Chapter Five

It was her first trip—that she actually remembered—traveling the way Demons did. It had begun with Jacob turning her into dust and guiding her through that little window. Once they were truly airborne, Jacob altered them both back into their normal forms, only he was holding her cradled to his chest protectively.

"It is not far. Let me know if you become too cold."

Cold? She was trying to find the courage to unbury her face from the concealing column of his neck; she did not have the presence of mind it would take to feel cold. She was also clutching him so tightly that she was sure she was tearing the expensive silk of his shirt After a while, though, the steady feel of his firm shoulders beneath her fingertips allowed for her heartbeat to slow enough to stop choking her, and the indomitable strength of his arms holding her began to make her understand that she was safe with him.

This did not give her the courage to look around herself, but she did lift her head and focus with all of her concentration on his face. His dark brown and black eyes shifted to hers when he felt her looking at him.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"I'll be fine," she assured him shakily. Right up until I hit the ground.

Jacob pulled her head back down to the security of his shoulder, burying his grin in her thick hair when her humorous sarcasm flitted through his mind. She tended to forget that he could read her mind, just as she forgot she could just as easily read his if she tried more often. But she had that quirky human penchant called privacy, a custom that was not all that prevalent in the Demon culture.

"Tell me where we're going," she murmured next to his ear.

Her soft lips moved against his neck with her speech, her breath hot against his skin, bathing him in sensitivity. Awareness instantly shuddered through him, his body clenching with instant need. He had already realized that his good intentions wouldn't matter before long. If he stayed near her, he would tear her apart with his harsh desire for her. It was this knowledge that had forced him to pace before Noah endlessly until the Council interrupted his self-obsessions.

The Enforcer knew, though, that he could not maintain his close connection to Noah's home so long as Isabella was residing there. She tempted him far too deeply. So, he had paced before Noah's desk, trying to find a way to tell the Demon King that he had to drag himself as far away from the center of Demon culture as he could. He also needed to do this without blaming it on this innocent woman. The problem was not hers. He was the one lacking in control. It had brought him very low, doing the very thing he had lectured Kane on. It had brought Jacob to the other side of the sidewalk. He now knew what it felt like to be driven to those depths of immoral action even though principles cried out to do the right thing.

"Jacob?"

His name on her lips made him realize he had not answered her question.

"To my home," he told her, using the response as a reason to lean his face closer to her, to bury himself in her hair. She was, he realized, taking on more of his scent every day. Though she had showered and gotten herself dusty all over again since their last clash of passion, she still oozed his essence from her skin and hair. He had known she was a mimic when it came to scents, but he had never encountered a chameleon that could keep a scent that had already been washed away. It filled him with a rush of possessive joy. It reminded him that, right beneath his chin, under the soft fabric of her shirt, lay the mark he had left upon her shoulder.

They came to rest on a wide cliff, and when Isabella lifted her head at Jacob's encouragement, the vista took her breath away. They were on the very rim of what looked to be the English coastline. The house he had taken her to originally was settled behind them grandly, with the exception of the boarded-up wall that was in need of repair. As Noah coalesced into his usual form beside them, they walked toward the house. They entered through a conventional door.

"One would think that with all you can do, you could snap your fingers and fix that wall," she said breathlessly.

"If it were that easy to do everything, we would be able to protect ourselves from those who insist on dabbling in dark arts," Jacob pointed out gently.

"Well, not that it is any excuse, but humans don't realize that your kind are an actual race of people with intelligence, families, customs, and culture." She frowned and sighed, realizing exactly how poor an excuse that was. "But that's been our excuse over history far too many times. I'm sorry."

Jacob reached to rest her chin on the tip of his fingers, her sweet compassion for his people, especially after the way the so-called best of them had just treated her, touching him deeply. Noah's presence in the room completely faded from his awareness and he reached to kiss her supple lips with aching tenderness, ignoring any pain it caused him to do so.

"I am sorry, little flower. The Elders should never have treated you so poorly when you have been laboring so hard to help us."

"They didn't know," she whispered forgivingly, causing his heart to tighten at her benevolence. ‘They are afraid, and rightly so." She reached up and slid a strand of his hair between two of her fingers, caringly tucking it behind his ear in a slow, silky movement ‘Tear makes the best of us behave terribly."

Noah cleared his throat, an effort to remind the couple that he was in the room. They jumped apart, and he watched in amazement as the electricity only he could see sparking between them crackled in petulant blue arcs before thinning out and breaking the connection. Noah had never seen such a thing between a Demon and a human before, and rarely between Demons. It fascinated while it disturbed him. The lightning was the fire of complementary souls joining. A female Fire Demon like his sister Hannah would know more about this aspect of such elemental connection, for she understood the fire between two beings and saw it far more clearly than he could. But he knew enough to know it was significant, and exceedingly unusual.

"Isabella, you have something to tell us?" he reminded everyone.

"Yes."

Noah once again took note of her hesitation, her struggle so very clear in her tattletale face. It was refreshing to the King to see that such guilelessness could still exist in the world.

She grabbed Jacob's hand and hustled him over to the nearest table, dropping her bagful of scrolls onto it Noah followed, watching closely as she slid the first out of its protective container and unwound it, using objects from the table to hold it open. She treated the scroll gingerly, with great care and respect, and Noah was once more impressed. This woman was a true scholar, perhaps more so than he would ever be.

Both men realized after a moment that the text she was displaying was in their ancient language. They exchanged perplexed looks over her dark head as she bent to her task of situating the scroll. This was the very type of writing Noah had been having difficulty translating on the night Jacob had first encountered Isabella.

"Okay, look here," she said, warming to her impending lecture as she indicated the middle body of writing. "This is the original Scroll of Destruction, Great name, by the way. Anyway, it was written centuries before the book I found with the same name. That book was a translation of this scroll. Look, see, ‘Whosoever wishes to know the fate of Demonkind must consult these prophecies …' Yadda, yadda, yadda, right? It's kind of like your version of Revelation. Correct?"

Noah nodded slowly. It was one of their most sacred documents. It was the list of Special Destinies and the Original Laws. He watched as she gently peeled back the first pages of the scroll.

‘You are familiar with these passages, no doubt. The ones that refer to the way the birth of Christianity among humans would affect the destiny of Demons for all time. See? This tells how Christianity will become a majority religion amongst humans, how magic will be shunned as a result, lessening the threat of the ‘evil intenders,' which I assume means necromancers. It isn't all that specific, so I took an educated guess."

"Good guess, little flower," Jacob praised. "You are exactly right"

She seemed to accept this with a nod as she reached to peel back more pages. "Well, then follows pages of various prophecies. Now, in the modern book version of this scroll, the translation is only slightly flawed up to this point. But then you come to here …" She indicated a passage far into the scroll. "Here is where it goes completely haywire. Now, at first I couldn't understand why the translation would be so in error. I thought perhaps a change in translators. But then I remembered that with many great religious doctrines, the influences of those who ordered translations often dictated what was considered acceptable and uniform to general belief. Significant works, to this day, are not accepted in their true translated states because it would make too many waves in the foundations of those belief systems. When this is translated properly, I can see why they were reluctant to remain true to the form of the scroll. Here, I will read the passage:

‘And so it will come to pass that in this great age things will return to the focus of purity that Demonkind must always strive for. Here will come the meaning and purpose of our strictest laws, that no uncorrupted human shall be harmed, that peaceful coexistence between races shall become paramount …'"

"There is nothing different about that than what is commonly known," Noah remarked, struggling to follow her swift translation.

"Wait, I am getting to that." She turned the page. "Listen:

‘We must enforce ourselves more strictly as the time approaches. In the age of the rebellion of the Earth and Sky, when Fire and Water break like havoc upon all the lands, the Eldest of the old will return, will take his mate, and the first child of the element of Space will be born, playmate to the first child of Time, born to the Enforcers. The Demon. The Druid. And all will be returned to the state in which it all began. Purity restored.'

"Now," Isabella went on, unaware of the men who were so still beside her, "I couldn't figure out why this would be left out. It seems pretty simple a prophecy. Why would it be so frightening? That was when I read through all of your laws and realized—"

"All of them?" Noah spoke up suddenly, his astonishment ringing clear. "You were only down there a few days."

"I read fast," she shrugged.

Noah gripped the back of a chair until his knuckles turned white, seeking solace in the Enforcer's dark eyes, only to find them equally troubled. He had no choice but to watch as the little woman plowed through her information like a freight train.

"Anyway," she continued, "this is where your laws of crossbreeding come into play. Now, all along I thought maybe it was chemical incompatibility or because of your more animalistic natures that you would cause harm to a partner not of your race. You even have books supporting those theories. Purity, that word is key. It's used very often in this scroll and I can't tell you how many laws. Okay, listen, further in the Scroll of Destruction, It says right here:

‘An Enforcer will be born and reach maturity as magic once more threatens the time, as the peace of the Demon yaws toward insanity. The Enforcer will be born to hunt the Transformed, will have the power to destroy, to walk unscented, to track, to see the unseen, to fight with courage and instinct the most powerful and most corrupted. This Enforcer's thoughts will be sealed except to Kin and Mate, will walk the Demon path in body and soul, though never born to it.'

"So there, you see? How can there be so-called ‘purity" if an Enforcer will be appointed who is not a Demon? Hmm? But that isn't all." She went on eagerly, whipping a second scroll from its casing, "This scroll, and my calculations make it to be even older than the other, is going to blow your mind. Check this out. It says here that:

‘Demon and Druid walk as one, mated, fused, completed souls. One without the other lost and bereft, one race without the other doomed to madness and despondency, impurity and destruction.'

"Do you know what that means? Your so-called pure-blooded race used to be only half of another race, the combined race that was once Druids and Demons! If that's true, then all this nonsense about racial purity is something some fanatic made up a zillion years ago. It's propaganda, gentlemen! With your historically fanatical views toward purity of race, the very idea of outsiders as saviors must have been appalling to the translators. Therefore, they omitted this from the newer translations. This means you need outsiders in order to survive. You were looking for your cure? Well, here it is! Written in black and white in your very own vaults! Druids are the cure for Hallowed madness!"

"Then our race is doomed," Noah said softly.

Isabella raised startled eyes to the King. Her heart jumped when she saw his drawn, whitened features and his eerie stillness.

"Why do you say that?" she protested. "I mean, you just have to find … but you said there were other Nightwalker species in the world. I have read about so many of them in your archives. I admit I only started to find out about Druids when I went into the east vault …"

"Because the east vault is the Druid archive, Bella," Jacob said roughly.

Isabella blinked in confusion, turning to look over her shoulder at Jacob.

"I don't understand."

"Isabella, almost a millennium ago, the ruler of the Druid race went mad and murdered the ruler of the Demon race," Noah explained grimly. "We went to war. There aren't any more Druids, Bella. The Demons destroyed them all. All that is left of them is in that vault. We destroyed an entire culture, murdered every last breath that could ever speak on Druidic behalf, save those ancient recorded scraps."

"If what you say is true, then we destroyed ourselves in the process." Jacob ran a weary hand over his face and through his hair, meeting Noah's eyes. "All these centuries, we have been told only that the Druids were our enemies once upon a time because of the deed of their King. We were never told that we once walked together, lived together made a common history together."

"Revisionist history," Noah interjected. "A history that the leaders of the time obviously rewrote for their own ends during and after the war. How arrogant I was to think our dedicated historians were above such things."

"No … no, I think you're wrong," Bella burst out, fear filling her voice as she struggled with the implications her innocent findings could mean for their kind. "What about the prophecy? How can a doomed race suddenly give birth to new elements? Children with power over Space and Time will change the world forever! Surely when you see this happening right under your nose you won't be able to deny that!"

"You assume that the time prophesied is now," Noah remarked.

"Well, of course it is. I mean, look at what is happening all around you! TA" age of the rebellion of the Earth and Sky, when Fire and Water break like havoc upon all the lands." Your people are the elements, you said so yourself. Fire, Earth and the rest. ‘Rebellion … breaking like havoc on all the lands.' You see, in many historical texts, ‘lands' does not mean ‘land' as continents. It means cultures. This is saying that Demons will cause havoc in other cultures. The Enforcer mentioned above is to exist as ‘peace yaws toward insanity." It's a marker linking the two prophesies to the same time. You told me yourselves that every year the madness becomes worse for your people. And with the necromancer's sudden appearance, wouldn't you say magic has returned?

"That's it!" she exclaimed suddenly. "You didn't kill all the Druids! Just, maybe, forced them into dormancy. Maybe some escaped. Maybe, over time, under the sweep of science and civilization, their heritage and knowledge was lost to their descendants just as some of yours was lost to you. And maybe, sometime in the future, when you start to accept other races into the circle of your culture, it will allow for the arrival of a Druid that, in the near future … when Jacob is succeeded …" She paused, thinking as quickly as she could while twisting her hands together in her abrupt despair.

Noah understood. If she was right, and the time prophesied was near, it would mean Jacob's death and replacement was an imminent event. She had to explain away her own logic now in order to prevent that inevitability from happening too soon for her to bear. ‘Those are very extreme maybes," Noah consoled.

"Sweet, merciful Destiny."

Isabella and Noah both snapped their attention to Jacob, who wore an expression of total shock.

"What? What is it?" Noah asked.

"She said it, and I almost missed it. Noah, in the prophecy, just after the lead-in, she said: ‘… the first child of the element of Space will be born, playmate to the first child of Time, born to the Enforcers.'"

"So?" Bella asked.

"Are you sure it said Enforcers? Are you certain it is plural?" he demanded.

"Of course I am sure. See, right there." She pointed to the passage.

"Bella, there has never been two Enforcers at once. There has only been one. Never two. It is not me this is talking about, nor some unknown Druid of the distant future, it is …" He blinked, shock washing over him. "It is you. Noah, it is her!"

"Can it be?" Noah whispered, looking over the tiny human woman with awe, following Jacob's thinking rapidly. "A human Enforcer?"

"Whoa! Hang on there, guys. Let's not go off the deep end," Isabella cried hastily, raising her hands defensively and backing up several steps out of their reach as if they were trying to attack her. Not that she would ever beat them in a foot race, but it gave her a minor comfort just the same. "I am not an Enforcer. I'm too tiny, too … I'm a bookworm! I'm weak! I'm human. Stop looking at me like that! You're out of your freaking skulls!"

"‘The Enforcer will be born to hunt the Transformed, will have the power to destroy.' Saul, little flower. Remember? ‘… to track, to see the unseen, to fight with courage and instinct the most powerful and most corrupted.' You killed him."

"That was an accident!"

"‘ … to walk unscented …' The Elders did not even know she was in my home," Noah added, clearly astonished. They could not smell her, could not sense her. ‘This Enforcer's thoughts will be sealed except to Kin …'"

That's ridiculous! Jacob is constantly nosing around inside my head, and I assure you I am in no way related to him!"

" …and Mate

Isabella heard the fateful words fall from Jacob's lips as if they echoed.

She had known, on some level, that this connection to Jacob was beyond something so simple as a passing crush. Jacob had known it. He had taken her into his arms in spite of everything he stood for, because on some level he had known this was no mere Hallowed madness.

Only a few days ago she would never have been capable of imagining any of this, no matter how creative she might have tried to be. Facts and fantasies blurred in her mind, hazing her vision over like a suffocating fog. All the blood rushed away from the top of her body, racing to fulfill the sudden demands of her organs as she ran both hot and cold with chills, dread, and, most of all, excitement at all of the dangerous possibilities.

She dropped to the floor like a stone.

"Do you have any idea how this is going to affect everyone?"

Jacob looked up from his seat beside Isabella, his hand stilling mid-stroke through her hair, the pads of his fingertips nestled in the softer-than-silk strands that so attracted him. He had not moved fast enough, and she had fallen hard. His opposite hand was pressing a cloth to a cut on her forehead, trying to stem the blood that continued to seep from it.

"I know how it is going to affect you," Noah responded from his position by the window, his gaze trained on the landscape of the ocean just outside. "I know it explains why you haven't been able to resist her."

"We could be wrong." Jacob picked up a thick strand of the sleek sable hair, rubbing it between his fingers. "She is so small and so young. How can she possibly be meant to do what I do?"

"She is not even trained, and yet she tracked Saul. Killed him," the monarch pointed out.

"More accident than anything," Jacob retorted.

"Then explain what happened with Elijah."

Jacob couldn't, and Noah knew it. Elijah was a centuries-old, seasoned warrior, leader of an army of Demons who dedicated their lives to the art of war and defense. He was powerful, just as prevailing in his elected duties as Jacob was in his. And yet …

"I cannot explain it," he admitted reluctantly.

"She was protecting you," Noah pointed out with infuriatingly quiet wisdom and matter-of-fact calm. "Out of instinct. Just like a she-wolf will protect her mate."

"Noah, she is a human being! Everything I have been raised to believe for hundreds of years tells me that I cannot be her mate, and she cannot be mine! I will hurt her! Hell, I already have!" Jacob curled his long fingers into her velvety hair, clenching thick strands between his knuckles in anger. Speaking the understanding aloud shredded at his conscience and heart like hundreds of superfine blades.

"Have you…?"

"No! Of course not! I already told you, I am terrified I will hurt her. Besides, if things had gone that far, don't you think Elijah, Legna, or you would have come crashing down on me?"

"No one interrupted your interlude in the vaults yesterday," Noah pointed out.

Jacob narrowed dangerous eyes on the Demon King.

"You knew."

It was a statement, not a question. The question was unspoken, and they both knew what it was. "After the fact," he assured him. "I trust you did the right thing, Jacob. You are Enforcer, after all."

"I barely did the right thing, Noah." Jacob's voice was low and his eyes shot daggers of black fire. "I cannot explain to you the intensity …" Jacob had to clear his throat of a hoarse hitch. "When she is close, if she so much as looks at me from below her lashes, or if she smiles …" Noah could hear the distinct sound of the Enforcer's back teeth grinding shortly against each other. "I no longer know myself. I no longer know what is right"

"Well, it happens that if we are interpreting this prophecy correctly, the right thing would have been to take her."

"Damn you, how can you be so casual about this!" Jacob roared, lurching to his feet and advancing on the King. "You would so easily use her for an experiment of such magnitude? Use me? Knowing it could very well kill her and damn me for the rest of my life?"

"Better the two of you than our entire race," Noah countered. Then quickly, before Jacob could speak, "I say that as the ruler of a great many people, Jacob. It is the kind of choice I have been destined to make. The welfare of the many, weighed against the welfare of the one—or in this case, two. And do not glare at me with your condemnation, Enforcer. You make the very same choices every time you punish one of us for straying. You made the same choice when you told Myrrh-Ann you would seek out Saul, knowing full well that no Demon has ever been rescued from a Summoning intact and that you would be forced to kill him."

Jacob knew Noah spoke the truth, but that didn't make it sit any better on his conscience. Somehow, Isabella's well-being was far more personal to him, as well as far more important. She was innocent, in so many ways, and had never asked to become a part of their politics, or their salvation.

"As well as you know our taboos, Jacob, you know our belief in Destiny. If this is hers, there is nothing any of us can do about it," Noah reminded him, lowering his voice to a soothing level. "You rebel, but I sense that in your heart, in your very soul, you already know that she is your match. She is your mate. She is the only woman of any race to ever inspire such loyalty in the Enforcer before me. She is the only human to ever tempt you, the Hallowed moon be damned. You have lived over half a millennium, Jacob, and now, in this moment, you are drawn for the first time, even to the point of going against everything you have been raised to believe in. She is yours, Jacob," Noah said vehemently. "It is her destiny, and she is yours."

"I will not hurt her. I will not force our prophecies on her." Jacob walked stiffly back to the couch, once more tending her wound and stroking his fingers through her beguiling hair.

"You have no choice. If she were not human, I would accuse you both of being in the first stages of the Imprinting. The telepathic connection, the undeniable temptation to mate—"

"She is a human, Noah, and the Imprinting does not apply to her. It barely applies to us! There has not been an Imprinting for over two centuries, and just as long again before that No matter how much you try to mold her into our ways, no matter how you try to manipulate me into easing my conscience, I will not let you win me over to your thinking and I will not force her!"

"It may seem that you have a choice," Noah said patiently, "but you know Destiny finds a way. You will not force her, because you will not have to. No one is saying that you do. It will just happen."

"I should have never brought her to our world."

"You were meant to bring her."

"I should have … I could have …" Jacob choked on the frustration clawing at his throat, turning his head aside so Noah could not see the distress building smartly in his eyes.

"You are half in love with her already, are you not?" Noah quizzed gently, his sharp jade and gray eyes trained firmly on his friend.

"Do not presume to tell me how I feel! It is bad enough some ancient piece of paper attempts to do so," Jacob barked back.

"Very well, I will let it go. There are other things to focus on, in any event. The introduction of these prophecies and histories into our culture will have powerful ramifications. It will also meet with great resistance. Look how strongly you resist, even when you long to find solace in any excuse to be with her. Imagine what fanatic purists like Ruth will do."

The very idea sent a sensation of dread down Jacob's spine. He finally turned his eyes onto Noah. "You are telling me that my personal life is nothing compared to how this other business is about to affect me," he stated gravely.

"You are the Enforcer. There will be much chaos, Jacob. I will make it as easy on you as I can. I will start by telling the scholars, and then, in time, the Council."

Jacob saw the wisdom in this course and realized very acutely in that moment why Noah was destined to lead them, and the rest of them destined to do service for him. With the scholars to support him, Noah could not be logically refuted, even by the most influential of Elders. With this surety, Noah could call on the warriors and the Enforcer to back him up in the event of dissent. The idea of the potential for civil unrest made Jacob's stomach chum. He looked down at the pale little pixie next to him. Isabella had fallen from a window and had started a chain of events of impossible magnitude.

"Look at her carefully, old friend. That," Noah said softly, "may very well be the face that launches a thousand ships."

Isabella's eyes fluttered open, the violet expanding as her pupils narrowed under the light. She blinked rapidly, trying to adjust She lifted her head slightly and groaned when a sore muscle in her neck stretched and the blood in her head began to pound uncomfortably.

She felt gentle fingers slide over her cheek from behind her, a thumb rubbing her ear gently, a soothing voice shushing her.

"Hush. Easy, Bella. You are safe."

She felt safe. As she woke further, she was aware of being tucked up like a spoon along the length of a comforting body, a heavy leg insinuated between her own from behind, a strong arm pillowing her head. She had never woken up beside a man in all of her life, but this sense of fitting perfectly, of warmth and protection, was always the way she imagined it would feel. They were in bed together, but the realization didn't distress her. He hadn't left her alone. He had kept her as close as he could, no doubt watching her every moment until he'd seen her stir.

"Jacob," she murmured, turning her cheek into his touch, nuzzling affectionately.

"None other," he assured.

She slid her hand over the sheets until her fingers laced with his. He clasped her readily, squeezing her fingers warmly.

"I am surprised you are not beating the hell out of me," he observed.

"I'm still waking up. I'll kick your ass later."

Jacob buried his face in her hair, smiling. "Thank you for the warning?

"Actually"—she turned her body until she had scooted around to face him, brown-black eyes to violet—"I think I'll kick Noah's ass. That would make me feel better."

"Please do. It would make me feel better as well." Jacob's hand fell to her cheek again, his fingers drifting over the silky soft skin. His thumb reached to stroke her lower lip.

"Can you answer a question?"

"Why do we feel like we have known each other for ages, when in fact it has only been a few days?"

"Cheater," she accused.

"Sorry. You have too open a mind for me to resist."

"Is that an apology? It sounds more like a character assassination."

"Do you want me to answer the question or debate the semantics of who should have asked it?"

"Does the answer have anything to do with prophecies and Destiny? Because if it does, I think I'll have a very bad headache."

"Actually," he said, "I was going to lean toward the old-fashioned theory of chemistry."

"Oh. Well, that sounds normal. Practically human, in fact."

"Bite your tongue," he rejoined, a twinkle of mischief flashing in his eyes.

"You first."

He pulled his head back, a fudge-colored brow lifting in surprise. "Isabella, are you flirting with me?"

Isabella sighed dramatically. "Not too subtle, huh?"

Jacob laughed, unable to resist pulling her forehead to his lips and kissing her. He tucked her head under his chin and hugged her small body against his.

"I cannot figure you out, Bella. Just when you have every right to vigorously wash your hands of me and all of my kind, you do not. I cannot understand your reasoning, no matter how much I sneak into your mind."

"Well," she said thoughtfully, "I think it's because every time I get upset, my rational mind comes barreling to the forefront, banishing emotion to a back burner. I start to think. I make sense out of your motivations, and I see reason in them. It kinda takes the fight out of a person when you realize you are all just struggling for survival and peace of mind the best way you know how."

"Bella?"

"Mmm?"

"If you are destined to be for me, I would be the most fortunate creature on this planet." He paused; something unpleasant was crossing his thoughts. "I do not know if you could say the same."

Isabella lifted her head, drawing herself up on an elbow so she could look down into his face. She wondered if he realized that whenever she moved her head, his hands automatically followed, finding ways to touch her face and weave into her hair. "Why would you say such a terrible thing?"

An unreadable emotion shimmered across his pupils. She suspected he was filtering his response. She was beginning to realize he always thought very carefully before he spoke.

"I am just used to people feeling negatively toward me. I am considered a necessary evil."

"Noah doesn't see you that way at all," she argued.

He thought about that for a moment and then nodded. "True. But I have never had to enforce Noah or his immediate family. Over the past four hundred years, mostly recent years, there is hardly a family who has not been somehow touched by the actions of the Enforcer. Punishment is a pretty severe business, and it is never forgotten. And do not ask me to go into details about it, because I will not. Suffice it to say it does not stand me in good stead with anyone."

"And what about you? I mean, will someone punish you because … because of me?" It was clear by the worry in her wide eyes that the thought didn't sit well at all.

Jacob didn't answer right away. How could he? This was such new territory to everyone, how could he speak with conviction on anything? The realization disturbed him. He had lived his life with an undoubted clarity of purpose, even if that purpose caused him some discomforts. Now there was just confusion, mystery, and speculation.

"I honestly do not know, Bella," he said softly, his disturbance at that confession written in his eyes. "And the deeper we go into this entire situation, the more I realize how little I truly know about things I once saw with perfect conviction. It is a hard thing for a man to come to grips with."

"For a woman too," she added, reminding him of how much this had turned her life over as well. "One day I am a librarian, the next, I'm a Demon hunter. Go figure." He smiled when she rolled her eyes comically, but he knew there was a great deal of disturbance behind those flip words. "After hearing how your society looks on you and your position, I'm not sure I want to find out how they will react to a human"— she mocked Ruth perfectly on the word—"Enforcer."

"There will be shock and dissent, I will not lie to you about that, little flower." He stroked his thumb over her cheek soothingly as he spoke. "Nonetheless, I have faith in my community. We are intelligent, devoted to the idea of fate, and structured soundly on our philosophies and prophecies, however distasteful they can be to us. We will adapt."

It wasn't until he said it that he realized he meant it. Felt it. He also realized that he was now talking of the prophecy as a foregone conclusion. It startled him that it felt so much more natural to him to accept it than it had felt to argue it with Noah. The conviction must have come through, because he felt her relax. She unthinkingly rubbed her lips and nose into his palm as her brows drew down in thought. It was one of the things that he enjoyed about her, the way she mulled things over thoroughly and without prejudice. It was what made her so exceptional, and he didn't need a prophecy to tell him that.

"Why would your people need two Enforcers? From what I gather, you do a fine job all on your own. You don't need me."

"That is not entirely true," he remarked, his voice quiet and compelling. He did need her. He had needed her for a very long time. It was something he was only now beginning to understand. All the same, he couldn't say the words aloud, couldn't pressure her with his personal desires. If she chose this path, he didn't want to be the reason why. At least, not the only reason.

When he didn't elaborate any further, Isabella decided to let the matter drop for the moment. She didn't see it the way he did yet, but perhaps in time she would.

"Do you think it's true? Do you think I'm the one from the prophecy? And if so, can you tell me why you think it?"

"I thought I already did. It caused you to take a header into the floor, as I recall." His voice was filled with regret over that fact, his fingertip touching the bandage that covered her cut.

Bella lifted her hand to the bandage and felt around. It was a little sore but not as painful as she would have expected. She tugged at the covering, not knowing how badly she had been cut. She pulled it off before Jacob's protest could stop her.

Instantly, the air around them changed. It started with Jacob going very, very still, tension pulling his previously relaxed body into a hard wall of muscle. His eyes were trained on her face, and he was clearly holding his breath.

"What? Is it bad?" She went to touch, instinctively.

"It was. It was a bad cut, Bella." He could barely speak. It was as if he could not say it aloud for fear it would make it untrue. "But it has healed. Except for a fresh scar and some bruising, your cut has healed."

"Really? Jeez, how long was I out for?"

"Only a few hours."

"Oh." She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, nibbling it for a long minute as she looked into his darkly unsettled eyes. "This is significant to you, isn't it?" "Have you always healed this fast?"

"No, of course not. I heal like an average human being."

"No longer," he remarked. "Now you heal like one of us."

"I do?"

He didn't say another word. Instead, he reached for the buttons of her blouse, his long, dark fingers manipulating the soft satin with such ease that she was unbuttoned to just below her breasts before she could even blink. Then he reached for her collar, sliding the seams between his fingers as he pushed the material back and exposed the whole of her shoulder.

Jacob's eyes, so black and so clearly haunted by his feelings, fell to the place where he had so purposefully marked her the day before. His thumb reached to slide over her pale, perfect skin, seeking for even the slightest bruise or ragged irregularity in the place he made his brutish mark upon her body.

"Yes, you do," he observed at last, letting himself look back up into her expectant eyes.

"Why? How? Are you, like … contagious or something?"

"I do not think so," Jacob said, a small smile appearing. "We have spent prolonged periods of time around humans for centuries and this has never happened."

"Well, then maybe I'm not your average human."

"This much I can vouch for with all certainty," he said softly, reaching to kiss the newly healed spot on her shoulder.

"Flatterer," she said, closing her eyes as his lips touched and lingered on her bare skin. She felt the kiss all the way through her body, her skin flaming and her breasts instantly aching at his nearness. "What I mean is," she managed to say with a low and breathless voice she hardly recognized, "maybe I should do a genealogy chart and see if I have any Druid ancestors."

"It would not be something you would find advertised, considering that your ancestors were probably hiding from us. This was not one of our more glorious moments in history, to punish and make extinct an entire race." Jacob sighed, the sound reflecting the depth of his regret.

"Well, you didn't do it, your ancestors did. All you can do is repair the mistake to the best of your ability. If your race is going to overcome the moon madness, you have to find Druids, however watered down they may be by now, and reintroduce them into your lives and culture. At least, that's how I read it"

"Noah sees it the same way," Jacob agreed. "But that will mean bringing humans into our world, because it was apparently the humans they hid behind. That they bred with. If you are any example, I mean. If indeed you are a Druidic descendant." Jacob closed his eyes then and groaned. He rolled back away from her, lying back on his pillow and reaching to rub the bridge of his nose as if he suddenly had a bad headache.

"What?"

"Bella, when this gets out … if the need for Druids is true and accepted … if humans are where the Druids hid, it is going to be like an open season on your race. Sweet Destiny, I can see it now. ‘But, Jacob, I thought she was a Druid.' How the hell am I supposed to handle this?"

"Oh dear," Isabella murmured, catching his drift quite clearly. Her heart ached to see him in distress. She could feel his alarm and concern for the future well-being of her race. "But, Jacob, what if nature has already compensated for that? With me." Jacob turned his head to look at her, his fathomless eyes training on her with a mixture of slow understanding, as well as hope. "I have"—she cleared her throat of the emotions that she felt in response to those in his eyes—"I've come to help you, Jacob."

Isabella felt within her spirit the powerful reaction he had to her words, to the understanding that such a truth could change him forever. She broke into a part of him she had never fully touched before, feeling the canyon of loneliness that had come with his long life. It stretched behind him, littered with the deaths of friends and family who couldn't survive the enemies of their world, who had left him alone to the cold acceptance of being a pariah for his people. What was more, he had never fully shared his feelings about the depths of his isolation with anyone.

Isabella realized that no one knew. No one knew how lonely the Enforcer truly was, save herself, and she only because she could touch his mind. And now, as he faced what she was suggesting, he was devastated with fear for her. He did not want her to live the life he lived.

But Bella saw it differently. She felt a rush of delight and smiled at him brightly.

"Wow. I'm like … Wonder Woman!" She scrambled up onto her knees in the bed, bouncing on the mattress a little in her excitement. She placed her hands on her hips and struck a pose. "You know, fighting for truth justice and the … the Demon way."

"I thought that was Superman," he noted dryly.

"Shut up." She dismissed him with a crooked grin. "I'm having a moment here. You know, I could lose the whole hunting and killing part of this, what with the yuck factor that comes with that." She shuddered from head to toe theatrically. "But I'm totally digging the special powers. I wonder how come they're only showing up now?"

"I wish I could answer that. I am as baffled as you are," he said.

"Well, the first time I noticed anything was in the library after—" She made an awkward dodge, clearly to spare him his guilt, but Jacob felt it like a smarting slap all the more. "When I could suddenly read your language."

"No, earlier than that," he said quietly. Just after you fell out of the window, you were assaulted by your empathy with Saul. Remember?"

"Oh yes. Then that was the first time. Right after you caught me." She gave a wry little laugh. "Maybe it's you after all. Maybe you are contagious." Isabella noticed his brow shoot up in sudden contemplation. "Oh no, you don't It was just a joke," she said hastily. "I won't listen to you say what you're thinking."

"It would only be guesswork," he reminded her with a troublemaking grin tripping across his lips.

"Well, stop guessing," she commanded, punctuating the demand by leaning across him so she could punch his shoulder.

"You certainly are a bossy little thing," he observed, purposely reaching out to cup her shoulder in his hand, preventing her from leaving her position across his body before he wanted her to. He ached to feel her, in any way possible. There could be no harm in a little innocent exchange of body heat.

"Yeah, well, I'm regretting ever letting you catch me that night," she huffed, taking no notice of his machinations as she blew back her hair in that charming habit she had. It was an invitation he could not resist. His hands crept into her gorgeous hair, the luxuriant strands settling between his fingers.

"Hey, sweetheart, it was either me or the concrete. One of us had to do it"

"At this point I'm thinking the concrete would've been less painful … and less complicated."

Jacob knew she was being a brat, trying to tease and be funny, but her comment struck a sore chord in him. "Has it been?" he asked, seriousness flooding his voice. "Have we been painful for you? Have … have I hurt you, Bella?"

Isabella quieted, looking down into those solemn dark eyes from her position atop him, knowing that her answer would be vital to him. As was her way, she thought carefully for a long minute about her response. He would get the truth, as he always had.

"Only once," she admitted softly. She felt his fingers curl tightly into fists in her hair. It touched her that he was so concerned for her. "But not the way you're thinking, Jacob. It was that time, in the library …"

"Then it is what I am thinking. Damn, Isabella, I am so sorry."

"Jacob, listen to me. It wasn't what you did." She turned her head away, a flush staining her cheeks. Unable to look in his eyes, she confessed to him, "It was what you didn't do. It was … when you stopped."

Her face was so hot by that point that she could imagine she was as red as a ruby, but she had needed to answer him honestly. Jacob was motionless beneath her, but she couldn't bring herself to look at him, not having the first idea of how her bold declaration would be received. She was outspoken when it came to the things she was certain of, but this was all new territory for her. She couldn't even feel him breathing.

Then, just as suddenly, he was hurtling himself off the bed, dumping her off his body, leaving her to bounce on the mattress. Perplexed, Isabella scooped up the hair that had fallen over her face and threw it back behind her. Her sight restored, she saw Jacob pacing the length of the room, his hands running raggedly through his own hair.

"Jacob?"

"Isabella. Do not speak," he barked.

Isabella's feathers ruffled. She crashed both hands onto her hips. "Well, I'm sorry you find what I have to say so damn offensive! Excuse the hell out of me! I promise it won't happen again!"

Fighting back tears, unwilling to make any more of a fool of herself, Isabella scrambled off the bed and marched for the door. She grabbed the knob and jerked, but nothing happened. She checked the lock, all too aware this was ruining an excellent exit, and tried again. The door remained stuck. Isabella couldn't suppress the sob aching to escape her chest much longer and she stomped her foot in frustration. If she hadn't been so furious, she might have realized Jacob had come up behind her. As it was, she jumped nearly a foot into the air when he touched her shoulder.

"What?" she demanded, whirling around.

Very slowly, Jacob stepped closer to her, herding her backward into the door before resting first one palm, and then the other, flat against the door on either side of her shoulders. Then, in purposeful increments, he leaned his body closer to hers. By the time he had made full and secure eye contact with her, the barest of spaces separated their bodies. He was bathing her in the dangerous heat of his potent body, and her heart was pounding in double-time.

"Bella," he began slowly, her name rumbling out of his throat as if it were a rough purr, "you mistake me. Do not ever, ever make the error of thinking that I do not want you, little flower." He leaned even closer, his chest moving so near that she had to turn her head. His husky tone fell to a whisper as he engaged her ear, bathing her neck with a hot exhalation of unsteady breath. "On the contrary. If I pull away from you, you must know that it is because I want you so badly that when you say things like you just did, I am so plagued by my reactions that I am fearful of losing control.

"Bella, there is no safe haven inside me when it comes to this consuming desire to take you as my mate. My sense of morality has abandoned me as well. Even my safest, surest thoughts have joined in the clamor burning through my body as it demands yours. Do you understand? Mistake me not, little flower. I do want you. So badly it hurts. It hurt me too, as it hurt you, that day in the library."

"If so much of you is feeling the way you say," she said quietly, "then why are you ignoring it still? Especially now, knowing the prophecy and all?"

He pulled back slightly.

"I do not want you coming to me in a headlong rush because ancient scribbles, whose truths and purposes are merely theory at this point, dictate to you how you should feel about me. How few hours has it been since you told me how much I terrify you? You are frightened still, despite what you say. I can feel it and read it in your thoughts. Consider how that makes me feel I

"You are an innocent, Isabella. You cannot even say the word sex, and you blush when I say it." Jacob inclined his head with a purposeful glance, making her cover her telltale cheeks with her hands. "However much your body responds to mine, and believe me, it does so in beautiful magnitude, your mind is not yet truly made up. I will not force that decision on you. Not mentally or emotionally, and certainly not physically." His dark pupils searched her face so thoroughly she felt as if she couldn't possibly have a single secret left "But do not mistake my need to put distance between us as anything but what it is, merely an effort to keep myself under control until such time as you do make up your mind, of your own free will, prophecy or no."

"But, Jacob," she said, her hand coming up to toy with the open lapel of his shirt, "when we were in the library, and before that, even, we didn't know there was a prophecy."

So simple. So logical. So true. Jacob's hands curled into fists against the door, his longing and emotions straining at the very ends of their overtaut tethers. His senses clamored for her input Even the warmth of her scent filling his nostrils couldn't begin to soothe the cravings of those other senses left destitute.

Jacob clenched his teeth for a brief, tight moment.

"Isabella, you must be careful what you say to me," he warned her roughly. "I am holding on to my control by the thinnest of threads. Understand, the consequences of that control snapping will be something you cannot take back, cannot change. Do you understand?"

"Yes. I do. And I want you to understand something as well," she countered quickly. "I may be a virgin, but that's only because no one got my attention long enough to change it, not because it's so all-fired important to me. I admit, I have always hoped I would have a special first experience, but when I think about it, I can't help but decide that I already have. Jacob, I could never have dreamed up the way you make me feel. I have never felt so much like a woman as I have when you have put your hands on me, when you have touched your mouth to me.

"No one has ever seen me with the passion that you do," she breathed with silky intensity, her sensual whisper driving over his every last nerve like eager fingertips slipping up his spine. "It's such an amazing feeling, to be craved like that. Some women have sex all their lives and never feel that. So, my innocence is now just a matter of physicality. Emotionally, I became very much a woman in your arms the very first night we were together."

Jacob sighed, an indulgent exhalation of breath that stirred her hair against her cheek.

"The na?veté in that statement alone serves to remind me of how innocent you truly are, Bella."

The blunt putdown, whether intentional or not, had Bella resisting the urge to slap him. His condescension was really beginning to irritate her. Inexperienced she might be, but at least she knew she had stumbled on something extraordinary with him. Different worlds, even so much as being species apart, and yet she understood this was a precious connection. An opportunity.

Even though it intimidated her, even though it was clearly cloaked in danger and good reasons to feel more than a little fear, she wasn't about to let it flutter away like a fickle butterfly. Perhaps the whole of her life had been a lead-in to this encounter with Jacob and all the rapid changes that were accompanying him. Perhaps, all along, her hunger for knowledge had been a subconscious search for Jacob and his people. Maybe there was such a thing as destiny, and maybe he was hers. Isabella knew there was only one way to find out and that it was a discovery she craved beyond reason.

"Fine. I understand," she said with a little shrug, turning her head slightly so he couldn't see her eyes. "If it's really that important to you, I'll go have sex with a human male first. Then I'll know what I'm talking about before I broach the matter with you again."

Jacob felt the statement the same way he had felt the blast of Elijah's intervention the first night he had touched her. It slammed into him with breathtaking brutality, destroying his sense of direction and balance. Rage surged through him, turning his eyes into glistening black voids. The idea of another man touching that precious skin, kissing her sweet, delicious mouth, was more than he could stand. What she was suggesting this time was too much. Beyond too much.

"Over my dead body … over my obliterated soul will I ever allow such a thing." The declaration was a cross between a growl and a soft roar. Bella could see him shaking from head to toe, could feel it vibrating through the door behind her. In all of an instant, the cool, sophisticated Jacob disappeared and a possessive beast reared its head in his place.

Now that's more like it, Isabella mused, with a mental smile.

"But"—she blinked her wide eyes up at him in all innocence—"you just said—"

"I said forget it, Isabella!" the Enforcer exploded, the pressure of his hands on the door at her back making the wood pop and creak ominously. "No one is going to touch you, do you understand?"

Isabella thrust her fists onto her hips, her delicate jaw thrusting out stubbornly.

"Well I'm not going to stay a virgin for the rest of my life, Jacob!" she declared in frustration. "Eventually someone is going to have to touch me, because I have no intentions of being a nun! Especially not now that I know what it can feel like to be wanted by a man and to want him in return. And since you think I'm too fragile for you, it will have to be someone else!"

Isabella suddenly found her head enveloped in those enormous hands of his, her eyes forced to meet his, compelled to see the fire of jealousy she had stirred up in his black gaze. His emotions buffeted her like a wildly breaking wave; his sudden, desperate covetousness and gripping fear battered her psyche like a million piercing daggers. The idea of another man touching her ripped at his insides, physically and spiritually, the cruelty and poison of it stamping his soul like a tattoo. In all of a heartbeat she regretted her game. She had never meant to hurt him, only to motivate him past his conflicts.

Jacob knew he had no justification for feeling this way, especially in light of the hastily sketched rules of conduct he was trying to force on himself and her. Yet a savage need to sear her to his side, body and soul, was strangling him brutally. He would kill anyone who even thought about touching her. In that moment he swore it to himself, and with his desperation-charred eyes, he swore it to her.

"Never," he rasped, the word falling from him on hot, rapid breaths. "Do you hear me, Bella? Never will any other man be allowed to touch you."

"Then that leaves only two choices," she reminded him, just as breathless as he was with his incensed feelings battering at her from all sides. "You, or nobody." She took in a deep, steadying breath, forcing herself to push away his influence in her mind so she could purposely lower her voice and shift her body into her next whispered words. This, she decided, would be her apology for her selfishness, for her taunting ways. She would no longer do this just because she craved it so desperately, she would do this because he did. Despite all his battling for his self-preservation, he refused to take into account how much he truly needed her. And for the first time, Isabella was truly understanding how much that really was.

"Frankly, Jacob," she said softly, her eyes leading his to glance down the inviting length of her body, "I think it would be such a shame to waste a body like mine, so soft, so eager to know what lovemaking feels like and so responsive to the way you touch it. It would be a crime to waste it on celibacy. Don't you agree?"

On a distant level, Jacob knew she was trying to manipulate him, but the awareness of it did not make her ploy any less effective. Arousal boiled through him in volcanic punishment, burning him from blood to bones until he was locked and rigid with it.

"You tempt me on purpose without knowing what you are toying with," he accused tightly, his eyes once again drawn down over the lush curves of the body she had spoken of, the body she was now rubbing ever so lightly against the hard contours of his. "Why would you do such a foolish thing?"

"Perhaps because it's my destiny to be your undoing, Jacob," she murmured softly, her fingers reaching up to trace his sensuous mouth with a slow, searching touch. "Or perhaps it's yours to be mine. I don't know. All I know is that I want to be with you more than I ever thought I would ever want anything in my life."

Jacob's breath came faster, his mouth warming under her exploring touch, his pupils dilating before her eyes. He let go of her, his hands pressing to the door behind her once more. Isabella was aware of his fingers digging into the wood, aware that his internal struggles were not yet over. It touched her that he was so worried for her. It made her want to be with him even more. She knew he'd never treat her lightly, wouldn't consider being with her a casual act. It radiated from every pore in his body.

"I could never find anything about you light or casual," Jacob said fiercely, not even realizing in the intensity of the moment that he had actually heard the words in his head, in her voice. "But you are right, I am worried. And believe me when I say it is with good cause. Do you remember the first time I kissed you? Within the span of a quick breath I was out of control. I was acting solely on instinct, the animal in my blood at the surface; the civilized man vanished without even putting up a fight. If Elijah had not interrupted us, I would have been brutal to your body, inconsiderate and unthinking of your innocence. I would have hurt you, only the urge to mate paramount in my thoughts. Isabella, you do not want that. I do not want that for you. You deserve so much more."

"More? As in the more you were giving me the second time we kissed, in the library?" she asked soothingly. "There was no animal then, Jacob. At least, not in control. The way you touched me, the way you made me feel"—her hands drifted in a slow, purposeful caress down the length of his neck, her eyes trained on the travel of her own fingertips—"and the way you stopped. Those were the acts of a caring and concerned lover." Her fingers dipped into the hollow at the base of his throat, then slid into the warm, open neck of his shirt "You were attentive, you made me feel so wanted. Jacob, I want to feel that again."

"You forget," he said hoarsely, his eyes falling on her bare shoulder under the gaping collar of her blouse. "You are now revising history."

"No, Jacob, I'm not I know what that was … I'm not a fool. I've felt that part of you more than at just those times." She reached to brush tender lips across his jaw and ear as she whispered softly to him. "I feel it in the hunger of your eyes when you look at me. I feel it when your breath draws deep as you take my scent deeply into you. Yes," she assured him when he stiffened in her hold, "I was aware. I've always been aware. I've heard every growl of that beast you leash so tightly. I have felt his rough urgency in your elegant hands, his bite in the scrape of your teeth. Jacob, I've learned the depths at which that beast lives, and it no longer frightens me. In the library, I never feared you for the beast in you. My only hesitation came from fear of the woman in me, of how to deal with my own inexperience. But then you, fiend that you feel you are, found the way to guide me past that. It was natural, Jacob, and it was right. We were right"

Jacob swallowed hard past the surge of hope and desire clutching his chest and throat. She was touching his mind on purpose, forcing him to see and feel all the truth in her beliefs. She had such unshakable faith in him and in the way she felt about what was happening between them.

"You do not know the power you have," he uttered in a voice like rough sandpaper. "You are so beautiful." He reached to cup her face in his hand. "So soft and so warm." His fingers fanned out against her skin, sliding silkily over her cheek, chin, and throat. He inhaled through his nose, a long, purposeful breath. "And that Your scent. It drives me mad."

"Tell me why," she urged him, her voice sounding distant and dreamy.

"You are"—he leaned forward and nuzzled the side of her neck, breathing deeply of her—"clean … and sweet, like nutmeg, and tart like apples. And then the change …" He pressed his mouth to her ear, rubbing his lips against her, dipping his tongue into the little hollow it made. "Yes, right there," he murmured, "when your blood stirs, when your arousal sharpens. The scent of musk and everything female."

"I see," she said breathlessly, feeling the change flush through her body more than scenting it as he did. Her hands rubbed over the play of muscles hidden beneath his silken shirt. He was so powerful, and she could feel it in every inch of him she'd ever touched. She had not even begun to touch him, she realized suddenly. She'd always been far too overwhelmed by his need for her, by his dominance. She wanted to touch him, more than anything, and to feel all the contours of the body he kept hidden beneath the sophistication of silk and tailored seams.

Jacob moved to the side of her neck, opening his mouth, touching his tongue to her pulse, sucking softly and making her shiver as her flesh exploded in goose bumps. He smiled against her skin, well aware of the tiny pearls of flesh blossoming under the caress of his tongue. He lifted his head, rubbing his nose and lips up her neck, over her cheek, until he could see her darkening eyes.

"Where is it, Jacob?" she asked softly, her breath coming quick against his nearby mouth. ‘That animal you are so afraid will hurt me, where is it now?"

"Closer than you realize," he assured her.