The Ruby Kiss (24 page)

“You’ll have to ask him. When I arrived at the Gathering we went straight to the Unseelie Court.”

How innocuous that sounded, when in reality she’d been kidnapped and dragged there by the beak-noses.

“Devin told us about the wolf thing. I’m sorry you had to go through such a traumatic experience, especially for the man to then throw himself to his death. That’s so sad.”

“Yes.” Ruby’s heart ached for Fenrir, but she also felt numb with weariness. She stifled a yawn and rubbed her eyes. After the long drive, all the stress from the last week had suddenly caught up with her.

Cordelia squeezed her arm. “I promise I’ll do my best for Nightshade. A couple of years ago he helped me save Michael’s life. I’ll never be able to repay him for that. I’ll see you in the morning. Sleep well.”

Ruby walked a few doors down the landing to the room where Devin had left her bags. As she started to close herself inside,
however, a pale slender woman with big doe eyes approached carrying a tray with a cup of tea and a sandwich.

“Hello. I’m Eloise. Niall thought you might be hungry.” The woman deposited her tray on a table beneath one of the windows overlooking the garden and wrapped her arms around herself. “Thank you so much for bringing Nightshade back to us. I don’t know what we’d do without him.”

“I’m sorry, you are Nightshade’s . . . ?” Although Eloise’s comment had been similar in tone to Cordelia’s, it had a more possessive ring.

“I’m Rhys’s mother.” She indicated outside where the little boys were still playing. “Nightshade rescued us from Dragon. He’s a very special person. We’ve missed him while he’s been away.” Eloise looked down and wiped the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry. I’m terribly worried about him, but I expect you just want to eat and get some sleep.”

“Thanks,” Ruby said, frowning. For some reason, she sensed a veiled hostility.

Eloise gave her a shy smile and scurried out, leaving Ruby unsettled. She ate the cheese-and-pickle sandwich, relieved to be eating regular food again in a normal house with windows. Nightshade’s home was beautiful, and he was obviously surrounded by people who loved him.

But, now that she’d delivered him, she almost felt superfluous.

* * *

Nightshade stirred, sensing someone beside him in bed. He cracked open his eyes, but the dull ache in his head blurred his night vision.

“Ruby?” he mumbled. His fingers crept across the crisp linen sheet to find the comfort of her warmth, but instead of Ruby’s soft body the tips of his fingers met shiny fabric over hard
muscle. His eyes widened to meet the intense blue gaze fixed on his face.

“Troy.”

He couldn’t sense the psychic signature of his friend’s father, as Troy always masked his energy, but he could smell Troy’s unique scent of sunlight in crisp icy air. The immortal lay on his side facing him, pillowing his head on his arm.

Nightshade started to pull back, but Troy caught his hand against his chest. “I ask your forgiveness, my friend.”

Struggling to wake enough to fathom why Troy would be apologizing in his bed in the middle of the night, Nightshade blinked. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re not sick. Your body is reacting to the power in the blood you took from me.”

“Shit.” The word slipped softly from his mouth, more a statement of surprise than a curse. He remembered Troy referring to himself as a poisoned chalice, but at the time his desire to bite the immortal had overcome his caution.

Instead of anger, relief flooded him. Now that he knew the cause of his malady, Cordelia would be able to treat him.

“I thought you were strong enough to benefit from a dose of my blood with no ill effects, but I failed to take into account that you’re an earth elemental and my power is like a drug to you. You’re suffering withdrawal symptoms.” He released Nightshade’s hand and his long pale fingers unfastened two buttons at his throat before spreading the white lace aside to reveal his skin. “The simplest solution is for you to bite me again.”

With the familiar stinging pleasure-pain, Nightshade’s fangs slid out against his lower lip. He hadn’t bitten anyone since Troy. The memory was sweet, and he ached to taste the immortal again.

“What happened to your Mistress of the Beasts?” Troy asked.

Ruby
. Nightshade’s mind snapped back from its sleepy fantasy. His gaze slid away from Troy to the dark corner of the room. “She brought me home so that Cordelia could treat me.”

Troy looked surprised. “Why did
she
not give you blood to ease your suffering? After a few feedings of a demigod’s blood you’d have recovered fully.”

Nightshade closed his eyes. Could the path to recovery be that simple? If Ruby had just formed a blood bond with him, he would never have suffered this weakness. He would have been strong enough to stand up to Dragon and bargain for Rhys’s safety.

But, why should she sacrifice her principles for him? She was fiercely independent and hadn’t wanted to bond with anyone.

“The woman doesn’t deserve your love if she lets you suffer,” Troy remarked.

“She didn’t realize it would help me.”

Troy stared. “She’s the Mistress of the Beasts. Her power should have allowed her to diagnose your weakness.”

Nightshade shook his head. Had Ruby known and chosen not to help him? He didn’t want to imagine that, but she was so against blood-bonding she might have subconsciously blocked out the knowledge. He wasn’t sure what to believe.

“I will not see you suffer any longer, my friend.” Troy rolled onto his back and pulled open his jacket and shirt, baring his neck and chest. He angled aside his head and closed his eyes. “Sate yourself. I’m yours for the taking.”

Nightshade pushed up on his elbow. As he stared at Troy’s golden hair spread across his pillow, the throbbing in his head faded and he was swamped by amazement. How had he, the unwanted nightstalker boy rejected by piskies and spurned by his father, earned the affection of this powerful immortal? The lure of Troy’s enticing fragrance and the pulse beneath that
pearly skin drew him closer. It was too long since he’d tasted the warm salty tang of blood on his tongue.

With a hand braced against the bed on either side of Troy’s head, he leaned over him; his fingers caught in the silk of the immortal’s hair. Instinctively, he spread his wings to protect his partner while he fed. Yet, if he drank from Troy again, he would only increase his dependence on the immortal’s addictive blood. If Troy ever chose to deny him, he would become sick again. If he was to be addicted to anyone’s blood, it would be Ruby’s.

He inhaled the clean sharp scent of Troy’s skin and touched his tongue to the pulse of Troy’s carotid artery. Nightshade’s breath rushed out on a murmur of desire. But he couldn’t jeopardize his chance of happiness with Ruby. He lifted his head.

“I’ll never deny you, stalker,” Troy murmured in a silky whisper.

Nightshade dropped his forehead against the immortal’s shoulder. “This is impossible. I want . . . .”

Troy gripped the back of his head. “You want the Mistress above me? Even though she’s rejected and deceived you?”

“I don’t think she deceived me.”

“Either she’s deceived you or she’s too weak to handle her power.”

Nightshade pulled away, and Troy released him. He settled back on the bed with a weary sigh. His headache returned to thump behind his eyes. “You don’t know her.”

Troy was silent for long moments. “You choose her over me?”

“I want a baby,” he said in frustration. The silence beat in Nightshade’s ears. How had he come to a point where he had to choose between two people he cared for?

Troy reached out and placed a pale hand against his arm,
and the tension between them melted away like mist in the sun. “I will see you recovered. The woman must give you blood this night.”

“She doesn’t want to form a blood bond.”

Troy gave a grim, unnerving smile. “Let me change her mind.”

* * *

Ruby woke with a start, and the overwhelming sensation of Nightshade’s need compelled her to scramble straight out of bed. She wasn’t willing to dismiss any strange impulses these days.

Putting on her dressing gown, she tiptoed down the hall to his bedroom. She eased his door open softly without knocking in case he was asleep. The lamp on his nightstand cast a warm glow over his bed. She froze in the doorway, gaping; her breath jammed in her lungs. Nightshade was
not
alone. A man with long blond hair lay intimately close beside him, talking.

The soft melodic timbre of the stranger’s voice whispered across the room to caress her ears. The gold piping and crystal buttons shone on the man’s blue jacket, while his lacy shirt hung open exposing his chest. She wasn’t sure if he was in the process of dressing or undressing.

“Nightshade.” His name wrenched from her strangled throat.

The stranger looked unsurprised, as though he’d been expecting her. He pinned her with eyes too blue to be human. “Rest now,” he whispered to Nightshade in a soothing undertone she had learned to recognize as silver tongue.

He rose with the lithe, controlled movements of a predator and stalked around the end of the bed, the powerful lines of his body emanating hostility.

“Ruby, this is my friend Troy,” Nightshade said sleepily.

“Troy!” This preternaturally beautiful man with pearly skin was Devin’s father? “You’re supposed to be old,” she snapped.

“I am.” His voice grazed her skin like the flat of a razor blade, not cutting exactly, but leaving no doubt he could slice her to ribbons.

“Shit.” Her heart thundered as she remembered the comments Devin had made about his father’s attachment to Nightshade. And Troy was obviously possessive and spoiling for a fight.

Her gaze locked with his. He raised a hand over his head and snapped his fingers. Light flared around them, cocooning her with the man while shutting Nightshade outside. She wheeled around, startled.

“For privacy,” he said in that silkily menacing tone.

Ruby could just discern the outline of Nightshade’s bed through the shimmering curtain of light. Troy must have sent him to sleep. She’d have to deal with Troy alone.

The best defense was attack. “Why did you come here in the middle of the night?” she demanded.

“I’m blood bonded to Nightshade. I’ll visit him whenever I want.”

Ruby staggered back and clenched her fist against her chest. “No.” The word slipped unconsciously from her lips. Although Nightshade told her he’d bitten Troy at the Gathering, it hadn’t occurred to her the two men were bonded. She knew the blood bond wasn’t quite the same as a Magic Knot bond, but still. It shocked her.

Troy stepped closer. “Yes. And you are
not
bonded to him. You’re bonded to Twister. Pack your bags and return to Scotland.”

His words washed over her, and leaving suddenly seemed like a wonderful idea. She missed her home in Scotland and Twister in particular—

No! Troy was using silver tongue. She dragged back her wits and focused. “Twister forced me to bond with him,” she pointed out.

If she’d expected sympathy, she was disappointed. Troy remained unmoved, his eerily perfect face a mask of indifference. “That doesn’t explain why you haven’t formed a blood bond with Nightshade—if you really care to.”

Heat rose to her face and she sucked in a breath. “I wasn’t ready.”

He took another step forward. “When will you be?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“You don’t care about him,” Troy accused. “You could have prevented his recent suffering. Instead, you chose not to help him.”

Prevented his suffering?
“Don’t talk crap!”

Troy narrowed his eyes, his expression as hard and cold as ice. “Did you not even take the time to analyze his life force and discover what ails him?”

Ruby’s cheeks grew so hot they stung. She knew it would come to this. Having the power meant people had expectations of her and she would only let them down. Just as she had always let her mother down when she couldn’t locate her father. “I don’t know how to do that. It’s only been a few days, and Aila only taught me the basics.”

“Devin told me you’ve exhibited this power since puberty, maybe before. In all those years have you never explored your abilities?” Troy sounded dubious.

“I thought it was some sort of affliction. I wanted to get rid of it.”

“And do you
still
want to rid yourself of this powerful gift? Many would kill to possess it.”

“You have no right to judge me,” she growled. “You don’t know anything about my life.”

“I know that you are not good enough for Nightshade.”

A desperate burst of anger raged through Ruby. “You’re
not
having him,” she spat.

“He’s already mine.”

His condescending tone snapped her control. Ruby lunged at him, desperate to smack the superior look off his perfect face. He caught her wrist and twisted her arm behind her back, then bent her hand up. She gasped as her shoulder burned with pain.

“You don’t deserve him,” he whispered.

Troy was a bloody jealous psycho. She closed her eyes and breathed through the agony. “Nightshade
wants
me,” she pushed out between gritted teeth.

“That’s the only reason you’re still here.”

“You’d kill me?”

“I’d send you back to Scotland with no memory of him.”

The concept terrified her. “Don’t. Please.”

A hazy feeling swept through her mind and Troy released her. She jumped away from him and cradled her arm to ease her aching shoulder.

“I’ll let you stay with Nightshade on two conditions.” He wagged a finger at her as if she were a child. “First, you let him drink your blood immediately, and second, you face up to reality and learn how to use your power,
Mistress of the Beasts.
If you don’t, I’ll take Nightshade and your memories of him.”

Ruby shivered at his tone, certain he meant every word.

“Get in that bed now and give him blood.”

She balked. “I’m not doing it with you watching.”

Troy became inhumanly still. “If you refuse, I’ll let him bite me again. Then he’ll be bound to me for the rest of his mortal life and you will never have him.”