Chapter 21
twenty-one
RAVEN?
I didn't decide what to do the next day.
Darius and I played video games during most of our waking hours. I sat on his lap, and only got up when he carried me to the kitchen and cooked for us. While he cooked, I sat on the countertop, and we talked about food.
It was blissful.
We did the same thing for another day.
And another.
And another.
During the next, Kat and Callum showed up with a box of the truffles I loved, alongside a card that proclaimed they were a welcome to the family present. She flung her arms around me for a massive hug, and my eyes burned.
I knew I was putting off a decision.
Darius did too, but he didn't seem to care how long I put it off for. I kind of loved him for that.
Callum and Dare hung out in the kitchen and talked about some issue they were having with the Cabinet. Kat and I plopped down on the couch with the truffles. I'd eaten all of hers, so I snuck her a few of mine.
"What's going on?" she whispered. "I heard through the grapevine that you guys were having issues."
"Who's the grapevine?" I whispered back.
"Liv, mostly. She's all up in everyone's business. Niall pretends to be all innocent, but he's just as nosy as she is."
I stored that information away. The family's dynamics were going to be important for the rest of our lives.
"Nothing's wrong with me and Darius. I'm just trying to figure out what to do about the stuff with my past."
"The cellar stuff?"
"Yeah. Grayson doesn't know who I am. I need to tell him. He's going to recognize me anyway, when I meet him looking like this." I gestured to myself.
Kat knew who I was.
I'd told her, after she vowed not to tell anyone else. Including her mate. He was the most likely to meddle out of everyone in the family, though she was probably the second.
"You look like them?"
"Like my mom," I admitted. "I'm not sure what to do about the rest of it, either. The name stuff. I kind of want to dye my hair, to get the announcement and gossip over with. It's growing in dark, anyway."
"Let's do it."
“When?” I asked.
“Now.”
"Right now?"
“Why not? I bet Callum knows someone at a nice salon who can get us in. He knows everyone."
I debated it silently for a minute. Having her there would make it easier for me, so I agreed.
Half an hour later, we were sitting in an upscale hair salon. Kat was getting a few delicate highlights in her blonde curls while I watched a male pixie spread hair color on the bottom of my hair. He was using foils to divide some of the pieces out.
He left the gray streaks at the front of my hair alone. Those ones didn't seem to be changing on their own, and I didn't want to have to go back in a few weeks when they kept growing in light.
It took ages, but Kat kept the mood light by talking about her cafés the whole time. I asked and answered questions so the conversation kept going.
Both of us quieted down as they washed our hair, and I stayed quiet afterward, my gaze fixed on my hair as my stylist combed the tangles out, then started cutting.
He was taking off a lot. My hair would be much easier to deal with after he did.
My eyes didn't move as he blew my hair dry, somehow giving it perfect waves. When he was done, I stared.
Just... stared.
My hair now fell just below my breasts in shades of black and dark gray, with a few random pops of the lighter shade that matched the ones around my face.
It was uniquely mine, and it was perfect.
Kat had offered to join me for the road trip to the Shadow District. I didn't really want Darius involved, because of his connection to Grayson's mate, so I accepted.
After we paid our bill, we went back to the Corvette Darius had given me. I'd seen someone taking a picture with it earlier, so it was either a particularly fancy vehicle, or someone on the internet had spread the word that Dare's mate was driving it.
Surprisingly enough, I didn't really care which of those was true.
We listened to music and talked about Merrily's Goodbye Loneliness party through the rest of the drive to the demon royals' mansion. It was light. Fun.
Exactly what I needed with the dread looming over me, too.
Kat waited in the car when I went inside to talk to Grayson. She claimed she had work to do from her phone, and while that was probably true, I knew she was just giving me space to talk to him alone.
I texted Grayson on my way up the stairs to his apartment.
Me
I'm in the hallway, can you talk?
Grayson
Just a sec
I was leaning against the wall outside his door when he stepped out, wearing his usual shorts and baseball cap, along with a t-shirt.
His eyebrows shot upward when he saw me. "Holy fuck, Rae. You look..."
"Alive?" I offered, a little weakly.
"I was going to say different, but yeah. Alive." His forehead creased, his gaze lingering on my face. "You kind of look like…"
I knew he was putting the resemblance together. He hadn't known my mom well, but she and my dad had both been close to Grayson's family before the coup. They'd kept me out of the friendship, because of what they were planning.
"Kristen Levine?" I asked quietly.
The expression on his face shifted slightly as he put the resemblance together.
I waited to see betrayal, or hurt, but his eyes just widened. "Holy fuck. Your dad was the bastard who put you in that cellar?"
My eyes burned, but I nodded. "She tried to get me out. He—"
Grayson engulfed me in a massive hug, cutting me off before I finished speaking. I froze for a minute, but when I'd processed what was happening, my arms wrapped around him, and I hugged him back fiercely.
"Thank you," I whispered. "I don't know if I would've survived without you. I barely survived as it was." A humorless laugh escaped me. "I should've told you sooner, I was just... hiding."
"Is Dare the reason you look like this?" Grayson asked, squeezing me tightly before he released me and took a small step back.
I nodded. "My shadows were keeping me alive before. I can't transport with them now. They're not me anymore. I'm just a vampire."
"Just a vampire who still has more shadow magic than any other demon in the city," Grayson said with a small smile.
My lips curved just a tiny bit.
"I didn't know they had a daughter," he admitted.
"They were quiet about me. She was worried something would happen to me in the coup. I think he was worried that I'd end up the queen."
"You could be, if you wanted to. You're even stronger than Dante."
I shook my head. "I don't. And I don't think the Shadow District would accept another demon royal who's mated to a fae."
He grimaced. "We could figure it out."
"We're not going to. I need to figure out what I want and who I want to be."
"Good. You should." A small smile curved his lips. "You look happy."
"I'm getting there."
"I'm making dinner. Stay."
"Kat's waiting for me in the car." I gestured over my shoulder.
"We've got enough for her. Come on, Rae. It'll kill Callum a little to know that I had his werewolf over for dinner, and he deserves to be tortured a little." Grayson winked at me.
I snorted, but went out to see if Kat was interested. She was, so we walked back up to Grayson's apartment together.
"Hey, Mer." She smiled at Merrily as we slipped into the apartment without knocking.
"Hey. You both look good. Survived a trip to a salon?"
"Barely," I agreed.
"It was fun," Kat said with a grin.
"Are we telling Callum about this dinner?" Mer teased.
"What he doesn't know won't kill him," Kat tossed back, but I knew she'd already told him through their bond.
I wasn't sure how to use mine, but I slipped into the bathroom while everyone was chatting, and sort of reached toward the magic.
"Hello?" I whispered into that translucent wall, feeling slightly crazy for talking to myself.
"Hey, Shadow."
My eyes closed gently at the feel of his voice in my mind. “Fuck. That's kind of sexy."
"Want me to make it sexier?"
I laughed softly into that space where our minds met. "Better not. I'm having dinner with Grayson and Mer, and Kat. If you weren't across the city, I'd hook you up with an invite too."
He chuckled. "That's alright. I'm making dumplings. Callum is the taste-tester. He’s pretending to be unhappy about it, but because no one cooks at their house, he’s fucking thrilled.”
"You're making me regret settling for whatever Grayson's making."
"Good. I'm still seducing you with Asian food."
"Does it count as a seduction if I'm a willing victim?"
"Don't know. Don't care, either. Have fun, and come back to me soon."
"I will. Thanks."
I felt something gentle on the wall between our minds. Almost like a brush of fingers, or a soft kiss.
I went back out to eat with everyone, and it felt good.
Really good.
When we got back to the house, Darius had a fresh batch of dumplings waiting. Kat and I stuffed our faces again after receiving compliments and doing obligatory spins for our men so they could see the changes to our hair.
Callum hauled Kat out of there pretty soon after we arrived. She gave me a huge hug on her way out, whispering, "You're amazing," before she left.
I grinned when Dare pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me, kissing my forehead.
"On a scale of one to ten, how much does Callum hate me for stealing his mate all day?" I asked, leaning my back against his chest.
"I think he kind of loves you for it. He kept stalking her location. He was in pain, obviously, but he didn't seem to mind. He's wanted Kat to make a new friend since long before Jonah picked her sister."
"I've never even met him and Gwen, and I already hate them."
"They're nothing to write home about." Darius slipped his hand into my hair and tipped my head to the side, kissing his way down my throat. "You need to bite me."
"I've been fantasizing about your veins for the past hour."
"Is that the only part of me you've been fantasizing about?"
"What if it is?"
"Then I'll really have to take my time making you miss me." He leaned us forward until I was draped over the countertop. I sucked a breath as his erection pressed against my ass.
"I was totally fantasizing about you railing me against the mirror in that salon," I lied, wanting him inside me as soon as possible.
"That's what I thought." He had my shorts around my thighs and was sliding home moments later, while we both groaned in pleasure. "Was it good, in the fantasy?"
"So good." I lifted a hand to his hair and dug my fingers in.
Dare's hand joined his cock between my thighs, and he worked my clit slowly as he thrust into me from behind, taking me a little harder.
"You're so fucking wet," he tangled his fist in my hair as he fucked me hard. The sounds our bodies made were filthy and erotic in the best way.
"If you weren't so hot, I wouldn't have to be wet."
"So it's my fault?"
"Yup." I managed to pop my lips on the p, even though I was fighting another moan as he dragged his finger in a slow circle around my clit.
His teeth scraped my throat as he hauled me off my feet and off his cock—just long enough to spin me around and set me on the kitchen countertop on my ass.
He tore my shorts away and stepped closer, dragging me to the edge of the stone. "Bite me if you want to come, Rae."
"Maybe you should call me Raven."
"Bite me if you want to come, Raven."
I made a face.
No.
Not even maybe.
I couldn't be Raven. Not to Dare.
"Rae," I corrected.
He laughed. "Woman, just fucking bite me."
I sank my fangs into his throat, and he drove into me again, giving me exactly what he'd promised as he dragged me to the edge with one rough thrust after another.
We came hard, together, and I swear, the world started looking even brighter.