by Hall, Linsey
Concern creased her brow. “Devil? What’s wrong?”
“Everything is fine, Miranda.” His voice sounded normal, but his face was so pale. “Don’t concern yourself.”
“Could you get the healer?” I asked.
She nodded, her gaze moving between us. “He’s having a drink in the bar, in fact.”
I frowned. “How many drinks?”
“He hasn’t been here long enough to lose his head. I’ll send him to your quarters, Devil.”
Grey nodded, and we headed in that direction. Fortunately, there was no one in the halls between the lobby and his flat. The healer was already there, waiting for us. He was slightly red in the face, as if he’d run the whole way, and I wondered what Miranda had told him.
“Thank you for coming, Doratio,” Grey said.
The old healer nodded, his pale green eyes glinting with concern. “But of course.”
Grey unlocked the charm that protected his flat and let us in.
The healer’s white cloak swept around him as he entered. “What happened?” he asked.
“We were fighting some Marsh Men in Magic Side, Chicago,” I said. “They shot Grey with a jet of water. I think it was enchanted because he hasn’t been able to heal like normal.”
The healer frowned. “That is strange, indeed.” He gestured to a chair by the window that looked out on the beach. “Sit, please.”
Grey sat. His face was impassive, though his shoulder slowly seeped blood. It had to hurt, but other than the faint paleness of his features, he showed no sign of pain.
I paced anxiously as Doratio knelt by his chair to inspect the gash. He hovered his hand over the shoulder wound, then the arm wound, his magic flaring. In the reflection of the glass, I could see his brow crease with concern.
“I feel no magic here,” he said. “These wounds are clean, made only by water moving fast enough to cut.”
Shit. Something really was different about this. “Then why isn’t he healing?”
“That, I do not know.”
Something was different about Grey. That had to be it. Why else would his healing ability suddenly just stop?
A sense of foreboding threatened to drag me down.
“Can you heal it in your normal fashion?” Grey asked.
“Yes, yes. Though I’m afraid I can’t restore your vampire healing ability.”
Grey nodded. “See to the wounds. I’ll sort that out.”
Anxiously, I watched the healer feed his power into Grey’s body. The gashes knitted themselves back together in front of my eyes, though Grey’s skin was still pale.
“That’s the best I can do.” The healer stood and turned to me. “And you, my dear? Do you need treatment?”
“No.” Grey had got between me and any hits I might have taken, so I was fine.
“Then I’ll be on my way.” He turned and went to the door, disappearing silently into the night. I had to assume he had an arrangement to bill Miranda.
Grey turned to me, rising. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, my gaze meeting his. “I’m fine. Just worried about you.”
“Don’t be.”
“I can’t help it.” I cared about him. As much as we both knew it was a bad idea, I couldn’t help the feelings that were threatening to overwhelm me.
Somehow, over the last week, I was coming close to falling for him.
He opened his mouth, something unreadable flickering in his eyes. Then he closed it, swallowing the words. When he spoke, his words had nothing to do with us. “We need to gather this collection of ingredients.”
I nodded. “Of course. I’d like to check in with Eve as well. See how Mac is doing.”
“I’m going to call Miranda and give her the list.”
“Tell her to consult with Eve.”
My friend sold certain magical ingredients. The least I could do was try to push a little business her way. She’d already done the same for me.
He nodded.
I moved to the side of the room, closer to the window so that I could have some privacy for my call. I dialed Eve, waiting impatiently as the phone rang.
Finally, she picked up.
“How are they doing?” I asked.
“Stable, but only because of the potion I’ve brewed. It won’t last forever, though.” She sounded worried. “Have you found out the nature of their curse?”
“The Curse Diviner said they weren’t cursed at all.”
“What? Impossible.”
“Not according to her.”
“Then what’s wrong with them?”
“She didn't know. She thinks it may be related to the curse on the city wall, so if we break that, it may help them.”
“But how? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’ve no idea, but it’s the only lead I have.”
“Damn it.” Eve’s voice trailed off. “I don’t know how to fix them. Or how much longer they’ve got.”
“Let’s follow the advice of the Curse Diviner,” I said. “And I can have Grey send you a healer for Mac and Seraphia.”
“That might help, thanks.”
I nodded, spotting Miranda’s reflection in the window. She’d arrived to take the list of ingredients from Grey. “And Eve? Miranda may be stopping by to get some things to help us break the curse on the wall. We can attempt to cast the spell tomorrow near midnight.”
“All right. I’ll be on the lookout.”
We hung up, and I turned to Grey and Miranda. “Can you send the healer to Eve’s place? Maybe he can help Mac and Seraphia.”
Grey nodded. “Of course.” He turned to Miranda. “See that it is done.”
She nodded and raised the list. “I’ll let you know how I get on with these. Dinner should be here any moment.”
“Thank you.” Grey held the door for her, and she disappeared silently from the room. He looked at me. “You’re worried for your friends.”
“Of course.”
“We’ll find a way to fix them, I swear it.”
We couldn’t even find a way to fix us, but I didn’t say it.
A knock sounded a moment later. When Grey answered it, a man stood in the door with a pizza in hand.
Grey accepted the box from the man and shut the door.
“Pizza?” I asked.
“Doesn’t everyone like pizza?”
“Even immortal vampires, it seems.” My stomach growled.
“Let’s eat.” He took the food to the table near the window, then went through a doorway that I’d never used. “Would you like a beer?”
“Yes, please.” I opened the pizza box and inhaled the aroma. Delicious.
Grey walked back to the table with two frosty beer bottles in his hands. He was the best-looking thing I’d ever seen.
I took mine gratefully and sat, then grabbed a slice of pizza. Grey joined me and clinked his beer bottle against mine.
“To your friends,” he said. “We’ll find a way to heal them.”
“To Mac and Seraphia.”
We ate in comfortable silence. It should have been like a date. Pizza and beer and a beautiful view.
Instead, it was weird as hell. Not so much the energy with him, but the threat that hung over us. It tugged at me, making me anxious and worried.
“Miranda will let us know soon about the ingredients,” he said, clearly trying to calm my nerves by reminding me of our forward progress on our problems.
“Yeah. Great.” I looked at the clock, shocked to see that it was nearly four a.m. The time change from Chicago had thrown us all off. “I should head home.”
“Sleep here tonight. In the spare room.”
I swallowed hard, wanting to take him up on his offer, yet knowing it was a bad idea.
“It’s an entirely separate room,” he said. “And it will save you travel time.”
“That would be helpful.” And I was exhausted. “Do you mind if I get a shower?” I’d stayed in an en suite bedroom the last time.
�
�Of course.”
“Thanks.” I polished off the last of my pizza and stood, grabbing the beer that I hadn’t finished. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He nodded. “Thank you for your help tonight.”
“No, thank you.” I turned and all but ran for the bedroom, disappearing into the quiet silence.
The shower was divine, as it had been last time. I finished off the beer while standing beneath the hot spray, replaying the day in my head. By the time I stepped out, I was clean, but no more relaxed. Despite the late hour, the idea of sleep was absurd right now. I was too keyed up. Too worried.
Maybe a book would help.
I put my clothes back on and went to the door, listening carefully for any sign of movement in the living room. There was none, so I peeked my head out.
Silence.
Grey must have gone to his room.
I strode into the living room and went to the bookshelf, feeling like I was poking around his private space.
I was, actually.
And I did want a book . . . but not as badly as I wanted a look at his collection.
Honestly, I was snooping.
But it was just books, so it didn’t seem so bad.
The collection was varied, and this was only part of it. There was an enormous bookshelf in his bedroom, too. Novels, nonfiction, and a surprisingly large assortment of poetry. I reached for one that looked well-worn and gasped at the vision that popped into my head:
Grey, reading alone.
It was a lonely sight rather than cozy. I couldn’t tell if he actually felt lonely in the vision, but it sure looked that way. I put the book back and reached for another.
A similar vision shot into my mind. I went down the line of the bookshelf, running my fingertips over the spines. Grey’s clothes changed each time, flashing from past to present depending on when he had read the book.
So many years.
Alone.
That was the thing about immortality. You were constantly alone. Even if you found someone, they died eventually, leaving you alone. Again.
From what I understood of my new world, heavens and hells were real. They were called afterlives, and almost all supernaturals went to one when they died. What you believed in life would determine where you went in death, so it wasn’t really an end.
Except for Grey and the other immortals. They stayed on earth forever. Alone.
Tears pricked my eyes.
“Exploring?” Grey’s low voice sounded from the corner.
I jumped, gasping. Slowly, I turned, the book clutched in my hand. He wore simple charcoal sleep pants and a T-shirt, looking more casual and handsome than I’d ever seen him. I swallowed hard. “I…uh…couldn’t sleep.”
“Looking for reading material?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s a good one.” He nodded to the book in my hand. “Does your gift work on it?”
“It does, but I didn’t come out here to snoop.”
He raised his eyebrows, clearly not buying it.
“Well, not entirely.”
A smile tugged up at the corner of his mouth. “See anything interesting?”
“You, reading a lot of books.”
“Helps the time pass.”
“You don’t hate being immortal?”
“Hate?” He frowned. “I don’t know if I hate it. This is just the way life is.”
“It sounds terribly lonely.” I wanted to hug him.
He turned and strode to the window, as if he didn’t want to consider the idea. Finally, he said, “I’m used to it.”
“I’m worried about you.” About his health, but also about this. About the fortress he’d locked himself inside for so long.
“You don’t need to be.”
“On the contrary, I believe she should be.” The voice sounded from behind us, and I turned, my heart in my throat.
The air on the other side of the room shimmered, and the Oracle appeared out of thin air.
“Oracle?” Grey frowned. “Can’t you knock?”
“Not for this.”
“Have you learned something?”
I looked at him, eyebrows raised in question.
“I asked her to look into our Cursed Mate situation,” he explained.
The Oracle approached, her semi-transparent form shimmering in the light. She was beautiful, with delicate features and long hair. Her dress flowed around her like water, and her movements were as graceful as gentle waves on the shore.
She stopped in front of Grey, staring up at him with interest gleaming in her eyes. I moved around her to make sure I could see them both, unease prickling my skin.
“You are different,” the Oracle said.
“What?” he asked.
“I haven’t been able to see much regarding your issue, but you’ve changed recently. It’s unlocked something in my vision, and…”
She hesitated, and anticipation sparked across my skin. Speak! I wanted to scream.
She held her hand over his chest. “May I?”
He nodded.
When she laid her hand on his chest, magic glittered in the air, and an icy wind that forebode something terrible whipped around us.
Finally, she spoke. “You are mortal now.”
What the hell?
“Mortal?” Surprised flashed in his voice.
“You’ve felt different lately, correct?”
“I have.”
Her gaze flickered over him. “You have lost your healing ability.”
He nodded. “Yes. Anything else?”
She sighed heavily. “If I am right, time is going to catch up with you very, very soon. That is the nature of your curse.”
“Time?” I asked. “What do you mean?”
“The Devil’s time is almost up. He’s been alive over five hundred years, but now that he has found his Cursed Mate, it has ignited a change in him. The immortality is seeping away, and he will pay the price of living for so many years.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Grey asked.
“Soon, you will cross over to an afterworld. I give it a few weeks, maybe a month. But do not fret—you might go to a nice place, if you are lucky.”
“After all the things I’ve done?” he scoffed. “It’ll be hell for me.”
She shrugged. “Maybe, though you’re a different man than you were when you committed those atrocities. Perhaps you’ve done enough good to earn a better afterlife.”
His lips twisted. “Doubtful.”
Panic threatened to suffocate me. They were talking about him going to hell. Casually, like he was going to the shop to pick up a loaf of bread.
We’d just found one another, and he was about to be torn away? Sent to an afterlife while I was left here on earth? I’d just realized I cared for him, and now we were going to be forced apart?
I moved into the Oracle’s line of sight. “Why did this happen?”
“Because of you, my dear. You’re his mate, decreed by fate. But he is a turned vampire, immortal and everlasting. Until he found you, at least. Until he bit you.”
“How do we fix it?” I demanded, anxiety screaming within me.
“That’s the cursed part of this entire situation, I’m afraid. You are the one who started the transition for him, and you will be the one to end it.”
“No,” Grey snapped, shocking me.
I stared at him. “Of course I’ll help end it.”
“You can’t, Carrow.” The expression in his eyes gentled as he looked at me. “You know what must be done to stop this. You’ve seen it.”
The dream flashed through my mind.
He’d drink me to death.
“That’s it,” he said, clearly seeing that I understood. He turned to the Oracle. “The only way to stop this is for me to drain her, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Her blood heals you. All of her blood will return your immortality.”
Fear scrabbled inside me like an animal in a cage. I desperately reached for sol
utions. “What if he just drinks a little, but more often? Daily or weekly? Would that work?”
11
Grey
My heartbeat thundered in my head as I stared at Carrow.
She was willing to let me drink from her at regular intervals to keep my miserable life. The beast inside me roared, wanting to claw its way to the surface.
Survive.
I swallowed hard, clenching my fists. If we tried that, the beast would win. I could still taste her blood on my tongue. Still feel the warmth of her beneath me, hear her moans in my ear. If we tried that again, I would never stop. The beast would rise. It wouldn’t stop at small amounts meant to keep me mortal. It would want it all—it would want immortality.
“No.” I tried to keep my voice gentle.
Instead, I wanted to rage. This wasn’t how anything was supposed to happen. I’d been in control for so long, and suddenly, it was all slipping away.
I looked at the Oracle. “How long do I have, precisely?”
“Like I said…three weeks? A month? Time is calling you, and it will be too strong to resist soon. If an injury doesn’t take you first.”
“This is crazy.” Carrow strode away, then back, pacing with restless energy. “Fate has decreed that we are meant to be together, but it would tear us apart. No happily ever after, no matter what.”
“You know that would never happen, anyway,” I said.
She jerked back, a hurt expression crossing her face, and self-loathing streaked through me. “What? I’m not good enough for you? You don’t care for me at all?”
The beast inside me roared, this time with anger. It wanted her as much as I did, and that was the problem.
“I have a solution,” Carrow said. “Yet you’re ignoring it. My blood heals you. Therefore, it can keep you alive if you only take a little.”
“It won’t work, dear,” the Oracle said. “The beast inside him would never stop. If he gets a taste of you, it is all over.”
“I don’t believe that,” she said.
“Well, you should.” My voice was hard. “For some insane reason, you believe that I’m a good person. But there are parts of me that you do not know.”
She scowled. “It feels like you're giving up.”
