by Lexi Blake
His clawed hand reached down and touched my head. I could see the possessiveness in his ebony eyes as he rubbed his palm over my hair. “Mine.”
I decided it was best to agree with him until we got out of the situation. “Yep. Totally yours. And they’re trying to kill me. You should do something about that.”
He snarled. Even that was kind of hot. I can be a little perverted at times.
He looked around at the monsters circling us and his fangs lengthened. “Stay.”
His demon wasn’t big on multisyllabic words. I was cool with that as long as he was big on killing the bad guys.
I felt my arm shift and I was back to normal. Maybe that wasn’t the smartest thing in the world, but my subconscious apparently trusted the big guy to take care of us. The wind had picked up again, but the ground beneath me was still warm. Well, warmer than the snow, and it appeared to have formed some sort of no-fly zone for the creatures.
The minute one attempted to come into my circle, they melted. After two lost limbs, the rest backed off.
Gray had to go after them. He left the circle with a roar and then that snow was his killing field.
I watched as he took them all on. Even at his size, he was smaller than the frost giants. He punched out, clawing at his attackers.
I lost track of him, his body covered by more of the creatures than I could count. I struggled with my instinct to go and help him, but right before I would have joined him, he punched his way through, sending snow and ice flying all around.
He was a magnificent killing machine.
All at once, the creatures vanished, disintegrating in the wind.
“Don’t you dare change.” I shook a finger at the massive demon who had taken down Winter’s army. Despite the relative warmth of my circle, the wind was still frigid and my teeth chattered. “You have zero idea when they’ll come back, mister, and I don’t want to go through that whole transition thing again.”
His eyes narrowed on me and he took a step forward, looming over me.
I’m sure to most people he would have been a completely terrifying monster that would haunt their dreams and shit, but I saw Gray behind those demonic eyes and he didn’t scare me. “Don’t you growl at me. You know I’m right.”
He growled anyway.
I growled back. “Pick me up and get me out of here, Gray. You’re going to be faster since you’re at least a foot taller than normal, and it doesn’t look like the weather is bothering you now. And stop the whole self-pity thing. Have you looked at yourself in a mirror lately? You are the hottest demon I’ve ever seen, and you’re all muscly, and I have to admit the fangs do something for me.”
I swear that demon preened. He also reached down and picked me up. He brought me high against his chest. Despite the razor-sharp claws, I was cradled as tenderly as he would any baby.
Though I don’t recommend handing a baby over to a demon. Many demons find babies quite the tasty treat. That’s my point. Even in his full-on demonic form, Gray was still able to care, able to be kind, able to love.
He was so warm in this form. I sighed and cuddled close, feeling his body heat begin to sink into my bones. So warm.
“Love you,” he said through his fangs. “Take you back to Marcus now.”
And he was able to sacrifice. No one could convince me Grayson Sloane was a true demon. He turned toward the giant gate we’d driven through.
That was when I saw Jamie walking across the yard. My brother. I smiled. He would have loved to watch Gray take out a hundred snow monsters. I was simply happy he wasn’t freaking out at the sight of me in a demon’s arms.
Gray took a step back.
“Hey, it’s all right,” I said, trying to soothe him. “It’s Jamie. It’s fine. We can all get out of here now.”
He shook his head and clutched me close. “Not Jamie.” He changed, his body flowing from demon to human again. I felt it as I seemed to drop about a foot, and then Gray’s human arms were holding me tight. “That’s not Jamie, Kelsey.”
“Oh, but it is, brother.” Jamie’s body moved toward me, but it wasn’t his voice. A British accent flowed from my brother’s mouth. “It is very much his body. How about that, Hunter? Did I find one you won’t kill?”
Matthew. Gray’s brother had possessed my brother’s body. Jamie was still inside there. Somewhere deep inside his own body, Jamie was likely screaming and trying to get out.
“Please,” I said.
Gray held me close. “I’ll get us out of this. I won’t let him kill Jamie. I promise.”
I shook my head but before I could protest, Gray looked to his brother.
“You know what I want,” Matthew said.
Gray went still. “I want a contract.”
And just like that Gray decided to become their prophet.
Chapter Nineteen
I couldn’t help but watch my brother. Matthew. It was still hard to think of him as Matthew. Jamie was sitting right there. He was dressed like a refugee from the nineties in a flannel shirt and faded jeans. I wanted to reach out and touch him, to assure myself that my brother was alive.
Then he would turn the right way and the light would catch his eyes. They would flash a nasty red and I would remember.
I couldn’t lose Jamie. Not like this.
Gray studied the contract, his head shaking. He’d been provided with a pair of slacks and a new dress shirt since he’d ripped up his clothes during his change. He hadn’t utterly destroyed them, but he’d definitely had a Hulky vibe with the rips and tears. Now he was back to looking sleek and in control. Yeah, appearances can be deceiving. “Simpler. I told you. I’m not signing anything that has duties or rules concerning my life here on the Earth plane.”
His father stared down at us. “You’ll sign whatever I want you to sign or the boy dies.”
Jamie…Jamie’s body stood up. “No, he won’t, Father. Gray has agreed to take the drug and try to transition. He won’t agree to anything beyond that and he doesn’t have to.”
“Do you forget who is in charge here?” Winter asked.
Matthew shook Jamie’s head. “Not at all, Your Grace, but I still have to watch out for my brother’s interests. I agreed to do this because it puts him in a position of power. You seek to take not only his power away, but his life here on the Earth plane. Have you thought about that, Father? If Gray spends all his time in Hell, how will he give you the grandson you require?”
Sloane’s eyes pinned me for a second before looking back at his elder son with a sigh. “It’s a nice word I call rape, son. Ms. Owens’s consent isn’t needed. Despite what certain politicians will have the idiotic public believing, a woman’s uterus doesn’t give a fuck if she welcomed the sperm or not. She can come with us willingly or not.”
“Then kill Jamie now. Kill me now. Kill Kelsey now,” Gray said, his voice bleak. “I won’t rape her. I won’t force her to go to Hell.”
“Then we’re at a standstill, son.” Gray’s father was completely unmoving.
Gray’s head dropped. “If I consent to go with you, Kelsey and her family must be left alone.”
“No.” I couldn’t let them change Gray and then haul him back to Hell for me.
Before we could argue, Jacob chuckled. “How little you people know. You’re all fools. Has no one asked why I’ve walked this plane for millennia? I must. My powers draw from this plane. You could force the dark prophet to go to Hell, but good luck with getting any sort of reliable prophecy out of him once he’s there.”
“Why are you still here?” Winter snarled.
Jacob’s eyes turned grim. “To bear witness, as I always do to the world’s great events. Tonight is a turning point. The trouble with a prophet is you can’t control him. You can set him loose and hope for the best, but he will do as he wishes. Lucifer is insane if he thinks simply creating a thing means he controls it. After all, he rather started that trend.”
“He’s my son and I can control him,” Sloane shot back.
“Really? It doesn’t seem like you can control the other one. Perhaps if I kill his host, we can clear things up,” Winter said.
Sloane’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you touch him. My son is right. We’ll only kill the boy if an arrangement can’t be made. Grayson, I agree to your terms. Kelsey and her family are off limits if you sign this agreement and accept your place. You’ll still have the years left to you. I can’t promise you anything after that. Prophet or no prophet.”
My mind was running through the possibilities. If Gray couldn’t work this mojo they wanted in Hell, it would be hard for them to enforce his contract. This could work in our favor.
His favor. Not mine. But I had been trying to find a way to get him out of that stupid contract. It wasn’t something Gray had signed. It had basically been written into his DNA. His mother had signed over his soul before he’d even been born. Talk about shitty parents.
I looked over at Jamie’s body. “Can he hear me?”
Matthew frowned. “Yes.”
“Jamie, I’ll call Mom as soon as I get us out of this. And Nate. I love you and I forgive Mom and Nate.” It was totally easy in the face of Gray’s family sins. I wasn’t sure I would talk to Jamie again. I wasn’t sure he would be here with us. He could die or be rendered insane from Matthew’s use of his body, and I needed him to know that I’d been foolish. “I forgive them all. I love you.”
I forgave my father. Not the shitty one. Not the one who’d tried to kill me. He could burn in Hell for all I cared.
But I forgave my dad. Lee Owens. I hadn’t realized how angry I’d been until this moment. It was irrational. My mother had been the one to walk away. She’d left him, but there was a part of me that thought he should have followed through. He should have come after her or made certain there hadn’t been a me to take care of.
I’d been told that he would have loved me, but for the first time I accepted it. My father would have loved me. He would have protected and taken care of me.
It was enough.
“He understands,” Matthew said. “Though he isn’t entirely certain you mean it. He wonders if you haven’t found a new family now. He misses you. Misses Gray. Misses everyone because he’s all alone. He’ll die alone. He’ll die without a wife or children because that’s his destiny, the path his father set him on long ago.”
“Stop it,” Gray said, his voice a low growl. “Leave him alone. You have no right to drag his emotions into this. I’ll sign a deal to accept the drugs. I’ll do my absolute best to become what you want, but I want Kelsey and Jamie safe. That is nonnegotiable.”
“And he wants his time.” He wouldn’t ask for it himself. “He wants his original contract in play. You can’t force him back to Hell before his time.”
Sloane’s lips curled up into a satisfied smirk. “Perhaps he won’t have to resort to rape. It sounds like she cares for you.”
“Do you accept?” I ignored the rest. I wasn’t getting into bed with Gray anytime soon, but I also wasn’t about to willingly let him go to Hell. He’d proven a valuable ally.
Yeah, I actually told myself that.
Winter and Sloane stared at each other, and for a moment I had to wonder if they couldn’t communicate on a level I didn’t understand. An evil, telepathic level, but one I couldn’t hear.
“Lucifer will be thrilled that we created one,” Papa Sloane stated. “He’ll forgive the transgression because we’re the only ones who can give him this gift. It doesn’t matter that Grayson might prove uncooperative. I’ve always found ways to make him help in the past. I’ll do it in the future. Sign the deal.”
“I will be signing away your best bet at making him cooperate. He loves the girl.” Winter stared at me as though he was thinking about all the fun stuff he could do to make Gray cooperate right that moment.
“He is unreasonable about the girl,” Matthew argued. “He won’t ever help you if he thinks it will hurt her. Your best bet is to give him the one thing he wants. My brother is far too attuned to the humanity in his DNA. Or I suppose it’s that bit of angelic DNA you managed to pump into his background. He’ll honor his contract. He’ll honor his word. Sign the deal and let us be done.”
I wasn’t exactly grateful for Matthew in that moment. I still wanted to strangle the bastard, but I was happy when that contract went in front of Gray and it seemed like we would leave this mansion with both our heads intact.
Gray gave it another pass. I’d argued he deserved a lawyer. They’d argued that was simply my excuse to bring a vampire into the discussion since I’d explained the only one I would accept was Hugo Wells. It was totally true, so I lost that argument. It was precisely why Gray insisted on simple language. The original contract had been twenty pages long. Gray had gotten them down to a few lines no one could misinterpret.
I hoped.
He seemed satisfied and signed his name quickly, as though he had to do it in that particular moment or he wouldn’t have done it at all.
I stood up and faced Matthew. “It’s done. Get out.”
I wanted my brother back. Every minute that asshole stayed in his body was a minute too long. What was Jamie feeling? Was he afraid? He was likely pissed as hell, and it would take a lot to keep him from immediately trying to hunt down Gray’s brother.
That was my job.
Matthew sighed. “I can’t until he transitions. I promised Father. I didn’t want this, Kelsey. I know you won’t believe me, but I’m doing this for him. And I’m not even doing anything to torture your brother. He’s angry, but he’ll come out of this as whole as he was when I took over. I vow it.”
There was absolutely nothing that demon could say that would make me believe him.
Gray stood beside me, his eyes blank as he looked to his father. “Let’s get this over with. What do I have to take?”
Winter snapped his fingers and Bellamy produced a goblet. It was easy to see this evening hadn’t gone the way the billionaire thought it would. His hands were shaking as he stepped back. He moved close to the curtains as though he could hide himself in their voluminous fabric.
He could try that all he liked. I would remember his face. I didn’t particularly care that he was one of the richest men on the planet. Or that he was human. He’d helped to do this to Gray. He would pay.
Jacob watched with patient eyes as Gray took the goblet in his hand. “Grayson, are you ready for this?”
Gray shook his head. “No.”
“It can be quite painful. While your physical form won’t change, parts of your mind will, shall we say, open in a way they haven’t before. You have to remember that much of the pain you will feel comes from various futures. Ones that will be, could be, are only the vaguest of possibilities. You will see them all.”
“Everyone’s future?” I asked, unable to truly comprehend.
Jacob shook a finger. “It’s more complex. So much more. He will see everyone in the world and all of their potential futures. It can be a bit much at times, and he won’t have a way to stop the flow if this goes the way they hope.”
“Are you trying to talk him out of it?” Winter complained. “I thought you were only able to watch.”
“I’m explaining what is about to happen because I’ve read all the signs and I believe this will happen. The other paths have faded. This is Grayson’s path now. He will transition, but how he comes out on the other side is up to her.” Jacob stared my way.
“What does that mean?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in the middle of Gray’s destiny. I still hadn’t even figured my own out yet. The one thing I knew was that destiny kind of sucked.
“Leave her out of this,” Gray warned.
Jacob stepped up to me, taking my hand in his. He flipped my wrist over and one finger traced the blue veins he found there. “The drugs will change the chemistry of his brain, but also his blood. If you take a portion of the drug, you can take some of the chaos for him. I can help. It’s your future he’ll try to hold on to. You’re the one h
is mind will instinctively reach for, and that is what will cause him the most pain. It’s better for him to let it flow. I’ll stay in the room with the two of you and direct a single path into your mind. Is there one thing he’ll look for?”
“No,” Gray said, his jaw tightening.
“Our wedding night.” There was no question about it. If Gray could find that single flash, he would hold on to it as tightly as he could. He’d been trying to get back to that one blast of the future he’d seen years ago. That one single path would hold him back. “He thinks he saw our wedding night and he’ll look for it.”
“Stay out of this, Kelsey.”
“Not on your life.” If I could spare him some pain, I would do it. He was taking one for the team.
I couldn’t let him go through it alone. Not if I had the choice.
Jacob glanced over to where Winter and Sloane stood. “I see the path. If she aids him, takes some of the pain, it will work. If not, the odds are great that he will be damaged.”
“Why would you help?” Winter asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Jacob sent him a serene smile. “I seek only to manage his pain. I remember well how it felt, even after millennia. And I was an angel at the time. His transition will be more difficult. If you would rather he faced it alone, of course, do as you will. I am not here to change destiny. I am a simple watcher.”
“My contract stated she wouldn’t be harmed,” Gray ground out.
Sloane stood before his son, his tone as smooth as any con man’s. “And she won’t be. Besides, your contract was only that Winter and I and our minions can’t bring her to harm. This is a choice she will make herself. Mr. Bellamy, I believe the lovely Nex Apparatus requires a serving.”
Winter’s eyes laser focused on me. “You bitch.”
“Way to blow a girl’s cover,” I groused. “Now might be a good time to reiterate all those nice contractual words like ‘no harm comes to Kelsey.’”
Sloane’s lips curled up in a satisfied smile as he looked me over. “There’s only one reason my son’s blood would be coursing through your veins. You’re the one who got her arm frozen off. I can actually see the line. It’s fascinating. And I keep a closer eye on Donovan than anyone. He thinks he has the upper hand, but we intend to show him tonight exactly how little power he has.”