by D. C. Gambel
“So the great Grayson Alexander knows all?” I asked as we returned to our dance.
He gave me a crocked smile. “When she says things on camera I do. It was her mistake to speak so openly.”
I reached for Grayson, but only found cold covers. My first thought was everything had been a dream and he wasn’t really alive. Then I saw the light coming from under our bedroom door. I slid out of bed, dressing in Grayson’s discarded shirt from the Gala and went in search for him buttoning it on the way. I moved through the apartment, but saw no signs of him. I checked the bowl where he placed his keys finding them still there. A small movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I made my way to the glass doors. There stood Grayson leaning against the rail wearing only sleep pants. Sliding open the door, I stepped out on to the balcony and was assaulted by cool air and a hint of smoke. If he heard me, he showed no sign of it as I closed the door behind me. I watched as he lifted his hand to his mouth. A moment later, a cloud of smoke swarmed around his head. Suddenly the smell of smoke made sense.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” I spoke, not moving closer. I didn’t know if he was entranced or choosing to ignore me. Either way, I waited for his reaction before deciding my next step.
“I don’t,” he looked down at the cigarette in his hand. “Or haven’t since I was nineteen.”
I strode next to him, but left space between us. “Are you okay? You can talk to me.”
He wrinkled his brow then pulled another drag from his cigarette before flicking it over the edge. “All I wanted to do was come back to my life, but even though I’m here, I still feel somewhere else. I’m on autopilot and I don’t know how to gain control of the wheel.”
“Grayson…” I covered his hand with mine. “You can always talk to someone…professionally.” With everything he went through he could have been suffering several different kinds of mental ailments; from anxiety to PTSD.
“Right. Let me walk in and tell the doctor that I’m a vampire turned by my fiancée. I was kidnapped and tortured by other vampires with the help of witches, who are also my people, courtesy of my grandmother. I’ll be locked up in a mental institution for sure. Then I’d be forced to feed on the patients.
“If you really want to talk to someone, we can find a way. My mother’s nest has a doctor, although I’m not sure what her specialty was, or we could use influence on a regular therapist.” I saw Grayson glare at me over the mention of influencing. “I’m just saying that we can find a way.”
He reached for my hand. With no hesitation I placed my palm in his. He moved me until I stood in front of him. My breath hitched when his fingers moved to the buttons on the shirt I was wearing. I didn’t say a word while he busied himself with undoing them.
“The only time I feel like I’m here,” he spoke opening my shirt, exposing my skin to the cool air, causing me to gasp from the sudden assault, “is when I’m buried in you.” He kissed me hard before lifting me and carrying me inside our apartment where we proved to each other over and over that our reality was absolute.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I sat backstage of Wakeup USA as I watched on a screen Grayson taking his spot on stage.
“Grayson, so nice of you to join us today.”
“The pleasure’s mine.”
After a small back and forth between Grayson and the producers, and in turn between me and Grayson, the questions had been narrowed and the time for the interview set. Wakeup USA had wanted it done immediately while Grayson’s return was still big news and before there was a leak of information. They wanted to be the ones breaking his story. So it only took a matter of days before we found ourselves being dragged into the studio before the sun had even risen.
“So how does it feel to be back? Back in the news, back at home, I guess back from the dead?” An older middle-aged man with graying hair in a nice blue suit asked. He was the host of the show, and had been for at least the last decade. His name was Luke Maddox. We had briefly chatted with him before Grayson left backstage. Luke didn’t seem like a patient man. During our short conversation, he spoke at warp speed, perhaps because he didn’t have time or because he was trying to be intimidating. I wasn’t sure.
“Like I never left,” he lied, but it sounded believable.
Luke asked questions about Alexander Holding Incorporated. “With the drop in stock, aren’t you worried?”
Grayson smiled confidently, “I’m sure after everyone knows that I’m alive and well and will be returning to work soon, the stock will return to normal.”
They talked briefly about the kidnapping. Grayson shared the same response he had given the police. He didn’t know where he was and he never saw his captors.
“Are you worried that they might come back?”
Grayson stiffened, shifting uneasily in his seat. “I think if they did, they’d find I’m not as easy to subdue the second time.”
“You must be paying out the nose for bodyguards.” Grayson’s smile was his only response. “I understand your girlfriend is backstage.” I bit my lip. Grayson hadn’t wanted anything about me mentioned other than our engagement was still on, but Cassidy had explained to him that the audience needed to be sated so we might be left alone, otherwise the scent of an unfinished story might drive the world mad. I agreed. I wanted it done with, even if it made me uncomfortable.
“Fiancée,” Grayson corrected.
“So, she still is your fiancée? I wasn’t sure. I mean after this…” the picture of Sebastian and I kissing filled the screen and the room filled with gasps and mumbles, “I’m sure everyone was wondering.”
Grayson winced, but it was so subtle that I was sure none of the humans watching caught it. “I’m sure they were, but she is still my fiancée.”
“You must be a incredibly forgiving man.”
“How so?” Grayson asked rolling with the questions. This wasn’t his first interview. He was seasoned when it came to giving the proper responses.
“I just mean, Grayson, that if pictures of my wife were plastered everywhere, and they were of her kissing another man, especially one as good looking as that,” he gestured to the screen, “I don’t think I’d be as cool headed as you are now.”
“Cool isn’t exactly the word I’d use, Luke.”
“Then what word would you use?”
“Understanding.”
“Understanding?” Luke pressed his lips and nodded. “Could you elaborate?”
“Have you ever lost a significant other? I don’t mean break up, I mean lost.”
“I can’t say that I have.”
“Then how can you understand what my fiancée was going through. Gaby was there the night I was kidnapped. She saw the state I was in and even though the police were investigating a kidnapping, she believed I was dead.”
“Dead?”
Grayson nodded. “The man you see in the picture is a close friend of her family. He was there for her and her grief, and I can see how that can easily blur into something else.”
“So you’ve forgiven her and you’re still moving forward with the wedding?”
“We are.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that.”
When Grayson made his way backstage I leapt into his arms, wrapped my legs around him and pressed my lips to his. He caught me with little effort thanks to his vampire senses. I thought I heard the click of a camera, but didn’t care.
“You were amazing.”
“I just hope this is the end of it.”
I jolted forward finding myself alone in bed. I looked around searching for some clue as to what woke me, and then it came again. There was a heavy knock at the front door. I wrapped myself in a robe before answering it. On the other side stood Shawn and Clive, both were holding boxes.
“Are you guys moving in here?”
“Not exactly,” Clive mumbled from behind a box.
“We’re moving you out,” Shawn informed me. “I thought you might be missing some of your stuff
, although you may not, seeing as how it’s been two weeks and you haven’t come to pick it up.”
It had been two weeks since I had been to Shawn’s apartment. It had also been two weeks since Grayson showed up alive. I didn’t bother apologizing to Shawn. He knew all that I had to deal with. I held the door open and ushered them in as I excused myself to get dressed. I was done in a few seconds before returning, thankful the influencing I had done to Clive wouldn’t allow him to question why I finished so quickly.
“So where is the man of the hour?” Shawn asked when I reentered.
“I’m honestly not sure. He was gone when I woke.”
“Have you tried calling him?”
“No. Sometimes he just needs to clear his head,” which he did often. His trips on the balcony had become more of a ritual.
We talked about how things had been since Grayson had returned. Shawn knew about the fundraiser, but not about all the inappropriate questions that had been spewed our way.
“They asked what?”
“I know. It’s like whatever popped into their heads, they asked without a second thought. None of them seemed to have a filter.”
“How did Grayson take it, hearing those questions?”
“Better than you’d think.”
“How did Sebastian take it?” Clive asked.
I physically winced at the mention of Sebastian. Hearing his name made me uncomfortable, especially when we were talking about Grayson.
“Clive?” Shawn tried warning him with his eyes, but Clive just looked confused. “We don’t speak his name.”
“Why? Who is he? Fucking Voldemort?”
“Clive,” I began.
“No, Gaby. I’m serious. You don’t want to hear his name because it’s too hard for you, but Sebastian was there for you when Grayson wasn’t.”
“I thought Grayson was dead!” I explained.
“But he wasn’t and the moment he showed back up you, what, dropped Sebastian and went running back to Grayson?”
“Sebastian knew my feelings from the beginning. He knew that I was still in love with Grayson. And yes, he was there for me and I hate that. I hate that I didn’t trust my gut, which told me Grayson was alive. Instead I trusted what I saw and what everyone else around me told me I should do. If I had trusted myself, I never would have hurt either of them.”
Just then the door slammed shut. In unison, we all turned to see Grayson standing there. He was dressed in a pale gray business suit and for a brief moment he looked just as he had the day I first met him, before my world had changed him.
“Clive. Shawn,” Grayson spoke their names in a firm, but not angry way. His short tone was enough of a tell, letting us know he had heard at least some of the conversation.
“Well,” Shawn began. “We just wanted to drop off the things you left.” He put his back to Clive and Grayson so only I could see his face before he mouthed sorry. I gave him a curt smile. “Nice seeing you again Grayson, but we better be off.” Shawn tugged Clive’s arm, who was unaware that he was sitting in the den of an angry lion.
“I guess we’ll see you two later,” Clive said as Shawn drug him to the door. “Oh and Gaby, some mail showed up for you at Shawn’s. I put it in one of the boxes.”
“Thanks.”
Once they were gone, I sat there quietly for a few moments, waiting for Grayson to snap or ask me questions, but he just strode into the kitchen and started heating up blood.
“Where did you go?” I asked. “You were gone when I woke.”
“The office.”
“The office?” He didn’t elaborate further probably thinking his response was enough, but I pressed. “What were you doing there?”
“I had a meeting and plans needed to be made for me to take up my spot as CEO again.”
“You’re going back to work?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
I looked at him dumbfounded and decided to state the obvious. “Because you’ve been back for two weeks.”
“I didn’t even take that much time off after I transitioned to being a vampire.”
“This is different Grayson and you know it.”
“I don’t see how it is. When I transitioned, I was learning how to live and deal with being completely different. Something that most humans never will understand, but this… People deal with traumatic experiences all the time. The board has agreed that I be evaluated by a psychiatrist. As long as he approves, then I can return.”
“But Grayson…”
“No Gaby!” he shouted. Taking a deep breath, he caught himself and reined in his temper. “I just want to get back to my life and pretend the last few months never happened.”
There was more I needed to say. I wanted to argue, to explain that no human psychiatrist could understand what he’d been through. It wasn’t just his mental state I was worried about, but also his physical safety. If we were right and Ava was behind Grayson’s kidnapping, she might have done it right under my father’s nose and just because plan A failed didn’t mean that she still didn’t have the rest of the alphabet ready and waiting. But I said nothing. For the moment I would leave it alone. I gave Grayson a tight lipped smile that was obviously forced and walked out of the room.
My apartment was filled with werewolves. I say filled, but it was really just a handful. Werewolves had such a commanding presence that the area felt a bit claustrophobic. Grayson wanted to go back to work. I wasn’t going to argue, but I would take precautions. I knew what I was doing would most likely cause an argument in the near future, but I planned for that too.
“So you want a similar detail as last time?” Shawn asked. “You know how well that worked.”
“This is different. Ava is not Anton. She’s not even half his strength. Although I doubt she’ll come at him one on one.”
“There are only so many vampires we can take,” one of the wolves mumbled. I couldn’t help but glare at him. He wasn’t mumbling so I wouldn’t hear. He knew what I was. He mumbled because of his frustration with my plan.
“She’s not going to come at him with an army. Even she’s not stupid enough to reveal vampires to the world.”
Just then the door opened and we all momentarily froze. I was hoping to be done before Grayson returned from his appointment. It was the first time he’d met with his therapist. I thought it might take a while. Apparently, I was wrong. Grayson halted just inside the threshold just as startled to see us as we were him.
“What’s going on?” He asked curiously.
“Bodyguards,” I stated with a defiant look that begged him to argue with me, but he didn’t. Instead he gave me a curt nod before heading towards the bedroom allowing me to finish up my meeting.
Closing the door behind the wolves, I pressed my head against it, exhausted. We had argued out the details and fought over locations. Grayson couldn’t have six werewolves sitting in on his meetings all day. We decided that one outside his office dressed professionally would suffice while two would linger in the lobby and the other three would find spots outside that would give them quick access along with monitoring the building. Vampires weren’t what we needed to worry about during the day, but whoever was plotting against us was using witches to do some of their dirty work. I stood there readying myself for another fight, only this one would be with Grayson.
“Did you figure everything out?” he asked. I hadn’t heard him approach. He looked freshly showered and was dressed in jeans and a form fitting black shirt. If he was trying to use his body as a way to persuade me out of my decision, I wasn’t going to let it work, even if he did look and smell delicious. I shook my head trying to clear the thoughts.
“We did.”
“I’m not going to have a pack of wolves following me around, am I?”
“If I had it my way you would, but the guys know what they’re doing, so just one will be following you at close proximity.”
“Will this make you happy? Having me guarded, I mean?” I nodded. “What d
o you want for dinner?”
I stood there ready to argue my point, but Grayson walked into the kitchen, pulled something from the freezer then began searching though the cabinets.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“Is chicken no good,” he gestured to the icicle on the counter.
“I mean you’re not going to argue?”
Grayson leaned back against the counter. “Would I win?”
“Of course not!”
He held up his hands letting me know I had my answer. “I’m going back to work, Gaby. If this is what you need to be alright with that choice then so be it.”
I was about to open my mouth for a rebuttal when my phone rang. “Hello?”
“You need to get here now.”
“Jade?” I asked, but the line was dead. I tried calling back but it just went to the message telling me voicemail wasn’t setup yet. After everything that had happened the past few months, my mind couldn’t help but wander to those dark places. What if something was wrong? Was that why no one answered when I called back? I briefly thought about calling Sebastian, but decided against it in front of Grayson. I could call him after I was outside without having to see the look on Grayson’s face, the look that showed a twinge of jealousy and mistrust.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“I think so.” I spoke as I slipped my shoes on.
“I can put this up and go with you if you want.”
