Ruby Shadows (18 page)

“
Lady,” he said again.
“Are you there?”

“
I’m here,” I said though
the door. “What do you want sweetheart? And how did you get in
here?”

“
Snuck in when the guards
were lettin’ somebody important in,” he said. “Got your
shoe.”

He held up the other black ballet flat—the
one that I’d lost in the fight with the demon in the crowded
central square of Baator.

“
Noticed you only had
one,” he said. “And I thought…” He scuffed one bare, dirty foot in
the rich carpet. “Thought you looked sad about it. So I went and
found it and brought it back.” He held it higher, toward the
peephole. “If you open the door I’ll give it to you.”

“
Of course.” I started to
unlock the door…then hesitated. Laish’s command that I not open the
door to
anyone
still rang in my head. But surely this sweet little cherub
didn’t pose a threat, did he? He’d gone out in that horrible crowd
to find my shoe and risked being beaten by the doormen to sneak in
and give it to me—how dangerous could he be?

I wavered for a moment but then I saw the
gold chain to one side of the door. Of course—I could put the chain
on and just open it a little! It seemed like a silly precaution but
Laish had been so damn adamant about me not opening the door that I
decided to use it.

Sliding the chain in place, I opened the
door just the two inch crack it allowed. The curly little cherub
was still standing there, waiting patiently and holding out my
shoe.

“
Here you go, lady,” he
said. “You want it?”

“
Of course. Thank
you.”

Luckily the ballet flat wasn’t very big or
it never would have fit through the crack in the door. The little
boy didn’t say a word about it though—maybe he was used to not
being trusted. He just shoved the thin black leather shoe through
to me and turned to go.

“
Wait!” The sight of his
ragged little figure and hollow cheeks tore at my conscious. I
mean, I try to pretend I’m a big, bad witch with a cold-ass heart
but inside I’m kind of a marshmallow. When it comes to kids,
anyway.

“
Yeah?” He turned back
hopefully, looking at me.

“
You deserve a reward for
going out in that awful crowd and getting my shoe for me,” I said.
“In fact, you shouldn’t have gone out at all. It’s too
dangerous!”

“
Got to.” He shrugged. “We
do it every day anyway. Sometimes people drop things—stuff to eat.
You know.”

“
You’re hungry, aren’t
you?” I asked, my heart aching for him.

He nodded, his curls flopping adorably with
the exaggerated movement.

“
Oh yeah!
So
hungry. Always hungry
cause there’s never enough to eat.”

His words gave me an idea.

“
Wait here a minute,” I
said and went to my leather satchel, which I’d left lying on the
white leather sofa. Digging out the faded plastic Sponge Bob
sandwich box, I brought it with me to the door. Since it was
spelled never to be empty, I could give the little boy a sandwich
to eat at least. Actually, I could give him a
lot
of sandwiches—maybe he could
bring them back to the little ragged band of street kids and they
could have a feast.

Smiling at the idea, I returned to the door
and reached into the Sponge Bob box.

“
Here you go,” I said to
the little face, waiting just outside. “I hope you like peanut
butter and strawberry jam.” Pulling out a dripping, gooey PB&J,
I held it out to show him.

His big blue eyes widened.

“
Wow—is that for
me?”

“
Sure is, sweetie.” Then I
realized the thick, gooey sandwich was never going to make it
through the two inch crack in the door. Not without dripping
strawberry jam everywhere, anyway. And I didn’t like to think what
kind of damage deposit Druaga would charge for getting strawberry
jam out of his immaculate carpet and off his perfect
walls.

Then I got irritated with myself.

Oh to Hell with it—this is ridiculous! He’s
a little boy—it can’t hurt to open the door long enough to give him
a sandwich!

“
Hang on,” I told the
little cherub. Reaching up one handed, I released the chain and
swung the door open. Then I held the sandwich out to him. “Here you
go, sweetie.”

“
Thanks, Lady!”

He reached for the sandwich in my
outstretched hand but as he did, something changed in his face. His
big blue eyes turned pure black…an inky color that bled across the
whites as well, turning his eyes to pools of midnight.

“
Oh!” I was so busy
watching his eyes I didn’t noticed he wasn’t reaching for the
sandwich at all—he was reaching for
me.
And I didn’t even have a clue
what was going on until his strong little hand latched onto my
wrist

“
So…
hungry!”
he hissed, baring his
teeth. I saw with horror they were needle sharp—not teeth but
fangs—long, sharp fangs like something out of a horror movie or the
worst nightmare you’ve ever had.

“
No, stop—let me go!” But
his grip seemed unbreakable—he was much,
much
stronger than he looked. I
squeezed the sandwich in a nervous spasm and strawberry jam glopped
all over my arm and the carpet both. I still held the Sponge Bob
sandwich holder in my other hand and I gripped it tightly while I
tried to get away—to get back into the suite where I felt sure I’d
be safe.

“
Hungry!” hissed the
little boy who was looking less and less like a cherub and more
like a miniature demon every second. His dead black eyes looked up
at me, filled with hunger for a lot more than just PB&J. Then
he bared those horrible fangs and sank them into my arm.

I screamed as pain spiked through me, sharp
as a knife and the Sponge Bob sandwich container fell from my
nerveless fingers. As though my scream was a signal, the hallway
was suddenly filled with ragged children—or devilkins as Laish had
called them. They seemed to appear from nowhere and swarmed all
over me, pulling me away from the suite door while the first little
monster kept his teeth locked in the flesh of my forearm.

I cried and struggled but while I might have
made headway against one, the whole band of them was too much for
me. As small as they were, they were fiendishly strong. There were
only about ten of them but it felt like hundreds of hard little
hands pulling me away from the safety of the suite and I was afraid
any minute they would start biting too—devouring me in bloody
chunks like a pack of piranha right there in the middle of the
hallway.

Where was Laish? Still down in the basement
tending to Kurex? Could he hear me if I screamed?”

“
Help—
help!”
I shouted. Surely someone in
this huge hotel had to hear me! Surely
someone
would help!

Someone did but it wasn’t exactly who I’d
been hoping for.

“
What’s this? What’s all
this?” Druaga came stomping down the hall on hoofed feet, his
boar’s head swinging, the gold-capped tusks gleaming. “What’s going
on here?” he snorted angrily when he saw me.

“
Help me! They won’t get
off me! I…I think they want to
eat
me!” I begged, nodding desperately at the shoving
mass of black-eyed, shark-teethed devil children that were swarming
all over me.

“
Here, you—get off! Get
off the lady, now!” The huge demon grabbed one devilkin by his
ragged clothing and swung him against the wall. Then another went
sailing.

At this point, the devil kids seemed to
understand that they were in danger and I wasn’t the free lunch I
seemed to be.

Squealing and shouting, they scattered like
ants when you drop a rock in their midst, and fled around the
angry, snorting boar-demon. The last to go was the little cherub
boy who still had his long, needle-sharp teeth buried in my arm. He
let go just as Druaga was about to punt him aside with one hoofed
foot and fled down the long hallway, his mouth still red with my
blood.

“
And stay out of my
hotel!” the demon shouted in his deeper-than-human voice. One large
hoofed foot stomped down hard in emphasis…and I heard the brittle
crackling sound of old plastic breaking.

Oh no…

Heart sinking, I looked down to see my old
Sponge Bob sandwich container in blue and yellow shards under
Druaga’s foot—or hoof, I guess. Now what was I going to eat the
rest of my journey through Hell?

But the loss of my perpetual PB&J maker
was soon the last thing on my mind.

“
Did they hurt you? Are
you well, my lady?” Druaga bent to examine me, using the excuse to
run his hairy hands all over my body—or as much as he could,
anyway.

“
I’m fine—really.” I
backed away from him, trying to elude those groping fingers.
Actually, I was anything but. I felt like I might burst into tears
at any moment—so much for being a mean tough witch, huh? But for
now a cold calm was on me.

Shock,
I thought.
I’m in shock.
My mind was still trying to process what had just
happened. How could the adorable band of rag-tag children who
looked like they belonged in a production of
Oliver Twist
have turned into a
vicious pack of ravenous predators and attacked me like that? It
didn’t seem right—I felt dizzy and off balance. Unable to believe
that it hadn’t just been a really vivid nightmare.

“…
off so I can be certain
you’re all right, my lady.”

“
What?” The snorting voice
broke into my train of thought and I looked up at the demonic hotel
manager. “What did you say?”

“
I said the bite of a
devilkin can be fatal if they inject their venom,” he said. “It’s
best you take off your dress so I can make sure you weren’t bitten.
Purely for your own safety, of course…”

The twitching of his massive, exposed
genitals belied his helpful words. Ugh—he was hard
again—disgusting!

“
I don’t think so…” I
tried to back away from him but he caught me by the arm. “Hey, let
go of me!”

“
Have to make certain
you’re well my lady.” He leered at me, pulling me closer to that
disgusting boar’s head as well as his uncovered crotch. A rank
smell like rotten fish and dirty, hairy flesh drifted up to me,
making me gag. “It would never do if Lord Laish came back to find
his concubine dead from neglect on my part,” he went on.

“
And it would never do if
he came back to see you molesting his lady, either,” another,
deeper voice growled.

I looked up in relief and saw Laish striding
down the hallway, a look of utter fury on his face. With each step
he took, he appeared to grow larger until I wasn’t sure how the
hallway could contain him.

“
My Lord!” Druaga dropped
my arm at once and stepped back, his erection wilting somewhat.
“Forgive me—your lady was attacked and I was just—”

“
Taking advantage of the
situation,” Laish finished for him, his eyes blazing. “Tell me,
Druaga—how did Gwendolyn come to be attacked in the first place?
And who exactly attacked her?”

“
It…it was those kids—the
ones we saw outside the hotel,” I whispered, feeling faint. I
thought…they seemed so harmless.”

Laish’s eyes widened. “Devilkins are
anything but harmless. Did they hurt you?”

“
I…” I shook my head,
feeling too faint to answer. God, what was wrong with me? Was I
still in shock or was it something else?”

Laish rounded on Druaga who by now had put
some distance between us.

“
How did the devilkins get
into your oh-so-well guarded hotel? How were they able to attack
Gwendolyn?”

The boar-demon’s face grew dark and he drew
himself up.

“
If you’re suggesting that
I somehow planned this episode—”

“
That is
exactly
what I am
suggesting,” Laish growled. He was at the end of the hallway now,
towering over the other demon with a terrible look on his face. For
a moment I thought I saw his eyes go all black, like the devilkin
children’s eyes had—but I blinked and they were ruby red
again.

“
You cannot believe such a
thing,” Druaga protested. “Or even if you do, you have no proof. I
came and rescued your lady from certain death and despoilment! You
owe me a debt for saving her life and her honor—not unwarranted
threats.”

I expected Laish to disagree with him—or
maybe rip his head off his shoulders—he certainly looked angry
enough to do it. Instead, he nodded briefly.

“
You are correct—I have
incurred a debt to you.” He glared at the boar-headed demon.
“Though I am certain you engineered the situation for that exact
purpose.”

Druaga put a hairy hand to his chest,
looking offended.

“
Most certainly not, Lord
Laish! And just to show that I would never do such a thing, the
only payment I ask is that the two of you break bread with me on
the morrow, before you leave.”

“
So…” I cleared my throat.
“You want us to have breakfast with you? That’s all?”

“
That is all, lovely
lady.” He leered at me, making me feel sick. Or was it the shock
again? Whatever it was, I was feeling more and more faint and dizzy
by the minute. “I simply want to be able to say that I broke bread
with one of the Princes of Darkness. It will increase my status in
Baator immeasurably.”