"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 together, brushing past na**d 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.