She looked up at the sky through the open T-tops. The sun was beginning to set. She had at least another two hours before she’d be there. She pushed a little more on the gas pedal. A couple more miles an hour wouldn’t hurt.
“I’m coming, Ruby. Hold on, don’t do anything stupid.”
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
“Oh, no. Hell, no! I am not home, this is not my home, and I’m sure as hell not staying here. Take me to my real home, back to Jaime, right now!” Ruby demanded, the alarm in her voice easy to detect.
Tyrisey opened his mouth to respond, but a voice calling out to him from the corridor interrupted him.
“Tyrisey! Surely you didn’t free the human. She’s not yet learned her place. She’s got much training ahead of her!”
Tyrisey’s growl started again, his attention being taken from her to the person speaking to him from the corridor.
“You’re Tyrisey!” Ruby gasped. No wonder he looked familiar. He was Jaime’s brother. She could see it now, the shape of his eyes, the shape of his lips. The same smirk of irritation.
Tyrisey looked back at her. “I am. And you are mine. You will not be going back to Jamisey or anyone else. Your place is here at my side,” he snarled.
“Oh, no the hell it’s not!” Ruby argued.
“You must beat her into submission, Tyrisey. The human women simply do not know their place. We cut ties with their kind years ago, but if you must have this one, you must teach her that her place is far beneath yours. She is to serve you and whomever you deem worthy.”
“You beat me, you better kill me, because at some point you will go to sleep and when you do I’ll find the closest, heaviest thing I can lift and introduce it to your face!” Ruby declared, standing with her hands on her hips staring directly into Tyrisey’s eyes.
Tyrisey wasn’t fooled. He could see the pain in her eyes. He knew her head was hurting, her throat raw. And in spite of that fact she was promising to fight him every step of the way, he admired her bravery. Choosing to deal with her later, he turned on his grandfather who’d just barged into the room.
“You locked her in a cell with a collar about her neck like an animal! You chained my mate to the wall! What consideration do you hope to receive from me?!”
“You will not speak to me in such a manner. I raised you! It is because of me that you live!”
Tyrisey faced the old man. “And it is only because of me that you still live. And you’d best not push me. I am appalled at the treatment you presented my female.”
Rufussian looked as though his blood was boiling. The veins on his face stood out, his lips pulled back in a snarl. “I brought her to you!” he yelled, raising one fist into the air, his finger pointing at the ceiling.
“Only because you wish to cause Jamisey more pain.”
“It is not true! I wished to bring you your desire. It is apparent to all that you’re not yourself of late. I thought perhaps your female close at hand would calm you. Soothe you so that you could make less emotional decisions.”
“Here is a less emotional decision, Grandfather. You will not interfere between us. You will not threaten my female. You will stay far and wide away from my female or you will deal with me.”
Rufussian glared at Ruby over Tyrisey’s shoulder. “Do you really believe she is worth all this trouble? Look at her! She’s human, weak. You will have to care for her at all times, rather than her caring for you. It is not too late for you to choose one of our own kind. Our females are much better equipped to deal with the needs of our males.”
“I will have no other!” Tyrisey yelled.
“I should not have listened to Ephesian, I should have simply killed her and been done with it!”
“Leave us now or die!” Tyrisey bellowed so loudly dust particles fell from the ceiling of the cell they were in.
Rufussian turned his attention from Ruby to Tyrisey. “You try my patience, boy.”
“You try my very will to allow you to live, old male,” Tyrisey countered.
Rufussian looked back at Ruby, who had the good sense to take a step closer to Tyrisey. She didn’t want Tyrisey, but she did realize that her safety at this point seemed to rest on his shoulders.
Tyrisey took a step closer to her as well, effectively blocking Ruby from Rufussian’s sight. “She is all,” he said simply.
“All what?” Rufussian demanded.
“All, period. All that matters. All that is. All there will ever be. Touch her, insult her, frighten her, and your time here is limited,” Tyrisey said calmly.
“Do you threaten me?” Rufussian said, deciding finally to press his hand.
Tyrisey smiled. “No. I promise you.”
Rufussian stared at Tyrisey, wondering at exactly what point he’d pushed the boy past reality and into insanity. He could no longer handle him. He was surely destined to be the next Most High Prime, because none could possibly best him. He didn’t give a damn about anything, so nothing could be used against him. Except this damn human woman. “Perhaps you should mate her now,” Rufussian suggested. “Make her yours as soon as possible so that her resistance is no more.”
Tyrisey didn’t want to claim her by force. He wanted her to want him, to welcome him to her body, to hold him willingly between her legs as she had Jamisey. Yes, he’d watched. He knew she’d accepted Jamisey.
Tyrisey turned his attention to Ruby. “Allow me to take you to our quarters. I will heal your pains. Bring you water to soothe your throat.”
“All I want from you is to take me home.”
“I’m trying to.”
“My home.”
“I’m aware. Will you please accompany me?” Tyrisey looked around the cell his grandfather had locked her in. “I don’t wish to imagine you in this place any longer. Please,” he said, stepping away from the door and extending his arm toward it, as though he were showing her the way home.
“You don’t ask a female to comply with your wishes! You demand, you punish if she refuses you!”
“Do not tell me how to train my female! I will do it in my own way, in my own time!”
“Then do it soon, before I decide to have her trained for you!” Rufussian threatened. He glared at Tyrisey before turning on his heel and leaving the cell with his guard in tow.
Ruby was hesitant to cooperate with Tyrisey at all, but she didn’t want to stay in the cell she’d woken up in, and she did think it in her own best interests to stay on his good side. He seemed to want to please her and he’d already stood up to his grandfather over her treatment.
“Very well,” Ruby said as she walked past Tyrisey, wincing with every step. Her head was pounding so strongly each movement she made sent a shooting pain up her spine to her skull. She stopped long enough to look up at him. “I want Jaime. Now!”
Ruby noticed a twitch in Tyrisey’s cheek, but otherwise he didn’t answer, he simply waited for her to continue through the door.
Once she’d stepped into the corridor he followed her. “Please, come this way. I’ll show you where you can rest and then I’ll get you something for the pain.”
“I’m fine,” Ruby said, trying to hide the winces each step caused.
“I can tell,” Tyrisey snapped.
She turned her head to look at him and realized he’d closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and when he opened his eyes, he tried again, this time in a calmer voice. “Do not try to hide your pain from me. I can feel it. I can feel you. I don’t like it when you suffer. Please allow me to treat your pain.”
“There wouldn’t be any pain if your psycho grandfather hadn’t kidnapped me.”
Tyrisey, surprised by her candor, grinned. “I agree. But, now you are here, so…” he left the end of the sentence up in the air.
“So what?”
Tyrisey looked at her from the corner of his eyes. “Let us take care of you first. Then we’ll talk. I can’t concentrate with your pain so distracting.”
Ruby wasn’t very fond of the pain she was experiencing
herself. “Okay. You make the pain go away. We talk. Then you take me home.”
Tyrisey looked at her, a non existent eyebrow raised in question.
“You can raise that pretend eyebrow at me all you want. I want to go home. And I’m going to ask to go home every moment of every day, until you take me home,” Ruby announced.
“Or until you realize this is home.”
“This is a cave.”
“Semantics, Ruby. And you tire me. May I ask that you at least pretend to be somewhat receptive, lest I lose my patience with you as well?”
“Are you threatening me, now? I thought you said you’d never hurt me.”
“I shan’t ever hurt you. But I am sorely tempted to quiet you. That can be achieved without pain.”
Ruby wasn’t quite sure what he was implying, but she didn’t want to find out. So, instead of provoking him further, she settled for accompanying him quietly down the corridors as he led her to his quarters.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
“It’s well past dark, Jaime,” Mildred reminded again.
“I know well what time it is, Mildred,” Jaime answered, standing to pace to the window, peer out and then return to his table again.
“Then when are you going to look for her?”
“I’m not going to smother her. She knows where she was going. She is not helpless. She’s just running a little late. Have a little faith!” Jaime said, irritatedly. Then he got up and stalked over to the window again. “What the fuck could be keeping her?”
Mildred pointed her wooden cooking spoon at him. “I just asked you that!”
Jaime huffed at her and sat back down. He didn’t like it. Didn’t like this feeling. He hated the aloneness. The wondering if the person you cared about was okay, or needed you, or maybe just ran away because they couldn’t stand to look at you anymore. He raised his head. “Mildred? You check her room?”
“No. Why would I check her room?”
“Just to be sure,” Jaime answered, noncommittally.
“Sure of what?”
“That she’s coming back.”
“You mean like she ran off without saying goodbye? Naw. Naw, she wouldn’t do that. Besides, the way you two was looking at each other this morning, ain’t no way she’s leaving here regardless.”
“I’m going to check her room,” he said, hurrying toward the back door of the diner.
“What did I just say?” Mildred asked.
“Don’t care. Have to be sure,” Jaime answered.
Mildred shook her head. Her brother and his mate had done a real number on Jaime. She wished often that she could throttle them both for discarding him the way they had. He had commitment issues. And serious issues believing he was good enough for anybody to love. Then she’d remember her brother, the boy she grew up with, and she knew there was no way he’d have just discarded his son the way everybody thought. Something else had to happen. She’d spent her own fair share of time wandering out in the desert looking for any clue of them, but there was never anything to be found.
The front door swung open and a familiar red head flounced in.
“Where the hell you been, girl? Me and Jaime both been just about fit to be tied!” Mildred said, near-shouted before she’d even turned around to fully face the front door. “Least you could’ve done was call and say you’d be late.”
Mildred’s mouth fell open when she got a good look at the woman standing there regarding her with a smirk on her face.
“Well, had I known you were waiting for me, I might have called. But since I didn’t know your number, and still have no clue who the hell you are, I doubt I’d have called anyway.”
Mildred didn’t answer, her mind was busy putting together all the facts it was quickly adding up.
The door behind the woman was shoved open and Jaime stomped through it, already complaining. “I checked her room, her stuff is still there, and her shower hasn’t been used, the pavement is dry.” He got a look at the bright red hair on the back of the head in front of him and relief flooded him. He took a step toward her. “Baby! Why the hell didn’t you call me? Fuck! I was so worried!”
Just before he wrapped his arms around her from behind, he got a good lungful of her scent. He paused, his head pulling back as though someone had slapped him. This was not his woman.
The red head in question turned to face him.
Jaime’s eyes rounded and his expression took on a shocked look. His eyes took in the piercings through her nose, her eyebrow and her lower lip — the tiny hoops she wore in each. The tattoos that started on the backs of her hands and swirled their way up and around her arms. Her exposed belly sported a bellybutton ring, and a glimpse of a tattoo could be seen next to it. Her heavy black eyeliner and almost black lipstick gave a brooding effect to her pretty face, and her black nail polish just topped off the effort she made to declare herself different.
“Well, hello, lover boy. Or should I call you Sex-On-a-Stick? That’s what Ruby called you in the pictures she sent.”
“Who are you?” he managed, a dark cloud started to descend around him.
“Who are you?” she retorted.
“I’m Jaime. Now who the fuck are you and where is my woman?”
“You lost her?!” Pearl screeched.
“Who are you?!” Jaime shouted back at her.
“I’m Pearl. I’m Ruby’s twin sister. What the hell do you mean, where is she?”
Jaime’s eyes flashed to Mildred’s. Mildred wasted no time. “Go, Jaime. Now.”
Jaime nodded, rushing behind the counter and grabbing a Bowie knife from beneath the register. He slid it, still in its sheath into his waistband, then reached for the Bursa 380 Mildred kept there as well. He checked to be sure it was loaded then started toward the door.
“Where the hell is my sister?” Pearl demanded.
“I don’t know. I’m going to find her,” Jaime answered with a growl to his voice.
“I’ll call Clarence,” Mildred started.
“No. Don’t. I don’t know what I’m going to find. She may just have gotten turned around out there. I’m going to start where I saw her headed last. The last thing I need is Clarence there to complicate things.”
“He might be able to help,” Mildred offered.
“Is somebody gonna answer me? Where is Ruby?” Pearl demanded.
“How could he possibly help?” Jaime asked, finally reaching the door but turning back to look at Mildred.
“If you have to go to the caverns, he had friends there. Maybe they could help you,” Mildred said, softly, realizing that if Jaime went in alone, he may not come out. Her brother never did.
Jaime threw his hands up. “Do what you want, but I’m not waiting. I’m going after Ruby now, I’m heading to the caves out by my place, that’s where she was last headed.”
“Stay in touch, Jaime.” Mildred said.
“Yeah, I will. Call me if she comes home,” Jaime answered.
“This is not her home, and I’m coming with you!” Pearl announced.
“No! You are not. Last thing I need is another damn stubborn-ass, redheaded woman wading into shit she doesn’t understand and needing me to come rescue her. Just stay your ass right here.”
Pearl looked at Jaime as though he was insane. Then without hesitation, she reared back and punched him square in the jaw.
Caught off guard, the punch knocked him back a few steps, then she grabbed him by the arm and took a knee in front of him with her back to him while using his own weight to pull him over her shoulder and throw him on his back.
She stood over him, looking down into his face. “Does it look like I need you for a damn thing?”
Jaime rolled to his knees and quickly got to his feet again. He glared at her.
“I’m coming to look for my sister.”
“Fine. But you were only able to throw me because I was distracted and worried about Ruby.”
“Whatever makes you sleep at night, buddy,” Pearl mumbled as she fol
lowed Jaime out of the diner.
Mildred’s laughter could be heard behind them as they hurried to Jaime’s truck.
“Shut it, Mildred!” Jaime yelled.
Mildred was standing at the front counter, the phone in her hand, waiting for Clarence to pickup. “I sure do like these new redheads we got running around here,” she chuckled to herself while waiting for Clarence to answer.
Chapter 15
Tyrisey led Ruby down a maze of intersecting corridors until finally at the end of the farthest cavern at the furthest reach of their cave system, he stopped outside an opening covered by a brightly colored, woven tapestry. “Here, these are my quarters. You will be safe here.” He lifted one side of the tapestry and stood aside, holding it open for her to enter.
Ruby entered the space and was surprised to find it quite comfortable. Here was a bed carved from stone in the middle of the room. On it were a very large overstuffed mattress, piled high with bedding and a multitude of pillows. There were couches and chairs set around the room, and brightly colored pictures of bright summer skies with sunlight permeating them on the walls.
There was an alcove with a fireplace in it on one side of the room and a flue that led up through the ceiling of the cave.
“This is very nice,” Ruby said.
“I’m pleased you like it. Please, sit, rest. Have some water to soothe your throat and I’ll call for something for the pain in your head.”
“Thank you,” Ruby answered, sitting down on the edge of his bed and accepting a glass of water from him.
Ruby sipped the water and on finding it clean and cold, drank down even more.
Tyrisey watched her drinking the water he provided. He smiled contentedly. “We can make any changes you wish,” he said, indicating the room they were in.
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