The Grey Sight: An Erotic Novella

by Briony J. Lorien

  She stopped short. His eyes were black. Black like Chase’s had been. Black like the sea at night, black and hungry. He stared at her, his mouth open in shock. He was an older gentleman, in his mid-60’s perhaps, with salt and pepper hair. He was a little portly, but friendly looking, like a grandfather. He was wearing a light khaki suit, something that would have been the height of fashion in the 20’s. He looked normal…except for the grey light that emitted from his body, shimmering and changing with each breath. He’s one of them, she thought. I wasn’t imagining it.

  “Ma’am, are you okay?” he asked. “What did you trip over? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” She mumbled. Lily stared down into the man’s shadowy eyes.

  Ask him, she thought, ask him where he is.

  Her pink mouth had formed the word “Chase” when the man’s hand thrust out, closing around her throat, his grip like iron. What is happening?, she thought, her shock turning into panic. He was strangling her. Lily clawed at his hands, gasping for breath. His black eyes widened, the pleasure of his own blood lust turning the corners of his mouth. Lily tried to scream, but her voice vanished into his cold hands. He was so strong, much stronger than a normal person.

  The man in the khaki suit pulled Lily close to his face. His breath smelled like wind.

  “I’ve waiting a long time for this. House Fury will once again allow me into their good graces.” He licked his lips. “What a pretty grey-sight you are. Shame to waste it.”

  What?? Black stars were exploding in her vision when Lily reached into her purse for her keys. Her other hand clawed at the air, reaching, reaching…I cannot die like this, not when I understand so little, not before I’ve seen him again. She slammed her keys down against his face. The man gave a roar as black blood poured down his cheeks. His grip released, if only for a second. It was enough. Lily kicked off his chest, her red boot heel plunging into his stomach.

  “You GREY BITCH! I’ll kill you!” he screamed. Lily didn’t wait to hear any more.

  Suddenly she was running, plunging into the dark tunnel that led to the train station. People stared at her as she flew by them, her lungs contracting as she pushed her legs. The sun peeked through the light at the end of the tunnel. A cramp tangled in her abdomen. I really should run with Jess, she thought, why don’t I ever run with her? Lily finally emerged from the darkness into the sunlight. Crowds of people were waiting for the train, but she wasn’t safe. There were more. She felt like crying. Towards the front of the station, a woman and man glowing a pale grey turned their heads simultaneously to stare at her. The huge, thuggish man was dressed in a tweed coat and fedora, the woman in a scandalous red dress.

  She saw them whisper to another and suddenly they were following her. She walked quickly towards the train. Policemen, or a group of men, I just need to find a someone to help me, she thought. A pessimistic voice inside her head answered back. They can’t see them! How you protect someone from something you can’t see? Lily whipped her blond ponytail around. The couple was following her, running now, the man’s coat flapping in the wind. The woman was holding a dagger. Oh God.

  The train gave a loud squeal, its door opening with a hiss. Lily jumped onto the train, hoping they wouldn’t follow. They did. She ran down the aisle, tripping over luggage and purses. The train had mostly cleared out, and Lily prayed that she could make it to the end. She ran through one car, and then another. The couple raced after her, moving faster than any mortal should. Their black eyes and glowing grey light filled her with terror, like an icicle plunging into her heart. She was sprinting now, the cars flying by her, one after another. The door to the caboose was open slightly, and Lily cried out in relief. She threw herself through the opening, and slammed the door shut behind her. The man in the tweed slammed his hand down on the glass, but it didn’t shatter. She looked into his eyes. Hungrily they glared back at her, a fury written across his face that he couldn’t read. Lily stared back, her grey eyes wide and terrified. The man gave her a sinister smile and walked away, the black woman in red following dutifully behind him. Before he exited the train, the man sent a pile of papers on someone’s tray flying into the air. They fluttered up and down like snow, and Lily’s fellow humans looked around bewildered. They couldn’t see him. The couple gave one look back before jumping off the moving train.

  Finally, she was safe.

  Lily felt a hand close around her mouth. “You think you can hide from me pretty?” Lily was wrenched around and lifted off the ground. The man in the khaki suit held her by her throat, her feet dangling inches above the ground.

  “I thought I lost you, little grey one, but I’m quicker than you.”

  His hand tightened. I’m going to die here, she thought, in the back of this train.

  “Do you know the reward that’s going these days for a grey-sight? The great houses offer lands, money and women. Although…” He slipped his free hand up her skirt.

  “I might take a little pleasure first. I haven’t had a mortal woman in some time, and they taste so much sweeter when they are alive.”

  There was a sound in darkness and something hit the man from the side, sweeping him from her view. Lily dropped swiftly to the ground, the train giving a lurch underneath her.

  Whatever it was that had collided with the man was moving faster than anything she’d ever seen. In the dark corner of the train came the muffled sounds of struggle, and man’s pleading whine. “We can share her, we can…we can split the bounty, but after we have her. I’ll share her with you.”

  A deep man’s voice answered. “You will never have her. She is only for me.”

  Then came a sickening crunch. Lily curled into a ball and pressed herself against the door. A black loafer emerged, followed by a black pant leg and a tucked-in black shirt. His hair was messier than the last time she saw it, and a smear of black blood ran from his temple to chin. Still, he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, a dark angel, his face etched with anger. Finally, he was here, and he was more real than she ever could have dreamed. Chase Husher.

  Chapter Four

  He was a vision, even in this dark train car, light flickering across his strong face.

  Now that Lily was getting a good look at him, he was even more glorious than she remembered. Thick curly hair fell neatly past his ears. High chiseled cheekbones set off his glowing skin, the color of pale cream. His eyes were ebony under his two pronounced eyebrows. He knelt over her.

  “Lily, right?” She gave a nod. Her hands were still shaking. He gently tucked a piece of her golden hair back behind her neck. At his touch, a jolt of passion flew through Lily, down her spine. She felt warmth under her belly, a stirring in her loins.

  Lily glanced over at the body in the corner as Chase inspected her neck bruises. “Who WAS that? And why would he want to kill me? And those other people, they wanted to hurt me too.” She let out a long breath, one that she had been holding in since she first saw the man with the black eyes.

  “And who are you? Chase, right? Are you even real?”

  “I’m real. I promise.” Without much effort, he lifted up the man’s body, opened the sliding door and threw it off the back of the train. It landed with a bounce on the tracks and remained still. Lily felt as though she might faint and leaned her head against the cool metal of the wall.

  Chase let a soft sigh and sat beside her. “Breathe. Breathe, my darling. Take a deep breath and tell me what you know so far.” Lily curled her legs up underneath her as his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

  “I went to the graveyard. I was doing an etching on…” Chase looked down on her, his eyes looking through her.

  “Your grave?” He gave a nod, and Lily fought the strong urge to run her tongue over his lips.

  “The lightning struck, I woke up and you were there. I’ve been looking for you for awhile, but I couldn’t find anything, in any of the historical records.”

  And I felt everything about you, and I can’t stop thinking about you.


  “Then I went home, and my eyes were grey. They were blue before. I saw the man in the khaki with the grey glow, just like you, and then…” She forced herself to take a deep breath. “He tried to strangle me. He didn’t even KNOW me.”

  She unconsciously put her hand on her throat. “And then you saved me.” You saved me, and I want you to encompass me. Chase leaned back against the door.

  “What I’m about to tell you will change your life, your perspective, everything. Are you ready?” Lily shyly reached up and let her fingers run down his cheek. Chase closed his eyes and let out a deep moan.

  “I can’t talk while you are doing that.”

  “Sorry.”

  “For thousands of years, there have been people that walk on the edge of life and death. We aren’t living, but we aren’t dead either. We are the in-betweens, the grey-walkers, neither black or white, alive or deceased. We were once living and died…but were chosen to be the grey-walkers in the time in-between those two states. We have never been truly dead. We aren’t zombies or ghosts. Here, feel , my heart.”

  With a trembling hand, Lily put her hand against his chest. She could feel his heart beating erratically, a foreign pattern that pulsed strongly underneath her fingertips. He was warm.

  “We are just like humans, only…NOT. We walk with the living, but they can’t see us. And we have our own rules, traditions and cultures. We live outside the world WITHIN the world.” He looked at her longingly. “I don’t mean to scare you, but, I know you Lily. I’ve been watching you, you know. Ever since you were a little girl, playing in my graveyard, making etchings on the graves. I’ve seen you grow into the most amazing, gorgeous woman. I never thought you would be able to see me, or hear the things that I’ve so longed to tell you. But now, by some great providence, you have been gifted with the grey-sight.” Lily stared at his soft, upturned lips.

  “The Grey-Sight?”

  Chase continued. “People with the grey-sight are made maybe once every 10 years or so. Only a person with the grey-sight can SEE grey-walkers like me. No one really knows who or why some are chosen, but they are. The conditions have to be exactly right for it to come into being. In your case, it was midnight, my graveyard, some lightning and…perhaps my longing for it to happen. Who can say? But you are here, and you can see me, and never in the history has there been such a glorious moment as when your eyes rested upon my face.”

  Lily could hear her heart pumping loudly. She felt incredibly drawn and bonded to Chase, like she was always meant to be with him. She wanted to know him, touch him.

  No, not yet. There is information I must know.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay? I tell you that there are grey-walkers and that you have the grey-sight, and you say okay?”

  Lily gave a shrug. “It’s…new, but not alarming.” Not when you come with it.

  Chase shook his head. “I should have known. Lily Harrow, lover of the dead.”

  “But you’re not dead. You’re breathing and like you said, very un-zombie like.”

  He laughed, his laugh echoing through the train car.

  “No. We are just like mortals. Oh, and we can’t die from natural causes, like old age or cancer. We don’t get colds or viruses.”

  Lily thought about the dead man in the brown suit. A strange grey fluid had been leaking out of his mouth. Her stomach turned.

  “But…you can die.”

  “Oh, we can kill each other. Or, if I say, fell out of a hot air balloon, I would die. The first time we die, we become a grey-walker. For our second-death, we can only die by violence or some tragic accident. It doesn’t happen often. We aren’t constantly vulnerable, like you.”

  “That’s good to know. Why did he try to kill me?”

  Chase closed his eyes. “That’s harder to explain. This could take a year to explain, but I’ll try to summarize. We don’t have much time. They’ll come for us eventually.”

  “Who?”

  Chase tilted his head to where the body had been.

  “Walkers like him. See, since those with the grey-sight come along only so often, they are worth a king’s bounty to the walker who kills them. The Great Houses…”

  “The what?”

  “Listen” he teased, running a finger through her curly blond ponytail. She smiled, in spite of everything. Even at the smallest touch, her heart was set ablaze.

  “There are five Great Houses that control all Grey-walkers. We have no government, only the houses. They make sure that each walker is staying within his bounds, not haunting or hurting the mortals. They rule all, and make decisions that have changed the course of history.”

  “So these Houses…”

  “These Houses offer a great bounty to the man (or woman) who kills someone with the grey-sight. From their perspective, those with the grey-sight threaten our very existence. They are always trying to expose the truth – either writing a book about us, trying to tell the government we exist, or just trying to extort money from the Houses…things like that. The wrong person with the grey-sight can end in horrible tragedy. Many years ago, a young impulsive man who was given the grey-sight tried to recreate the circumstances that gave him the gift - in a room full of military men. It worked, but as soon as the grey-walkers saw an army of military men shocked at the sight of them, well…it would have led to massive war, and countless possibilities. A war between us and them.” Chase trailed off.

  “So the Houses killed them all. There were around two hundred of them.”

  Lily covered her mouth. “How horrible.”

  Chase nodded. “It was. I tried to make them see reason, but I’m not exactly sure that they were wrong either. Our way of life would have been destroyed.”

  “But those innocent lives…”

  “The youngest ones we allowed to become grey-walkers. But the adults were killed without mercy. The government said it was a mass murder/suicide but…”

  “I remember that” said Lily. “It was in Pennsylvania.”

  He nodded. “Yes. So the greatest of the Houses, House Fury, declared that any mortal with the grey-sight be killed immediately, their bodies brought to the house. The reward for their body is astronomical – lands, money, men or women. Sometimes mortals, which are…” He looked at Lily.

  “Let’s just say that sleeping with a mortal is supposed to be the greatest experience this side of a grey-walkers life.” A blush ran up her cheeks and Chase looked away, the grey-light around him shimmering uncomfortably.

  “So, that man wanted to…”

  “Rape and murder you, yes. I also know the man in the tweed coat and his black wench. His name is Riggor, and he is a soldier for House Fury. He is not a kind man, and is not easily killed. His whore’s name is Sappho, and she’s famous for both her dagger and bedroom skills. Are you scared yet?”

  Lily looked deep into his eyes. “I know I should be, but not while I’m with you. I feel like I’ve been moving towards this my whole life. I mean, my fascination with the dead, my job…it’s surprising, but not shocking.” Chase ran his hand down his long, sexy face.

  “Many with the grey-sight feel that way, that it was always destined to happen to them.”

  He bent his head down towards her, his black eyes searing through her skin. “I know it sounds crazy, but I think we were destined to have, do you believe that?” She clenched her hands.

  Do not kiss him, she thought, you don’t know anything about him.

  “And…you?” She managed to gasp.

  He laughed softly. “I was born in 1923, when America was still learning to live after World War I. I was born to a maid, but raised a ward of a rich man’s house who owned our land. He raised me up to be a gentleman, a man of coin and accounts and the law. I acted as his lawyer for many years. When I was twenty seven years old, he raped my younger sister. She was 16. In the midst of a terrible storm, I slayed him in his bed, and emptied his accounts. I sent the money to an orphanage and got my sister on her way of the county befor
e anyone knew what happened. I fled in the middle of the night on horseback, but was caught when I crossed the river. They shot me, right through the heart.”

  He unbuttoned his shirt, making Lily’s heart hammer wildly. Taking her fingers in his own, he ran them down his chest, over a tiny scar, no larger than a marble.

  “I died. Only I didn’t. I woke up an hour later, in the forest. I was a grey-walker, somehow chosen to forever walk between life and death. And I have. I’ve seen many decades, the world changing before my eyes. But I never saw anything that made me actually FEEL alive until you came into my graveyard. I liked to sit and read there sometimes, and suddenly one day you were there. I watched you grow into a woman, and when you got old enough, I felt a protective fondness turn into want. Forgive me for being so blunt, but I have been waiting for you for a very long time…”

  The grey glow around him started to pulse with need. It filled the train car and lit up the darkest corners of the room. She could tell that he longed for her by its steady pulse of growing light. This was good, because Lily could no longer contain her attraction. She had been with a few men before this, but never had it felt like this. It was like an iron chain was yanking her towards Chase, binding her to his will. She had never wanted anything as much as him.

  He was the One.

  She needed him, NOW, inside her, around her. Reaching up to his face, she gasped when they came together, his head in her hands, his mouth on hers. His lips were firm and needy, pushing at her hungrily with want. Lily let his tongue explore her wanting mouth. It was all here, in him, everything she ever wanted. He moaned.

  “Lily, we can’t. I want you, but…”

  “But what?” She licked his lips greedily.

  “We need to go. More grey-walkers will be coming. Riggor and Sappho will be coming back for you.”

  “I don’t care.”

  Lily pressed her body against his and Chase gave a shudder as she straddled him.

  “I want you” she breathed.