Page 18 of Blood Ties
“Oh my god, Grayson! What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Hurry.”
Oh, no…
I arrived at Alexander Holding Incorporated in minutes. Shawn had tossed me his hoodie so even if people noticed me, they weren’t seeing any details of me. I would appear as a gray streak. It was risky, but Grayson was too important to me to follow the rules.
It took everything in me to walk calmly into the building and to the elevator, and by calmly I mean at what a human might consider brisk. The stairs would probably have been faster, but I knew for certain that Grayson had cameras monitoring the entire building.
The ride up to the top floor was nerve racking. I had nothing to do but tap my foot and hope that Grayson wasn’t hurt. By the sound of his voice, I knew I was probably deceiving myself. Not knowing what was wrong, all I had was my imagination.
As the elevator doors opened, I rushed from the car at a quick human pace. When I approached Grayson’s secretary, I didn’t pause. “He’s expecting me,” I announced as I rushed past her without a second glance.
I looked around the room instantaneously taking everything in. It appeared the same. Nothing was out of place. There was the floor to ceiling glass wall that showed off the city. A huge mahogany desk fit for a king, yet no one sat behind it. To the left was a door that led to a full size bathroom, complete with a shower, but it was closed.
I strolled across the gray carpet into the small room. Twisting the knob, I eased open the door and heard Grayson hiss as a single ray of sunlight entered the dark room grazing him. The room was completely black otherwise. There were no windows and the lights were turned off.
“Oh my god,” I breathed. I blurred into the room shutting the door securely behind me. My eyes adjust immediately to the darkness and I saw Grayson resting on the edge of the bathtub. His head was bowed between his shoulders with his elbows resting on his knees, almost like he was ashamed.
I could smell blood in the air.Was it the sun, I wondered. I couldn’t comprehend how the sun could suddenly harm him. It had been over a week and he had been fine. In fact, he had walked out the building that morning, into the sun like it was the most mundane thing. I just didn’t understand.
Even though I could see in the dark, it wasn’t like normal vision. Everything was hazy. It was designed to hunt and catch prey, but to see details, I needed light.
“I’m going to turn on the light now.”
I could clearly see Grayson nodding. Without taking my eyes off of him, I flipped the switch and gasped. Suddenly, the smell of blood made sense. It looked like a murder scene in the once white bathroom. Blood was sprayed on the sink and on the mirror. It trailed across the floor to the toilet where there were hand prints smeared on the bowl and lid. The trail continued to Grayson resting on the edge of the tub. Blood dripped from his mouth; the whole front of his suit was covered.
“Grayson are you hurt? Did you hurt someone?” I scanned the room, but saw no one else, just blood.
“It’s not normally this bad,” he mumbled.
“What’s not?” I was completely confused.
“The blood,” was all he said.
The blood?I inhaled sharply feeling enlightened. The first night after his transition, I was woken up by him in the bathroom, then the stale scent of blood the next morning. Could all this have come from him? My hands went to my mouth instinctively to hide the shock. “Oh God.”
“I know I should have told you, but I just wanted things to go back to normal and not haveanotherthing for us to worry about.”
I didn’t know what to do. Shawn would be along shortly. He’d have a clear head and I prayed he would know what to do.
After the phone call with Grayson, which Shawn heard, thanks to his pesky werewolf ears, he had taken charge when he noticed I was on the verge of losing it. “Gaby, listen to me.” He grabbed my shoulders bringing my attention to him. “Get to him as fast as you can. I’ll go back to your apartment and get blood and a blanket in case we need to get him out of there.” I nodded and did as he instructed. I hadn’t been in the position to make coherent decisions.
Grayson looked up at me. I could see he was weak from the blood loss, even though he did his best to hide the effects. I carefully walked over to his side being mindful not to slip in blood. I wasn’t sure what to do. If I gave him blood he could just be sick again. I didn’t know what was causing it. Almost like he was reading my mind he spoke.
“It’s the blood bag.” His gray eyes locked on me almost studying, waiting my reaction. “I don’t know why, but on the days that I just drink from you, this doesn’t happen.”
“There’ve been days that you haven’t drank from the blood bags?” He nodded his confirmation.How hadn’t I noticed that?Probably because I had been so into losing myself in him that the blood exchange seemed completely normal.
I bit my wrist and offered it to him. His eyes instantly turned to honey green, like he was craving it, before he pressed it to his lips.
After a few moments, Grayson pulled back from my wrist. “What are you doing?” I scolded. “You need more.”
“I know, but I’m not being able to pull enough. It’s coming out as a trickle.”
I knelt down in front of him, shoving my hair back. “Can you bite me?” Once you were to far injured, your body would no longer let your fangs descend. I didn’t know if it worked the same from blood deprivation, but I assumed it would. Blood loss was blood loss no matter how it was caused.
He nodded his attention glued to hammering pulse in my neck. I tilted my head, exposing my artery. I hissed then moaned as his fangs sank into me like a hot knife in butter. I tried to not let my mind wander to that naughty place where it almost always went when Grayson and I shared blood, but as his hands started to wander up and down my body, I couldn’t help but run my fingers up his neck, into his hair and pull it tightly. Feeling my reaction to him, Grayson grasped my thighs, lifting me, forcing me to straddle him as he slid down to the floor.
