"No night," she pointed out dryly.
"No problem," he countered with a chuckle. "Trust me. My point is that there are no enemies, no threats, and most of all no immediate worries that cannot wait for a few hours."
"That is an impossibility to achieve with that insane creature roaming the planet," she sighed in sad response.
"Until we know exactly where she has run off to, it is momentarily out of our hands. Only Jacob and Isabella have a hope of finding out where she has gone. She has gotten too good at covering her tracks for it to be left to the skills of a warrior, no matter my power. The Enforcer was born with the innate ability to track his own. He will find her. She is cursed and blackened, mutated and poisoned, but she is still a Demon." Elijah sighed, closing his eyes as the dawn breeze brought the scent of earth and grass around them. "She will hide, will make it damn near impossible, but I have unfailing faith in Jacob. Meanwhile, kitten, we can't live our lives only to hunt and battle her. It would give her a victory the extent of which even she could not imagine."
Siena shuddered softly, reaching to wrap her slender hands around his thickly muscled biceps, her thumb stroking the band that bound him to her.
"When I think of how close you came to being killed…"
"Never. I am faster and stronger than her tricks, kitten. I was nothing but air by the time the weapon struck Mary. I only wish I'd had the time and strength to protect her as well, but with the wound on my arm…" He sighed softly as her gentle fingers traced that healing blade mark beneath her hand. "There is a part of me that will forgive Mary for what she did under the sway of her love for her parent."
"I never will," Siena insisted hotly, blinking the burn in her eyes away as she rested her cheek over his heart. "Defying your parent for what you believe is right is a hard choice, but a choice you must make if you face it. I was not much older than Mary when I made that choice. I even accepted the realization that one day my father would have to die, that he must die, if what was right was to ever come to fruition." She looked up when he tensed beneath her touch. "It is the cycle of life on this Earth that the young shall inherit their place upon it in the wake of their parents' deaths. Every living creature, animal or humanoid, fulfills this perpetual destiny. You know this," she insisted intensely, her voice falling to a hoarse whisper.
"I know this," he agreed quietly. "But for intelligent species, being a part of this cycle in so direct a manner does not come easy."
"It shouldn't. I would hope it never does for either of us."
Siena lifted her head and, breathing deep of the wind, took in all the alien scents of this part of North America that she had never been to.
"I have traveled so little in my lifetime," she noted, taking another deep breath, scenting everything from flora to fauna. "I am always amazed that the air itself can smell so different just by changing location."
"Yes. It is a remarkable phenomenon. Somewhat like you and I, and this bonding we are sharing. Unique, yet simplistic in its makeup."
"Mmm," she agreed. Then she stepped back from him with a smile. "The sun is creeping up on us. Don't you think it is time you showed me your home?"
"The tour," he said with a low, mischievous chuckle, reaching to sweep her off her feet and into his arms as he kicked open the library doors and crossed the threshold with her, "can wait until later. I have other plans that will require you to become familiar with only one room of this house."
"The bedroom?"
"The bedroom," he agreed, making her laugh that sexy, robust laugh that he loved so much. He instantly felt the fire of need for her burning the surfaces of his skin, sparked by that throaty, decadent laugh.
"Did it never occur to you that, after defeating an archenemy and routing out a forest full of necromancers, I might be a little too tired for the kind of plans you have?"
"It had," he said with a silly grin as he strode across the upper landing and into the master suite, "but you are too much like me, Siena. After the heat of battle, the heat of passion is the first thing you crave. Besides, I was promised a game of connect the dots, and I intend to collect."
"I would not be much of a Queen if I began reneging on my promises," she mused agreeably.
"You don't have it in you to go back on your word, kitten," he said with a grin as he dropped her legs and let her slide down his broad body very slowly, allowing himself the well-earned luxury of the feel of her.
Siena responded instantly to the sensation of his rock-hard muscles against her own suppleness as they contacted her sliding body everywhere. Taking a deep breath, she released it in a slow purr of pleasure as she cuddled sexily against him. She burrowed a cheek into his shoulder, absorbing with every last molecule she owned the awareness of his hands rubbing over her back.
"So this is what it is like to be truly alone," she murmured contentedly.
"You are not alone," he reminded her softly.
"No, but we are."
"We were alone at Jinaeri's."
"Time we wasted," she retorted, lifting her head to look into his eyes.
"Black," he said.
"What?" she asked.
"You are supposed to say 'white,'" he told her in a conspiratorial whisper. "I could swear you live for the thrill of contradicting me."
Siena laughed, his humor delighting her so much that she wrapped strong arms around his neck and found his mouth with firm, insistent lips. She wooed him with silky, skillful kisses. The assertive sweep of her tongue teasing his into play captivated him completely. When she finally released him, he was breathless and warm beneath her seeking fingertips. The Queen spread eager palms over the expanse of the broad chest that was rising and falling so quickly.
"I love to feel you breathe," she whispered, closing her eyes and allowing her face to reflect her honest pleasure at the sensation, the sound, and the very essence of his life moving in and out of his body. Her passion for so simple a function stirred him all the deeper.
"Siena," he exhaled, closing his eyes as her seeking hands swept slowly over him.
"Back at the Ancient's home, when I saw Gideon and felt that he was dead, all I could think about was that if something could kill such a great being…what chance could you possibly have against it? I was certain I would never feel you breathe again," she said, her voice vibrating with the gentle rasp of remembered fear, the tightening touch of her hands on his moving chest clearly the only thing keeping that emotion at bay and in the past where it belonged.
"Siena…" he hushed gently, cradling the back of her head with both hands, interlacing his fingers through her hair as he looked into her golden eyes.
"You promised me, Elijah, that when I was well and when our enemies were defeated, I could speak aloud what I feel."
He watched her blink quickly, trying to discard the dampness in her eyes. He reached out with his thumbs to touch the soft corners of her golden lashes, making ready to catch any tear that dared to escape his vigilance. His heart tightened with her emotion and it flooded through him, radiating like sunlight and moonlight.
"Siena, before you say anything I need to ask you something."
"Yes. I know. You have been thinking hard about something you have been concerned will disturb me. I felt it the entire time we traveled here."
"I have to get used to your perception of my thoughts," he said regretfully. "Forgive me, I was not trying to be deceptive."
"I know that," she insisted. "You were doing what any wise person would. You were thinking through your thoughts before voicing them. Although I must tell you that whatever it is, I do not believe it warrants so much of your concern. I am not as unreasonable as you think I am."
"You promise to hear me out?"
"Always," she assured him.
"Very well." He began to speak, his cadence quick and clipped, the efficiency of a distasteful task but one that must be completed. "In light of today's events and all the danger I believe we are going to be facing, I must ask you to temporarily release me from my promise to resign my post with Noah. This situation is going to become much more volatile before it is resolved. As of now, there is no one I trust to replace me who will garner the respect and the power that I do with Noah's forces. Noah is a great leader, but he is more of a scholar than he is warrior. As formidable as he is in battle, it is not where his talents or his energies are best spent. He relies on me heavily to manage matters of security and defense, and I believe that if I leave, it will prove to be an advantage to this renegade we seek. I would sooner sleep in an iron coffin than give Ruth such power."
"Elijah," Siena whispered softly, reaching to frame his face with warm, long-fingered hands. "If you serve Noah, you still serve me. If you recall, I never asked you to resign your commission. You made the offer as a gesture, and I was honored by it. Just knowing that you would have made such an astounding commitment to those who don't even know or accept you yet is enough to impress on me the seriousness of your need to be a part of my life and my people's lives. That feeling will not change. Besides, you were meant to be who you are, in the position you are in, just as I am. I would no more want you to resign it than I would want you to ask me to resign as Queen.
"We will manage," she assured him. "We will muddle through with patience and as much refusal of bias and petty behaviors as we possibly can. And you are right; it is no time for extravagant changes. There will be enough adjustments as it is. Live with me, love with me. All else do as you deem necessary. Besides," she smiled, "I feel that I will be spending great amounts of time between the courts, just as I think Noah will feel compelled to do. As leaders, we must set the example for the others who will be watching us for guidance on how to discard the old scars and prejudices of the past."
"Watching longtime enemies come together in a joined effort will have an interesting impact. I believe your next overture might be best served in Damien's direction. He has been habitually solitary of other Nightwalkers for as long as I have heard of him, but of late he has come among us of his own design. He showed a singular concern for your life that I, personally, will always be grateful for."