Jaime lowered his head next to her ear. “You want me to spank you right here in front of everybody?” he teased, and nipped her ear.
“You wouldn’t,” she said, twisting to look at him over her shoulder.
“Sure I would.”
“Umm, no. No thank you. I would prefer you didn’t. Because then I would have to beat you, and that would not be very good for your confidence, I think. You would then be known as the man with a very strong, very powerful, very dangerous, yet delicately beautiful flower of a woman that whipped your ass.”
Jaime burst out laughing. “Oh, well, okay then. If that’s how you’d like to be known.”
“I think it might be,” she answered, as she slowly strolled away from him, looking at all the sparkly pieces of jewelry in the display case in the window..
Jaime watched her walking up and down the case. “I know you’re not ready, Ruby. I’d do it today, but I can see the panic in your eyes each time it comes up. You’re mine. That’s not changing. Whenever you want to do it, we will. Don’t need a piece of paper or a fancy rock on your hand to tell me what I already know. You’re mine. I’m yours.”
Ruby looked back at him and smiled softly. “Thank you for understanding.”
“I got you always. Always have your back.”
Ruby walked back to him, reached up and kissed him on the chin. “So, what do we do now?” she asked.
“Well, I gotta go to work. And you have to find some bats to write about so you can become the famous bat lady of Calabasas, New Mexico.”
“Then let us be off!” Ruby crowed, skipping to the truck.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
The front door of the diner opened and Ruby walked in alone. “Can I get a few sandwiches to take with me, Aunt Mildred?”
“You going scouting again?” Mildred asked.
“Yep. Jaime told me where to find the bats out by his place. I think I can find them this time. If not, I’m going back to his shop and make him show me.”
“Okay. I’ll make you up a bag of food to take, but make sure you double up on your water. It’s supposed to be a scorcher out there today. You don’t want to be caught out there without water.”
“I will. And look!” Ruby said excitedly, holding her hair back for Mildred to see her dangly new bat earrings.
Mildred’s face broke into a smile, her sun-weathered skin, not used to the motion, seemed to crinkle in on itself. “They’re perfect, Ruby. Couldn’t imagine a better pair for you. But I thought sure you’d come home with a different piece of jewelry.”
“I'm not ready,” Ruby said, looking down at her own hands. “I’ve run from any kind of commitment for so long that I can’t just jump in with both feet. I start to panic each time it comes up. I’m here, I’m not going anywhere. And Jaime understands that. So, for now, this is enough for us.”
“I can certainly understand that. I’m happy for both of you.”
“Thank you.”
“You go get what you’ll need for your hike, and I’ll get some food together for you.”
“Thank you, Mildred!” Ruby said, already moving toward the back door.
“Aunt!” Mildred shouted.
“Aunt Mildred!” Ruby singsonged as she went out of the back door.
Chapter 13
Ruby first made a stop by Jaime’s shop.
“What brings you by here? You looking for a mechanic?” he teased, peeking out from beneath the truck he was working on.
“Actually, I have one. The best one in town.”
“Probably the only one in town,” Jaime laughed.
“That’s why he’s the best one in town,” Ruby snarked.
“Hey!” Jaime snapped.
Ruby laughed. “Anyway, I brought you lunch. I’ll be out all day, and don’t worry, I brought plenty food and water. But I probably won’t be back until late. I plan to make up for the first wasted days and record as much information as I can. But I wanted to bring you some lunch and tell you I’ll see you tonight.”
“Okay. Just be sure to watch your odometer, it’s easy to miss.”
“I have the instructions you gave me,” she patted her pocket. “I’ll be fine.”
“Alright, then. I’ll see you tonight. Be careful.”
“I’ll be fine. I have trekked through many a desert all by my lonesome and been just fine. You underestimate me, Mr. Claremont.”
“No, I do not. It’s just my right to worry about my woman.”
“Well don’t go smothering me or I might have to hide from you.”
“Never, baby. You do your thing and I got your back,” he said. “Besides, I’d find your ass.”
Ruby snickered. “If I wanted you to.” She smiled down at the bottom half of his body sticking out from beneath the car. “Love you, see you later,” Ruby said, bending over to pat his leg where it stuck out.
“Ditto!” he said. Then shouted at her retreating footsteps. “Be careful!”
“I’m always careful!” she yelled back.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Ruby stomped around in the desert for no more than an hour before deciding enough was enough. She hiked back to her Jeep and sat in the driver’s seat. She reclined the seat just a little, closed her eyes, and rested her arm on the open window, one foot propped on the dash. She was guzzling her third bottle of water. She’d just about decided to go get Jaime to personally bring her back out here and show her where the damned hidden opening to the nesting bat colony was when she heard footsteps beside her Jeep.
“About time you came to check on me. I have looked and looked and just can’t find the opening,” she complained. “This damn heat is so oppressive or I’d have kept looking. What did I do, go too far out this time?”
“You have certainly come much too far, female.”
Ruby’s entire body tensed. That was not Jaime’s voice. She reached for the lever to lift her seat back to a sitting position at the same time she tried to yank her booted foot off the dash, and reach for her gun still packed away in her backpack. But she wasn’t fast enough. The door was torn free of the Jeep, and her body was snatched out of the opening before she even had a chance to get to the backpack.
Her body was spun around and she found herself dangling in the air, her feet off the ground as a creature, one she’d never seen the likes of before, held her by the throat up off the ground.
She screamed and scratched at the clawed hands squeezing her throat, but the only response he gave was a smile. He didn’t seem to care that he was slowly strangling her. She tried to speak, to demand that she be released, but he only squeezed tighter to stop any attempt at sound.
“You should have stayed where you were. Now you’ve inserted yourself into my plans. I can’t have that.”
Ruby’s eyes were huge, her face reddening as she struggled to breathe, her vision going black from outside edges of her vision to the inside, and her head was pounding. She was dying and this idiot holding her off the ground by the throat didn’t even realize it. Or he didn’t care. She tried to swing a foot at where she presumed his balls would be, but she was so weak from lack of oxygen that it was a half-hearted effort at best.
The male simply brushed her leg aside, smirking evilly. “You’re not all I thought you’d be. You are actually somewhat weak. What is it my grandson sees in you?”
Realization hit. This was the grandfather, the Most High Prime of the Chireop people that Jaime had told her about.
“No matter. You will learn to obey him — us — or you will die. It matters not to me.”
Ruby’s body could take no more. Her hands dropped from where she tried uselessly to pry his clawed fingers from her throat, and she slowly began slipping into unconsciousness. Her last thoughts were of Jaime. Unbelievably she wasn’t afraid for herself. She was worried about Jaime. She was sorry for leaving him alone again. She’d promised to look after him, to love him. And now she wouldn’t be here to do that. “Jaime,” her lips mouthed right before she lost consciousness.<
br />
“No, female. You will belong to the stronger brother. The only one meant to live. You will be Tyrisey’s mate.”
Ruby fell unconscious before Rufussian’s words sank in. Rufussian squeezed a little tighter, the temptation to end the pitiful life of the human in his hands almost more than he could resist.
“He will be hard to handle without her, Prime. Especially if he knows it was you who took her life,” a male at his back, standing behind him out of sight remarked softly.
“You are correct, Ephesian. I shall wait and kill her another day. A day when my heir is finally convinced of her unsuitability to our elevated status.”
Rufussian dropped Ruby to the ground and turned, spreading his wings to take to the air. “Bring her, Ephesian,” he said to his trusted servant. “Let us gift my grandson with that which he covets. Perhaps it will calm his mind, and make him more manageable to know she is within his reach and no others’.”
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Tyrisey strode down the rough-hewn, stone corridor, a roar on his lips. “Grandfather!!” he bellowed. He was furious, in a state that sent most of their people scattering. His female was here. He knew she was here — one of his informants had come to his quarters to advise him of her arrival. And he also sensed her pain, her fear. If his grandfather had injured her irreparably, he’d lose all control. He didn’t care if the male was Most High Prime. Didn’t care if the male was his grandfather. He would bleed. And he might die. This female was the only thing he’d ever wanted. If his grandfather had harmed her, there would be hell to pay.
Rufussian stepped out into the corridor from his private quarters, one of his many female attendants draped across his thin aging frame. “Tyrisey. You called for me?”
“You know damn well I did. Where is she?” Tyrisey screamed.
“Perhaps you need to rephrase your question,” Rufussian said, a warning tone underlying his words.
Tyrisey didn’t stop walking until he was almost toe-to-toe with Rufussian. “I know you brought her here. I can feel her. If you’ve hurt her…”
Rufussian took the one step toward Tyrisey that separated them. “The next words from your mouth should be of thanks for bringing your female from the hands of your brother. Anything else will beget a response from me that you will not relish, boy.”
“If you’ve hurt her, my response will leave no room for yours. Which do you care to bet on, old man?”
Rufussian, stood, staring his grandson in the eye, realizing that his own time was at an end. He’d raised the boy so ruthlessly that it had now backfired on him. Tyrisey was a force that could not be contained, not even by him. The complete disconnect in his eyes was proof enough of that.
“I decided to bring her to you. Your emotions have run high since realizing that she was within reach of Jamisey. She waits now in our dungeons. She will have to be taught her place before allowing her into our midst among the rest of our people.”
“She’s in the dungeons?!” Tyrisey shouted. “Are you insane? How is she to be won over if she is locked away as a traitor, or a criminal would be?”
Tyrisey spun on his heel and started for the holding cells on the lower level of the intricate cave system they called home. He didn’t turn around, but he shouted to the walls of the corridor. “And do not think I can’t feel her pain. If you’ve damaged her beyond repair, I will make you sorry!”
Rufussian stood, watching his grandson stalk out of sight.
“You were right to suggest that I bring her here, Ephesian. It is best that I didn’t take her life instead. Perhaps her presence will calm him. He is more unstable than even I realized.”
Ephesian merely grunted from his security assignment standing outside the private quarters of his Most High Prime.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Ruby woke in an unfamiliar dampened, dark room. The scent of wet earth and mildew surrounded her. She couldn’t see anything. She wasn’t sure exactly where she was, but she knew she’d been brought here by Jaime’s grandfather. The Most High Prime of the Chireop people. Seems she’d found the very legends she’d been chasing, or they’d found her. Ruby slowly sat up and lifted a hand to her throbbing throat. She swallowed while she pressed on it from the outside, trying to determine if there was any injury other than just the soreness she felt. Her heart stuttered when she felt the leather collar that had been fastened around her neck. She tried to get her fingers beneath it to try to loosen it at least. Then, she heard the bellowing echoing through the caves. It was headed toward her, coming closer as its owner continued to roar out its unhappiness. No, unhappiness wasn’t the right description — rage. Whoever was bellowing was full of rage. And they were coming closer. She used her hands to feel around and found that she’d been left on a stone ledge. Almost like a bench or a bed carved into the wall. She tried to move back further into the shadows, but the length of chain attached to the leather collar kept her from moving more than a few inches in any direction.
Soon enough the door to her dark corner of nowhere was thrown open and a tall, though slender figure filled it. He seemed to be wearing a long, leather duster.
The emotions pouring off the male were palpable. He was in a full-blown rage, his chest heaving with the effort to hold himself in check.
Ruby’s instinct was to shrink back, but instead, she held her head high, slid to her feet and faced him, refusing to cower. She didn’t think he was Jaime’s grandfather, this male was taller, more statuesque. But surely he was one of them.
The male reached behind himself and snatched a torch from the holder on the corridor wall. He stepped into the room she was in and held the flame to the torch on her own wall, causing a flickering light to paint the walls of her cell. Yes. She was in a cell. In a dungeon. Shackled to the wall by the leather collar round her neck. And the male before her was not wearing a duster. He had wings. Huge, black leather-like wings that he draped around himself like a cloak. And his face was that of a bat.
The male approached her.
Ruby lifted her chin even higher, causing a small smile to play across his strange face.
“Very good, little one. Do not cower before anyone — not even me,” he said, a snarl still present in his voice.
Ruby didn’t answer. Didn’t move. Just held her ground. This new male was familiar somehow. She knew she’d never seen him, yet he seemed so familiar. His face was covered in a soft sheen of fur, almost suede-like in appearance. His jawline sharp, a small, flat nose slightly upturned and small fangs peeking from his lips when he spoke to her. His ears were seated high on each side of his head and appeared to come to a slight point. His skin was dark, almost black in matching the soft dark color of his fur.
“You are even more beautiful than I believed.” His eyes traveled up and down her body before returning to her face. “Have you nothing to say?” he asked.
Ruby lifted her chin further. “Take this collar off me.”
To her surprise he performed a quick little bow.
“Of course.” Tyrisey stepped back out of the cell and she heard metal clanging. When he returned, he had a large round keyring in his hand, from which dangled several large keys.
He approached her, raising the keys toward her collar. Despite her plan to stay still, she flinched as he moved closer.
“You have nothing to fear. I will never harm you.” He gently lifted her hair with one hand while sliding a key into the heavy lock keeping the leather collar snug against her skin. She heard the click of the lock as the key forced it open, then the male was pushing it backward off her neck. Once she was free from it, he snatched it from the chains connected to it with minimal effort and flung it across the cell and away from them.
“I am truly sorry for the treatment you’ve received.” His eyes glanced down toward the floor. “I would never have treated you so. Please accept my sincere promise that those who did will be held accountable.” His passionate declaration had her thinking there was something familiar about him again.
&nb
sp; Ruby stood where she was, her hand up, smoothing the skin of her very sore throat. She watched him, but didn’t answer.
“Are you injured, Ruby?” he asked, taking a step toward her.
“I’m fine!” she said, taking a step back. “I want to go home. NOW! You had no right to take me. I want to go home!” she demanded on a cough.
“I’m sure you do. And regrettably, your arrival was not done in such a way to make you feel very welcome. But please believe that you are. You are safe here. You will never be harmed here.”
“I don’t want to be safe here. I want to go home. Now!” she repeated, her voice rising.
The male smiled at her, almost sadly. “You are home, Ruby. You will not be leaving here. Ever.”
Chapter 14
Pearl Olivia Parker lit a cigarette and hung her tattooed hand out of the window as she pushed the Corvette she’d borrowed to its very limits. She’d been doing just shy of a hundred miles an hour for most of the last three hours, and she was tired of driving. She’d been on the road for seven hours altogether. She was ready to get there, and find out just who the fuck this man who’d caught her sister’s eye was.
In all their past, not one single time had Ruby sent her a picture of a man. Nor had she even spoken of one, and he was all she’d spoken about on the phone the other night. Ruby used to say they were all worthless, heart breakers, wanted nothing more than to control women and were not to be trusted. Then all of a sudden three pictures in a row. Nope. Something was off. And Ruby needed her big sister. So what if it was only three minutes, Pearl was still the older of the two. She knew that Ruby wasn’t a virgin, but she also knew that Ruby had a fear of commitment the likes of which no normal person had ever survived. Herself included. And they had money, or their family did, which made them more attractive to some men. And Ruby was far too nice for her own good. She could easily be led into believing someone cared. Because Ruby cared about everyone. Except men that were interested in her, that is. Which is why she sat in a friend’s borrowed 1980 L82 Corvette, flying down the damn deserted two lane highway she didn’t want to be on, hell bent on saving her sister from whatever the hell kind of man-demon was talking her into thinking she was in heaven.
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