The Ruby Kiss (8 page)

After a few seconds of hesitation, Ruby drew a fortifying breath and placed her hand in his. A frisson of awareness ran up her arm like a gentle breeze stirring the hairs on her skin. Her eyelids fell, and an image of Twister’s golden eagle flashed through her mind before morphing to the gray fur and golden eyes of a wolf. The creature’s teeth drew back on a snarl; then it
faded into a mighty red deer stag, pawing the ground, its lethal rack of antlers lowered in warning.

Twister’s hand jerked away. Immediately, the images behind Ruby’s eyelids blanked. She became aware of breath sawing in and out of her lungs as though she’d run a race. She opened her eyes to find Nightshade staring at her, his face tight with concern.

“Thor’s blood,” Twister swore softly. He stared at her in wonder, while his perpetual motion devices clicked and whirred in the silence. “Without the damping effect of the Bunker, you’d have forced me to change shape. You’re definitely the new Mistress.”

Although it had been more or less a foregone conclusion, Ruby slumped backward at the verdict. Nightshade rose and swept her out of her seat. She gave a squeak of surprise as he dropped sideways in the place she’d sat, settling his wings over the sofa’s arm, and then pulled her onto his lap.

“Nightshade.”
She tried for a tone of reprimand, but when he gathered her against his chest and curled his large warm hand around hers, she couldn’t help but relax against him. Even if he had only wanted to mate to make a baby, he really was sweet in an over-the-top macho sort of way.

Twister stood and paced to the fire. “Unfortunately, I can think of only one person capable of teaching Ruby how to control this type of power.” His tone was reluctant and he cast Devin an oblique look. “She needs an audience with the Bride of Light.”

Devin said nothing. For long moments he didn’t blink, swallow, or even appear to breathe. “Aila.” The word fell from his lips like a prayer.

“Listen carefully, you two.” Twister glanced from Ruby to Nightshade, his scarred face in hard-edged profile against the firelight. “The Seelie Court’s power derives from the Book of Light. The guardian of the Book is the Bride of Light. She
channels the Book’s energy, which is life force in its purest form and the nearest thing to Ruby’s power that I can think of. According to the ancient edicts, the Unseelie Court has the right to consult the Bride, so I’ll make a formal request for Ruby to have an audience with Aila.”

Ruby’s brain was so muzzy with tiredness, she wasn’t sure she understood. “I thought you were protecting me from the Seelie Court.”

Twister heaved a sigh. “It’s complicated. If I request an audience with Aila for you, I’m officially claiming you as a member of the Unseelie Court. Once Eavan and Nairne, the Seelie king and queen, acknowledge my request, they are effectively agreeing that you’re ours. It doesn’t mean they can no longer claim you to be a member of their court at a later date, but it does mean they must play by the rules.”

“So, Ruby will be safe from the Seelie hunters once you’ve requested an audience with the Bride of Light?” Nightshade asked.

Twister’s gaze lost focus for a few seconds. “I hope so.”

“I will make sure Ruby gets in and out of the Seelie Court safely,” Nightshade vowed, holding her close. “No one will dare claim her while I have breath in my body.”

At the silly fizz of pleasure his words gave her, Ruby smiled. Who would have guessed she’d be a sucker for such an old-fashioned knight-in-shining-armor type of guy?

Devin stirred and blinked, streaks of color slashing his cheekbones. “I’m coming as well,” he said.

Twister’s lips thinned. He gave Devin a doubtful look but didn’t elaborate. “We do have one major problem,” he said. “Ruby can’t go before the Seelie Court unbonded or else one of them may legitimately claim her. Probably her father.”

Ruby tensed. She had no intention of “bonding” with anyone and giving up her independence.

“Do you have one of these?” Twister asked, pulling a gold
chain out of his shirt and dangling three green crystal rings in front of her. A strange compulsion made Ruby reach toward them, but the Unseelie king snapped his fist closed around the pendant. “Never touch unless invited.”

“I haven’t seen anything like it before,” she said.

“You
must
have a Magic Knot. These three rings contain the essence of your body, mind, and spirit. And if someone touches your Magic Knot, they’ll bond with you.”

Ruby shrugged, exhausted. “Well, I don’t have one.” And
thank goodness,
if that meant nobody could bond with her.

Twister released a frustrated breath. “Then Nightshade will have to bite you.”

Ruby frowned, his words making no sense. “Bite me?”

As Twister began to speak, Nightshade’s breath hissed between his teeth. “Hold your tongue, dark king.”

“It’s time for her to understand the realities of this life she’s inherited.” Twister’s jaw set. “Your nightstalker friend has fangs, Ruby. If he bites you, he’ll form a blood bond that stakes his claim over you. We have to hope it’s strong enough to deter Kade from challenging him for you.”

Ruby stared at Nightshade. “Fangs? He can’t mean . . .”

“I wanted to tell you in my own time.” Nightshade’s chin jutted out defiantly. “I’m a
vampiric
fairy.”

Ruby stiffened where she sat on Nightshade’s lap. Images from vampire movies raced through her mind: vicious, undead creatures that slept in coffins and emerged at dusk to drain the lifeblood from innocent victims. But, as fast as the thoughts entered her head, she dismissed them. Nightshade was a warm and vital male—kind, honorable, and very much alive. The amount of food he’d consumed from her larder proved he didn’t survive on blood.

“I would never hurt you, Ruby,” he said, lines of tension scoring his face. His thigh muscles tightened beneath her, and the protective arm he held around her waist loosened as if he expected her to jump off his lap in horror. “Taking blood is little more than an occasional pleasure.”

She slipped her fingers into the warm curve of his palm, remembering how he’d spoken affectionately of his baby brother. “I get it. You’re just a big softie.”

His eyebrows shot up. She wasn’t sure being called a softie pleased him, but his tense body relaxed. He turned hard eyes on Twister and scowled. “You had no right to speak thus.”

Twister cut his hand through the air. “There’s more at stake here than your delicate sensibilities, stalker. Get over it. I’ll have someone take you to a room to get the first bite in place. How many times will you need before—?”

“No!” Ruby did jump from Nightshade’s lap then. Not out of fear but anger. Twister might be a king, but she wouldn’t let him bully her into anything. “When did I agree to this?”

A muscle twitched in Twister’s jaw. “You like the vampire. What’s the problem with being bonded to him?”

Ruby tugged the blanket tighter around her shoulders. “When I see this Aila, I plan to ask her how to get rid of my affliction. I don’t want the responsibility of this magical power. It’s brought me nothing but heartache. Getting tangled up with the supernatural world got my mother killed. I want to go home and forget all this weirdness. I won’t let you bully me into a magical bond with Nightshade, even if I do like him.”

Behind her, Nightshade’s breath hissed out. Guilt burned Ruby’s chest. She’d wanted to explain to him in private how she felt, but the Unseelie king’s presumption hadn’t given her the chance. This was the second time she’d rejected him.

She turned to Nightshade. The last thing she’d wanted to do was hurt him, so the coldness of his expression stung. “Please don’t take what I said personally. I’m really grateful you were here for me tonight, Nightshade. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”

Inclining his head, he acknowledged her thanks. “Please accept my help in recompense for your previous hospitality,” he replied, formally, as if they were strangers. Then he stood, snapping his wings against his back.

She reached for him, hating the distance he’d put between them. “Nightshade.”

He raised his palms and backed away. “I need some air.” He glanced at Devin. “Coming, djinn?”

Devin grunted and clambered to his feet as though he’d aged a few decades since he took a seat. He rested a hand on Nightshade’s shoulder, leaning in to whisper something. They were obviously close friends, which led Ruby to wonder: Had Nightshade’s occasional pleasures included biting Mr. Eye Candy? A flicker of something suspiciously like jealousy made her swallow hard.

“Nightshade,” she said when he reached the door. “Please give me a chance to explain why I can’t tie myself to you.” If she could only make him see the situation from her point of view, he’d understand that the decision had nothing to do with him.

He paused, his hand on the door handle, but he didn’t turn around. “Don’t worry. I’ll return to protect you when you go before the Seelie Court.”

Ruby’s breath locked in her lungs. She’d forgotten that the blood bond had only been suggested as a way to protect her.

The fire spat and hissed, covering over the background clicking and whirring of Twister’s metal curios. She turned to find the Unseelie king standing before the fire, feet apart, arms crossed like a disapproving teacher. His attitude made her so uncomfortable she didn’t want to be alone with him.

The muscles of his jaw were bunched tight. “You’re no better than a selfish child,” he said in a lethally soft tone, “who would rather break her toys than share them.”

“This is your world, not mine,” she snapped in response.

His eyes glowed gold like the flaring fire. “Wrong,” he bit out. “Your grandmother was a demigod. The power you’ve inherited carries a responsibility to help those in need. It’s not something you just shrug off because it doesn’t suit your life plan, whatever your life plan might have been. You’re not human like you believed.”

A demigod?
Ruby thought.

Twister unfolded his arms and took a step forward. A sliver of fear cut through Ruby. She backed up, banging her elbow on a bookcase.

“Stay away from me. Nightshade is just outside,” she said.

“You rejected him. Why would he care what happens to you?”

The king’s words hammered into her like physical blows. If she disappeared, would anyone really care? Ruby’s damn
affliction had forced her to keep her distance from people. The only person she had to help her was Nightshade.

“You don’t know what I’ve had to put up with,” she said. She flattened herself against a bookshelf, fumbling for a book with which to hit him if the Unseelie king came any closer.

His laugh crackled through the room. “You don’t know the meaning of pain and suffering. You’ve no idea what hardship is. If you think you can stand up for yourself in the Seelie Court without a bond-mate of some kind to protect you, it’s time I treated you to a dose of reality,
Mistress.
”

His hand shot out and locked around her arm. She seized a book and hurled it at his head. Twister ducked and wrenched her arm behind her back before manhandling her out of the door. The tiny skulls in his hair rattled together in a morbid percussion.

Ruby struggled and shouted for Nightshade, but Twister snapped, “Don’t waste your breath. He’s left the Bunker.”

Small painful sips of air were all she could snatch, her lungs burning with fear and anger. Ruby jabbed her elbow back, catching the Unseelie king in the ribs. Pain shot up her arm and he didn’t slow as he shoved her ahead of him along the corridor.

“Nightshade’ll be mad if you hurt me,” she threatened.

Twister gave a dismissive grunt.

A rumble of voices came from the end of the corridor, and a draught of cool fresh air touched Ruby’s face. “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

“The Assembly Room: the only part of the Unseelie Court that falls outside the Bunker’s protective spell. If you think you can look after yourself, try your luck as an unbonded female among the rabble,” he pronounced.

Fear burned through Ruby, giving her strength. She elbowed and kicked, twisted in the king’s grip and screamed. All he did was throw her over his shoulder.

“Give it up. You haven’t a hope of escaping me.”

She pummeled his back, but his thick leather jacket was as good as armor.

He kicked open a large wooden door that filled the end of the corridor and dropped Ruby to her feet on the other side. She stumbled to her knees, grabbing the blanket that fell from her shoulders. But, now she was outside the Bunker’s protection, the woven wool unraveled at her touch, writhing like worms.

The Assembly Room was a massive natural cavern, the high ceiling in darkness while at intervals around the walls, lanterns cast the scene in a pattern of light and shadow. Tables and chairs dotted here and there, were occupied by all manner of creatures, drinking and gambling. At the far end, Twister’s throne rested on a dais beneath a huge metal shield bearing a coat of arms decorated with a wolf, an eagle, and a stag.

The rumble of voices faded as all heads turned toward her.

“Meet the new Mistress of the Beasts,” Twister announced in ringing tones. Chairs scraped as occupants rose. Some only peered at her, but many shuffled forward for a better look.