"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 naive 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 you 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."
"Kill or be killed?" Bella spoke up bitterly. "I despise the idea of my daughter being raised in such times."
A moment later, she sighed softly, rising to turn toward her husband. "Don't be upset, Jacob," she said gently. "I would feel the same if it were a human war. You know that, in my heart, I prefer that she become part of a species where affection, love, and morality are such abundant standards. My upset is with our enemies, not with our society."
"Forgive me if I seem to be continuously ignorant," Syreena said quietly, "but, as Bella originally asked, is there no such thing as good magic?" Syreena looked at her sister pointedly. "In my lessons, I was taught these bands we three wear"-she indicated the slender link around her throat-"are enchanted. This necklace is made with natural products, but imbued with abilities and properties you cannot find in nature. That is what I would call magic," she said. "Does it follow then that because they are made of magic, they are evil? I know of no Nightwalkers who can make anything like this. So if it was not us, then who created them? Magic-users? These creatures of evil?" She extended a hand toward the distant woodland. "I refuse to believe something so intrinsically evil had a hand in this magic that is so powerfully a part of Lycanthrope traditions and our way of finding our soul mates."