Chapter 6

"Hello, little flower. You look better," Jacob greeted his wife as she came down the central spiral staircase, her nightgown trailing lazily behind her.

She smiled at him, moving into his embrace the minute her feet touched the same floor he was on.

Legna and an adult Mind Demon named Amos followed behind her. Amos had provided the buffer Isabella had needed to catch her breath and heal. But it was clear the experience had taken its toll on the Demon. He looked exhausted and excused himself quickly after turning Isabella's care over to her husband and friends. Legna would continue to monitor Bella and would notify them if they needed to fetch further assistance, but at the moment, Jacob's petite mate looked rosy and healthy. More so than she had in months.

"Are you okay?" Jacob asked, framing her face with his hands as he inspected her for the thousandth time since she had become conscious and lucid a day ago.

"I am now," she insisted, reaching for his kiss and letting him feel how much she had missed being close to him.

She had always stirred him so easily. Kiss and body contact, these things would grab his attention on so many levels. However, all she truly had to do was look at him with those beautifully amused eyes of violet and he would be instantly under her spell. Of course, her response to the feel of his graceful touch and the intensity of his emotions for her left her similarly weak in her knees.

They had not been intimate in quite some time because of pregnancy and illnesses. The strain of the waxing Samhain moon was beginning to show in how deeply his fingers pressed into her soft flesh and how tightly hers tangled into his hair.

This was all part of the Imprinting between them. Their souls were forever deeply bound. Because of this, everything would always come with great intensity to them. It would never change and, despite the moments where he regretted having opened her up to the danger and intrigue of his life, Jacob had been thankful for the precious gift of her every day since the moment he had first touched her. She eased his heart. She was the only one who could lighten the weight he often made himself carry on his soul.

For instance, early on, just after the accidental death of the Druid male who would have been the mate of Ruth's daughter, Mary. Jacob was not truly to blame for something no one had understood the nature of until far too late. But he was a man of particular conscience. Taking such joy in his mate, the first Druid hybrid to become known to any of them, he felt Mary's lost potential keenly.

However, he would never be able to convert that incident into a reason for the brutal acts of deception and violence that both women had perpetrated against their very own people. Especially not after Isabella had suffered as a target of one of those attacks, nearly losing her life as well as the life of their daughter.

It had been his wife's love and soft assurances that had helped him come to grips with his conscience in this matter. She was always there to halt him when he tried to backslide into those feelings of responsibility and guilt. Jacob could no longer remember what life had been like without her support and the way she made him feel when she sought his support in return.

Still, he sometimes feared the risks to the safety of his family that came with being an Enforcer. He tended to forget that his mate was gifted with remarkable power, fighting skills, and a unique cunning that had come from her humanity and the life she had led before she had changed into her Druidic form. Jacob knew his disproportionate perception of Bella's abilities was due to all the weakness and injury she had been subjected to over her enceinte term. It had been such a long, harrowing time of worry and he had pretty much forgotten how strong she could truly be.

But the flush of her complexion, the warmth of her body, and the robust energy of her embrace eased him into understanding that she was getting well quickly. She would soon be able to care for the needs of her family and the demands of her duties, just like he knew she wanted, the enthusiasm singing through his thoughts in a way that made him laugh out loud.

Bella slipped out of his embrace, her thoughts turning in the direction of her infant daughter. She moved to the cradle that sat beneath Noah's hand and looked down at her daughter, who was finally sleeping after the proper breast-feeding she had longed for. Bella smiled at the King, leaning to kiss his cheek warmly, ignoring her husband's tensing hand at her waist.

"She adores you, Noah," she told him softly, looking down at how the King's enormous hand blanketed the babe's back securely.

"The feeling is quite mutual, I assure you," he said. "She loves to be close to the fire. A girl after my own heart."

"I see that. Noah, I have news for you."

"Yes," the King sighed. "Jacob said you would. I suppose it concerns Elijah?"

"Yes." Bella moved to sit in the chair nearest the monarch. "I believe he was badly injured in a battle. A trap he was not expecting. But before I explain further, I want to tell you all that I think I am beginning to understand why some visions affect me so strongly and others do not." She looked up at her husband and the others who were gathered around her. Legna had come to stand close to Gideon's side as he stood with his usual firm efficiency near the fireplace. The medic relaxed instantly, however, when his wife leaned into his embrace. "Actually, Amos helped me with this understanding. I believe it depends on how close I have been to the person who is the subject of the vision."

"How close? As in emotions, or proximity?"

"I cannot be one hundred percent sure, of course, but I believe it is proximity. A very specific kind of proximity. My power to dampen and then absorb the powers of other Nightwalkers, to be exact. I have absorbed Elijah's powers repeatedly over the past year, and in a way, because of it I feel connected to him. Almost as if a part of him remains living inside me. The same is true of Legna, and Jacob, and you as well, Noah. Before I learned to control the ability as I do now, I accidentally took that part of you all within myself. I believe the reason the visions overwhelmed me while I was searching for Elijah was because he was equally overwhelmed with injury and pain."

"It's a form of empathy," Legna remarked, her own empathy making her the expert.

"Yes. It is. And though Amos was an enormous help in buffering me from the harsh reality of the exhausting visions, as time has gone on, it has become less necessary. I believe with my entire being that Elijah has been taken to a safe place and has been healing all of this time, allowing me to become calmer and more relaxed with every moment the urgency passed. I also sense he is returning to us very soon."

"Thank Destiny." Noah exhaled suddenly, a weight of oppressing proportions finally lifting off of his shoulders. "Bella, I am so glad to hear that."

"I think in the future," Gideon spoke up, "and until you are stronger and more experienced, you need to limit the instances of absorbing the powers of others. We cannot change what has already occurred, but there is so much we do not know about human/Druid hybrids, Isabella. You are nothing like the Druids I knew a millennia ago. Your sister as well. Corrine's powers—"

"What about them?"

The fireside gathering looked up to see the exact redhead in question standing in the center of the hall, hands on hips, her husband Kane standing behind her. It was at about the same moment that the familiar scent of sulfur and smoke, the usual residue a young Mind Demon left behind when teleporting to and from a location, drifted over the group. Bella reached to fan away the odor from her sleeping baby, wishing Elijah was already there to blow away the fumes with a breeze.

"They are nothing like what they should be," Gideon finished. Kane was getting better at teleporting, he mused. It was rare that one so young could sneak up on such an elder, highly experienced group of Demons.

"Well, well, look what the smoke dragged in," Noah greeted them wryly. "Where have you two been?"

Corrine blushed an immediate bright red, passing the reaction back to her mate, who colored under his natural tan.

"Call it a delayed honeymoon," Kane explained sheepishly. "There's been so much going on since the wedding, what with looking for Ruth and Mary and fighting these sporadic attacks they keep leading against us, I asked Elijah if we could take off for a few days. He said we could."

"That explains why you were too preoccupied to hear my summons," Jacob teased, feeling good-natured about it now that Bella was safe and healthy again.

"So why did you need us? And why are we discussing my powers?" Corrine asked, moving toward them, her husband in tow. She led him to a chair where he obediently sat down and she found her seat in his lap.

"It's a long story. Suffice it to say," Gideon said, "we are learning there are some drawbacks to Druidic powers that are not in my experience."

"Oh, great," Corrine said dryly. "I finally start to get mine, and now you're telling me there are going to be ramifications?"

"Firstly, Corrine, I don't think we have seen all of your abilities yet. I do not believe the ability to seek out Druid mates will be all there is to you." Gideon took a seat as well and crossed his legs casually. "And the two Druids you have recently found are a very good example of the diversity hybrids seem to be gifted with. One can become invisible, walking through walls and all solid objects. The other not only has the gift of flight, but he has an uncanny knack for sensing the presence of other Nightwalkers."

"I think it would be wise for all of the Druids to be careful with how they use their abilities. If Bella has a drawback, we can bet the rest of you will." Noah lifted his hand from Bella's baby at last, rubbing his hands together absently. "Frankly, it makes sense. Nature always provides a measure of balance. She has gifted you all with immortality and rapid healing, as well as a variety of powers. It is her way to balance this with a compensating weakness."

"Just as our powers and immortality are vulnerable to the presence of iron," Jacob added.

"You mean every hero has his or her kryptonite," Bella said.

"Exactly," Legna agreed. "'Thropes have silver. Dwellers have light. For Mistrals it's agoraphobia."

"Vampires have the sun," Kane added.

"Yes. But they all understand and are familiar with these weaknesses, and have learned to adjust to avoid them and the danger they represent. Until we know what it is specifically each Druid needs to be wary of, you are in a reasonable amount of danger." Gideon made sure to level a firm gaze at both of the Druids present. "Stay close to your mates, ladies. They will potentially be the ones who can most immediately protect you."

"Wait a minute," Corrine complained. "I thought our kryptonite was the fact that we need to remain exposed to the energy of our mates regularly. That is how I almost died, isn't it? That's why Mary's mate died. Because we didn't realize he had been exposed to her already, like I had been exposed to Kane. That's why we began to starve to death. Because of lack of that needed energy. You found me barely in time and it took me all this time to recover what I lost. According to you, I'm still recovering."

"She has a point," Kane remarked.

"Yes. But you might recall that Vampires also can be poisoned by the blood of magic-users. Lycanthropes cannot bear the binding of their hair." Legna leaned forward as she explained. "There are no absolutes, Corrine. If we act as if there are, we will damage ourselves in the long run."

"Yes. Of course." Corrine blushed until she nearly matched the color of her long, coiled hair. She waved herself off with one hand. "Don't mind me, I've only been on the planet for thirty years. What do I know?"

"It was a good point, honey," Kane assured her. "You only learn by asking questions."

"I do not believe it." Jacob spoke up in sudden, laughing shock. "My baby brother did not just repeat something I have spent the past century trying to pound into his thick skull, did he?"

"I do believe he did," Noah speculated with a hum of interest.

"I think he ought to ‘honeymoon' more often," Bella teased, giggling hysterically when the pair blushed hotly once more.

Siena instinctively found herself reaching for her throat, suddenly feeling the absence of her insignia of rank. But there was far more to her reign than a piece of jewelry.

"Elijah," she said softly, her eyes never leaving her sister's expression of barely repressed amusement.

She didn't even need to say his name. The warrior already knew what she wanted. He hesitated for a small second, gripped with a reluctance to let go of her he couldn't comprehend. Slowly, he slipped his hands from around her waist, moved away, and with a single, lithe movement, gained the stone ledge of the pool. He immediately left the area of the pool and strode boldly into the back sections of the cave. Syreena watched him go, the lift of her brow both curious and appreciative as she perused his nude body during his retreat.

Then she turned that cocked brow to her sibling.

Siena was already out of the water herself, the liquid streaming off her body as she approached her sister with hostile speed.

"Siena," Syreena warned, instinctively holding up a hand to ward her off.

Siena approached her so that they were almost nose to nose, her hands curled into fists.

"Heed me carefully, Counselor," she whispered with intense warning, her gold eyes flashing with molten temper. "You do not give my title to anyone until I give you leave to do so. I will not brook that insolence, not even from a sister."

"If you did not wish to share the title, Siena, then you should not have slept with him."

"What has happened here is my business, and mine alone. I will dictate the ramifications of my actions, Syreena. Not you, nor anyone else, will force their opinions on me."

"By all means, Your Highness." Syreena inclined her head in a serious bow of acknowledgement. "Your authority is, of course, paramount to anyone else's. Far be it from me to gainsay you."

"You always gainsay me," Siena said, sighing heavily as she ran a hand through her damp hair. "Come. Jinaeri has left clothes in the back room. It is too cold to stand here trading words in the nude."

Syreena nodded and followed her sister into the back of the cavern. The Demon was nowhere to be seen, but Syreena could sense him in the room set just behind the fireplace. Siena was uncharacteristically nervous as she tossed one of Jinaeri's dresses to her sister before slipping one onto herself. Syreena made herself as unobtrusive as she could, finding a seat in the corner of the couch.

To her surprise, the warrior did not continue to hide in the back room. He made a fairly immediate appearance, dressed a little more appropriately in his pants.

Elijah glanced from Siena to the other female with a discerning eye. He had never seen a Lycanthrope quite like this woman who had disturbed their solitude. Her bicolored hair alone was enough to inspire his curiosity. It was as long as Siena's, but heavy and straight as it fell down her body. Having learned a bit more about the significance of a Lycanthrope's hair, Elijah knew there was something a little extraordinary about this intruder.

He turned his attention to Siena. The skirt of her newly donned dress swished sharply as the Queen made herself busy at the fire and the counter. He felt her distress and her internal struggle for composure very keenly. She was preparing dinner for them as if they were attending a casual party instead of … instead of what it was.

A moment of reckoning.

The moment she made the mistake of passing into his reach, he seized her by her arm and drew her close.

"Would you give me a moment?" he asked her, his direct gaze daring her to argue. She nodded and allowed him to draw her into the back room.

The minute they were out of sight of her unexpected guest, he turned her back to the wall and trapped her to it lightly with a hand braced on either side of her shoulders.

"I know what you are thinking, kitten," he said softly, his jade eyes penetrating deeply into her soul. "You are thinking we will pretend this has not happened. That you will escape with your little confidante back to your world and I will be nothing but a very intriguing memory."

"How do you presume to know what I am thinking," she asked, her whisper sharp on her rapid breath. But the color flushing up over her skin tattled on her quite effectively. "And what do you propose as an alternative? Sweeping me off my feet and making me your bride?" She laughed softly, breathlessly, the sound derisive and raw. "I have no intention of taking this one step beyond this cavern, and I know you have understood that all along."

"Yes, I have," he agreed, "but I don't recall ever agreeing to it. I asked you what you wanted, Siena, and you made it perfectly clear it was me. And until you stop wanting me, this doesn't come to an end."

"Trust me, warrior, my desire for you ends the moment I cross the threshold of this cavern."

Elijah did not argue with her. Instead, he reached to touch her cheek. She jerked her head away, but it was with panic in her eyes. He followed easily and settled his warm fingers on her flushed cheek. With purposeful intent, his fingertips slid down to below her ear and then made that sensual circuit down the side of her neck that so easily stimulated her. He felt the blush and swell of her reaction to the touch on a purely spiritual level. By the time his touch stroked back up to her face, she was turning into his large palm, her lips nuzzling over the calluses within it as her eyes slid closed.

"Elijah," she whispered, her breath pooling into his caressing palm. "My feelings—my desires," she corrected herself, "are beside the point." She looked up into his eyes with the weight of her responsibilities gleaming in her golden pupils. "You are Demon. I am Queen to a species that still feels the bite of your sword. You will find another to be with soon enough who will be more appropriate. This …" Siena suddenly turned from his touch, trying to ignore the bereft feelings that resulted. "This ends here."

She ducked out of his trap, but he was just as fast as she was and whirled her back up against him in a heartbeat. His hand bunched up her hair as he held her head still for his kiss, the other hand locking her forearm to his chest.

Siena felt intense pain slicing through the center of her body as she opened her mouth to his demand, to his purposeful brand that burned her soul deep. His message was violently clear. This was not over between them, and he was going to prove it to her by any means necessary. No matter what the cost to either of them.

He let her go slowly, hands first, lips last. His eyes were dark and serious as he stepped back from her, raised his arms, and with a simple thought twisted into the brisk chill of an autumn breeze. He rushed past her, through her, making her inhale with sudden surprise as his essence streamed through her hair and over her skin.

The only things resting in his stead were the borrowed trousers and the circlet of hair that had sealed the wound on his chest all of this time.

Elijah lived in the States, so he was forced to end his trip at a location closer to the Russian forest he had just left. Noah's home in England was the closest place he could think of, and so he streamed into one of the upstairs bedrooms, where upon solidifying into his biological form, he stumbled and fell to his knees, clutching the freshly bleeding wound on his chest.

He barely noted the bite of the stone floor against his knees. Noah would sense his energy momentarily and would come to find him. Before that happened, he needed to get to some soap and water and rid himself of the Lycanthrope Queen's scent.

He was loath to do so. Even as he got up and made his way into an adjoining bathroom he could feel the resistant cry of that place deep inside himself that Siena had managed to touch. The place that needed her scent clinging to him until he could find a way to convince her to come back into his embrace.

He was barely under the water for five minutes before he heard the outer room door open. By then he was so weak from fresh loss of blood, he had been forced to sit down in the corner of the shower stall. With water streaming through his hair, he tried to focus on the opening door.

To his momentary surprise, it was not Noah who had felt his presence and come to him.

It was Isabella.

She gasped with shock when she saw him and all the blood washing down over the shower tiles. She hurried toward him but suddenly jerked to a halt, a hand slamming into her forehead as if she were under a mental assault.

"Well then, get up here!" she growled viciously to an unseen conversant. "And bring Gideon with you."

Then she promptly ignored what had clearly been a voluble complaint from her notoriously possessive husband and moved to Elijah's side. She shut off the taps and, ignoring the fate of her pretty white gown, knelt beside him in the pool of water and blood that remained yet undrained.

"Hey," he greeted her, giving her a wan smile. "Jacob's going to murder you."

"Yes, well, he'll have to come up here to do it, and that's all that matters to me at the moment." She snatched a towel off the other side of the shower door and bunched it up against his wound, pressing with all her weight. She was a little thing, top to bottom, so Elijah could barely feel it. "We've been so worried about you," she whispered, leaning to kiss his forehead, her free hand pushing his soaked hair out of his eyes.

"Can't a man take a little vacation?" he quipped, wincing when the bathroom door burst open hard, recoiling off its backstop and almost cracking Jacob in the head.

"Damn it, Bella!"

"Oh, would you please give it a rest, Jacob!" she snapped back at him. "When are you going to get it through your thick head that I am just as Imprinted into this marriage as you are? I am really getting sick of this!"

Jacob had never been on the receiving end of his wife's temper in the entire year they had known each other. It left him so shocked that Gideon had to physically move him aside in order to get past him to his patient.

Bella ducked so the medic could step over her and squat down across from Elijah.

"Well, you look like something the cat dragged in," he remarked, immediately laying a hand on the warrior's forehead and closing his eyes in order to assess the damage done to the warrior's abused body.

Gideon did not understand why Elijah found his remark so terribly funny, but the warrior was laughing so hard that his nurse pinched him in the arm to stop him.

"I can't keep pressure with your chest bobbing up and down. Besides, Gideon will never be that funny," she said, giving him a cockeyed look.

"What possessed you to take a shower, Elijah? It could have waited." Gideon shook his head in bafflement, reaching to move Bella aside so he could inspect the worst wound. "Playing with iron again, I see."

"Yeah, well, the other kids weren't playing fair," the warrior murmured.

Gideon looked up at Jacob, who was standing awkwardly in the center of the room.

"So, are you going to challenge him to a duel, or would you mind donating some blood?" Gideon asked.

Bella stood up and moved out of her husband's path, giving him a look that should have cut him to shreds. Jacob moved to his friends' sides and bent down on one knee. He extended his wrist to the medic, who grabbed hold of it in one hand and Elijah's in the other.

"I'm sorry," Jacob murmured to the Captain. And it was clear he meant it sincerely.

"Save it for your wife, friend. She's more upset by it than I am. You've been pigheaded all my life. I'm used to it. She isn't."

Color flared into Elijah's skin even as his donor paled. Despite her pique, Bella was there to help her weakened mate to a seat in the bedroom. Having gotten his patient out of the immediate danger of bleeding to death, Gideon began to heal the wound itself. He had his hands pressed to the rent flesh and was completely focused on his task. Elijah felt the peculiar stretching that came with the knitting of tissue, deep inside his chest.

"You are going to have to tell me exactly how you managed to survive this long with this kind of wound. It is half healed. One would think you would have the sense to stay put until—"

Gideon stopped abruptly, his silver brows furrowing into a frown as he tilted his head and tried to analyze what he was experiencing. When those sharp mercury-colored eyes bore into Elijah's, the warrior knew without a doubt that the Ancient had somehow gained a clue to what had transpired the past few days. But to his relief, the medic did nothing more then lift a single brow of curiosity.

That was all.

Gideon returned to his task, not saying another word.