“Head’s fine, Avery,” Cam assured her. “But what about you? Do you need a healer?”
Turned out, it didn’t matter what she needed. Before she could say anything, Dina let out an annoyed mew.
Lashing her tail, she turned to Cam. “Camiel. Have the witch check Avery. I insist.”
Cam’s light-hearted, easy-going mood vanished. “Why? Something I need to know, Di?”
“I don’t know. So why don’t you ask the witch? I would, but I doubt she can make much of meow, meow, hiss, hiss, don’t you?”
Cam sought Avery’s gaze. “You okay being checked out?”
As if she could deny him anything. “Sure. Okay.”
Another one of the ups-and-downs. Shea wrinkled her nose. “I can tell you’re hurting. Something’s odd about it, though. Maybe if you tell me what you’re feeling, I can figure out how to help you.”
“Um. I guess.” Avery gestured to her right shoulder. “My shoulder’s a little banged up.” With a soft touch, she laid her hand over the sleeve of Cam’s jacket. “And, uh, my arm kind of hurts.”
That might’ve been the wrong thing to say.
“Hurts?” Cam’s lips thinned. “Or burns?”
How did he know?
She cringed. “Um. Burns?”
“Avery!”
“What? It’s been doing that for a while now. You know that. I told you that!”
Shea cleared her throat. “Can I see?”
Avery rolled up the jacket’s sleeve, prepared to explain that she didn’t know how she got the strange black markings on her arm—when her mouth fell open.
They weren’t black anymore. They were white.
What?
She didn’t say anything, but Cam knew. He’d been sitting up while Shea healed him, but as Avery stared down at her arm, he pushed himself up until he was standing. A little slower than normal, he tucked his wings in, before bowing his head over Avery.
“What the— when did that happen?”
“I… I don’t know. It wasn’t like this this morning.”
“What? What is it? Show me,” demanded Dina.
Why not? Avery dropped to one knee, lowering her arm. Dina laid her front two paws on top of her thigh, careful not to scratch her with her claws as the cat pulled herself up.
Her whiskers tickling Avery’s underarm as she got close enough, Dina scrutinized the white mark. When she was done, her cat’s eyes seemed to light up. “I’ll be damned. So the mark does change after the souls bond. I’ll have to tell Robert.”
Avery had no idea what any of that meant.
Neither, it seemed, did Cam.
“Dina. What do you know about this?”
There was a thrum of power underlying Cam’s quiet question. Dina’s fur stood on end, though she didn’t react in the slightest, and Avery felt the intense energy wrap her body like a comforting hug.
Shea yelped.
Colt’s snarl reached the rest of them beyond the golden light. As Avery’s head swiveled toward the angry sound, she watched as Colt shoved the nearest human away from him—a vindictive part of Avery was glad to see it was Noah who ended up on his ass this time—before he turned to find his mate. Across the way, his dark blue eyes flared icy, pure white fur sprouting along his bare arms.
“Ah, crud.” Shea held up her hand, raising her voice. “I’m fine, Colton. He just caught me off guard. I’m not in any danger, okay?”
Colt swallowed his next growl, but that didn’t stop him from stalking toward the circle. “You sure?”
The air around them crackled. Avery couldn’t tell if this power belonged to the witch, her shifter, or Cam, but it was undeniable.
Shea’s purple eyes darkened. Under her breath, she murmured, “I better go talk to my mate.” She threw Avery a look that, unless she was misreading it, said, “You talk to yours.”
Without a word, Cam dropped the barrier so that Shea could meet Colt halfway. All it took was her hand on his bicep and the bristling shifter melted. They became hazy an instant later as Colt brought his halo back, darker and thicker this time, and then the mated couple was forgotten.
He whirled on Dina. “Explain.”
The cat batted at a clod of grass that someone must’ve kicked closer to her. “I don’t know if I like your tone, Camiel.”
“And I don’t know if I appreciate you being so fucking cryptic, Di.”
“Minus two-tenths— oh. Sorry. Habit.”
“Dina…”
“What do you want me to say? The curse of the Nephilim is the true curse of the Othersiders. You know that, Camiel.”
“Right. Don’t touch a mortal woman with lust in your heart. Don’t lie with her. Don’t fall in love. Look at me. Three for three. But what I want you to tell me is why Avery’s amar mark’s changed and I’ve got a halo instead of being, uh—”
“Dead?” Avery supplied. At Dina’s stern look, she grimaced while trying not to think about how crazy it was that she could tell when the cat was looking stern. “Sorry. But… Cam, you told me that the curse meant you didn’t get to be an angel. Mortal or demon. That’s what you said.”
“Sacrificing your life for your mate’s was the most selfless thing you’d ever done in your existence, Camiel. It was enough to give you enough points to ascend, but you never triggered the curse. So you were never mortal.”
“Uh, Di. I definitely remember the hellhounds chasing us.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Um,” added Avery, “I do, too.”
Again, the cat rolled her eyes. “That’s because those demon dogs are scavengers. They could sense that Camiel found his soulmate, but the bond wasn’t quite complete. He mated you, but until you gave your soul back to him, his soul was reaching out. The dogs wanted a taste so they came after you. It’s very simple, and before Camiel decided to lie with you, he should’ve explained to what was going to happen. What you should expect.”
Avery felt her cheeks heating up. “It, uh, wasn’t exactly Cam’s decision. I didn’t really give him a chance to say anything after yes.”
“Hmm.” Dina wasn’t convinced. “Still, what’s done is done. If it wasn’t for some soul keeping Camiel tethered here, he’d already be in the up above. You don’t think you’re meant to be? Why else would he have stayed?”
How was she supposed to know? She was new to most of this angel stuff. “So what kept him here? What kept the curse from striking after we… you know.”
“You did, Avery,” Cam murmured.
“Me?”
Dina nodded. “He’s right. The curse of the Nephilim has kept the Fallen from finding love with mortal females for millennia. Every couple of hundred years, though, one of their number finds their soulmate and they can bond. But in all my research, I’ve only seen one who became a true angel after claiming the other half of his soul like Camiel did. He didn’t go straight to the up above because half of his soul was on the mortal plane. Camiel stayed because of you.”
Because he gave her his soul last night as he finished inside of her the first of many, many delicious times. Then, when he actually ascended after saving her life, he’d been unconscious so her presence with him kept him grounded.
But what about now?
“Don’t you want to go? To Heaven, I mean. The, uh, the up above? You’re a true angel now.”
Cam’s eyebrows winged up. “Without you? Are you serious?”
From the beginning, Cam never hid the fact that everything he did, he did because he wanted to earn his halo. He wanted the power of a true angel. His forever in Heaven.
“Well, yeah. You finally got what you wanted.”
Cam’s hand shot out. Gently gripping Avery by the wrist, he tugged her arm with just enough force to have her falling against his chest. Nestled against her belly, she felt the familiar bulge of his erection. When his mouth found hers, she drank in his kiss, wishing that this didn’t have to be goodbye.
And then, as she reluctantly pulled away from him, he told her, “No, Avery. Now
I have it.”
“Cam? I… what do you mean?”
Dina sniffed. “You gave him part of your soul, silly girl. You took his in return. The bond is sealed. You didn’t think he was going to leave you now, did you?”
Uh. Yeah. She did. Until the cat’s snarky remark, she totally did.
Cam gave her a crooked grin that burned right through her, but in all the best ways this time. “She’s right. I gave you my soul. You gave me yours. Those two halves have bonded into something new. For now until we venture up above together, you’re stuck with me. You’re my soulmate. My bonded mate.”
“And there’s nothing you can do to change that,” Dina drawled. “So, in case you were having second thoughts, it’s too late. He’s your Fallen… no, he’s your angel now.”
Avery glanced down at the white brand on her skin again.
“Oh.”
Because what else can you say to that?
Ten minutes later, Avery was still in a bit of a daze. While she stood there, tucked beneath Cam’s arm, his wings flared behind them as if standing guard over the pair, she listened to the argument going around her as if she was barely there.
Bonded. The two of them were bonded—and she had the mark to prove it. Sure, it wouldn’t be official official until she and Cam visited a Bumptown and got a notarized bonding license that said that they were soulmates and protected by the Claws Clause, but that was just bureaucratic bullshit. As Dina explained to her and Cam while Shea was still busy with her snarly mate before rejoining them inside of Cam’s halo-fueled barrier, their promises to each other were as binding as a shifter biting and claiming their mate: nothing short of death could break it. And, now that Cam had ascended to being a true angel with Avery matching his long, long lifespan as his mate, that made it close to impossible for both of them.
She couldn’t decide what stunned her more: that her lifespan was tied to a basically immortal angel, or that she was looking at forever at his side. Well, as long as he decided to stay on Earth, that was.
But would he?
He said so, but Avery wasn’t holding him to that. Two weeks versus more decades than she wanted to think about… would he really give up his life’s goal just because she was the first woman to sleep with him? He said he loved her… but would it last?
Her parents’ hadn’t. Jason had cheated on Heather after six years.
Besides, could she really be so selfish as to keep her angel after everything he’d done for her?
If so, what happened now? This morning, she was just glad that she’d proven to Cam that he was being ridiculous, ignoring the attraction between them. Now she knew there was a reason behind that inexplicable pull toward him that she’d never been able to deny: the soulmate bond that had been triggered from the first moment she looked in his eyes.
As Colton slipped through the barrier again and rejoined his mate, slinging an arm around her shoulder, he joined Avery in listening as Shea explained—again—why, as his healer, she advised against Cam flying anywhere right now. Seeing the shifter with his witch, Avery suddenly remembered something Cam had told her once.
Mate still trumps husband. Marriages can end, but a mate bond? They’re almost impossible to break.
So what did that mean for them? If they were mates—soulmates—then what happened now?
She wished she had her car. If she did, she could’ve bustled Cam inside, then driven him home. Not because the incident with the hunters and Cam falling had put her off flying with him. Honestly, if Cam was up to it, she’d love to soar above the sky in his arms without a pack of hellhounds chasing behind them.
But, as miraculous as his healing seemed, Avery thought Shea had a point. He shouldn’t be flying when, little more than an hour ago, Avery had been convinced he was dying. But Cam, she learned weeks ago, could be stubborn and, when he dug his heels in, basically immovable. He wanted to fly away. Dina said she’d meet him back in Grayson. Avery had a sinking suspicions that he planned on dropping her back at her apartment first, which made sense since she’d bullied him into taking her with him in the first place, but she’d rather walk than risk him being in danger again.
He’d already been shot at once. Just because Colton had succeeded in sending the last of the onlookers and hunters away, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t take another shot if the opportunity presented itself.
After wordlessly watching the back and forth between the angel and the witch for a few moments, Colton eyed the stony-faced Cam, then asked Shea with a pointed look, “Is he healed?”
“From the bullet wounds, yes. But I can still sense some pain coming from him. I’m not telling him he can’t fly. He’s an Othersider. An angel. He has to fly. But can’t he wait a little longer? What if his wings give out?”
“They won’t,” Cam promised.
Shea raised her eyebrows. “What if they do? Are you willing to risk Avery?”
Cam’s hand on her shoulder flexed, then tightened. “Never.”
“Then let me and Colt drive you—”
“Truck fits three, Shea,” Colton pointed out, “and I don’t think these two are gonna be separated anytime soon.”
“Then maybe—”
“If you’re thinking that I’m separating from you, either, you might as well give up now. We’re Paras, sweetheart. Neither one of us is crossing that perimeter spell now that it’s almost all the way up again, and I’m not letting you out of my fucking sight with these trigger-happy Ants right here.” Colton nodded at Avery. “No offense.”
She just shrugged. What could she say? He was spot on.
“But I wouldn’t be so worried about the angel, either,” Colton added. “Question, Shea. You’re sensing he’s in pain.” A sly smile. Just the tiniest curve of his lips. “Can you tell from where?”
“What? Of course I can. It’s—”
Shea’s mouth clicked closed. Her purple witch’s eyes popped open with what seemed like a sudden understanding. Avery had no idea what was funny, but when Shea let out a tiny laugh, she figured it had to be some kind of inside joke between the mated pair. After all, Colton looked amused for the first time that night.
“That’s right. You’ve done enough for the angel. Let his woman help him with that ache.”
With another soft laugh, Shea conceded their argument to Cam. “I’d tell you to take it easy, but I remember what it was like when me and Colt were newly mated. Not even a fight to the death with a vamp could keep him from dragging me to our bedroom.”
Oh.
Oh.
22
Good
Avery’s gaze dipped low, picking up the pretty healthy erection that Cam was still sporting. She stared at it, finally catching on to what Shea and Colton meant. Then, though she wanted to linger, her gaze traveled over the rest of Cam.
No shirt. He had a raw patch of skin where Noah’s silver bullet ripped through his side. She knew his back was peppered with the other nearly healed wounds, with the one over his heart still looking angry and red. Her fingers rested lightly over the mark. His jeans were streaked with dirt courtesy of their crash landing, a few stray feathers bent from the impact. She was okay since Cam had protected her from more than just the gunshot, but he looked like he’d been through hell.
And yet, when she met the heated look in his dark eyes, Avery could almost swear that she picked up on his ache. Call it sympathy pains or whatever, but he didn’t need her to bandage up his bumps and bruises. He just needed her.
Which was a good thing since Avery wanted nothing more than to throw herself into his arms and prove that he was still with her. He was still here. He was still alive.
The heat became a sudden inferno. He was an angel—got the halo and everything—but he looked at her like he only had devilish thoughts running through his mind.
“You ready to go home?” he asked her.
His voice was so rough, so deep, that Avery felt it all the way to her core. “With you?”
“You’re the other ha
lf of my soul, Avery. Wherever you go, I go. Forever.”
Forever…
It had all happened so fast. Two weeks ago, Avery was living with Heather, the two of them single and looking to stay that way for a while. Heather hadn’t gotten over her ex’s betrayal, and Avery was content to live life the way it was, drifting along because it was easier than rocking the boat.
Now? Heather was happily mated with the shifter that ran off with her—and she openly admitted that being whisked away from her Spring Valley life was the best thing that could’ve ever happened to her. And Avery… well, she’d wanted Cam from their first meeting, hadn’t she? She just never thought it was possible. He was too handsome, too powerful, too good.
He was a freaking angel.
And he was hers now.
Her soulmate.
“Yeah.” Avery patted his chest. “Forever sounds pretty good to me.”
Cam brought her back to his house in Grayson. It made sense. When he said home, returning to his place was the only thing he could’ve meant. It wasn’t until he had touched down on his roof that he realized that Avery might have been expecting to go back to her apartment.
As that thought popped in his head, he pulled her closer, using the excuse that he was steadying her after their landing. Since Avery cozied up to him, rubbing her cheek against his bare chest, he figured she didn’t mind.
Or maybe she didn’t realize where he’d taken her.
The whole flight, he had kept her pressed against him. It had been a bit of a struggle, focusing on the power needed to keep them cloaked against the sky—feel me once, shame on me and all that—when all he wanted to do was claim her officially as his soulmate. Even now, that was all he could think about.
Last night, he took her like he’d never get another chance. But tonight? He had forever to look forward to.
Shea’s empathic abilities had been dead on, too. He was so hard, it hurt, and he would’ve thought it had to do with the curse if it wasn’t for the truth: Avery really was his soulmate. Sure, the hellhounds had come after him, but that was only because he’d been in denial. That and, after giving her his soul, he forgot the most important part of the soulmate bond: he never asked for hers in return.
True Angel: a Fallen Angel romance (Curse of the Othersiders Book 1) Page 20
