The Ruby Kiss (28 page)

Golden wolf eyes gleamed in the darkness behind her closed
eyelids. The Unseelie king spoke directly into her mind, surprising her.
I sense your blood bond with Nightshade but nothing stronger.

She sucked in a steadying breath.
I need your help.

Come to me.
The wolf became clearer in her head as his presence invaded her; his command was loud, firm, as if he had spoken the words in her ear.

No.
She didn’t want to return to the windowless underground Bunker. And she wasn’t sure Twister would let her go again.

You don’t trust me.

Ruby let the things he’d done to earn her distrust flow through her mind, and the Unseelie king retreated.
Twister, I want you to send a message to Kade to ask him to meet me at my home.

I’ll come to you.

No. You don’t need to,
Ruby replied, but Twister’s presence had already faded.

She fell back across her bed, sinking among the discarded clothes with a sigh. Twister had no romantic interest in her, she could tell, but she could also sense his fascination with their bond. He was the last person she wanted to see here.

Nightshade appeared in the doorway. “We need to get a message to Kade to meet us here.”

“In progress. Twister’s on his way.”

“Oh.” A frown passed over Nightshade’s face and his jaw set.

He walked to the window where only a few weeks ago he’d waited for her to get out of bed to make him breakfast. Ruby’s heart pinched at the memory. What would have happened to her if Nightshade hadn’t fallen into her life? The beak-noses would still have kidnapped her. Without Nightshade or Devin to stand up for her, she might still be a prisoner in the Bunker. She shivered.

“When did Troy say he’d come?” she asked, rising and
moving up beside Nightshade. Though she had once taken the beauty of the glen for granted, she wrapped an arm around his waist and admired the view with reawakened eyes.

Nightshade put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her in return. “I’ll call him when we’re ready. You all right?”

She rested her head against him. “I’m not sure how I feel about seeing Twister again.”

“Can you sense him?” he asked gruffly.

She nodded.

“There’s nothing else between us,” she added, but even as the words passed her lips, she knew they were a lie. There
was
something between her and Twister: not attraction or love, but a weird empathy. Despite everything he’d done to her, she understood why he’d behaved in the way he had. She admired his personal sacrifice and steadfast determination to do what he thought was right. For his father. For a person he loved. She hoped she would be that dedicated to her loved ones. But she wasn’t sure. Guilt flashed through her and she closed her eyes. She hated to think it, but she wondered if she might have saved her mother’s life if she’d been with her the night she died. She’d gone looking for Ruby’s father as she always did, but Ruby refused to go and use her magical senses to help. That night was the last time she saw her mother alive.

“Let’s have something to eat,” Nightshade said. “I’m famished.”

Ruby pasted on a smile. “Nothing new there. You’re the living version of a sports car—highly tuned and thirsty.” Nightshade was always hungry. All that muscle burned up a lot of calories.

“Do you like sports cars?” he asked.

“I love ’em.”

He pulled her into his arms, kissed her hard, and hugged her.

On the far side of the valley, a gray streak of movement
in the twilight caught Ruby’s eye. A wolf. She pressed her cheek against Nightshade’s chest, her gaze tracking the beast. With long loping strides the animal wove between the pine trees, disappearing from view in the thickly wooded area only to reappear a few minutes later on the edge of the loch. Instinctively, her mind sent out a tendril of awareness, felt the hot, hard pounding of Twister’s heart.

She lost sight of him as he ran up the slope through the woodland bordering her land; then he leapt over her fence, an arc of lean muscle and elemental animal power that echoed a feeling of strength through her own unfit muscles. The wolf halted on the lawn, and his golden eyes lifted to meet her gaze. The air around the animal shimmered, and Twister stood in its place. He kept staring at her, the strange frisson of empathy flowing between them.

She broke eye contact and pressed a kiss over Nightshade’s heart, inhaling his almond fragrance. “Twister’s here,” she whispered.

Nightshade glanced out the window and then gave her a sideways look. “We’d better go down and let him in.”

Ruby followed him downstairs, Twister’s presence running through her like a song she couldn’t shake from her mind. When she’d left the Bunker, she’d expected to put their unwanted bond behind her. Now she realized breaking from him wasn’t going to be that easy. She consciously pulled down a shutter around her mind to keep him out.

Twister had let himself inside, and he stood in the hallway. As they came down the stairs, Nightshade nodded in greeting.

“Let’s talk in the kitchen,” he said, turning through the kitchen door.

Twister didn’t move, just stared at Ruby, his eyes glowing gold. His skin appeared unmarked, and he had the glossy perfection of an airbrushed magazine image, his dark dreadlocks somehow both clear and indistinct; the tiny skulls in his hair
only visible if she really concentrated. “Don’t do that,” she said under her breath.

“What?”

“Try to . . . impress me.”

He lifted one shoulder and let it drop in a negligent dismissal. “You’re only seeing me without the scars.”

She sidestepped him and followed Nightshade into the kitchen. It unnerved her that Twister was trying to attract her. She wanted to keep him at arm’s length.

Ruby went to Nightshade, who had poured himself a glass of milk and popped some bread in the toaster. He gave her a wry grin when she glanced at the snack.

“Temporary measure,” he said. “You can cook me dinner later.”

She play-punched him in the belly, her fist connecting with solid ridged muscle. He caught her arm and gently turned her so that her back rested against his front; then he enfolded her in his arms.

Twister watched them sullenly. “You said you needed my help.”

Ruby eased away from Nightshade, and he released her immediately. She wanted to make it clear she and Nightshade were a couple, but she didn’t want to alienate Twister. “Will you send a messenger to the Seelie Court for me? I want Kade to come here to see me.”

“You want to get your Magic Knot back,” Twister guessed.

“Without it, my powers haven’t developed properly.”

Twister stared at her, and she could almost see the cogs working in his brain. “I should have thought of that.” He touched his chin in a familiar gesture, rubbing an invisible scar.

“Water under the bridge,” Ruby said.

“What reason shall I give Kade for the meeting?”

Ruby glanced at Nightshade. They’d discussed this with Troy
and decided they didn’t need to give a reason. Kade would be eager to win her over to his side, and he was arrogant enough to believe she was no threat to him. She turned to Twister and said, “Just tell him I want to see him.”

The Unseelie king kept his appraising gaze on her. “You’ve changed. You know what you want.”

He was right. She didn’t want to hide or deny who she was anymore. She wanted her Magic Knot, she wanted her power, and she wanted Nightshade.

She hadn’t noticed her guard had slipped until Twister’s emotions flooded her. She trembled at his overwhelming sense of loss and confusion.

The purpose of my life’s been to free Fenrir,
he said miserably inside her head.
What do I do now?
His glamour dissolved, revealing the horrendous scars on his face. The latest, inflicted during his final encounter with his father, were still pink and fresh. Grief hung around him like a shroud that floated out to draw her into his misery.

Ruby’s breath sucked in and caught as he took a step closer to her, his gaze never leaving her face. “I need you to help me, Ruby—”

“No!” Nightshade stepped between them. “No,” he repeated more softly. “She’s mine.”

“You haven’t given her your stones,” Twister said.

“I love her, and she loves me,” Nightshade said firmly. Then, more gently: “Find your own woman, Twister. Even if you can’t bond with her, you can still love her.”

Ruby closed her eyes against Twister’s pain. She leaned on Nightshade’s folded wings; the velvety soft skin cushioned her, in contrast to the hardness of the rest of his muscular body. After a moment she looked at the Unseelie king again, then at the clock on the wall. It flashed its green fluorescent numbers, counting out tense seconds.

After an uncomfortably long silence, Twister turned and
walked out the door. He stopped on the lawn and shouted back, “When do you want Kade to come?”

“Tomorrow?” Nightshade replied.

“There should be time to send a messenger,” Twister called. “Be prepared for the unexpected.”

As Nightshade nodded, the air shimmered around Twister and a golden eagle appeared. The bird flapped its wings and glided out and away over the valley.

Ruby was up at six a.m. the following day. She didn’t want to leave the warm safety of Nightshade’s arms, but once she woke, she couldn’t just lie in bed wondering when Kade would arrive; she had to get up and do something.

She was making a cup of tea when Nightshade entered the kitchen, freshly showered, his hair wet. He extended his wings over the radiator to dry them. She laughed at the scary realization that having a winged man in her kitchen seemed perfectly normal.

“As soon as I’m dressed, you’d better call Troy,” she suggested. She hoped Kade found Troy as intimidating as she did.

“I won’t call him until we need him, because he’s visiting his daughter before he comes here.”

Ruby reflected on the concept of Troy having a daughter. He was so cold and hard, she couldn’t imagine him with a little girl.

She made Nightshade breakfast, then nipped upstairs to shower and dress; she didn’t want to experience any more life-changing moments wearing her pajamas and dressing gown. Then the waiting began. Nerves fluttered in her stomach and she couldn’t eat a thing. She tried to paint, but it was impossible to settle on anything. The thought kept circling her mind that her future with Nightshade depended on whether she could have a baby. She’d know if she could have a baby once she regained her Magic Knot.

She paced back and forth beside the large picture window
in her art studio while Nightshade reclined on a huge beanbag chair juggling the little sponges she used for her work.

“How do you feel?” she asked, bending to retrieve a sponge he’d dropped.

“Confident we’ll get your Magic Knot from Kade.”

Ruby rubbed her temples. “I wish I were confident.”

“Kade will be no match for Troy and me.”

“So you say, but there are so many things that could go wrong. I won’t believe we can best Kade until I have my Magic Knot in my hand.”

He laughed, but she got the impression it was forced.

“Troy will come, won’t he? He doesn’t like me much.”

Nightshade vaulted to his feet, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her into his arms. “Are you jealous of him?”

“Me? No. Of course not.” Heat rose to her cheeks at the lie. And she hated being dependent on the goodwill of Mr. Luminous Psycho. She tried to pull away, but Nightshade tightened his arms around her. “Is part of the reason you wouldn’t accept my Magic Knot because you don’t trust me to stay faithful to you? Because of
Troy?
”

Worries Ruby hadn’t wanted to acknowledge suddenly bubbled to the surface of her mind. “You can only bite me every three days. What if you want to do it in between?”

Nightshade roared with laughter and pushed her down on the beanbag. She squealed and landed with a thud, and he lowered himself over her, wings extended. “I usually only bite because I enjoy it. You’ll just have to distract me with other pleasures.”

“I’m serious.” She thumped his shoulder. He just laughed harder.

“Do you think I’ll be sneaking off to sip from Troy’s delectable neck?”

“You won’t have to sneak anywhere,” she complained. “One
word from you and bloody Troy will be right there offering. That pearly white neck—”

“He won’t.”

“He already has.”

“That was different. I was sick and he wanted to help me recover.”

“Give him a sainthood. No, wait. He already thinks he’s a cut above the rest of us.”

Nightshade levered himself up on his arms and stared down at Ruby’s face with a frown. “You’re misjudging him. Troy is many things, but he’s not dishonorable.”

Ruby wasn’t convinced. But her grumbling fell silent as a strange thumping noise reverberated through the house, rattling the windows.

“What in the Furies . . . ?”

Nightshade sprang to his feet and snapped his wings against his back. Ruby followed him to the large picture window and stared out. The plate glass pulsed against her splayed hand. Then something huge blocked the sun, and a shadow fell across the garden. An enormous scarlet winged beast angled out of the sky and dived toward the house.