Ask the Oracle (12 page)

I’m willing to take things slow and see how it goes. Until then, I’d rather people not make a

big deal about it.”

Maddox cocked a brow at him sceptically. “I know you don’t get it because you were

brought up around humans, so you weren’t raised to believe in mating and destined mates,

but it isn’t something you ‘try out’ to see if it works. When it comes to mating, you don’t get

a choice, Gray. You either are, or you’re not. If you are, you better come to grips with it,

because, barring death, there’s no getting out of it.”

Smiling smugly, Dreo wrapped a possessive arm around his shoulder, pulled him in

and planted a hard kiss on his lips. The moment their lips touched, Gray was powerless to

fight against him. He was lust, and heat and unfilled need. The idea of pulling away never

even crossed his mind, not even when black spots began to appear before his eyes. Dreo’s

expression was full of male arrogance. “You are finally beginning to understand. We are

mates, Grayson Muir. You are mine—forever.”

The cocky grin Dreo flashed in his direction left Gray fighting back the urge to punch

the arrogant Demon in the face. Scowling, he watched Dreo swagger away towards a

contingent of Demon guards skirting the edge of the crowd.

“Forever could be a lot shorter than he thinks. I think I could take him. He has to sleep

sometime.” Gray didn’t even try to hide his annoyance.

Laughing, Maddox placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder before turning back to the

rest of the team. Motioning them forward, he called out a few last minute orders before

turning his attention back to Gray, his expression all business.

“We ready to get started?”

Relief washed over him. He could have kissed Maddox for the distraction. The mess of

conflicting emotions inside him was not conducive to
Seeing
. He needed to be centred, totally

focused on the task at hand. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes, cleared his thoughts and

opened himself up to his gift. In layman’s terms, he was laying out the welcome mat and

leaving the front door unlocked. The sooner he finished the job, the sooner he could go home

and gain a little space between him and his Demonic stalker.

Prepared to wait the requisite few minutes for his powers to acknowledge him, Gray

was shocked when, almost instantly, he felt his gift respond to his call. It was a reaction that

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usually took a great deal of focus to achieve. This time, it was like his Oracle abilities were

just waiting to be used.

Despite his shock, he was pleased when he opened his eyes and saw fog edging in on

the periphery of his vision, as well as the brighter cast of the room and its inhabitants. Both

were signs of the manifestation of his gift, but he had never had a reaction this strong before.

The room was practically glowing. Possibly a reaction to using his powers in the

Underworld? Gray shook his head. It was a worry best saved for another time. Looking up,

he found Dreo was back and staring at him—mouth open and eyes wide.

“What?”

“Your eyes…” Dreo murmured. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They’re beautiful.”

Gray snorted. Spinning on his heel, he started across the room, heading back towards

the murdered Lord’s chambers. He knew what Dreo was seeing and, while his eyes had been

called many things, not once had they been called beautiful. Odd, freaky, terrifying and

grotesque were the most common descriptions, but there were many more out there, each

more hurtful than the last. When tapping into his
Sight
, his normally dark green eyes paled

to a milky white, with a light ring of green were the iris should be. Add to that, the fact that

they glowed faintly when in a vision, and he was a perfect candidate for a side show freak.

Just set him up a booth, between the Bearded Lady and the Elephant Man, and he’d be good

to go.
Come one, come all! Witness the horror that is…The Oracle
!

A heavy hand fell on Gray’s shoulder, jerking him out of his inner whine-fest, and into

a hard embrace. Looking up, he instinctively knew it would have been Dreo who’d

approached him, despite his obvious bad mood. Gray knew he tended to be a bit emotionally

high-maintenance. His issues weren’t news to anyone who truly knew him. When he was in

one of his moods, people gave him space. They assumed it was best to let him work things

out on his own. In reality, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Solitude only caused him to

withdraw further, putting up walls against everyone, until he was unreachable.

Dreo was different. He saw through the smoke and mirrors, right to the heart of the

situation. Even after knowing the man for a matter of a few days, he already understood

more about the way Gray worked, than many of his closest friends and associates.

“Kiss me,” Dreo demanded, gripping his jaw firmly, denying him any chance of escape.

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“No,” Gray whined petulantly. “We don’t have time for this.” He was ashamed of his

childish tone, but he needed something between himself and the gorgeous Demon. The man

saw too much, able to cut through Gray’s normal bullshit and see through to everything he

tried to hide. It left Gray feeling entirely too exposed.

Dreo wrapped an arm around his waist, bringing Gray into his hard body. When Gray

tried to move away, Dreo held him tighter, allowing him to struggle. He strained against the

hold until the fight finally left him. With his strength gone, he collapsed into Dreo’s waiting

arms.

“It’s all right,” Dreo crooned, softly. “I’ve got you.”

“But we’ve got to find out who—”

Dreo covered Gray’s lips with his hand, effectively silencing rest of his words. “We

have all the time in the world. It’s not like the man is going to get any more dead. You are

The Oracle. Without you, none of this would be possible. If you need a few minutes to calm

down, you have them. Anything you need, all you have to do is ask.”

The soft brush of lips against Gray’s mouth was unexpected, but it was the look in

Dreo’s eyes that left him struggling for breath. Gray was no stranger to lust. He had

experienced it often and was used to seeing it in the eyes of his lovers. Dreo was different.

When Dreo looked at him, Gray saw more than he’d ever thought possible. The lust was

there, but burning even more brightly was a love that could not be disguised. It shone out for

everyone to see. It filled Gray with both tremendous joy and ball-numbing fear.

Understanding softened Dreo’s features as the man took a step back. “This can wait

until later. For now, let’s focus on the job. Once that’s done, we will have plenty of time to

explore what is growing between us.”

“Jesus,” Maddox groaned, pushing his way between them as he began to march down

the hall in the wrong direction. “Don’t you two ever stop? We’ve got a job to do, in case you

forgot.”

“You’re just jealous,” Gray snarked with a toss of his head.

“You’re probably right, but it doesn’t change the fact that we were hired to do a job and

we need to get it done. Now, if you’ll hurry up maybe we can get this done quickly so I don’t

miss my shows.”

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Gray rolled his eyes. Heaven forbid Maddox miss a rerun of one of the numerous crime

shows he religiously watched. “We’d probably get done a lot quicker if you were heading the

right direction, don’t you think?” Gray asked smugly.

Jerking to a stop, Maddox glared at Gray over his shoulder. “You know, sometimes I

think I could kill you, hide the body and no one would be the wiser.” His voice was a

grouchy, low rumble.

Gray laughed. “You know that’s not true. Your parents would notice that I was missing

in less time than it would take them to realise that you were missing. They love me best.”

Maddox scowled. “You’re probably right.”

“There’s no probably about it. I’m loveable, they can’t help themselves.” Gray squinted

at his friend. “Maybe if you tried not being such a prick all the time, they would like you

more.”

“Yeah?” Maddox snarled. “Or maybe I just get rid of your obnoxious ass and they

would quit trying to make me be more like you, yeah?”

Laughing, Gray turned away and continued down the hall leaving Maddox and the rest

of his team to fan out around him in defensive positions. He doubted the president had

better security than he did. Thinking about it, though, it did kind of make sense. You could

always elect another president. Oracles, on the other hand, were basically an endangered

species. As they neared the dead king’s chambers, an unsettling sense of foreboding fell over

him. What had previously seemed like a mundane task, now took on an aura of menace.

“Something’s different.”

Dreo jerked to a stop, his eyes immediately going to Gray’s face. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” Gray murmured hesitantly. “It just feels…different. Like something’s

changed. I don’t know how to explain it any better than that.”

Dreo watched him, his jaw clenched and his expression serious. After a moment, he

straightened to his full height, determination replacing his previous concern. “It changes

nothing. We still have to get to the bottom of this and chose a new Lord of the Underworld.

Everyone will just have to be more vigilant. Hopefully, if we remain on guard, we will be

able to head off any danger.”

With that said, Dreo continued towards the royal chamber, his shoulders back, his

stance as regal as any king. Surrounded by his guards, he was a fearsome sight to behold.

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Gray hoped that they were strong enough to face whatever evil was dogging their steps.

Following after Dreo, the sensation of unease grew stronger. As they approached the door,

Gray hoped he was just experiencing a bad case of nerves and not a prediction of things to

come.

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When they reached the king’s chamber, the team spread out, scanning the area for

danger. Maddox and Dreo went over and spoke with the same two guards, who were

stationed at the door. A few hushed words were spoken before the men came back.

“Colton said that no one has been by here since we left, let alone gone into the room.”

Dreo’s tone was cool, yet soothing.

“I don’t care what he says,” Gray answered dismissively. “There is something different.

Whether it was caused by a person, a thing or a phase of the moon, I don’t know. All I do

know is that something is different from when we were here last time. Darker. More

threatening.”

Dreo watched Gray before sparing a glance over at Maddox, who merely shrugged.

Gray fought a smile. His friend knew better than to dismiss one of Gray’s feelings. Those

feelings had kept them out of more trouble than either of them probably cared to remember.

After another glance around, Dreo turned to him. “I know you don’t have a good

feeling about this and I don’t want you to think that I don’t believe you, but it doesn’t change

the fact that we have to go inside that room to find out what happened to Lucifer. You have

to trust that I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?” Dreo looked at him, his expression

beseeching. “I promise. I will keep you safe.”

Leaning down, Dreo placed a brief kiss on Gray’s forehead before turning his attention

back to his men. The guards gave the hall one last look before Maddox and his second in

command, Ben, moved in and entered the chamber. A few minutes later, they called out,

signalling that it was safe for the rest to enter.

Walking into the room, Gray could immediately feel the change in the air. Reaching out

with his gift confirmed what he’d already sensed. “Someone was here.”

Dreo’s head jerked up, confusion clear on his face. “What do you mean, someone was

here? We haven’t even been out of the room a half hour and there are guards posted all along

the corridor leading to Lord Lucifer’s chambers.”

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“Someone had to have come in after we left to meet the team. I can sense them. They

did something to muddle the residual energies here. There isn’t enough of the original

energy left to get a clear read on whoever murdered your king.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Dreo snarled, face molten with rage. “How is that even

possible?”

Gray shrugged. It was a question he would also like an answer to. As events unfolded,

he was becoming more and more concerned. The fact that the intruder knew exactly what to

do to hinder Gray’s power was worrisome. Because of their rareness, Oracles tended to be

enigmatic. It would take someone with an intimate knowledge of Oracles and their powers to