She nodded, too wound up to make any pretense at sarcasm or jokes or evasiveness. The appreciation in his eyes as he took in her efforts made the honesty well worth it.
“Just so you know, I find you to be equally stunning even when you wake up tousled and perturbed with me,” he told her, his crooked smile making her smile shyly in return. “It is your desire to please me, above all, which has won my pleasure, not the methods you used to try and do so. However”—he reached to slide blue silk back from a bared shoulder, leaning forward to kiss the exposed spot gently before meeting her gaze once more—“you do wear it well.”
“I want to come with you,” she blurted out suddenly, the words coming to her lips even before he could find the thought forming in her mind.
“Why? So you can pace the hall while the Council meets? To what end? Only to have to pace it some more after I leave for whatever action it is that Elijah has planned for me? I believe it would be better for your peace of mind to remain here where you can follow me in your thoughts with no one to disturb you.” He rubbed the soft, rosy rise of her cheek with a leather-covered thumb. It was a uniquely masculine caress, as well as breathtaking and loving. Legna had to maintain her focus with a little more effort than usual. “Remember, Legna, for the rest of your life you will always come with me.”
“No. This is wrong!” She pushed out of his hold, wrapping herself in her shawl and her own arms once more as she paced several steps away before turning quickly back. “Can you not feel what is inside of me? I am ready to scream with this feeling that no one should…that I should…”
She had to stop and sort through exactly what it was she was feeling. She had denied these instinctual aspects of her being for so long, now she had no experience with which to compare them. She drew a frustrating blank on how to describe or identify the sensation she was feeling.
“What you are feeling, Legna,” Gideon rescued her with a soft, soothing pitch to his voice, “is the desire to remain at my back. It is an instinct designed for both your self-defense and the defense of your mate.”
“Yes!” she exclaimed, returning to him in order to reach for him, her slim hands clutching the leather that covered his powerful upper arms. “We were meant to be back to back when you face danger. I can feel it. It is a clawing need within me…. It…reminds me of what it feels like when you are swimming and remain beneath the water too long. It is a need as desperate as the urge to draw breath when starved for air. You must take me with you.”
“Not this time, Nelissuna.” He tried to deny her gently, but her need and determination were sharp. She could take offense easily, no matter how diplomatic he tried to be. Gideon hoped he would be able to appeal to her logic. “You do not have enough experience working with these instinctual emotions. They are new, and, as you know, can be overwhelming. Until you learn to acknowledge them and integrate them into yourself, you are in danger of losing focus and control. I do not have to tell you how dangerous that is in a volatile situation.
“We will take the time to train you, to train myself as well, after I return to you. Understand, I will be unable to feel comfortable having you at my side in battle right this moment. Not because I do not want you to fill your place behind me, but because in this situation I would spend too much time worrying about you. It could cause one or both of us to become injured.”
He was correct, of course, but it only served to spike a streak of frustrated anger and self-contempt in Legna. She had been running from this side of herself as if she were a frightened child, shutting her eyes tight and wishing the monsters within herself away rather than facing them down. Now she would begin to pay for that. She had been so arrogant to believe that she had to keep herself above such urges. In that moment she would have given anything to already be reconciled with those exact same urges in order to aid her mate as she was supposed to. If something happened to him because she was not there to be his additional eyes and strength, it would be her fault.
“Stop, Legna, this serves no purpose,” he said firmly, the leather of his gloves cool and taut against the skin of her face as he forced her to meet his gaze. “Do not waste your time with self-recriminations when there is nothing to be done about it at this moment. Instead, find a comfortable place here and follow me from within. I still need you, sweet. Your experience, your abilities, and your intuition could serve me just as well as your physical presence could in this matter. I need you to see what I may miss, and to maintain a route of escape should the need arise. And no, I do not expect it to. It is just my nature to be prepared.”
Legna absorbed his request for what seemed like a minute too long, but then she broke out of his hold and turned her back to him. Her thoughts were so chaotic that Gideon could not make sense of what she was thinking about specifically. It wasn’t until she reached for the second knife and sheath he had left on the table that he began to understand her intentions.
With the grace she had that surpassed even that which should have been natural to her because of her blood-lines, she moved back to him. After touching him lightly across his chest with an affectionate hand, she quietly bent to the task of securing the sheath to his other thigh.
The profundity of her actions left Gideon utterly speechless. All he could do was watch and feel as her deft fingers fixed the higher strap and buckle on the high inside of his thigh. To say the experience was erotic was an understatement of terrible ineptitude. It didn’t matter that it had not been the intention of either of them to see the action in such an intimate light. What mattered was that they were both aware of it, that they both were aroused by the intimacy of her actions on far deeper levels than just the fact that her hands were touching him.
She was his one true mate, his second half, the feminine side of himself that flourished on intuition and protective instincts. She was the side that turned calm before the battle so as to see to complete preparation for what was to come. She was center, focus, and everything moral that would guide his actions. She was the strategy and logic that would take him along the best course to victory while exercising caution for his own safety. She was mercy for those who would lie beaten at his feet, satisfying him with victory while sparing him the poisonous joy of killing when it was no longer needed. She was the peace and the light that would keep him from burdening himself with the heavy weight of taking a life, no matter how justified it was.
He was her one true mate, her second half. As she armed him, she felt him slipping deeply into her soul, becoming the masculine side of herself. This was the place within her that thrived on defending what was hers, the part that would mark her territory with the blood of her enemies if they dared cross the lines set before them. He became her sense of authority and righteousness, the part of her that was battle scarred and warrior skilled. He was her physical prowess, her devious cunning, and the part that would endure the pain and wounds of hell rather than see injustice done. He was the darkness and the conflict that kept her from becoming too complacent in the soft nature of peace, leaving herself open to the attack of those who were not so honorable in ideals as she would have them be.
Legna’s hair hung down the far side of her head, leaving the nearer side of her lovely face and throat exposed as she concentrated completely on performing her task with an efficiency worthy of trusting his life to. With his special sight, Gideon’s eyes focused on the thrum of her strong pulse even as he shared it with her already in his own body and his own spirit. She secured the second strap of his weapon and straightened, her steel-colored eyes reflecting the female warrior within her that saw to his preparation with meticulousness.
She unsnapped the hard piece of leather that kept the knife in its sheath and pulled the weapon free. The sharp metal of the nine-inch blade sang shortly as it slid over the metal rim of its holder. Legna held the blade in the light. She turned it over, inspecting it carefully for a moment before being satisfied enough with its quality and razor readiness to return it to its home, nimbly securing the snap o
ver it once more.
Finished with that task, she inspected her mate from head to toe, carefully judging his readiness. When she finally met his burning eyes, Gideon allowed himself to take a breath.
“I never knew the short dagger was your expertise,” she mentioned softly.
“It is one of them. One who lives a life of my length would be foolish to not take the advantage to become an expert at all combat weapons.” He watched her expression carefully, searching for her thoughts.
“Yes. I know. I suppose in a sense we can count ourselves lucky that our innate powers outstrip the destructive capabilities even the most advanced technology can produce. We have little need for the weaponry of that ilk, even if we were compatible with such things.”
She moved a step closer, her elegant hands reaching for the warmth of his chest beneath the gap in the leather coat, her nails pulling ever so slightly at the cotton fabric of his shirt. He slipped his hands around her slender waist, the possessiveness in the grip hard to mistake as he drew her even nearer. He said nothing, but he reached to kiss her within the span of the next beat of his heart. As their warm lips meshed, so did their intent. The exchange was part tenderness, part desperation, and a large portion of unspoken feelings and desires twisted up too tightly in the worries of the moment to find any clearer expression.
“Will you be here when I return?” he asked, his words warm and more than a little urgent against her mouth.
“Yes,” she promised him, sealing it with the fiery longing that came through in the sworn oath of her lips.
Not wanting to distract him any more than she already had, she broke away from their kiss, leaving his grasp with a definitive backward breaking movement that took her a sufficient distance away from him, and him away from her hunger and frightened needs. If not totally, at least from the physical manifestations of them.
He understood her actions completely and was grateful for them. He needed his wits about him, and she had the ability to rob him of them with such ease when she engaged him in the artwork of her mouth and the complexity of her emerging needs and thoughts.
“Hang on,” she murmured, taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes and, extending her slender arms out to either side of her body, splayed her hands in a focusing movement.
The last thing Gideon saw was the silk of her shawl snaking off of her smooth skin, pooling on the floor around her feet. In a flash, he found himself reappearing in the hall of the Great Council with a nearly silent pop and no other sign of smoke or mirrors.
Jacob was the first to rise out of his chair after the Great Council had finally convened.
“As you all may or may not know,” he began, “our female Enforcer was brutally attacked a couple of nights ago.” The announcement elicited several surprised murmurs from those who had not been updated through the flow of gossip. “She was finally strong enough this evening to begin to tell us what had happened to her. Once we combine her information with Elijah’s”—Jacob gestured to the enormous blond warrior sitting on one of the sides of the triangular table, rocking back on the rear legs of his chair—“and then further combine their information with that of the medic who healed her, I think we will all be updated and informed enough to make secure conclusions and begin to take action. Since Noah, myself, and Elijah have already processed this information between ourselves, we will also provide suggestions for courses of action we feel are appropriate.
“For obvious reasons, I will be the one the retell my mate’s story. She is not strong enough yet to venture from her bed, and I believe you all can agree that her safety and the well-being of the child she carries must be attended to above all other courses of action.”
Councillor Ruth made a derogatory sound under her breath that was par for the course for the female Mind Demon. However, tonight, Jacob was not in his usual tolerant frame of mind. Normally, he managed Ruth’s tart remarks and jockeying for power and position with the forbearance shown a mouthy child, but Ruth’s disparagements against Jacob’s wife had grown too bold to continue to pass without acknowledgement. It did not help matters that Ruth should pick so unwise a moment to taunt him.
When the Enforcer’s fist came down on the table hard enough to send a horrendous crack through the solid wood, Councillors and King alike were startled in their chairs. However, it was nothing compared to the dangerous vocalization that poured out of the Earth Demon’s throat as he narrowed cold, bitter eyes on the vindictive Ruth.
“You will refrain from expressing your negative sounds and opinions about my wife to this Council, Ruth,” he growled his warning, his tone so low and dangerous that many of the Councillors experienced a deathly chill. “If you do not, you will find yourself answering to me. Do I make myself perfectly clear to you, woman?”
“You dare to threaten me?” she retaliated, gaining her feet as she faced off with the Enforcer in what had to be the most unwise action in Council history since the decision to go to war with the Druids.
“Ruth, sit down,” Noah warned with a hiss. “If you do not, you will find yourself removed from this Council for the rest of your days. Do I make myself clear?”
“You do not have the power to do that!” Ruth declared, her obstinace so complete she simply did not understand the hole she had been blindly digging for herself. Perhaps in those first months of her daughter’s loss this could be understood, but she had been spewing ill will and hostility toward the Enforcers continuously. However, the Council understood that the Enforcers were not to blame for the damage to her family, and her tirades and animosity had left her very few friends on the uneasy Council.
“I do,” Noah countered with the cool confidence of his omniscient position. “If the Council supports me in majority, you will find yourself excommunicated from this gathering. And I think you need to realize, Councillor Ruth, that the woman you treat with such contempt, who sits by Jacob’s side in this Council, will hold in her hands the deciding vote of the majority I need once she is well enough to sit with us once more. Now sit down.”
Ruth paled under the clear threat, her entire body shaking with her pent-up outrage and impotent position. But she somehow managed the wisdom to hold her tongue, tossing the blond mass of her hair in a gesture of silent defiance as she finally regained her seat. There was no mistaking the hatred in her eyes as she glared at the Enforcer.
“Continue, Jacob. I apologize for the interruption,” Noah urged him gently.
Gideon flicked an aluminum gaze of curiosity at Ruth as Jacob took a minute to compose himself. He understood Ruth’s unchecked emotions. Her daughter had lost the most valuable treasure a Demon could earn. She had lost the Druid mate who, without a doubt, would have become Imprinted upon the young Demon female for all time, earning her a place in the emerging history of a new era for all of Demon culture. This was the very type of Destiny that a being who craved power like Ruth did would have exulted in. To be mother of such a daughter, what a wondrous thing that would have been.
But Gideon’s compassion was entirely for Ruth’s daughter, Mary. The death of her male Druid had deprived the young Demon of ever knowing what it was that he and Legna were just beginning to discover and had already grown a healthy awe and respect for.
Then Gideon abruptly felt the weight of his realization that, had it not been for Isabella and her remarkable abilities, he too would have been cursed to this fate. The thought made his entire body run cold despite his efforts to control the ebb and surge of the thick emotion. To lead a life without Legna, and without ever knowing what he was missing, was unthinkable. When had he begun to feel as if all his long years had been a labor leading him up to this point, so he could draw her to his side? When he thought back over the past nine years, time he had wasted and left her unprotected when, instead, he should have been keeping her close and safe…
Gideon tightened both hands into fists, the soft creak of stressed leather lost under the voices of the Council. He glanced around the table at those who could sense his t
houghts and feelings, if they dared, including the avaricious Ruth, and he struggled for control.
Easy, dearest. Focus on the moment, and remember how close I am now.
Her comforting voice was nothing compared to the powerful effect her use of an endearment had on him. His fingers moved to silently grip the arms of his chair, almost as though he had to hold himself down lest he soar with the simple pleasure. He couldn’t explain the ridiculous effect, but there was no way to deny it.
If I had known it would be so easy to please you, I would have done it sooner, she sent to him, her laughter lightening his heart as it moved through his body and soul.
When have I ever given you the impression that you did not please me, Neliss?
Hush, flatterer. Pay attention to Jacob.
Gideon smiled with a corner of his mouth and turned his attention to do just that.
“…originally thought it was the attack of a necromancer,” the Enforcer was saying. “She had been struck by several charges of what looked like their signature use of electrical abilities. What we could not immediately understand was why she had not been able to dampen that type of power as she has done in the past.”
Jacob paused, rubbing his hands together as if they were chilled. It was no wonder, Gideon mused. He would have felt just as cold if it had been him before the Council describing an attack on Legna…and being forced to relive the fact that he had failed to protect her, whether it was avoidable or not.
“The reason why Bella could not dampen her attacker’s power is because the majority of it came from a handheld, Taser-like weapon. It was technology, not supernatural ability, that initially injured her. She opened the door and had no chance to protect herself. She was fired upon immediately. The only thing she remembers clearly after the original shock was that one of her attackers came up to her as she lay stunned and wounded on the floor and proceeded to—” He broke off, his throat working as his fingers curled to clench into fists. It was as if the inconceivable words had lodged themselves in Jacob’s throat, strangling off his very breath in the process.