Elijah by Jacquelyn Frank Page A

Demon law was very specific about such things. Frankly, he was amazed the Enforcer wasn’t already descended upon him, determined to see him punished as he ought to be. It would be just his luck that the one time he needed such intervention, Jacob was busy with his wife and newborn.
    Elijah’s entire body ached. And, he realized, it wasn’t all from the pain of his healing wounds.
    Somehow, she had gotten under his skin, this hauntingly beautiful creature. He would be lying to himself if he tried to convince himself it was all about physicality. There was something in her spirit, in her manner, that beckoned to him. It had been doing so since the day they had met six months back.
    He had never believed Gideon’s plan to imprison himself in the Lycanthrope court would come to anything but the medic’s swift demise. But the results had surprised him, even as he continued Page 33

    to mistrust them. Even after the Queen had declared an end to the war, he had walked around waiting for the other shoe to drop. The shoe that would kick them back into war just when they were beginning to relax. However, since he had met her, he’d known she was unlike any changeling he’d ever encountered before. He had even begun to feel more confident in this peace she had so artfully finagled out of her aggressive people.
    Exhausted, Elijah set the cup aside and dropped back onto the pillow beside the one the Queen rested on. He turned his head to look at her. All he saw was the delicate fronds of gold lashes against her paled cheeks. For some reason he fixated on that elegant detail, finding himself curious over how fragile they seemed. As if they could break under the slightest touch. He had never thought to equate her with anything delicate or breakable. She was a woman of formidable strength, and he would be a fool to think of her in any other manner. But there was an underlying innocence within her.
    It had nothing to do with the fact that he was aware she had never taken a lover. He knew the condition that came with that, and knew that was why she had been so terrified of what had almost happened between them. But it was something deeper than just the physically virgin state of her body.
    Perhaps at some point he would understand what it was he thought he sensed, but it was likely never going to happen. Once they parted from this place, the only time they would ever see each other would be during functions at Noah’s court that would include her. If he had anything to say about it, they would not meet even then. He was determined to keep his distance from that moment on. He was a warrior, trained in the utmost forms of discipline, and he could easily do this.
    Elijah’s eyes drifted closed, making him more aware of the confection of her scent. What was most compelling about it, he thought as he drifted into sleep, was that it blended so well with his own.

CHAPTER 4
    Noah pushed away one of the dusty tomes that had come from the great Demon library, an archive of their vast history and prophecies located in the dungeons of his castle home. There were three of the enormous books awaiting his attention, but he ignored them and began to pace the floor of the Great Hall in a sign of agitation he had found himself repeating far too often these past two days.
    To say he was worried would have been an understatement. In spite of the fact that the Captain of his armies had gone missing, uncharacteristically without a single word to anyone as to where he would be, he should know Elijah well enough after all these centuries to realize the warrior was quite capable of taking care of himself. But these were volatile times. Enemies and prophecies, Druids being rediscovered and hybrid children born with potentially new and powerful abilities. Men and women suddenly Imprinting on one another with a frequency their race had not enjoyed for over a thousand years, if indeed they had ever enjoyed it at all.
    This was why he was researching tomes of