Adam (6 page)

“Mama, have you seen Father?”

Legna looked up at her son and tried to hide her surprise. It wasn’t like her son to seek out his father voluntarily, and it certainly wasn’t time for lessons.

“He is in the south wing. Just beyond the baths. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I had a question for him.” Seth shrugged it off, but Legna was a Mind Demon, and that made her a powerful empath. She could sense her son’s emotions very easily. She was grateful for that because it was the only way she would ever know what was going on in his head most of the time. Ever since he had reached puberty, he had become like a stranger to her—and a hostile stranger to his father.

She had to give Gideon credit for his patience with the boy. Gideon was a very direct creature and didn’t see much value in indulging in wasteful emotions. Not that he wasn’t a devoted and loving father. He was, and he tried to show it as best he could. As Gideon’s Imprinted mate she was very well aware of how deeply loving and passionate a man Gideon truly was. And, with her, he was quite demonstrative.

But since Seth had reached ten years of age, they had lost touch with each other. Seth had started to reject his father’s attentions and affections ... now the only way they connected was in their daily lessons. It baffled Gideon no end. He was Ancient and wise, had lived so many ages and experienced so many things, but he had never been a father before and found himself at a loss. He wanted to be direct, address the problem head-on, but luckily Legna had been able to convince him that wouldn’t be a very good idea. Seth was very sensitive, even a little brooding. He tended to come around to things in his own way and in his own time. It was best to let him do so without forcing him or challenging him before he was ready.

“I am certain he would love to answer your questions,” she said, turning from her baking and dusting off her hands.

“Yeah. I know. He’d never miss a chance at a lecture,” Seth said, coming just shy of sounding snide.

“Seth, your father loves to teach you. He wants to prepare you for the world and for the future. He does it to protect you. There are so many dangers out there.”

“He should just leave me to my own devices. Seems to me he’d be happier if I got bounced off the earth,” Seth said with a shrug.

“Seth! Why would you think such a thing?”

Seth drew back at her powerful response, looking a little trapped for a moment, almost as if he hadn’t meant to speak his feelings aloud.

“Never mind,” he said hastily, pulling back as his mother reached for him. “I was just talking trash.”

“First,” she said as she grabbed hold of his arm, “lying to your mother is unacceptable. Second, lying to an empath is futile. Surely you have learned that as my son.”

She took the sting out of the rebuke by drawing a line of flour down the side of his cheek.

“Mama!” he protested, swiping at his face. But he stopped trying to escape her. With his head hung, he shrugged one of his narrow shoulders. “It’s just ... I know I am nothing but a big disappointment to both of you. To everyone. I’m a powerless nothing when I ought to have been something special. He hates that I’m not all magnificent and special like he is.”

“Sweet Destiny, Seth, nothing could be further from the truth! What is it that you think we are expecting from you? You are only fourteen years old! You have a good four to six years yet before we expect to be on the lookout for your power!”

“That’s bull. You all look at Leah and wonder why I’m not as strong and special as she is.” The boy’s eyes teared up as he withdrew physically from her, wrapping his arms protectively around himself. “She did massive things when she was just two years old. Noah was really young when his power first showed. Jacob was what? Nine? Eight? All of the most powerful Demons on the planet had so much power in them it couldn’t wait to be born. And then there’s me. A big, fat ... nothing.”

“The biggest mistake you can ever make is to compare yourself to others.”

Seth started at the sound of his father’s voice behind him. Shame rushed over him. How could he have forgotten? Speaking to his mother was like speaking to his father at the same time, their connection was so strong, their thoughts so intermingled. But he had seen his mother distance herself from his father psychically before. Stupid of him to think she would have done so now to give him a private moment with her. He turned quickly to face the astral projection of his father, his whole body bristling defensively as he tried to erect some kind of mental protection.

“Whatever,” Seth said with a shrug. His eyes were cast downward, studying the rug on the floor.

“Seth,” his father said, the tone of his voice far gentler than he was used to hearing from his sire. It was enough to encourage him to lift his eyes. “I have great faith that you will be an extraordinary Demon one day, I do not deny that. But if you were healthy and happy, that would be more than enough for me. Your happiness is everything to me.”

Seth had never heard his father speak to him like that before. He looked at him with doubt, wondering if he was using some kind of reverse psychology on him.

“Or,” his mother interrupted his thoughts gently, “maybe he loves you just the way you are.”

Seth had so convinced himself otherwise that he really found the thought hard to believe. Legna could sense that, and she could sense her husband’s dismay as well. It was an idea that would have to be addressed slowly and over a long period of time. But now that they were aware of what was at the root of their son’s troubles, they could perhaps go about rectifying the problem.

“Gideon, your son had a question for you,” she said, smoothly changing the topic of conversation. Seth was very relieved at the segue. He really hoped Leah appreciated his sticking his neck out for her. Manipulating either of his parents was no easy trick.

He shifted his shoulders and tried to appear casual.

“Actually, it was something Leah was asking about. Let me go get her and we’ll come find you. It’s kind of a history thing.”

“History is crucial to understanding the present and forming a better future. I am glad you are taking an interest,” Gideon said. Then he nodded permission to his son, sending the adolescent hurrying to find his playmate.

“Why would you ask about Enforcers aligned before your father?” Gideon asked some time later. It wasn’t as though he was especially curious; he was simply gathering information.

“Uh ... well, odds are I might become Enforcer one day,” Leah said quickly. “Shouldn’t I be well versed on the lineage and the methods they were known for using?” She shot Seth a look and he gave her a shielded thumbs-up.

“This is true,” Gideon said. “But you are young, and time has a way of unfolding in ways we least expect. It could be that Kane and Corrine will have children and one of them will be heir to Kane’s present position.”

“It isn’t very logical to live my life on groundless supposition. I have to assume the truth of the moment is the truth of the future.”

Gideon turned to look at her, one of his silvery brows lifting in surprise. Gideon’s silver hair and eyes were often unnerving to Leah, but in that moment she thought he was looking at her with a sense of pride. Suddenly it felt like something very special to her. She glanced at Seth again and knew by the look on his face that he felt it, too. The jealousy in his eyes said it all. He wanted more than anything for his father to look at him in that way.

“You are your father’s daughter,” Gideon said gently to her. “He was a man of practical logic. It was one of his greatest strengths.”

Leah very often heard about how she looked, talked, or sounded like one of her parents, but this was something very different. She had never heard Gideon say anything like it before, and there was a peculiar intimacy to the speech that made it exceptional.

“Your father’s approach to being Enforcer was very different from his predecessor’s. And it changed even more when your mother came on the scene. It was softened, you might say. When your mother became an Enforcer, she made many efforts and changes to see that it became less of a shameful process to be enforced. Your mother was not a part of your father’s life when he enforced me. His approach then was very like a—”

“Jacob enforced you?” Seth blurted out in utter shock, tacking on a laugh.

Gideon raised a brow at his son’s outburst, and somehow it was a completely different expression from the one he had given Leah. Seth immediately closed his mouth and lowered his eyes.

“Very like a parent drawing his wayward child in line,” Gideon finished. “Adam, Jacob’s immediate predecessor as Enforcer, was more like a brutal taskmaster. He was powerful, sometimes tempestuous. Like Kane and Jacob, he was not even an Elder yet when he inherited the mantle of Enforcer. But make no mistake, he was good at what he did. He was a warrior like no other I have seen. Perhaps if Elijah had less of an ego, your
Siddah
might admit that Adam was a better warrior than he.”

“Better than Elijah?” Leah breathed. “Wow.” Then she remembered herself. “So what exactly happened to him? And when did it happen?”

“I think it was about ... well, 1601. Samhain. No, wait ... it was Beltane. He just failed to report in one night and that was the end of it.”

“Are you sure it was Beltane?” Leah pressed.

“Yes. Your father refused to step into his brother’s shoes at first, searching high and low for him. Grieving terribly. He did not accept the mantle of Enforcer until Samhain so I mistook the dates, using your father’s ascension to Enforcer as the time of Adam’s disappearance. But I am quite positive it was Beltane.”

“And no one knows what happened to him?”

“It was assumed he was Summoned. When a Demon is Summoned by a necromancer, pulled out of his life and held prisoner in a pentagram until he is Transformed into a monster, it is often an unwitnessed event. The unexplained disappearance of a Demon is not uncommon. Though perhaps it is felt more sharply when it is a high-standing member of our society.”

“I bet an Enforcer like Adam would have caught and destroyed Ruth long ago,” Leah said bitterly, her fists clenching in anger.

“Actually, that is not an unfair statement,” Gideon mused. “Your father was much distracted by other things while Ruth was growing in power and wickedness. Adam was far more dogged in his ways. He would have taken all manner of risks to attain victory.”

“Do you think he was better than Daddy was?” she asked quietly.

Gideon immediately shook his head. “Jacob had wisdom and age and the power that comes with both on his side. There has never been a more powerful Enforcer than your father, Leah.” He took a breath. “But I would hesitate to pick sides in a head-to-head battle of the brothers.”

Leah hurried away from Gideon and Legna’s quarters, Seth scurrying along in her wake.

“I know what you’re planning to do!”

Leah came to a screeching halt and about-faced, glaring at Seth and shushing him fiercely. She grabbed him by his shirtfront and yanked him into the privacy of a nearby alcove, hoping to cut their conversation away from the natural echo of the caverns.

“You don’t know anything! Just keep your mouth shut!”

“You’re insane, Leah. You don’t even have the power to do it. So what, so you accidentally were able to jump through time once. You were two years old! It was a raging accident. Since then what have you been able to do? Send a stopwatch five minutes into the future?” Seth scoffed at the feat. “The great and magnificent child of Time, ladies and gentlemen!”

“You don’t know anything!” she hissed at him again. “I’m so sick of you thinking you know so much and being such a jerk to me because I have powers and you don’t. The great and magnificent child of Space, ladies and gentlemen, who can—gee, what
can
you do besides whine like a little brat?”

“Shut up! Why don’t you just give it up, Leah? Your parents got their asses kicked and now they’re dead. Dead, dead, dead! And there’s nothing you can do about it!”

Leah swung out her hand and smacked him right across the mouth. The action shocked them both. Leah nursed her smarting hand and Seth nursed his bruised lip. Leah felt the need to cry stinging across her sinuses and burning in her eyes. She felt unable to contain the painful emotions flooding over her. She refused to let Seth have the satisfaction of seeing her hurt, so she ran. She kept running until she couldn’t see her way anymore and couldn’t breathe. Finally she fell to a stop beside an underground pool, one of many in the castle and the caverns. She knelt down and grabbed up a handful of the always cold water, splashing it over her face. Slowly she got herself under control, drew her sobs in until they were hard sniffles. She swiped at her eyes, blinked and looked up to see a beautiful brunette standing next to her. Her hair was loose, a black cape all around her shoulders that reminded Leah of her mother. Her legs were encased in shiny tights of an opaque white and a short black miniskirt that barely covered her butt. Her pierced navel was exposed by the short navy blue tank she was wearing. It was her boots that dominated her outfit, though. They were soft black leather with brass buttons climbing the backs of her legs in a nice steady row all the way up to her thighs. It was as though they alone were announcing her presence, and they were saying she was way too fine to mess with.

Leah had only glimpsed her from a distance over the past ten years, but she would never forget who the Vampire was. It immediately disturbed Leah that Jasmine should see her like this. Weak and out of sorts. She didn’t know why it should matter, but it did.

She stood up and faced the Vampire, smoothing her own simple T-shirt down over her favorite pair of jeans. Still, she suddenly felt like it wasn’t enough. Like she ought to be wearing something better. Like she ought to be something more. It was a moment Seth must experience every single day he woke up to his father’s magnificence and stood in his shadow without anything to show for her parents’ expectations of him.

Leah supposed it was because this woman had been her rescuer. Her hero, really. Jasmine was strong and powerful, had a real reputation for being a badass, and dressed with such confidence and panache. You couldn’t miss her if you tried.