Ruby Shadows (Born to Darkness #3)(80)
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?”