Chapter Eight
I was cozy and warm the next afternoon when I finally woke up. Gray and Trent were in bed with me, cuddled on either side, and I thought seriously about indulging in more sex, but even for me the night before had been a lot. I was a bit sore, and we had a few things to talk through, things I’d let go the night before.
“So you want to explain the whole ‘I work for Lucifer, Lord of the Hell plane’ now?”
Gray groaned and let his head fall back to the pillow. “Not really.” He turned on his side, propping his head up with his hand, and looked over me to Trent. “You didn’t tell her about the whole protect her humans thing?”
Trent kissed my shoulder and cuddled close. We were calmer this afternoon, and Gray hadn’t even lost his shit once. Not that he’d had time to. We’d pretty much fucked all night until I couldn’t keep my eyes open a second longer.
I’d awakened to two pairs of hands on me and the joyous smell of bacon frying somewhere in our apartment. Eddie was hard at work, and I was going to enjoy having him spoil me again.
“Yes, that’s what I explained, but you know she’s not going to believe it until she hears it all from you,” Trent prompted.
I could feel the new talisman he’d picked up brush against my skin. He and Fenrir had gone into town and had dinner after their run. Apparently there was a woman in the small town who ran a hair salon that also sold magical items. Trent said that while the woman’s love potions were mostly sugar water with a hint of vodka, her talisman against demonic influence was solid. It had proven its worth the night before because Trent had been perfectly solid. I intended to make sure he wore that sucker all the time.
Gray sighed, and his eyes met mine. “Jacob saw what could happen to your brothers and mom if they were left without protection during these years.”
Jacob was Gray’s mentor and Heaven’s prophet. “He told you what to do?”
“You know he can’t do that,” Gray replied. “He can merely give me the prophecy and I have to figure it out. Obviously I couldn’t see it myself since I’m involved.”
“But you saw me leaving the Earth plane for twelve years.”
His head shook. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. That prophecy…it was important. I don’t know I’ll ever have a more important prophecy, certainly not one that touches my own world. I know you think I should have been able to spare you, but…”
I put a hand on his chest, loving the feel of his skin under my fingers. “I had to go because I had to find Dean. I had to go because I needed The Path.”
“What was it?” Gray’s eyes flared in obvious curiosity. “I know it wasn’t an actual physical path.”
This was why prophecy was so stinking annoying. He’d known the words weren’t literal but he couldn’t tell me. Like he’d probably known “summer” was actually Summer and a person not a season, but he couldn’t fix my misinterpretation. It wasn’t that he was good at following the rules set up in the prophet handbook. It was that he physically couldn’t fix it, couldn’t do anything about it beyond repeating the prophecy over and over. I’d heard a lot about a trick and a trap the last couple years. “It’s a book of prophecy.”
It would be interesting to see how the book reacted to Gray.
“Where is it?” Gray sat up. “I don’t think you should leave it out in the open. That book is important.”
I waved the worry off. “She doesn’t want to be stolen. She’s good.”
His brow rose. “She? Like Gladys?”
I frowned his way. “Gladys didn’t want to be stolen either, but she doesn’t have pages that are made of magic and the ability to find her way where she needs to go. I don’t think I could have left The Path behind even if I’d wanted to. That book was determined.” Something tickled my memory. “Hey, if you can’t help, how did you tell Albert to take the children?”
“The prophecy wasn’t about the children,” Gray insisted. “Look, sometimes I take a shot and sometimes I score. I think whatever it is that gave me these powers has rules they don’t want messed with and ones that aren’t so rigid. I try and if what I’m doing to help works, then I figure the powers that be are cool with it. I couldn’t tell Albert anything more than to protect the kids if something went wrong. When you think about it, it could mean anything.”
“Semantics,” Trent argued. “When the dark prophet walks in and tells you to protect the kids, you know he’s not talking about a scraped knee. The fact that it was Gray meant Albert would take him seriously.”
“And the fact that it was Jacob speaking to me made me take the threats to your brothers and mother seriously,” Gray said solemnly. “Back then there was no magical city to protect the resistance. There was chaos and the open targeting of anyone who might aid the royals should they ever return.”
I didn’t like the explanation, but I did accept it. “Okay, but why Lucifer? Couldn’t you have offered to do another job?”
A brow rose over Gray’s eyes, an amused expression. “Like what, baby? The satans didn’t need a lunch lady. I don’t think they needed my janitorial services. I’m a prophet. It was always going to be about prophecy.”
“Okay, then why can’t you just tell him a bunch of prophecies. I don’t understand the focus thing.” All I knew was some demons used other demons as focal points to… Yep, that was all I had.
“Lucifer has built up his own prophecy powers over the millennia.” Gray’s expression had shuttered, and I could see how hard this was for him to talk about. “He doesn’t want the prophecies I can give him. He wants ones he learns on his own. He believes prophecy is built into the fabric of the universe, and all he needs is to find it. So he meditates and opens his inner eyes, and he discovers the secrets the planes whisper to him.”
“The planes whisper?” I didn’t get the metaphors Gray was using.
“Yes.”