Page 67 of Gray
“Yeah. I promise I’m being careful. You do the same. Talk to you later, Scar.” Mason lowered the phone and stuck it in his back pocket. He stared at the sea and heavily exhaled.
“I trusted you,” I said, my voice shaking.
He whirled around to me. “Gray.”
“So that’s how it’s gonna be? You learn all our secrets and then blab to your hunter friends?”
Mason frowned. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough to know you’re full of shit.” A tear slipped from my eye, and I batted it away. “God, I never learn. I’m so gullible.” When he stepped toward me, I thrust out an arm, shaking my head. “No. Don’t you dare come over here. I’m mad at you right now.”
“Let me explain.” Mason took a step closer anyway. “Please.”
“Explain what? That you’re planning on killing my friends? That you’re waiting for us to make a mistake, and then you’ll try to kill us too?” A sound tore through my throat. “Galen was right. I didn’t see you for who you are. I let my emotions blind me.”
The fated mate connection still hummed between us. It only made me hurt more. His betrayal of my trust cut deep.
“I would never hurt you,” he said. “I wasn’t planning—”
“You never really liked me, did you?” I whispered, heart aching. “You were just using me to get some kind of inside scoop on us.”
My heart was shattering. I put a hand to my chest, as if the pressure would hold me together.
“That’s not what… goddammit.” Mason swept a hand over the top of his hair in frustration. “I wasn’t using you, Gray. This thing between us, whatever the fuck you want to call it, is real. Truth is… I care about you. More than I can even wrap my head around. But you have to see this from my point of view.”
“Your point of view?” I didn’t know whether I wanted to cry or punch him.
“I was forced here and told I need to fight in a fucking war between angels and demons, otherwise I’ll be some demon’s next plaything. Not much of a choice if you ask me. And then, I’m taken to a nightclub full of the same monsters I’ve been killing for the past two years. I saw them feeding on humans, fucking them against walls. Not only that, they’re your friends. What am I supposed to think about that?”
“Konnar explained that to you,” I said, fists clenching at my sides. “The humans at Krave are there because they want to be. Some are even mated to thosemonsters.Who are you to judge them for it?”
“In my experience, when humans come into contact with vamps, they end up on a metal slab in the morgue with their throats torn open. I’ve never seen anything like what I saw at Krave. That shit just doesn’t happen.”
“Echo Bay isn’t like other places.” I wished I could break through his stubbornness. “With that mentality, you should be disgusted with me too. I’m not human, but you fucked me. Twice.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Because you don’t hurt people, Gray. You’re half angel, for fuck’s sake. You’re not a bloodsucking demon.”
“No? But Idodrink blood.” Another of the secrets I’d been hiding, too afraid to reveal. “I don’t need it to survive like vampires do, but I enjoy the taste of it.”
That shocked him. “You drink blood.”
It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway. “I do. I add it to my drinks to give it an extra kick. And sometimes I drink directly from the vein when I’m banging a guy.” I strode forward and stopped in front of him. His hard expression hurt my heart even more. “See? I knew you’d hate me eventually. I’m not what you thought either. We were both wrong.”
So freaking wrong.
“I… I don’t hate you.” Mason’s hand shook as he lifted it to my face. “God, I could never hate you. Even now.”
“Because I’m like the sun?” My voice cracked on the last word.
“It doesn’t matter.” Mason pulled away.
“It matters to me.”
“Why? We come from different worlds, Gray.” He faced the water’s edge. “Trust is hard for me. I don’t let anyone past my barriers. It’s why I can’t give you what you want.”
