Ruby Shadows (61 page)

“
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 wa
s 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 to 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—”