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.”