83 Your Voice Of Reason

Ruby supposed she deserved this lecture. She had worried him after all. She couldn't look at him when she answered because it was a bit embarrassing. "…I was defending you. He didn't like that."

He went silent for a moment. When he did speak again it was with great resignation. "You really are something else, aren't you? Not the slightest bit of care for your own safety. I suppose I'll have to be your voice of reason from now on."

She was slightly offended by the insinuation that she couldn't take care of herself but was able to acknowledge that he did have a point. He had been forced to resuscitate her because of her recklessness after all.

The thought of Ash administering CPR still made her blush so she tried not to think about it. He had done it to save her life; there were no ulterior motives. She shouldn't be embarrassed.

"Thank you though," he said suddenly. "For defending me. It's nice to know you care."

"Of course I care," Ruby mumbled.

Her actions of late didn't exactly indicate that between running away without telling him and nearly making him lose his mind with worry but she did care. A lot. More than she wanted to.

A half-smile appeared on Ash's face but he said nothing and returned to staring out the window. With the conversation stopped, Ruby figured she should try to push all of her confusing thoughts out of her head and go to sleep, uncomfortable wing position and all. She was exhausted.

===

When they finally made it back to the castle Ruby was hit with an overwhelming feeling of relief. Home. She would be safe here.

It was early morning and she hadn't slept much so she ended up crashing on the bed first thing. Flora (who hadn't managed to sleep through the night either) joined her. A few hours later when they woke up for real, she found Ash lying flat on his back right next to her, his fingers entwined with hers.

Ruby sighed. What was she going to do with him? They really ought to get furniture for another one of these bedrooms now that there were three of them here.

Technically they did all fit on the bed but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that she was getting very odd signals from Ash and didn't want her heart to misunderstand his intentions.

At least Flora was too little to think anything of the connotations of a shared bed between males and females. That was one thing she didn't have to worry about.

She headed down to the kitchen and made toaster waffles for both of them before heading into town to hopefully retrieve her car and talk to Blair. Flora had never been to the witch coven before so she was excited to see them.

Luck was on her side today; the car was exactly where she left it. She didn't have a booster seat for Flora so she prayed that nobody pulled them over or noticed on the way to the store.

She picked the first one they had that was the right size and buckled it into her car before heading to the witch coven. It had barely opened for the day at this point but she wanted to talk to Blair and get this over with right away.

Ruby held Flora's hand as they walked in and the witch behind the counter she recognized named Hazel did a double-take when she saw them. "Ruby! Is that Flora with you?"

"Yes."

"Blair has been expecting you; come right on back!"

She should have known that Blair would gossip about her. Witches were notorious for that. Biting back a sigh, Ruby braced herself for a lecture. She hoped it would be short to spare her pride in front of her little cousin.

Blair rushed forward the moment she saw them and grasped Ruby's hands in hers. "I heard what happened! The entire Cromwell coven was wiped ou—ah. Baby ears. Cover them for a minute, would you?"

She did as she was told though Flora gave her a questioning look for it. The witch continued quietly.

"Sirius, the alpha of the mercenary werewolves Ash hired told me they were all killed and the two of you were rescued but wouldn't give me any more details than that. What happened up there? Did you get hurt?"

"Yes but clearly I'm fine now. And Flora wasn't hurt at all but she still doesn't know about her parents so don't say anything," Ruby replied in a low voice.

"Ah. Right. So where is Ash, anyway? I would have thought he wouldn't let you out of his sight," Blair said with a slight chuckle.

She sighed. He had been rather clingy since they met up again but she couldn't really blame him, no matter how much havoc it wreaked on her heartrate. "He's asleep. But he has been sticking to me like glue the past couple of days."

"Cut him a little slack. He was really worried about you when you went missing. Practically destroyed this place after watching that video…but I probably shouldn't have mentioned that. Don't tell him I said anything!"

Ruby blinked at her in surprise. Ash? Seriously? She had seen a murderous glint in his eyes a few times when he was reminded of the Cromwells or his lost coven but she had never actually seen him do anything violent.

Even the night of the rescue she had been stuck on the floor in too much pain to focus on what he was doing as he killed Dorian. Had he been upset because she was gone or because it was her worst enemy who had her?