Gideon. Jacquelyn Frank

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СКАЧАТЬ his side. Instead, I’m stuck here, sitting on the couch, watching and feeling everything that happens to him from a distance. It really bites.” Bella pulled up her legs, crossing them in a meditation position. “I’ll tell you this, if he gives me one more order with that W word again, I’m going to divorce him before we even finish the wedding.”

      “The W…? Okay, Bella, as usual you have lost me. W word?”

      “Yeah. W,…as in Wife. Ugh! He’s always saying or thinking things in this high and mighty way and tacking the word ‘wife’ onto the end like it’s some kind of password that lets him order me around.” Bella noted her friend’s still perplexed expression, so she screwed up her face, attitude, and voice into an uncanny approximation of Jacob. “‘I do not want you hunting in your condition, wife. It is too dangerous for you and the babe to accompany me, wife. I have told Elijah that there are to be no more training lessons until after the birth, and do not argue with me about this, wife, because my mind is set.’” Isabella sagged back with a frustrated sigh. “Oy! It’s just so obnoxious and so…high-handed! You know the honeymoon is over when you go from ‘my love,’ ‘my little flower,’ and ‘my heart’ and become simply ‘wife.’”

      Legna smothered the urge to chuckle. Her little friend’s famous sarcasm always tickled her, and it was meant to tickle. Bella had a way of hiding behind her wit and humor. She was stating things that clearly disturbed her, but she mocked them in such a way that anyone who did not know her would treat it as little more than a comedy routine.

      Legna knew her better.

      “Now, Bella, you know Jacob adores you. He naturally wants to protect you. He literally worships the ground you walk on.”

      “Ha ha,” Bella said dryly. “Earth Demon. Worship the ground. Cute. Really cute.”

      “Well, come on now. Seriously. As a Demon of the Earth, Jacob has a great affinity with nature. Of all of us, he is the one who knows the most about life and death and the way nature replenishes and selects her perpetuation. He has a respect for it that transcends every feeling he has with perhaps the exception of his love for you. But he is also a hunter, born with the ability to capture any prey by using the senses of the most skilled predatory animals. Knowing the nature of such beasts, carrying their insight with him always, it is part of him to understand the dangers that lurk in the tall grasses.

      “Like it or not, Bella, you are vulnerable right now. I know you are powerful and becoming quite skilled in your own right, but what position would Jacob be in if in the course of your work, in a dire circumstance, you should come into danger, be held hostage, or even become mortally injured? I can come up with dozens of scenarios, and Jacob can imagine far more with four centuries of experience as Enforcer to draw on. You have been Enforcer for five months; he has four hundred years behind him of this, the Vampire wars for a century, the Lycanthropes for three…There is unusual peace now, save for the necromancers, but there are many variables and you are very precious to him.

      “And anyway, what self-respecting male would not be anxious for a beloved mate who is carrying his child—a child who by being born will represent the first of its kind? Human and Demon DNA have never combined in any way before. Yes, you are half Druid as well, but still…I could understand why Jacob would be a little concerned…and a little overcautious.”

      “Well.” Isabella nibbled on a nail, a sure sign of her own state of nerves. “Maybe I wouldn’t mind so much if I were really his wife.” She laughed wryly because she knew that the Imprinting went far deeper than ceremonial words could reach. She knew that Legna was aware of this as well. “We still have about a month to go before we can finish our rudely interrupted wedding ceremony. If my sister teases me one more time about being the ‘out-of-wedlock, impregnated tramp’ of the family, I am going to have to murder her and dump her body in a cornfield somewhere.”

      “Bella,” Legna scolded, giggling softly at her friend’s pique. “Your sister Corrine is no paragon of virtue since she and Kane Imprinted, I assure you. She and Kane came to our home for a meditation training session with me, and I was occupied a few minutes longer than I expected. Well, by the time I got to the parlor, I could sense…” Legna’s head dipped and she blushed softly. “Let us say it would have been imprudent of me to walk in.”

      “You’re kidding!” Bella gaped at the empath for a moment. “In Noah’s home? A governing seat where Demons come and go all day long?”

      “At least they closed the parlor doors.” Legna chuckled. “She’s chafing at the bit for Beltane just as much as you are, believe me.” Legna rubbed her friend’s knee in a very effective gesture of comfort. “Besides, you know that you are Jacob’s lifetime partner in all the ways that matter. To him, you were his wife the moment you first touched.”

      “Well, I’m thinking someone is going to have to do something about that Demon law about weddings only taking place on Beltane and Samhain,” the Druid groused. “It is seriously cramping my reputation. Say”—she snapped her fingers in inspiration, her violet eyes sparkling with mischief—“I seem to recall you being the King’s…uh…cousin? No, no, that’s not it.” Bella made a great show of tapping a finger to her chin in thought. “Um, oh yes! His sister!” she said, as if she hadn’t remembered all along. “Surely you could encourage him to discuss the matter with the Great Council.”

      “Bella, you goose.” Legna laughed. “I wish I had that kind of power over my dear brother. However, I do not. No more than you have over Mother Nature and her plans for the duration of your pregnancy.”

      “You mentioned it again!” Bella scolded with a dramatic screech of exasperation, making Legna sigh and smile with amused patience. “Well, at this point I would be happy if we ended up with an average between the time required for a human gestation and the Demon gestation of thirteen months. Anything is better than thirteen months.”

      “What has Gideon told you?” Legna asked, unable to resist avoiding Bella’s violet gaze as she mentioned the powerful medic’s name. She turned her attention to smoothing out the aqua silk of her gown’s long skirt, her fingers tracing the rich golden embroidery swirling over it in a repetitive pattern. “Is he still personally monitoring you?”

      “Yes, he is. Actually, that alone is enough to make me a little nervous.” Bella exhaled a little shakily. “I was talking to Hannah and she said that in all six of her pregnancies, she was never monitored so closely. And certainly not by the most Ancient and highly skilled medic in all of Demon history. They say that Gideon has forgotten more about healing than all the other medics combined will ever know.”

      “Well, perhaps Gideon is merely making an extra effort because it has been so long since a Druid and a Demon have mated. And yes, I am sure the fact that you are half human does make your case unique, but I am also certain he only means to be cautious. You know how direct he is. If there were something to worry about, he is not one to keep you uninformed.”

      “True. He would at the very least inform Jacob if there were something to be concerned about, wouldn’t you say? Jacob and I have very few secrets between us, what with our ability to share one another’s thoughts.”

      “I must admit, Bella,” Legna confessed, “that even though I am a Mind Demon, I am quite grateful I can only read emotions, unlike my male counterparts who can trade thoughts as you and Jacob do. I am positive that I would not want to know everything someone was thinking. Trust me, knowing everything they are feeling can be quite troublesome enough. And as for Jacob being able to read your thoughts, I do not know how you bear it. I am not so certain I would enjoy someone else having access to my most private ruminations. I suppose the closest I come to that is with Hannah and Noah. We have always had a strong СКАЧАТЬ