itself away into death.
Yet, even knowing this, a millennia ago the Demons had taken an active hand in the destruction of the Druid race. Just because of a slight by one King to another King, whether real or imagined in the distant dust of history, the Demon King had declared war on the Druids. And what had been his first, most vicious attack against his enemy? To lock up his own people. All Demons that had been mated at the time had been locked away from their Druid mates.
The deaths had been in the thousands. The Demon King had wiped out nearly half the Druid population in one cruel act. Druids suffered and starved with their energy sources torn from them. Their loves torn from them. And the backlash of all those Druid deaths had made the Demon King’s victory short lived, because Demons had killed themselves in untold numbers once they were set free. And those that did not take their own lives died of broken hearts and spirits in under a year.
No. Demons could not survive the death of their Imprinted mates any better than Druids could survive theirs.
In the end the Druid population suffered a complete genocidal eradication. Thus, there had not been a Druid born in a thousand years. They were gone and gone for good. In one fell swoop the Demons had exiled themselves to empty, loveless immortality. Imprinting between Demon and Demon was all but unheard of, though in rare instances it did happen. Instances like Noah’s own parents. And yes, Demons did wed, joining with each other, producing offspring.
But those relationships never lasted very long. Maybe a half century. Maybe more if they were lucky. Never as long as they would have if they had been Imprinted. Imprinting was forever. It was exquisite and beyond compare, soul deep and heart bound. And it was gone.
Or so it had seemed for a thousand years. The truth appeared to be complex and yet simple at the same time. Druids, seeing the writing on the wall, had done the unthinkable. They had escaped Demon persecution and hidden themselves deeply amongst the infantile human race. They had given up any hope of ever knowing the power that hid in their blood, opting for survival instead. They had muddied their proud blood with that of the more savage humans around them. They had had no other choice at the time.
So all these long centuries later, after who knew how many genetic dilutions, they had been found once more by the Demons who needed them so badly. Demons who suffered near insanity twice a year and were quickly losing all control of who and what they were. Granted, the curse of Samhain and Beltane Hallowed moons had been a just dessert. They had deserved this horrible fallout.
But perhaps it was their maturity, their turn toward peaceful and benevolent ways that had brought them to this time and place. At long last, a Druid had resurfaced and Imprinted on their Enforcer, of all people. And lo and behold all that dilution, all that muddying. . had only made them stronger. More powerful. Breathtaking. Corrine’s sister Isabella was now an Enforcer too. She could read the ancient Demon and Druid languages as if she had been born to it. She fought like a dervish, with deadly skill and strength although she had never been trained to it. Before she and Jacob had crossed paths, before they had touched, she had been a quiet, simple librarian.
Well, perhaps that was an exaggeration. There was nothing about Bella that could be classified as simple or quiet.
Noah smiled at that, enjoying the newfound influence of Bella in his life. In all of their lives. Bella was beautiful and, for all of her short stature, she was a giant in her heart and her compassion toward others. She had taken to her new life like a duck to water, had taken all of Demon society into her heart. She had embraced her new life as a Druid.
Noah was not certain it would be so easy with Corrine. Jacob had had the advantage of time on his side, the luck of a few precious days when he was able to teach Bella about himself, his race, and their culture, and she had been given precious time to adjust to all the changes happening to her.
Corrine, however, had been starved to the brink of death. Coming back from that would not be easy. Nor would it be easy for her to understand why she was forever connected to the man bound beside her. Worse, Kane would not be at his best. The fever in his blood and in his soul would make him savage, make him reckless.
“Make certain he remains bound,” Noah stressed to Abram, although the Mind Demon wouldn’t have thought to do otherwise. “And don’t worry about the flaws in his actions. I have faith that the mistakes of youth can be overcome and tempered into miraculous things.”
It was so strange how she suddenly knew things to be the absolute truth and yet had no shred of proof to support her belief. Yet she knew. When she opened her eyes, she just knew that he had manipulated her into sleeping, exactly the same way he had manipulated her into getting back into bed with him. This time when she awoke, however, she didn’t move even the smallest fraction of a millimeter. She just opened her eyes and lay quietly as she absorbed everything around her.
She was lying cozily across his chest still, her cheek pillowed on an impressive pectoral muscle. She could feel wiry little hairs under her cheek and tickling her nose as well, and each time she took a breath she was inundated with that smell. . the smell of a strong, sexy male lying warm and within her reach. God, it had been such a long time since she’d lain intimately naked with a man, just quietly absorbing his presence. And even then, she couldn’t recall any man having as much power in his presence as Kane seemed to have.
He was perplexing and confusing, everything about the entire situation seeming surreal and crazy, but in that moment it was as if she’d settled into the perfect niche. It was as if she belonged exactly where she was, even if she wasn’t quite sure what that meant. The realization gave her an uncontrollable chill, gooseflesh running over her skin until she shivered, giving herself away.
“I already knew you were awake,” he said, his voice hoarse as it whispered above her head.
It was fully dark now, and she wondered just how long she’d been asleep.
“Only an hour or two. It was sunset when you woke before.”
“Okay, has anyone ever told you just how creepy that is?” she asked him sharply, lifting her chin to try to see him in the darkness. “How do you do that?”
She felt him shrug in spite of his awkward positioning. “I was born this way.”
“People aren’t just born that way. Not real people. Imaginary people maybe, comic book people or sci-fi movie people, but not real people.”
“
Still, she didn’t ask. She wasn’t sure she was ready to know.
Corrine sat up, pushing off against him to do so, grateful to find she could move with comparative ease. She paused a moment, trying to recall the layout of the room. She slid up along his side carefully, and then reached across him, the shortest distance to the nearest lamp. She braced herself as she fumbled for the switch.
Kane had to bite back a groan of pure craving as the tip of her breast brushed just beneath his nose. As she leaned further forward he could smell the delightful musk of her sleep-warmed skin. Better still, he could smell himself on her, impressed into her from the hours spent lying close together. Oh, every minute of it had been utter torture, but it had been worth it to have this sweet result. Even now, as her sleek, bare body brushed in haunting teases all against his, he swallowed down the agony of his need and reveled in the minute pleasures of her warmth and softness being so close to him.
She finally found and figured out the key to the lamp. Since it wasn’t electric, the gas flame surprised her and made her draw back with a little gasp. The reaction brought that same luscious breast back across his lips and this time Kane couldn’t resist the temptation. He opened his mouth and snaked out his tongue, catching the soft flesh of her nipple quickly against his taste buds. Corrine yelped in surprise and jolted away from him, forcing Kane to curse his bound hands. Had they been free he could have caught her and held her to himself. He could have sucked on her until she completely discarded the impulse to escape and began, instead, to give in to the virulent chemistry he knew she was already starting to feel.
Corrine pushed away from him awkwardly, her shock at his boldness doubling when she felt the fiercely stunning flood of sensation that burst over her entire breast and embedded itself deep into the heart lying beneath it. That devastation of feeling compounded itself yet again when she got a good look at him. With his arms stretched taut over his head and his chest and belly on tight display, he looked every inch the restrained beast. He was shifting restlessly, his hips moving in an attempt to angle away from her, but it was a futile maneuver. Once
