Ruby Shadows (7 page)

“
What? Why not?
What does that have to do with where he lives?”

Laish
tksed
. “Not
up on your mythology, Gwendolyn? The story of Persephone and
Demeter? The way the God of the dead stole the lovely Persephone
away and she was forced to stay with him six months of the year
after eating six pomegranate seeds?”

“
That’s a myth,” I protested. “A story the Greeks made up to
explain why we have summer and winter. Nothing can grow in the
winter because Demeter, the Goddess of harvests, is grieving for
her daughter Persephone while she is forced to stay in Hell. In
summer when she’s allowed to go back, the whole world
blooms.”

“
There are seeds of truth—you should pardon the pun—in every
myth,
mon
ange,”
Laish said.
“Your grandmother is quite right—you must not eat or drink anything
while you are in Hell or you will be forced to stay there which I
know you do not want.”

“
Well what am I supposed to do?” I asked blankly. “I’m
assuming this is going to take more than an hour or
two.”

“
To journey through the seven circles of Hell will take at
least a week—maybe a bit more,” Laish remarked.

“
I
thought there were nine circles according to Dante,” I protested.
“And anyway,
how
am I supposed to not eat or drink anything for a week? I’ll be too
weak to shut the door once we get to the Abyss.”

“
Dante was a tourist, sadly lacking in accuracy. And believe
me, once you have been there, you will find that seven circles are
more than enough for your mortal taste.” He shook his head. “As to
the food, do not worry,
mon ange.
I will provide you with sustenance and drink that
will not bind you to my realm,” he assured me.

Grams shook her head. “You’ll do no such thing because
Gwendolyn is
not
going.”

“
Grams,” I said, taking her by the arm. “Let me show you
something.”

I
took her to her bedroom and flipped on the lights. Her eyes grew
wide as she took in the enormous sinkhole in the center of the
room
.

“
Gwendolyn child, what—?”

“
This is why I have to go,” I said, gesturing to the yawning
pit where her bed had once stood. “A Hellspawn did this—a creature
from the pit that
I
let in when
I was rescuing Taylor.”

“
You should never have done that.” She shook her head, her
eyes still wide and sad. “Gwendolyn, if I had known—”

“
I
kept it from you because I was afraid of what you might think of
me.” I looked down at my feet. “I’m sorry, Grams. I, uh, sort of
got off track.
Way
off
track. But I couldn’t just leave Taylor to die. I felt responsible
for her. And I
thought
I
closed that stupid door. But I didn’t and now…now this thing is
loose and tonight it wasn’t coming after me—it was coming
after
you.
If we hadn’t switched
rooms…”

Grams looked pale
but she shook her head.

“
Don’t go on my account, Gwendolyn. Now that I know what to
look for, I can manage just fine.”

“
You can, maybe,” I said in a low voice. “But what about
Keisha?”

“
Keisha.” Her eyes grew wide with understanding. “She’s
outside my sphere of influence now.”

“
Exactly,” I said grimly. “And this thing might go after her
next. It’s going to go after everyone I love—unless I stop
it.”

“
Your granddaughter is quite correct,” Laish said, coming up
behind us and making me jump. “I was able to banish it back to the
Infernal Realm for tonight but it knows its way back and the door
is still open. It
will
return.”

“
But if it’s going after your loved ones, what good will it do
for
you
to go to Hell, child?”
Grams was almost pleading now.

“
As long as Gwendolyn stays here, you and everyone else she
loves is in danger because it would prefer to make her suffer first
before hunting her down,” Laish explained. “However, she is still
its primary target. If she leaves here and comes with me on this
quest, it will follow her. She will be drawing it away from her
loved ones.”

“
By acting as bait? You’re saying I should let her go to Hell
with the thing that did
this
to my bedroom stalking her?” Grams demanded.

“
I’m saying you should let her clean up her own mess,” Laish
said quietly. “A door opening onto the Abyss will not only affect
Gwendolyn and her family. After it deals with the lot of you, the
Hellspawn will look for other victims. Innocents which will have no
idea they are being hunted until it is too late.”

I
took her hands in mine. “I have to go, Grams,” I said quietly,
looking into her eyes. “Please, I
have
to.”

She squeezed my
fingers tightly. “But how can I be sure you’ll be safe?
Gwendolyn, child, you’re all I’ve got now.”

“
I
will attend to Gwendolyn’s safety,” Laish said.

Grams turned to him,
her faded eyes blazing with anger.

“
Oh, I just
bet
you will.
And what do you get out of all this?” she demanded. “Why would you
bother putting yourself out for her in the first place?”

Oh
boy, here we go…
If Laish told my grandmother about our “agreement” all Hell
was going to break loose—and not from his side—from hers. I tried
to signal him with my eyes not to say anything about our deal and
to my relief, he didn’t. What he
did
say, surprised me.

“
Would you believe me if I said that I want a chance to win
Gwendolyn’s heart?”
he said quietly. “That I long to spend more time with her in
hopes that she might see past my demonic exterior and learn to love
the male within?”

Grams
glared
at him. “No. No. And
hell
no.”

He sighed
theatrically. “I can see you think that as a denizen of the demonic
realm, I have no honor.”

“
No honor, no heart, and no
soul,”
Grams emphasized and I knew she was pointing out that even if
Laish had been serious about wanting to “win my heart,” he couldn’t
have. You can’t form a loving soul-bond with someone who doesn’t
have a soul to bond with in the first place.

“
Very well then,” Laish said blandly. “I will tell you the
true reason. From the moment I answered Gwendolyn’s first call, she
became my responsibility. Leaving a door open from the Abyss to the
world of men is a serious fault—one which I will be punished for
soundly if it is not dealt with. And, as only one with Gwendolyn’s
soul signature can close the door that she opened, I must escort
her through my realm so that she can resolve the matter before it
reaches the attention of my superior.”

“
He’s just a minor demon, Grams,” I put in. “He’ll get in
trouble over what I did if he doesn’t help me fix it.”

Laish got an
amused look on his face. “A minor demon. Exactly.” He raised an
eyebrow at Grams. “So are you satisfied?”

“
Not nearly,” she snapped. “What assurance do I have that
you’ll bring Gwendolyn back to me after she’s done closing that
door? How do I know you won’t just toss her aside the minute the
matter’s resolved?”

She had a
point. I couldn’t help the shiver that went up my spine when I
remembered those dark, slimy tentacles slithering over and over
each other in the black depths of that vast pit. What if Laish
simply decided to push me into the Abyss once he got my virginity
and the door was closed? My power would be cut in half if he
insisted that we have sex but even at full power, there was no way
I would be able to escape that dark place. What if—?

My
thoughts were cut off as Laish
abruptly seemed to grow larger somehow, his ruby eyes
burning like hot coals.

“
Now you have truly angered me.” His voice was so quiet I
could barely hear it but so intense it felt like a flame, burning
me.

To
Grams
’ credit, she
didn’t back down, despite Laish’s scary appearance.

“
You don’t scare me, demon—I don’t care if I made you mad or
not.” She poked a finger at his broad chest. “Answer the question.
What promise can you give that I’ll believe? How do I know you’ll
bring my precious girl back to me?”

Laish sighed
and seemed to melt down to his normal size—which was still pretty
freaking huge, to be honest. For a minor demon, he was certainly on
the large and muscular side.

“
If I say I will bring her back because she is precious to me
too, you will not believe me,” he said.
“And I cannot swear on my soul because—as
you have pointed out—I do not have one. Likewise, I cannot swear on
what I am—you have made it abundantly clear that you don’t trust
me.” He raked a hand through his jet black hair—a very human
gesture of frustration, I thought. “All I can do is swear on what I
once was.”

“
What were you?” I asked, unable to hold back my curiosity. If
my knowledge of mythology was correct, some of the major demons had
originated in Heaven before the fall. But the minor ones were
supposed to have been born the moment Hell was created, appearing
like toadstools springing up after the rain. Not a very pretty
image but then, most minor demons aren’t very pretty themselves.
Laish was a definite exception there.

“
I
was not always as you see me now,”
he answered simply, still looking at my Grams.
“I had honor once. Integrity. The capacity for love.”

“
You did?” I wondered if this was all an act just to placate
Grams. If so, he deserved a freaking Oscar for it—it was that
convincing.

“
I
did.” Laish nodded at me briefly and then looked back at Grams.
“For the sake of what I once was, I will keep your granddaughter
safe and bring her back to you. No harm shall befall her that does
not first go through me.”

“
Is that right?” Grams still sounded skeptical. “You’re saying
you’ll protect her with your
life?”

Laish looked
at her seriously. “Not a drop of Gwendolyn’s blood will fall unless
every bit of my own has first been spilled. All right?”

Grams looked at him
for a long moment and then, grudgingly, she nodded.

“
All right. I guess I’ll trust you because that’s all I can do.
But you’d just better bring her back. And I mean, bring her
back
intact.”
She
gave me a look when she said it that made me blush and look away. I
knew exactly what she was talking about but I couldn’t make any
promises. Especially not when I’d already agreed to let Laish take
what Grams would call “liberties” the entire time we were in
Hell.

“
Very well.” He rose from the couch and inclined his head to
me. “I’ll give you a day to get ready. I’ll be back for you at the
stroke of midnight tomorrow. Be prepared.”

“
The stroke of midnight? What am I—Cinderella?” I demanded.
“Why midnight? Is it the only time you can get into Hell or
what?”

“
No,” he said mildly. “It just has such a nice, dramatic sound.
After all, if you’re going to Hell,
mon ange,
you might as well go in style.” He gave me a devilish
grin and before I could reply, he vanished in a puff of cinnamon
smelling smoke.

Chapter Seven

Gwendolyn

“
Now, have you got everything, child?” Grams looked at me
anxiously.

“
I
think so.” I looked down at the bag she’d packed me.
It was a plain leather
satchel with a long shoulder strap I could wear across my body for
security. Inside was a plain plastic water bottle—a Zephyrhills
bottle to be exact, because that’s my favorite brand of spring
water—as well as a faded plastic sandwich container. It was yellow
and blue—an old Sponge Bob holder, left over from when Keisha was
in grade school.

It
always amazed me how Grams kept everything but in this case, I was
glad. Sponge
Bob’s
cheerful, goofy face would remind me of home while I was traversing
the seven circles of Hell.

“
Now the bottle is spelled to never be empty,” Grams told me,
even though she’d already said it twice before. “No matter how
often you drink from it, you’ll still have clean, fresh water every
time you put it to your lips.”

“
Thanks, Grams,” I said, smiling.

“
And the sandwich container will always have food. I only had
time to spell it to have one kind of sandwich, though. Chunky
peanut butter and my homemade strawberry jam. I hope that’s okay,”
she said anxiously.

I hadn’t had a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich in years—it’s one of those foods
you give up as an adult when you realize how incredibly fattening
peanut butter is. But I recognized this was just Grams trying to
take care of me—it was the same sandwich she’d packed me when she
sent me off to school as a little girl. I was probably going to get
pretty tired of it before my trip to the realm of the damned was
done, but right now it sounded perfect.