Jacob felt something slither warmly up the back of his neck and into his mind. The sensation of relief was so strong he could have easily mistaken it for his own, except there was something softer about it than he was capable of. He turned his head and saw her sitting up, looking at him.
He was less shocked this time that she had shaken off another attempt at putting her to sleep, but it still impacted him, especially knowing Noah had been behind this last effort. Jacob slipped his hands into his pockets, closing them tightly. He began to walk toward her, knowing he had to face her having hurt her, regret dragging at his heart with harsh sorrow. His steps never faltered, though. He was ashamed, but he was strong enough to admit when he had erred and to face the consequences.
Isabella watched him approach, his powerful, catlike grace emanating purpose. She felt her heart leap, remembering how he had touched her, the command of his embrace and the drugging sensuality of his kisses. She recalled how shockingly easy it had been for him to hold her body in thrall, how his masculine hands had felt running the curves of her figure, and the skill of elegant fingers that had demanded a blueprint of her.
Jacob came to a halt, still half the room away from her but inexplicably besieged by her thoughts as she remembered what he had done to her. Her vivid memory cast image after image into him, everything down to sensation and scent, so real in the remembering that it was as if he held her that very instant. His entire body rippled hard in response, his pulse pounding in his throat as she recollected that primitive, aroused feel of him.
Jacob was not a telepath or an empath, so how he was receiving her thoughts was lost on him. What was more, he sensed she was equally close to his mind, making it a profoundly intimate exchange. He should have been disconcerted by that idea, but something else had caught his attention instead.
He discovered no fear in her memories. Even as she wondered at her own abandon, thought about how out of character it all had been, there was no trepidation or regret. In fact, she was frighteningly accepting. Actually, she was curious, intrigued, and entertaining thoughts of what it would be like to be touched by him again, to kiss and taste his mouth. Jacob shuddered, his entire being tuning in to that siren call of her thoughts and body.
“Jacob.”
His name was used as a warning, and it dragged him out of Isabella’s enchantment of him, bringing his attention around to the three who had entered the room. Isabella looked also, recognizing the two males as the invaders of Jacob’s house. She lurched to her feet, bristling defensively as she moved to place herself between them and Jacob.
The newest stranger was a woman. Isabella felt positive that she had never seen anyone so beautiful in all of her life. She was quite tall, wickedly long-legged, and had coffee-colored hair curling down in a beautiful cascade the entire length of her body. The white togalike gown she wore was light and flowing, except where it was bound snug beneath and between her breasts in a crisscrossed pattern with thick bands of intricate brocade. This flattered her flawless, tanned complexion and enhanced the green-gray color of her eyes. She held herself with a serene poise that reminded Isabella of a goddess, but the compassionate smile that warmed her refined features made her seem far more approachable than any of the men. She stood out like an angel amongst brooding devils.
“On behalf of my brother and myself, I welcome you to our home, Isabella,” she said, her voice captivating with its exotic accent and sophisticated modulation. “Do not be afraid,” the goddess continued, “no one here will harm you or allow you to be harmed. My name is Magdelegna. My friends call my Legna, and you may also if you wish.”
“Where am I? Who are all you people?” Then, more strongly, her voice full of warning, “Why did you attack Jacob?”
The three other Demons watched with interest as the tiny human woman took yet another protective step back toward Jacob. The idea of such a fragile creature defending the Enforcer made their mouths twitch with amusement.
“It was not so much an attack against Jacob as it was an act of protecting you. When Elijah came upon you, he feared Jacob would unwittingly hurt you,” Legna explained.
“Well,” Isabella snorted, thrusting her fists onto her hips and jutting out her chin in irritation, “I’d call that presumptive, wouldn’t you? He was just…” She realized exactly how they’d been caught and promptly blushed to the roots of her hair. “I mean…” She stamped her foot in frustration as they began to let their grins spread over their faces. She even heard Jacob chuckle softly behind her. “Well, what should it matter to any of you what we were doing?” she demanded belligerently.
“It does matter. It will matter to you as well once you know everything.”
Isabella was instantly washed with dread and a heart-fluttering panic. A hundred things rushed through her head as she tried to fit a logical explanation to their disquiet. She latched on to the most likely. “You’re married!” she declared, whirling around to confront Jacob.
“No. I am not married,” he countered, his dark eyes radiating no humor at this point. “Isabella, do you not find anything the least bit odd about how, exactly, I was attacked?”
The prompt made her hesitate. She remembered the wind, the vortex of power that had thrown them both about like dried leaves instead of human beings. She recollected the one called Noah stepping up to her one moment, and the next she was waking up here. She recalled being caught by Jacob after a five-story fall and fighting a horrible creature he claimed had once been a friend.
“Okay, what the hell is going on here?” she demanded. She actually wasn’t afraid. She had been born with an insatiable need for information that overrode any fear she might have felt about being caught up in these peculiarities. She was realizing that she had been completely ignoring some very odd occurrences and, if she’d had one of those huge cartoon mallets right then, she ought to be bonking herself on the head with it and saying “duh!”
“First, we wish you to remember that you are in no danger from us,” the one called Noah said, his smoky voice reaching out to reassure her.
“Hey, I broke Arnold Schwarzenegger’s nose over there, don’t forget. I’m not afraid of any of you.” Isabella indicated Elijah with a jerk of her head. Elijah’s face colored with embarrassment. She smiled inwardly. At least she had the blond’s number. Besides, she was very certain that although he was maintaining a distance, Jacob wouldn’t let a single one of them touch her.
“Isabella,” Legna said, still gentle, still reassuring. “Though we may look a lot like you and others of your species, we are…different.”
“Species? What are you, like, aliens or something?”
“No, we are indigenous to Earth,” Jacob said.
Isabella turned at the sound of his voice, suddenly feeling that whatever she was about to hear, she wanted to hear from him. “Then please explain. I’m not an idiot and I won’t freak out like some serial heroine. Stop coddling me and just give me some answers.”
“Very well.” Jacob stepped closer to her, wishing he could be touching her as he told her what he knew was going to be nearly impossible for her, with her human convictions, to comprehend. The impulse frustrated him because it came even when he was consciously trying to control it. “Human folklore is full of myths and legends about creatures that walk the night. You call them monsters. To us, they are just other species. To us they exist, just as we exist, alongside the human race. The Nightwalkers. The Dark Cultures. We who live best during the dark cycles of the Earth.”
Isabella tilted her head, seemingly taking in that bit of knowledge. He could feel her rapid thoughts as she tried to fit certain pieces of information together, discarded them, and then began anew. She was so intelligent, so sharp, and he marveled at the working of her practical mind.
“So, what are you telling me? That you guys are vampires?” The idea gave all-new implications to the encounter she’d had with Jacob, making her shiver with a feeling she blushingly refused to identify. It could explain why the other
s thought she would be in danger from him. Then again, weren’t these people a little too perfectly tanned to be keeping out of the sun?
“No. We are not those, though they do exist,” Legna said.
“They do? You’re pulling my leg!” Isabella snorted with disbelieving humor.
“There is much more in the universe than can be known to man.”
“Yes, but blood-sucking, undead monsters?”
Jacob chuckled softly, stepping up to her and reaching to touch gentle fingers to her face, the pads at the tips of them so clearly reverent as they glided over the soft curve of her cheek.
“Vampires take offense to those descriptions. Outside of some special abilities, weaknesses, and the need for blood, most Vampires are not too unlike anyone else you might know. You might know one or two and not even realize it.”
“Oookay! Next you’ll be telling me there is an Easter Bunny and werewolves!” Isabella exclaimed.
“Well, I cannot vouch for the Easter Bunny, but Lycanthropes are definitely to be found, though not always as wolves.”
Isabella stared at Jacob as if he had sprouted canines and fur himself. “So,” she murmured numbly, “if you aren’t any of those things, then what are you saying that you are?”
“I will tell you, Isabella,” Jacob said softly, his fingers stroking her cheek once more, soothing her frayed nerves, “but remember, just because a word has terrible implications in your mythos does not mean that is really the way it is.”
“Just tell me,” she whispered, her large eyes pleading with him.
“We are called Demons. We are a race of elementals, immortal and gifted with nature-oriented powers. We are a highly civilized species with a strict code of honor, morals, and beliefs. We desire to peacefully coexist with your species, to protect our human friends from whatever baser sides there are to our natures. That was why Elijah drove me away from you, Bella. It is forbidden for a Demon to harm a human and, therefore, it is taboo for a Demon to…to try and mate with a human. It has always been that way.”
“But…” Isabella shook her head, trying to clear it of a rush of implications and confusions. “Is that what that thing was in the warehouse? One of you? A…Demon?”
“Yes and no. Demons, for the most part, look as you see us now. We behave as civilized as you see us behaving now, the exception being occasional moments of primitive behavior which we try to monitor very closely. Saul, the creature you destroyed, was a perverted, corrupted Demon. It takes a very specific set of circumstances for that extreme transformation to happen, and it has not happened in over a century. Until tonight.”
“What’s more,” Legna spoke up, drawing Isabella’s attention, “tonight has been the first time that we know of that a human has been able to kill one of our kind. Attempted, yes. Succeeded, never.”
“Also, on this night of firsts,” Noah added, “is the first time Jacob, one of the most controlled and disciplined among us, has ever lost control with a human female. You may not see it, but that has a tremendous significance to us.”
“Believe me, it was tremendously significant to me as well,” she said dryly. “So you mean to tell me that you all can’t be killed? Is that what you mean by immortal? Because if that’s the case, that was one pretty dead immortal in that warehouse.”
“We can be killed. By one another, by other powerful Nightwalkers, and…magic-users,” Noah edited gingerly. “Immortal means that we are long lived, many of us centuries old.”
“Centuries?” Isabella swallowed visibly. “How many centuries?” she asked Jacob.
“A little over six.”
“Six hundred years?” Isabella found herself suppressing another one of those hysterical giggles she was prone to since meeting Jacob. “Talk about your older man. Oh, wait, you aren’t even a man.” Isabella’s eyes grew huge as the implications of that particular realization hit her. “What…um…what would have happened if…I mean…if…uh…you know…”
This time everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably.
“Actually, we do not really know,” Noah said. “It has never happened before. At least, not with uncorrupted Demons. The Transformed…well, there have been tragic instances where women and men have been found…”
“Torn apart,” Jacob said bluntly. He had seen the stark reality of this. They were vicious and brutal fatalities. This was what compelled his vigilance and drove him to make no mistakes. His failures simply took too expensive a toll.
“However,” Legna continued quickly, her compassionate eyes on Jacob’s face, “we have always felt that such a mating would be too much for a human to survive, even with an uncorrupted Demon.”
Isabella could believe that. Jacob’s primal dominance had been consuming. She didn’t want to think about what would have happened if Elijah and Noah had not shown up when they had. It was clear by the expression on Jacob’s face that he was having a similar thought.
“I never wanted to hurt you. You must believe me, Bella,” he said quietly.
“Jacob is telling you the truth. Something happens to our people at this time of year that makes our instinctive urge to mate very difficult to control,” Noah explained. “We police ourselves strictly, but sometimes it gets the better of us.”
“Wait. Wait a minute.” Isabella threw up staying hands, shaking her head as everything she was learning tumbled around inside of it. “This is a very imaginative story, but how am I supposed to believe any of it? I mean…you all look so normal. Disgustingly good-looking, but normal.”
Jacob felt his lips twitch. This woman constantly made him want to laugh out loud. At himself, at their habitual solemnity, at everything he felt he had been taking far too seriously for far too long. Instead, he reached down and took both of her little hands in his, enjoying the way she curled her fingertips between his fingers, trusting him regardless of all she had learned.
“Do not be afraid,” he murmured.
Isabella opened her mouth to ask him why she should be afraid, but a sudden sensation of lightness washed over her and took her breath away. She watched his strange eyes as her feet lifted effortlessly from the floor, her body following his lead as he drew them up into the air together. She threw her arms around his neck, her heart pounding with disquiet and adrenaline as they went higher. He felt her entire body tremble, like the quick flicks of a cat’s tail.
“Destiny has made me of the Earth, Bella,” he whispered softly in her ear. “I can manipulate gravity, communicate with all living things, and move tectonic plates against one another if I so choose. I can grow a seed to maturity with a thought and cause it to wither and die with another. I am able to feel the life forces of every living thing born of the Earth. I can hunt anything that travels the paths of this world with all the heightened senses of the most accomplished predators. I am Nature, and She is me.”
Isabella exhaled a soft “Oh,” watching now as they climbed higher away from the others who watched them, until they reached the rafters. It wasn’t until she was looking down on everything that she realized they must be in a castle. It was the only thing they could be in that would match the walls, floors, and ceilings of the enormous room they were in.
After a moment, Jacob slowly lowered them back to the marble flooring, holding her protectively against himself as their bodies grew weighty once more. She saw worry in his eyes and his urge to be her protector. Even more, she felt it. She realized that she was developing an attunement with Jacob’s emotions and thoughts. She didn’t know how it was happening, but how could she ask that in the face of the fact that she had just flown around the room in his arms?
As she tested this newfound ability, she felt something telling her that his desire for her was merely curbed and controlled, not gone as she had begun to suspect. For some reason it gave her a sense of relief. Reckless though it might be, there was a very powerful part of her that did not want to be just a passing primal urge to him.
She stepped out of the circle of his arms and looked at
Elijah.
“The wind?” she asked.
“Destiny has chosen me for the Wind,” he said in resonant tones as he swept out his hands in a showman’s gesture, even while he winked at her. “Atmospheres, temperature, air, these are mine to beckon.” And he did, sweeping a breeze through the room just strong enough to make Legna’s gown ruffle. Suddenly, without even a flash of light or warning, Elijah’s form dissipated into thin air, becoming the air. His voice swirled all around her as he playfully lifted her hair up from her shoulders, drawing it into a banner that fluttered high above her head, making her laugh. “The weather sways to my will, the tempests and pressures of it mine to manipulate. I can infuse a place with life-giving oxygen or remove it completely. The Wind is the breath of life, and She breathes through me.”
“Elijah,” Jacob snapped out, a dark glare of disapproval tinged by a perceptible gravitational shift meant to add to his warning. He didn’t like Elijah playing with her, and he was making it very clear.
“Destiny has chosen Fire for me,” Noah injected as Elijah’s form faded back in and the breeze died down, shifting focus back to the disclosures. The way they spoke, with such pride and reverence—Isabella was thrilled by the energy of it. She gasped when Noah’s powerful body turned hazy and then swirled into a column of smoke. He lingered in this form for a moment before becoming solid once more. “I am the lava that pulses deep in the Earth’s core, the conflagration that burns away the old so that the new might be born in its wake. I am that which boils and seethes and is volatile and explosive. I am the warmth of the sun, the manipulator of all energies. Fire burns in me and for me, and She is all that I am.”
“Fire and Earth Demons are among the rarest of our breed, the most powerful of our kind,” Jacob said. “Noah is King. Our leader.”
“But fire cannot live without air,” Elijah remarked, an impudent gleam in his green eyes.
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