* * *
“Seriously, Noah, what you’re describing is dangerous. Only a crazy person would want to deal with a demon like that.” Noah had been talking on the phone with Rena for over an hour now and discovered that his brother Graelen’s mate had an incredible amount of demon knowledge but a penchant for debate that made him unsure whether he would hug her or hide from her when they finally met in person.
“Well, if I hadn’t been holding the demon magick right in my hand after extracting it from her I might tend to agree. But it happened, so now I need to know what kind of demon I might be dealing with and how I keep her away from it.”
“This is new territory for even me. Normally a demon is summoned with a witch’s power and the demon lends his much more powerful magick if a bargain can be struck. You know they are quite selfish, but since they love spending time on this plane, wreaking havoc, they are eager to negotiate. But in nearly every recorded case, something always goes wrong. I can’t understand the arrogance of the stupid witches that keep trying.” She sighed.
“I hear you, babe. I see this far more often than I should. Well, not exactly this, but demons and their tricks anyways.”
“Bottom line, Noah, it’s going to take me more time to find out what’s going on here. What’s her current condition?”
“She’s still out cold but all her vitals are good.” He looked at the screen above his desk where the security camera was focused on his bed and the fragile woman resting there. Funny, he would have never considered her fragile before, but this ordeal had changed her and she needed his help. Now every protective gene he possessed was on high alert. For her he would do anything, even lay his life down if it would save her from whatever had happened or would. And his experience and instincts told him that her involvement in this was far from over.
“Noah, are you listening?” Rena asked.
“Yeah, yeah, sorry. I sort of zoned for a second thinking about what Jessie’s been through.”
“I get that she is your first priority, as your mate should.”
“Wait, I didn’t say that, don’t go putting words in my mouth. She is special, I’ll give you that, but this whole fated mates and prophecy still sounds like a load of bullshit from a family past that is rather questionable at this point. I’m not about to put a lot of stock into it.”
She laughed. “You will. I’m sure you can already tell the difference in yourself and your power being around her, and I would be willing to lay odds that the two of you are drawn to each other and having trouble keeping your hands off each other, and I’m not much of a gambler under normal circumstances. That’s just how much I believe in what’s happening.”
He snorted. What could he say? He’d never reacted to a woman the way he did her. She twisted him in knots just being here, and truth be told he’d ached for her every minute since she’d left him. Now she was back—either through fate or something else didn’t really matter, they’d been dealt a second chance.
Movement on the screen caught his eye as Jessie started to stir. “I’ve got to run, Rena, I think she’s waking up.”
“One more thing, Noah, and it’s important so give it some thought. If Scott branded her with demon magick, and it was able to channel through her, who’s to say he couldn’t use that same connection to track her?”
Alarm shot through him at her words. Fuck, he should have thought of that. Normally no one could find this place unless he wanted them to, but if she had been turned into Scott’s personal GPS tracking device they were screwed.
“Noah, are you there? Did you hear what she said? This has me worried. Where are you and how secure is it?” Graelen had commandeered the phone from Rena.
“Yeah, I’m here. I should have expected something like this. Getting her off his compound had been far easier than I’d expected. Shit! We are in a normally secure place, but that security relies on being able to hide. If he’s tracking her, we aren’t hiding anymore.”
“How long would it take the two of you to get out of there?”
“What difference does it make, where are we going to go he couldn’t track her?”
“Then tell me where you are and we’ll all be on our way. If we all put our brains and our power together like we are meant to, then we should be able to take care of this once and for all. We’ll make a stand.”
Noah envisioned his tiny cove being invaded by his brothers and their women. The loss of the tranquility would be devastating. But his home had been designed as a defensible base, it was probably a good as place as any to take on known and unknown enemies. He would have to break his long held location silence and allow his family to come here. “Hang on for a GPS screen shot. Feed it into your mapping system and you should be able to pinpoint the location pretty quickly. For Denn, it’s a half day’s trip, for you and Cash it will be longer. Probably a day and half, maybe two depending on your flight and travel arrangements.”
Noah listened to the all too familiar sound of keys on a keyboard tapping out instructions. A low whistle sounded in the phone. “You really do know how to hide, don’t you? Still, we’ll leave here within the hour. You can count on our arrival in less than twenty-four hours. What will you do
