Chapter Sixteen
CAM
After what seemed like an endless moment poised to attack, Thea crumpled to the ground, her face deathly pale. Cam rushed to her, cradling her head in his lap and leaned down to listen to her chest to make sure she was still breathing. Her breath was deep and slow as though she was in a heavy sleep. Cam picked her up and lifted her into his arms, carrying her to the bed.
He rested her down, stroking the hair back from her face. She didn't look peaceful; her eyes darted around behind her eyelids as though she were tormented by images she couldn't quite catch, and a moan escaped her lips. Cam lowered to press a kiss on to her mouth. She quietened and settled into a calmer state once his lips touched her and he felt her sigh into his mouth.
He moved to whisper in her ear. “Stay strong, my mate.” He pulled back to stare at her, wishing he could see her blue eyes, wondering if this was the last time he would ever get to feel her like this. He stroked his hand through her gorgeous brown hair just as a heavy knock slammed the door.
He knew who it was before he went to answer it—the Thrones.
Cam closed the bedroom door and went to let them in. A number of Thrones and two Dominions pushed inside, the seven of them crowding the apartment.
Laylah and Barakiel from the Dominion League were among them, as well as Sal. Unfortunately, Adonai was also there.
"How can I help you all?" Cam asked, in his most pleasant voice.
"Stop fucking around!" Adonai demanded. "Where is she?"
"Keep your voice down," Cam snapped. "She is here, but I will not allow you to hurt her."
They made to move towards the bedroom but Cam stepped in front of the door, his chest risen, his arms crossed. He blocked the way standing solidly in front of the door frame.
"Step aside, Camael. She has killed many," one of the other Thrones said. He was a tall, gaunt angel with a nest of blond on the top of his head. "She must be contained."
"Just contained?" Cam asked, a wild heat burning in him. “No other punishment?”
"Elithea is too powerful and too dangerous to be allowed to live at this point," Adonai said, his voice sharp. "She's killed both angels and humans and severely weakened our Realm in the process. She’s damaged many of our best fighters."
"Yes," Camael said, calmly. "So tell me which one of you will also perish for allowing this to happen. She is an unwitting victim; however, you all knew that this outcome was a possibility. You were all aware of crucial information about her mother that was withheld from her, from me, and Zakiel. And yet you let her enter the Angel Realm, you trained her, and gave her quarters. Then you caused her emotional distress, which allowed the demons to make her a target. So tell me, which one of you is going to be ‘contained’ with her?" He paused looking at each of them in turn, breathing heavily. They all looked taken aback, with the exception of Adonai who looked even angrier. "And on top of that," he continued after a moment, "the Dominion League also need to be disbanded and kept in confinement because they knew as well, didn't they? You were too busy sending her on assignments instead of making sure she was properly healed and safe."
"Yes, I suppose it was too much to ask to expect you, the supposed celebrated Power of the Realm, to actually protect her," Adonai said hotly, the viciousness in his voice scratching at Cam. "You’ve done a poor job of that since the very beginning. You were asked to train her and you ended up allowing her to face an Asmos demon on her own. You were asked to help her with her mother and you ended up attacking her. You were asked to accompany her to the human world and you ended up abandoning her so that a demon could take hold of her." Adonai was in the midst of a full-blown rant but Cam was trembling with an anger that he could barely contain. "You have done a poor job all around," Adonai spat, "and now you seek to insult us by placing blame elsewhere."
A roar ripped out of Cam so loud at least two of the Thrones stepped back. "I came to you and asked you to allow me to mate with her," he bellowed. "If you even had an inkling that something like this could have happened, you should have allowed it. You know that possession cannot take place in an angel that is mated. I would not have left her at all if I'd known that this was even possible! But she was already being possessed while I was locked up by you!" Cam glared at them all. "Everything that has happened is on the Throne and the Dominion orders. I will not allow you to place any blame whatsoever on the Nephilim that came here and did everything you asked her to do."
Adonai did not respond, although he looked about ready to attack Cam. Sal placed a hand on his arm and pushed him back slightly as he stepped forward himself. "We didn’t know anything about potential possession when you requested to mate her, Camael,” he said, in a quiet voice. “However, now is not the time to assign blame. What do you propose we do with Thea? I'm assuming you have not managed to relieve her from possession?"
"Let me mate with her now. The demon will be unable to keep control of her if we are mated."
Sal shook his head. "She's too dangerous to mate with. It could kill you. We can't afford that now—if the Angel Realm was attacked at this precise moment, we would be at great risk. We need you to be able to fight."
Cam ground his teeth in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. Of course they needed him now when they were in trouble. Just as always. He thought for a long moment trying to come up with something, anything that would get them to spare her. There had to be something they could do to destroy the demon’s hold on Thea and get her back from the darkness. And suddenly an idea came to mind. “Did you detect Thea when she entered the Angel Realm?” he asked.
“No,” the nest-hair Throne said. “But that was only because a Cherubim let her in. It seems her energy has changed enough that she can no longer see the portals.”
Cam swallowed, willing himself to say what he was thinking—it was dangerous enough that Thea was possessed… his idea would put her in even greater danger.
“If that is the case,” he said, slowly. “She can probably enter the Demon Realm.”
A silence filled the room. Laylah and Barakiel glanced at each other.
“You want her mother,” Cam pointed out. “You know she’s in the Demon Realm. Let me take her there.”
Desperation clung to his chest and they all stared back at him. If the Thrones and Dominion League didn’t take his offer, if they didn’t listen to him, Cam didn’t want to think about what that meant for Thea. No matter what, he would not let them hurt her. Clearly, they wouldn’t want to kill him or hurt him—not when they needed him so desperately, but they also saw Thea as an ultimate threat.
“That is a Dominion League problem,” Adonai said, dismissively. “Such issues are not a concern for Thrones. Our responsibility is the Angel Realm and—”
“Then you are not best placed to make this decision,” Laylah said, smoothly. “Thank you for deferring to us.” She turned to Cam, as Adonai’s jaw clenched.
“That would be a major risk,” Laylah said. “We have never sent any angel directly into the Demon Realm. You do know it would be very painful?”
“It won’t be painful for her if her energy is saturated with such power,” Cam replied.
“I mean for you,” Laylah said.
Cam stared at her evenly. “Compared to having my wings ripped from my back, I’m sure it’ll be a breeze.”
Adonai made a noise of disgust and turned away, heading to the other side of the room.
“Why has she stopped attacking?” Barakiel asked, curiously. “How are you controlling her?”
Cam chose his words carefully. “I appealed to Thea through reminding her of our relationship. She fought the demon.” He didn’t mention that she had collapsed.
“That’s not exactly a reliable method to enter into the Demon Realm with.” Adonai countered, pacing with annoyance. Things might not be going Cam’s way but Adonai wasn’t getting his way either. Cam watched him, a dark amusement stirring in him.
“I just need more time to encourage Thea to reject the demon,” Cam said, ignoring Adonai completely. “If I can reach her, I can help her.”
Sal looked at Laylah. “If Thea is able to gain control of her own mind and body, she will be able to use all of the power she has absorbed.”
“And in the Demon Realm, that would be useful,” Cam added. “She would be a powerful weapon for us in the heart of their Realm.”
The implication of that hung in the room.
Laylah glanced at Barakiel, who was looking at Cam thoughtfully.
“Do you think she will kill her mother?” he asked.
“If she does, will she be pardoned by the Angel Realm for the things she’s done while possessed?” Cam asked back.
Adonai growled at the back of the room and Sal shot him a look of warning. The Thrones and Dominions looked at each other.
“We need a panel meeting,” announced the nest-hair Throne.
“There’s no time for that,” a female Throne said. Turning to address the whole group, she spoke briskly. “I do not believe Elithea would have committed these crimes while in her right mind, and therefore I don’t feel it’s appropriate for us to condemn her to death. There was clearly a failing somewhere in determining her susceptibility to possession, but there will be time to discuss that after this matter is resolved. If this assignment with her mother is of great importance, I am inclined to allow this.”
“Agreed,” Sal said.
“Agreed,” muttered Adonai, from the back of the room.
“Agreed,” the other three Thrones said, overlapping each other.
“I also move that we discard all charges against Camael,” Sal said, smoothly. “There is no point in entertaining any notion that we will be able to carry out his sentence after his importance to us has increased.”
The other Thrones agreed swiftly, Adonai being the last one to do so.
“Tell me why Thea’s mother is so important to the Dominion League,” Cam asked Laylah. “You’ve been very concerned about her from the beginning.”
Laylah pursed her lips.
“Just tell him,” Barakiel huffed in annoyance. “Asteroth would have done so.”
Laylah squared her shoulders. “The Creator asked us to find her.”
All of the Thrones stiffened.
“What do you mean?” the Throne with the nest-hair thundered.
“I mean,” Laylah said calmly, “that the Creator set us on the path of this assignment as soon as Thea became known to us. He was particularly concerned about finding and relieving her mother.”
“How?” Sal demanded. “Did a Seraphim come to see you?”
“No. He contacted us, all of the Dominion League, through the Stream, all on the same day.”
She,” Barakiel muttered, somewhat playfully.
Laylah shrugged. “You feel him one way, I feel him another.”
“This is outrageous,” fumed a thick-set Throne with a reddish tone to his skin. “We are the ones who have the most direct connection to the Creator. We should have been consulted. You have never once mentioned this to us!”
A couple of the other Thrones nodded and grumbled in agreement.
“It is the Creator’s privilege to communicate with us as she sees fit,” Barakiel said, his voice a vicious rasp. “The whole point of the Stream is that she has direct access to all her angels. You have no right to question her choices!”
The Throne who spoke was taken aback while the others bristled. “Thea’s mother must be investigated by us,” insisted the female Throne. “Her crime with the Stream and her pregnancy falls within our domain. You had a responsibility to tell us.”
“No.” Laylah served her with a cold stare. “This is a Dominion League issue since Oriah was a fallen angel and living in the human world. Thrones have no place weighing in on this—we do not work for you. You already took our most capable Power out of commission for two years, after forbidding him to mate with the Nephilim the Creator tethered him to, which would have stabilized him and protected her! Back off!”
Each angel order glared at the other, and Cam realized their hostility was probably caused by the disruption of energy and deaths inside the Angel Realm.
"Why did the Creator want you to find Thea's mother?" he asked before things got out of hand—their dispute didn’t help Thea.
Laylah dragged her eyes from the Thrones. "He wanted us to locate her and relieve her from her suffering, as a matter of urgency. He suggested that Thea be involved so that she can get closure." Laylah's voice softened. "It was never our intention to cause her distress, Cam."
Cam digested the information. The Creator had been behind it all, but unfortunately Cam didn't know why. And the Creator hadn't offered any answers while Cam had been connecting to the Stream. Maybe if he had been connecting to the Stream all along, he would have known more.
"I need a team of Powers who would be willing to enter the Demon Realm, if necessary," he said to Laylah and Barakiel as a firm order. "I need them to gather immediately at the portal at the center of Thea's old neighborhood. As soon as I'm able to get through to Thea, we will be there."
Barakiel nodded. "It will be done."
The Dominion League angels took their leave briskly, and the Thrones followed behind.
Cam turn towards the bedroom door, taking a deep breath to deal with what he was about to do. It would be difficult for both of them, but it was necessary. Thea had to gain control. It was the only way.
He entered the bedroom and stopped dead. The bed was empty, the window had been smashed, and Thea was gone.