Venom (Book I) ✓

Chapter Sixteen

Ruby was prepared to die. Of course, she regretted not being able to save Edward's life and she regretted breaking her promise to Appa, and for some reason she regretted leaving Ulric behind with her body to deal with. But somehow she was certain that in death these sorts of things were not particularly important. She inhaled deeply and focused on the feeling of her crimson cloak billowing around her. Death, she thought, would greet her soon. She could practically see his pallid face against the darkness behind her eyelids. He reached for her, his hand much fleshier than she had expected.

Then, she felt a jolt and heard a shout and a string of curses. Death fled and Ruby's eyes flew open. She was alive. And yet, she was no longer falling.

"What the hell was that, Red?"

She shifted and twisted and realized that somehow Ulric had gotten to the foot of the tree in time to catch her. His arms were still latched behind her knees and cradling her back and he gazed down at her with a scowl as if he did not intend to let her go anytime soon.

"Ulric." She whimpered, twisting once more.

He set her down, but his scowl did not waver. "What is wrong with you?" He demanded, his eyes bright in the dim light of daybreak.

"I—I had a..." A dream? No. She knew it had happened. So what should she call it? "...I'm remembering." She finished, her voice trembling.

His face darkened and he took half of a step backward, "Red, I—"

"Tried to kill me?" She cut in, voice venomous, then she shook her head, "But you also saved my life."

He looked away and she realized that in her dream his cheeks had been unscarred. What horrible things had happened to him in the time she was being cared for? What, or who, had scarred him so terribly in the short ten years that he had been absent from her life?

"I don't understand it Ulric, you are the beast?"

"No!" He hurried, then cringed, "And yes. I—Red, it's very hard to explain."

"Try." She begged, pulling her cloak closer around her shoulders.

"I don't even know how to begin."

"Start with how you managed to play ignorant so long." She spat, the anger in her beating out the momentary surge of warmth and pity she felt for the scarred creature before her. "The clearing that first day, it wasn't a coincidence, was it? You knew who I was."

"No." He stated forcefully, eyes flashing, "The clearing wasn't a coincidence. But the girl I saw in the clearing wasn't...I never thought...I mean...Red, I knew something terrible had happened to you, but the clearing is a five day walk from the cottage and I didn't really get a very good look at you in the cottage, and when I saw you in the clearing...Your cloak was torn, but you weren't bleeding."

She opened her mouth to protest and he lifted his hands to stop her.

"No, no, you were, but it was your arms and face and legs, from running through thorns and trees, not your stomach or head."

"I don't understand—that's impossible."

"That's what I thought. So of course I assumed it was some dumb coincidence that a girl in red turned up miles and miles from where I almost killed another girl who happened to be wearing the same color and had the same color hair and looked both exactly like her and completely different than her."

"But it wasn't."

"No, it wasn't."

"But..." Ruby's mind was searching desperately for some semblance of sense. She was grasping at straws when she finally demanded, "How many people have you killed?"

"I don't count, Red, I can hardly think when I'm being controlled by it."

"So the beast—"

"It's part of me." He stated, shrinking away from her. "Once every few weeks it...comes out."

"I don't—"

"I'm a shifter Red, you know that, but when the shifter gave me its blood and its blessing it did so with a price. I belong to it, as a pet of sorts, which means that when somebody wrongs it or it's in a particularly foul mood it sends me to do its....bidding."

Ruby drew away, horrified, "You agreed to that?"

"Don't, please. I know it's bad, but I...I was promised a reversal of the Dames Blanche's curse. I thought it wouldn't be so bad, as long as those I loved could live."

"But you said...Osman was killed by..."

"It's part of the curse I guess. Add insult to injury by making them die by my hand."

"And my grandmother? Why kill her?" She asked angrily.

"To get to you."

Ruby froze and her world began to dissolve. Her? Her grandmother had merely been a means to an end. She was the end. She was the one the mysterious shifter wanted dead. What was it that she couldn't recall? What tidbit from her past was she missing that could connect these dots for her.

"Why?" She finally choked.

"Red, I am a mere tool. My master doesn't tell me why I kill people, only that I am to kill them."

"And you obey." She snarled, not bothering to hide her disgust.

"You don't understand. I don't have a choice. The beast is in my blood like the venom is in yours. When it forces its way out I can't stop it."

"But you can fight it. I've seen you do it."

"That was the exception, not the rule."

"So why use it up on me?"

"Because it was more than just another job. When I realized who the beast was going after it got more...personal."

"You didn't know me."

"You don't understand. I spent my life around your village. I watched you grow up."

"Then why don't I remember you?" She spat, her stomach clenching, "Why don't I remember anybody?"

"Red, please calm down."

"Easy for you to say, you know who you are."

"Sometimes I wish I didn't."

"You don't know. You can't possibly know what it feels like to have somebody tell you that you've known them all your life but have no recollection of who they are."

"Give it time, Red."

She jerked away when he reached out to touch her, her eyes burning. "I don't have time. I have a week left to live. Edward has less. How do you propose I go about living? Huh?"

"Red, please listen to me."

"Why? What other news could you possibly give me? Because I'm already so completely lost, but you may be able to add a little more desperation to my current state if you try hard enough."

"You're being a little bit dramatic, don't you think?"

She loosed a sound somewhere between a growl and a sigh and turned on her heel. Her feet carried her away, though she couldn't say exactly where she was going. Somehow her body knew even if her mind didn't.

"Red! Red, I was only joking! Come back, you'll get yourself killed."

She ignored him, refusing to let his words get to her. With her mind still swirling with all she had learned this task wasn't particularly challenging.

Her feet carried her forward as if they had traversed this path frequently. For all she knew she had walked down this path daily as a child. The only person who could tell her, though, stood somewhere behind her. And something about the fact that he had stopped shouting her name reminded her that Ulric murdered her grandmother and tried his hardest to murder her too. His silence reminded her that Ulric was a killer.