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"Woowoo stuff."
Ruby let her head fall against his chest again. "I haven't heard the purring sound since you walked through the door. I don't understand what's going on, but will you stay? Please?"
After half an hour of sitting on the couch watching an old movie with Zane, it was almost possible for Ruby to convince herself that she hadn't heard anything. She'd been the one to put the jade cat on her bedside table. She had never thrown it in the trash can, only to have it reappear in the living room, front and center on the coffee table.
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sp; But only almost. She had heard the purring. She had thrown the blasted thing in the garbage, but it had refused to stay.
Having Zane sitting in her living room shirtless and warm was a nice distraction, and for a moment she allowed herself the luxury of thinking about something other than her fragile mental state. The no-white-sugar, no-white-flour thing had its benefits, apparently. Beneath those loose T-shirts he always wore, Zane Benedict was fine. More than fine, he was muscled, cut, strong and well shaped. Oh, the ridges and sharp angles were tempting. She wanted to reach out and run her hands along those muscles, she wanted to test them all with her fingertips, to see if he was as warm and hard as he looked.
The fact that she didn't want to be left alone had nothing to do with her attraction. Yeah, right.
She did, eventually, tell him about the newest dream. He seemed concerned, he listened intently and nodded and wrapped his arm around her when her voice trembled. Once he even leaned down and kissed the top of her head, an impulsive move that seemed to take him by surprise as much as it did her.
When she was finished, he said, "Tell me about the totem. Did this girl really think it could protect her?"
"Yes, and the man who brought the dark thing to her, he snatched the totem away from her before releasing . . . whatever it was." She shuddered.
"What did it look like?"
She tried to remember, but that part of the dream was unclear. "I don't know. It was fairly small, and I think there was a crescent-moon-shaped thingie attached to it." Moons again. She shuddered.
"Anything else?"
Ruby shook her head. "What do these dreams mean? And what the hell is going on with that damn cat knickknack?"
Zane didn't answer for a while. "You don't believe in my field of study."
"If my walls keep purring, that's going to change pretty quickly," she muttered. "First things first. How do I get rid of the cat?"
"I'm sorry to say, I don't think you can. Not easily, at least," he added. "I'm going to have to study this a bit before I have any definite answers for you."
"Study tomorrow," she said, burrowing into his side. "If you leave I'll . . . I'll . . ." Go mad, eat every bite of the leftover cake, cry, scream—maybe all four.
"I'm not leaving," he assured her.
Ruby took a deep breath and sighed. On her television screen, men in top hats were dancing in black and white. A woman in a flowing white dress drifted across the screen. It was an odd scene to fall asleep to, but she did, falling hard.
Olwen stopped fighting. She was tired, and she was frightened, and she now knew that there was no escape from this. Her beloved husband Arlin had tied her to her own bed when she'd told him about the dreams. At first she had been afraid he thought her a witch, but now she knew that was not true. He simply didn't want her telling anyone else about the warning dreams.
She'd been here for two days, now. Arlin had seen that she was fed, and he had even given her a washing and dressed her in her best linen shift. The man she loved, the father of her child, made sure she could not escape, but he also cared for her. And then, when he said the time and the stars and the moon were aligned, he offered her soul to the demon he worshipped.
The dark cat stood on her chest and placed its snout close to her nose. It purred, deep and rumbling, so that it 'Seemed the entire world shook. When she had first seen the feline rise from the pretty stone cat her husband had given her, it had been made of nothing. It had been a hole where there should've been none, darkness where there should've been light, but now it was solid, heavy on her chest. It was real. She could see the fur on its skin and the burning red of its evil eyes. Using the power of its mind, the cat forced her mouth to open, and it inhaled, stealing her breath, sucking her life and her soul from her body. She could see her life escaping, white and blue streaks flowing from her mouth into his until there was nothing left of her but what lived inside the darkness.
Olwen, devoted mother and wife, saw her betrayer husband through the eyes of the demon who had killed her. She did not wish to gaze long upon her own lifeless body. She looked so scared in death, so horribly empty.
Arlin dropped to his knees and praised this demon who had taken his wife's soul. The large cat who had once been nothing but a dark hole now had a beating heart and a deep hunger for flesh. He would not be like this for very long, she knew, as she was now inside the demon in all ways and shared his thoughts. A part of this night was all the time he had to feed his hunger of almost three centuries.
The curse that kept the demon trapped in stone for all but a few hours out of nearly two hundred and ninety years was not unbreakable. When he woke the demon took souls, and when the ninth soul was his, he would live again. He would be whole and he would make the world pay.
Arlin looked up, a love and admiration in his eyes. Olwen had once thought such expressions were reserved for her, but apparently his love for the demon was greater than his love for his wife. "I have been promised much for my great sacrifice." Arlin opened his arms wide. "I am your humble servant, II Gatto Nero."
A great black paw swiped out and sliced open the betrayer's throat. A cat's scream filled the small hut, and the baby began to cry. The demon who had taken Olwen's soul could not take another, not until he was whole again, but while he lived he craved flesh, and he started with his most humble servant. . .
Not my baby! Olwen screamed.
The gruesome scene went black, and a soft voice, the voice of the woman who had been sacrificed, whispered in Ruby's ear, "While his heart beats, he can be taken. Do not hesitate, or he will take your soul.
