Adam by Jacquelyn Frank Page B

restraint and responsibility. Vampires were not known for coloring inside the lines and fully behaving themselves. But Jasmine had seen too much damage done with out-of-control Nightwalker power. The rogue members of her own society who thought they could go around picking up powers by drinking the blood of innocent Nightwalkers disgusted her. It was one thing to dance along the edges of morality and quite something else to dive over the line again and again, leaving a path of damage. This young girl was a prime example of the harm that could be done when power wasn’t properly tempered or respectfully held in check.
    “I promise I ... I won’t do anything ... unless I know for certain ...” Leah stammered around her words, and Jasmine could appreciate how hard it was for her to rein herself in.
    “Look, kiddo, only you can know in your heart what is right and what is wrong, what is selfishly motivated and what is truly for the greater good.” Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Great, now I sound like Noah and Damien. But if you really want the best guidance around, go see Noah. He has walked both edges of the line you are teetering on. And he used you to do it. Ask him how he feels about it. Ask him why he hasn’t thought about doing what you want to do.” Jasmine lifted a shoulder. “Or better yet, ask him why he has thought about it but never approached you with the idea, because I promise you, the first person this would have occurred to is Noah.”
    With that instruction and a gentle tug on a curl at Leah’s temple, Jasmine turned to leave the young girl to her own conscience and devices. But at the last moment, the girl grabbed her by the hand and made her turn back. She waited until their eyes met, her gaze earnest and fierce.
    “Is that true? What you said? Is the moment Damien met Syreena truly the one moment you would change if you could? Is that where you think all of this went wrong?” She opened a hand to indicate the screwed-up world they were living in.
    “If Damien had never met her ... or if he had never followed her the night she’d been kidnapped ... Vampires would not be drinking the blood of Nightwalkers. Before the moment Damien drank Syreena’s blood, the act had been taboo—” Jasmine stopped, took a breath. “But I lie. Because the Exchange, the act of taking other Nightwalker blood and then those Nightwalkers taking our blood, was in books in the library we discovered after Elijah mated with Siena. We would have discovered it eventually. So perhaps I would go further back and keep the library from ever being found. That would perhaps mean keeping Ruth from looking for it, which drew our attention to it. So perhaps it’s all about Ruth.” Jasmine shook her head. “You see? You see how I could play this game? How do you choose? What gives you the right to choose? You believe in Destiny, don’t you?”
    “Yes,” Leah said quietly.
    “Then you have to believe that things happen for a reason, and even if you change something, Destiny will find a way to fulfill her needs.”
    “You mean that even if I kept my parents from dying in that cavern, Destiny would find a way to claim their lives regardless?”
    “Possibly. Like I said, talk to Noah. He defied Destiny to take his mate. See what he says about the whole thing.”
    Leah nodded and this time it was she who turned away, hurrying off, perhaps to find a way to do exactly that.

    Leah could easily have gone to her female Siddah and asked her to teleport her right into Noah’s living room, but the young Time Demon needed to think . . . or perhaps was dragging her feet. So she was wandering less-traveled caverns, giving herself the time she needed to be alone with everything swirling through her mind.
    It was a war between desires and responsibilities.
    From the moment the idea had entered her head that perhaps she could redeem herself in the eyes of all those around her who must count her responsible for the deaths of her parents, she