A Shade of Vampire 40: A Throne of Fire(33)

“It’s a really long story,” the man—vampire?—replied.

“We have time.” Ruby smiled. “But we’ll need to get back to the castle.”

The blonde vampire turned to me, moving away from Ruby to glare at me. She stood with her feet hip-width apart, her hands placed firmly on her waist—she looked like she was going to pounce and attack me at any moment. She looked over at Tejus too, then took in the guards and the bull-horses, her eyes narrowing.

I looked over at Tejus, who looked irritated.

“We need to get back to the castle,” Tejus announced. “We’re not safe here.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Hazel’s dad started giving Tejus hell. I really didn’t want to be in his shoes right now. I braced myself for my own onslaught, glad I wasn’t Ruby’s kidnapper. Hopefully that would work in my favor, if nothing else did.

“Well?” Ruby’s mother glared at me, ignoring Tejus and the other parents and homing in on the person standing closest to her daughter.

“Mom, Dad,” Ruby announced grandly before I could get a word in edgeways, “this is Ash! He’s my fiancé. Ash, these are my parents, Claudia and Yuri.”

Total silence.

I didn’t know whether I wanted to shout from the castle towers with joy, or bury myself in a ten-foot grave and save Ruby’s parents the bother of doing the job for me. They were looking at me with icy glares. Her mother sneered, showing a gleaming set of fangs.

Oh… This isn’t good.

I looked at Ruby, who beamed at me, oblivious to the death sentence she’d just handed me.

“Pleased to meet you.” I swallowed, holding out my hand. It remained hanging in the air for a moment, before I dropped it. Her mother was looking from Ruby to me and back again with growing dismay.

At the same time, we overheard Hazel’s father shouting, “Your kidnapper’s your boyfriend?”

Ruby’s mother’s jaw dropped in shock.

“Please don’t tell me you’re Ruby’s kidnapper?” she growled at me.

“No! No, not at all,” I corrected her assumption hastily.

“Ash saved me, Mom. He rescued me, Julian and Benedict from a cellar. We thought we were done for, but thanks to Ash, we escaped unscathed…well, relatively.”

“What were you doing in a cellar?” her father demanded.

“We have loads to tell you too,” Ruby replied. “Nevertide’s been… interesting.”

“Back to the fiancé part,” her mother demanded, suddenly less interested in the adventures of her daughter, and far more concerned about what the hell was going on between her daughter and myself. I idly wondered if I wouldn’t prefer to be back fighting the shadow.

“I love your daughter,” I stated implacably. I wanted them to know that I wasn’t messing around—that although this was all obviously coming as a horrible shock to them, my feelings for Ruby wouldn’t change no matter what they thought. I was still reeling from her acceptance. The fact that I couldn’t touch her without risking losing my limbs was starting to become physically painful.

“And I love him.” Ruby smiled at me softly. “There’s no better man for me, not in all the dimensions. We’re a good team, like you and Dad.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Her mother crossed her arms, staring at me.

“Well, it’s true,” Ruby retorted.

It suddenly became crystal clear where Ruby got her stubborn nature from.

“Are you like the others?” Ruby’s mother asked me. “A sentry, or whatever you call yourselves?”

“I am,” I replied, hoping that Hazel’s condition wasn’t going to be brought up anytime soon. If they found out what a sentry marriage consisted of, I doubted I’d see daylight again.

“Ash is an emperor,” Ruby stated proudly.

“Of this place?” Her father looked around doubtfully. “What happened here?”

“The thing we’re running from – or were running from.”

I hadn’t seen a sign of the shadow for a few miles now. Still, we should be moving. I didn’t like standing out here in the open.

Ruby hugged her parents again.

“Keep walking? I just want to talk to Ash for a few moments—just follow that guy.” She pointed at Tejus.

“You have mere minutes, Ruby May Lazaroff, then you join us.”

Her father’s tone brooked no argument. She nodded, smiling and happy, unbothered by her father’s obvious disapproval.

We hung back, watching the members of GASP follow Tejus up to the castle. They all stopped to hug, kiss, or playfully punch Ruby on the arm as they went past, exclamations of “Thank God we found you!” and “So happy to see you!” echoed through the group, and Ruby grinned happily at each of them. Tejus took charge, trying to speed everyone up. There wasn’t really time for a reunion  .