The Ruby Kiss (6 page)

A canine yowl of distress sounded among the trees. Ruby charged forward, gripping her flashlight to use as a weapon. If her small dogs tangled with a badger or the old fox she’d seen in the garden, they could be hurt. But just as she really started to worry, Ares and Apollo pelted out of the undergrowth. She shouted at them to stop, but they ignored her and scampered back toward the house.

“What the hell’s the matter with you two?” she said, turning to retrace her steps along the narrow woodland path. A sudden gust of wind carried the stink of carrion.

She paused and looked over her shoulder. The deathly silence sent a flash of fear through her: Something lurked in the shadows.

Ruby turned to run, gripping her dressing gown closed over her breasts, but she tripped on a tangle of greenery and pitched forward onto the ground. The flashlight jolted from her hand and cracked against a tree. The comforting yellow beam of light blinked out, leaving her in darkness.

“Shit.” She tore at the ivy winding around her boots. As the woody stems cut into her fingers, her heart thundered and her breath burst in and out. She clambered to her feet, beating away the slithering leafy assailants. How she hated her power; it was more of a curse. If she ever had the chance to rid herself of it, she would do so in a heartbeat.

Now her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, she made out deeper patches of shadow moving among the trees.

“Nightshade?”

She prayed the creature she could sense was the nightstalker, but she knew that was wishful thinking.

“I can smell her. She’s the one.” Sibilant words whispered on the wind.

Ruby launched herself forward, only to pull up short when a dark figure stepped into her path. She jabbed out with her fist, made contact at groin level with soft, fabric-covered body parts. On a hissing rush of breath the figure jackknifed over. Ruby pushed past and ran blindly in the direction of the house.

On either side of the path, between the tree trunks, shadowy figures tracked her. Ruby’s lungs burned with her pace and panic, and as soon as she broke from cover two creatures converged and tackled her. A steely grip encircled her arm, yanking her to a halt. Winded, she couldn’t put up much of a fight.

The two creatures pushed her down to the ground, pulled her hands behind her back, and tied them together. A third set of boots appeared near her face. She turned her head away and buried it in the madly sprouting grass, hoping their owner wouldn’t kick her in retaliation for punching him.

No blow fell, so she raised her face, gasping air into lungs crushed under the weight of a knee on her back. Sibilant yet rattling breaths sounded close to her ear. The stench of rotting meat filled her nose, making her gag. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the moonlit silhouette of a birdlike face with spiky tufts of hair.

A rough hand grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. “Not much to look at, but Twister’s desperate for the new Mistress. She’ll net us a pretty penny,” one of her captors said. “We’ll take her back along the Darkling Road.”

“What if the Master of the Darkling Road catches us?” the second creature asked.

“He’s too busy with his harem and his pretty friends to notice.”

Ruby goggled. Harems and mistresses? What century were they living in? A string of swear words rattled through her head, but she didn’t have the breath to get them out of her mouth. Still, one thing was sure: If this guy Twister who was desperate for a mistress laid a finger on her, she would make him wish he’d never been born.

For the fourth time, Ruby spat out the disgusting rag her kidnappers kept forcing into her mouth. “Let me go you filthy, stinking beak-noses.”

They’d taken her along a strange shadowy pathway through the Scottish countryside that they called the Darkling Road. Her feet hurt where her boots had rubbed them and her legs ached from the unaccustomed exercise. She’d temporarily given up fighting for freedom because even if she escaped she would be trapped in this weird other dimension or reality. She’d never imagined the supernatural could be like this. The creatures she’d met when she was a child had all lived in the normal world.

After what felt like hours, the creatures pushed her off the path and out from between the tangled roots of a massive tree into a new woodland scene. The fresh, pine-scented air told her they were back in her normal reality even before the ground vegetation burst to life around her feet. The seething mix of fear and anger she’d kept a tight lid on overflowed. She kicked, screamed, and tried to twist out of her captors’ hands, but she was already exhausted and the three creatures easily overpowered her.

They kept a tight hold on her while they cut the plastic twine around her wrists, then dragged her through the woods toward the sound of voices. The forest gave way to an open area thronging with people. Wood smoke hung in a pall against the dark sky above the crowd.

The babble of strange voices and the discordant notes
of foreign music disoriented her. Ruby sucked in a smoky breath, struggled, then shouted for help. The onlookers stared at her curiously, but no one challenged her captors. As she stared around, she saw creatures she recognized from her mother’s books. Many of the crowd looked as though they could be human if not for their weird clothes, but some of the individuals were the stuff of nightmares, all warty and wrinkled with claws and fangs. A few strikingly beautiful males had her craning her neck to keep them in view. Then a little shock of hope pulsed through: Might Nightshade be here?

Her throat raw and aching, she didn’t waste any more energy. Instead she changed tactics and went floppy, trying to make herself difficult to transport. Her captors pulled her into a clearing in the crowd. In the center was a massive throne made of dark twisted branches set upon a rough wooden dais trimmed with sprigs of holly. Ruby squinted. The red-hot glow of a roaring bonfire silhouetted the throne from behind, making it difficult to get a clear view of its occupant.

With the eerily swaying arcs of light from lanterns strung around the clearing, Ruby’s eyes gradually adjusted. At least the man on the throne appeared to be human shaped.

“Sire, we bring you the woman you seek.” The beak-noses pushed her to her knees on a flat slab of rock and joined her on the ground before the throne.

Faced with the architect of her abduction, all the anger and humiliation she’d suffered over the last few hours gave Ruby renewed energy. As soon as her captors let her go, she sprang back to her feet.

“You have no right to bring me here,” she shouted. She took two strides toward the throne before a man the size of a small mountain blocked her path. She glared up at him. Her jaw dropped at the sight of the single large eye in the center of his forehead.

“Strewth!” She lurched back. Her heart raced, and she swallowed shocked little sips of air.

“It’s all right, Boulder. Move aside so I can see our guest.” At the command from the throne, the cyclops retreated. “I’m Twister, king of the Unseelie Fairy Court.” He crooked a finger at Ruby. “Approach.”

Ruby’s burst of anger faded with the realization that she was totally out of her depth. She’d learned to stand up for herself as a short, chubby, redheaded child, always on the move from school to school, but attitude and a smart mouth wouldn’t get her out of trouble this time. She needed help from someone who understood the fairy world.

“Is Nightshade here?” she demanded.

Twister’s eyes flared an inhuman gold. The inquisitive mumbling from the surrounding crowd stopped abruptly. Tension thickened the air, tightening Ruby’s muscles. Belatedly she wondered if she should have phrased her question more politely to royalty.

The sound of flapping accompanied by a sudden gust of air saved her from having to apologize. She threw an arm over her head and peered up as Nightshade dropped out of the dark sky to land at her side!

“Ruby, I thought it was you I heard calling for help.”

She was so relieved to see him, she stepped into his embrace as though that were the most natural thing in the world. For a few seconds she rested her cheek against his warm, solid chest, breathing in the smell of his skin. The fear twisting her guts slipped back a notch. It was almost worth getting dragged here by the beak-noses if it meant seeing him again.

“I’m sorry I got angry and sent you away,” she said.

“Don’t worry about that now. How did you get here?” he whispered.

She glanced down at her three abductors who had now
prostrated themselves on the ground. “Those ugly morons kidnapped me.”

His lips thinned into a harsh line, and the potential for violence she had only glimpsed before gleamed sharply in his eyes. He tucked Ruby protectively under one arm before leaning over the three creatures and a growl vibrated in his chest. “What did you plan to do with her?” When he kicked the closest one, it hissed. “Tell me, or I’ll beat the truth out of you.”

“We want the reward,” it said.

“Reward?” Nightshade frowned. “What are they talking about?” he demanded, turning to Twister.

Before the king could respond, a spiral of smoke appeared in the air between them. A man materialized from it, his tawny skin radiating a soft glow.

Ruby crushed back against Nightshade, her pulse going crazy. “Blimey,” she said.

“He’s a friend,” Nightshade whispered in reply. “A djinn. He won’t hurt you.”

The newcomer glanced around, taking in the scene. He brushed back his black hair, revealing the pointed tip of an ear, while dark jewels adorning his ears and fingers glittered in the lamplight. His exotic masculine beauty took her breath away. When his gaze fell on Ruby, he flashed white teeth in a knowing grin, swept back the skirts of his long purple coat, and dipped downward in an elegant bow.

“I’m Devin, Master of the Darkling Road. You must be Ruby.”

With a beleaguered sigh, the Unseelie king came forward and rested an affectionate hand on Devin’s shoulder. “I should have known you’d contrive to involve yourself in this, djinn. You have a finger in every pie. You’re too much like your damn father for your own good.”

The men talked then. Ruby didn’t hear the words. She could only stare with horrified curiosity at the king’s arresting golden eyes and the ridges of scar tissue that slashed his once handsome face as though he’d been savaged. Tiny skulls were worked into his long dark dreadlocks, but they lost all shock value beside his fearful disfigurement. He wore a tooled leather jacket with an upright collar, the garment decorated with an intricate pattern of swirls and symbols burned or carved into the leather, all of the designs finished with embedded gold and jewels.

Ruby was so busy studying Twister that she only became aware of the grass creeping up her legs when their cold stalks reached the top of her boots. She jumped backward in surprise.

“Damn and blast!” She’d been standing safely on a rock and not noticed that the grass growing nearby had found her. Nightshade’s arms tightened protectively, but she struggled to get away from him.

“Let go. I need to move.”

By the time she managed to extract herself from Nightshade’s embrace, the grass had reached her thighs and was insinuating itself beneath the hems of her pajama shorts. Mortifyingly aware of her audience, Ruby yanked open her dressing gown and tore at the stems. But as fast as she pulled them away, more took their place.

Nightshade solved the problem by lifting her into his arms and stamping the writhing green strands to mush on the rock.

“Th-Thank . . . you.” Ruby’s panicked breaths calmed, and she glanced around at Twister and Devin. Twister stared at her with a twinkle of amusement.

“That was an interesting little diversion,” Devin announced with a wicked sparkle in his eyes. “What do you do for an encore?”

Nightshade gathered her tighter against his chest and glared. “What in the Furies caused the grass to assault her?”

Devin held up his palms in denial. “That was a new one on me.”

Nightshade’s censorious gaze fixed on the Unseelie king, who thoughtfully rubbed a scar on his chin. He sidestepped Devin and grabbed one of the prostrate beak-noses by its collar, hauling it to its feet. The creature’s breath hissed in and out in distress.

“You claim this is the woman I asked you to find, scavenger?”

“Sniff her, my king. She is the new Mistress.” A murmur of surprise swept through the watching crowd.

Ruby had just decided she should explain that it was her own fault the grass attacked her, but the word
mistress
snapped her attention back to the men. How could she have forgotten what the beak-noses said when they kidnapped her?

She jerked upright in Nightshade’s arms, bracing an elbow against his chest, and glared at Twister. “You couldn’t pay me enough to be your mistress.”

Devin chuckled, and Ruby rounded on him with narrowed eyes. “Or yours, Mr. Eye Candy. I’m not for sale.”

“Hey, she thinks I’m eye candy,” Devin crowed, his grin widening.

Nightshade growled and jerked Ruby against him, his grip so tight she could hardly breathe. “They’re not talking about
that
type of mistress, woman. Be quiet and stop embarrassing us.”