Ruby Shadows (26 page)

“
You…dare,” I roared and I
felt myself lose my carefully kept human form, shedding it like a
snake sheds it skin in favor of something larger, stronger
and
much
more
deadly. My immaculate suit split and then ripped completely
asunder, lost in the change. “You
dare
to suggest that I allow you to
take part of Gwendolyn’s
soul?”

For the first time, Druaga looked somewhat
discomforted. Clearly he’d had no idea I would react this way. I
have a reputation for coldness in the face of conflict—a fact which
had made me all but undefeatable during the Celestial Wars. But
this time I could not stop the wrath that rose in me—nor did I wish
to.

“
Well, I
am
owed some
compensation, after all,” he muttered.

“
For sending the devilkins
out to get my concubine’s shoe, then allowing them into your hotel
to trick and attack her?” I roared. “How
dare
you even claim such a thing?
You put her life in danger and then you think to take part of her
soul right in
front
of me? I should kill you where you sit!”

I was towering over him now, my breath hot
in my chest, my voice a menacing bass rumble.

“
You don’t dare!” But
there was a trembling in the Wendingo’s voice that said he didn’t
believe what he was saying. “The Demon Council would—”

“
The Council would say I
have every right! You have offered me insult heaped upon
injury.”

I moved towards him, my
coils sliding, the scales rustling against each other. I knocked
aside the forgotten breakfast tray with a contemptuous flick of my
tail. There was a metallic
clang
and its contents spattered everywhere. I paid not
the slightest notice.

“
Please, Lord Laish, calm
yourself,” Druaga begged. “I don’t understand why you are so upset!
She is just a human!”

“
She is
my
human!”

Within I was a furnace of rage. I wanted to
breathe a wave of fire over the cowering boar-demon, wanted to
roast him to a crisp but something held me back—the fear that the
fire might get out of control and hurt Gwendolyn. So I held
back…but only just.

“
I am your host!” Druaga
squealed, cowering in his white leather chair. He was sounding more
like a boar every moment. “You dare not kill me! The laws of
hospitality—”

“
Laws of hospitality be
damned,” I snarled, liquid fire dripping from my jaws. I was
standing directly over him at this point and a large drop of it
fell upon him, singing away his right tusk. He squealed again, his
hand going to the smoking stump.

“
My tusk!”

“
You’re lucky I don’t rip
an arm or a leg off…or perhaps something else.” I eyed his exposed
genitals with burning disgust. “In fact, I think I’ll castrate you
here and now—maybe that will teach you a lesson about lusting after
the property of others.”

Druaga gasped and scrambled backwards,
trying to get over the back of the chair without taking his eyes
off me. But in this form I was as quick as a striking snake. I
aimed a carefully controlled column of flame at his disgusting
shaft, crisping it to a shriveled, charcoal black stump. It looked
like a sausage that has been forgotten in the fire.

The boar-demon gave a high, whining shriek
that hurt my sensitive ears as he groped between his legs, writhing
in pain.

“
No!
No! Ah, the pain!”

“
Why are you so upset,
Druaga?” I growled, glaring at him. “You are a demon, after all. It
will regenerate, much like Gwendolyn’s soul would have, had you
carried out your plan.”

“
But it will not be so
long again for
years.
I have been growing it for
millennia.
And my
tusk…
”
He patted
the right side of his hairy face. “It is gone
forever
.”

“
The rest of you will be
too if you do not leave my rooms
now,”
I snarled at him. “Go before I
decide to erase your miserable existence from the face of the
Infernal landscape.”

Whimpering with pain, Druaga managed to
scramble up and hobble towards the door. He was still clutching
himself, alternating between grabbing his face and his mutilated
crotch when he made it through the doorway and was gone.

“
Oh…oh my
Goddess.”

The soft, broken murmur brought me out of
the all consuming rage I’d been in and I scanned the room, my eyes
reading heat signatures as well as visual cues. The form I was in
was a very useful one to have—though it was somewhat large and
bulky, especially in such a confined space.

At last I found what I was looking for—the
source of the voice.

Gwendolyn was huddled in the far corner of
the room, shielding herself behind one of the large white leather
cushions from the sofa. She was trembling and tears were leaking
from the corners of her eyes. With my current vision they looked
like white rivulets on her red cheeks.

“
Gwendolyn?” My voice was
harsh as I slithered towards her but I attempted to soften it a
bit.

“
Get away! Stay away from
me!” Her words were sharp—panicked. I thought she must be afraid
that Druaga was still in the room, menacing her with the
soul-hook.

“
You have nothing to
fear—he is gone. He will not harm you.” Gently but firmly I pulled
the white cushion from her trembling grip with my clawed hands.
“It’s all right,” I repeated. “You’re safe now.”

But she only balled herself up tight,
withdrawing as far into the corner as she could.

“
Please, Laish.” Her voice
trembled and every line of her body spoke of extreme terror.
“Please, don’t hurt me. Don’t burn me—please!”

And then I understood…it wasn’t Druaga she
was frightened of.

It was me.

Chapter
Eighteen

Gwendolyn

I was scared to death he was going to kill
me. Maybe not on purpose but it wouldn’t matter because I would be
just as dead even if it was an accident. He had pried my only
shield away from me—not that the white cushion would have stopped a
jet of flame. But still, I felt better with it between me and the
beast he had become—between me and the fire.

Inside my head that awful night ran over and
over—screaming and crying for my mother as Keisha and I clutched
each other panicky-tight, the two of us crammed into a tiny
closet—the place we’d been hiding when it started… hearing the
crackling sound as the flames licked at the door…the overwhelming
heat…the choking black smoke that had rolled through the house…the
smell of burning flesh and the sound of her begging. And then, just
as the firemen smashed the window and came in to get us, my
mother’s high, piercing shrieks as she died in the fire.

The fire set by a demon.

“
Gwendolyn…please,” I
heard him growl in that deep, inhuman voice. “Please believe me—I
would never harm you.”

The fire…the fire is coming…the fire is
going to get you. Oh, Mamma, I’m scared! Please, I’m so scared…

“
Please,”
that low, rough voice said again. “You can come
out of the corner—it’s perfectly safe.”

His words tugged at me,
pulling me back to reality. I opened my eyes and realized I was
still curled into a trembling ball like a scared little girl who’s
afraid of the monsters under her bed. But damn it—this monster
was
real
. This
monster was the man I’d allowed to touch me and kiss me and stroke
me last night—the man I’d allowed to make me
come
.

I felt sick at the thought. I forced myself
to stand up, still hugging the wall. But I could barely make myself
look at what Laish had transformed into.

The beast was huge—a cross between a snake
and a dragon with a scaly black hide—each scale outlined in
golden-red as though its inner furnace was glowing through. It had
a long, pointed snout filled with steak-knife teeth and pure black
eyes with ruby slits for pupils. When it moved its long, sinuous
body coiled and uncoiled restlessly and its tail was twice as long
as I was tall.

It didn’t look like it ought to fit into the
luxury suite. It looked like it would fit better into one of my
nightmares and it exuded a breathless heat I remembered all too
well from the night my mother died. Standing near it was like
standing on the inside of the closet door, listening to her scream
all over again. The arid air around it seemed to singe my lungs and
the scent of smoke and brimstone invaded my sinuses, making my eyes
tear.

“
Please,” I begged it,
unable to make myself leave the corner. “Please—can’t you change
back? If…if you are still Laish in there.”

“
Of course I am.” The
thing’s voice was deep and harsh. Its breath smelled like liquid
metal and burning rock and death. “But it would not be
safe.”

“
What? Why not?” I
demanded weakly. Right now I couldn’t imagine anything more
dangerous than the huge, frightening thing he had become. He was
freaking terrifying, with liquid fire dripping from his slavering
jaws and that muscular, snaky black tail. And how could he even
still talk with those steak knives for teeth?

“
Druaga will want
revenge,” he said or rather hissed. “I am better equipped to defend
you in this form than almost any other.”

“
You’re also better
equipped to burn me to a crisp if you get a tickle in your nose and
sneeze.” I gestured at his flaring nostrils which looked ready to
breathe fire at any time.

“
I am sorry you fear me in
this form—I did not mean to frighten you. But I must remain so at
least until we have crossed the border into the next circle of
Hell.”

“
Then let’s go.” I forced
myself to straighten up and wipe my face—not that I needed to. The
heat from his scaly body had completely dried my tears. “Let’s get
Kurex and get out of here!” I said, trying to make my voice strong.
Trying not to look at him.

“
We cannot bring him with
us—he is in the stables which are guarded by a hoard of
demons.”

“
I won’t leave him!” I
said stubbornly. “You said Druaga will want revenge—you can’t let
him take it out on poor Kurex just because he’s pissed off at
you.”

“
If we go, I will have to
kill many of them. Do you wish to witness that?”

His words gave me pause.
Could I deal with more carnage? Watching what he’d done to Druaga
had been bad enough…
But think what they’d
do to Kurex! And he’s just an animal—he doesn’t know what’s going
on! He’s innocent…helpless…

I couldn’t leave him. The
big horse had found a place in my heart and besides, I could
imagine the horrible things Druaga would want to do to him. I
remembered the soul hook and shivered—that was something the
boar-demon had considered no big deal. How much more brutal would
he be if he was looking for revenge and
wanted
to hurt someone?

“
Well?” Laish’s long,
forked tongue came out on the word, making me flinch
back.

“
No, I don’t want to see
it,” I said. “But…if it’s the only way to save Kurex, then do it.
Go—I’m right behind you.” I didn’t want to be ahead of him. What if
he got a tickle in his nose and sneezed as I had mentioned earlier?
I’d seen the way he’d singed Druaga’s man-candy to a crispy
critter—I didn’t want that burning jet of flame applied to
me.

Those ruby slits that his eyes had become
stared at me, as if judging my character or my willingness to go
on. I lifted my chin and met his gaze as best I could.

Now that I knew he wasn’t going to
intentionally burn me to a crisp, I felt a little less hysterical
and weepy. But the past was still playing in my head—the memory of
how my mother had died on a constant loop behind my eyes. I didn’t
want to get too close to him—ever again.

“
Very well,” he said at
last. “But stay as near me as you can stand.”

Then he left, his long, sinuous body flowing
out the door though I wondered how he could even fit through it. He
did manage, however, leaving me to follow his forked and scaly tail
like a black ribbon left behind to guide my way.

From the time we left the luxury suite until
the time we stepped across the threshold to Minauros, the third
circle of Hell, is kind of a blur in my mind. Which is fine with
me—I don’t want a clear image of that nightmarish flight.

I have vague memories of scrambling along
behind Laish, trying to stay out of the way of his whipping tail.
We caught most of the demon guards at the stable slash parking lot
unprepared. I guess Druaga hadn’t had time to mobilize them yet,
what with being preoccupied by having his junk burned off, so we
were able to get to Kurex with minimal muss and fuss. And by that I
mean Laish only had to burn ten or twelve of them to a flaming
crisp.

Each time a blast of white-hot fire left his
mouth, I flinched and felt myself back in that stuffy little
closet, screaming and crying for my mother who would never hold me
again. Every time I saw a demon go up in a screeching pillar of
flame I thought of her, how she had writhed in agony, outlined by
fire while the demon laughed…