It was becoming very clear that Noah cared for her a great deal.

The idea left her a little breathless with a combination of exhilarating emotions. It was rather a lot like base-jumping off a "no access" building, hitting the ground running before the authorities caught up with her. Then again, she had done that twice and had never felt quite so alive as she was feeling at the moment. She was sitting at the vanity drying her hair with a towel when she realized there was no hair dryer. There were no electrical outlets, for that matter. Then again, it was a castle. It even had gas lighting systems. But the water was always hot. It had to get that way somehow. And didn't water work on electric pumps?

Without realizing it, she had sifted into Noah's brain and extracted the answers to her questions. She leapt to her feet, knocking over the vanity seat.

No electricity...ever?

There was silence for several beats and she began to tap her foot in expectation, her hands going impatiently to her hips, still clutching a towel in one of them as she glared at her own reflection as if she were glaring at him.

Kes, I need you to put something on and come down here. Now, please.

The request was a command and nothing less, no matter that it was couched in softened words. Normally, that would have pissed her off in a snap, but there was something in his tone that sought out that spot in the back of her brain telling her to pay very close attention to the details of a situation, versus her emotional reaction to it. She forgot her gripes about the missing modern technology and hurried to throw on one of her simpler dresses, a china blue and white gingham cotton minidress that made her look about fifteen years old, but it was the most casual, low-maintenance outfit she owned. She dashed from the room barefoot, flinging back her long, wet hair in an effort to order it, feeling it soak through her dress instantly. Her feet flew over the beautiful Persian runner that graced the third-story hall and continued on down the stairs. She took curving stone steps two and three at a time, a rushing descent that turned several times before the stairs emptied into the main room on the first floor. Without a railing to stay her, she would have shot clear off the last step and run to a stop. But just as she touched the marble floor, a powerful arm reached out and caught her, halting her flight instantly with a speed-absorbing swing into a hard body.

"Uh, Noah...I think you're missing something."

Kes looked up, impressively up, at a blond giant of a man whose hair was as purely gold as hers was sugar white. His merry green gaze regarded her for a minute as he set her back onto her feet safely. Kes would have thanked him, but her hands had inadvertently lain against his biceps as he'd caught her and she had to take a minute to marvel at the monstrous size of the muscles in comparison. No wonder he'd plucked her out of the air as if she were no more than a dust mote. He was enormous.

"My thanks, Elijah," a familiar voice said near her ear as Noah drew her back against his body. Kestra shook her head bemusedly. She'd never been picked up and tossed around so much in her entire life. It was such a strangely feminine thing, to be lifted by men who never gave a second thought as to whether they had a right to do so. They just assumed it was a natural-born privilege.

Kes felt Noah's arm around her waist, holding her back against his amazingly warm body, the sensation of coming home as she settled back against him so overwhelming that she raised a hand to fluff her bangs, hiding the flustered blush that burned cheeks that never blushed. That was when she realized there were more people in the room.

More men, rather.

The healer she recognized instantly. How could she not? His silver eyes and silver hair were a bit on the outstanding side. More importantly, she seemed to be able to see an aura around him now. A lavender mist all around him, dotted with splashes of color rather like random spray-painted graffiti. A quick glance at the others around her told her that everyone else looked normal to her.

Another man who was slimmer, and yet almost as tall and broad in the shoulders as Noah was, stood off slightly to the right of the healer. He was leaning one shoulder casually against a nearby stone wall, his arms folded over his chest. He had dark hair, either brown or black, and eyes that matched. She could hardly distinguish his irises from his pupils. He held himself with an air of confidence that hinted at the power just beneath his calm exterior.

In a nutshell, she was in a room being dwarfed by the four most powerful men she had ever laid eyes on. This in spite of the fact that she was of significant height for a woman. She suddenly felt at an extreme disadvantage, being held by Noah like some kind of blond-bombshell trophy and looking the part in her silly little dress. Kestra unexpectedly felt Noah's arm drop from around her waist and he stepped around her. She felt a prickling over her skin she was beginning to recognize for what it was. An energy overflow. One that Noah gave off when something disturbed him.

She had somehow upset him. She knew it without a doubt, though she did not understand how. She folded her arms beneath her breasts defensively as he walked to the center of the loose circle they made.

"Kestra, this is Jacob, my Enforcer. Behind you is Elijah, my Warrior Captain. You have met Gideon, our medic. Gentlemen, this is Kestra, my...our latest Druid to join our lives."

"Greetings to you, Kestra," Jacob said, pushing away from his wall and reaching to shake her hand in a gesture that made her feel abruptly equalized. "An Enforcer is what you might call...police. I am in charge of policing our own."

Elijah tapped her shoulder and engulfed her hand between his enthusiastically. "Hey there. I have to say, I'm tickled to death to meet you. I'll enlighten you, too," he added quickly when he saw Noah's scowl of warning over her shoulder. "Warrior Captain means I am the head of our armed forces, as pertains to our defense against foreigners."

"Foreigners?" She said it carefully, her gaze quickly sliding to Noah. He stood stiffly, not helping in the least. "You mean other Nightwalkers?"

"Sometimes. It is complicated. We have a relatively sound peace with all the other races at the moment, but like with any society, that has not always been the case. And, of course, there're always other threats."

Light dawned instantly and she spat it out on a bitter tone.

"Humans."

"I am afraid so," he said with honest regret.

"It doesn't surprise me," she said. "I have dealt often with the seamier side of humanity. I don't blame you for taking precautions or actions to protect yourselves."

"Hey, Noah, I really like her!" Elijah exclaimed with a laugh, chucking her in the shoulder hard enough to make her step back in spite of having her feet braced.

Kestra merely nodded to Gideon as she contemplated this new information. It had never occurred to her that Demons would look on humans as enemies. She had the knee-jerk reaction to go filing through Noah's mind for information, but she also found herself feeling as though it would be an invasion since he seemed unreceptive to her at the moment. What she was left with instead were the only memories she had of Noah's interactions with other humans. The encounter in Sands's penthouse. He had killed both of those men without batting an eyelash. Of course, they had also been massively armed with an intent to kill her and she would be dead if not- That thought ended abruptly and she looked up to meet Noah's eyes. His gaze was infinitely softer this time and she saw his subtle hand gesture near his thigh. A calming press of his hand downward. A signal to ease her thoughts and to focus on the moment. Explanations and information could come later. He needed her...wanted her to stay in the moment and not tangle herself in trying to understand Demon motivations.

The group moved toward the desk set back by some colossal bookshelves, equally enormous leather-bound volumes stacked into them. Two chairs sat in front of it, one behind. She only had to look at the wide comfort and mellowed wood of the chair behind the desk in order to picture Noah sitting in it for hours on end. The armrests shone yellow-gold where the years and his hands had worn at the wood of the sturdy oak. The cushions, royal purple velvet fabric, had that soft paling of wear in the pile that bespoke frequent use.

Noah didn't round the desk to take his familiar place, opting to lean back against the front of the desk. Jacob took a casual seat in front of him. The rest came closer and stood like sentinels, waiting for Noah to begin. Instinct galvanized her, and she moved to the desk and hoisted herself up onto it, her hip near Noah's hand. They exchanged a look but no thoughts. The prickling had stopped and she could feel that he'd calmed down.

"Very well, gentlemen, let us get this finished. We all have...places to be and personal engagements." Noah had not meant to hesitate midsentence, as if it were some kind of leering, manly innuendo.

Damn it. He was editing his language of the word mate, purposely, so as not to make Kes feel pressured in front of others. Even so, she had come up with that blond-bombshell crack in that thick skull of hers. He had been truly peeved about that. Unusually short-tempered, actually. Eventually, after a few seething minutes, he had appreciated that unreserved affection with one's mate was a cultural difference she would not be used to. Demons were very open about their mates and their importance. Affections, and even the outright acknowledgment about where they would all be ending up after the Samhain celebration, were commonplace. Had Bella or his sister been present, each would be held with far more blatant love and intimacy by her male counterpart than a simple arm around the waist. It was simply their way. A way, he tried to realize, that was practically an alien concept to Kestra. She was not used to affection of any sort. She had come a great distance in a short amount of time in their private moments, and he had to acknowledge that.

"We have a report of the Vampire rogues," Elijah began as soon as he had total attention, his no-nonsense tone abruptly intimidating in the wake of the easy, almost jovial personality of moments ago. Kes was instantly aware that title of Warrior Captain was a far more physically invested position than, say, an American four-star general would be. "Tristan sent word to Siena of a death of one of the younger generation of Shadowdwellers. He was found with his throat ripped out in a human city. Tristan said the subsequent investigation and autopsy were a disaster. The rogues have exposed the 'Dwellers to humans in a way no one has ever done before."

"Does Tristan need help with damage control?"

"His emissary said they had it under control, but you know how these things go. When innocents are involved, you can't just kill off everyone who got a whiff of forbidden information."

"A few Mind Demons might help," Noah insisted. "Erase some short-term memories."

"Tristan said he had it covered." The giant shrugged a huge shoulder. "You can offer, though."

"Shala has gone home for the holiday," Noah mused, speaking of the Shadowdweller Ambassador. "I will make the offer through her when she returns tomorrow. Hopefully it will not be too late to be effective by then." Noah turned to Jacob. "How goes the hunting?"

Kestra could tell there was a wry sort of pain behind that statement. This time she didn't resist her impulse. She sank into Noah's thoughts and found out about this other, more sinister side to the Hallowed moons. The side where burnt caverns were no longer enough, control was lost, laws forsaken and morals discarded, and the Enforcer sent to lay down the law against his own people. Sometimes, battling them, the Enforcer would put his very life on the line in the name of protecting innocents, the laws of his King, and the transgressing Demons themselves. And then the retributive punishment that Demons deemed unspeakable. She had only gleaned glimpses of these awesome responsibilities in her earlier forays into Noah's troubled memories of the Hallowed moons of the past few years, and the very tangible troubles that made the actions of the Enforcer so very necessary.

There was more information still, a link to further understanding his father's death, but she knew he was reliving every thought and memory she touched in him. Since she didn't move as silently through his mind as he did through hers, she didn't want to disturb his composure. Noah's hand left the desk and reached out to link fingers with hers. Kestra felt his silent gratitude, so she couldn't even feel embarrassed about the small affection.

"I have no active beacons at this time, but I have a few warnings. As you know, I cannot tell until it is almost too late who it is. I have noticed a few twitches, and I will keep watch."

Elijah snorted with laughter. "Who's sitting the little hellion so you and Bella can pursue...ahem...twitches tonight?"

Kestra's eyes grew wide and she bit her lips in a repression of shocked laughter as her gaze swung to the austere Enforcer.

"And I suppose your little pussy cat is not going to get the lion's share tonight?" Jacob flashed back, the barb partly some kind of play on words that went right over Kestra's head, but she got the meaning well enough.

She looked expectantly at Elijah.

"Gentlemen." Noah's halting demand ended the sparring. "We all have multiple responsibilities tonight. I would like us to try to manage them with a modicum of maturity. Gideon, anything to add?"

"Only this. The rogues are killing, not merely feeding. There is no telling how this will affect their powers. I think there should be a serious warning placed out over the network."

"I will send Jasmine to start the chain," Noah said. "Anything else?"

All three men shook their heads.

"Great. See you at the festivities. Let us try to enjoy this holiday."

Kestra felt him squeeze her hand. No sooner had she smiled at him, though, than a massive arm swept her from the desk and urged her across the room toward the fireplace. She barely touched the floor as she followed Elijah. She didn't have much of a choice.

"So, tell me all about you. You're spunky, right? Tongue like a blade? You're in good shape for a human...err...Druid, I mean. That's a compliment, so I hope you are taking it that way." Before Kestra knew it, she was seated in front of a cozy fire and Elijah had pulled a chair up across from her so they were only a foot apart. She glanced up in search of Noah, but he was speaking with Gideon.

"Do you always ask so many questions?" she finally managed to interject.

"Only under special circumstances." Elijah's eyes sparkled with humor and it was too infectious. She grinned back at him as he leaned conspiratorially forward. "My mate gave me specific instructions to find out all about you, and I have to say I am damn curious myself. You don't mind, do you? We've all waited a very long time for you to come along."

"Actually, I'm an extraordinarily private person," she hedged. Again her gaze shifted to Noah. His darkening expression made her wonder what he was talking to the medic about.

"Noah, the next occasion you require my services, I ask you tone down your call. Legna found the power...extreme. Painful." Gideon tried to broach the subject he hadn't had an opportunity to discuss before then with as much gentleness as he could muster. A gentleness that had not existed in him and would not exist in him had it not been for his mate.

Noah's full attention came around to the medic, his eyes finally leaving the figure of his mate, who was being herded across the room by Elijah.

"Painful?" It took a moment for the information to register on the Demon King. "Was she harmed?" he demanded. He knew how sensitive his sister's powers had become since she'd mated with Gideon. He was a powerful Ancient, and the infusion of his power had advanced her ability beyond her years. It had never occurred to him that his pain would harm his sister when she was so far away in a Russian province.

"It was nothing I could not heal." Gideon paused a beat and Noah had the feeling the Ancient was editing his next thoughts. It wasn't like him to do so. Gideon was as blunt and straightforward as they came. If he was holding back, Legna was behind it. "It was quite a feat for a nontelepath to reach that far and with that much...clarity, Noah."

"Legna is a Mind Demon. We are brother and sister. We have always had a strong connection. Though I admit I am impressed as well. I do not even know what my intentions were at the time, Gideon. I was acting purely on instinct."

"And your instincts are like nothing any of us can imagine," the medic said. "Even you do not understand the full scope of your abilities. You have been King since a fairly young age. You have lived a life of restraint, as your position requires. Perhaps..." Again a significant pause. "I am grateful you have found your mate, but I believe it would be wise for you to truly examine the scope of your power, Noah. The tie to your emotions is too great, the potential for harm to others equally great if you do not examine and adjust to the ways your power has grown. You have worried too long about things other than yourself. Take this time of adjustment to your mate to find your own depths. Only then can you truly control them."

"Gideon, you sound strangely like my Siddah," Noah said quietly, no humor in the statement at all.

"I am your Siddah. I will be Siddah to you until the day I leave this plane of existence. No matter how many centuries pass, that bond is never broken. When I see my fosterlings floundering, it does not matter to me their age and their position in this society. I taught you to embrace your power, to always plumb its depths for your best abilities, and you have always done so...up until I believe the moment your own power began to intimidate you."

Noah's eyes clouded with an ominous darkness, his expression and stance turning to stone.

"Kes is here now. If I were intimidated, as you say, then you know it will end with the balance she will bring me. You waste your conjecture and worry on me, Ancient One."

"Do I?" Gideon raised a silvered brow. "Tell me this, Noah. When your uncontrolled power strikes your Druid mate, what consequence do you suppose it will have?" Gideon moved so that he was side by side with the Demon King against the edge of his desk. He leaned in to speak softly to him. "I have complete control over every nuance of my own power, Noah. This alone makes me the most powerful Demon in history. That management includes the ways in which my abilities link to my emotions.

"You have seen how your sister has been affected by the connection we have. It has been over two years since we fully Imprinted. She is still growing in leaps, still struggling to compensate for this growth. Isabella," he cited further, taking no apparent note of the King's flinch, "became an incredible Druid under Jacob's immense power, but even now she cannot fully control it. In the beginning she was bludgeoned by her abilities. It will take her decades to understand how to tone down her premonitions alone.

"When your mate looked into my eyes the other day, she whipped through my entire essence in a heartbeat, without even knowing what she was doing. It was pure instinct. What followed after her initial summary was an ability I have never seen before, and I will be much surprised should I ever see it again. You and your Fire can draw on power and energy, you can even take its quantitative measure by reading a power aura, but no one can map out a precise schematic of another being's powers and weaknesses like Kestra can now do. Untrained, I might add, yet with full comprehension of what she is studying all the same. What was more, your newly fledged mate reached inside me and unearthed the path necessary for me to heal others while in astral form. She showed it to me, and I have already begun to examine it. She was not only accurate, but chillingly so for one who had only learned of our existence shortly before. Information, I am assuming, that was responsible for her panic attack."

"No," Noah said numbly. "It was something else. Though perhaps this was partly an exacerbating factor," he admitted. Then he focused on the Ancient fully. "I knew something was happening between you. I even understood she was caught up in a reflexive use of her new power, and that taking the measure of a power was a part of that ability. But I never suspected anything like this talent to lead even you to an undiscovered resource within yourself." The King looked across to Kestra. "I could not touch her mind while she was seeking so deeply within you."

"The communication between you is young yet. Already stronger than it was then, I am assuming. And here we come back to my point," Gideon pointed out quietly. "Great power requires more than just great control, Noah. It requires understanding and management. You would put a cork into the mouth of a volcano and expect the pressure to never seek relief? Stop merely controlling what you fear in yourself. Do this before you lose the opportunity to manage yourself with knowledge and the same wisdom which you use in all other things. Be aware that there is an inevitability here. You have your mate to help you now, and you will help her as well, but do not allow it to come to the point that she taps into a part of you that you cannot help her understand because-"

"Because I do not understand it myself," Noah finished softly for him. The monarch reached to rub the back of his neck as tension pooled there in a dull, twisting ache of clenching muscles. He looked over at Kestra and Elijah, and found her breathtaking blue eyes fixed squarely on him, her concern clear on her face, a small frown pulling on her pretty lips as she flicked a wary, assessing gaze at Gideon. For the second time that day he found himself relaxing under the balm of her concern and giving her a calming smile. Noah looked into Gideon's expectant gaze. "Thank you, Siddah," he said, nodding his head in a rather formal bow of respect for his old mentor. The King had a sudden thought that sent shadows over his features. "Gideon, is there something you are not telling me? Something I should know?"

Gideon knew he could not hesitate and sound truthful. He wasn't one to lie, and he would never betray Legna's heartfelt request to spare Noah the truth about how he had hurt her. So he gave the question his own interpretation in order to satisfy all conditions.

"I believe I have told you everything I needed to impart to you," he said easily. "Now, if you will forgive me, your sister is rather adamantly requesting my attendance, as well as the Captain's, at Siena's festivities for the night."

"I will miss you here this year," Noah found himself saying suddenly. He instantly chided himself for it. Holidays had paled for him since his closest friends and family had scattered across the lands to do their duties as mates and ambassadors, duties he had often asked them to take on as their King. He had been determined never to show his personal feelings on such subjects, so he would not make others feel conflict with their other lives. "But next year," he added with quick ease, "Seth will be older and perhaps I will host a multicultural Samhain or Beltane, bringing all my distant emissaries home and their foreign friends and courts with them."

"A fine idea," Gideon agreed. "Though I doubt the xenophobic Mistrals will attend, I do not see why all the other Nightwalkers would not. I suspect it is time to engage in this manner of gathering. Peace and Destiny be with you tonight, Noah," he said in farewell, reaching to clasp arms with the King. "Legna and I are pleased to see your future happiness secured in this woman," he said, nodding toward Kestra. "She is strong and intelligent. A fit mate for you. However, she is greatly scarred on an emotional level. This will be a difficult passage for you both and we wish you luck, as well as offering any assistance you might need."

"Thank you, my friend. Give Legna and Seth my deepest love and fondest wishes to see them very soon."

"After the moon has waned some." Gideon smiled with unusually suggestive humor. "I do not think we should dare to pop in until you and Kestra are done becoming acquainted."

Noah laughed and, with a clasp of his shoulder, sent the medic across the room to fetch Elijah.

Kestra had been split between the two conversations, neither of which required much of her input. Elijah chattered a stream of amusing statements that she realized were directed at teasing Noah about her presence and the effect it promised to have on the King's bachelor lifestyle. Apparently, Noah had taken great joy in busting the chops of his newly attached attaches for the changes in their behaviors since they'd taken their women into their lives. Or so Elijah felt. She rather liked the warrior's easygoing manner, but she couldn't fully enjoy it while she was worried about what was disturbing Noah as he conversed with the healer. She felt it pulling at her skin and blood, her very heart and spirit, the urge to somehow be a part of anything troubling he faced.

She had been considering why he had so urgently called her down to him earlier. She'd thought there was something wrong, but now she understood that he'd done this so she would be at his side as he faced potentially disturbing news from his commanders. He had wanted her to be involved, if only to begin learning how his monarchy worked. If only to meet these men who meant such a great deal to him.

She leaned forward, drawing on all her grace and manners to lay a warm, elegant hand on Elijah's arm. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but could you explain these rogues to me, the ones who killed the Shadowdweller?"

"Yes, of course," the warrior said, not even batting an eyelash before he launched into an explanation about the lawless Vampires who were killing other Nightwalkers to accumulate power through the drinking of their blood.

"I have met Jasmine briefly, but what is her role in this?"

"She's Damien's right-hand adviser. A Vampire," he said, in case she didn't know. "Recently we created a network of Nightwalkers, Vampires mostly, and spread it out across the world to catch any Vampire who thought that this would be a fun way of gathering power. It's a young network, not even complete yet. We had hoped to have it complete before anyone had enough time to think about doing this thing that was once forbidden."

"Forbidden?"

"Until recently, it was forbidden for a Vampire to drink Nightwalker blood. It was mostly a mystique factor, folklore of horrors that would happen to a Vampire if they did such a thing. Wisely, it was a method of stopping this very thing from happening."

"What changed?"

"Damien took a Lycanthrope bride and took her blood. That and we found a hidden Library of great and ancient works that showed Vampires had once married interracially, blood exchanges included. It seems they sabotaged themselves in the matter of love and soul mates in the process of reining in a threat, just like we Demons did when we slaughtered the Druids a thousand years ago."

Kes paused only a single beat before her eyes lit with comprehension.

"Druids are meant to be Imprinted with Demons. You destroyed your own soul mates?"

"Yeah. I'm thinking our ancestors weren't too clever."

"Barbaric is a better word. But"-she held up a hand-"I understand it must have been a barbaric time. So you're saying Vampires cut off access to their own soul mates when they made the taboo about taking Nightwalker blood. Damien made a choice, take his soul mate or leave the taboo intact, right?"

"And he chose Syreena, his mate." Elijah nodded and looked pleased. "We've all ditched a lot of foolish prejudices these past few years."

"But at a huge price," Kes noted.

"Anything worth having is worth paying a huge price for."

"I would have to agree."

She tapped her foot in a rare giveaway about her own high emotions on the topic. Her long glance at Noah made her equally readable. She was unaware of the genuine pleasure that shone in Elijah's eyes. It was the same for all of them, this almost heartbreaking joy they felt to know Noah had at last found the one who would save him from himself, the only one who could truly protect their King from an agonizing lifetime of loneliness and potentially endless shame and pain.

"Are you a soldier?" he asked her suddenly, startling her.

"Why would you ask that?" she asked.

Elijah tapped the side of his nose once, lightly. "Gun oil, for one. The cut of your body is extraordinary for a human woman, I know that much. And I know a fellow warrior when I see one. The way your eyes drift over the exits regularly, the way you are sitting so you can see everyone in the room, and you aren't sitting back relaxed, you're perched on the edge of your seat as if you want to fly out of it the instant you have to."

"Actually, I was a Marine once," she confessed, again surprised at her honesty. "Seemed the natural course for me after...after a childhood and college career full of athletics. I went to Annapolis."