Adam (33 page)

And yet she had insisted on coming. She had known that the best way to gain advantage in a battle of magic was to use magic in return. She knew she could help protect the others. She had developed an affection for Damien and Syreena during her time in their court. Indeed, she felt strongly for all the Nightwalkers she had met. She couldn’t find it in herself to sit idly by while they fought their worst enemy and battled for their futures.

This was why he loved her.

This was why it was killing him that he couldn’t get to her. He could fade into Shadowscape, the parallel dimension that the Shadowdwellers often traveled in. It was identical to this plane, except there were no people and there was no light. He could cross the field and come out of Fade right by her side.

But still the light would be there and she wasn’t in a position to recast her protection spell on him. Now that Ruth had engaged her, Valera wouldn’t have the focus to cast the spell. Sagan wondered what had happened. She was supposed to have kept low and quiet until she was needed most. How had she exposed herself?

Now as he watched her coming out of her crouch, his eyes burned as blue energy was expelled from her graceful fingers and she faced off against a necromancer who was ten times superior to her in skill and power.

“Well, she’s going to get herself killed,” Jasmine noted, making him realize Jasmine and Syreena had followed him and were now watching the same scene he was.

“I cannot protect her,” he said with frustration. “You must help her.”

“If you insist,” Jasmine said, giving him a cheeky grin.

Ruth was dragged across the ground several feet by the fingers of animated vines before she teleported out of their grasp. She reappeared only a few yards in front of the upstart Witch who thought she could go head-to-head with her. However, before she dealt with her, she threw instructions at her protégée.

“Get one of them in the lock,” she commanded. “I do not care which! Whichever you think you can manage.”

“Oh, I think I can manage one,” the black-and-gray-haired girl said.

Ruth smiled and turned to face the Witch, letting magical blue power pulse from her hands like someone firing a warning shot. The energy burst above Valera’s head, the sound and force of it making her flinch hard.

“Oops. I missed.” Ruth tsked. “I promise, it will not happen again. You might consider giving in to that wild urge to run that is going through your mind right now.”

“Or she can stay and watch me kick your ass.”

Jasmine grabbed Ruth by her hair with both hands and yanked her back off her feet.

“Concentrate now, bitch,” Jasmine spat as she dragged Ruth over the bracken by her hair. Jasmine heard Syreena whoop out a cheer. Of course, the Lycanthrope had cause to cheer this tactic. Ruth had once ripped out half of Syreena’s hair, and left her maimed because of it. Lycanthrope hair being what it was, alive with nerves and blood supply, it had been a devastating blow.

So Jasmine took pleasure dragging Ruth to heel. Whether she liked Syreena or not, no one deserved to suffer like that. Just as those innocent people in the hidden Nightwalker library had not deserved to die simply because Ruth had wanted to pillage it for spell books.

Jasmine built up momentum, swinging Ruth over the ground by her hair and slamming her into a tree. She didn’t want the Mind Demon to adapt and recoup, to gather her thoughts and teleport out of her hands. So she beat her against the tree like a dirty rug that needed cleaning. She was about to swing her into it a third time when suddenly a black-and-gray-haired Demon girl appeared at her side, having stepped up so quietly Jasmine didn’t notice her until she was practically on top of her.

She could smell the vile magic on her, pegged her instantly for an enemy, and coiled to protect herself or attack as necessary.

“The portal,” the girl said quietly. “Throw her into it. Quickly, before she recovers.”

She pointed to the conical display of light coming from a crystal ball sitting in among the brown leaves waiting for winter to hurry their decay. Jasmine hesitated, not trusting the girl.

Do it.

Adam’s voice in her head rang sweet and clear, sharing a confidence and strength she found to be beautiful and empowering in that moment. Hesitation disappeared and she lurched toward the cone of light, dragging her captive roughly behind her. She only needed to take a few steps to build up enough momentum.

She flung Ruth into the light like a shot-putter, hauling her off the ground and into the air by her grip on the bitch’s hair. The traitor Demon flew into the light screaming with fury, trying to come up with threats and curses but too overwhelmed by the understanding that everything she was, everything she had striven for, was about to come to an end.

She hit the light and magic burst up around her, magic powered by her very own energy and strength, and it welcomed its creator with powerful, grasping arms. Ruth was swallowed up in a rush of blue energy, then, her screams still audible, was dragged violently down into the crystal ball.

There was a final flash of electric blue light and then, suddenly, everything fell dark and silent. The only light remaining was the glow of the moon in the sky and the barely perceptible glow of the crystal ball sitting in the leaves.

Jasmine walked up to the ball and nudged it with her toe. The light within swirled for a moment, the smooth crystal inside gleaming and showing the face of a familiar blond Demon, her expression contorted into rage.

Impotent rage.

“Can she get out of there?” Jasmine queried.

“No. Not unless someone casts a very powerful counterspell to free her,” the dark-haired Demon said. “The only person powerful enough to do so at the moment is now inside the lock. But you ought to destroy it. Crush it to dust. Then you will be assured no one can free her.”

Jasmine picked up the ball, turned it in her hands a couple of times so she could catch glimpses of Ruth’s infuriated face, and smiled.

“You know, I think I’ll keep it. It’ll look rather nice on my vanity,” she said.

The Demon looked at her a long moment, her strange eyes shifting through grayscale as Jasmine watched.

Then she turned up her lips in a small but genuine smile. Somehow, Jasmine got the feeling that she didn’t have much opportunity to smile. Impulsively, she went to search the stranger’s thoughts, but found she was thoroughly blocked out. Was she a Mind Demon, then? If so, she had to be a very powerful one to resist a telepath of Jasmine’s strength.

The rest of the fighters had slowly come toward the two of them, gathering around to look at the prison Ruth had made for herself. Then all attention turned to the Demon who reeked of magic and unclear motives.

She cleared her throat.

“About half a mile away you will find Ruth’s lair. There are others there to be dealt with. In her workroom, though, you will find Windsong held prisoner. You should go quickly before the unsupervised Vampires there get it in their heads to feed from the most powerful Mistral of all time.”

She then turned to Syreena, who was helping Damien keep his feet, letting the Vampire Prince lean his significant weight against her.

“In that workroom there is a charm kept inside a locked box. You will recognize it easily because the charm is wrapped up with your hair, Syreena. The hair that Ruth once ripped free of your head, she later used to keep you from getting pregnant. Since you do not plan to kill Ruth, you must burn the charm to ashes, and it will release the binding.”

“Who are you?” Adam demanded, moving forward to get in her face. “Why should we trust anything about you when you stink of magic? You even helped Ruth cast that thing she was going to use to capture me and Damien!”

“But she did not capture you, did she? All I have done is help cast the trap that finally caught the Demon traitor Ruth. Think on that a moment.”

She moved slightly, tipping her head back and taking a deep breath. It was as if she were breathing in freedom.

“Ah ... here it comes,” she breathed.

She held out her hands and Jasmine could see the tips of her fingers fading away. For the first time, emotion broke through the girl’s features. Tears filled her kaleidoscoping eyes.

“It means it’s all changed,” she breathed to Jasmine. “It means I did what I was supposed to do. I only pray this time things turn for the better.” She looked at Jasmine with a momentary flash of worry. “It will be better now, won’t it?”

The girl was fading quickly, but Jasmine felt her pain and thought she understood, at least in a small sense, what was happening.

“Yes,” she assured her softly. “Trust us. We’ll make it better for you.”

The girl let out a stark sob of relief.

And then she was gone.

Chapter 11

“Who do you think she was?” Adam asked.

It was the question on everyone’s mind as they sat in the main salon of Damien’s citadel, an impromptu after-the-battle party. Apparently Valera was something of a cook, a skill that was rather wasted in a household of Vampires. She was tickled to have someone other than her mate to cook for. She served them dishes and cocktails, urging them to eat and replenish their strength.

Adam felt something brush against his legs as he stood in his usual stalwart manner. He looked down to see a fat cat winding around his ankles.
Since when do Vampires keep pets?
he wondered.

Since we decided to have the Witch as our guest,
Jasmine provided for him.
She has three of them. And they communicate telepathically ... when they feel like it.

Truly ? What exactly does a cat have to say ?

Mostly, they like to explain how we are doing everything wrong,
Jasmine thought with an internal chuckle.

“I think it is clear she was from the future,” Damien said carefully.

“Do you think she was sent here by my ... my niece? The same girl who brought me here? Can she send someone else through time without going, too?” Adam asked.

“Yes. That is how I obtained my bride.” Noah spoke up from the doorway he had suddenly appeared in. He nodded his dark head to Damien, his gray and green eyes full of unspoken emotion. “Is it true? Is Ruth gone? For good?”

Jasmine reached for the ball that sat on the table in among the plates of food, looking very much like the perfect centerpiece. She hefted it for a moment, then tossed it to Noah. The Demon King caught the thing and turned it over in his hands slowly, watching as that hated face flashed briefly into view while Jasmine quickly recounted the story of Ruth’s capture.

“Hmm. She looks pissed,” he noted. Then he smiled. “Do we destroy the thing and her with it?”

“I was rather hoping to keep it as a souvenir,” Jasmine said. “Or perhaps trophy is the better word.”

Noah nodded and tossed it back to her.

“You captured her; it seems only right that you be her jailor.”

Jasmine turned the ball around in her hand.

“That girl—whoever she was, she took small, precise steps, even went so far as to learn magic and poison herself with it, just so she could be there at that moment and influence events so this could happen.”

“She came and warned us to back you up,” Damien said.

“She also stepped in to rescue Corrine from attack,” Noah injected. “Corrine described her guardian angel very clearly. Those shifting eyes ... that black and gray hair.”

“She was not like any Demon I’ve ever seen before,” Jasmine said. “She had a strong mind, could resist telepathy ...”

“She made a short teleport while rescuing Corrine, if you could call it a teleport. Corrine’s description was quite ... odd.”

“If she came from far enough into the future, she could have been a new breed of Demon we don’t yet know about,” Syreena posited. “Or perhaps she was mutated somehow. Maybe by an Exchange?”

The room fell quiet and Adam, who had been distracted by the waves of his mate’s hair and was presently toying with the fragrant curl of it, became aware of many eyes falling on him. He felt Jasmine stiffen under the attention, felt her bristle suddenly under the implied expectation in the thoughts of those around her.

Hush, little Vamp,
he soothed her softly.
The only expectations that concern you are those of your Imprinted mate. And if you noticed, I have not made any demands of you.

And why is that?
she wanted to know, turning to look up into his eyes and dismissing the rest of the room.
You are pushy and possessive. Why would you not demand the Exchange of me? You would have me all to yourself then. I couldn’t back off or walk away. We would be joined forever.

Jasmine, have you not been paying attention ? We are Imprinted. We already are joined forever. Nothing else we do can ever change that. Death is the only thing that can break this connection.

“But I’m a Vampire,” she said softly, moving close enough to let their bodies touch. “What makes you so certain it will be the same for me as it is for a Demon?”

“Look at how you lean into me. How you touch me. Even when your mind runs with doubts and little resistances, you are still here. Still connected to me. Vampire or Demon, it does not matter, Jasmine. You are mine and I am yours. And nothing from the past or the future can ever erase that.”

Jasmine broke away from him, stepped back, unable to help the urge to defy the connection, even as the greater part of her was delighting in the understanding that he was hers, that he had added more feeling and color to her life in a single day than she had known for centuries.

“Excuse me,” she said brokenly as she stumbled away from the gathering, the crystal ball still in her hands.

Adam found her in her rooms only minutes later, and stood as unobtrusively as an Imprinted mate possibly could in her doorway as she leaned against her vanity, spinning the crystal ball like a top on its surface, over and over again.

“I’m going to make her so violently ill that she pukes up all over herself,” Jasmine said with a bit of a pout to her soft lips.