“You look like hell,” Siena remarked, her voice muffled against his mouth, but its usual rich tone was otherwise free of defect and injury.
He felt glorious.
Elijah reached for the covers and yanked them down, tumbling her off his body as he sat up and inspected her from head to toe, his hands tracing where his eyes went, affirming her healing state with tactile, as well as visual, proof.
“Are you trying to turn me on?” she asked, arching one shiny gold brow with a distinctly lecherous humor.
The last thing he reached for was her glimmering, springy, and oh-so-lively hair, sifting the tightly sprung curls through his fingers as a huge grin spread over his face.
Siena sat up, bumping his nose with hers.
“Is that a yes?” she asked, crossing her eyes as she tried to focus on him.
“You are…amazing,” he breathed, his hands framing her face eagerly, the rough warmth of his palms becoming so familiar, so wonderfully necessary for her happiness, that she smiled wider.
“I think I look like a leopard,” she remarked, pulling back to inspect her spotted arms and legs. Then that mischievous smile blossomed over her gorgeous lips. “Want to play connect the dots?”
Elijah threw back his leonine head and laughed from deep in his belly, dragging her into his embrace so tightly she gasped for air with a laugh even as he covered her mouth with a soul tattooing kiss that made her feel light-headed and joyful.
The sound of the door opening made them jump apart, and Elijah instinctively jerked the covers back over his wife’s bare body as she wiped a guilty hand over her damp mouth. He reached under the covers to pinch her for that, making her hello to her sister and her General come out half squeaky.
“Siena! You look great!” Syreena gushed happily, rushing to hug her sister from one side while Anya rushed at her from the other. Elijah had to lean back to avoid getting crushed by the tangle of females.
“Hey! You’ve had this fantasy before!”
Elijah laughed and turned to look at Bella, immediately opening his arms and beckoning her to them. She jumped into his embrace with a delighted bounce, hugging him as tightly as he hugged her.
“Thank you,” he murmured softly into her ear. “Thank you for what you did. But as your teacher, I should tell you to never do that again,” he said with fierce scolding.
“You have a deal,” she said intensely as she practically strangled him with grateful affection.
“And I thought he would be boring once he got married,” Jacob remarked dryly to Gideon and Legna, who crowded the doorway with him.
“Absolutely not,” Gideon said suddenly, locking his arms around his wife when she went to rush into the room with intentions of joining the love fest.
“That, I believe, is my line,” Jacob said with a chuckle as he moved to retrieve Bella before her chokehold on Elijah deprived him of oxygen any longer.
Women tumbled off the bed on all sides, everyone chattering and exchanging their side of the same story at once.
Until Noah cleared his throat from the doorway and said one soft statement: “Ladies, gentlemen; I believe we have a hunt awaiting us.”
CHAPTER 17
“This is where you tracked them to?” Siena asked softly, squinting her eyes so that her keen vision focused on the forest below their perch on the mountainside. “This is not one hundred miles from my castle.”
“And barely twenty from where I was attacked,” Elijah added.
“I don’t know about you guys, but this looks like a staging ground to me,” Isabella remarked, holding up her binoculars again. “Jacob, move back, you’re making this thing blurry.”
She reached behind herself to push him away, and the Enforcer, who needed no such devices to see at a distance, backed up as ordered. He continued to peruse the same area she did from an added distance.
“Ah, better,” Isabella said, clearly pleased to be able to use the human invention.
“I think Bella is right. Magic-users so close to Siena’s seat of power? Risking being so deep in ’Thrope territory?” Elijah shook his head. “What else could it be?”
“A search party.”
That remark made everyone look back at Gideon, who was leaning back nonchalantly against the rock face, his feet casually crossed at the ankles.
“Look back farther, beyond the encampment,” he instructed. “See the ground? It has been churned up like a farmer’s field, even deeper than that in some places. You know, I once spent well over a century of my life pursuing the ancient histories and cultures of medicine. I do not claim to be an expert on excavation, but those grids of twine in the field look very much like those in an archaeological dig. It appears to me that they are looking for something and they are going about it very carefully.”
“Looking for what?” Siena queried. “Goddess, just look at the size of that dig. It’s enormous. It would take years to properly excavate anything of that size.” She turned to look at Gideon. “Why are they in Russian territory, in winter no less, digging in near-frozen ground?”
“Yes. In winter. When the usual traffic in this territory is almost nil because the only beings who could present any possible danger to them are all settling down for a nice, long nap,” Elijah speculated.
“Yes, of course! A third of us are already in hibernation. More than half of the remaining population probably went to the caves right after the Samhain feasts!” Syreena spoke up in a hushed voice. “Let me fly over and take a look.”
“No!”
The chorus of voices and hands that stopped her from rising made her crouch back down immediately.
“There are wards all over the place. You cannot see them, but I can,” Jacob told her. “They make unnatural currents in the wildlife and vegetation.”
“And before you say it, they are in the air as well,” Elijah added before she could point out that she intended to fly, not walk.
“Oh.” Syreena felt more than a little foolish for her unthinking haste, and her skin flushed. “How is it that you see this, yet we who are of the forest, we who live here constantly, cannot?”
“Do not sell yourself short,” Gideon said quietly. “We do not see them easily either. You have to be looking for them, and the signs are almost impossible to sort through without centuries of experience. Even so, Elijah no doubt tripped a few of those wards the day of his original attack. That is, after all, what brought their attention to his approach. It was also quite likely the motivation behind their attempt to murder him.”
“Don’t remind me,” Elijah said wryly. “Some warrior I am. I walked smack into the ones on the ground.”
“You could not expect to see them. The rhythms of the wildlife and the forest are not your area of expertise,” Noah countered him, dismissing the warrior’s self-recriminations. “On the contrary, I think you just happen to be a little too good at your job. I don’t think they meant to attract you. I also do not believe they set out to trap you in specific, Elijah. Just anyone who came too close to uncovering their clandestine proceedings.”
“The purposeful trap came later,” Siena mused aloud. “They probably cast wards around the battle area shortly after, setting the trap for anyone who came looking for Elijah’s body. Only they didn’t realize that he had been rescued before they had even stopped running away from the cougar’s scream.”
“So close,” Anya said softly, the bitter edge to her voice attracting their attention better than a shout would have. “These are my woodlands,” she explained, her sleek eyes glittering with hard anger. “My territory. My responsibility is to guard and protect them exactly as I guard and protect the Queen who rules them. I should have at least set a territorial perimeter of guards after the Battle of Beltane. This is an unforgivable lapse in security.”
“And I should never have taken Legna to a known territory last night when Ruth was aware that our Imprinting would leave us…shall we say…sufficiently distracted from concerns of safety.” Gideon looked the half-
breed over calmly. “I believe we can come to the consensus that we all have made some mistakes over this past year. It is to be expected when there is so much for us to think about. These women, these stained creatures, are focused on only one thing. Eradicating us. All of us. That gives them the luxury of uncommon focus.”
“For them, it is a holy war,” Noah added. “They have the advantage that fanaticism gives them. They do not struggle with their consciences like we do. To them, it is black and white. We are evil and we must be destroyed for it.”
“This search, I guarantee you, is probably a means to that same end,” Gideon speculated darkly. “Every Crusade was as much about gathering valuable relics, religious or otherwise, as it was about upholding claims to religious principles or lands.”
“Ah, the good old days,” Isabella quipped with a lopsided grin as she winked at Magdelegna. “Memories of a reckless youth, Gideon?”
Gideon flicked the little Druid an acidic glare that only managed to send her into a fit of giggles.
“As much as I would love to hear about Gideon and Richard the Lionheart rounding the pubs of the Byzantine Empire,” Siena said seriously, although there was repressed humor in her golden eyes, “I want to get these particular crusaders off my territory.”
“Well, Siena,” Noah mused, “since I have a feeling you will not take kindly to a speedy, exterminating forest fire, what do you suggest we do?”
Siena bit her lip in thought for a moment, absently scratching a patch of newly healed skin beneath her ear until she heard an unexpected chuckle echoing inside of her head.
What?
You were right. You do look like a leopard.
Very funny, warrior. Do you think we could pay attention to the problem?
Elijah turned to look over his shoulder at the congregation of expectant faces. A strange sense of distance fell over him as he did so. Oh, he would always be close to these people; there was never going to be any doubt about the depth of his affection for them. Be it the one year he had known Bella, or the hundreds he had known Noah, nothing could truly separate him from the feelings he had formed for his comrades.
But in this moment, he was realizing he was about to leave a dramatically important period of his life behind him. He was clearly turning toward the new one he was entering with Siena.
That meant that these woodlands were now his, because they were hers. It required him to be aware of the fact that her interests and concerns became his, whether they involved the Demon race or not. The comfort that came from this era of change they had been clumsily breaking into was the realization that the Demon race and the Lycanthrope race would be intermingled with one another for as long as they lived their lives. Destiny had proclaimed it to be so the moment She had linked Elijah to her, and Siena to him.
Frankly, it was an impressive solution. The mating of enemies. Forcing an integration of species and making them come to understand one another more clearly. Destiny had made her mind clear to all of them. There would be no turning back to old squabbles without risking the separation of the mated couple who, under Imprinted compulsion, would rather die than allow anything to separate them.
Siena reached up to rub her hand over Elijah’s where it was curled around her bare neck. It was yet another reminder, a clever, voiceless coercion, to have him focus on the issues of the moment instead of mulling over things that would take much longer than that instant to resolve. He flicked his attention to the half-breed, Anya, who had stood up and begun to pace. He knew that expression and the thoughts behind it just about as well as he knew himself.
“The problem is the way they are entrenched,” Anya remarked, kneeling closer to the cliff side. “Granted, this is the high ground, but those wards are as good as the solid walls of a castle fortress. I’m willing to bet not all of them are merely part of a sensor net. I’d put money on many of them being active defenses. Half of us will get fried if we cross those barriers. Not to mention the fact that they are humans, in spite of everything else, and that gives them access to munitions.”
“I doubt we will have to worry about that, Anya,” Elijah countered thoughtfully. “First of all, Ruth is very likely to be in that camp. She was in the fray pretty fast when she had her little minions all over me, which tells me she was pretty close by. That means she would have had to come up with excuses to keep the area clear of things mechanical or technological in nature, else she would tip her hand about being a Demon herself. That’s the advantage of making this an archaeological site. It is expected to be done by hand, rather than with machinery.”
“Ruth also knows that in close combat, our chemistry will cause malfunctions to complex equipment. Those malfunctions would be far more likely to backfire onto her fighters rather than do damage to us,” Jacob added.
“Their weaponry has been of the most efficient type to harm Demons. Iron bolts in crossbows, iron blades, magic.”
“Yes, but they are in Lycanthrope territory,” Siena mused. “The hunters in there would be unable to resist their nature to arm themselves for so real a possibility of encountering one of my people.”
“That means silver,” Anya added. “Silver bullets, to be exact.” The half-breed rolled her eyes. “As theatrical as it may be, it’s effective enough.”
“Okay, wait a sec,” Bella piped up, nibbling on her bot tom lip as she ordered her thoughts. “They are prepared for Demons. They are prepared for Lycanthropes. Let’s just take that for granted. But given your history of war together, I bet there’s one thing they are not prepared for.”
“Both!” Anya said immediately.
“Just like at the Battle of Beltane,” Siena added. “I still wonder if she ever figured out that there were more than Demons there that day.”
“Don’t underestimate Ruth,” Elijah warned “She was warrior before she was Councillor. She’s a skilled tactician, and I never knew her to make the same mistake twice.”
“Guys,” Bella said suddenly, her head tilting as she turned her focus onto something she was sensing. “I hate to say this, but I have that funny feeling I get in my belly when there is a Transformed Demon nearby. I think they are being guarded by a lot more than magical wards.” She sighed loudly, the breathy beckoning encouraging Jacob to reach out automatically. He slipped his hand beneath her hair and rubbed soothingly at her neck. “You know,” the little Druid continued, “for once I wish there was such a thing as a good sorceress. One that was on our side. Someone who could unravel the wards and change Transformed Demons back to themselves again.”
“Impossible,” Noah said quietly, instantly quashing the naïve hybrid’s fanciful desire. “To become a sorceress or a warlock, you have to pick up books of magic and spells that are, in and of themselves, innately unnatural and evil.”
“I thought magic-users were born magic-users. Just like Demons are born with their abilities.”
“You will find that to be true of the more powerful magic-users,” Noah agreed. “But most learn to become what they are by intellect, resources, and studying alone. You could pick up a spell book, Bella, just like Ruth has, and learn that magic as easily as any one of them has. But the moment you begin to use tainted spells from tainted books, you become corrupted yourself. Unfortunately, the easy access to those powers is why there are so many of them, so suddenly. It is spreading like a cult.”
“A cult lead by the powerful magic-users who are just…born that way?”
“I am afraid so.”
“Are you telling me that being born with the natural potential for magic makes you innately evil?” Bella’s body language was a matching protest to her words as she became extremely tense. “That means they never had a choice! Just like you never had a choice of what element you were going to rule, or Siena had over what forms she takes.”
“They have a choice. They can choose not to pick up the black magic,” Jacob retorted. “Do not try and defend them, Bella. It would be a mistake to feel sympathy for them.”
“So y
ou are telling me it’s a choice between pursuing your innate power…or not? Jacob, that is not fair. It would be like it was when you and I first met, as you tried to fight off what you instinctively felt for me. No matter how wrong you felt it was in your moral heart, you could not resist. How many of us who are here now have come to understand how impossible that is?”
“Fine,” Elijah bit out suddenly. “Forced to the choice or not, it does not change what they are. It does not change the fact that they hunt us and destroy us with impunity, save what we ourselves bring to their door in answer.”
“I see. And if a wild animal attacked you because it was in its nature to do so, you would feel justified in killing it?” Syreena spoke up suddenly, her gray brow rising toward her hairline.
“An animal has motive and instincts. It kills to eat, protect itself, or in madness from some disease such as rabies. Nourishment and self-defense are the right of every living creature, and I condemn no one for having those needs. It does not even matter to me how crude or sophisticated they are in the methods they use to bring those needs to fruition.
“But I assure you,” he continued, his voice one of deep ice and impenetrable steel, “I would destroy a rabid animal in a heartbeat. An animal of that maddened ilk will infect anything it can sink its teeth into if I do not take action to stop it. I will destroy these women with the same ease,” Elijah assured his sister-in-law coldly. “These women are rabid. They are spreading their disease and sacrificing hundreds of innocents in the process. Those they lure to join their task, those they steal from us, and those of us who have been brutalized during their attempts to hold authority over us.”
“Syreena, you are a Monk of The Pride. Half warrior, half pacifist,” Gideon said, his tone far more diplomatic than Elijah’s. “We all understand your tendency to view all sides of an issue. Have faith when I tell you that these are questions we have been asking ourselves for as long as even I can remember. Our conclusions were not approached lightly when it came to these issues.”
“Do not forget, Isabella,” Noah added, “that your human integrity, while noble, does not always suit creatures of our kind of power. It is a different standard with high consequences if not handled with a stricter level of jurisprudence. I think you know that.”
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