The Ruby Blade Read online

  “Is it always like that?”

  “Just as I was able to drink from Florence only giving her just enough pleasure to balance out the pain, I can control myself. The more pleasure I push out, the more it takes me as well. I cannot give that level of pleasure without experiencing it myself.”

  “The sex between two vampires must be amazing.”

  “Amazing, but dangerous.”

  “Dangerous how?”

  “It is easy to get so caught up in the pleasure that all other things become less than background noise. Vampires cannot live on each other’s blood, although they can ingest it for pleasure and bonding. Vampires locked together in pleasure have been known to starve or to be killed because they present too easy a target. Most vampires do not mate with other vampires precisely for that reason. We’ve all tried it at least once to see if it lives up to the hype, but most of the oldest among us have never taken it beyond a one-night stand.”

  “You have.” I knew it as soon as he finished his sentence.

  “Once, when I was young.”

  “What happened?”

  “That is a story I will tell you. Someday.”

  He kissed me again. I kissed him back, and although this kiss didn’t lack passion, it did lack the out-of-control jump-his-bones feeling I’d had earlier.

  “I will find you in three days.”

  And he was gone.

  I straightened my clothes and decided to get ready for the evening. Florence and Emma would be ready to go soon, and hopefully, they’d bring me coffee. Florence had taken to brewing it outside with the percolator over the little camp stove. I tried to convince her to give me the stove and percolator so I could just make my own coffee, but she seemed to think I’d use the stove inside without ventilation and give myself carbon monoxide poisoning.

  “I’m Fae! It probably won’t kill me!”

  “Nor will you get any coffee if you’re passed out.”

  She had a point, and this way someone else was making my coffee, so I stopped arguing.

  I’d dressed and repacked before Florence showed up.

  “Where’s Emma?” I asked, gulping the coffee she’d handed me.

  “I thought you wanted to talk to me alone.”

  “You’re amazing,” I said.

  “I know.”

  I told her all about the dream, leaving out the part about Raj betraying me, but including the part where Finn had intended the evil money to end up in Raj’s hands. “I don’t know what deal they made, but I don’t think the Queen is as firmly on the side of Finn as he thinks.”

  “And where is Raj now?”

  “He is on a retreat and will join us in three days.”

  “A retreat?”

  “Yes, a meditation-type thing.”

  “And what is he meditating on?”

  “That is his story to tell, Florence, not mine.”

  “You let him bite you. Did you think of what that would mean?”

  “Yes.” But not until after it was done.

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Tell me.”

  “I had three considerations. The first is that he currently can only track one member of our party now that Isaac is no longer with us. Although he says he can break Michelle’s hold on Emma, I suspected Emma wasn’t quite up to that yet. That makes me the obvious candidate. The second is that we are going to New Orleans, if not next, then soon. We are going to be meeting with someone that everyone refers to as ‘The Queen.’ She’s made a deal with Finn, and that means she’s made a deal with the Dark Queen. If she’s the Queen of New Orleans, the de facto North American vampire capital, she’s the most powerful vampire around. I want to upset that balance of power so that we’re not completely out-gunned. We’re going into her city with only four people. I want the biggest advantage we can get.”

  “And the third reason?”

  “That is between Raj and me, and as he doesn’t know any of my reasons beyond the first that I told you, I think I will keep that to myself for the time being.”

  Florence pursed her lips in displeasure but didn’t argue. “Okay, let’s get going.”

  “We’ll find the gate today,” I said.

  “We should be prepared to do battle, then. I will warn Emma.”

  The sun was down by the time we set out from Hershey. We drove slowly and were one of the only vehicles on I-78, even at 5 pm on a Friday. Of course, it was a couple days after Christmas, so maybe everyone had just taken the week off for the holidays. Or maybe no one could go to work anymore because I’d broken the world and ruined their ways of life.

  I sighed. This was completely non-productive. I decided to go into problem-solving mode instead of owning-all-the-problems mode. I didn’t know what was causing my uncharacteristic melancholia of late, but I needed to be over it yesterday.

  “Emma?” She was driving, which accounted for our glacial progress.

  “Yes?” she sounded incredibly tense, and I’d bet my hidden supplies of coffee and IPA that her knuckles were white. There was snow on the ground, although not much, and based on the number of times she’d mentioned that she’d never driven in the snow, I was guessing that was making her even tenser than she’d have been ordinarily.

  “Will you need to find a pack to run with at the full moon or will you be okay without one?”

  There was silence, and then she said, “I don’t know. I’ve never been alone on the full moon outside of Underhill. I wasn’t allowed to shift down there, so it wasn’t as much of an issue.”

  “How did they keep you from shifting?” I asked the question before I remembered what Isaac had told me of Michelle’s methods. “Scratch that question. I know how.”

  “I’m actually looking forward to the full moon. It feels like ages since I’ve run as a wolf.”

  “I’m going to offer something, and I want you to think about it before you reject it,” I said.

  “Okay.”

  “If you want to try to find a pack, we have a bit of time, so we can do that. If you’d rather not, or if we don’t find one and you are concerned about your control, I would offer my aid.”

  “How could you help me? You’re a filthy fairy.” She spat the word ‘fairy’ so hard that I suspected I’d have to clean pixie dust off the steering wheel later.

  “I’m a dragon shifter, and I’m dominant. I could temper Isaac’s wolf, and as I suspect you know, he’s an alpha.”

  There was a long enough pause that I was wondering what she was biting back. I suspected she was torn between wanting to accuse me of lying and knowing that I couldn’t lie.

  Finally, she said in a tone that was about as far from gracious as you can get, “Thank you for your offer, Eleanor. I will consider my options and let you know what I decide.”

  “You’re welcome. I want to do what I can to help you feel safe.” I surprised myself with those words. By all the gods and dammit it all to hell, I did want her to feel safe. She was one of mine now. Balls.

  I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I was aware of was a quiet argument in the front seat that seemed to center on whether or not they should wake me.

  “I’m awake,” I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “What’s up?”

  “Well, you said we’d get to the gate tonight,” Florence said. “It seemed a good idea to have you giving directions.”

  “We stopped at a convenience store and stole a state map for you,” Emma said. My earlier offer must have thawed things between us a bit. “Since you’re too busy sleeping to do your share of anything on this trip anyway.” Or maybe not.

  I took the proffered map and asked, “Where are we?”

  Emma giggled, and it really cemented her status in my mind as werewolf Barbie, but I tried to keep that to myself, so Florence wouldn’t shoot any icicles at me. “We just crossed the Delaware River and are in Alpha, New Jersey.” Okay, that was funny. I laughed, too.

  “That’s why we stopped,” Florence said. “We’d left Pennsylvania, and yo
u were pretty clear on the state.”

  “I need to get out of the car,” I said. “The steel frame messes me up.”

  Florence helped me get out and wrap the blanket around myself to shield me from the wind and cold. I walked across the parking lot and found a patch of snow-dusted grass. I stepped onto the bare earth, and the gate immediately tugged at me. I spun myself around until I was facing it. Florence pulled out a compass and took note of my position and then marked it on the map. I was shivering violently, and Florence called to Emma. “Emma, please carry her back to the car. I don’t think she’ll be able to get there on her own.”

  I started to protest, but bit my tongue, and then Emma was there, carrying me to the still-running car. Florence and Emma crawled into the back seat with me. Emma took off my shoes while Florence grabbed a couple of tiny packets from her backpack, smacked them between her hands, and tucked them into a pair of giant wool socks and pulled those on. I felt the heat from the little instant warming packs start to permeate my feet, and after she wrapped the blanket around me, my shivering became less violent.

  “Th-th-thanks,” I chattered.

  “You’re welcome,” Florence said.

  “Did we get a location?” Emma asked.

  “Let me look at where we’re pointed,” Florence said. She made a couple notes on the map and then drew a triangle out from where she’d marked our spot. Then she started laughing.

  “What is it?” Emma asked.

  “We’re about fifteen miles away from a place called Ringing Rocks County Park.”

  “Sounds mystical,” I said.

  “Very mystical.”

  “I cannot fight like this,” I said.

  “I know. We either need to wait until tomorrow to go there or wait for you to warm up if we want to go tonight.”

  “We should probably go make introductions to the local pack,” I said. My feet weren’t numb anymore. Now they just hurt.

  “What local pack?” Emma asked.

  “Like there’s a town called Alpha that isn’t a werewolf town?” I pointed out.

  “It could happen, but it’s unlikely,” Florence agreed.

  “Will they kill me?” Emma asked.

  “Unlikely. You’re traveling with me, and although Isaac is no longer with us, I’m his mate, and carry with me the friendship of the Alpha of the Great Plains Pack and the Alphas of the St. Louis pack, as well as the non-homicidal wishes of the Alpha of the Pacific Northwest pack. They will know who I am and even if they don’t like me, should offer us aid and shelter.”

  “What if they don’t?” Emma sounded scared.

  “If they don’t, I’ll shift into a dragon and turn them into crispy critters. They will give no offense to me or mine.”

  “We could stay in Alpha until after the full moon and then find the gate after that,” Florence suggested. “We’ll need to clear out whatever vermin are waiting around, but the last half of January should be enough time to do that, right?”

  “And what will we do in the meantime?” Emma asked.

  “Eat. Meditate. Find Arduinna and ask why the hell her Fae didn’t keep me from getting shot and you two from getting arrested. Wait for Raj to come back so we have another person in the fights that will come once we’ve located the gate. Learn how to warm myself up without starting an argument with Werewolf Barbie.”

  There was a low growl from Emma, and I snickered.

  Florence sighed.

  “There’s a lot to do. I’m also kind of hoping that I’ll dream about what Finn’s done or is going to do to this gate to booby trap it. I don’t want to go in blind, in case he’s set up land mines here, or snipers, or Hungry, Hungry Hippos disguised as rocks.” I remembered that Emma hadn’t heard my retelling of the second dream. “Emma, whatever you do, do not pick up any gold coins.” I told her a bare bones version of the second dream.

  “That’s horrible!” She looked torn between nausea and anguish. I’d gone into a lot of detail about what had happened to the urchins. I might consider her mine, but that didn’t mean I liked her.

  “Finn is a pretty horrible elf,” I said.

  “How could’ve you been involved with him? And with so many other men? Have you no standards?” My slut-shaming lecture hadn’t stuck.

  I smiled. I was warmer already. “Finn is an accomplished liar. He cannot vocalize a lie but can lie with truth better than anyone I’ve ever met. Also, I think he truly thought he was in love with me. Oh, and he was fabulous in bed. He loved to eat downtown if you know what I mean.”

  She blushed, and I grinned. I suspected she wasn’t nearly as inexperienced as she’d pretended. After all, she’d been with Isaac for a year and a half, werewolves are much more uninhibited—don’t even get me started on their stamina—than the general population, and Isaac was sexy as fuck with more than a few centuries’ worth of experience. There’s no way they hadn’t gotten freaky in a dozen different ways.

  “What do you mean, so many men? Werewolves aren’t prudes. They hop from partner to partner until they find someone with whom they’d like to bond. You said yourself that Isaac had been with Rebecca before you, and I know that he was living with Michelle before they broke up, and she imprisoned him. He’s old, and he’s had a lot of partners. Surely, he wasn’t your only lover.” Her blush deepened.

  “Oh, holy shit, he was! He was your first lover!” I thought about the implications of that. People often felt more strongly about the first until they’d taken another, and they hadn’t exactly broken up. “Oh, shit, Emma. This must be even harder for you. You lost your virginity to this hot, powerful werewolf. His ex-girlfriend kidnapped you and tortured you for what felt like six years, and then you get out and find that he’s not only not been waiting for you, but went and got himself bonded to a Fae! No wonder you hate me.”

  “I don’t hate you,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t blame you if you did at this point.”

  “It wasn’t six years for him.”

  “It wasn’t. And he did willingly give himself to Michelle to save you, so obviously you meant something to him.”

  “Not enough.”

  “There will be someone else for you, Emma. But before you can find that person, you need to find yourself in this new world.”

  A tear appeared in the corner of her eye, and I felt an almost overwhelming urge to hug her. I suppressed it. I’m not a hugger.

  Florence sighed noisily and then got out of the car and climbed into the driver’s seat. “Where should we go?”

  “Is there a motel or something? Bed and breakfast? Look for one of those. If we show up with a wolf and hint that we’d like to stay for a few weeks, I’m sure that they’ll come to us.”

  A few minutes later, Florence pulled into a small parking lot in front of a motel. Although it obviously wasn’t lit up with neon and electricity, lanterns were burning in the window marked ‘Office’ and a glowing orb of light in the windows of about half of the rooms.

  “They must know a fire mage,” Florence said.

  “Oooh, maybe he or she can teach me how to keep my feet warm.”

  “Or maybe I’ll just buy you an anatomy and physiology textbook, and you can figure it out on your own.”

  “Whatever. Let’s go see what a room costs.”

  “Emma and I will go. You stay here. No reason for you to get out of the car if you don’t have to.”

  I waited in the car for just long enough to feel a little concerned. It was almost twenty minutes before they came out with a room key and two grim expressions.

  Florence moved the car down to the other end of the parking lot in front of room fifteen, and then we all went inside. The room was toasty warm. I assumed the warmth, as well as the light, were due to the glowing spheres of light bouncing around the ceiling. I hoped there was a way to turn off the light without turning off the heat. Oooh—maybe they were clap sensored! I’d always wanted a Clapper, and my parents had always refused to give in to my late-night infomercial de
mands.

  Florence and Emma brought in the bags and set them on the beds. There were two queen sized beds in the room, and I noticed that for the first time in ages, we only had the one room.

  Before I could ask, Florence answered. “We couldn’t afford more than one.”

  “What did it cost?” I was shocked. We had a lot of money and even more valuable goods.

  “A service.”

  “What service?”

  “I’ll tell you over dinner. That is part of the room price—three meals a day for each of us as long as we stay. The motel clerk implied that we’d be invited to dine with some townsfolk after the New Year if the service was adequately performed.”

  “Well, this should be interesting.”

  Interlude - Isaac

  ISAAC JERKED AWAKE. He'd felt Eleanor through their bond. She’d had a moment of intense pain that’d almost immediately turned to pleasure. He shook his head to clear it as much as he could. There was no way to clear it all the way—not anymore. He spent most of his waking hours confined by silver and chained up for Michelle’s amusement. Even when she took her rest, she had people keep him awake longer than was safe. Madness was creeping into his brain, and he didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to keep it at bay.

  It’d only been a couple of weeks; he was almost certain. He’d made a scratch in the wall for each time he’d woken feeling like he’d achieved some measure of rest. There were fifteen scratches in the wall. He’d succumbed too easily to Michelle’s tortures this time around, something that had delighted and infuriated her at the same time.

  “Isaac, you disappoint me,” she’d said when he cringed before her silver-tipped whip. “I thought you’d be stronger than this by now.”

  He bowed his head. He disappointed himself, as well. If he’d know how easily he’d fall back into old patterns, he never would’ve allowed himself to get so close to Eleanor. He was dangerous. No wolf could skate this close to the edge of insanity and come out whole on the other end. If he’d snapped while they were talking, or sharing a meal, or making love…no! He couldn’t let those thoughts pull him even deeper into the trap Michelle was setting for him. He shook his head again, like a dog that had something stuck just out of reach.