Ruby Shadows

  “What? What?” Taylor was bouncing excitedly on my Grams’ faded floral print couch and Addison was looking at me intently.

  “When the Demon Council was giving me over to Druaga—”

  “That’s the pig-headed hotel manager, right?” Taylor said.

  I nodded. “Yeah. So anyway, when they were handing me over, he said I had lost my innocence and half my soul since the last time he’d seen me. I didn’t think about it at the time since I was so freaked out but then…”

  “Then Laish appeared and stabbed the evil pig-headed bastard with a weapon that requires you to have a soul to use it,” Addison said. And before that, he closed a door that required Gwendolyn’s soul signature.”

  “Oh my God.” Taylor’s face went paper pale. “He literally stole your soul! Just like in all the old stories about demons.”

  “No—he only stole half.” Addison looked at me excitedly. “You know, I think Taylor is right—I think he had a reason for everything he did.”

  “Oh crap…” I put my head down between my knees, feeling suddenly light-headed.

  “Gwendolyn, hon? Are you okay?” Addison hopped up to rub my shoulders.

  “I’m fine…fine…” I whispered. But I wasn’t. Not at all.

  “Give her a minute,” Taylor said anxiously. “She just found out she got soul-napped. Or halfway soul-napped anyway. Is that what you’d call it?”

  “I don’t know what you call it when you find out a demon who says he loves you steals half your soul.” Addison sounded grim.

  “Well, at least we know he stole it for your own good, don’t we?” Taylor asked me. “I mean, so he could close that door for you and you wouldn’t have to go too near that awful pit yourself?” She shivered and I knew she was remembering the Abyss—she had nearly slipped into it before I could pull her back to the Mortal Realm.

  “It’s not that,” I said. “If it was only that I wouldn’t feel so…so…” But I didn’t even know how I felt myself. A memory had just popped into my head—one I’d either forgotten or tried to suppress. It was the brief vision I’d had when Laish and I were making love—the golden cord that was tied around my heart which had, as he finished in me, also tied around his. Suddenly my grandmother’s voice came back to me.

  “I knew when I met your grandpa, you know. I knew he was the one I’d been waiting for. And on our wedding night, when I finally gave myself to him…it was like a golden cord, binding us together.”

  “Oh my Goddess,” I whispered. “Oh my Goddess.”

  “What? What is it?” Taylor was up now too and both she and Addison were bending over me, worried looks on their faces.

  “I have to call Laish,” I said thickly. “I have to summon him right now and find out if…if what I think happened really happened.”

  “What do you think happened?” Taylor asked. “Is it really bad?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I won’t know anything until I talk to him.”

  “Should we go?” Addison asked practically. “I’m guessing this is going to be a private conversation.”

  “Yes, I’m really sorry but you’re right. I need to do this alone.”

  “Is it safe?” Taylor bit her lip, looking worried. “You won’t be putting yourself into danger, will you Gwendolyn?”

  “No danger,” I assured them. “I just need to get answers.” Taking a deep breath, I got up and smoothed down my skirt. “Thank you so much for coming over. I promise I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as I get this all figured out.”

  “Well, all right.” Addison and Taylor began getting their purses and getting ready to go. “But if you need us, call us. I mean it—anytime,” Addison said.

  “Thanks.” Impulsively, I hugged them both. They hugged back, returning my gesture of affection warmly. When I pulled out of the three-way embrace, I found my eyes were wet. “You guys are good friends,” I said. “Thank you for being there for me.”

  “Well, we supernatural chicks have to stick together, right?” Addison grinned at me.

  “Right,” Taylor chimed in. “It’s not like we can meet other people like us by joining a book club or anything.”

  “You’re right about that.” I swiped at my eyes and laughed. “Okay, I need to go do this summoning now. Before Grams and Keisha get back.” My Grandmother had taken my little sister to a doctor’s appointment and they were due back in the next hour.

  “Got it. We’ll get out of your hair.” Addison smiled at me again. “Just remember—call as soon as you can. Taylor and I will be on pins and needles waiting to find out what’s going on.”

  “I will,” I promised.

  “Oh, and while you’re at it, see if you can find out what happened to that angel girl you rescued,” Taylor said. “I know you said the magic sent her someplace safe but I can’t help feeling worried for the poor thing. I hope she’s okay.”

  “I hope Eryn’s all right too,” I said earnestly. “And I promise I’ll try to get some answers about her when I talk to Laish.”

  “After you get your own answers,” Addison said.

  “Exactly,” I said, grimly. “For right now I need to get his demon-ass on the line and find out what the Hell is going on.”

  I just hoped he would answer my call.

  * * * * *

  Laish

  “Mon ange, how very nice to see you again.” I smiled at my little witch, speaking through the magic fire she’d used to call me to her.

  “I need to talk to you.” I could see her frowning through the flames but I knew she couldn’t see me. “Where are you, Laish? Why aren’t you answering my summons?”

  “I am answering your summons,” I said patiently. “I simply cannot come to you as easily as I once could for…various reasons.”

  “Well, I really need to talk to you. Face to face.” She was frowning and she had one hand planted on her lush, rounded hip. “Now.”

  “If you want to see my face one of us must come to the other,” I told her.

  “What? Why?” she demanded.

  “I will explain it later. When I see you,” I said. “Now, would you rather that I come to you and meet you at your grandmother’s house or do you wish to come to me?”

  She bit her lip. “I don’t know if having you here is a good idea. Grams is glad I came back safe but I still don’t think you’re on her list of favorite people.”

  “Understandable,” I said evenly. “After all, I did take her granddaughter’s innocence.”

  “Um…” Gwendolyn looked uncomfortable. “She doesn’t know about that. I didn’t tell her.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Why, Gwendolyn—have you been lying to her?”

  “No,” she said defensively. “She didn’t ask and I didn’t tell. We’ve just been sort of…skirting around the issue.”

  “Technically, she never needs to know, I suppose,” I remarked. “After all, it’s not as though your powers have lessened any as a result, have they?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “See, that’s one of the things I want to talk to you about. Along with the fact that you were able to close that door to the Abyss and use the thrak to kill Druaga.”

  I spread my hands though I knew she couldn’t see me.

  “If you do not wish to meet at your grandmother’s house, perhaps you could come to me.”

  “That depends. Where are you?”

  I gave her the address of my estate on Siesta Key. “It is just outside of Sarasota,” I said. “To get here…”

  “I’ll just use the Maps ap on my phone—I can find it,” she said. “All right, I should be there in an hour or so. But I still don’t understand why you can’t just appear so we can talk.”

  “All will be made clear in time,” I promised her. “And I am glad you are coming to visit me—I have an old friend staying at my place I think you will be glad to see.”

  “Who?” she demanded. “What old friend?”

  “You’ll find out. I will see you soon, mon
ange. Please drive carefully.”

  I ended our connection and took a deep breath. I had been anticipating Gwendolyn’s call since the moment we parted. Though time is usually fleeting for one like me, who has lived so many eons, the days had seemed to drag on and on as I waited to hear from her. I both longed to see her sweet face again and dreaded what it would mean when I did.

  For I knew by the tone of her voice and the fire in her eyes that she finally understood what I had done to her. The depth of my betrayal had finally become clear.

  Which meant this meeting could very well be our last.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Gwendolyn

  The drive from Tampa to Sarasota isn’t too bad as long as traffic is light. Luckily it was a weekend so even though I was leaving around six o’clock, I had smooth sailing all the way. I left a note for Grams, of course, telling her I was going to a friend’s house. I hoped she’d think that I went to visit with Taylor or Addison—I knew she’d be really unhappy if she knew I was going to see Laish. All she’d talked about this whole past week was what a narrow escape I’d had and how I was “well-shut” of that demon. Though I’d explained how he had saved my life multiple times, Grams just couldn’t bring herself to like him. Not that I think she was trying very hard.

  By the time I was pulling into the long, curving drive which was graveled with broken white sea shells instead of pebbles, the sun was almost setting. There was a big, scrolled gate at the end of the drive but it opened automatically for me before I could even reach for the call box. Apparently Laish was watching for my arrival.

  I drove my little car up to a vast stone mansion, perched on the edge of the beach and surrounded on all sides by lush, tropical growth. It looked like a giant seashell itself, painted as it was with the pink and orange light of the setting sun.

  “Wow…” I muttered. Even knowing what Laish was, I couldn’t help feeling a little intimidated by this display of wealth. The house looked like the kind of thing that took an army of servants to keep up and its location was just perfect.

  I got out of the car, my shoes crunching on the white shells. I don’t know what made me do it but I was wearing my little black ballet flats again—the ones I’d worn through my entire journey through Hell. They were a little worse for the wear but they still fit just right and felt more comfortable than anything else I owned.

  In addition to my flats, I had on a long, white sun dress I’d bought for the beach but never gotten around to wearing it before. It had thin spaghetti straps and a slit that went up to my knees, making it easy to walk though the soft cotton fabric fell to my ankles.

  I don’t know what made me dress in white, which I knew was Laish’s favorite color on me. I told myself I’d just thrown on the first thing in the closet but if I was honest with myself, that wasn’t true. I wanted to look good for this meeting. I wasn’t sure what it might mean in the end or how Laish really felt about me but I wanted to know I looked good while I was trying to get some answers. Feeling pretty makes me more confident—silly, I know but I can’t help it.

  I was about to go up the broad front steps—there were about fifteen of them, since the huge mansion was built high, probably because it was so close to the sea—when I heard a voice call my name.

  “Gwendolyn? Around here.”

  It was Laish and he was beckoning me from the side of the house. He was dressed much more casually than I’d ever remembered seeing him before, in a deep blue button down shirt and tan trousers. The shirt’s sleeves were rolled up to show his muscular forearms and the front was unbuttoned and hanging loose, giving me a glimpse of his mouthwatering chest. The trousers were rolled up too and he was barefoot, as though he’s just been walking along the beach.

  “Laish?” I came towards him uncertainly, crunching over the shells until I reached a paved path that ran from the side of the house all the way around to the back. “We need to talk,” I said as soon as I reached him.

  “In a moment. For now, come—I have someone who’s eager to see you.” He smiled at me and held out a hand. “Oh, and you can leave your shoes here. You’ll just get sand in them otherwise.”

  Reluctantly, I slipped out of my black flats and left them lined up neatly on the path. Then, ignoring Laish’s outstretched hand, I started off down the path around the back of the house.

  He followed me, noiseless in his bare feet, but I could feel his presence like a huge shadow looming just over my shoulder. I wondered if he was upset that I had refused to hold his hand. But I wanted to get things straightened out between us before I let myself touch him in any way. It was much harder to think, somehow, when he held me in those muscular arms. I needed to keep my distance until I figured out what was what.

  When we finally got around the back of the house and I stepped from the paved path into the warm sand, I was blown away by the view. In fact, for a moment I had to just stop and stare.

  “Wow,” I breathed, looking out at the beautiful beach with its pristine white sand stretching down to the deep blue ocean.

  The sun was sinking into the water, casting long shadows and painting the white sand in gorgeous pinks and purples and oranges. High above, I could hear the seagulls crying and there was a cool, salty wind swirling around me, tugging at my hair and the hem of my dress.

  It looked like a scene out of a tourist brochure for Florida—breathtakingly gorgeous and impossibly perfect. And then it got even better.

  Off to my left I heard a ringing neigh and then Kurex came galloping towards me, his dinner plate-sized hooves pounding over the sand.

  “Oh, Kurex!” I ran to meet him, tears of joy stinging my eyes.

  He made a soft nh-huh-huh-huh sound as he dropped his immense head on my shoulder. I put my arms as far around his massive neck as I could and hugged him.

  “It’s so good to see you again, boy,” I told him, pressing my face to his neck as his long, silky black mane whipped around me. “I thought you were back with your old master.”

  “I liberated him from Yerx. I thought he would be happier living here with me than back in the Infernal Realm,” Laish remarked, coming up behind me.

  I turned to face him.

  “Wait a minute—you live here now? Or is this just like a, kind of summer home—a place to stay when you visit the Mortal Realm?”

  “It used to be,” he said quietly. “But for now it is my home—at least temporarily while I make some important decisions.”

  “What decisions? And what’s going to happen to Kurex?” I asked as the big horse nuzzled me once more and then trotted off to investigate some tasty sea grass growing out of the sand.

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “Is that really what you want to ask me? Why you drove all the way down here to speak to me face-to-face, Gwendolyn?”

  “No.” I took a deep breath and decided to just come out with it. “Did you take half my soul?”

  He nodded gravely. “I did. And you have every right to be angry with me about it.”

  “But…you did it so you could shut the door into the Abyss. So I wouldn’t have to do it myself—right?” I looked up at him hopefully.

  He nodded again. “I did.”

  “Well if you knew that was possible in the first place, why did we have to go through all that? Why drag me down to Hell and make me go through all seven circles if you could have just asked for a piece of my soul in the first place and gone and closed the door yourself?”

  “Think about it, Gwendolyn,” he said gently. “The only ways to get part of a mortal’s soul is by using a soul hook or…”

  “Or by making love,” I said, looking down at the sand.

  “Exactly. And how would you have reacted if I had suggested either option to you at the beginning of our little adventure?”

  “I would have told you to fuck off,” I said bluntly. “I would have thought it was a trick—just a way to get me to sleep with you.”

  “Exactly,” Laish said again. “I needed you to travel with me and grow t
o trust me. Trust me enough that you would have no suspicion of the way I planned to betray you.”

  “Betray me?” I asked, looking up at him. “You mean by taking my virginity completely when the barrier was already broken and the tax had already been paid?”

  He nodded. “Regretfully, the theft of a soul—even of only half a soul—requires a betrayal. If it is given freely, the deception is not necessary. But since I knew that was not an option—”

  “How did you know?” I demanded, glaring at him. “Why didn’t you at least ask me? I trusted you, Laish—I would have listened. By the end of our time in Hell I would have done just about anything you said.” I hated to admit that but it was the truth.

  “You would have listened if you had felt the same way about me that I feel about you,” he murmured. “But I knew you did not.”

  “What? Because I didn’t feel ready to say ‘I love you’ yet?” I asked. “I mean, that’s a lot to ask when we’d only been traveling together a few days!”

  He shook his head. “It wasn’t your inability to speak the words that made me certain you did not return my feelings, mon ange. It was the fact that the Mirror of the Eye did not show you my image when you looked into it.”

  “But…but I…” I closed my eyes, remembering when he had asked if I had seen him in the magic mirror which showed the person you cared for or loved the most. He had made me look in it with him and he had seen me. But though I had, in fact, seen him the second time I looked, I had lied and said I didn’t.

  Why did it do that? Why did I lie?

  I knew the answer. It was because admitting the feelings that were growing for him inside made me feel vulnerable—exposed. Not to mention really damn frightened.

  “What? What is it, mon ange?” Laish had obviously picked up on my distress though, surprisingly, he hadn’t read my thoughts.

  “It…it did show me your image,” I said in a low voice. “I just didn’t want to tell you because it made me feel weak and scared. I…I didn’t know if I wanted to have feelings for you.”