Gideon. Jacquelyn Frank

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ kept her countenance, not sharing her knowledge with her friend about her fears. Isabella was half human and used to a more private lifestyle than that of Demonkind. Legna had come to realize that Bella was disturbed by the seemingly intrusive habits of those Jacob knew.

      In fact, the biggest offender was Gideon. He would never wait to be given leave to come and go, no matter how many times Bella lost her temper with him. It was his nature to believe his way of thinking was correct and the ways of the human woman were utter nonsense. After all, he had survived ages and a great many threats more impressive than the temper of a hybrid Druid female.

      Just then, as if bidden by Legna’s thoughts, a strange silver light sparkled into the room, winking instantly into the form of the great medic.

      Instinctively, Legna surged to her feet. Whenever she and the Ancient occupied the same space, she could not fight the urge to go on the defensive. She and Gideon had a history of hostility, born out of a brief moment of foolishness and painful words. It was a moment that Legna could not allow herself to forget, for all her forgiving nature, and one that Gideon continually denied ever happened quite the way she remembered it.

      It wasn’t exactly Gideon in the room. It was an astral projection of him. This was the way a Body Demon traveled quickly. In this form, they were able to sense and feel everything around them. The only thing that limited a Body Demon’s astral form was the inability to use their inborn powers of healing others. He was powerless, to an extent, in this form, but Legna had learned never to underestimate the eldest of her kind. It seemed the longer they lived, the more potent they became and the more tricks they learned. She wouldn’t put any ability she could conceive of past the great Ancient.

      “Legna,” he greeted her coolly, nodding his silvery head with respect, his starlight-colored eyes flicking over her form briefly. “You are looking well.”

      “I am well, thank you,” she returned just as cordially.

      Gideon turned to Bella, giving her a slight bow as well.

      “Enforcer. You are well, I trust?”

      “Yes. I would be better, however, if you could somehow manage to squeeze the concept of knocking on the door into that vast intellect of yours,” she remarked sardonically, clearly not expecting it to happen anytime soon.

      “I do not recall Legna striking upon the door before her entrance,” the Ancient noted offhandedly.

      That caused both women to exchange startled looks and then face him with dual accusing stares.

      “Just how long have you been here, Gideon?” Legna snapped, her irritability escaping her control and eddying outward in a tangible ripple of emotion.

      “Obviously long enough,” he replied, clearly unperturbed, “to know you did not knock when you arrived.”

      It seemed to make perfect sense to him, while causing both women to seethe.

      “You mean to tell me you were floating around my house all this time? Spying on us?”

      “Hardly. I arrived only moments before Legna did, and when she appeared I thought I would be kind enough to allow you both some minutes to visit before I intruded.”

      “Gee, you’re all heart,” Bella said tartly. “Did it not occur to you for even one second that our conversation was a private one, and that it was rude to listen to it?”

      “No.”

      Legna and Bella both exhaled large breaths of frustration at the male Demon’s unconcerned shrug.

      “There was nothing of an extremely private nature within the conversation that I can recall,” Gideon added, his bright eyes glancing over both women as if he were trying to figure out an illogical puzzle. “Your obvious irritation is senseless.”

      “Yeah,” Bella said dryly. “It would be…to you.” She clearly gave up, waving the matter aside with a hand. “So, to what do I owe this pleasure?” she asked of the medic.

      Legna didn’t immediately hear his response. Her ears were ringing with her continued outrage. The last thing she would have ever wanted in a million millennia would be for Gideon to hear her defending him or his behavior, touting how skilled and majestically Ancient he was. He was already so infuriatingly arrogant! But he had flown around in his nonvisible astral form, listening to her reassure her friend about his abilities, no doubt basking in it and preening the whole time.

      Gideon’s eyes flicked over to her, the strange silver light within them giving her an eerie chill, almost as if he had just been privy to the rancor of her thoughts. It is an illusion, Legna argued with herself. It was a disarming trick he constantly used to maintain the upper hand and a position of advantage. He always seemed to have a bagful of these subtle psychological tricks at the ready, but she was a Mind Demon broaching Elder caliber come half a century or so, and she’d be a simpleton if she could not recognize them.

      Legna turned her back on the implacable mercury stare, dismissing him and the entire conversation he was having with Isabella. She folded her arms across her slender stomach, moving with a soft whisper of silk and poise to gaze out of the window and down the cliffside, taking in the English coastline through a portal of colored glass. It was easy for her to move in and out of touch with much of her power, but in the end it was all innate, all reflex and instinct at the ready and seeking input. It required enormous effort to truly shut down all the depths of her extrasensory abilities, but she began to do so, using the crash of the surf on the sand and rocks as a metronome for the meditative process. Legna had no choice. She had to lock it all down, because whenever the medic was in her presence her senses were always overwhelmed. She knew he had powerful mental barriers. Anyone who watched his detached, emotionless manners could see that all of his essence and emotion was slammed in a protected prison that he had no interest in accessing in the slightest, even in the privacy of his own mind, it seemed.

      With Legna being an empath, such a void should be disturbing yet quiet. But it was not. Instead, his energy seemed to grasp at her, tendrils of it reaching and clutching almost painfully before letting go. Every time a connection was made, impulses fired her mind with images and impressions she had no hope of comprehending. It was like an electrical overload, one she never felt with anyone else. Jacob, Noah, Elijah…other Council members…all so powerful in their own right, but none with this vibrating force of presence that made her psyche ring like tones through crystal. Crystal shattered when the pitch ringing through it reached a certain resonance. That was how she felt, as if she might shatter if she stayed too long in his company. So she never went near him if she could avoid it and she always escaped the room he was in as quickly as she could. She could not stomach the idea of his power touching her psyche in such ways.

      This was one of those times, however, when she could not make a graceful exit. Isabella needed her there. The Druid’s heart was beating fast with her worry and it was a clear, impassioned desire in her mind that Legna stay. So she did, keeping close enough to comfort Bella and focusing on the tide and sea to comfort herself.

      Gideon watched as Legna stared out of the window and down at the coastline. He could see the heated changes in her body chemistry, the flush of her skin that intensified with what was obviously an irritable emotion. He knew he had offended her yet again, but he had long ago resigned himself to the fact that he always would. She was an overly headstrong female, persistently thinking and behaving in ways that made little or no sense to his more rational and logical mind. It had gotten worse, he had noted, since the Druid had come into their midst. Isabella had almost no reservations about saying whatever she felt СКАЧАТЬ