Adam
THE NIGHTWALKERS
By Jacquelyn Frank
ZEBRA BOOKS
Copyright © 2011
Jacquelyn Frank
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4201-0986-3
Chapter One
Ten Years Later
"Adam?"
Leah's dark head jolted up and around in her shock,
her violet eyes going wide as she stared at her Siddah
Elijah. Elijah looked at his foster daughter with amusement.
He was well aware the fifteen-year-old had been
tuning out most of her lessons up until that point.
"Yes. Adam. Your father's eldest brother was Enforcer
before your father inherited the mantle from him."
"But ... Daddy's only brother is Uncle Kane."
"Trust me, angel, I was very good friends with Adam.
You were perhaps just too young to recall your father
ever mentioning him."
"But Uncle Kane never speaks of him," she argued.
No doubt, Elijah thought. Kane had not known Adam,
having been born after Adam's loss. Then again, the
present Enforcer also avoided his niece whenever he
could, so the opportunity for discussions about anything
was nonexistent. The look flitting over Leah's
features told him that she was recalling that very
same fact.
Kane and Corrine had never recovered from the
tragic loss of their siblings. They had become very insular,
taking solace only in one another and avoiding
anything that could possibly remind them of Jacob or
Bella. At first, Kane had even refused to take on the
position of Enforcer, this in spite of the fact that he
knew he was the last of his line, the last of a very special
legacy of Demon power that allowed him to sense
when other Demons were on the brink of insanity.
Eventually, Kane had very little choice. Then again,
it wasn't as though any of them had a choice. Life
plodded forward, but they were all aware of the pall
that had hung over their society this past decade.
There were many who believed Jacob and Bella would
have destroyed Ruth eventually, or at the very least
the plague of rogue Vampires that now threatened
to overwhelm the Nightwalker world.
Kane always tried his best and he meant well, but
his youth was against him as he struggled to fill his
brother's formidable shoes.
Others, like Elijah, simply believed that the blow of
the Enforcers' deaths had taken the spirit out of the
entire Demon community.
"Adam was gone long before Kane was even born,"
Elijah pointed out to his charge. "He didn't even
know him."
"Gone? You mean he died?" she pressed. As a rule,
her
Siddah was very careful with the words he chose,
so the distinction caught the clever girl's attention.
"Actually, I can only assume so. Adam disappeared
without explanation some four centuries ago on a
Beltane night. We found no clues to his disappearance;
however, since we were at war with the Vampires
at the time, it was not unusual for even our best warriors
to disappear."
"Oh! How terrible!" Leah's violet eyes filled with
empathetic tears. She often did this. Leah hungered
for stories of her parents and felt a constant need to
apply emotions to them. Elijah supposed it helped
her to feel closer to them. The tragedy was that Kane
and Corrine, the two people on earth who could best
fill her hunger for information about Jacob and Bella,
were as remote a resource to her as Pluto was to Earth,
and it had very little to do with the fact that Leah was
being raised in a distant Russian province in the court
of the Lycanthrope Queen, Elijah's mate, Siena.
Being a Mind Demon, Kane was capable of teleporting
at will. He could have brought himself and his
mate to Russia whenever he wanted to.
"You know, Noah was Adam's best friend, as I
recall. Perhaps you ought to ask him about your other
uncle," Elijah suggested.
"Really? I can go to England?"
"Of course." He chuckled. "Kestra and Noah would
be thrilled to see you."
"Yeah, I guess," the young girl sighed. "But it
stresses Kes out when she sees me. It stresses all of you
out."
Leah knew that was exactly the truth of the matter.
After her parents had died, there had been something
of a terrible war over her custody. Demon tradition
stated that upon the death of both parents, a
Demon child's
Siddah would take immediate custody
of the child, instead of waiting until the child's power
began to show itself in the child's late teens. But Noah
and Kestra had fought with Elijah and Legna for the
right to raise her themselves until the proper time for
her Fostering to begin. They wanted to raise her in
the Demon court and in the hub of Demon life.
Leah's
Siddah, Elijah and Magdelegna, both lived with
their mates in the Lycanthrope court. A foreign court
with foreign traditions.
Of course Kestra's motivations had been strongly
oriented to her husband's desires. She was unable to
have children of her own and knew how deeply Noah
felt for Leah. She had seen it as a perfect opportunity
to provide him with the family he deserved. And Leah
didn't doubt that the barren Queen had been strongly
in favor of the idea for other reasons as well. The fight
had, she came to understand, caused some rifts between
Elijah and his King ... and even between
Magdelegna and her brother. Legna and Noah had
once been very loving and very close, but now the relationship
was strained.
All because of Leah.
Eventually it had come down to the Great Council's
vote on the matter. The Council had strongly
sided with Leah's
Siddah and Demon tradition, and so
she had been raised by Elijah and Legna and Legna's
Demon mate Gideon. Siena, the Lycanthrope Queen,
and Siena's entourage of Lycanthropes had had their
influence on Leah, too.
Leah didn't know if any of them were good or bad
influences, or if Noah and Kestra might have been
better ones, but frankly she was glad she had been
raised outside of the Demon world. There was always
so much weight in the eyes of the Demons who saw
her mother and father in her looks or her bearing or
perhaps even her smallest habits. That weight invariably
led to sadness and an overwhelming guilt. Leah's
guilt. She felt bad for making them sorrowful, and the
older she was, the worse it seemed to get. Apparently
her face and eyes made her a dead ringer for her
mother, while her build and hair reminded everyone
of her father.
"I think I'll just stay here," she said as she almost invariably
did whenever she thought of visiting the
Demon court. Actually, her thoughts were far more
engaged with the fascinating concept of learning
about an uncle she had never heard of before. "So
what can you tell me about Adam?"
"Adam? Sweet Destiny." Elijah paused to thrust the
blade he was forging deep into the hot coals before
him. "Why are you so fascinated with him?" he asked
his fosterling. He took a moment to look over her willowy
frame, smiling as he saw how much she had
grown these past few months. She also looked healthy
and, considering her history, reasonably happy. But
there would always be an element of sadness in this
child, Elijah thought. The tragedy of her parents'
death was worn deep in her young spirit, and anyone
who sat and talked to her for any length of time could
see it sitting on her soul.
"Well, you were good friends, yes?"
Elijah didn't see what possible use there was in
bringing up stories of other great men who were also
long gone, but she was animated and curious and it
was infectious to see her that way.
"Honestly?" the big blond Demon said with a
crooked grin. "Your father was Adam's best friend
even above Noah. When they weren't bickering, that
is. Your dad loved to get under Adam's skin and would
poke and prod until he got his ass kicked for it."
Leah laughed, and Elijah relished the sound. It
was a rare commodity in her. It was rare in just about
everyone these days.
"Then again," he continued, "those sparring matches
and their playful rivalry is probably how your father
learned all the tricks of the Enforcer's trade. From
diplomacy to cunning to battle, Adam was the ultimate
instructor, and your father a clever sort of student.
Did you know that Adam was the one who
devised most of the current punishments we use to
deter Demons from straying during the Hallowed
moons? There have been others throughout the centuries,
but Adam's were by far the most wickedly effective
and have stuck the longest."
"Really?" she asked breathlessly, her expression
rapt as she leaned in.
"Yeah. Apparently, Adam thought the original
forms of castigation and humiliation were a bit too
warm and fuzzy for his tastes. What he devised has
proved far more diabolical. Adam was ..." Elijah
grinned at her, his green eyes alight with distant
memory. "Adam was the definition of a hard-ass. Believe
me when I tell you it paid off. Whatever you hear
people say about your father being militant, it was
nothing compared to Adam. He was the all-time
deadliest fighter on the block when he wanted to be.
Not to disparage your father, but if Adam were still
around, Ruth would have been dealt with long before
she could ever have got this far."
Leah frowned as he turned to shift the blade under
the coals. "You mean he was better than Daddy?" she
asked as she licked the sweat from her upper lip. The
forge was hot and close, but she wouldn't have budged
for anything.
"Well ... let's say he was different. Adam wasn't
known for being touchy-feely. Your father was the
opposite in many ways." Elijah hesitated. "If I took
Adam at the time he died and set him up against your
dad at the time
he died, it'd be a real hard call. But
you see, your mother made Jacob more powerful
than Adam could ever be alone. However, she also ...
well ..." Elijah stopped with a wince, realizing he had
forgotten whom he was talking to.
Leah wasn't left behind.
"You mean to say Mama was Daddy's worst weakness
as well, don't you? It's okay, Elijah. I was there. I
know my father wouldn't be dead if he hadn't turned
his back on his enemies."
"Actually, no one knows that," he corrected her
sharply. "Do you blame your mother for what happened?
Or your father?"
"I blame everybody!" Leah bit out sharply. "I blame
everyone who ever let Ruth slip through their fingers!
I blame the Vampires! I blame you and Noah and
even Adam for not being there when my parents
needed them the most!" Leah's small hands balled
into fists as she railed. She tried to hold back, to rein
in her temper, especially when she saw the guilt and
pain in Elijah's eyes. "I just ... I wish it had been different.
I bet if my father and my uncle Adam had
been there together that day, Ruth would be dead
and that Vampire bastard would be burned to ashes
instead of my father and mother!"
Elijah looked at her carefully for a minute or two,
letting her catch her breath and calm her emotions.
Then he said gently, "I think it's a waste of time to
think of such things, Leah. If you get caught up in
fantasies about `would have beens,' you forget to appreciate
what you actually have in the here and now.
Tragedies happen, Leah, but quite often unexpected
good comes from them."
"Tell me what good has come from my parents'
murders!" she lashed out, standing up and bearing
the fierce heat of the forge in order to go toe-to-toe
with her
Siddah. "You tell me, Elijah! Teach me how to
see their deaths in a proper light! Wax poetic on all
the happiness among us that was born because Jacob
and Isabella are dead!"
Elijah stood in stony silence as Leah reached to
dash tears from her eyes. He deserved her anger, he
thought sadly. They all did, because they all had failed
her. It broke his heart to see her in the firelight of the
forge, her mother's violet eyes and her father's brown-black
hair leaping out at him from a face made half of
Isabella's fey features and half of Jacob's sterner aristocracy.
She even grew tall and lean like her sire, yet
was developing the curvaceous femininity of her dam.
There was no doubt, the instant you laid eyes on her,
whose daughter she was.
"I'm sorry, Leah," he said after a moment of weeding
his own pain out of his voice. "It was a poor platitude
to use. I only meant-"
Leah waved off his explanation with a hasty sniffle.
"No," she said softly, "I understand your point. I truly
do." She slowly turned her back on him and stepped
back toward the stool she had been sitting on. Unable
to trust herself, Leah kept turned away and hid her
features behind the fall of her hair. "Please. Tell me
more about Adam."
Elijah was quiet and still for a beat, but then with a
nod to himself he continued to do so.
* * *
When Leah had finished her lessons, Elijah sent
her on her way and turned the forge over to the
Minotaur that had been assisting him. He then made
his way up from the deep caverns to the underground
castle that was the seat of his wife's government.
There she was, sitting in state, hearing grievances and
attending to the minutiae of her political life. Siena
looked utterly bored, her chin resting in her palm,
her hair absently curling itself into twists. Each strand
was alive with its own blood supply and nerves and
would reflexively curl around her in protection or if
she was cold. When she was changing form, it would
spread over her entire body and become the fur of
the cougar she could eventually become. But lately
the springy, lush golden coils had taken to clinging to
her like a constantly protective cloak.
She looked up and directly at him the instant he
moved into the room. Imprinted as they were, she was
always aware of him, always a part of his thoughts just
as he was a part of hers. Their mating was the first one
of its kind. In this millennium, in any event. In the
past decade, scholars had uncovered certain strange
truths and histories about the Nightwalker species
that showed history had ways of repeating itself.
Hopefully they would do things better this time
around.
Although it wasn't looking very promising. The
rogue Vampires and human necromancers were
growing in power, and Ruth and Nico continued to
wreak havoc.
Elijah had to have hope that the goodness and love
of Imprintings like his and Siena's would be enough
to counterbalance all of that. But without powerful
Demons like Jacob and remarkable Druids like Bella
to help defend the Nightwalkers, it was looking very
bleak. Once cohesive in thought and action, the central
body of government in the Demon courts had
fallen apart, agreements a thing of the past, bickering
and whining taking up so much of the Great Council's
time that Noah had refused to call them to table
for nearly three years now. And although he was no
longer Noah's Warrior Captain, Elijah was still a Great
Council member and still wanted to fulfill his role as
such. He wanted to help guide Noah in this volatile
time. He wanted to help the man who had formerly
called him friend.
But Noah did not feel the same. For some reason,
he couldn't seem to move forward without his Enforcers.
And Elijah had to admit it was hard. Sometimes
too hard. But it must be done. If for no other
reason than to show a young girl that it
could be done.
Siena immediately began to shoo her people away
from her, standing up from her throne and displaying
her lush, beautiful body in its light, nearly sheer
gown. The empire waist brought the material up
snugly to her breasts, accentuating their fullness. The
silky fabric fell away from the rest of her for the most
part. But it liked her hips well, clinging to them and
her backside almost lasciviously. It wasn't until she
began to move forward that it gave hints of her rounded
belly in front.
Siena ought to have been thrilled about her pregnancy,
but she wasn't. Not entirely, anyway. What should
have been full of joy was marred. And now that she was
more obviously beginning to show, it was past time for
them to announce the impending birth of the Lycanthrope
heir. Most probably those closest to her had
managed to figure it out already. Her attendants and
aides had very probably deduced as much.
But Siena was trying to protect her child and, more
likely, the feelings of her sister. Whatever was left of
them. Elijah's belief
was that it probably wouldn't
matter. If the news was going to make any impact, it
would be worse if Siena did not confront Syreena herself,
instead allowing rumor to reach her sister first. It
was quite possible the barren sister would be devastated
by the news of the fertile sister's triumph, but
Elijah really didn't think it would hurt Syreena quite
the way his wife feared.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Adam
by Jacquelyn Frank
Copyright © 2011 by Jacquelyn Frank.
Excerpted by permission of ZEBRA BOOKS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.