Kane. Jacquelyn Frank

to a helpless, weakened girl.

      Kane was literally in hell.

      Jacob watched his brother tensely from the outer hallway, hanging as far back as he could so his telepathic sibling would remain unaware of his presence and, more importantly, his overriding concern. Newly Imprinted himself on Corrine’s blood sister Isabella, he could easily feel the struggle his brother was wrestling with. It was a credit to the fledgling’s mental control that he was sitting there so determinedly. As a Demon of the Earth, Jacob had no access to the thoughts or emotions of others; those were the skills of Mind Demons like Kane. However, he knew the scent of a warm-blooded creature infused with lustful need very well. The mystical force of the Samhain moon would eventually wrest control away from his brother . . . just as it would wrest away his own control and force him to make haste to his Bella’s waiting arms.

      “He will not make it,” he said softly to his companion.

      “No,” the Demon King, Noah, agreed grimly as he glanced into the bedroom. “He is too young by far.”

      “I am an Elder of great power and control and I do not think even I could keep away from Isabella tonight even if she were lying near death before me,” Jacob growled in sharp defense of his brother. It was a grim truth and it galled the Enforcer to admit it. It would horrify any respectable male to no end even to think of using his mate sexually when she was injured or ill, but inside every Demon lay a beast that could devolve into something uncontrollable on the rare occasion. Those occasions always seemed to center around the volatile emotional conditions of lust, rage, possessiveness, and protectiveness. And it was always worse on Samhain and Beltane.

      “Sweet Destiny,” the King swore softly. “It infuriates me to think we have evolved so little that we would be compelled to something that amounts to rape in order to satisfy a biological urge!”

      “Agreed. But this is an urge that ought to be mutual. It ought to be between immortals so powerful and dynamic that things like illness never become a part of the equation. This imperative does not take into consideration that a mate might not be fit for mating and it does not give us conscious control over ourselves in that instance.”

      Noah already knew this and it was apparent in his hard sigh. The Demon King was the offspring of one of the oh-so-rare Demon to Demon Imprintings that had taken place in their history. He had seen how his parents were driven to one another on a daily basis, connected beyond his scope of understanding, and he had always known that Samhain and Beltane meant he would have no access to his parents as they locked themselves away from the world in order to indulge in each other. No matter what. If they had been arguing for days or angry with one another, they were forced to put their differences aside and left only with the choice of satisfying nature’s demand to mate.

      It was a nearly foolproof plan meant to forever keep the Demon population thriving on this earth.

      Tonight was an example of the horrible hitch in that plan.

      Noah lowered his voice to the barest whisper of breath. “We will have to bind him.”

      “We will have to do more than that or he will simply teleport free of the bindings,” Jacob pointed out grimly, feeling a sickly response to the realization that he was plotting to trap his brother in a literal hell on earth. “And we will have to bolt him down right beside her. Too much distance and she will die. By all rights she should already be dead. Only his presence spares her now.”

      “It will not be so sharp a danger for her with a little time.”

      “I wish I could say the same for my brother,” Jacob replied, reaching up to rub at the wrenching tension in his neck. He could barely think; his psyche was torn with the needs of others. There was his would-be bride, with whom he was sharing an exclusive telepathic connection, inundating him with fear for her sister’s life as she waited in the parlor downstairs. On the flip side of that coin was the Imprinting that demanded they come together soon. Very soon. There was his worry for Kane and the stress of knowing other Druids like Corrine had already died horrible deaths because he had unwittingly done his job as Enforcer and kept humans away from Demons, not realizing there were some with Druid DNA that were calling a particular Demon to them. And once they touched . . .

      And he always made sure to wait until they touched. Once the Demon transgressor touched the human victim, it was irrefutable evidence he or she had crossed the line.

      “Better this than the alternative,” Noah remarked knowingly as he turned serious jade and grey eyes on him. “We had best get on with it. We shall use Legna to tamp down his ability to teleport for the moment. She is strong enough to master him, I think. But I believe, in the end, it ought to be his Siddah who binds him for the long haul. He will be better able to forgive those of us he loves much easier than those who are less intimate with him.”

      “I suppose we will see about that,” Jacob replied.

      In truth, Jacob could not see how his brother was ever going to be able to forgive him for putting Kane’s destined mate in such horrible danger. Ignorance was no excuse, in Jacob’s mind. In all these centuries as Enforcer, why had it never once occurred to him to question his duties? Why had he never thought to look deeper than the responsibilities thrust upon him?

      And why was he the first to be rewarded with the incredible beauty and breathlessness of a Demon and human/Druid hybrid Imprinting? After destroying countless others’ opportunities to know the same blessing, however unwittingly, why was he now to be the one to find joy?

      Ironically, it was the soothing comfort of his mate’s voice in his head that helped ease his guilt and put it to rest.