The Ruby Kiss

by Helen Scott Taylor

  “Don’t be difficult,” he snapped.

  “Give me my Magic Knot.”

  “I don’t have it here!”

  “Then go and get it. I’ll wait.” She backed toward the tiny cave beneath the rocky tor. Kade’s wings made him too big to follow her inside.

  “Are you stupid?” he bit out.

  “Probably.” After all, she was in love with a man who had wings and fangs. That couldn’t be rational.

  “Come on, Ruby. Your nightstalker friend asked me to take you to safety.” He closed on her, holding out a placating hand. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Kade’s coaxing tone didn’t impress her. “You’ve already hurt me. I’ve suffered all my life because you stole my Magic Knot.”

  Irritation broke through his calm. “This sort of behavior is exactly why I took it. You’re a weak human gifted with incredible power. I was protecting you from yourself.”

  “You were protecting your own interests. Don’t try to dress this up as anything but greed and—”

  Kade leapt at her. His hand snapped closed around the wrist of her empty hand.

  For a moment Ruby froze in surprise; then she swung her stick. It glanced off her father’s crystal breastplate with a melodic chime like a bell. The shock reverberated up her arm, jarring her elbow and shoulder, making her grit her teeth in pain. She banged her head on his armor when he yanked her closer.

  “Behave,” he grated out as he pulled the stick from her grip. He wrestled with her, trying to get a good hold to carry her.

  As he lifted her off the ground, she kicked out and caught him in the groin. He stared at her, bug-eyed, his face going red. His grip on her loosened and she fell back to her feet. He angled himself away with a protective hand between his legs, and she snatched up her stick and whacked his wings. White feathers burst into the air and fluttered away on the wind. Then Ruby jumped back toward the cave mouth.

  She smacked against the rock in her haste, winding herself. As she struggled to drag in a breath, Kade raised his eyes. Fear spiked through her. Gone was any pretense at being friendly.

  “You little bitch.” He straightened, and a smoky cloud streamed out of the top of his head.

  A specter? The vaguely man-shaped cloud drifted toward her, and she cowered. The malevolent thought form from her father’s mind terrified her more than any other weird thing she’d encountered. She’d rather have faced Fenrir’s wolf again than face this specter.

  “Give me my Magic Knot,” she demanded, one last desperate attempt to get what she wanted. Her father ignored her.

  She dropped to her knees to crawl into the cave, but the thought of being trapped in that small space with the specter frightened her more than meeting it in the open. She scrambled to her feet again.

  When she swiped at the smoky shape with her stick, the wood just passed right through. “Call it off!”

  “You sense its nature, don’t you?” Kade asked.

  “It’s evil.” The cold merciless thing hung in the air so close that she could have reached out and touched it. “Get it away from me.”

  “It’s fear and dread, Ruby.” Her father stepped closer, in short careful strides, obviously still in discomfort. “I harvest the terror of my victims to feed it. Some humans die of fright at its touch.”

  The specter wasn’t white, as she’d thought when she’d seen it from a distance; it was sickly yellow, like a floating bruise in the air.

  “Come with me,” Kade whispered in a lethal undertone. “Or my specter will show you the terrors of all my prey.”

  Ruby trembled, but with every word that came out of Kade’s mouth she was more determined not to go with him. She’d rather take her chances with the dragon fire.

  She sucked in a breath and dragged her eyes from the shadowy form to meet her father’s cruel blue gaze. “No,” she enunciated firmly. “Give me my Magic Knot.”

  His jaw clenched. The specter floated closer, and Ruby tightened her grip on her stick. She could run, but she’d seen the speed at which these ghostly forms moved and it would catch her almost immediately. Better to face the horror head-on rather than run like a terrified rabbit.

  * * *

  Chapter Seventeen

  Nightshade leapt from the tree and grabbed the back of the dragon’s saddle. His father’s fist swung around and smashed against his shoulder. He was knocked back, but his grip held.

  The creature’s red scales snagged his jeans as Nightshade dragged his legs astride. Wetness stuck the denim to his thighs, and he realized he was bleeding. Damn, the creature’s scales must be sharp. No wonder his father sat on a leather saddle.

  But Dragon was strapped in place so he couldn’t rotate his body fully. With muffled curses and grunts the two exchanged weak body blows, neither able to put much power behind their strikes.

  “You were born to fail,” Dragon shouted, and he head-butted Nightshade in the face. Pain exploded inside Nightshade’s skull; blood spurted from his nose and filled his mouth. But anger wiped out the pain. Nightshade jammed his feet under the saddle straps to free up both his hands. Then, wrapping an arm around Dragon’s neck, he forced back his father’s head. He jabbed his fist into his father’s face, returning the gift of the bloody nose.

  With a roar of fury, Dragon released the strap anchoring his right leg and swung around, throwing himself atop Nightshade. The pair wrestled on the dragon’s back, bouncing wildly as the wind hit them when the creature changed direction. The beast loosed a piercing cry that set Nightshade’s teeth on edge.

  Dragon locked both hands around Nightshade’s throat. “Stop interfering in my life, pisky boy.”

  Heat and pain filled his head. Nightshade prized one of Dragon’s hands away and managed to croak a reply. “I won’t let you hurt Rhys again. Give him up.”

  “No!”

  “Then you die.”

  A harsh laugh burst from Dragon. His flying beast banked sharply, and both riders slid off the side, hanging on only to the saddle. But the sudden shift in weight destabilized the creature. Its wings lost rhythm, flapping madly while it twisted in the air, struggling to correct the angle of descent.

  Treetops smacked Nightshade’s legs, and he slipped lower, clinging now to a strap. Dragon kicked him in the ribs, but Nightshade hung on. If he fell off, his father might fly down to Cornwall. Even if he survived, Nightshade would never catch up with him in time to stop him from raining vengeful destruction on the piskies.

  He grabbed his father’s wings and used them to haul himself higher. Dragon cursed, jerking his shoulders, trying to dislodge him, but Nightshade gripped tighter.

  The Welsh Red swung its head around and blasted a stream of fire at them. Heat licked Nightshade’s arm, but most of the flames were snatched away by the wind.

  “Stop,” Dragon bellowed. Hard red scales broke through his skin, plating his torso with armor courtesy of his blood bond with his creature.

  Nightshade and his father scuffled, each trying to climb back to the saddle, but each time one of them made progress the other knocked him back. Eventually, they would fall off the beast. It was only a matter of time.

  Which realization gave Nightshade an idea. Using his hard fingernails, he sliced through the leather collar around the dragon’s neck. His father grappled for it, too, but his handhold slipped and he had to grab the saddle to save himself. Nightshade quickly pulled the harness free, slung it around Dragon’s torso, and pulled the straps tight with his teeth. The maneuver bound Dragon’s wings to his body.

  “Get off me!” His father kicked backward, jabbing the steel-shod heel of his boot against Nightshade’s legs. Breathing through the pain, Nightshade reached for the straining buckle on the saddle girth.

  “Nightshade. No!”

  Dragon’s wings strained and jerked against the leather straps tying them down. He shouted some harsh foreign words, and the Welsh Red changed course to swoop low over Ruby’s house.

  Nightshade clung with both hands while his
dangling feet plowed through charred timber and shattered roof tiles, raising a choking cloud of soot. But he waited until they were clear of the house and ascending again. He needed height so that, when he let go, he had time to stabilize his descent. And he wanted to ensure Dragon hit the ground so hard he never got up again.

  * * *

  The specter’s misty presence set Ruby’s skin crawling with malevolent cold. She pressed against the rock behind her and closed her eyes, her breath dragging at her lungs, her heart drumming in her ears. The terrors the specter embodied could be no worse than the awful mental images when Devin had tortured Twister’s Whips. She counted her heartbeats, focused inside herself, and gathered strength.

  Kade swore. Ruby’s eyes snapped open to see the specter disappearing back into the top of his head. Then she blinked. Her vision was slightly distorted, as though she were looking through thick glass.

  She reached out, and her fingers brushed a transparent membrane in the air, sending shimmers of light dancing before her eyes. She glanced up and to the sides, recognizing the structure neatly covering her as a dome of light like the one Troy had once created. Had Troy protected her from the specter? She scanned the area, a strange excitement thrumming along her nerves as she noticed Kade also glancing nervously around.

  Troy emerged from a stand of pine trees, unhurried, almost nonchalant. Ruby poked her fingers through the shiny membrane he’d created, and it popped and disappeared.

  “Nightshade needs your help,” she shouted.

  “Nightshade is fine,” Troy said without looking at her. He halted about ten feet from Kade and became inhumanly still. As if summoned, the sun appeared from behind a cloud and turned his yellow satin jacket to molten gold. The faceted black gems in his buttons became twinkling mirrors. Black lace at his throat and cuffs emphasized his pearly skin and golden hair. Much as she disliked him, Ruby had to admit that he was beautiful. In a scary, surreal way, but beautiful.

  Kade faced Troy, feet set apart, hands at his sides. “There is nothing here to concern you, Deathless One. Do not interfere.”

  “You’re wrong.” Troy paused, and the sound of massive wing beats and shouting preceded his reply. “This is very much my concern.”

  Kade’s gaze skated to Ruby then back. “You can’t have an interest in the . . . my daughter.”

  Troy said nothing, just stared at Kade with a gaze that could have drilled through rock.

  “Gods above,” Kade whispered. “I see the way the wind blows.” He laughed, then, a bark of astonishment. “It’s the nightstalker you’ve come for. Dabbling with the darker side of passion, are you?”

  Smoke from the many surrounding fires drifted across the sun. The temperature dropped. Troy said, “Be very careful what you say, hunter.”

  Kade’s hands shot out in front of him. With the crackle of electricity, a jagged flash appeared between his palms that he tossed at Troy. But a light dome appeared and the mini lightning bolt splintered on its surface like a firework, leaving Troy unharmed. Kade’s hands curled into fists.

  “Are you stupid?” Troy asked. Ruby almost smiled at the familiarity of the question.

  “Give me my Magic Knot,” she demanded, sensing the best time to get what she wanted was now, when Kade was on the defensive.

  Troy’s gaze flicked to her, the first time since he’d arrived. “He hasn’t given it to you yet?” Reaching over his left shoulder, he eyed Kade once more. There sounded the metallic whisper of metal on metal, and Troy withdrew a short black sword from a scabbard across his back. “Return the Mistress’s Magic Knot.”

  “What does it matter to you?” Kade snapped. “The Mistress is my daughter. Rescue your nightstalker friend and leave me to my business.”

  “Ruby is Nightshade’s business, which also makes her mine.” Troy strode forward, sword raised.

  “Go, Troy!” Ruby shouted, punching the air.

  He cast her an astonished glance.

  Kade stumbled backward. “I have no weapon. Would you hurt an unarmed man?”

  Troy stopped. “Is your lightning just a party trick?”

  “That’s ineffective against you.”

  Troy’s lips twitched. “Shall I tie an arm behind my back and close my eyes?”

  A slightly manic giggle burst from Ruby.

  Kade’s face tightened with fury. The specter spouted again from the top of his head. Troy stood still as the smoky form arrowed over to engulf him, and Kade generated another lightning bolt between his hands and threw it.

  Troy’s sword blade swung out of the misty mass and harmlessly deflected the electrical flash into the damp earth. The specter floated higher and hung in the air.

  Kade shook his head slowly in disbelief. “Don’t you feel the effect of the specter?”

  “You have no idea what terror is, hunter.”

  Kade’s expression gave nothing away, but the feather edges of his wings trembled.

  “Give the Mistress her Magic Knot or I’ll show you some of my memories,” Troy continued in that same cold psycho voice he’d used when he’d threatened Ruby.

  Kade glanced up, then his wings swept down in a huge arc and he lifted from the ground. His specter swirled around him before reentering the top of his head. The Seelie hunter reached beneath his crystal breastplate and threw something small and shiny up in the air. “All right then. You want my daughter’s Magic Knot so badly, you can have it.”

  Transfixed by the battle between Kade and Troy, Ruby only noticed the dragon bearing down on them at the last minute. Smoke spiraled out of the creature’s nostrils as it prepared to release a burst of flame that would engulf the Magic Knot thrown by Kade into its path. Could her stones burn? Would such an event kill her? She froze. The breath locked in her lungs. Her eyes followed the tiny shining stones as they arced through the air.

  As she watched, Dragon fell from the creature’s back. With a furious roar, he plummeted toward the ground headfirst without opening his wings. He landed with a sickening thud. Ruby pressed a hand over her mouth, bile bitter in the back of her throat. He couldn’t have survived the fall.

  “Ruby, take cover,” came a shout. Her gaze jumped back to the sky to see Nightshade descending toward her fast. She didn’t need to be an expert on supernatural creatures to guess the dragon would go mad when it realized its master was dead.

  Nightshade hadn’t seen her Magic Knot, which still arced through the air. She shouted at him to grab it, but all he did was hurry to reach her.

  Troy’s head tilted back and his eyes tracked the path of Ruby’s Magic Knot. Running forward, he leapt impossibly high, his arm reaching out above his head. He snatched her stones from the dragon’s jaws, fire licking all around his hand, then he dropped back to his feet. He pivoted to face her. Their eyes met, sending a physical shock through her.

  Nightshade landed at Ruby’s side with a thud that reverberated through the ground. He wrapped an arm around her waist and tried to pick her up. “We need to get out of here before the Welsh Red starts grieving,” he growled. When she didn’t respond, he snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Ruby, can you hear me?”

  She couldn’t rip her gaze from the crystalline blue of Troy’s eyes. Her vision shimmered, and a rushing sound filled her ears. She still sensed Nightshade’s arm around her, and his voice, but she couldn’t make out his words. She was swept away across an endless landscape of snow and ice, the air clean and crisp, the sun bright and hot against her face. A kaleidoscope of people and places flashed through her mind, recollections that weren’t hers: a beautiful blonde-haired woman in Troy’s image, the memory sheathed in layers of love; Devin, Niall, Michael, and their children; other people and places spinning around her in a tornado of memories from ages past.

  Her muscles gave way and she was aware of Nightshade holding her upright, though the whirlwind of images sucked her back in time. A woman appeared at the end of a long tunnel, surrounded by light, red highlights in her long dark hair. She smiled, and Ruby knew
this woman held Troy’s Magic Knot. Then the stream of memories cut off abruptly and she found herself kneeling in front of the cave. Nightshade by her side.

  But Troy had touched her Magic Knot. She was bonded to him. She couldn’t give her Magic Knot to Nightshade now. Tears filled her eyes.

  “Ruby?” Nightshade’s arm tightened around her shoulders. “Are you hurt? Tell me what’s the matter.”

  The heartbreaking answer circled her mind but she couldn’t get the words into her mouth. She shook her head repeatedly, denying the light, expanding sensation of Troy’s presence in her consciousness.

  The dragon had landed. It was crouched over the lifeless body of Nightshade’s father, nosing him. The body flopped over, and the beast threw back its head. A keening screech sliced the air. Ruby pressed her hands over her ears, but the sound bored through to the very marrow of her bones.

  The sound distresses you, Troy noted softly inside her head. He approached, raised his hand and generated a light dome over the three of them, cutting off the dragon’s wail. Silence hummed in Ruby’s ears. For long moments Troy stared down at her, seemingly oblivious to Nightshade.

  “Where’s Kade?” Nightshade asked. “Did he give you your Magic Knot, Ruby?”

  Troy’s gaze moved to Nightshade, and regret flickered across his face. “We have it,” he said. His voice was a low, sonorous tone that slowed her racing heart and soothed her frayed nerves.

  He extended his closed fist. Hesitantly, Ruby held out her palm. He dropped three linked pale pink stone rings into her hand. Strange, that her Magic Knot was pink. She didn’t think of herself as a pink person.

  “Thank you,” she whispered. She closed her fingers around her stones and held them to her chest, expecting an emotional storm to assail her. All she felt was loving warmth. It flowed into her hand, up her arm, filling her like the soothing touch of warm water.