Jacob Read online

  “Legna?” Noah queried cautiously.

  “Jacob is—”

  “Jacob,” the Enforcer said sharply, his harsh eyes pinning the female Demon in place, his sensual mouth pressed into a severe frown, “is fine. Be aware, young one, that there is a large difference between what I feel and what I act on. My control is beyond anything any of you will ever be capable of, so do not think it is you who keeps me in line. Either of you.”

  Isabella did not miss the fact that Jacob’s reference to Legna’s age was some sort of purposeful insult. The lovely female’s cheeks flared with color, her elegant hands closing into fists. Isabella sighed, rolled her eyes, and placed both of her hands on her round hips.

  “All right, that’s enough. Everyone go back to your corners. Heavens. If I thought I could be responsible for setting three perfectly intelligent friends at each other’s throats, I would have never crossed that threshold.” She pointed to the large entranceway far across the Great Hall for emphasis. “Or”—she hesitated, then looked at the opposite side of the room, which also had an exit—“that threshold.”

  Jacob felt a smile settle over his lips and he cleared his throat. The sound purposely drew her attention, and, again with great purpose, he looked up over his shoulder to one of the stained glass windows, which had a small hinged window in its bottom that was perpetually left open.

  “That threshold?” she asked, her voice pitched high with surprise. He felt her heart miss a beat in her shock and he felt bad for the spike of laughter that tried to lance free of him. He had a feeling that if he laughed, she would be far more threatening to him than Noah had been.

  Legna, however, had no such control. She giggled irrepressibly and then quickly laid a hand over her betraying smile when Bella whirled to glare at her indignantly.

  “I am so very sorry,” she said behind the muffle of her hand. “It is their fault.”

  The empath pointed to her brother and his Enforcer, and Bella could see that behind their forcibly stoic expressions, their eyes were bright with laughter at her expense. Isabella grinned, turning her eyes to study the pattern of the marble veins in the floor as they both began to laugh.

  Jacob’s tension of the past few hours dissolved instantly with his amusement. “Go on, Bella, let Legna take you to call your sister,” he said after he had regained his composure. “But do not keep Legna out in the daylight too long. She is not so strong as I and her brother. I have a few things to do before I rest for the day.” He looked at Noah for a long minute. “I trust you have things to do here as well?”

  Noah realized that Jacob was warning him that the idea of him accompanying Isabella around was not a welcome one. The King had not intended on doing anything but returning to his interrupted sleep once all was settled. In spite of the recent altercation, he was still taken aback by the possessiveness behind the veiled threat.

  True, Jacob’s loyalty to him was deeply ingrained in everything he did, but Noah had no illusions to cover the fact that Jacob had somehow marked this woman in his mind as his possession. Noah knew it was inherently a dangerous and unhealthy attitude for Jacob to indulge in, simply because he had no right to do so. On the other hand, he could not escape a niggling sensation in the back of his brain that this provocation to be Isabella’s defender meant something very important. It was too curious, too deeply grooved in the remarkable to not signify something of import. He would have to mull it over while he slept. Noah hoped that when he woke he would have clearer thoughts and perspectives on the matter. Madness, necromancers, and whatever it was that allowed Isabella Russ to turn all of Noah’s most powerful friends and allies inside out in their efforts to protect her—Noah instinctively knew these were all connected. All he needed now was some sort of clarity as to why.

  “I am returning to my chamber,” Noah announced, more for Jacob’s peace of mind than anything. “Legna, do not hesitate to call me if you or Isabella should need me.” He paused for all of two seconds. “Also, should your safety be threatened in any way, I suggest you call out to Jacob as well. He may be able to reach you far faster than I can.”

  Noah was highly aware of the sudden release of tension from his Enforcer’s body. Noah had wanted to put Jacob’s protective instincts at ease, and he had succeeded with incredible diplomacy. The knowledge that he would not be left out of the loop seemed to relax the Earth Demon greatly. Noah used the rather boring convention of the stairs to exit the room this time.

  Jacob decided that a quick exit would be the only way he could make himself put necessary distance between himself and Isabella. So, without so much as a wave, he turned in a burst of movement, becoming a shower of dust that streamed swiftly upward and out that high, narrow window of colored glass.

  “That is extremely cool,” Isabella sighed.

  “I suppose it is,” Magdelegna agreed with a laugh, smiling warmly as she reached to rub Bella’s shoulder in a gesture of friendly comfort. “Shall I take you to a phone?”

  “Why aren’t there any phones here?” she thought to ask.

  “Well, the best way I can explain it is that technologies like electricity and telephones do not always agree with Demons. We believe that because we are so rooted in nature, there is something about man-made technological objects that just does not work properly when we are too close to them. They…‘go haywire’ I believe is the phrase. They develop glitches.”

  “Oh,” Isabella said softly.

  “Sometimes, nothing happens at all.” Legna shrugged. “Other times, just our nearness makes things get…haywire. It is one of the reasons Demons do not integrate fully with humans. You are very dependent on your technologies. Many of us prefer to live in isolation…in rural settings like this one.”

  “In places where archaic methods of living are not so out of the ordinary,” Bella mused. “I see.” She paused for only a few beats. “One last question?”

  “I doubt it will be your last,” Legna laughed. “All your questions are welcome.”

  “How is it you are all awake? I thought you had a powerful compulsion to sleep in the daytime.”

  “Accomplished Elders such as Noah and Jacob can put off this compulsion for sleep with effort and a lifetime of power control. Younger Demons, such as myself, are far more susceptible. This morning has been taxing for us all.” She held out her hands and Isabella noticed for the first time that they were shaking. “We do not like to show weakness. Jacob and Noah hide theirs well, although Noah may not be affected. I am never sure, but his ability to manipulate energy…I suspect he could remain awake nonstop for days if he desired it. He is of Fire, and few of us fully understand the abilities of male Fire Demons.”

  “I’m sorry. I had not meant to stir everybody up. Why don’t we do this later when it becomes dark? A few hours will make no difference to me or to Corrine.”

  “Are you certain?”

  “Positive. No sense putting you through such an effort for something that can so easily wait.”

  “I would be fine,” Legna assured her. “Just a yawn here and there.”

  “Still. I’m going back to my books. Come get me when you wake up.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  It was daylight once more when Jacob floated down through Noah’s manor until he was in the vault, one moment dust dancing through the incandescent light, the next coming to rest lightly on his feet. He looked around the well-lit catacomb, seeking his prey. He heard a rustling sound from the nearest stacks and moved toward it.

  There was a soft curse, a grunt, and the sudden slam of something hitting the floor. Jacob came around just in time to find Isabella dangling from one of the many shelves, her feet swaying about ten feet above the floor as she searched with her toes for a foothold. On the ground below her was a rather ancient-looking tome, the splattered pattern of the dust that had shaken off it indicating it had been the object he had heard fall. Far to her left was the ladder she had apparently been using.

  With a low sigh of exasperation, Jacob altered
gravity for himself and floated himself up behind her. “You are going to break your neck.”

  Isabella was not expecting a voice at her ear, considering her peculiar circumstances, and she started with a little scream. One hand lost hold and she swung right into the hard wall of his chest. He gathered her up against himself, his arm slipping beneath her knees so she was safely cradled, his warmth infusing her with a sense of safety and comfort as he brought her down to the floor effortlessly. In spite of herself, she pressed her cheek to his chest.

  “Must you sneak up on me in midair like that? It’s very unnerving.”

  She had meant to sound angry, but the soft, breathless accusation was anything but. Anyway, how angry would he think her to be if she was snuggling up to him like a kitten? Damn it, Demon or not, he was still a sinfully good-looking man. Jacob was elegant to a fault, his movements and manner centered around an efficiency of actions that drew the eye. He was dressed again in well-tailored black slacks, and this time a midnight blue dress shirt with his cuffs turned back. She could feel the rich quality of the silk beneath her cheek, and when she breathed in, Jacob smelled like the rich, heady Earth he claimed his abilities from.

  Besides all the outwardly alluring physicality, Isabella knew that he was extremely sensitive about all his interactions with others. She could feel his moral imperatives tingling through her mind whenever he was near. His heart, she knew, was made of incredibly honorable stuff. How could she find it in herself to be afraid of that? Especially when he had never once hurt her, even though there had been plenty of influences compelling him to.

  “Shall I put you back and let you plummet to your death?” he asked, releasing her legs and letting her body slide slowly down his until her feet touched the floor.

  The whisper of the friction of their clothes hummed across Jacob’s skin, and he felt his senses focusing in on every nuance of sensation she provided for him. The swishing silk of her hair even in its present tangled state, the sweet warmth of her breath and body, the ivory perfection of her skin. He reached to wipe a smudge of dust from her delectable little nose. She was a mess. There was no arguing that. Head to toe covered in dust and grime, and she smelled like an old book, but those earthy scents would never be something unappealing to one of his kind. Jacob breathed deeply as the usual heat she inspired stirred in his cool blood. It was stronger with each passing moment, with each progressive day, and he never once became unaware of that fact. He tried to tell himself it was merely the effects of the growing moon, but that reasoning did not satisfy him. Hallowed madness would not allow for the unexpected compulsion toward tenderness he kept experiencing whenever he looked down into her angelic face. It would never allow him to enjoy these simple yet significant stirrings of his awareness without forcing him into overdrive. True, he was holding on to his control with a powerful leash of determination. He was tamping down the surges of want and lust that gripped him so hard sometimes it was nearly crippling, but somehow it was still different.

  Then he had to also acknowledge the melding of their thoughts as something truly unique. Perhaps a human could initiate such a contact if they were a medium or psychic of noteworthy ability, but she made no claims to such special talents. Every day the images of her mind became clearer to him. She had even taken to consciously sending him visual impressions in response to some discussion they were having with Noah, Elijah, and Legna. He believed that, if things continued to progress in this manner, he and Bella would soon be engaging in actual discussions with each other without ever opening their mouths. He didn’t have fact to base that assumption on, but it seemed the natural evolution to the growing silent communication between them.

  He had seen Legna staring at them curiously on several occasions. Luckily, because she was a female Mind Demon, she was not a full telepath. If she had been a male she would have been privy to some pretty private exchanges between him and Isabella. Nothing racy, actually, but he found Isabella had such an irreverent sense of humor that he wasn’t sure others would understand it as he seemed to.

  It was a privacy of exchange he found himself coveting. It was the one way they could be together without Legna or Noah interfering. It was bad enough that the empath was constantly sniffing at his emotions, making sure he kept in careful control of his baser side. Since the King was not able to subject him to the usual punishment that was meted out for those who had crossed the line as he had with Isabella, he had been forced to be a little more creative. Setting Legna the empathic bloodhound on him had done the trick. It was also seriously pissing him off. He knew she was always there, and it burned his pride like nuclear fire.

  What was more, he couldn’t keep his mind away from Isabella. And since even the smallest thought of her had a way of sparking an onslaught of fantasies that brought his body to physical readiness—well, it was the very last thing he wanted an audience for.

  It had taken quite a bit of planning, and the deceptive use of herbal tea mixtures, in order to slip out from under Legna’s observation so he could sneak away to the vault. The empath slept as soundly as the dead, and she would stay that way until this evening.

  “I wouldn’t have fallen to my death,” Bella was arguing, her stubborn streak prickling. “At the most, I would have fallen to my broken leg or my concussion or something. Boy, you Demons have this way of making everything seem so intense and pivotal.”

  “We are a very intense people, Bella.”

  “Tell me about it.” She wriggled out of his embrace, putting distance between them with a single step back. Jacob was well aware of it being a very purposeful act. “I’ve been reading books and scrolls as far back as seven hundred years ago. You were just a gleam in your daddy’s eye then, I imagine.”

  “Demons may have long gestation periods for their young, but not seventy-eight years’ worth.”

  “Yes. I read about that. Is it true it takes thirteen months for a female to carry and give birth?”

  “Minimum.” He said it with such casual dismissal that Bella laughed.

  “That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have to lug the kid around inside of you all that time. You, just like your human counterparts, have the fun part over with like that.” She snapped her fingers in front of his face.

  His dark eyes narrowed and he reached to enclose her hand in his, pulling her wrist up to the slow, purposeful brush of his lips even as he maintained a sensual eye contact that was far too full of promises. Isabella caught her breath as an insidious sensation of heated pins and needles stitched its way up her arm.

  “I promise you, Bella, a male Demon’s part in a mating is never over like this.” He mimicked her snap, making her jump in time to her kick-starting heartbeat.

  “Well”—she cleared her throat—“I guess I’ll have to take your word on that.” Jacob did not respond in agreement, and that unnerved her even further. Instinctively, she changed tack. “So, what brings you down into the dusty atmosphere of the great Demon library?” she asked, knowing she sounded like a brightly animated cartoon.

  “You.”

  Oh, how that singular word was pregnant with meaning, intent, and devastatingly blatant honesty. Isabella was forced to remind herself of the whole Demon-human mating taboo as the forbidden response of heat continued to writhe around beneath her skin, growing exponentially in intensity every moment he hovered close. She tried to picture all kinds of scary things that could happen if she did not quit egging him on like she was. How she was, she didn’t know, but she was always certain she was egging him on.

  “Why did you want to see me?” she asked, breaking away from him and bending to retrieve the book she had dropped. It was huge and heavy and she grunted softly under the weight of it. It landed with a slam and another puff of dust on the table she had made into her own private study station.

  “Because I cannot seem to help myself, lovely little Bella.”

  The thick silk of his voice slithered down her neck and spine, making her shiver. She reached up and shove
d back her dusty hair, refusing to make eye contact with him.

  “Okay, umm…Demon plus human equals…big bad things, remember? Full moon? October? Any of this ringing a bell?”

  “You think I do not know that?” The question was low, sounding dangerous. “Do I seem out of control to you, Bella? Do you really think, even for a moment, that I would hurt you?”

  “No, I don’t think so.” She finally met his piercing gaze. “But you weren’t exactly you yesterday, now were you? And the night we first met? Didn’t you say yourself it can hit any of you at any time? No one is immune.” Bella moved to face him, her arms crossing her tummy from hip to hip. “Do you forget that I’ve seen the worst of a Demon’s lust? I close my eyes sometimes and see Saul looming over me. That scares me, Jacob. I don’t want it to, but it does.”

  Jacob’s fingers curled into themselves, forming tight fists that were a signal of his building upset. She sensed it bothered him greatly to know she was afraid of him, that she was comparing the possibilities between them to her encounter with a perverted monster. However, it was the truth of her feelings, or some of them, and he needed to know it. She may have been caught up into his world by Destiny or whatever, but that didn’t mean she was going to disregard her personal safety. Nor would she put any of his friends at risk. She was coming to care for Legna already, the stunning empath’s purity of soul so beautiful and guileless that she could not help her growing fondness for her. After yesterday morning’s display of Noah’s power, she refused to even think of putting Jacob into confrontation with him. She also had a very clear feeling that the Demon Enforcer did not have very many friends, that Noah held exclusive rights to such an exalted position in Jacob’s esteem.

  It bothered Bella that she disturbed Jacob so much. It was like being an incredibly mean tease, stirring him up and having no intention of following through. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t trying to do it, it just mattered that it was what happened.