LITMIR.BIZ

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least they closed the parlor doors.” Legna chuckled. “She’s chafing at the bit for Beltane just as much as you are, believe me.” Legna rubbed her friend’s knee in a very effective gesture of comfort. “Besides, you know that you are Jacob’s lifetime partner in all the ways that matter. To him, you were his wife the moment you first touched.”

      “Well, I’m thinking someone is going to have to do something about that Demon law about weddings only taking place on Beltane and Samhain,” the Druid groused. “It is seriously cramping my reputation. Say”—she snapped her fingers in inspiration, her violet eyes sparkling with mischief—“I seem to recall you being the King’s…uh…cousin? No, no, that’s not it.” Bella made a great show of tapping a finger to her chin in thought. “Um, oh yes! His sister!” she said, as if she hadn’t remembered all along. “Surely you could encourage him to discuss the matter with the Great Council.”

      “Bella, you goose.” Legna laughed. “I wish I had that kind of power over my dear brother. However, I do not. No more than you have over Mother Nature and her plans for the duration of your pregnancy.”

      “You mentioned it again!” Bella scolded with a dramatic screech of exasperation, making Legna sigh and smile with amused patience. “Well, at this point I would be happy if we ended up with an average between the time required for a human gestation and the Demon gestation of thirteen months. Anything is better than thirteen months.”

      “What has Gideon told you?” Legna asked, unable to resist avoiding Bella’s violet gaze as she mentioned the powerful medic’s name. She turned her attention to smoothing out the aqua silk of her gown’s long skirt, her fingers tracing the rich golden embroidery swirling over it in a repetitive pattern. “Is he still personally monitoring you?”

      “Yes, he is. Actually, that alone is enough to make me a little nervous.” Bella exhaled a little shakily. “I was talking to Hannah and she said that in all six of her pregnancies, she was never monitored so closely. And certainly not by the most Ancient and highly skilled medic in all of Demon history. They say that Gideon has forgotten more about healing than all the other medics combined will ever know.”

      “Well, perhaps Gideon is merely making an extra effort because it has been so long since a Druid and a Demon have mated. And yes, I am sure the fact that you are half human does make your case unique, but I am also certain he only means to be cautious. You know how direct he is. If there were something to worry about, he is not one to keep you uninformed.”

      “True. He would at the very least inform Jacob if there were something to be concerned about, wouldn’t you say? Jacob and I have very few secrets between us, what with our ability to share one another’s thoughts.”

      “I must admit, Bella,” Legna confessed, “that even though I am a Mind Demon, I am quite grateful I can only read emotions, unlike my male counterparts who can trade thoughts as you and Jacob do. I am positive that I would not want to know everything someone was thinking. Trust me, knowing everything they are feeling can be quite troublesome enough. And as for Jacob being able to read your thoughts, I do not know how you bear it. I am not so certain I would enjoy someone else having access to my most private ruminations. I suppose the closest I come to that is with Hannah and Noah. We have always had a strong sense of one another’s needs, desires…pain. But I promise you, there are things that have crossed my mind that I hope Noah never finds out about.”

      Legna gave an impish wiggle of her brows, making Bella laugh.

      “I’m familiar with that particular desire,” Bella said with a nod. “Still, there’s something comforting about the vast openness of the sharing and honesty between Jacob and me. And…” She paused, her face softening with a warm, beautiful thought, her skin, like pale satin, flushing with a gentle glow. “My love, my mate, lives within me always, Legna. I’m never completely alone, even when he tries to give me solitude. And I don’t even mind. Part of me realizes that, for the rest of my life, I will never be alone again. Better still, I will never be lonely. It’s compelling in a way I can’t possibly describe. My sister is only just beginning to learn this for herself. I have tried to help her, but I always fail to describe it to her adequately.”

      “Your description lacks nothing, Bella,” the empath confessed quietly, a catch of emotion in her throat and a shine of bittersweet happiness in her eyes for her friend.

      “Corrine’s power acquisition is taking much longer than mine did. Gideon believes it’s delayed because of how close she came to dying.”

      Bella shuddered as she remembered the image of her sister lying close to death in her bed, gray and gaunt from the energy drain she had suffered. A Druid only came into power when his or her Demon mate came into contact with them for the first time. At the time Corrine and Kane had encountered each other, no one had realized she was a Druid, destined to be with Kane and destined to wither away without his nearness and energy to replenish her.

      “It has been taking time, Gideon says, for her connection with Kane to rebuild and repair itself. He likened it to having brain damage, where the brain has to reroute function in other ways to compensate for the damage.” Bella shook her head. “I watch her struggles and I am so frustrated for her. I want her to be as happy as I am. I want her power to come so she will know what we have inherited. As a logical person I know it will take time, but as a sister—a pregnant sister at that—I want to yell out to the Fates, ‘C’mon already!’ She’s already been through so much.”

      “She has come very far already. She is looking healthy and does not become weak as quickly,” Legna soothed her.

      “Gideon said as much, but he also said she may have more setbacks and that we should be prepared for that. He explained that the damage has made her pathways to power fragile. But you know this. This is why you are teaching her meditation and focus techniques. It is by his prescription.”

      “It will never cease to amaze me, the extent of Gideon’s knowledge. He is the only Demon in all the world who was alive during the time of the last Druids. In spite of it being over a millennium ago, he still remembers such details of the connections between Druid and Demon, and of the healing processes of a race he thought was obliterated. It boggles the mind to think he was only a fledgling himself at the time.”

      “Yes. It’s quite remarkable.” Isabella leaned forward, lowering her voice to a whisper. “But Gideon holds a great deal of weight on his soul over having been a part of the original massacre of the Druids. I believe he feels he should have known better, in spite of the fact that the entire world was fairly savage at the time and he was a mere fledgling following the orders of the Elders of the era.”

      “War never makes sense when the aftermath is studied a thousand years later. It is a testament to his strength that he has survived in spite of all the deaths, Summonings, and worldwide upheavals of a millennium. A thousand years.” Legna shook her head with amazement. “Even those Demons who are past their fifth century have difficulty comprehending such a lifetime.”

      Isabella nodded, sitting back once more and absently rubbing her distended belly. “So you are certain he would tell me if he had concerns about the baby?”

      “Positive,” Legna affirmed with a curt nod. “There may be a great many things about Gideon I do not understand, or even like, to be honest, but his straightforwardness is admirable, even if somewhat harsh from time to time. Besides, Jacob would not tolerate anything less than total forthrightness, and Gideon would respect that. Their friendship is still much strained, in spite of Gideon’s welcome return to mainstream Demon life and his Triumvirate seat on the Great Council. However, Jacob’s latent hostility would not keep Gideon silent if speaking was called for.”

      “I know,” Bella said softly. “I don’t think that Jacob has quite come to terms with Gideon’s rude behavior around me in the beginning of our relationship.”

      “But he would be foolish to turn away the most skilled medic in Demon history when that Demon offers to oversee the pregnancy of his beloved mate,” Legna pointed out. “And Jacob is no fool. No matter how deeply his Imprinted instincts have made him come to distrust

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