The Wind Demon crouched on the forest floor, mimicking the very position Jacob was in as he let his hand drift through bloodstained leaves and short forest scrub. He then moved toward the bodies of his victims from that day not so distant and touched each briefly, scattering the remains into the winds with little more than a thought.
Knowing how brutally distracting the time of the Imprinting could be, Jacob was more than a little impressed that Elijah had remembered to come and see to this sort of cleanup. It was, of course, important to remove all evidence of such battles and the beings who were not supposed to exist. Clearly the necromancers and hunters who had lost their compatriots in the battle did not feel the same need to cover their tracks.
But there was a need for secrecy even for the mortals who thought to live as Nightwalkers. Human society was too skeptical of magic and far too entrenched in its religious prejudices for magic-users to risk exposing themselves. And as voluble as hunters might want to be, even they had to conceal themselves for fear of being labeled insane…or even homicidal. Amusingly enough, their own kind—mortals, that is—could be more dangerous to these misled humans than the true Nightwalkers were.
Jacob had decided to follow Elijah because the warrior’s temper was clearly off its mark, and after his parting comment to Bella, the Enforcer worried that the other Demon was not yet well enough to face the kind of trouble he was looking for. He had not been strong enough to face it alone the first time. What made Elijah think he could have any better luck this time was completely beyond the Earth Demon.
Elijah straightened from his task of disposing of the mortals’ remains and braced his feet hard apart, balancing his significant weight firmly between them, an ages-old habit that was recognizable as distinctive of the warrior.
Both Demons suddenly turned their heads as they heard something their instincts told them was out of the normal for the forest. It occurred to Jacob that he had never found out what it was that had lured Elijah to this particular territory, Lycanthrope territory, in search of trouble in the first place.
Jacob burst into dust, riding the currents of the natural wind until a second later he was coalescing beside the warrior. The Captain did not seem surprised to see him.
“I figured Bella was going to send you after me,” he whispered in greeting to the Earth Demon. Together they both returned to low positions near the ground. Jacob closed his eyes, extending a cloak of camouflage over them both.
Jacob did not affirm or deny his friend’s speculation. He was concentrating on the movements of the forest that were both natural and unnatural.
“It has occurred to me that perhaps I was not ambushed after all. That perhaps I walked into something I wasn’t supposed to, as hard as that is for me to admit.”
“I would agree,” Jacob confirmed. “I find it odd that you would be lured into Lycanthrope territory on purpose. Too many variables.”
“So this begs the question, why are these women hiding out in Lycanthrope territory?”
“And my answer would be that Demons are not the only ones on their hit list. We already know that.”
“Yes, but why would Ruth and Mary lead resources this way? Frankly, it’s you and Bella and the rest of us they hold a grudge against.”
“Perhaps,” Jacob agreed in a whisper. “But since the Vampires and the Lycanthropes helped us defeat their troops during the Battle of Beltane, they may have made themselves part of that revenge.”
Elijah was quiet for a moment and then remembered something Siena had said to him when he had first awoken in her care.
“Wait a minute. She said it…and it never even clicked!”
“What?”
“Siena. Siena said to me, and of course she was just being a smart-ass at the time, but she said she had to save my neck because she wasn’t about to ruin years of peaceful overtures by letting our people find me dead in Lycanthrope territory.”
Jacob’s eye widened slightly in understanding.
“I see. What better way to dissolve any helpful relationship between the ’Thropes and the Demons than to lay suspicion at their door for the death of a Demon! And not just any Demon…”
“Me? Then that means I was ambushed.”
“And may yet be so.” Jacob’s eyes narrowed as he peered into the trees. “It is your job to track them, Ruth knows that. So they leave an obvious trail. And when you go missing…”
“They lie in wait for you to come and investigate. You and Bella…and even Noah. They are still here.” Elijah paused to listen to the wind a moment, marking where it blew around this object and that, and which of those objects were warm-blooded.
“Siena scared them away so they did not realize you were rescued. They have guards posted, waiting to report on anyone that enters the forest looking for your body.”
“Which means we’re in trouble.”
“I would say so,” Jacob agreed, feeling the sudden life swarming toward them through the trees. “Damn her, how did she mask so many of them?”
“Beats the hell out of me. We better get out of here.”
Jacob nodded in agreement and moved to change his form to the dust that could not be harmed, as Elijah’s form of the wind could not. But Elijah suddenly stiffened and grabbed the Enforcer’s arm. Jacob went still and directed his attention to where the warrior’s gaze was focused.
The gleam of gold in the moonlight winked in the tree line across from them. A falcon burst from the trees and swung into a lazy circle over the clearing, unaware of the camouflaged Demons sitting in the brush below it.
The warrior was still fixated on the tree line, knowing exactly what he was going to see even before the golden cat leapt into the clearing. It was not a coincidence that Siena was there, Elijah realized suddenly. She didn’t realize it, but she had mistaken his intentions to investigate the scene of his near death as her own.
He had led her here.
Jacob felt Elijah’s body tensing next to him and he reached to hold the warrior still.
“Do not move,” he hissed.
“Why can’t she smell them?” Elijah demanded under his breath.
“I cannot smell them either,” Jacob informed. “It is a powerful glamour.”
Elijah watched with despair as the falcon swung over the ground and metamorphosed in midair so that the Lycanthrope with bicolored hair he had met in the cavern touched down at a light run. She stopped and turned, looking for her sister.
Her sister.
Syreena.
Elijah suddenly knew exactly who she was and what her significance was to Siena. As Siena shapechanged herself, half a meadow away from the other woman, Elijah closed his eyes and tried to exert his connection with her more strongly than he had ever tried before.
Jacob saw the Queen go still, crouching down instinctively.
Siena tried to shake off the strange sensation creeping up the back of her scalp. She felt an inexplicable feeling of panic and warning, but it was not her own instincts she was feeling. She frowned and pushed the intrusion aside, assuming it was the busybody warrior in her mind protesting her actions. Well, she would be damned if he was going to tell her what she could and could not do. Investigating the occurrence that had brought them together was her responsibility and must be done to protect the safety of those who wandered this part of their territory. It was her duty to protect her people, and he wasn’t going to dictate to her otherwise.
Elijah shook Jacob off and stood up. With a single stride he burst out of Jacob’s camouflage influence and ran toward the stubborn Queen. She scented him before she saw him and stood up in shock as he stepped out of nowhere and ran for her. He was so fast that she felt him impact against her between one breath and the next. The next second she felt the molecules of her body literally disintegrating into his.
She suddenly knew what it felt like to be the wind. For a moment she felt as if she couldn’t breathe, although everything was air. But his presence surrounded her as they soared into the night togethe
r, brushing past naked tree limbs, pine needles, and bats.
The Earth passed beneath them so rapidly that Siena was dizzy and a little queasy from it. She had no voice to protest his highhanded treatment of her, so she had no choice but to just cling to the essence of the air that was him.
It was barely a minute later before the Earth rushed up toward them.
She was solid again so suddenly that, had he not held her so tightly, she would have fallen face first into the ground. After a moment of discombobulation, she realized she recognized where they were. They were standing at the entrance of Jinaeri’s cave, the one where all of this had begun.
Siena shoved away from him the minute her balance was settled, glaring at him with outrage and fire.
“Just what do you think you are doing?” she demanded.
“Saving your spoiled backside,” he shot back.
That was when she realized he was angry. Not just a little angry, but positively livid. It was flaring in his eyes, the green of which was so dark it was nearly black. She suddenly felt vulnerable and at a distinct disadvantage. Instinctively, her hair circled tightly around her bare body.
Several heartbeats later, two other people coalesced from a shower of dust into the forms of the Demon Enforcer and her sister Syreena. Syreena was used to flying, so she was not as disoriented as Siena was. Still, being suddenly demolecularized was disturbing to anyone who wasn’t experienced in the occurrence, so even she was a little paler for the incident.
“It was a trap!” Elijah snapped at Siena, drawing her startled attention back to him. “There were about a hundred necromancers and hunters closing in on us!”
“Impossible!” she shot back at him, her slender hands curling into fists. “I would have smelled them. You know as well as I do that magic-users are the vilest smelling creatures on the planet to us Nightwalkers. There’s no way—”
“Apparently there is!” Elijah cut in, leaning over her so closely that she had to step back instinctively. “You aren’t dealing with just misaligned humans anymore, Siena. There are Demons out there who have the power to deceive you in ways you can’t even conceive of. There is a reason why your father never won a battle against us, no matter how hard he tried. And believe me when I tell you that, for all your people consider me a butcher, I could have done a lot more harm to them than any of them realize!
“A Mind Demon of Ruth’s caliber can make you see, smell, and hear anything she wants you to. She can do it to us, her own people who are aware of it, so she can surely do it to you. The only way Jacob and I were able to see through the glamour was because we could use alternate abilities to sense their body heat.”
“He’s telling the truth, Siena.” Jacob spoke up more gently, knowing Elijah was not going to be very diplomatic in the moment. Jacob knew what the terror of watching your mate come close to danger and death could do to your personality and your heart. “You both would have been slaughtered in a matter of minutes if Elijah hadn’t seen you. I guarantee you, this time they were prepared for the possibility of a Lycanthrope. I am sensitive to all metals of the Earth, and I promise you they had enough silver on them to kill far more than two unsuspecting changelings.”
“I saw nothing,” Syreena said in disbelief. “I purposely circled the forest and the clearing several times before signaling to Siena that all was clear.”
But it was clear the female with the dual-colored hair was not arguing the point Jacob and Elijah had tried to make. She was just more than a little shocked.
“If you need proof, I would be happy to take you back and dump you into that clearing so you can get your stubborn butt kicked,” Elijah threatened.
“How dare you talk to me that way!”
Jacob winced as the second female turned to roll her eyes at him. It was then that he noticed this woman too wore delicate links of gold and moonstones around her neck. This jewelry was only a half-inch thick, as opposed to the over two inches of thickness to the Queen’s collar. Jacob suspected that this other woman was also a member of the royal household, although he had never heard of a second Princess in the court from Gideon’s reports during his time there.
The collars were remarkable, Jacob mused. There must be some sort of enchantment on them that allowed them to expand and contract when their wearers changed shape. To go from falcon to humanoid made for a significant difference in circumference, even though the Princess was a small, fine-boned little thing. She couldn’t have been much over five feet tall, though. Like her sister, her presence was impressive enough to make her seem a little larger than life. And the harlequin-colored hair and eyes were beautiful, but also unnerving.
Jacob gently took the Princess’s arm and led her several steps away from the bickering pair.
“I am Jacob, the Demon King’s Enforcer. I apologize for taking you over without warning, but you were both in jeopardy.”
“I believe you,” she assured him, reaching to take his offered hand. “I am Syreena, the Queen’s Counselor and sister.”
Jacob watched as she looked back to check on her sister.
“Is it me, or are we about as useful as a holes in an umbrella at the moment?” she asked, the gray eyebrow raising above the brown one slightly.
“Are you suggesting we abandon your Queen and my Captain to their fates?” Jacob smiled slightly. “That would be incredibly bad form.”
“I know,” she laughed, “but you have not had to live at court with her these past few days.”
“Trust me, he has not been much better.”
They exchanged one last look before changing into dust and falcon, both flying off unnoticed by their companions.
“I am not the stubborn one here,” Siena insisted, irritation snapping in her golden eyes. “If you would have stayed away from me, none of this would have happened!”
“I would really like to know how you figure that,” Elijah demanded.
“If you hadn’t bullied me around earlier—”
“Bullied?” he interrupted. “I have done nothing more than try and convince you of how stupid it is to torture yourself by resisting the inevitable. I am trying to protect you from—”
“I never asked for your protection, and I swear by the Goddess this very minute that I never will!”
“Too late!” he reminded her with a mean look of satisfaction. “Better be careful what you swear to or you will pay the price at your reckoning.”
“And what, go to hell where all the Demons live? I think I’m already there, thank you very much for your concern.”
She turned to move away from him, wanting nothing more than to run into the forest and as far from him as she could get. This time she anticipated his reach for her hair and ducked him smoothly, a cry of triumph on her lips as she jumped back and laughed at him. She changed so fast from human to Werecat that Elijah barely had time to blink.
This was something else completely different, Elijah realized, taking a wise step back as he stared down oval pupils, bared claws, and a tail that twitched with challenge. She had just made herself three times as strong as she already was, enhancing every feline instinct she already had.
This was not a form he wanted to do battle with.
He didn’t want to do battle with any of her forms. He was tired of fighting her, of trying to make her understand what she refused to understand. So he ignored her challenge and, with a resigned sigh, turned his back on her and walked away several steps. He changed form about five yards away from her, disappearing into the approaching dawn.
Siena was surprised by his retreat, automatically reverting to her human form in her confusion. She looked around, feeling the lightening of the forest keenly. She put off trying to figure out what the Demon was up to this time, transformed into the cougar, and began to travel quickly toward home.
At top speed, she should make it back to her castle only an hour after daybreak.
She didn’t even take notice of the cloud cover that seemed to follow her the entire distance.
“No doubt they now know you are not lying dead on the forest floor,” Noah noted. “And that their trap has been discovered.”
Noah waited for a response, but when it didn’t come he looked up from the scroll he was trying meticulously to decipher. Elijah was leaning against his desk with his back to him, arms folded tightly over his chest, legs crossed at the ankles. But in spite of the relaxed positioning of the warrior’s body, it was clear he was wrapped up tightly in tense thoughts and emotions.
“Elijah?”
The Captain looked around at the King with a raised brow of surprise.
“I am sorry, did you say something?”
“I said it is only one more night until Samhain. Have you had any progress with Siena?”
“No. She is just as obstinate as ever.” Elijah gave him a grim smile of sarcasm. “However, she has learned a unique use for our developing telepathy. Do you know how many derogatory names there are in the Lycanthrope language?”
“No, but I have a feeling you do.”
“Oh, yes,” Elijah forced a smile and attitude of sarcastic delight, “and the hits just keep on coming.”
“Look at the bright side. You will know their language before long at this rate.”
“Yes, but I don’t believe it is going to be a vocabulary that will endear me to the biased populace any more than I already am.”
“Good point,” Noah agreed. “Why will you not ask Gideon to talk to her?”
“After what happened last time? Don’t you think the developing war with the lawless mortals is enough?”
“Elijah, I find it hard to believe Siena is that irrational. She has always proven to be a woman of uncommon wisdom and remarkable clarity of purpose.”
“She is,” the warrior agreed. “And her wisdom and clarity of purpose are directed full bore against me. As she delights in telling me,” he reached to tap his forehead in indication, “there is a large variety of farm animals she’d rather make her King.”
Elijah Page 20