Page 31 of Gray
What was wrong with me? These feelings were new. Kind of scary too.
“Not too difficult for you, I’m sure,” Alastair said. “Your eyes have already been opened to the supernatural world. Believing in angels, Lucifer, and Nephilim isn’t much different.”
Mason lowered his gaze to the floor, brow set in a hard line. “So the son of Lucifer… he’s the one sending all of these monsters to hurt people? There’s been more attacks recently. More than the usual amount.”
“You catch on quick, hunter,” Galen said. “Guess you’re not totally useless.”
“Galen,” I snapped. “Be nice.” Then, unable to fight the pull any longer, I dropped down on the floor beside Mason’s chair, staring up at him. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Though tense, the edge of his mouth curved a bit.
“Since my brothers are being mean right now, I’ll fill ya in. Asa is an evil jerkwad. We’ve had, like, a million battles with him so far. In January, we fought him in Hoia Baciu. Have you heard of that forest? It’s super creepy. Haunted too. But the ghosts are friendly. They helped us during the battle. Asa was after the key to the celestial realm. Which would’ve beenverybad if he got it. ’Cause then he’d be able to breach the celestial barrier and set the whole place on fire if he wanted to.”
“Celestial realm?” Mason asked.
“Where the angels live.” I traced a circle on his pants leg. I liked touching him. “Anyway. We almost lost. My brother Daman stopped my da—”
My words cut off as fear slammed into my gut. I’d almost told Mason about my dad—that he was one of the bad guys.
Would he see me as a bad guy too if he knew?
“Um. So yeah,” I continued with a shake of my head. “The next part of Asa’s master plan is setting monsters loose and terrorizing humans. We’ve been working hard to stop him. Not just us but our allies too.”
“Allies?”
“Other Nephilim and dragons.” Alastair smirked when Mason’s brows shot up. “Yes, dragons are real too. You didn’t know?”
“No. I didn’t.” Mason took another breath, this one less shaky. “Seems there’s a lot I still need to learn. I didn’t know Nephilim existed either until recently.”
Had it really only been a few days since I’d met him? Felt like longer.
“That demon… Phoenix… he wanted me to be a spy.” Mason met my gaze, and for a brief moment, something soft flashed in his eyes.
At the mention of Phoenix, Bellamy shifted his weight to the other foot. He then combed his fingers through his wavy golden hair—a telltale sign that something was on his mind. Worrying him. His thoughts were blank though, as if he was intentionally thinking of nothing. A tactic we used when we wished to keep secrets from each other.
“I know he did,” Alastair answered Mason.
“Is that why I’m here, then? You want to find out what I know, then kill me?”
“No one’s gonna kill you.” I rested my cheek on the arm of the chair. “I won’t let them.”
For some reason, that made Mason smile. “You won’t, will you?”
“You’re safe here. I promise.”
“Gray is right,” Alastair said. “Youaresafe here… until you give us a reason to change that. As much as I detest it, you’re involved in this now. When Galen told me what happened, I ordered him to bring you here.”
“How did he tell you? I was with him the whole time and didn’t see him use a phone.”
“He used telepathy. One of our abilities.” Alastair carefully watched Mason. Knowing him, he was searching for any warning signs. Anything that might peg the human as a threat to us. His suspicious nature was for our safety though. We couldn’t be too careful. Not with anyone.
Mason stood from the chair and paced in front of it. I watched him, eyes following his movements. I started feeling kind of sleepy.
Sigh.
“So I’m here for my protection?” he asked seconds later, coming to a stop. “As I told him”—he nodded to Galen—“I can take care of myself.”
Galen snarled.
