Chapter 14

If there was a nature of things that Noah knew with perfect clarity and instinct, it was smoke and fire.

As they neared the home of his family, he could smell and feel both.

Terror flooded Noah as he came over the crest of the mountain, dragging himself and the half-breed out of smoky form and into solid shape. The only thing he could see of the house was smoke and the tumble of flames roaring from gaps left by shattered glass. Everything not made of stone was conflagrating easily and wildly because of its age and richness in fuel.

"Legna!"

Noah released his power and seized the flames burning the structure. The heated backlash that followed as he violently sucked the fire's energy into himself literally blew Myriad off her feet. She landed about ten feet away on the charred grass, shaking her head as she tried to resettle her jostled brainpan. Again, she took it in stride, not even bothering to dust herself off as she scrambled after the Demon King.

As they ran, Demons began popping up around them. No matter how much she saw it, Myriad swore she would never get used to the suddenness of Demon teleportation. Clearly the Mind Demons Noah had contacted were working overtime to bring reinforcements to them. The Enforcers blazed into form, assorted warriors coming quickly in their wake.

Noah had to crash bodily through the charred front door, skidding across the floor as he shot through, barely in balance. He fell in a rare moment of awkwardness, soot and melted debris sliding beneath his feet. His fall brought him face-to-face with a body, and he suddenly found himself looking into the open, vacant silver eyes of his brother-in-law.

"Gideon …"

His shock was written all over his voice and face. He slid to his knees and leaned over his sister's husband, feeling for a pulse. Noah had never known such fear as he did in that horrible moment. Not even when he had seen his mother's violated body upon her death had he allowed himself to feel such a debilitating, paralyzing emotion. He had been forced to be strong then, for Legna's sake, because she had been but a babe when she had seen her mother in that state. But this he felt and felt deeply. Just as Legna would—

"Legna!"

Noah's head snapped around as he reached out, mentally screaming for her, demanding she answer and searching with all his power for her energy signature.

"Legna! "

Jacob and Isabella came rushing into the half-destroyed house. Isabella cried out in despair when she saw Gideon's lifeless form. But she was rudely pushed aside when Siena burst into the house and moved to see what had so horrified everyone into standing so stock-still.

"Gideon!" the Queen gasped, dropping swiftly to her old friend's side.

He could not be dead. He was too old, too powerful! If he was dead, that meant that Elijah …

Siena pushed the thought aside violently, reaching for Gideon's throat as Noah gained his feet and ran up the stairs three and four at a time.

"Is he…?" Bella dared to begin to ask.

"We need a medic in here!" Siena screamed, her voice echoing in the desolate house. "Where is Elijah?"

"Elijah?" Jacob demanded. "Elijah is here?"

"Yes, he is here somewhere. I felt him when I woke earlier. It is what led us here. I know he is here. Where is he?" Siena asked urgently, standing up and looking all around herself for signs of her new husband. She was breathing hard enough to hyperventilate, coughing on the residual smoke seeping through the room. She searched her thoughts and her soul for any sign of Elijah's consciousness, his powerful presence suddenly vacant from her awareness, clouded by her panic.

Jacob and Isabella took her vacated position over Gideon, and Isabella gasped when she realized she had just knelt in a pool of the Ancient's blood. Closer now, under the charred clothing and soot from smoke, she saw he was severely wounded, burned and also bitten, his flesh tom as if he had been brutally attacked by a pack of wild animals.

"It was animals. Dogs, wolves, and snakes. Venomous snakes!" Jacob hissed.

Jacob, the tracker to the end, turned over Gideon's limp hand, pulling several long blond strands of hair from between his fingers.

An Elder Body Demon, a medic in the warrior corps, hurried into the house, followed by about a half dozen other warriors, who immediately took to searching the house. The medic joined Bella and Jacob, laying hands on the Ancient Demon.

"He's dead," he murmured. "But only just. Move back."

The Enforcers did as commanded, leaving the medic to do what he could in peace, their sense of duty firing through their joined minds.

"Ruth," Jacob said needlessly, snapping the fine blond hairs between clenched fingers.

The name drew Siena's full attention.

"Ruth?" There was nothing but rage and pain in the Queen's eyes as she repeated the cursed name. "That bitch did this?"

Furious, the Lycanthrope Queen made a low, dangerous sound. All she could remember all of a sudden was how she had first found Elijah, bleeding, in agony, and close to the end of his mortality because of his last encounter with the Demon female who had betrayed her kind. Driven to a near emotional madness, she barely recognized the weak whisper of scent that drifted into range of her senses.

Then suddenly her head perked up, her ears and whiskers twitching forward. She was quite a sight, few of the Demons present having seen her Wereform before now, finding the sleekly furred and formed female cat as powerful and intimidating as she truly was, her wild fear and racing bio-signs apparent to even those who did not naturally sense such things. Jacob knew, as he would know with any wild creature of nature, that she had caught the scent of what she had been looking for.

"Elijah," Jacob whispered.

Siena growled, the half-cry of the puma making warriors step back out of age-old habit. Lycanthropes were a tough breed and nothing to mess with, not even in peacetime, and they knew to give her a wide berth. But the Enforcers followed her as she raced out of the door with her remarkable speed.

"She's going to kill herself," Jacob bit out, rushing after the heedless woman.

"How…?"

"The sun," Jacob explained to his less experienced mate. "It makes her kind sick. It poisons them. She's strong, but not that strong. There isn't even a cloud in the sky or a tree to shade her."

But Bella knew what was propelling the Queen. She had once knelt in Jacob's blood, just as she had Gideon's a moment ago, terrified he was about to die. In that moment, nothing could have stopped her from doing everything she could think of to defy fate in order to save his life. It had been Gideon who had saved him then, but now it was Gideon who was in need of being saved by his own miraculous skills. But who could work that miracle? She had only ever seen Gideon perform such feats.

The physician, in this case, could not heal himself.

Jacob and Bella ran after the Queen, but she was powered by the speed of the cat that she was. Only Jacob would have been able to match her, but he refused to leave Bella behind in this dangerous situation.

Siena tore over the lawn at full speed, but that speed downgraded visibly to her pursuers the longer the sprint became. She was heading for a distant tree line as her gait shortened, began to become awkward, dragged as if she was running through a sea of water instead of air.

"I have to catch up with her. She is never going to make it in this sunlight," Jacob shouted to his wife.

"Catch her! I'm fine," she insisted, pushing at his shoulder to urge him to the speed he was capable of.

Siena was blinded by tears, heedless of the nausea and weakness dragging at her struggling body like thousands of claws bent on rending her to shreds, working to slow her down and freeze her in position just short of the goal she needed to reach so desperately. The Queen fell over her own feet, crashing clumsily to the ground with a painful jarring. The strike on the ground seemed to burst her apart, her frantic sobs, held trapped within herself until that frustrating moment of impact, blinding her as she tried to stagger to her feet.

An outraged cry of wild terror echoed into the morning air as she struggled halfway to her feet, forcing herself forward with hands and feet and any other part of herself that would gain the purchase to propel her toward her goal.

Siena reached the tree line just as Elijah's form solidified suddenly before her, reaching for the frantic crash of her propelled body. He was overwhelmed by the emotions of his mate that had drawn him there, her feelings of distress having lured him like a clamoring beacon. She was so hysterical with paralyzing panic that she hadn't heard a single thing, felt a single feeling he had tried to communicate to soothe her.

They crashed into each other as she finally reached him, his opened arms scooping her up as she threw herself awkwardly against his body. She pushed herself into him, and into him again, forcing him to hold her tighter to keep her from harming them both in her desperation. She was so violent as she grabbed at his body that her feet came up off the ground, her arms nearly throttling him. She held on to him as if the world was ending and she needed to meet doomsday with him from the inside of his body, or his soul, whichever she could reach with all her efforts.

Her claws retracted to safety as she reached for his face, cupping it with desperation as tears fell over her furred face and dripped onto him, her soft lips trembling with sobs as she kissed him. She could not even breathe she was so upset, her padded fingers inspecting his scorched and wounded body frantically. It was merely battle scarring, nothing lethal, since this time his surprise at running into a pack of magic-users at Gideon's had been buffered by the fact that the open area had given him visual warning. In fact, he had been the one to surprise them. He had been fighting them, chasing them into the woodlands even as he picked them off one at a time with hailstones, lightning, and hurricane-force winds that blew right past any defenses they tried to throw at him.

He had only broken off when he had felt Siena's arrival and her highly panicked distress. He hadn't even realized she had come awake until she had entered the closer proximity. He had mistakenly thought that between his efforts and her sleeping state, she would remain blissfully unaware of the danger he was facing.

"Get a medic," she sobbed, gasping the words out as her terror and pain continued to overwhelm her body and soul. "Get a medic. Please. Goddess, please! Don't just stand there!" she screamed at Jacob who had finally, breathlessly, caught up to her and Elijah. "Get him a medic!"

Siena fell apart, not even seeing that Bella had also caught up to them, leaning hard into a stitch in her side. The Queen was lost in her pounding emotions, her body reverting to its human shape as she lost all strength and buried her face and fingers into Elijah's scorched shirt and burned chest.

"Siena!" Elijah grabbed her arms and gave her a shake. "Calm down, kitten. I am not hurt!"

But as he tried to get her to see sense, he felt her wobbling limply in his grasp. Her head bobbled weakly as her strength seemed to bleed out of her with the suddenness of a mortal wound. He heard Bella gasp, and, out of the corner of his eye, was aware of her hand covering the appalled opening of her mouth. The Enforcer was near to tears herself as she watched the Queen collapse so hard and fast. Elijah had to move with the reflexes of the wind, changing his grasp on her in order to hold on to her, keeping her from dropping like a stone. The hands that were grasping at Elijah's shirt went lax, her gold eyes closing halfway as they rolled back into her head.

"Siena!" Elijah bent to lift her into his arms, but she was dead weight now, her body suddenly locked into the rigidity of a seizure that made it impossible to do anything but follow her down to the ground.

The worst part of it was when his mind went completely blank of her presence. Elijah had never known such fear as he felt when she seemed to vacate his soul so suddenly. Not even when he had faced his own death a week ago had he known this kind of terror. The sudden silence after so much pain and panic tore at him, leaving him with open wounds in his spirit that outstripped the pain of those on his body by massive proportions.

Then he was forced to watch her body lock and release in wave after wave of rigid muscular contortions, her skin fading from gold to gray to a splotchy red, her clenching teeth tearing at her own tongue so her mouth filled with blood that spilled over her face and into her slackening hair.

"No! Siena, don't do this!" Elijah shouted as he bent over her, holding her thrashing head between his hands in an effort to keep her from further injuring herself on the rocks and forest debris scattered underneath her.

"We have to get her out of the sun, Elijah. She's killing herself" Jacob commanded, a strong hand on the warrior's shoulder to try and draw his attention.

"Wait," Bella said, gently urging her husband aside as she reached for Siena. "I can absorb her power. If it works like it did on Legna when she was Summoned, her weakness to the sun will disappear as Legna's vulnerability to the pentagram did. It could keep her just as safe as Legna was. It will give you the time you need to get to safety without allowing the poisoning to advance any further from continued exposure."

"Bella, don't!" Jacob warned, trying to grab her to stop her. But his mate pushed his hand aside, turning glaring violet eyes up to him. "Damn it, Bella, you have no clue what you will do to her or yourself if you do this! Stop fighting me every time I try to protect you!"

"Would you rather I let her die?" she demanded. "Should I let someone I love as a brother, who has treated me like family since the day I arrived among you in spite of everyone else's condemnations, be deprived of his soul mate? Should I protect myself and allow an entire people to be deprived of their Queen?"

"Not at the cost of my soul mate, Bella!" He was breathing harder, edging toward a volatile alarm, a condition he was not prone to unless her safety was at stake. "You do not know what will occur if you do this. You could end up killing her," Jacob argued, his hands fisting at his sides as he forced himself not to reach for her again, "or yourself."

"The possibility of death is a risk all of us take the minute we wake up in the evening. My safety is in jeopardy every time I accompany you to destroy the Transformed or track those who need enforcing. You don't make a stink about it then, so stop doing it now." Bella turned her attention back to the Lycanthrope female, feeling Elijah's frantic gaze on her. "Everyone step back. I don't know how to narrow my abilities yet. I don't need to draw all of you in."

"All the more reason you should not do this," Jacob snapped, losing all sense of awareness for anything but the danger to her safety that was clawing at him relentlessly.

"Fine, then stay where you are. I'm doing this with or without your cooperation, Jacob," she said hotly, the determination in her voice and the set of her stubborn jaw putting an end to her side of the argument. "Without is only taking longer."

Elijah suddenly decided for all of them. He stood up and physically reached to haul Jacob back away from both women. The Enforcer struck the warrior's hand aside, his dark eyes flaring with outrage that the Captain would try to strong-arm him from protecting his mate.

"Move back, or I will move you, Jacob," the warrior hissed, understanding that Bella's suggestion was the quickest, most plausible action to take to stop Siena's agony. Had he simply tried to carry her to shelter, she would probably have died from the continuous exposure to the sunlight before he reached his goal. Even he was feeling the drag of lethargy that affected his kind in the sun, in spite of his own strength at resisting that very condition.

Jacob could have held his ground, but it would have clearly invited an altercation. Outvoted, he finally backed away and gave Bella the room she had requested. The only other solution would have been for each man to assert his need to protect his mate above the other's through violence. In spite of the volatile emotions involved, it was not worth the price they would pay should it come to that.

Feeling her husband watching her with mental as well as visible anxiety, the Druid took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She reached out to touch Siena's bare skin with tentative fingers, more to focus herself than for any other reason, and sought within herself to unlock the power that had lain tamped down deep in her body for so long now. Bella had not released this power from her repressive control since she had been attacked six months ago by Ruth and her brethren.

So when it flared to life, it was with a visible eddy that pushed at the everything like an artificial wind, making the trees bend with loud creaks of stressed branches, the leaves and grasses blowing and scattering in a circular tide outward from the Druid. Jacob felt his heart leap into his throat. He had never seen this exude from her before. Usually hers was an invisible, imperceptible ability that insidiously bled Nightwalkers of their innate gifts. It terrified him to see everything around her blow back with sudden violence.

A minute later, the surge hit both males, even at their distance of several yards back. It propelled them both off their feet, slamming them to the ground in startled unison as all the capability of their elemental bodies was sucked out of them in a heartbeat.

At the same time, Bella robbed Siena of all her innate nature, from shape-shifting to the sensitivity to the sun that came with it. Unfortunately, Jacob also remembered a moment later that Bella not only dampened the innate abilities of Nightwalkers, she took on all of their characteristics.

Bella fell back onto her backside as all the power she had just invited into herself hit her hard. Suddenly the wind picked up and began to whip at them all. Then the grass began to grow at a frantic rate, becoming a tangled mass of blades in a heartbeat. Too much, too enormously powerful, the abilities she had stolen from them were out of her control. And as Siena finally fell into a relaxed loss of consciousness, Bella's hair began to spread, forming into black, silky fur all over Bella's body.

"Damn it!" Jacob bit out, staggering to his feet under the press of remarkable weakness, the power of which he had never felt before. He lurched over to his wife just as her form began to mutate painfully, her half-human body never intended to alter in such ways. One minute she was looking at him in wide-eyed shock, the next she was a violet-eyed jaguar, struggling to wriggle out of the confines of her jeans, T-shirt, and underclothes.

"Bella! Calm down!" Jacob said as he reached for her mind on both the level of an Imprinted mate and a creature of the Earth who could charm any animal he set his mind to. He worked quickly to free the huge cat of the clothing it was caught in, watching with actual awe as those eyes so eerily familiar to him seemed not to know him all of a sudden.

He had known that she could absorb and utilize Demon powers, but he would never have thought the same would apply to Lycanthrope powers. He had thought, until a moment ago, that the ability to shapechange had been as natural as a heartbeat for Siena, something Bella could not borrow or steal or use for herself in any way.

But he was clearly wrong. And even though this was Gideon's area of expertise, even the medic had never seen anything like Bella's abilities before she had arrived a year ago. This was new to all of them, and none of them should underestimate these hybrid powers. So it was with caution that he tried to soothe her. But he realized quickly that his power to charm had been stolen along with everything else, and all he was left with was the connection of soul mate to soul mate.

Elijah moved to Siena's now totally lax body, hastily scooping her off the ground and out of reach of the unpredictable danger the situation might provide. Bella had achieved her goal, however, and Elijah knew it on some inner level of his spirit. Siena was horribly ill, but the little Druid's brave act had effectively halted her vulnerability to any further damage.

The Warrior Captain met Jacob's eyes briefly, apologetically, and then he turned and hurried back toward Gideon's home with his limp burden, leaving Jacob to handle his altered mate. Without his powers, there was nothing Elijah could do in any event. It was best to leave them alone. Powers or no, Jacob knew more about dealing with animals than anyone else among them.

Noah was perhaps the only one who could have found Legna in her present state, and the only reason he did was because of her residual body heat. But she was already mostly cold to the touch as he scooped her off the floor. He knew immediately that this was Gideon's doing. He could sense the tracks of the Ancient's residual energy in her. And he also understood he had done it in order to try and protect her, to keep her from sticking her neck out into the situation that had clearly been desperate and dangerous to the degree that it had killed even the Ancient as a result.

Noah also knew his sister was dying. He felt what remained of her life force fading as he rushed out of the room and down the stairs to find medics. Unfortunately, there was only one at present, and he had his hands full working on Gideon.

Noah commanded a Mind Demon to fetch more help, then laid his sister on the ground outside of the charred house. He tried to focus, pushing aside the fear clawing at his soul. He covered her heart and her solar plexus with his hands, seeking her fading source of life and energy. He began to feed the depleted supply, slowly, careful of the also-fading spark of life within her child. Perhaps it was because he was of her own blood, or merely by force of their stubborn wills, but she began to warm, to flush with energy, if not true signs of life. His momentary relief was profound. At least he could maintain the stasis. Though he could not reverse the effect, it was enough until he could find others skilled enough to do so.

Elijah shouted for help, earning the attention of several warriors who rushed to his side, eager to be of any assistance.

"I need a medic!"

Elijah pushed into the house and for the first time he saw the destruction that had been wreaked upon it and its inhabitants. He had given chase to the assailants who had fled the scene, never once considering that Gideon couldn't handle his end by himself. Seeing a medic leaning over the Ancient took the Captain's breath away.

The younger medic looked up at his superior, then stood up and rubbed his hands nervously as he approached the Wind Demon.

"Sir, there is nothing we can do for her," he informed cautiously. "Not even Gideon knows how to heal a Lycanthrope."

"Don't tell me that," he commanded with a bark, gently laying his mate down in a dark corner before turning to confront the other man harshly. "You have basic skills, something that can cross species, and you will do what you can."

"Elijah …"

His name, spoken hoarsely through a rasping, gurgling sound, brought him around with a sharp turn. He dropped to his knees, scooping up her hand automatically as her throat worked to help her speak.

"What can I do, Siena?" he asked, his golden brows rippled with worry and distress.

"Do not let me die."

"No. You won't. We will help you." His tone was angry and frantic, outraged at the very idea of the suggestion.

"Do not …"

"Shh … Elijah soothed.

"… let me die … until I have killed that Demon bitch."

"You and I both," he promised fiercely as Siena slipped away from consciousness once more. "You and I both, kitten love."

Once Elijah and Siena left the immediate area, Bella was deprived of her continuous source of their power, her ability to absorb them no doubt having been left on as she was ruled by little more than animal instinct. It was practice and concentration that allowed her to shut it off, and as a wild cat, she was not likely to have that focus.

So it was over several gradual minutes that her husband felt her senses returning to her, and several more before her body began to realter itself into its natural formation. Silky black hair pulled away from skin as the power she had absorbed from Siena bled away. The act had cost Bella, Jacob could feel that as she reverted to her natural form and dropped into the thickly grown cushion of grass, panting for breath. But it had allowed Elijah the time needed to get Siena out of the sun, and Jacob knew that was all that would immediately matter to Bella.

So when she opened her eyes and saw him leaning over her with clear concern and barely repressed anger, she knew she had succeeded, in spite of not remembering any of it.

"It worked," she sighed.

"Yeah, you could say that, if you really stretch it," Jacob said, his tone clipped because he was unable to help himself. His heart was still pounding violently from his fright of seeing her so brutally altered and affected.

Jacob reached to pull her clothes closer, drawing her up into a sitting position so he could slip her T-shirt back over her body. Her head rested on his shoulder as he did so.

"You have a daughter, Bella," he said, his voice hoarse with pent-up emotion. "You cannot do these reckless things, risking yourself like that without taking her into consideration. She needs you, even more than I do, and you know how much that is all on its own." He exhaled, his breath shuddering as he did so, his dark eyes sliding closed with tight pain. "I ought to wring your neck."

"And would you have wanted Siena to do less if it could save my life?"

The question stung, sobering his anger with its brutal truth. His frantic motions to clothe her stopped, and with heat burning behind his eyes, he turned his face into the black silk of her thick hair, inhaling her fragrance deeply, gratefully, as he covered the back of her head with a warm, possessive hand.

He did not answer verbally, but the language of his gestures and thoughts were all the answer she needed. She wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly.

"Now," she whispered, "we have some tracking to do, my beloved. We can't let these people continue to hurt us."

"We will. Soon. Right now, we need to get back to the house so I can help Noah and Elijah, and so you can recoup some strength."

She didn't argue. She knew they could pick up the trail later on, and she also knew he was right about how tired she had made herself. The downside about such a rush of power was the letdown that followed immediately after.

But as she had noted a few days ago, she felt as if a part of the Lycanthrope Queen was now stamped onto her mind. She pushed the understanding aside, however, not wishing to upset Jacob any more than she already had.

Upstairs in the castle the Demon King called home, Noah was leaning against the window frame of Legna's bedroom, the one she had occupied for the three hundred years spanning from her childhood to the day she had married Gideon six months past. The King was staring blankly out at the gardens stretching on and on just below him, his memories of those years of her graceful influence tumbling through him like an undertow, dragging at his heart with painful repetition.

His sister was surrounded by medics, but he could tell from their whispering voices that they were still as befuddled over her condition as they had been for an hour now. If not for his ability to maintain her stasis, Legna would have been dead by now. What in hell had possessed Gideon to choose such a dangerous masking method? Surely there were other ways—ways that would not have left her in such danger!

Noah closed his eyes and exhaled.

He knew that was unfair. The moment Gideon became unconscious or died, any other glamour to mask her would have died with him and would have left her just as vulnerable. In fact, she would very likely be directly dead if not for the fact that he had forced their enemies into resorting to the randomness of a fire, hoping that it would eventually get to her wherever she was secreted so effectively from them.

Noah pushed away from the window and moved one of the medics aside with an almost ungentle push of one hand on the man's shoulder. He glanced up briefly at the midwife across from him who was monitoring Legna's baby closely, and she instantly backed away. All it took was that frighteningly authoritative look on their usually casual King to make them respond quickly. They all knew that there was no one more precious to Noah than his youngest sister.

Noah leaned over Legna, wrapping one elegant hand around her pulseless neck as he pressed his lips to her forehead and began to whisper to her.

"I forgave you for leaving me six months ago," he murmured, reaching with his mind and his heart for her, using all the focus and strength of his long lifetime and the mental familiarity with her that he had achieved under her patient tutelage over the centuries of her own. "I will not allow you to do so again. Not this way. Come, little sister, and wake for me. You have his power inside you. You have his child inside you. I cannot believe that means nothing to your safety."

Noah's eyes slid closed and he lowered his forehead to rest beside her head on the pillow, speaking softly into her ear.

"When Mama died, I swore you would live to be an Ancient, little girl, and I will not tolerate breaking that promise. Come back to me. I …"

He had to stop as emotion overwhelmed his voice. He tried to breathe, but no matter how deeply he drew, it was not enough. He was starving for oxygen in that moment, and like any flame, felt as if it would extinguish him.

"I need you," he said at last, his voice hoarse and breaking. "If Gideon survives, he will need you. The babe … all of us. You are now the eldest female Mind Demon among us. Who but you will teach the young?" He again tried to inhale a deep, painful breath. "Who else," he said, softer than ever, "will continue to teach me what it is I am missing by not knowing the love you share with Gideon? The day I live without you to teach me as you always have is the day I will forget how to truly live."

Do not leave us, he begged from all the resources of his mind, pouring his emotion into her. Gideon will die without you. He will never be able to bear knowing that while trying to save you both, he became the instrument of your death. Do not leave him with that legacy.

Noah had no fact to base his attempts to reach her on, so had no proof they would be successful in aiding Legna in any way. But he continued on, tirelessly, feeding her energy and emotion and every compelling reason he could think of to draw her back.

Syreena and Anya stood at firm attention on both sides of the door to the room Siena was being tended in. Elijah stood back far from the bed, hidden in the dark shadows the pulled shades provided while keeping out the sun. The female attachés were flicking eerily aware eyes from Queen to Consort to the two members of The Pride, their most accomplished healers, trying to treat the Queen for her sun poisoning.

"She is beginning to blister," one informed them softly.

It was not a good sign. It meant she had received the equivalent of a lethal dose of radiation. The Monks of The Pride would be hard-pressed to help her recover without long-term effects of the damage.

"You will do your utmost," Syreena reminded them, her voice that of a monarch for the first time in her life.

The command was stolen right out of Elijah's mouth, so he speculatively narrowed pale eyes on Siena's sister. His voice would no doubt have little influence in this room. He had not earned any authority or loyalty from them as yet. He'd not even had the chance to do so. It made him relax a little to see Syreena advocating so powerfully where he could not. That was when he understood these women loved Siena as deeply as he loved Noah, and for all the same reasons.

"What a waste … over a Demon."

Anya went stock still, her eyes widening when the words passed the second Monk's lips. Remarkably, it was not Elijah who reacted to the offensive remark. Instead, it was that moment that Anya truly learned how fast the Princess was.

And how volatile she could be.

Before anyone could twitch, Syreena had leapt for the Monk, doing the unthinkable by grabbing his entire weight and body off the bed with a single hand around his throat. He squawked in shock as she slammed him brutally into the nearest stone wall. The resounding smack of his head making Anya wince and gasp with shock.

Syreena's harlequin eyes bored into those of the dazed man who had once been one of her mentors.

"Speak thusly ever again in your lifetime and you will find yourself taking an involuntary vow of silence for the rest of your existence." She tightened her grip on his throat to make certain she had his unwavering attention. "I swear it, Monk. I will have your tongue should you ever do so again. Siena has sacrificed everything for peace, and I will never tolerate anyone belittling her efforts in such a disrespectful manner. Am I being understood?"

"Child, you will release your brother," the second Monk commanded her, pulling that tone of authority that parents used with disobedient young.

All Anya could do was watch with queer fascination. She would never in her life have even considered laying hands on a member of The Pride. In fact, by law, it was pretty much a capital offense. She had not thought Syreena capable of such a thing until she saw it happen right before her eyes.

The Pride was so old, and so powerful, that they were considered even by other races to be the ultimate scholars and the most learned fighters. They knew techniques for fighting that were ancient and deadly, handed down amongst them as well-guarded secrets for generation upon generation. To challenge one was akin to suicide, or so she had always been told.

And apparently Syreena had paid close attention to her lessons in the more deadly categories.

Until then, Anya would have labeled the Princess a pacifist, more interested in her studies, her meditations, and her position as Counselor than in fighting or joining in the training programs the Elite held in a rigorous manner on a daily basis. Now it was quite clear it was because she did not need the practice. And clearer still, by the look in the eyes of the Monk trapped beneath her grasp, was the fact that even this learned man of The Pride was not willing to fight her, not even to protect himself.

That gave Anya a chill down her spine.

Everyone fears the lion, but what does one feel toward something that frightens even the mighty cat that tops the food chain?

Anya's glance flicked once more to the glimmer of light green eyes watching the actions of the Princess with a remarkable, dispassionate calm. Anya's respect for the warrior hiked up a few notches as he let Syreena deal with their own without interfering. She had assumed he would be pushier, more volatile, and begging for altercation opportunities. It was frighteningly enlightening to realize you were in a room with two creatures of power you clearly knew too little about.

"He is no more my brother than you are, Konini."

Syreena turned to look at the other Monk with frigid eyes, and Anya was once more shocked by what she saw in the expression of the Princess. It was the unmistakable temper that the royal family had been tragically famous for during all these generations. Siena controlled hers remarkably well. Apparently Syreena did as well.

Until now, at least.

"Heal her, or answer to me," the Princess hissed.

"I do not perform to threats," the Monk said serenely, clearly not understanding that his pious ways were only getting him deeper into trouble. "You will cease this foolish violence, sister."

Before Anya could blink, one Monk was released to crumple to the floor and the other was between Syreena's fingers in a peculiar grip the Elite General had never seen used before. Syreena used the leverage of the hold to force Konini's face close to his patient's blistering countenance.

"What you see before you, Monk, is a true sister. My only sister. My only brother. At my heart, my mother. You had best save her, because if I become Queen, you will know not only my wrath, but I suspect the wrath of her husband's people as well." Syreena glanced up even as the Monk did, his eyes widening with fear as he looked at the only feature of the still Demon male he could see.

Those pale eyes glowing in the darkness.

"Remember, Monk, that even without his fury there are ways I can destroy your precious Pride." She leaned closer to whisper more harshly to him. "I beg you to recall just how good and thorough a student I really was, Konini. And I know you know what I mean, brother."

She let go of him after that cryptic remark, and he fell onto the bed awkwardly, gasping for breath until his purple face began to change back to normal. To Anya's further amazement, he argued no further, threatened no punishment. Konini dragged his compatriot healer to his feet, slapping away his hands when they went to touch the cut the wall had left on the back of his head. He glanced worriedly from harlequin eyes to jade with clear trepidation and disquiet.

Anya watched Syreena march back into her guarding position with two steps and an about-face that would have put most of the General's fighting corps to shame.

"I noticed you left the room for a few minutes just now, half-breed," she remarked coolly, not even looking at the other woman.

"I …" Anya cleared her throat. "I was thirsty," she agreed, knowing full well she'd rather dehydrate than ever leave the Queen unprotected. Just as much as Syreena knew it. "Anything … uh … unusual happen while I was … um …"

"Out of the room?" Syreena prompted. "Not a thing."

"Good." Anya smiled an amused smile. "Good."

In the darkness, Anya could swear she heard the stoic warrior her people had feared for centuries chuckling under his breath.

The medics left Gideon's room, letting nature do what it could do best. They had done all they could, and the rest was up to Destiny and the Ancient's own resiliency.

Bringing his life signs back had been easy enough. So long as it was soon enough, an Elder Body Demon could time his own vital signs to take over those of the victim's, rather like a person-to-person bypass mechanism. The Elder took over the damaged autonomic systems, bringing the victim instantly back to life. However, healing the body fast enough and far enough to take over on its own had been the trick. Gideon had suffered enormous damage to vital organs and a blood loss that few could recover from.

The medics believed it was only Gideon's age that had saved him. Everything else aside, his was the fastest-healing immune system in the world. The only thing he was not capable of doing was replenishing his own blood supply rapidly enough. Nor was Gideon able to do the deep, complex healings that, while in reach of some of the Elders, lacked his artistic finesse for perfection. It had been difficult to sort out venom and rabies, bacteria and bone marrow, the clots and the residual scarring that had polluted his systems.

He should have died. Might still die. It was only his natural healing that could save him from whatever they had missed or had deemed out of their range of skill.

Hours passed and darkness swept over the castle that doubled as a hospital. There were guards outside all of the doors, a mixture of Demon warriors and Lycanthrope Elite that was eerily unprecedented. More so, the Lycanthropes brooked no argument to their demands to guard the door of the Warrior Captain and his bride themselves.

Baffled by Noah's command to comply, the warriors did so despite the loyalty that tempted them to disobey even the King's command. The castle was swarming with other forces, most of them out of doors, protecting the perimeter. Noah had left his sister long enough to spell Corrine, who had been given the care of her sibling's baby. Sitting by the comfort of his fire, holding the snug bundle of warmth over his heart, Noah could allow himself to release his pain. He was not an emotionally demonstrative man in public, but in his solitude of the moment, with only the nameless child to witness it, he allowed himself to be so in utter silence.

The weight of the little babe upon it was the only thing keeping his heart from splitting apart.