by Susan Reid
“They were angels, guardians in the beginning. Some never lost that aspect of themselves and they’ve remained protective even after having fallen. When they love, they love deeply and loyally; and when they’re angry or wronged…it’s terrifying and deadly.” She barely whispered.
“Cam, do you hear what she’s saying?”
What was I thinking, of course he could hear her.
“Yes.”
I wondered what he thought about all of that.
“Who was that fallen? One of your friends?”
“I would have no way of knowing for sure unless she tells you his name.”
“Don’t you have any friends that went missing all of a sudden not long ago?”
“I only keep a small circle of close friends that I maintain contact with all the time. Fallen aren’t like humans when it comes to relationships.”
Oh. I guess I can understand that.
“Did you know that the elders have the ability and power to do that though?” I was fearful.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it’s a non-issue. Cam`ael isn’t my true Elohim given name and it takes a lot more than a name to summon a fallen anyway. However, a demon created or born of darkness, that’s a different story. Whoever she’s talking about, couldn’t have been a fallen—if he was, then he was really stupid to have revealed his true name to anyone, especially a warrior.”
I was about to go off on Cam, about how that wasn’t stupid at all. It meant that he trusted her —like I trusted him, and I certainly hoped that he trusted me. In a way, I did understand Cam’s point but I for one still wanted to know his.
“Or maybe he just really loved and trusted her. He probably even told her why he fell, too.” I said on purpose, wondering what his reply to that would be.
I could hear him chuckle a bit but he remained silent.
“They’ll do everything they can to get it out of you. Believe me, they know something already. They’re leaving the guilt and faith in your own oath to come clean up to you.”
Or in my case, one of them already knows. Ilka. For all I know, she could have told them already but she swore to allow me time to do it myself.
She turned to look at me, awaiting either a reply or a reaction to her words but I remained fascinated and quiet, letting her speak. Even Cam was silent.
She chuckled softly. “They practically hounded Devlin for a confession and a name until guilt made her give in. That was her biggest mistake.” Jamie sighed sadly.
“She might still be alive.” I finally spoke up but the sound of my voice was timid, and I was uncertain that even I believed my own words.
Jamie gave a sarcastic snort and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. She’s been gone too long. She’s an enemy now.”
I stared at her incredulously.
“You would be too if you had been gone any longer than you were. You wouldn’t have been able to return.” She then said.
“So let me get this straight. No one has any faith that she could still be alive; and after all this time, with all the scouts and elementals that we have at the hall, no one has ever tried to find or rescue her either? That right there is bullshit. No one counts on her coming back in one piece but heaven forbid that she does manage to escape and return, only to be shunned from the only support and family that she has and knows now. Where’s the loyalty? She’s one of us, a divine warrior and we’re chosen for a reason. I was told that darkness can’t touch us easily because we’re not open vessels. And no being of darkness or light can ever take away her free will. As long as she has that it’s never too late for her.” I stated with fierce passion in my tone.
My convictions and how strongly I felt about them took her by total surprise. This time Jamie was speechless, staring at me for several minutes, blinking. Her expression turned to chagrin and a single tear began to roll down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and turned away from me again.
“Very well said. I’m speechless and even more in love with you than I was only moments ago. I didn’t think that was possible. I can’t wait any longer, either get her to leave or I will cast a spell to put her out and kidnap you right this second.” Cam’s voice insistently cut silence in my head shortly thereafter. The urgency dripping in his tone was filled with both love and lust. My physical reaction from the obvious desire in his words began to warm my blood.
Jamie cocked her head, listening. I heard her inhale deeply and I wondered what she was doing, until the scent reached my nose too. Earthy cinnamon and fresh rain.
“He’s here. I’d recognize that scent anywhere. He doesn’t smell like a Fallen to me,” She inhaled deeply again, “He smells…incredibly desirable.” She said through a slow exhale.
Then she smirked with deviance and her voice was purposefully low this time, “He’s an Incubus, and a powerful one at that. Sweet and taboo on so many levels. No wonder you’re rendezvousing so soon after having just been with him. You can practically feel his magical energy and aura stroking and caressing your skin. But you’d better be careful, that combination among their kind makes him extremely dangerous too. Shit!” Jamie then hissed.
“She may be weird but she nailed my presence. She’s good.” Cam commented, apparently impressed.
Damn. How the hell had she managed to assess all of that so quickly and accurately? Just how fascinated and into these supernatural beings was she and for how long?
Jamie suddenly wielded her weapon and was on her feet in a split second. I instantly stiffened once the thick, silver, retractable chain linking her double, hand-held, scythe blades together, took form in each of her hands. Her brandings had a hint of a glow to them, just like mine began to do in automatic reflex to the looming, impending conflict and fight. I jumped to my feet and wielded my blades too, just in case she tried to attack Cam.
“What are you doing? I said to wait, I’ve got this! Don’t make me have to attack her over you!” I urged.
“She’s not attacking me. That damned seraphim is quickly making his way back towards you two right now, and there’s two fallen and several imps who have spotted you both. I’m getting you out of here!”
“Me? What about them?” Adrenaline began to surge from the anticipation and the current gravity of the dangerous situation.
“I don’t care about them.”
“That isn’t right, Cam!”
Before I could even register or comprehend what just happened, Jamie disappeared in a blur, running stealthily into the dense trees. After a grunt and what sounded like a body slamming hard onto the ground, I ran over swiftly to see if she needed help.
To my astonishment, Spencer was lying on the ground —out cold with his illuminated lightning Bo still in his grip.
“You two had better get out of here now. He won’t be out long.” She urged and then her head snapped over to the left.
I smelled them now. The wind was picking up and the odor was foul, like old sulphur, rotten flesh, and wet feathers.
“Damn, too late! You’re about to get your first crash course in combat right about now!” Jamie shouted as she snapped her weapon taut in front of her. She began swinging her right-handed scythe in a circular rotation so fast, it literally formed a perfect, silver disc that appeared to be spinning backwards.
Now I was impressed. She can fight in hand to hand combat, she could classify an unseen fallen quickly, and she could work her weapon like that? Despite her bizarre, semi-sour personality, I guess she was pretty bad-assed.
The underbrush rustled, leaves rushed upwards, and branches snapped signaling their oncoming stampede. Above us, the wind began to pick up speed, kicking up dry leaves, as two large fallen began to dive down towards us from above, like shadowed missiles. Then, they both winked out of view and completely disappeared right in front of our eyes.
Shit!
“Aw hell, not good! They’ve cloaked themselves!”
Jamie exclaimed.
Sev
eral medium-sized forms were charging towards us on the ground from all directions; grunting, snorting, and snickering like wild, evil pigs. I didn’t freak out this time. An intuition unlike any other I’ve ever felt since being here began to kick in as we both readied ourselves to fight. I didn’t understand Jamie’s initial action at first but I did now. I still didn’t know what it all meant and if I could trust her at all though.
Glancing at Spencer’s inert form on the ground, I felt guilty even though I hadn’t been the one who had essentially sucker punched him.
“It might not have been a good idea, knocking him out right about now. What are you gonna tell him when he comes to?”
“He’ll get over it” Jamie huffed.
The anticipation of where the hell those fallen were going to emerge and attack from, along with the imps, was definitely way more important —but we didn’t have to make a move at all.
In one swift blur, Cam literally swooped down, standing in front of the both of us protectively with his sword in hand, wings splayed out to shield us both, and stopping the two fallen in mid dive as they calculatingly launched themselves at us from the opposite sides.
His heroic instinct, his height, muscular broadness, and the grand span of his majestic, ruined wings, had us both awe-stricken. The intense heat of his power and magic was practically tangible, causing static to crackle and thrum in the air around him.
This was all new to me. I’ve seen him in battle with that other fallen from the club, but seeing it this close up and feeling it…was a completely different experience.
He stunned the fallen with a spray of long needles formed from light, which forced them to materialize and give away their locations. While they screeched in pain, he quickly took advantage, lighting his black sword and slicing across the line of imps with swift ease. They didn’t even know that they had been struck until they began to disintegrate into rank, acrid, steaming smoke. Then, he went for the fallen.
I heard bones breaking, grunting, growling, and the squishy sound of his blade both slicing and tearing into flesh. The cloying smell of putrid blood made me feel nauseous. It literally took him less than five minutes to destroy and kill each and every one of the black, horned imps and the two fallen that hadn’t expected him to simply—appear in front of us. The combination of his master sword handling and combat expertise turned me on. A bizarre reaction I know but it couldn’t be helped.
I completely understood Jamie’s secret fascination with supernatural beings at this very moment.
She was definitely appreciative of his efforts …although given the way she was admiring him as he scouted the perimeter for possibly more fallen, I’d say she was turned on right now by him too. But Cam was mine, just as he claimed that I was his, which meant that yes, I’d rage all over her ass in a heartbeat over him.
“Are you alright?” Cam asked me more than Jamie.
I nodded. Despite our earlier conversation, I was still nervous about Cam appearing before and speaking to me in front of her.
Jamie continued to stare at him with infatuation but there was something else in her eyes.
Yearning and ache.
Snapping out of her trance, she looked at me and then dug into the pocket on the inside of her cloak.
“Here, you’re gonna need these.” She tossed me a small, dark pouch that I managed to catch and clutch to me in one smooth motion.
What is this? I squeezed it briefly, feeling several small round objects rolling over each other inside of it.
“I meant everything I told you. Go now!” She urged, turning and kneeling down next to Spencer, who had begun to slowly rouse.
Cam had been right. Being an Earthbound Seraphim, in Spencer’s case, had put him at a huge vulnerable disadvantage, given that a human warrior could knock him out with one or two hits.
Before I could even speak a word, Cam wasted no time snaking an arm around my waist and holding me firmly against his hard body. He skin was slick and extremely warm, almost hot. The vibration of his magic was still pulsing from him and it made me shiver with desire.
In the next split second, we were airborne. I pulled my blades in quickly, clutching onto him tightly as his legs wrapped around mine to secure me to him. My heart felt as if it were sliding straight down into my stomach. It was like being on a reverse roller coaster. Instead of going down, we were going up at great speed. I kept my eyes shut tightly as we ascended higher and higher into the chilly night sky and above the sparse clouds.
X. Cam`ael
“I can’t believe you did that.” Starling said once I landed on the wide, smooth, stone outcropping of rock leading to the front door to my home.
I set her down gently, pulling in my wings and then whispering the brief incantation that would open the entrance.
The five-foot thick slab of rock that served as my door, slowly began to slide open.
“Did what?” I played casual on purpose.
She sighed. “Put yourself at risk like that. I told you, I don’t know Jamie despite everything she said. And then Spencer could have seen you too.”
“Oh, he wouldn’t have seen me. He’d have been down and unconscious before realizing that something or someone hit him. When it comes to your safety, I don’t care if the whole damned divine cavalry was out there.” I turned around to face her then.
“You know what I mean.” She replied but she wasn’t looking at me when she spoke. She was looking down into her hands, examining the contents of some small, black pouch. She paused and a mystified expression masked her face.
“What is that?” I asked approaching her.
“Nothing.” She said, quickly closing the bag, and inserting it into a hidden pocket in the inside of her cloak.
I smirked as I slowly strode over to her.
“If I really want to see it…I can retrieve it easily.” I playfully reminded her.
She placed her hands on her hips. “You mean you can try to.”
I smiled. “Is that so?”
Standing in front of her and looking down at her petite stature as she gazed defiantly up at me, I couldn’t help but grin.
“There is still one issue that I’d like to get straight with you first…” I then said, purposefully backing her up and forcing her to make a U turn as she slowly began to retreat towards the direction of the open entrance.
She raised a curious brow. “Really? What issue would that be?”
“The issue of trust…” I began.
“Oh, you mean you not trusting me enough to tell me things about you?” She pointed at me and then to herself as she spoke.
“More like the other way around.” I corrected her.
She missed the doorway. The stone wall beside it halted her from continuing to retreat from me. I took advantage of that moment.
Her beautiful, pouty lips turned down into a frown and her brows furrowed in confusion. “I think you have that backwards.” She replied.
Slowly, she began to rise from the ground. Using just magic, I eased her up the wall and stopped once she was leveled face to face with me. She didn’t even react or comment on what I was doing.
I leaned in close, our lips a few centimeters apart.
“No, I think I have it pretty dead on.” I whispered.
“You’re the one who’s keeping things about your past from me.”
I eyed her playfully and held up an index finger, “Key word. Past. I’d like to leave it there.”
“I’m not asking so I can judge you today.”
“Then why do you need to know any of it?”
She narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously. “Why can’t you just tell me?”
I couldn’t help but smile. She was definitely still the Starling that I fell in love with, without a doubt.
“Besides, you told me that you’d tell me anyway.” She insisted.
“I didn’t tell you when I would. You’re immortal now, so that could mean tomorrow, next week, next month, or five hundred years from now.” I
grinned.
She gaped at me incredulously.
“Come inside, I need you to do something before we go.” I finally said, completely changing the subject as I took a few steps away from her and eased her back down the wall to her feet again.
I headed inside, expecting her to be right behind me but she wasn’t. When I turned to head back outside, my eyes widened.
“What are you doing?” I quickly darted over to her.
She was standing at the very edge of the stone platform, facing me—with her back to the nearly 55,000 foot drop down to solid ground…with several protruding cliffs and jagged outcroppings along the way.
I wasn’t sure what she had in mind and what she meant, let alone why she was so damned insistent about it, but I had a pretty good idea. Maybe a small part of me didn’t fully trust her but I wasn’t paying that part any heed. I love her. Of that, I’ve never been more certain. Surely, she has to know that.
Would she really go this far to prove her trustworthiness to me? She didn’t have to go to this extreme.
Her sudden backwards, yet extremely graceful swan-dive over the lip of the ledge had proven me wrong. She immediately began to plummet, back first, down the mountainside. Her black cloak flapped all around the shape of her small frame like crazy bat wings, creating a disturbance in the cloud cover that parted and wisped apart once she quickly disappeared through it.
So, she wanted to play the trust game, huh? I smiled to myself, crossing my arms over my chest while calculating the distance, velocity, and time that it would take for her to just barely come close to hitting the ground. This wasn’t a building, this was a mountain—there were no straight lined sides. I pushed out a bit of magick to create a cushion of air and space between her and all the solid, jagged, and deadly obstacles that I knew were part of this mountainside.
In the meantime, my mind wandered to the words that Elohim had revealed to me in the book. It made sense but what was it referring to? It was like a riddle.
‘And it will come to pass, before the two worlds divulge, darkness begins to spread its arrogant disease. A weapon will be formed from the life of its master, which shall become the sole source of his absolute destruction.’
