Adam (15 page)

“What the hell is going on?” Jacob demanded to know, his heart hurting in his chest though he barely understood the reasons why. He couldn’t escape the notion, however, that he had somehow just lost his daughter. And even looking at the more familiar, five-year-old living version of her couldn’t shake off the pain of it.

“Later, little brother. I sense company coming.”

Adam watched as Jacob turned and closed his eyes for a moment, clearly reaching to feel what it was Adam had sensed. Again, this was different. He had always known Jacob had inherited that special sense that those few of their family acquired, but he had never seen him use it so readily and with such clear ease of familiarity.

The Enforcers, both of the past and of the present, were sensing the coming of the small army of the Transformed that Bella and Jacob had initially gone underground to escape from. Adam lived in a time of readily used black magic, so he was quite grimly familiar with his duty to destroy these unfortunate souls. They had once been Demons, as good and moral as he himself was, but not now. Not after a necromancer had discovered their true power names and had used them in a Summoning spell. Trapped in that controlling magician’s pentagram, it only took a short time before those Demon victims would begin to physically and mentally mutate into nearly mindless monsters, fanged and winged and viciously amoral. It was these poisoned creatures that had inspired the popular image of what Demons were within the human population.

Adam was short a weapon, his dagger still imbedded in the Vampire necromancer’s skull somewhere below them, but that didn’t bother him anywhere near as much as realizing his brother didn’t even carry so much as a knife on his person. He had never known Jacob to go unarmed anywhere. For that matter, the mode of Jacob’s dress completely baffled his elder brother. Minutes ago they had both been similarly dressed in a doublet and hose. Now Jacob was ... Adam had no idea what it was he was wearing. And the woman he was protecting was dressed as a boy! If not for her hair ...

There was no time to consider confusing fashions. Adam could feel the approach of the Transformed. It shocked him to realize how many there were. Everything, it seemed, was shocking and confusing. There was the wicked presence of black magic everywhere. Whoever that Gypsy girl was, she was gone. Had her magic gone with her, or was this all some kind of horrid illusion?

Still, Jacob seemed real enough, for all the change Adam saw within him at a glance.

Adam sought a source of water, another way of arming himself for the coming battle. The landscape was completely alien, he realized, nothing where it ought to be. Rivers, streams, and lakes were skewed and disproportionate to his mental mapping of where things should be. Finding himself too distant from a real water source, he reached for the water above him, seeding the clouds until it began to rain in a violent torrent.

“Get the innocents to safety!” he yelled to his brother. “I will handle these pitiful creatures myself!”

“You cannot possibly! Not on your own!” Jacob shouted back to him.

“Do you think the woman and child will help me, then?” Adam spat back. “
You
certainly cannot while you are distracted by them. Go! Make them safe. I will do this!”

It had been so long since Jacob had heard that obnoxious arrogance, but if he had had any doubts as to whether this man was truly his elder brother, they instantly disappeared upon hearing the unmitigated confidence in his declaration. Jacob took Bella’s drenched body from his brother, even while holding his daughter. Together they flew upward into the storming clouds, leaving Adam to his duty.

Surrounded by his element as it streamed down, Adam was aware of its blinding power. But for him it was merely a matter of senses. He felt every molecule of water on its path from sky to earth. He felt the topography of the land around him blossom into three dimensions as each drop of water hit a solid object. He could close his eyes and sense everything, stationary or moving, as the falling water shaped it in his mind’s eye. He could see it all without even looking.

The rainfall confused the Transformed. Those that were Water Demons took pleasure in it, not realizing that a powerful member of their former brethren was a part of its appearance. Each former Demon had his powers all intact, but the focus and understanding to use them to optimum advantage was gone. It was enough to leave them floundering and distracted in the rain. They saw no threat, so they did not act in defense. The master who could have guided their actions was not close enough or focused enough to maintain control under such conditions.

Adam was careful to remind himself that there were sure to be necromancers close by, and he would have to watch his back for them. In the meantime, he faded into the drowning fall of his element, drawing his sword for use. Each beast became isolated from the rest by the weather, and Adam darted in and out with little more than the flash of a blade and the subsequent rolling of a decapitated head to mark his presence. He dashed away, leaving the corpse to self-destruct in an explosive burst of flame.

Now
that
could be seen despite the deluge, and after the first four or five flares to warn them, the remaining Transformed realized their lives were threatened. This triggered a base instinct for survival, and Adam began to encounter significant resistance. He managed most of it with deadly precision, until he came up on one who turned to meet his approach through the rain as if fully expecting him. They began to fight, a sword against savage claws and fangs, not to mention powerful wings. The creature seemed able to anticipate his every move, and Adam caught a chest full of talons, the claws ripping him through clothing and flesh alike.

But the true shock came when he was finally set to make a death blow, and the cunning monster suddenly disappeared in a roiling cloud of smoke that reeked of sulfur. Adam had only seen this trick twice before. Mind Demons, he lectured himself quickly. It was a new element, the skills and abilities barely eighty years old. However, he knew enough for his special Enforcer’s senses to ring warning of a Transformed presence appearing suddenly at his back. Smoke and sulfur clouded everywhere as the tainted Demon leapt for the Enforcer and found his blade instead.

Fire.

Not only from the falling corpse of Adam’s latest kill, but exploding in bursts all around him. It sent jets of steam off in the air as it mixed with his rain. Dread filled his soul as he was forced to contemplate the worst. That one of the Transformed was a Demon of Fire.

He looked up and saw an un-Transformed Demon. The face was instantly recognizable, and Adam couldn’t help the rush of relief that ran through him.

“Noah,” he rasped.

“Yes. And this would be much easier if you turned off the waterworks, friend,” a very familiar voice full of smoke and authority declared loudly.

Adam responded instantly, all of his instincts drawing the storm to a close just as swiftly as it had started. The last sheets of water fell away to reveal what remained of the Transformed and the Demon standing several yards away.

Noah raised his hands, fire immolating them before he resumed throwing molten balls of flame at the enemy, killing them off twice as quickly as Adam had done. Not to be outdone, even if it was by the Demon King, Adam went back to his work as well. Between the two of them, it took less than ten minutes to finish clearing the field. After the last one fell, Adam couldn’t help a victorious laugh as he jogged up to Noah with his free hand extended.

“Damn me, Noah, you make that look too easy! You will have others believing my job to be nothing at all!”

Noah had seen some pretty amazing things in his lifetime, but nothing ever so stunningly unexpected and inconceivable as watching Jacob’s long-lost brother walking up to him. The King automatically took the hand offered to him, wholly expecting the entire experience to be proved as nothing more than an apparition or illusion. Perhaps some magical trickery.

But the flesh of the hand engulfing his was firm and familiar, despite all the centuries that lay between handshakes, right down to the cracked, rough thickness of his calluses. Back in Adam’s time, animal fat and strange home liniments were as close to lotions as anyone got, not that he’d cared much about the smoothness of his hands. The Adam Noah had known had been proud of every hard-worked callus he’d owned.

Despite his shock, Noah had the presence of mind to inspect the inside wrist of the hand he held. Fang punctures and current wounds aside, sure enough, a deep and ugly scar was angrily furrowed up Adam’s arm from the seat of his palm to the inside of his elbow. It was more distinctive than fingerprints to Noah. The King had been by his side the day Adam had suffered the injury by iron that had caused it. Despite the skills of a Body Demon medic and his own rapid ability to heal, Adam had taken a long time by Demon standards to recover the full use of his hand after that singular attack.

“Sweet Destiny. Adam?”

Noah’s amazement certainly came through. Enough so to make Adam frown darkly.

“Yes, my friend. It has not been that long since we last saw each other. Or is this your way of harassing me to come visit your family more often?”

Noah laughed incredulously.

“Adam, I have not seen you in four hundred years at least! No one has! What the devil happened to you?”

Four hundred years?

Adam chuckled; the slightly numb laugh was the only reaction he could formulate as he stared at his friend. He opened his mouth to deny the claim and even felt the urge to cuff the other Demon playfully for being so wicked.

However ...

He let his eyes drift down the sturdy form of his King, absorbing the amazing fit of machine-made clothing. Even though Noah wore breeches and Hessians, as he often did, the fashion was dated well after Adam’s time. As was the modern tailoring, and the sophisticated royal blue dye used in the silk shirt he wore with casual ease.

Though Demons aged at an infinitesimal crawl, there were signs of time on the Demon King Adam had never seen before; signs of worry and weight that had not been creased into Noah’s visage when last he had seen him. Then the Water Demon recalled his brother’s equally incredulous greeting and his strange clothing as well.

It all rolled back to not knowing what the Gypsy girl had done to him. Where had she taken him? He wasn’t home, he knew that much. Was Noah’s claim genuine? Could it possibly be four centuries in the future ... ?

“No,” he denied quickly, a black and indefinable emotion rocking him back a step. He felt dizzy and as though he could not draw a breath. “’Tis a cruel jest you play,” he accused numbly.

Noah saw the genuine distress and confusion on the other Demon’s face and he realized that even Adam had no idea how he had come to be there.

“I do not jest with you, old friend,” Noah said carefully. “I can only tell you that these past few years, I have seen things that could make almost anything possible. You are with trusted friends, Adam, who will help you sort this confusion through.”

“Where is my brother?” Adam demanded.

“Close by. He attends to his wife and daughter.”

“
His wife and daughter?
” Adam backpedaled another step, holding out a hand in a staying motion when Noah moved forward. “Do you mean ... do you mean that
human
woman? He is mated to a
human
and she has borne him a daughter?”

“Aye, Adam, and soon a son as well, from what I understand. Provided she comes through her injuries. I can sense her energy is very weak, her life in the balance. I want to help you, Adam, I do, but Jacob is desperately in need of our assistance as well. Can you do that? Can you help me to help Jacob and trust me to find an explanation for all of this later? Can you bear your confusion for a little while?”

Adam didn’t even take the time to think about it. Noah had said the words that had always, and would always, work like magic on his mind. He had said his little brother needed his help.

He could never refuse.

Little Leah was crying in near hysterics when Noah and Adam finally found the family in a secluded glen some distance away. She was clutching her unconscious mother’s hair, shaking her by it in an attempt to wake her. Jacob was not convinced that they were safe, regardless of his seeming distance from the immediate danger. Ruth was a wily and inexhaustible opponent. She would not give up easily, especially if she was thrown into a fury of insane temper. The female Mind Demon had once been a warrior, and had a track record of not taking defeat well.

“Well now, angel.” Noah tsked soothingly as he moved quickly to crouch behind Leah, warming her with his touch and presence. The King glanced at Jacob, who sat beside Bella as though he were only half aware of the world around him. Since Noah knew Jacob would normally never let his daughter suffer such emotional trauma under even the worst of circumstances, the King was concerned by Jacob’s distant and seemingly detached behavior. Considering the Imprinted bond the current Enforcer shared with the little Druid he loved, it would not surprise him if Jacob had been caught up in the riptide of whatever it was that had struck down Isabella. “Hush, Leah. There now. That is a good girl,” he praised her as she turned to climb into his arms and smeared her wet face and nose against his shirt, hiccupping out half-caught sobs. “It is going to be all right,” he whispered to her softly. “We are all safe now. Okay, lamb? No more crying. We cannot have Mommy hear you crying and worrying about you.”

“Why do you say this to her?” Adam demanded. “You will make her feel guilty for an understandable reaction. She is but a babe!”

“Because in this case it is the truth of the matter,” Noah informed him carefully. “Bella is a Druid, Adam. She is a hybrid of Druid and human genetics and has remarkable gifts of power and sensitivity. The distress of her child and her husband will resonate with her and will keep her from focusing her energies where they are needed.”

“Well, what is wrong with her? I see no obvious wounds.”