Thank God for Dina. What would he have done without his auditor?
Still, despite standing with her on his rooftop right this very second, he couldn’t believe that he’d been good enough to earn his soulmate; going after his halo had seemed infinitely more possible so he’d never bother hoping for a mate of his own. His pull toward Avery had been undeniable from the start, though it had taken him way too long to understand what it meant. So he let her lead him to bed knowing that they could only be together the one time, never expecting it could be anything more.
But while the curse was very real—his shedding wings and, oh yeah, the hellhounds were proof of that—Cam had unknowingly found the one person who was meant for him. He’d get shot a thousand times if it meant that Avery was at his side when he recovered from the hit. Without the curse turning him mortal, he didn’t have to fear death. Just waking up to find her gone.
Not now, though. She’d given her soul to him. Bonded to him. They were mates. Nothing could ever separate them.
Feeling pretty good for being shot half to death not too long ago, Cam bowed his head over Avery, pressing a gentle kiss to her temple.
Way he saw it, the fact that he was a true angel now was just a bonus. He had his halo, and a pass to the up above whenever he wanted to visit, but with his Heaven on Earth wrapped up in his embrace? It could wait.
As physically close as they were at that moment, Cam knew the second that Avery started to shiver. His soulmate might be… different now that a true angel had claimed her as his soulmate, but she still wasn’t used to flight.
Not yet, at least.
He ran his hands up and down her back. “It’s chilly up there. Sorry. My jacket’s usually enough for me, but—”
“I’m not cold,” Avery mumbled against his chest.
“You sure? You’re shivering. We can go inside.”
She slipped her hand up, laying it on his forearm. The soft touch made him pause, giving her the chance to pull away enough to look up at him. “I’m not cold, Cam. Actually, I... you almost died. What would I have done if you died?”
Her voice was shaky. As he dipped his chin, purposely meeting her shocky gaze, he noticed that her brilliant honey-colored eyes had darkened to an amber shade. Or maybe that was because her pupils had dilated. She nibbled on her bottom lip. Avery’s other hand was inching toward his side, finding the spot where the mortal’s silver bullet had hit him first.
There wasn’t even a scar anymore. He was betting even the mark from the would-be fatal wound near his heart was completely erased by now. Between his new strength and Shea’s healing, the holes in his wings were the only evidence that he’d been shot at all; even they would fade in time. But, for Avery, the memory was still too fresh.
Cam understood. Just the idea of Avery being hit had his wings flaring out, the tips of the black feathers glowing with gold as his halo made another appearance. Earlier, there hadn’t been time to process exactly what had happened. How Avery had been the target because, if Cam hadn’t reacted, the bullet would’ve torn right through his precious mortal. His instincts to protect and shield this female had kicked in without thought.
Now that they’d exchanged the promises that bonded their souls together forever?
He’d lay the mortal plane to waste if a single hair on Avery’s head was ever harmed. And, he realized, he felt the same way this morning. Last night, too.
Yesterday at the shifter’s house with her sister.
The night of their first kiss.
The day they met.
Because some way, somehow, Cam had always recognized Avery as his soulmate.
He smiled.
Avery’s forehead furrowed. “Is there something funny about you almost dying?”
“I’m not smiling because of that.”
“I’d hope not. But fine. Why are you smiling then?”
At the hint of suspicion creeping its way into her tone, his smile only widened. That was his Avery all right. “You love me.”
Her mouth opened. Cam had caught her off guard with the change of subject and, for a moment, it was as if she didn’t know what to say in response to that. If it wasn’t for the answering tug he felt coming from the bond he finally recognized as tying them together, he might’ve been worried about her hesitation. Even so, it seemed like an eternity before she found the words.
She swallowed roughly. “I do.”
Oh, thank God. “Good. ‘Cause I love you, too.”
“Really?”
Cam knew that his soulmate was an apprehensive female. From the first day they met, when she struggled to accept that he really would help her for just the good points, Avery had been careful—until last night when she went against everything he thought she was and seduced him.
He cherished the skeptical Avery as much as he adored the fearless female who invited him into her bed. Every facet of this fascinating female he’d discovered so far was a revelation to Cam and he looked forward to learning more about her as they started their life together.
First, though, he had to make her understand.
“I think I loved you from the moment you were so determined to do anything to find your sister. I was pretty sure that night we spent together on your rooftop. But when you stood between me and that possessive wolf shifter yesterday? I knew there was no going back. Curse or no curse. I would’ve done anything to be with you. And then you seduced me and it was all I could do not to pinch myself.”
A hint of a shy smile that only ramped up his need. “You thought you were dreaming before,” she reminded him.
“When I’m with you, I always think I’m dreaming,” he admitted. “To have you as my soulmate? Seriously? I’ve been in denial for so long because, no matter how hard I worked at being good, I never thought I could deserve you. So it had to be a dream.”
Avery blinked, like something had just occurred to her. Not the reaction he was going for, but—
“Hang on. You didn’t know I was your soulmate until today, right?”
“Actually, if I’m being honest, I kinda guessed from the day my name popped up on your skin. I just couldn’t believe it.”
“Your name?” Avery jerked up her hand, reading the characters etched into her forearm. “Is that what it— you know? We’ll talk about that later. soulmates. Right. You guessed, but you didn’t know. Not for sure.”
Realizing that Avery wasn’t going to let this go, Cam figured being honest would cut through the bullshit—and get them naked faster. “Not for sure, no.”
“So. Let me get this straight—”
“Can this be something else we discuss later?”
“No. Hush.” When he laughed, a light sound because, only hours ago, he’d been convinced a back and forth like this with Avery was lost to him forever, she scowled. It was adorable. “So, if you didn’t know for sure… then that means you thought the hellhounds would come after you if we slept together. Which they did because we hadn’t finished bonding before they came after us.”
Well, when she put it that way...
“I definitely thought it was a possibility,” Cam hedged.
“If not, there was you turning mortal. Don’t deny it. We might’ve rushed out of my place, but I was listening, you know.”
“I’m not gonna deny it. If you weren’t my soulmate, then yes… the curse would’ve gotten me one way or the other. I definitely wouldn’t have ever gotten my halo. But it doesn’t matter. You are my soulmate.”
“But what if I wasn’t?”
“I wouldn’t have changed a damned thing.”
“You would’ve let me fuck you anyway? And lost everything?”
“You were with it,” he said simply. “And, in my defense, I didn’t think you’d insist on running with me afterward. I never would’ve agreed if I thought one of your”—he couldn’t keep back his suddenly furious growl—“neighbors would try to shoot at us. One day I’m gonna go back and let that one mortal in the lead know he’s lucky Colt got to
him before I could. An angel’s idea of justice looks a little different than a shifter’s.”
He wasn’t kidding. For Avery’s sake, it was a good thing that Cam couldn’t get his hands on Az’s flaming sword or he would’ve gone after the mortal with it. Colt had settled for scaring the shit out of him and promising that the Alpha would return to discuss Spring Valley’s Para-free perimeter spell while Dina was talking to Avery and Cam. Cam couldn’t say that he was satisfied with that, but when it was a choice between tending to his mate and getting his revenge on the mortal…
He was a true angel now. Vengeance could wait, too.
But he would get it. For Avery. No soul, no matter who they were, could fire a gun at his mate and get away with it.
“You’re okay, right?” he asked. Shea had checked her over after Dina asked her to, but he needed to hear it from her himself. “You didn’t get hurt when we hit the ground, did you?”
“You mean when you were sacrificing yourself for me? No. You saved my life, Cam.” And then she did the last thing he expected: she smacked him. “Don’t ever do that again!”
Cam winced, fingers probing his side.
With a squeak, Avery began to reach for him, roving her hands all over his bare skin. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Did I hurt you? I thought you were healed.”
“I am. I—” Cam chuckled, dodging another half-hearted slapping attempt. “My fault. You made it too easy. But, just so you know, I can’t agree to that. I’m a good guy, remember? I have to save a pretty damsel in distress.”
Just like he hoped, his teasing reminder of something she’d said during their first meeting—You’re one of the good ones—erased the last of Avery’s annoyance.
Flinging her arms around his neck, she said, “You’re lucky I love you—”
“Oh, I am.” His serious tone caught her by surprise. Cam ducked his head, stealing a quick kiss before settling his hands on her hips. “I’m the luckiest bastard on this side, and I promise you that I won’t forget it for a second.”
“So does that mean you’re going to stay?”
“Stay?” he echoed. “Where else would I go?”
“I don’t know. You’re an an angel now, and I’m—”
“My soulmate, Avery,” Cam said firmly. He thought she knew that already. Maybe she needed another reminder. “I told you. Wherever you go, that’s where I’m going to be. Here. Spring Valley. I don’t need to be anywhere but where you are. And, hey, I get it if this is sudden. I know you didn’t expect to get saddled with me for the rest of your life when you invited me in last night, so if you want to take things slow, I—”
Avery’s hand shifted. Before Cam could guess her intentions, she’d cupped his erection through his jeans. He hissed out a breath at how good that single touch felt. And he thought he could get it out of his system last night? That one time would be enough? He was a fucking idiot. Cam knew that he would have forever with his soulmate, and even that would never be enough.
Luckily for him, Avery seemed to agree.
“Slow? I thought being soulmates was a ‘no-take-back’ kind of thing. That’s what your cat said.”
Dina. That’s right. Avery could understand her now. “Dina’s never wrong,” he grunted out, bracing his boots on the rooftop as she stroked him slowly.
“And you’re not trying to get rid of me, are you?”
“Never,” he swore.
“Then fuck slow.” She hesitated. “Can I still curse around you now that you’re a true angel?”
“You can do whatever you want, Avery. I’m yours. Forever and for always.”
Her eyes lit up. “Good.”
Epilogue
For a moment, Dina thought that Camiel was going to claim Avery again right there on the rooftop. He hadn’t tucked his wings away yet, oblivious to the mortals below who could see the golden shine shifting off the inky black feathers. Seemed as if, after hiding who—and what—he was for decades, he was finally feeling confident enough to show off a bit now that he’d ascended.
The auditor heard Avery’s husky chuckle, Camiel’s low response, and decided to wait a few moments longer. Only if she needed to point out their audience would Dina interfere but, thankfully, Camiel remembered himself before it went past heavy petting. Chest heaving, eyes bright, he snagged a grinning Avery by the hand and, after pulling his wings in, hurried her toward the roof entrance.
As her angel led his soulmate through the doorway and down the stairs, Dina continued to hover inside of her slash in space, invisible to every soul except those that had the sight. Camiel would’ve known she was there if he had looked for her. So consumed by his mate, he never even noticed her watching over him one last time.
Which was just as well since their time together had come to an end.
Dina was an auditor. Without a Fallen to audit, she had no reason to linger on the mortal plane. She needed to return to the up above and wait for her next assignment. If she was lucky, it might last longer than the seven decades she had with Camiel. To one of her kind, that was no time at all and, yet, she had still gotten attached.
But it was his time. She’d known his tally to the point, and though even an auditor wasn’t privy to a Fallen’s target, she had sensed that Camiel was getting closer and closer to proving himself to her superiors. With his sacrifice, he had done it.
Even better, he’d found his soulmate along the way.
Dina marveled over that. It had been centuries since one of the Fallen had overcome the curse of the Nephilim. She’d begun to think that none ever would again—and then Avery Hayes developed the first stages of the amar mark on her arm after Camiel touched her.
She’d only ever heard of a mark like that once before since the curse of the Nephilim cast a pall over the Fallen. What were the odds that it would’ve been from an auditor in her network, and it involved a Fallen who had been cursed long before he met his soulmate?
As an auditor, Dina’s whole existence revolved around numbers. When she thought about those odds? She calculated them when Avery’s amar mark first appeared, then when it darkened, and after Camiel was shot—and the female mortal bearing an amar mark of her own started yelling at the male responsible for first shooting at Camiel. Even with everything else going on, Dina could sense the Fallen’s touch on the yellow-haired female.
Netzach. She’d been marked by Netzach.
Of all the Othersiders on this side of the celestial plane, it had to be him.
Dina couldn’t leave the mortal world without looking further into this. So, after one final calculation, she offered Camiel and his soulmate a silent farewell before she jumped through another portal, trading the city for the mountains in the blink of an eye.
She knew should be returning to the up above for her next assignment. And she would. Just as soon as she made this quick pitstop.
Dina tripped over the dirt upon her landing, her little pink nose wrinkling as some of it stained her white paws. It was colder up on the mountain, and while she’d left a beautiful Grayson afternoon behind, this Fallen made his sanctuary in the dark and the damp and the chill.
Terrible.
Netzach had made his home in the same stony gothic manor built deep in the mountains for close to a century. Rumors ran that the house was haunted; after the mortals discovered the truth about Paras, they swore he had to be a ghost.
They were wrong.
Netzach was part-Fallen, part… something else. A loner, he hid in the shadows on the furthest reaches of what was actually pack land. He’d had an arrangement with pack Alpha after pack Alpha: if he didn’t hunt on their land, the predatory shifters wouldn’t hunt him back. It was a pact that had been observed for longer than even Dina knew.
She avoided the front of the house, padding through the overgrowth that surrounded it. A moss-covered stone angel lay crooked in her path, the wings smashed. Dina hopped over the rubble easily, just resisting the urge to hiss. Her fur puffed up as she drew close; no stopping that. She could se
nse the Fallen that lurked inside behind the blackened windows and recognized the warning.
But this was important so, her whiskers twitching, she pushed on.
When she reached the side, she dropped low and unsheathed her claws. A quick scratch at the bottom, then she waited for an answer to her signal.
Seconds later, a portal shimmered next to her. An oversized Persian cat, with a smushed face, a regal air, and fluffy grey-tinged white fur, stepped gingerly onto the grassy patch in front of Dina.
She nodded in greeting. “Robert.”
“Dina,” he drawled. “It’s good to see ya.”
He said that now. “I can’t stay long. In truth, I’ve only stopped by to give you a message.”
His blue eyes narrowed shrewdly. “A message for me or for my Fallen?”
“For you, but it’s up to you if you want to share it with him.”
“I’m listening.”
“Camiel has ascended.”
“Congratulations.”
That was the appropriate response. When a majority of the Fallen failed to earn enough points for a return to the up above, every auditor went into an assignment knowing that losing their Fallen to the down below was inevitable. To have one who became a true angel again? Most auditors took credit for that.
Not when it came to Camiel, though. Because both auditors knew that that Fallen was different. With the curse of the Nephilim hanging over his head, it should’ve been impossible. Unless, of course—
Robert twitched his super fluffy bottle-brush of a tail. Agitated though he clearly didn’t want Dina to know that, he attempted to sound disinterested as he asked, “And the mortal female?”
“That’s the rub, old friend. He’s taken her as his soulmate.”
“So the mark...”
Dina nodded. “It’s like we thought. The amar mark… it seems it’s the mark of a soulmate after all.”
True Angel: a Fallen Angel romance (Curse of the Othersiders Book 1) Page 21
