Page 34 of Scales and Seduction (Monster Match #1)
M y mind buzzes with a thousand questions as I clutch Ruby’s tiny hand in mine. Each passing moment feels like a lifetime as her skin grows clammy and cold. My face is tear-stained, but I’m far less concerned that Noodles or Loran might see it now. It’s not weak to love your mate like I do, is it? No. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Loran stands in the doorway. The creaking wood sounds much louder in the silence of the room. In his trembling hands, he has a bowl full of the antidote. “I didn’t have a vial…” His voice is soft. “Silas left. I believe he was struggling with his emotions over this. We both really like her.”
“It’s alright; I know he’s more sensitive than he lets on…” I manage to say. Not that I don’t care about my friend. I do, genuinely. I know he is sensitive to energy, and the home’s oppressive weight hangs in the air.
Loran gets closer, pulling Ruby’s body upright so she’s leaning against his chest. He hangs her mouth open with two of his fingers. I hold my breath, waiting as he pours the thick gangrenous liquid down her throat.
Ruby’s chest rises with a shaky breath; her pale skin under the poison’s grip has turned nearly purple. For a long, endless moment, the world stops, and then her eyelids flutter.
I move forward, my heart thundering in my chest. “Ruby?”
Loran pauses me with a look. “Don’t get too close yet. She may vomit the antidote.”
Ruby looks as if she’s waking from a nightmare as the pale gray of her cheeks slowly pinkens. Her lashes flutter over her glossy, hazy eyes as if she can’t tell where she is. A soft groan escapes her lips, and she clutches her mouth, her face contorting in pain.
Then, without warning, Ruby lurches forward across the bed. Her stomach heaves, and she gags viciously. She vomits with such force across the bed sheets, it nearly makes it to the opposite end of the bed. Her body trembles as she lets out a defeated animal noise.
Loran’s hand is on her back, holding back her curls from her cheeks. “It’s alright; it will pass.”
I hate how my own stomach violently lurches as the gagging continues until her stomach empties.
A ragged breath hitches in Ruby’s throat, each gasp a desperate, shallow struggle for air. Her gaze is vacant; her eyes look so unfocused as she stammers, “I… I saw him.” Her voice is barely a whisper as she slurs her words like she’s not awake. “There was a man…” She swallows roughly, allowing her mouth a moment to moisten after hours of beating back death. Her voice cracks as she tries her best to gain more volume than a whisper. “He said the poison would…awaken something inside me.”
Loran shakes his head as though it’s a preposterous idea, mouthing to me that it’s impossible. “Come, let’s take off this sheet and lay you back down.”
I know he’s right. The poison can’t have that side effect on anyone. She likely hallucinated while she danced between the waking world and the darkness of the unknown.
Ruby shakes her head side to side vehemently. “No, he said my ancestors belonged here.” She grabs at her head. “He said I was one of you.”
My brow furrows in concern as I watch her fight against Loran’s gentle pressure on her to lie back down. She’ll refuse to quit until she feels heard.
“What did he mean, then?” I humor her, hoping once she has said her piece, she might calm back down.
Her eyes close, and slowly she leans back into the pillows, sighing in comfort. “I can’t remember… It was blurry. He said because of my ancestry that the poison will change me and that you love me very much.”
Her tiny hand rubs her eyes as she winces in pain. “My eyes hurt and feel funny.” Once her hand falls away and she opens them again, I see it. In her deep brown doe eyes is a vibrant flash of lavender. It flickers before we have time to fully grasp what it is. The glow fades away, and my heart skips at the implication of it all.
Ruby has changed.
Loran’s voice breaks the quiet, his eyes wide. “Did you see that?”
“Yes, what the hell was that?”
She lifts her head shakily, her hand rising to her forehead, but the exhaustion is too much. Her head falls back down to the pillow, and her eyes flutter closed again with a shaky sigh. “My head hurts so bad.”
“She smells like magic.” Crinkling his nose, Noodles sniffs the air from his place near her feet. His fur bristles momentarily, his whiskers twitching as though he hates the way it smells. Then he stops, leans closer and sniffs again before snorting a soft huff. “I don’t know what it is, but I’ve never smelled anything like it before.”
I glance at Loran, my mind racing as I continue to turn over what my mate has become. I can sense it in the air—something has changed. As if a new presence is lingering in her place, but I can’t grasp it. I’m unsure what the poison has unleashed in her, but once she’s feeling better, we’ll have more time to investigate it.
“Are you alright?” I give her hand another squeeze as I try my best to convey less fear than I feel. I don’t want Ruby to worry about this at all, because maybe, just maybe, this might be a good thing.
“I’ll be okay,” she whispers, though it’s less than convincing. “Can you turn out the lights?”
Ruby sits on the edge of the bed now, fiddling with her fingers and the edge of the blanket. Her eyes are so distant as she tries to pull herself back together. A magic hums just under her skin, but what it is, I still can’t place. She’s slept for hours, and now she swears she wants a bath.
My eyes are drawn to her, noticing the way she’s still herself but somehow so different. “Are you alright?” I swallow hard as I hold her tiny hands in mine.
Ruby glances up at me, her lips curling into a weak smile. “Yeah, I’m just really tired,” she says softly. It’s less than convincing. but I don’t press. Her eyes no longer glow, but her irises are peppered with flecks of lavender as a reminder.
“I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you, Ruby.” I hesitate to say more, watching as she leans her head against my forearm, wrapping her fingers around it.
“I’m alright now…” She presses a gentle kiss to my arm before lifting her head to gaze at me with exhausted eyes. “I knew you would get here in time.”
“But you weren’t.” I shake my head, grabbing hold of her shoulders. “You were...gone. I didn’t know if we would find the antidote in time, or if you’d wake up. I would have been left with a memory of you.” I can feel the weight of the words as they spill from my lips. There’s so much rawness and fear radiating out of me that I failed to acknowledge. “I was terrified, Ruby. Terrified I would lose you.”
Ruby squeezes my balled fist, brushing her thumb gently over the back of it, allowing it to loosen. “I’m here now. I’m not going anywhere. I can’t, at least not yet...” There’s a flicker in her eyes as they well with tears. I can hear her voice tighten. “I don’t know if I want to leave.”
Her words help soothe the aching places in my heart, but still, worry gnaws at my insides. How can I not be afraid? Everything has changed, and I still can’t tell if it’s for the better. Ruby now has changed, the app is still out there doing who knows what, and there’s someone searching for it, wanting to destroy it all because of a curse we can’t understand. It’s like there’s a shadow looming over us, and I’m unsure if we can outrun it.
“Baby, don’t cry,” I say, gently wiping tears from her cheeks.
Ruby nods, though she chews at her raw lips like she always does when there’s something gnawing at her anxiety. “It’s just—Gideon, I love you,” her voice trembles. “My friends, my family…they’re all gone now, and if I’m changed, can I even go back if we found a way?”
Her declaration stabs at me—it’s such a heart-wrenching sentence. Ruby is giving up everything to be here, and if she chooses to stay here with me…if she loves me, then I’m the reason she’s separated from them all. “You love me?”
Ruby nods, a small smile turning the corners of her lips upward. “Yeah, I do, stupid naga.”
My heart can’t take it.
I’m drawn to Ruby as she leans in just a little, her breath warm against my arm. She looks at me as if there is something more than just a naga beside her. Deep within her eyes, there is this softness that lingers there amongst the bitter tears. I’m her mate, and it’s then I realize she finally feels it too.
She slowly allows her fingers to slide up my arm, and each touch makes my scales itch for more until she traces a spot on my stomach. I let out a shaky breath as the tension between us grows and my cocks throb within their pouch at her touch. God, I love her too.
“I’m so happy I can touch you, and you’re here.” My voice is rougher than I’d like as I trace the softness of her jaw.
Ruby smiles, and her eyes flicker with a soft intensity. “I’m here, Gideon, with you.”
Before I can say anything else, Ruby slowly rises to her feet between us. I crane my neck down as she leans to kiss me. At first, it’s gentle, tentative, as if she worries I may second-guess it. But I don’t. I lean into it fully, cupping the back of her neck as I anchor her to me. It reminds me that she’s real and she’s here .
Her lips part against mine as our kiss deepens, slow and filled with longing I wish I could voice. It’s a kiss that feels as if it holds everything unspoken between us: the fear, the relief, the promises and the adoration.
When I pull back, Ruby’s forehead rests against mine as our breaths mingle. “I don’t know what will happen, or if I’ll be safe to stay, but I want to be with you…always,” she whispers.
My heart clenches, and I inhale a deep breath as the longing to tell her how much I love her stays on the tip of my tongue. I’ve said it once while she was unconscious, but I can’t describe how hard it feels to say now. It’s not that I don’t want to, but it feels so momentous that the simple phrase doesn’t feel like enough.
She loves me, and I love her. My mate, my one and only. I press my lips to her forehead, wrapping her up in my arms. “I will always be yours, Ruby. You are mine, and I am yours forever, no matter what’s to come.”
We simply hold one another, inhaling each other’s breath, allowing ourselves to enjoy the bittersweet moment. Once Ruby has rested, we have to speak to the council. Avalon’s new position aside, they all must know Ruby is staying, and I will have no choice but to tell them about the app. I’m unsure what’s going to come for either of us, but as long as she’s safe and in my arms, it’s all that matters.