She sucked in a breath, fingers curling in. Her eyes widened. “Cam…”
It hit him in an instant what he’d just done. He’d let the darkness inside of him well up, taking over, and he regretted it immediately.
“Ah, shit. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
She looked away from him. He watched her flex her hand before laying her palm flat against her thigh. “Don’t be sorry,” she murmured. A soft breath, then a quick peek over at him. She kept her eyes averted, though, leaving Cam to only guess what she thought about his actions. Then she spoke again, and he knew that she considered them even. “I could say the same thing about last night in the alley. Now that I know you’ve never been kissed… I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known it was your first.”
Cam knew they’d never be even. What he did… he should’ve had better control. No excuses. And yet, the remorse in her voice caused him to lose it again.
Of course, that was assuming he had every regained any.
“Why?” he demanded. “Was there something wrong with kissing me?”
“No!” It came out as a hurried cry. Avery swallowed, then tried again. “I mean, not at all. It was great. But I was just hoping to avoid anyone who might be following us. It was a distraction. I thought I could explain, but now I feel awful. That’s not how anyone should have their first kiss.”
“So do it again.”
“What?”
What?
Cam couldn’t believe what he was doing. But in for a penny, in for a pound. He’d already crossed the line. Why not fucking tap dance over it?
“Consider it a do over,” he proposed. “We won’t count that one. Show me how it’s really supposed to be done.”
Avery hesitated. Right when he was positive she was going to tell him to get off her roof, she said softly, “Are you sure?”
Nope. But was that going to stop him?
Yeah, right.
“Why not?” Was he wheedling? It sounded like he was wheedling. “It’s just a kiss, right?”
And, so long as that kiss didn’t lead to anything else, he should be okay. While he was still shedding feathers, he’d only lost four more today that he knew of. Yesterday it was three in the alley, another four in the shower, and two more in his bed this morning when he woke up. Maybe the curse was taking it easy on him. Another kiss might mean a bald patch in his wings later on, but at least he’d still have his wings. To kiss his mortal while he was expecting it… it would be worth it.
Before she could take back her offer, Cam bent his head over Avery. Forehead to forehead, nose to nose, he forced himself to look straight in her eyes, shuddering at the hidden depths of Avery’s soul that he found there.
He couldn’t stop his mouth from slanting over hers if an archangel held his halo out to him on a silver platter.
This time, instead of taking control of the kiss, Avery cajoled him into opening his mouth. A quick nip to his bottom lip, a swipe of her tongue across the seam of his mouth, begging entrance. As soon as Cam figured out what she was doing, he took the lead—and she let him.
His fingers slid into her hair, the soft strands adding to the sensations overwhelming him. He sensed her falling against him, her hands clutching at his shirt, massaging his chest. Or was she clinging to him, pulling him closer? Cam couldn’t tell. Didn’t care, either. In this moment, the two of them were one, and he was willing to let Avery do whatever she wanted to him so long as he could keep kissing her.
Of course, it didn’t last. All too soon, Avery broke the kiss, patting his chest before she took a few hesitant steps away from him.
“Wow,” she said breathlessly. “You’re sure that’s only your second kiss?”
Cam was at a loss for words. It was all he could do to manage a nod.
“Let me just tell you. You’re a quick learner.” She gave him a small smile. “I hope that makes up for last night.”
“Uh huh.”
Avery laughed. A low chuckle that sent a shiver coursing down Cam’s spine, his erection twitching as if reminding him that it was still hard and heavy. He didn’t want to push his luck, but even if his cock had to stay tucked inside his jeans, maybe he could kiss her again? That wouldn’t affect the curse, right?
That’s what Cam thought. An instant later, he discovered he was wrong.
Her laugh stopped short, a wince taking its place. “Ow.”
He sensed pain. “Avery, you okay?”
“I don’t know. Remember that weird rash from yesterday? That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about before we got, um, distracted.” She shoved up the sleeve of her hoodie. “It itched at first, and I got these little red bumps, so I thought it was an allergy. Like a rash? Benadryl helped with the itch, but the rash didn’t go away. Then I woke up this morning and it… it looks like someone drew on me in ink.”
Cam’s stomach went queasy when he saw what was there.
“Does it hurt?”
“It didn’t before. Now? It burns a little, kinda like yesterday. I was gonna ask if you know anything about this. I feel like I’ve been cursed or something.”
Who, oh why, did she have to say that?
Cam gulped. “I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like that in person before.”
Avery shook her arm, letting the sleeve cover the mark. “I was thinking I’d visit Shea in a couple of days if it didn’t get better. She’s a healer. Maybe she’s got a cream or something that would help. Then it turned into this. I’ve never seen anything like this, either. Looked it up on the internet and that didn’t help.”
It wouldn’t.
Because the beginning of the amar mark had transformed into six characters that look like they’d been etched into Avery’s forearm. And Cam had been completely honest with her. He’d never seen it in person—but Dina had warned him that this might happen.
And it had.
Shit.
12
Minus two-tenths
Dina was waiting outside of her library when Cam came down from the roof access.
Knowing he wasn’t going to avoid this conversation, he didn’t even try. He just hoped he could brush his auditor off quickly before she announced how many points he’d lost by letting his dark side take over back at Avery’s.
Plus the mark. He needed to tell her about Avery’s new mark.
Just… not now.
That was a worry for later on. Right this second? His only goal was to head straight to his bathroom, lock the door, and devote as much time as possible to working the heavy ache out of his poor cock. The relief would only be temporary, and considering he could still feel that careful brush of Avery’s hand against his length, could still taste her on his lips… yeah, he might be in there for a while.
To his surprise, Dina didn’t even mention points or his tally. Instead, she greeted him with a nod, then said, “I found out more about the amar mark.”
As if he needed the reminder. With a hollow laugh, Cam said, “Yeah? So did I.”
Dina frowned, her whiskers drooping. “What do you mean?”
It seemed as if the image of Avery’s mark on her arm was as burned in his memory as it was etched into her skin. You’d think the realization that things were progressing to a point of no return would be enough to tame his wayward cock. He shifted his stance, trying to make room for his erection in his jeans as he wondered just how much to tell Dina.
In the end, figuring his situation couldn’t get any worse, he told her everything.
Well, no. He kept the kiss out of it. It was bad enough that Dina knew where he was going every night—kind of hard not to when Spring Valley’s barrier kept her out so it was obvious where he went—but that kiss… if she didn’t already know, it wasn’t technically a lie if he kept it to himself.
But the amar mark… he told her everything about it and swiftly realized that when he thought things couldn’t get worse, he was wrong.
Dina let him talk. As soon as he was done,
she lifted up her front right paw. That’s when he saw that she’d been hiding a scrap of paper underneath it. She batted the piece of paper until it landed near the tip of Cam’s boots.
“The mark on her arm… did it look like this?”
He picked it up and got one of the biggest shocks of his existence:
“Where did you get this from?” he asked.
“Robert,” Dina told him. “Now answer my question.”
Robert was another auditor. He was assigned to an Othersider who Cam had heard of, but had never met in person. There were rumors surrounding Robert’s Fallen: that he was even more different than Azrael, that he was already cursed, that he found his soulmate and then gave her up… Cam had never paid attention to any of that. But, holding the scrap of paper, he was beginning to think that he should have.
“Yeah, actually. I didn’t stare at it too long, but I’m pretty sure these are the same characters I saw on Avery.”
“It’s Enochian.”
“Angel writing,” Cam said. “I thought so. But I can’t read it. I didn’t think anyone could anymore. And Robert gave this to you? How did he know?”
Dina’s cat’s eyes seemed to flash. “He didn’t. Not really. I asked his help in translating something for me. He finally finished, but I’d hoped that my suspicions were wrong.”
“Di. I don’t mean to be an ass, but it’s been a rough night. I still haven’t heard back from any of my contacts, there’s still no sign of Heather Hayes, and now I’ve got a mortal running around with a mark I never meant to give her. I keep thinking things can’t get worse, but then they do, so can you just tell me and get it over with?”
“Very well, Camiel. Those letters only mean one thing. It’s your name.”
He cast his eyes toward the ceiling. “Fuck.”
“I know this is the last thing you want to hear, but minus two-tenths of a point for cursing.”
Forget the shower. Right then, Cam just wanted to bang his head against the nearest wall.
The next day found Cam sitting in his office, surrounded by scrolls again.
He was trying to figure out what would turn an amar mark from the faint red rash to a rich, black tattoo. When that failed, he tried to look up the significance of the Enochian characters spelling out his name, but he didn’t learn anything he hadn’t already known. Without meaning to, Cam had basically branded Avery with his name.
He couldn’t take it back. It seemed as if what was done was done, even if he had no idea how he’d done it in the first place. To make it even worse, he couldn’t find any evidence that the amar mark had anything to do with a Fallen’s soulmate. At least, if he could convince himself that Avery was the other half of his soul, then it wouldn’t be so bad. Cam wouldn’t have to worry about the curse, and he could finally give in to the growing feelings he had for the mortal.
But he couldn’t, and he was so frustrated, he nearly tore the latest scroll he was reading in half just to get some of that frustration out of his system. Dina would have his head if he so much as spilled a drop of coffee on it, though, and he carefully rolled it back up before shoving it to the side.
Then, still feeling amped up, he pushed his chair away from his desk and started to pace around his office.
He’d already made his daily call to Azrael. Though he could tell that Az was busy taking care of some trouble of his own, the angel of death humored him by reporting that, yes, Heather Hayes was still alive. Too bad that was the only information he had on Avery’s sister. The trace outside of Mickey’s had long grown cold, and while his path out of Spring Valley took him by the library last night, he still didn’t have any new leads.
No new leads meant no reason to visit Avery with an update.
And he wondered why he was so frustrated...
To make matters worse, when he freed his wings earlier, shaking them out as if that would help him loosen up, he discovered no less than six feathers had fallen to his office floor. The only thing he could blame was that second kiss with Avery, and what did it say about him that, if given the chance, he’d willfully shed six more feathers just to drink in her taste one more time?
He had scooped them up, adding them to the growing pile under his desk. He didn’t know why he didn’t just get rid of them. It wasn’t like he could superglue them back on his wings or anything. These days, though, Cam couldn’t really say why he was doing anything, and that just cranked his frustration level up to one hundred.
Midday, he threw on his jacket, stalking down Main Street. He kept his head bowed as he hurried past Mindy Ruger’s nail salon. He was in no mood to deal with her heavy-handed flirting attempts as he broke for the corner.
Whether it was because of his mood or his dark scowl, there wasn’t a single taker who was willing to let Cam help them navigate the crosswalk. Most of the passersby actually jaywalked in order to avoid him, and when he just knew he was losing more points frightening the mortals than he was gaining by helping them, he spit out a curse and headed back toward his office.
And while he might’ve avoided Mindy earlier, it seemed as if the universe was just piling on him because, as he passed her salon, the door flew open and Mindy jumped right in front of him with a beaming, “Cameron!”
Only his Othersider’s sensing abilities kept him from bowling her over. “Mindy.” It came out as a snap that had the blonde’s smile wavering. He clenched his jaw, swallowing back his piss-poor attitude, and tried again. “Nice to see you. Now, if you’d excuse me—”
“Oh? Are you busy? I was just thinking how I owed you for the other day.”
What? Oh. Right. When she called him into her nail salon over the broken fuses. “It was nothing.”
“Maybe to you. But I want to pay you back. I know you don’t take cash, so I was hoping that, since it’s about lunch, maybe you and me could—”
Cam’s head punched up at the same time as his cock began to stir, then to twitch. No way Mindy and her oozing lust was responsible for that. Her voice continued to wash over him, but he tuned it out as he looked past her.
And there she was.
Avery. Avery was standing in front of his closed office, watching him with Mindy.
What was she doing there? And, more importantly, why had his body picked up on her even before the rest of his senses had?
Oh, this was bad. So very bad.
Even worse? Was the overwhelming need to go to her, to talk to her, to feel her presence like a balm on his soul.
Just then, Cam decided it was pointless to dwell on the what and the why’s. Avery was by his office and, well, that was where he needed to be, too.
Mindy was still talking. Without touching her, he skirted around the blonde mortal.
Disappointment, sadness, and… yup, that was envy all right, licked at his senses. Mindy. He might have already put the mortal behind him, but, once again, her gaze followed him as he started to jog away.
“Maybe another time, Cameron,” she called after him.
He didn’t even reply. Cam only had eyes for Avery.
As he strode up to her, she traded her frown for a plastic smile that didn’t quite meet her honey-colored eyes. “If you want to finish talking to your friend, that’s okay. I would’ve waited inside, but the door’s locked and Dina’s not here to open it up for me this time.”
She said it with a light-hearted tease, but Cam was sure that she didn’t mean that, either. As Avery glanced over his shoulder, he was sure that she was looking at Mindy—who hadn’t gone back into her salon, but was instead staring daggers down the block at Avery.
As if his day wasn’t bad enough. Now the one mortal who had his attention thought he was interested in Mindy.
There was only one female who wore his mark. One female he made his cock go hard. And one female who had him wondering whether the curse of the Othersiders could really be as bad as Dina made it seem…
“She’s not my friend,” he said gruffly. When Avery’s gaze shot back over to him, he realized
just how rough he sounded. Great. So now he was taking his shit mood out on Avery? He shook his head. “That’s just Mindy. She has a shop on the same street as me.”
“She called you Cameron. I didn’t know that was your full name.”
“It’s not.” He paused. All along he’d wondered if he should share his angelic name with Avery. Well, why not? Maybe then it would erase that false pleasantness from her expression. “My name’s Camiel.”
“I like it,” she said. “It suits you.”
It did more than that. If Avery used that name, she had the power to call him to her side at any given moment. That, however, Cam kept to himself. This mortal female already had enough power over him in the little time that they had known each other. He wasn’t so sure she needed anymore.
Grabbing his keys from his jacket pocket, he unlocked his front door, then held it open for her. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”
He saw her gaze flicker toward the empty desk as they entered. “You don’t really have a secretary, do you?”
That was the last thing he expected to hear from her. “Uh, no. The desk came with the office, but I never bothered hiring any soul to sit at it.” Mainly because he couldn’t afford to. “The note does the job.”
“Yeah. I guess. But—”
“But?”
“I don’t know. My job let me go over this whole mess. Maybe, when it’s all done, I could be your secretary. I’m pretty good at paperwork and filing, and I can use a computer without it blowing up on me.”
Cam couldn’t tell if she was teasing or not. Worse, he couldn’t tell if he wanted her to be.
As he led her into his office, he settled on making a non-committal sound. While some part of him wanted to jump at the idea that, when this job was done, he’d see Avery again… the other more practical part realized that he was already in way over his head. Finding a reason to keep the mortal wearing his amar mark around? Did he want to bring the curse down on his head?
True Angel: a Fallen Angel romance (Curse of the Othersiders Book 1) Page 11
