets a headache?”

“A tense one?” Bella offered.

“Exactly!” He sighed again. “I am so glad we could talk about this. There aren’t many people I would confide in, but I trust you, Bella. You are more like me than the others. Your attitude, sense of humor…your total disrespect for all this bull we all take too damn seriously.”

Elijah stood up again, bending to give her a brief kiss on her cheek.

“I will stop back later. I am going to go hunt down some necromancers and blow off a little steam.”

In an instant he was nothing but a breeze blowing out of the open windows he had entered the house through not five minutes earlier.

What in hell was that all about? Isabella’s exasperated husband asked in the forefront of her mind.

Well, my guess would be woman troubles.

Well, little flower, I would say I know exactly how he feels…

Except you’d get killed when you got home.

Exactly.

Jacob drifted gently down from the sky, manipulating gravity with a perfection of Earth Demon skills unparalleled amongst their kind. In fact, it was widely believed that Jacob would be the first of his element in over a thousand years to reach the level of Ancient.

It was not comforting, however, when one understood that was because all the rest of them had simply not lived long enough to reach the age of 700 years, the time where such distinction took place.

Jacob’s feet rested lightly on a thick tree branch and he lowered himself into a crouch until his hands also touched the bark of the old oak tree.

The Enforcer could very well be considered the closest thing to a Lycanthrope their people had.

He could hunt, scent, camouflage, and behave in dozens of ways that all the beasts of the Earth could behave. Not many of his people knew this, but he could not only charm the animals, he could mimic them by taking their form.

It was not like the Lycanthropes, however. It was all just a Xeroxing…an adoption of physical makeup and skills. Changelings were as much the animals as the animals themselves. Jacob would
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need several more centuries with his relatively new ability before he could enjoy a perfection of emulation that could be considered on par with the Lycanthropes’ natural metamorphosis.

At the moment he was in his normal form and seeking through the night and the trees with his uncannily sharp vision. He had been tracking the Demon for quite some time, finding it easy to mask himself from his target in spite of the other’s skill. It only proved how distracted and intent the Demon was on its course of action.

The wind blew harshly through the creaking limbs of the forest trees, tugging last, stubborn leaves down into spiraling deaths where they would join the others at rest on the forest floor.

Jacob glanced up at the nearly full moon, rechecking his position by it, then watched as a whirlwind of leaves burst apart to coalesce into Elijah’s natural form.

The Wind Demon crouched on the forest floor, mimicking the very position Jacob was in as he let his hand drift through bloodstained leaves and short forest scrub. He then moved toward the bodies of his victims from that day not so distant and touched each briefly, scattering the remains into the winds with little more than a thought.

Knowing how brutally distracting the time of the Imprinting could be, Jacob was more than a little impressed that Elijah had remembered to come and see to this sort of cleanup. It was, of course, important to remove all evidence of such battles and the beings who were not supposed to exist. Clearly the necromancers and hunters who had lost their compatriots in the battle did not feel the same need to cover their tracks.

But there was a need for secrecy even for the mortals who thought to live as Nightwalkers.

Human society was too skeptical of magic and far too entrenched in its religious prejudices for magic-users to risk exposing themselves. And as voluble as hunters might want to be, even they had to conceal themselves for fear of being labeled insane…or even homicidal. Amusingly enough, their own kind—mortals, that is—could be more dangerous to these misled humans than the true Nightwalkers were.

Jacob had decided to follow Elijah because the warrior’s temper was clearly off its mark, and after his parting comment to Bella, the Enforcer worried that the other Demon was not yet well enough to face the kind of trouble he was looking for. He had not been strong enough to face it alone the first time. What made Elijah think he could have any better luck this time was completely beyond the Earth Demon.

Elijah straightened from his task of disposing of the mortals’ remains and braced his feet hard apart, balancing his significant weight firmly between them, an ages-old habit that was recognizable as distinctive of the warrior.

Both Demons suddenly turned their heads as they heard something their instincts told them was out of the normal for the forest. It occurred to Jacob that he had never found out what it was that had lured Elijah to this particular territory, Lycanthrope territory, in search of trouble in the first place.

Jacob burst into dust, riding the currents of the natural wind until a second later he was coalescing beside the warrior. The Captain did not seem surprised to see him.

“I figured Bella was going to send you after me,” he whispered in greeting to the Earth Demon.

Together they both returned to low positions near the ground. Jacob closed his eyes, extending a cloak of camouflage over them both.

Jacob did not affirm or deny his friend’s speculation. He was concentrating on the movements of the forest that were both natural and unnatural.

“It has occurred to me that perhaps I was not ambushed after all. That perhaps I walked into something I wasn’t supposed to, as hard as that is for me to admit.”

“I would agree,” Jacob confirmed. “I find it odd that you would be lured into Lycanthrope territory on purpose. Too many variables.”

“So this begs the question, why are these women hiding out in Lycanthrope territory?”

“And my answer would be that Demons are not the only ones on their hit list. We already know that.”

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“Yes, but why would Ruth and Mary lead resources this way? Frankly, it’s you and Bella and the rest of us they hold a grudge against.”

“Perhaps,” Jacob agreed in a whisper. “But since the Vampires and the Lycanthropes helped us defeat their troops during the Battle of Beltane, they may have made themselves part of that revenge.”

Elijah was quiet for a moment and then remembered something Siena had said to him when he had first awoken in her care.

“Wait a minute. She said it…and it never even clicked!”

“What?”

“Siena. Siena said to me, and of course she was just being a smart-ass at the time, but she said she had to save my neck because she wasn’t about to ruin years of peaceful overtures by letting our people find me dead in Lycanthrope territory.”

Jacob’s eye widened slightly in understanding.

“I see. What better way to dissolve any helpful relationship between the ’Thropes and the Demons than to lay suspicion at their door for the death of a Demon! And not just any Demon…”