I shivered at the feeling of his warm breath, heat flushing through me. “I have my ways.”
I strode through the club, and the patrons parted like water to let me pass. It was so unlike when I’d had to push my way through the crowd, and I knew that I had the Devil at my back to thank for that.
We reached the exit of the club and slipped out into the quiet hall. I started down the hall, the Devil at my side.
Tension tightened the air between us.
“How do I know I can I trust you?” His voice murmured low.
“Does it matter?” I looked up at him, smiling. “You are stronger.”
“Perhaps.” He shrugged lightly, his gaze moving over me. It flared with heat. “But I’ve learned not to underestimate others. Particularly women.”
We reached the door to his flat. It was time. I was going to touch him. To seduce him—at least a little. It was part of the plan.
My heart raced.
I pushed him against the door, my gaze on his lips. Heat flared, an atom bomb of attraction exploding in the space between us.
“It’s wise not to underestimate me.” I looked at his lips, leaning up slowly.
His hands came to my waist, gripping firmly. I shivered at the familiar touch.
Before my lips could reach his, the door behind him opened. I caught sight of my Grey standing behind him. He reached up with a cloth and pressed it over the other’s mouth, pulling him back into the room.
Briefly, he struggled, but the potion soaking the cloth was enough to knock him out for days. He collapsed against Grey, who dragged him inside. I followed, shutting the door behind me.
The interior of the flat was quite different than I remembered. The same massive window revealed a view of a windswept desert, and the bookshelves were still there, but the furniture was older and more staid, fussier than the Grey I knew. But then, everything during this time period had been fussier.
“Where will you put him?” I asked. The potion was supposed to last for at least two days, and he’d wake with little memory of the preceding hours.
“In the second bedroom.” He heaved the body into his arms and strode in that direction.
I followed him.
Grey delivered the body to the smaller bed, then stared at the younger man for a moment too long.
“Weird to see yourself like this, isn’t it?” I asked.
“It is. But…that’s not what’s so strange.” He looked down at me. “I remember this now. Waking up in this bed chamber, confused about why I was here. And realizing that two days had passed.”
“What?” My heart raced. “Really?”
He nodded. “I’d forgotten it along the years, chalking it up to an excess of drink, though that was never my inclination. But now that I stand here and witness myself lying in this bed, I remember it.”
“That’s wild.” We had proof that we were integrated into the past. “Does that mean we succeeded when we were here?”
“I do not know, unfortunately.”
I nodded. We’d just have to continue forth and pray this worked. With one last look at the prone body of the former Grey, I left the room, passing Grey’s usual bedroom and spotting an enormous bed draped in heavy fabric. The large window still provided a magical view of the snow-covered mountains of Carpathia, but like the rest of the flat, the decor was massively different.
I strolled over to the window, drawn by the cold, bleak landscape. It reminded me of Grey when I’d first met him.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
I looked back at him. “Parts of it, yes. It’s beautiful.”
“Of all the things in this flat, it most reminds me of home.” He joined me, staring at the view and seeming to draw energy from it.