Ruby Shadows (35 page)

“
A night of rest should
restore me quite a lot,” I replied. “I will soon be at full
strength again—it helps that the next circle we are going to pass
through is my home.”

“
It is?” Her eyes widened.
“Are we going to go by your house?”

I shook my head. “My estate, as I told you,
is in Hades. When we pass the next barrier, we will be entering the
City of Dis which is about five hundred leagues away.”

Gwendolyn shifted uncomfortably.

“
About the
barrier…”

“
You need not concern
yourself with it now,” I told her. “We
are
close enough to break it here
but we do not need to. Wait until tomorrow and we will find another
way for you to pay the Sin Tax. One that does not involve me
touching you, as I know you dislike that.”

“
It’s not that I dislike
it, you know that,” she protested. “It just
feels…dangerous.”

To say the honest truth, it felt dangerous
to me as well. As a demon of lust I should be able to take my
pleasure with her and think nothing of it. Yet I found myself
affected by her innocence. Her pleasure in my touch undid me in
ways I did not fully understand.

“
I am not offended,” I
said. “I understand why you want to keep your distance—to keep your
innocence. And in the spirit of that…” Summoning some of my slowly
returning power, I conjured a long silk nightdress for her and some
black satin sleeping trousers for myself as well.

“
Oh, thank you!” Gwendolyn
eagerly pulled the dress on. It was deep green and looked lovely
with her eyes.

“
I will conjure you some
pillows as well,” I promised. “I thought you could sleep before the
fire tonight as the bed doesn’t seem to be to your
liking.”

“
You’re right about that.”
She shivered. “In front of the fire will be fine.”

“
Very well.” I called a
fluffy goose down pillow to me and handed it to her. “Sweet dreams,
Gwendolyn.”

She bit her lip, that habit she had when
uncertain of something.

“
You’re not, uh, joining
me?”

“
As I told you before,
demons have no need of sleep,” I said. “And considering that you
wish to keep your distance, I think it better that I watch over you
from here.” I took a seat at the table on one of the crude wooden
stools.

“
Oh. All right.”
Strangely, she sounded disappointed. Why would she, though? After
all, she was the one who wished to keep me at an arm’s length—I was
making that very easy for her. I couldn’t fathom why she should be
upset that I would be spending the night away from her.

“
Good night, Gwendolyn,” I
murmured, conjuring her a blanket. It appeared and draped over her
softly curving form. I hoped it would keep her warm since I could
not do it myself.

“
Good night, Laish,” she
whispered and was still, her face turned to the fire, her eyes
closed.

For a long while I watched the play of
firelight and shadows over her high cheekbones and lovely face. She
was not asleep—I could tell that. But she was pretending, either
for my benefit or her own. So I simply sat and watched, wishing I
could caress her as the firelight did, wishing to kiss her…to hold
her…to bring her pleasure.

And yet I could not. Nor could I even say
why I wanted to in the first place.

Chapter
Twenty-four

Gwendolyn

It took a long time to
drift off. I could feel Laish watching me and I couldn’t help
wondering what he was thinking. I knew what
I
was thinking though—it was all
about him. All about Laish.

He’d gotten so defensive earlier when I’d
asked him about his past—I’d never heard him sound like that
before. He was always so calm and amused and above it all. So cool
and collected. Yet when I asked what he really was he’d snapped at
me and pretty much told me to mind my own business. Then he’d
turned it around on me, asking about the revenge spell I wanted to
work and I’d snapped right back. That was what he’d wanted of
course—to take the spotlight off himself and turn it on me. But
why?

And why did I care? I told myself his past
was none of my business—that it was no big deal he was sitting at
the table while I slept by myself on the fur rug in front of the
fire. But I couldn’t quite make myself believe it.

For the awful few hours when I’d believed he
was dead or at least gone forever beyond my reach, I’d missed him
terribly. Though I hardly admitted it to myself, I had felt
completely bereft and not just because I had no idea how I’d get
through Hell without him. When he’d saved me from the demon and I
fell sobbing into his arms there was a feeling of comfort and
safety…of coming home. Why was that?

“
You love him,”
breathed a soft voice in my ear.

No, I don’t—of course I
don’t,
I told myself firmly.
I could never be that stupid—could never give my
heart to a demon. Grams raised me better than that.

But if that was true, why was it so hard to
lie here, pretending to sleep when all I wanted was to jump up and
run to him? Why did I long for his kiss and the comfort of his arms
wrapped around me, the feel of his big, strong body pressed against
mine?

It took everything I could not to go to him
or call him to me but somehow I remained alone on the rug.

Just relax,
I told myself sternly.
It’s been a long,
long
day. Try and get some sleep and things will look
better in the morning.
It was what Grams
always told me and it was almost always true.

I opened my eyes just a slit and stared into
the fire where the flames were burning lower now. The soft crackle
and pop of the wood burning and the hypnotic flicker of light and
shadow finally overcame my restless mind. I was able to give in to
exhaustion and at last I slept.

~~~

I don’t know if it was falling asleep in
front of the fire or the awful, stressful events I’d been through
that brought on the dream. I only knew that one minute I was lying
safe and warm before the fireplace and the next I was crammed into
the small, dark closet with my sister Keisha, looking through the
crack at the fire demon and listening to my mother’s screams.

“
Mamma…Mamma, no—Mamma
please come back! Please be all right! Don’t hurt her! Don’t you
hurt my Mamma!”

The screams continued mixed with the high,
evil laughter and the frightened sobbing of my little sister. I
felt the tremendous heat pushing against the door like a huge,
flaming hand trying to get in…smelled the choking stench of
smoke…heard the fire engines in the distance coming to save us but
too late…too late…

“
Please,”
I begged.
“Please don’t
hurt her—please just let her be all right…”

“
Gwendolyn?
Gwendolyn!”

Someone was shaking my shoulder and speaking
low and urgently in my ear—calling my name, calling me out of the
dream and into reality.

“
Gwendolyn…
mon
ange…
It’s all right. Everything is all
right. It’s just a dream…a bad dream.”

A dream…I’m having the
dream again,
I thought, still foggy and
disorientated.
I haven’t had it in so
long—years…

“
Gwendolyn?” Laish said
again and I opened my eyes to see him kneeling beside me, a look of
concern on his face.

“
Laish…” I reached for him
blindly and he took me in his arms.

“
What is it,
mon ange?”
he murmured.
“What is this dream that torments you so?”

“
My mother.” I heard the
choking in my voice and tried not to cry—I hated looking weak in
front of him again. But the dream had been so vivid—so
real…

“
What happened to your
mother,
mon ange?
You never told me.”

“
She was killed.” I choked
again and wiped my eyes quickly. “When her spell went
wrong.”

“
What went wrong with it?”
The fire had sunk to embers now and in its soft red glow his ruby
eyes looked almost golden.

“
I…she…” I was too tired
and disorientated to lie. “She called a fire demon,” I admitted at
last. “And it turned on her. Burned her and set our house on fire.
Keisha and I were hiding in the closet, watching when it happened.
We nearly died too but the firemen saved us. Not my mother
though…Mamma…” I felt a soft sob escape me and looked away. “It was
too late for her. That…that was how she died.”

Understanding dawned on his face.

“
No wonder you feared me
more after you found out my true nature.”

“
Yeah, well…” I pushed
back from his embrace and swiped at my eyes again. “I guess that
wasn’t very fair of me. You can’t judge a whole people by one
individual.”

“
Actually, in this case
you can,” he said mildly. “I would bet almost anything that the
kind of demon your mother called for her spell was a Fire Imp—a
demon made entirely of the stuff of the Lake of Fire. They are
mindless creatures bent only on death and destruction.”

“
So…there’s more than one
kind of fire demon?” I frowned uncertainly. “You’re sure about
that?”

“
Positive,” he said dryly.
“I am, after all, the second kind.”

“
Which is different how
exactly?” I asked.

“
I draw my strength from
the Lake of Fire because I was baptized in it when I was first cast
down,” he said. “But I am not
made
of it.”

Cast down from
where?
I wanted to ask but remembering his
earlier defensiveness, I bit my tongue.

“
So Mamma—my mother—was
unlucky enough to get the wrong kind of fire demon when she did her
spell?”

“
Unlucky or
unknowledgeable. Calling anything demonic to you is very dangerous,
as I am sure you know. You are opening a doorway—opening
yourself
–to dark forces
when you call upon one of my kind.”

“
I know,” I whispered.
“That was why I was specifically trying for a lesser or minor demon
when I first did the spell that you answered.”

“
And yet, you got me
instead. For when you open a door, you cannot always be sure who or
what will come through it.”

His words made me remember
the door I’d opened onto the Abyss and the HellSpawn that had come
through. The HellSpawn that was no doubt hot on my trail right now.
For the first time it really hit home with me how
foolish—how
reckless
I’d been. And yet, I still would do it again. Taylor was my
friend—I wasn’t sorry I’d called her back from the edge of death—I
just wished I’d been more careful when I was doing it.

Laish seemed to take my silence for
calmness. He brushed my cheek lightly with his knuckles and sat
up.

“
You should try to get
more sleep. It is hours yet before dawn.”

He started to get up but I reached for him—I
couldn’t help it.

“
Wait…” I put a hand on
his bare, muscular arm. “Please…stay with me. Hold me a little
while longer.”

A change came over his face—a more open look
than I’d seen since our disastrous discussion over dinner.

“
Do you truly wish me
to?”

“
You know I do.” I tugged
on him a little. “I wanted you to earlier but…well, I didn’t know
how to ask.”

“
Simply ask,
mon ange,”
he murmured,
a small, amused smile quirking one corner of his sensuous mouth. I
am yours for the asking at any time.”

“
I’m asking now,” I told
him. “Hold me.”

“
As my lady wishes,” he
said, his deep voice amused. Lying down beside me again, he took me
in his arms and held me close.

I pressed close to him,
just as I had when he had first rescued me from the demon. I
nuzzled my head under his chin and pressed my cheek to his broad,
warm chest. His dark spice and cinnamon scent filled my nose and it
smelled like safety and comfort and home. Wrapping my arms around
his waist, I sighed contentedly. This was better—it was what I had
wanted all along. And while I knew I was being weak, giving in to
the impulse to snuggle with him didn’t seem wrong or dangerous—it
felt good. Felt wonderful and safe and
right.

I pressed even closer to him and suddenly
something hot and hard was nudging against my belly.

“
Oh!” I bit my
lip.

“
Forgive me.” Laish
started to move away. “Though I am a Prince of Night and Shadows, I
am still male. With all my power I cannot help the way my body
reacts to yours, Gwendolyn.”

I couldn’t help the way mine reacted to him
either. Already I could feel my nipples growing tight and my pussy
getting wet, just from being close to him and smelling that warm,
cinnamon musk. Not to mention feeling his big, warm body pressing
against mine.

Suddenly I had an idea.

“
Wait…” I reached for him
when he would have moved away. “I want to try
something.”

“
What?” He frowned at me
inquiringly.