The Ruby Kiss by Helen Scott Taylor Page A

Gathering stood there, blocking his view, so Nightshade skirted the room to get a better look—and caught a glimpse of Twister crouching over someone prone on the dais. His apprehension hardened to fear.
    “Twister,” he shouted, breaking into a run. “What’s going on? Where’s Ruby?”
    “Keep him away,” the Unseelie king commanded.
    What
? Nightshade’s step faltered. Something was wrong.
    The guards faced Nightshade, readying their bullwhips to strike as he charged forward.
    “Stay back,” one of them ordered. A leather thong whistled toward him. Nightshade caught hold of it and looped it around his wrist before yanking the weapon from the guard’s hand, but as he reeled in the length of plaited leather, the other three whips cracked out, biting into his flesh. Blood trickled down his belly from a wound on his chest.
    He growled. Now that he was closer, he caught a glimpse ofRuby’s dressing gown, confirming his suspicion that she was on the ground, probably hurt.
    “Let me get to Ruby,” he commanded. Twister didn’t respond.
    Fear sliced through Nightshade, followed quickly by anger. He faded to his shade form, something he rarely did, so he would appear as little more than a shadow.
    Faster than the guards would be able to see, he shot toward them. He caught one with a punch to the jaw, but when he jabbed a second blow the guard had disappeared. Damn. They were air elementals, able to walk unseen through the air like Troy. Even in shade form, he would find them difficult to overcome.
    He was close to the dais, so Nightshade slowed and returned to solid form. Ignoring the agonizing strikes of the guards’ whips, he crouched to see past the cyclops. Twister knelt beside Ruby’s prone form, her head and shoulders cradled in his arms.
    “Get away from her,” Nightshade bellowed. “Ruby! Can you hear me, Ruby?”
    The Unseelie king’s gaze rose, his jaw tense and his eyes flaring gold. “Get out of here, stalker. She’s mine now.”
    “She’s what?” The words slipped from Nightshade’s lips in an incredulous whisper. Twister hadn’t once indicated he was attracted to her. What in the Furies had happened between them in the hour Nightshade had been away?
    Twister leaned over Ruby like a worried lover, and burning anger flooded Nightshade. “Get your hands off my woman,” he shouted.
    The whip-wielding guards closed in on him while he stared, dumbfounded. They wrenched his arms behind his back, trapping his wings, and dragged him away.
    He again transformed into his shade form, in which he could move very fast. As his physical form faded, he slipped from hiscaptors’ hands and rushed forward. A moment later the guards were again blocking his path.
    He struck out at the nearest man and found no one there. A whip thong wrapped around his rib cage, leaving a trail of fiery pain in its wake, and he leapt up, beating down his wings. But before he gained enough height to clear the guards, they grabbed his legs and pulled him back to earth.
    Four more whip-wielding guards materialized to join the first. He glared into their expressionless black eyes. He was having trouble overcoming four air elementals; eight would be impossible.
    “Let me see Ruby,” he shouted as they dragged him backward toward the door again. “If you’ve hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
    His threat garnered him a smack to the head with a folded whip that left his ears ringing. He transformed to shade form again and dashed toward the dais, but before he reached Twister the eight guards were ahead of him, forming that protective ring around their king. They grabbed him once more and repeated the painful struggle toward the door.
    He would never overcome eight air elementals alone. If only Devin hadn’t left. If only Troy were here. But . . . thinking of Troy gave him an idea. The immortal had said he didn’t interfere in the Unseelie Court’s affairs, but this might be a matter of life or death for Ruby.
    Assuming shade form,