Noah. Jacquelyn Frank

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      She released a breath that gave her away, reflecting how much she would prefer that. “But you said, as a matter of protocol and respect, you should bring this bad news to him yourself. And I hate to say so, but I agree it might be the better choice. Jasmine can be—well, she’s your counselor, not one of your diplomats. Even she would agree there is a good reason for that.”

      Damien chuckled at the politely worded assessment of Jasmine’s frequently volatile temperament. “True, but through everything she has been perfectly loyal to me. She would never upset my carefully cultivated relations with Noah and the Demon people. She knows how important peace among the Nightwalker clans is going to be for everyone’s future.” He paused thoughtfully for a moment. “Come to think of it, Jasmine could also stay there until some of this is resolved. Between her and Horatio, they would be best able to sense a threat of this nature.”

      “Mmm, and he is her brother. They should have a chance to visit.”

      “And I get to stay here with you.”

      “Now, that is definitely a bonus,” she laughed. “Of course, Jasmine being hundreds of miles away skulking in someone else’s hallways is a special benefit.”

      “You are very naughty,” he scolded. “I would think you two would have resolved your issues by now. It has been almost a year.”

      “Yes, well…” She smiled briefly before she leaned in to kiss him, taking his flavor onto her tongue hungrily for a long moment before releasing him and licking her damp lips. His hands slid over her chilled back, her bare skin cool but still somehow warmer than his in some places.

      “It is settled, then,” he murmured softly against her mouth as he readied to kiss her once again. “Jasmine will go in my stead to warn Noah. We will stay here with Stephan and try to resolve the situation on our end. Perhaps all of this will be over quickly and come to nothing. Meanwhile, I will be home with my wife, keeping her warm and comfortable, and…”

      “And taking advantage of her heat cycle so we can try to get pregnant,” she finished for him with relief. “Damien, I have waited so long to begin a family. If you left during my heat, I don’t think I could bear the loneliness and knowing that every day you are gone will be an opportunity wasted. We have talked of nothing else for the past three months, ever since we decided we were ready for it…and that it would be the best thing we could do to bring our disparate backgrounds together. Perhaps, if you have an heir with me, the Vampires will stop all this infighting and will finally begin to accept the choice you made in me.”

      “Sweetheart, we have talked about this,” he scolded her gently, running a broad, graceful hand down the length of her wet hair. “We will do this for us, and for us alone. As with our wedding, it is their duty to adapt to us. Those who do not adapt, those who think to fight me—let them come if they dare.”

      “Damien,” she breathed nervously, sweeping her fingers into his hair and holding him in place for her mouth and its desperate kiss.

      He knew her fears too well for words. Even without his telepathy, he had come to know her nearly better than he knew himself. She was more emotional than she normally would be, more fearful as her mating cycle rapidly approached and more of their impending future was put up for scrutiny.

      Syreena had two mating cycles every year. Spring and fall, close to the full moon at Beltane and the one at Samhain. These short weeks every year were the only time she could conceive, no matter how frequently they made love at any other time. Last spring had been an experience unlike anything Damien had encountered in his long lifetime of dealing with women. She had been aggressive and insatiable. She had taunted him and teased him and used him to exhaustion almost every minute of the day from the beginning to the end of the cycle.

      They hadn’t truly decided whether or not they were ready for children before last spring’s cycle had struck her, but once it had hit, they hadn’t even been able to make an effort at caution or control.

      In spite of their recklessness, however, Syreena hadn’t conceived.

      She had been devastated. It should have been impossible for her to fail to conceive. She’d never heard of a heat cycle not producing a child automatically, in the absence of actions or chemistry to prevent it. So her automatic assumptions began to fall into two categories: first, that something was wrong with her; second, and perhaps the worst of all, that a Vampire and a Lycanthrope couldn’t conceive a child. Though there were hints in ancient writings that it was possible, there was no known written or living proof of it. Still, it was illogical for her to blame herself. The Vampire conception rate was notoriously low to begin with.

      Regardless, if he was forced to leave her alone for the next cycle in order to take care of business at the Demon court, she would suffer a great deal, and very likely would be impossible to live with. If he thought the atmosphere in his home was hostile now…after three weeks with Syreena on a hormonal bender, in amongst a gathering of Vampires who disapproved of her to start with, there would be a lot of ramifications to deal with.

      Neither could they leave together. Stephan and Jasmine could capably protect their holdings, but with the current civil unrest, it would be unwise for both of them to leave the homeland castle unattended. The more he thought on it, the more sending Jasmine seemed like the best solution for everyone. Of course, it would no doubt look like Damien was catering to his bride, an act that many of his species would look on as a weakness.

      But Damien didn’t care about appearances in this particular situation. He could never leave Syreena to cope with such a painful struggle when his mere presence could prevent it. Apparently she didn’t realize that, or else she wouldn’t have climbed the tower after hearing him discuss traveling to Noah’s court. He would maintain patience, however. She was learning, just as he was, and it did no good for either of them to lose their tolerance for the other’s misunderstandings.

      For the present, she was catching a good case of the shivers and would be better off inside the citadel walls. He swept her up into his embrace easily just as his feet lifted from the ground. He flew them up to the very same window she had dived from earlier, leading her inside so she could warm up and rest with him as the dawn made its imminent approach.

      When the Demon King entered the Council chamber a short time later, a hush fell over the Elders gathered about the triangular table. Noah stood for a moment, assessing the energy of the room. Gossip among Demons, he noted, was one of the fastest-flying creatures in all the world. He had no doubt that everyone around him was at least partially aware of what had so recently transpired.

      He didn’t hold still long, determined not to be read as reluctant to face his peers. He moved to the large chair at one of the three points of the table that marked its highest-ranking members. The other two points were occupied by his sister’s husband, Gideon, who was the only Ancient of their kind, and Jacob, the Enforcer, who reached to cover the small hand of his wife seated next to him.

      “I have called this Council meeting with one purpose only,” he said directly, his deep voice filling the stone room and ringing back to him from the vaulted ceiling. “It is time we altered Demon law, Councillors, to suit the vast changes our society has undergone since the first Druid was discovered and accepted into our culture.” He did not look at Isabella as he referred to her, the act too hard for him in that glaring moment. He would face that reckoning later, when there were not so many witnesses. “I have watched the centuries fall by just as many of you have, and we all know too well the price we pay every Samhain and Beltane because it is stamped on our genes that it be so.

      “I have glorified myself in the past as a scholar dedicated to finding СКАЧАТЬ