Free The House of Grey- Volume 5 by Collin Earl

want you to be careful tonight; something just isn’t right.”
    “OK, OK,” said Monson. “I got it.”
    “Good,” said Grayson. He looked satisfied. “Now,” he said in a tone that plainly said he was ready to move on to other topics. “You’d better get ready; your date isn’t exactly what I would call the patient type.”
    The next two hours were full of nerves. He was left to himself, left with all of his questions and very little in the way of distractions. The double life he was living was really wearing on him. In one way he was totally normal: girls, school, friends, bullies all played a prominent part of that side of him. In his other life, he was something weird and unnatural, a Being of Seven Bloods who could supposedly perform acts of great power. Assuming of course any of that nonsense was actually true and he wasn’t simply losing it. Luckily, the latter self was keeping a low profile as of late, but still he felt that the two halves were on a collision course and he had no idea how to stop it, or even if he wanted to.
    At half past four Monson decided it was about time for him to get ready. He showered, shaved and had just about finished putting on his tie when he thought he heard a pounding.
    “You look good.” Dawn sounded highly amused as his voice drifted in and out of reception. Besides this annoying pitching in and out, Monson sensed an added layer of emotion in Dawn’s tone; something that maybe Dawn did not want Monson to know about. Monson gave it no notice, as he was too distracted to care about it right now. His nerves were at their very edge; he could not worry about anything else, not if he wanted to keep his bladder under control.
    “You need to relax; you’re blowing this way out of proportion.”
    He heard more pounding. Monson wished that whatever Dawn was doing, he would knock it off.
    “You don’t know what you’re talking about—do you have any idea how many people are coming to this thing tonight?” replied Monson silently. “Political figures, businessmen, A-list celebrities, the works. This dance is supposed to rival most award shows.”
    “That’s not saying very much; the Emmys were terrible this year.”
    “I’m serious.” Monson scowled at his mirror, growing frustrated with the bow tie. “What if I make a fool of myself?”
    “Since when do YOU care about such things?”
    “It’s not me I’m worried about.”
    Monson sighed again. He still heard pounding. What was that?
    “Is there a particular reason you are ignoring the door?”
    “Oh crap,” he said aloud.
    Monson bolted to the front door. It was obvious now that someone was there, and having been too caught up in his own nervousness, he had failed to recognize the sound as knocking. He unlocked the massive oak door and swung it open, only briefly wondering where Brian was.
    Grayson and Marie stood there together, yet slightly apart.
    They both looked dressed to kill. Grayson was styling in a classic three-piece suit complete with vest and antique pocket watch. There was also a visible change in his demeanor. He looked nervous, uncomfortable, borderline apprehensive. A far different Grayson than the cool, collected genius that Monson had come to know. Actually, Grayson was acting a lot more like Monson during his first few months at Coren. It was not difficult to figure out what was making him so uneasy.
    Marie looked great. Her slender frame was draped in a long dress with a plunging neckline. Her skin glowed from the silky gold fabric and glittering rhinestone straps. Marie, quite plainly, had pulled out all the stops for the evening. She obviously wanted Grayson to notice her and as far as Monson could tell, she was doing a bang-up job.
    The pair entered his apartment, neither speaking nor looking at each other. Marie smiled when she saw the look on Monson’s face. Finally, after a moment of awkward silence, she spoke.
    “Are you ready?” Her voice was soft and poised.
    “I guess,”