Fate (The Edge of Forever) (34 page)

“How are you handling all of this?” I asked. He had been quiet for most of the afternoon letting Shawn and I decide details and discuss plans.

He sighed, pulling me tighter around him. “I wish it wasn’t necessary, but it is. And I appreciate you hearing me out and taking my opinion seriously.”

I sat up, resting my chin on his shoulder. “Of course. Grayson, I know this isn’t the ideal situation, I also know that you are well within your right to kick my ass to the curb. Not only have I brought drama into your life, but I also brought danger and death threats.” I averted my eyes, regretting pointing out those bits.

Grayson grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. “I wouldn’t deal with it for anyone else, Gabriella. You’re it for me. The other half of my soul. And I thank God every damn day for letting me run into you and accidentally switching our phones.” I beamed at him before curling myself back into his arms.

***

Grayson decided to make Saturday a fun day. He took me for a fabulous lunch and a day of shopping. I tried to tell him it wasn’t necessary, but he felt after all the drama, he wanted to do something nice for me and in effect, him. We were at a clothing store a few blocks away from his apartment. I had scoured the store and was in the dressing room trying on a piece of lingerie I had snuck past Grayson. It was a black mesh babydoll with blue ribbon trim across the top of the breast. I loved blue accents. I felt it brought out my eyes. I had no intention of buying the piece. I had plenty back at Grayson’s apartment. I just wanted to tease Grayson with it.

I peeked out the door, looking to make sure no one was there.

“Alright, let’s see it,” Grayson demanded with a wave of his hand while leaning against the wall across from the room I was in.

I stepped into the doorway and watched Grayson’s expression change from fun and amusement to hunger and lust.
  He looked me up and down, undressing me with his eyes. My heart pounded at the glint in his eyes. He wanted me; that much was evident by the growing bulge in his pants straining against his zipper. His lips parted. Grayson moved faster than I had ever seen a human move. Maybe I had been distracted by his reaction, but all I knew was one moment he was standing across from me, the next his hands were wrapped around my body, his lips on mine and he was pushing me back into the dressing room.

He lifted me up and I wrapped my legs and arms around him instinctively. I was doing my best to keep quiet, people could get arrested for things like this, but when Grayson ripped the material from my body, I couldn’t stifle my surprise or pleasure when his hands and mouth grazed over my newly exposed skin.

He shoved his thumb through the lace of my panties, shredding them. I fumbled with his pants before he reached down to help me free him. In one fluid motion, he had me sliding down on his hard arousal. I moaned loudly from the sensation of him stretching me, filling me. Grayson pressed me against the wall, hammering into me like he couldn’t get deep enough. Without asking, I pulled down the collar of his shirt exposing his neck. I felt my fangs grow preparing for the strike. Not wishing to deny ourselves any longer, I punctured his neck, effortlessly bringing both our bodies to climax.

We didn’t take time to bask in the afterglow. We had just had rather loud sex in a store full of people. Grayson disengaged me from him, setting me down on the bench in the small room.

“Get dressed,” he spoke roughly. He left carrying all the clothes except the ones I was wearing when we arrived. 

I dressed fast, even though every fiber of my being was telling me to take my time. On the outside of the dressing room was waiting well-deserved embarrassment, but I refused to let Grayson face it alone.

I walked out to find Grayson at the counter paying for all the clothes I hadn’t even tried on. I made my way to him just as the cashier finished ringing up the last item, the shredded babydoll. I blushed, but the cashier paid no mind, she seemed utterly infatuated with Grayson. How could she not be after hearing his
talents
and now seeing the evidence? Grayson pulled me under his arm. It was his silent way of telling the cashier he was mine and I was his.

Her eyes took me in, seeming unimpressed. “Your total comes to eight hundred and eleven dollars and thirty nine cents,” she smiled.
 

Grayson handed her nine hundred dollar bills. “Keep the change for not having us arrested.”

She beamed at him. “Not a problem sir.”

We grabbed our bag and left the store quickly. John was waiting outside for us.
 “Why are you carrying around that much cash? It’s not safe.” I asked once we were safely on our way home.

He shrugged. “It’s my emergency cash. I didn’t want to pay with my card and have her figure out who I was and leak to the press how we made good use of that dressing room. They would eat it up. I do a good job of staying out of the headlines. I enjoy my privacy, but if that got out, you and I would be followed around and constantly hounded by photographers looking for anything that would sell. And sex sells.”

“I guess I never thought of it like that.”

***

Sunday arrived in a gloomy way. The weather was horrid and all I wanted to do was stay curled up in bed next to the incredible sexy man that owned my heart. But the incisive pounding on the door wouldn’t allow that. I clambered out of bed, heading to the living room. When I opened the door, Shawn was revealed on the other side.

“What?” I barked.

He pushed his way inside. “Good morning to you too, sunshine,” he said snidely.

“Shawn,” I huffed, “the delivery isn’t for another three hours.”

“I know but we need to check out the place first. So get dressed and let’s go.”

No matter how much I argued Shawn wasn’t hearing it. So I begrudgingly headed to the bedroom to change. Once dressed in jeans and a black tee, I sat down on the bed next to Grayson. His eyes opened lazily. He looked at me through a hooded gaze.

“Hey baby.”

“Hey,” I whispered, “Shawn and I are heading out now. I didn’t want you to wake and be worried.”

He forced a small smile, “I’ll be worried until you’re home.”

I leaned down giving him a chaste kiss. “Then go back to sleep and hopefully you’ll sleep long enough that I’ll be back before you wake.” He grinned at me before doing what I asked. I left him there, returned to Shawn and followed him out of the apartment.

***

It seemed that Shawn’s urgent desire to stake out the area was entirely unwarranted. There was nothing. Not even a hint of trouble. The blood bank van pulled up awhile later. I met them at the usual place, everything was smooth. Once the blood was unloaded, Shawn made his appearance and we headed inside. I went to the kitchen to grab the blood while Shawn headed to my room. Before I was even done loading the small cooler I had brought with me from Grayson’s, Shawn came back looking grim holding a note. “There was nothing but this.” He held it to me. Hesitantly, I took it.

Gabriella,

I thought perhaps you would come whilst we slept, but there is nothing here for you any longer. You have cast your stone on the side of a human. I could have given you the world, now I will give you pain. Know this, I will stop at nothing until I have that thieving human’s heart resting in my fingers. You were mine and he robbed me of you.

See you soon,

Anton

Dread. That was the only word to describe what I felt, but it wasn’t even worthy of how I felt. I swallowed hard trying to calm my rapid heart but it did nothing. The paper slipped through my fingers. “Oh my God!” I could feel bile rise in my throat as tears threatened to fall. Shawn wrapped his arms around me. 

“It’s okay baby girl. We’re not going to let anything happen to him.”

Deep down I knew Anton would never stop until Grayson was dead. Even if I left him now, his fate was already sealed. I would do everything I could to keep him safe, even if killing Anton would mean my death. That was one law I knew. If anyone killed the vampire leader of a nest they were sentenced to death. I explained this to Shawn on our way back to Grayson.

“Actually, interesting thing I read in the old laws. Do you know you are completely justified in killing someone who harms your mate? That even includes the nest master if he doesn’t have just cause, which he doesn’t. Wanting the mate of another isn’t a good enough reason.”

“Grayson isn’t my mate. He can’t be. He’s human.”

Shawn turned to me. “The law doesn’t specify race when it mentions mates. For vampires it’s sharing of blood and body.” I was really beginning to wish I had had the time to read the laws instead of Shawn, but at least he absorbed the information. “All you have to do is share your blood with him, which I know you haven’t because mated vampires put off a different pheromone that even us werewolves can smell.”

I’d be lying if I said the idea didn’t entice me, but that was a commitment far beyond what Grayson and I had ever discussed. It was more powerful than the sacrament of marriage. Marriage could end if you tired of someone, but vampire mating was forever.

I nodded. “I’ll talk to him about it.”

***

Shawn dropped me off in front of the apartment. He figured Grayson and I would need to talk about this ‘mating thing’ sooner rather than later. I strolled into the apartment and was met by a frantic Grayson. His arms wrapped around me the instant I made it through the door.

“You were gone longer than I expected,” he mumbled into my neck. “Did everything go okay?”

I pulled back, handing him the note from Anton. “We had a hiccup.” I watched as he read the letter, his jaw tightened as well as his fingers on the paper.

“This is a hiccup?” He shouted, throwing the paper down. I grabbed his face between my palms. I needed to get his attention before his anger took over. We didn’t have time for it right now.

“Yes, it’s just a hiccup. We have a plan.”

His eyes narrowed on me. “A plan that doesn’t involve me hiding from the night for the rest of my life?” I nodded rapidly. He eyed me for a moment to make sure I was serious. “I’m listening,” he finally responded.

I slid my hands to rest on his shoulders. “I love you.”

Grayson’s brow furrowed. “I love you too.” I smiled softly at hearing his words. No matter how many times he said them, I would never tire of them.

“We want to come up with a plan to kill Anton, that way we’re both safe.”

I could see by his expression he was confused. “Alright,” he drew out not seeing where I was going.

I took a deep breath then slowly let it out. “Old law dictates that whoever kills the nest master must share his fate.” Grayson was shaking his head before I even got to the end of my sentence. I cupped his cheek stopping him. “But...” I waited until he focused on me before continuing, “anyone, leader or otherwise, who harms or threatens the mate of another, without just cause, can be killed without consequence.”

Grayson looked even more confused. I knew he thought what I was saying had no effect on us with him human. “What are you saying, Gabriella?”

“That I love you.” My lips pulled up in the corners in a forced smile. “Mate doesn’t specify vampires.” My breathing was ragged. My heart was pounding. I don’t think I had ever been this nervous. “It’s someone you love that you share your body and blood with.”

“So, by vampire terms, I’m your mate?” he asked. I shook my head. “Now I don’t understand. I’ve shared my body and my blood with you.”

“But I haven’t with you,” I breathed.

I watched his expression as realization filtered over him. I had shared my body with him, but never my blood. He needed my blood to be my mate. The idea of him feeding from me was a major turn on, although I doubted he felt the same way. What human would want blood, vampire or otherwise, in their mouth. This wasn’t an episode of True Blood where vampire blood was a drug with all sorts of hidden effects. It was blood, plain and simple. Only difference was, ours was slightly thicker than humans.

“I love you, Grayson, more than my own life. I have never met a person who I would want to do this with, human or otherwise. I know the idea must sound repulsive...”

He put his finger against my lips silencing me. “Nothing about you is repulsive,” he sighed heavily. “What effects will your blood have on me?”

“There should be none. It might change your pheromones like it does us. It let others know we’re taken. But as far as anything harming or altering you in any other way, there should be nothing. But you have to know that we will be connected, always.”

Grayson took a deep breath. He seemed to be considering what I was asking. “You don’t have to make any decision tonight. Shawn is sending a group of werewolves over in...” I checked Grayson’s watch, “about an hour. It has to be tonight. The full moon is tomorrow.”

Unexpectedly, Grayson pulled me hard against his body. I gasped with surprise. “I love you, Gabriella. I would love nothing more than to be connected with you for the rest of my life, but are you sure you’re doing this for the right reasons? I don’t want you to do this because you feel like you have to.”