Chapter 27

I heldonto the edge of the rock in front of me when my legs threatened to let go.

Grey is alive.

Tears in my eyes, but I was too shocked still to call out, begging my body not to give up until he saw me. Until he came and picked me up and took me home.

That's when I realized that I hadn't actually believed myself until this very moment.

That day in the mirror room, when I saw his silhouette, a part of me hadn't really believed that I'd find Grey or even that he really was still alive. The hope I'd clung to was so, so weak, and I only knew it now when I saw him there, covered in blood, his jeans torn, his wings a fucking mess—but he was alive.

And he sounded pissed.

"…whatever the hell you think you're doing!" Grey spit. "This is not magic you mess around with. Do you really need me to remind you of that?!"

"I know what I'm doing. Please spare me. Why won't you just die yet?" said Valentine with a coldness to be envied, one he'd never spoken to me with before.

Grey's side was turned to me, so I barely saw it when he grinned. "Oh, I'm not going anywhere until you stop the fucking nonsense and get us out of here."

Valentine grabbed his hips and lowered his head like he was suddenly exhausted. His hair was disheveled and his clothes dusty—but that was it. He looked perfectly intact, not a drop of blood anywhere on him.

"I feel it, you know. Your mother really was right," he said, and for some reason every hair on my body stood at attention when he mentioned Genevieve.

"About what?" Grey said, his hands in tight fists by his sides, and by now the initial shock had passed somewhat, and I was fairly certain I could produce enough voice to call out his name, but…

"About Fall." I stopped with my mouth halfway open. "About vampires. She has this theory that we're not much different from sirens at all. They have fins and fangs, we have wings and fangs—same, same." Valentine shrugged, and he seemed so perfectly at ease—like he was home, back at the castle, in his tower, not in this ruined place.

"And just how when sirens eat the heart of a man they love they get incredible power, vampires can do the same when they drink the blood of a woman they love, too."

Grey stopped moving entirely for a second. "We're not sirens," he whispered.

Valentine laughed. "That's exactly what I said—but you being alive proves it, unfortunately. You drank Fall's blood before you came here, did you not?" He gave it a second, and when Grey didn't answer, he said, "Of course, you did—you're still alive because of it. You love her, so her blood gave you much more power than normal blood would, just like it did me."

Every thought in my head came to a halt. I moved, trying to get closer, to get to Grey and to Valentine, to ask him what the hell he was talking about, but then something moved close to him, and it distracted us all—Shadow.

Shadow suddenly appeared right there by Valentine's side and sat on his shoulder just like always.

"Took you long enough," Valentine said, not surprised in the least.

Meanwhile I pushed myself up as far as I could on that rock because I wanted to get to them, too. They had to see me. They had to know I was there.

"Grey," I said and hardly any voice came out of me, but it was enough.

They both turned to me at the same time.

"Watch out!"

Something moved behind me now, and I barely had the time to push myself to the side before a gigantic monster, much bigger than the ones that had chased me in the woods, landed right atop that rock I'd been holding onto with all my strength. Red eyes on me and those large jaws full of razor-sharp teeth were coming for my face.

A scream slipped out of me finally, but the creature never got to sink those teeth in me. He was thrown to the ground beneath the rocks the next second, and Grey's dirty, bloody face filled my vision.

I couldn't stop the fucking tears from spilling down my cheeks when he pulled me up to my shaking legs and tried to steady me.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"

Valentine's voice filled my head, and I had no choice but to look at him, at his bloodshot eyes and the fear in them, the accusation.

"No," he spit. "No, no, no—what are you doing here, you fool?!"

"Valentine, move!" Grey shouted a second before a large beast with red eyes and black fur jumped on Valentine's back and took him to the ground.

Hell broke loose all around us faster than I could blink. Storm landed on the ground with a deafening roar, ruining the trees near the rocks, as monsters poured over us from all sides.

"Get in the cave, now!" Grey said, his eyes bloodshot and his fangs extended, and he turned away from me just as one of those monsters jumped to bite him in the back.

Cave.

I was going to demand he tell me where that cave was, but I realized they'd been standing right in front of the mouth of it, a dark round hole in the rocky mountain barely ten feet away from where Valentine and Shadow fought the coming monsters. Storm stomped on and ate as many as he could, too, and Grey kept them off me with his fists and fangs.

"Go!" he shouted, and I moved.

There was no time to stop and wonder about where I was and what the hell was going on here. I grabbed the edges of the closest rocks and I pushed myself up with all my strength, then jumped on the other side.

But just as my feet touched the ground, something slammed against my side and sent me tumbling forward for a few steps, until I reached the rocks near the cave's entrance and held onto them to keep my balance.

"Fall, watch out!" Grey called, and I turned to see two of those monsters, a bit smaller in size but with teeth just as sharp, jumping for me at the same time.

Nowhere to go.

At this point I couldn't even acknowledge fear or surprise or any other emotion, just the heat in my stomach. Just the magic that was taking over once more, thankfully, and it was going to burst out of me any second, but…

Two things happened in the blink of an eye.

Valentine appeared behind the monsters with his hands raised, and he unleashed his own magic on them.

At the same time, Storm slammed his tail to the rocks on our side hard as he tried to get to them.

The monsters collapsed to the ground like their strings had been cut. Valentine's face, his eyes wide and his mouth open, would remain forever imprinted on my mind as the rocks that Storm had broken with his tail fell on him, taking him under—and they were coming for me, too.

A hand on my shoulder and I was pulled back as I screamed. I was pulled back fast as the rocks fell and fell and covered Valentine's body—then closed the opening of the cave completely.

Darkness.

I must have passed out then because when I came to, there was light.

Bright blue light around me, so I saw it when Grey let go of me and fell to his knees, his wings gone, his skin torn in too many places to count, his eyes empty.

"Grey," I choked, and it was a miracle I managed to get to my knees and grab him before he collapsed.

"You're here," he whispered, over and over again, the words slurred together.

"Look at me, Grey. Look at me!" I begged, pushing him back harder as his body let go, trying to keep him upright. I grabbed his face in my hands to look into his eyes, but they were already closed.

You're here, you're here, you're here…

He fell on top of me. A cry left my lips, and I wrapped my arms around him, held him up with all my strength.

"Bite me, Grey," I said as tears streamed from my eyes. "Bite me. Take my blood. Bite me, please!"

I grabbed his hair and pushed his head down on my neck until his mouth was right against my skin. I begged him to bite me as I shook, my own body about to let go of me because the exhaustion, the fear, the panic—and the weight of him—were too much.

Grey was alive, and by some miracle I'd found him, just so he could fucking die right there in my arms?

No. It couldn't be. I refused to believe it, so I held his head down against my neck and I begged him to bite me until I had no more voice left in me.

He did.

His fangs slipped into the side of my neck all of a sudden. I gasped in surprise and my body became perfectly still, and I didn't even breathe as he took my blood.

Over.

It was as good as over. Everything else be damned, Grey was drinking from me.

God, it felt so good to let go. I no longer tried to hold myself upright or to carry his weight. If we fell to the ground, so be it. He was drinking from me, so he wasn't going to die.

I didn't fall, though. Strong arms were wrapped around me, and now Grey held me up to his chest as I cried happy tears and smiled at myself, and he drank and drank and drank…

Until I was fucking empty. Until I felt like he was pulling my whole life out of me with those fangs, and it was okay. It was perfectly fine as long as he didn't die.

I would be happy for the rest of eternity, even if I never woke up again.

The soundof water trickling down and dripping all over the floor somewhere close to me woke me up. My eyes opened to the shadows on the ceiling caused by the dancing flames burning not too far away. I was wearing only a shirt and my pants, and my boots were next to the cardigan and the jacket to my left, and the leather bag I'd had with me when Storm grabbed me from that mountaintop and brought me to…

Grey.

I sat up with my heart in my throat and looked behind me to where the sound of that water was coming from.

Grey was standing there with his hands against the rocky walls while water poured from the ceiling and fell on his naked back, washing away the dirt and blood from his skin.

Tears in my eyes. I brought my hands to my mouth as my shoulders shook, but I had no idea whether I was laughing or crying. Maybe both.

Grey was right there. I'd know his back and his hair and his arms anywhere.

And when I pushed myself to my feet, he finally turned to look at me, eyes wide and mouth open like I'd caught him by surprise.

"Fall—"

I ran the ten steps it took to get to him and jumped in his arms without making a single sound. He was wet and his skin slippery, but he caught me with ease, pulling me up until my feet no longer touched the floor—and he was alive.

I couldn't stop crying or laughing or whatever the hell I was doing because who cared? Grey was here and he was holding me to his chest like he used to, and all was right with the world again. All that fear and that misery and that hopelessness was perfectly irrelevant now. Absolutely insignificant when his laughter slipped into my ears and warmed me down to my toes.

I didn't let go for a long time. The water trickling from several small holes in the ceiling had me wet as well, but I held onto his neck until I'd felt every inch of him in every inch of me—but even then, I only leaned my head back to look into his eyes.

His perfect grey storms of eyes that saw all the way into my soul that was finally at ease again.

"You're here," I whispered, more to myself than him.

Fuck, he'd looked so, so awful out there in the darkness, torn and bloody and dirty, but now all of it was gone. His skin was clean, his hair and beard so much longer than the last time I saw him, and he was smiling.

He was genuinely smiling, and his eyes were bright, like sources of light on their own.

"So are you," he said, like the fact fascinated him more than it did me.

Then he crashed his lips to mine, and the world around me was entirely lost within the second. The million questions that had been buzzing in the back of my mind faded away completely. They could wait. The whole world could wait because I needed him more than I needed any answer.

"I missed you so much," I said, kissing his entire face again and again. He growled deep in his throat, crushing me against his chest.

"You've kept me alive, baby," Grey whispered against my lips—and I wanted to know all about that, just as soon as I was full of him.

Grey must have read my mind because the next second, he pried my lips open with his tongue and devoured my mouth completely, holding me like a man desperate, and I had no complaints. We kissed like we were savages, mad with need for one another, tongues clashing and teeth biting and sucking and pouring ourselves into each other's mouths. It was perfect, just as perfect as every other kiss I'd ever shared with Grey Evernight—and the best part was that we were only just beginning.

Time stood still for us and it was like we'd been like this every second of every day, like we'd never been apart. Grey's wings suddenly unfolded from his back and he moved me, pushed me until I was against the wall, then pulled me up higher. My legs wrapped around his hips, the edges of his wings grazing my thighs, and he pressed his body to mine so deliciously. I moaned into his mouth, already sizzling with heat and energy, my center throbbing like I thought it never would again.

God, I was so turned on it wasn't even fair. He kissed me and I lived for this. He held me and I couldn't think of anything in the world that mattered more.

Grey pushed himself off me only for a second to take my wet shirt off, and I cried out in complaint. I'd forgotten what it was like to be wrapped up in him like this, and now that he was here, I never wanted to not be touching him again.

He growled as he pressed his naked chest to mine again, throwing my shirt to the floor. His hands cupped my breasts and he squeezed until the sensation fired sparks in my mind, lighting up my entire world just like that. I was moving without control, rubbing my center against his hardness that I could feel with perfect clarity. He rolled my rock-hard nipples between his fingers as he kissed the living hell out of me, his tongue in my throat, his teeth on my lips every second. I held onto the claws of his wings to give him better access to my neck when he trailed kisses down to my collarbone, then talked about how badly he needed my tits in his mouth. My heart raced and my eyes squeezed shut when he bit my nipple, then pulled it in his mouth, sucking hard. The sounds that left me could bring this entire cave crashing, but I didn't care enough to wonder where the hell we even were.

I just looked down at Grey as he worshipped my body, trailing my skin with his tongue, biting and sucking on one breast while he massaged the other with his hand.

"I need you, Grey," I whispered, my hips moving uncontrollably as his other hand closed around my ass, fingers digging into it.

"Let go, baby," he said, trying to pry my legs open from around his hips, and I only agreed because I needed those damn pants off me. My numb feet hit the stone floor and Grey fell to his knees before me, wings half spread. His eyes were bloodshot when he looked up at me and pulled my pants down slowly, together with my panties. He didn't smile—on the contrary. He looked like a predator coming to devour his prey, and he was fucking mad with impatience to do it, but he still took his time in touching my naked skin.

God, just to see him kneeling there with those wings spread and that look in his eyes could make me lose my mind. I'd forgotten just how perfect he was in real life. That portrait in his closet didn't do him fucking justice. I couldn't get enough of looking at him.

"Grey," I breathed, standing there before him completely naked and wet, shaking with need.

The corner of his lips curled up just a bit and he said, "Spread your legs for me, my queen."

A moan came out of me involuntarily, and I did as he asked, pushing my legs to the sides so he could come closer and settle himself between them. His hands were around my waist, and while he held my eyes, he continued to kiss my breasts, slowly at first, then with so much urgency the imprints of his teeth were all over them. I cried out his name again and again as he bit and licked and sucked on the skin of my stomach, kissing every inch of me, going lower. He grabbed my right leg by the back of my thigh and pulled it up, over his shoulder, spreading his wing all the way so I could place my leg over it comfortably. I held onto the wall behind me for dear life and watched as he planted kisses around my pelvis, then slowly lowered to my clit.

My eyes rolled in my skull when he flicked his tongue over it, then kissed it deeply. The sound of it alone could tip me over the edge, but I controlled myself and I blinked hard until I was able to focus on him again. I wanted to see how he played with me, how he kissed me and took me closer to God with each stroke of his tongue, until he unraveled me completely.

Grey didn't play around. He devoured my pussy as he whispered words I was too gone already to understand. I was crying out his name within the minute, moving my hips against his face faster and faster. He spread my leg up to stretch me wider, then brought his fingers to my entrance, teasing me with his fingertips until I lost control of my body completely.

Come for me, he said, then pressed his tongue flat against my clit while slipping two fingers inside of me. God, he felt so good…

Come for me whenever you're ready, baby.

I was ready right then and there, but I tried to hold back just so I could enjoy this for a moment longer. His hair was in my hands, tightly in my fists, and I pushed and pulled him against my pussy like my life depended on it. I never wanted to stop doing this, not for a second, but when Grey slipped his fingers all the way inside me, curved them up like he'd made my body himself and knew exactly how to please it, I had no choice but to let go. I came so hard I lost sight of my surroundings even though my eyes were wide open, and I stayed there for a long time.

Grey didn't let me move away at all. He stayed there, kneeled before me until he cleaned every drop of my juices off, growling and moaning and telling me how much he loved the taste of me.

Just like that, I was on top of the world again.