Page 27 of Breaking the Bloodstone Curse
“I should go back and look for it,” he said, frowning. “I need to make it stop and leave you alone.”
“No, please!” Serenai’s eyes were pleading. “What if it comes after you, too? What if it hurts you? I couldn’t live with myself if that happened!”
Brax was touched at her concern for him.
“But you bought me to protect you from that thing,” he pointed out. “Don’t you want me to get rid of it?”
“We don’t even know if it can be gotten rid of!” she exclaimed. “Please, let’s just get far away from my mother’s room!”
They retreated back to the food prep area, where Robbi was still doing dishes. It was the brightest place in the penthouse and it felt like the safest, too. At least to Brax, it did.
“All right,” he said, putting the box with the necklace on it on the table. “Do you feel better now?”
“Only a little.” Serenai shivered and rubbed her hands up and down her arms as though she was cold.
“Come here.” Brax reached for her and she came to him eagerly. He put his arms around her and held her close, rubbing her trembling shoulders and back until she stopped shaking. “It’s all right,” he murmured, stroking her hair. “Everything is going to be all right, little one.”
“Do you really think so?” Serenai looked up at him, her eyes wide and haunted. “I’ve never seen anything like that…that thing,” she whispered. “It looked like it was made of shadows.”
“It was pretty fucking strange,” Brax admitted. “But I swear to you, little Mistress, it’s not going to hurt you. I won’t let it.”
“I feel so much safer now that you’re here.” she rubbed her soft cheek against his bare chest and Brax felt a strong wave of protective possessiveness come over him. Which didn’t make sense—he could protect her but he could never possess her. It was she who owned him, he reminded himself.
Still, he couldn’t help how he felt. He dropped a gentle kiss on the top of her head and hugged her tightly, letting her know she was safe in his arms. He loved the feeling of her soft, curvy body pressed against his, loved the way she came to him for protection.
“Ah, I see you have found the gift which was sent to my old Mistress not long before her death.”
The high, robotic voice interrupted their hugging and Brax looked over to see that Robbi was looking at the necklace.
“Gift?” Serenai asked, frowning. “What do you mean, Robbi? Are you talking about the necklace?”
“Of course. It was sent here to Mistress Bloodlash’s penthouse just about a week before she died,” Robbi explained.
“Did she have any idea who sent it to her?” Brax asked.
The robo-butler shook his round metal head.
“No, it simply was addressed, ‘To Mistress Bloodlash—you deserve this.’ I believe those are bloodstones it’s set with,” he added, his blinking yellow eyes scanning the necklace. “Very rare and precious.”
“Bloodstones?” Brax didn’t like the sound of that. “What the fuck are bloodstones?”
“According to legend they are diamonds that have been dyed with blood, though I do not know if it is actually possible to dye gemstones a different color,” Robbi said.
“Do you think the necklace could be tied to the red-eyed thing?” Serenai asked in a trembling voice. She looked at Robbi. “Did my mother say anything about a thing with red eyes stalking her before she died?”
“No, Mistress, but she did seem agitated in the week leading up to her death,” the robo-butler said. “She began to sleep with the lights on and she looked worried and tense. I asked if there was anything I could do for her, but she denied that anything was wrong. I was considering calling for a physician, even though ordering medical help without a direct order to do so contradicts some of my programming, but then her sister, your Aunt Nibblegrim, came into the penthouse and found her dead.”
“And you didn’t see or hear anything on the day of her death—anything that might give a clue as to how she died?” Brax demanded.
The robo-butler shook his head.
“No, I’m afraid not. I was in my docking station, charging myself at the time of her death. The medical personnel whom Mistress Nibblegrim called seemed to think that my old Mistress’s heart simply stopped beating, but they could not give a reason for it.”
“But then how—?” Brax began but just then Serenai exclaimed.
“Oh look—there’s a note in here—hidden under the velvet!”
She tugged at the corner of the velvet and after a moment, pulled out a piece of fragile looking parchment, yellowed with age.
