Chapter Sixteen
CAM
Cam crossed his arms, pulling back the blades that jutted out beneath his fists, and roared as he sliced his blades through the Asmos demon’s chest, ripping him into three pieces. Blood splattered against his chest and slapped, wetly, on the pavement.
His rage amplified, writhing, thrashing, expanding within him—reveling in the feeling of another kill. He turned toward the remaining two Asmos demons, pushing against the compulsion to attack them immediately. He needed to keep his mind on the needs of the assignment—he couldn’t kill every single demon in sight like the urges wanted him to.
“Where are they meeting?” he growled out. “You have one minute to give me an answer before you end up like your friend here.”
One of the demons, the shorter one, narrowed his eyes while the other taller one looked terrified.
“Why do you think they would tell us anything about their actions?” the braver one said.
Cam tightened his hold on the handle of his blades. “I saw you meet with them three times this week. What were you discussing?”
At that, the braver demon pressed his lips together, suddenly wary.
Cam whipped his arm up and released one of his blades. It slammed into the demon’s head. He rocked back with the force of the blade and by the time he fell, Cam had shot two energy spikes into either shoulder of the last demon, throwing him back against the brick wall behind him and pinning him still. The demon yelled in surprise, and he began to visibly tremble as Cam stalked toward him.
“Tell me,” Cam said.
The demon took a breath but his voice was still shaky. “They meet on the top floor of 30 St Mary Axe.”
Cam frowned. “Where’s that?”
“It’s a building in London. Its nickname is the Gherkin. The top floor is made of black glass so they can see out but no one can see in.”
Cam digested this. “Why so much secrecy? What are they planning?”
The demons winced. “I can’t say anymore, they’ll kill me.”
Cam held his eye. “You haven’t understood your situation,” he said. “You’re dead anyway. Your answer depends on how painfully you die.”
The demon stilled, his green eyes wide.
“Your friend over there is not dead.”
As if on cue, the demon he just struck with his blade moaned from the ground.
“My holy blade is lodged in his brain, burning it from the inside out. He would be screaming his throat raw if he wasn’t partially paralyzed. He will slowly turn to dust in the next minute or two. And it will fucking hurt.” Cam kept his eyes on the demon. “So. Which is it for you?”
The demon’s demeanor changed; his body sagged and he lowered his eyes. “They’re coordinating three attacks.”
Cam tensed. Three? Shit.
“One is concerning the US election,” continued the demon. “Another is going to be an environmental disaster in the African continent, and the third has something to do with religious conflict or racial prejudice, but I don’t know the details about that one.”
“Which one is first?”
The demon swallowed. “They’re all going to be at the same time, for maximum impact on the Angel Realm.”
Cam growled in frustration and the demon whimpered, cowering.
“So what did they want to speak to you and your… acquaintances about?”
“We have been watching Congress. They want regular updates.”
“How many of them are in this task force?” Cam asked.
“Twenty.”
“Shit!” Cam grit his teeth. The last time there had been eight. Twenty was a lot to keep track of without being discovered. He eyed the demon squirming before him. “Are they aware I have been tasked to stop them.”
The demon shook his head wildly. “No, though they know Powers will be sent to stop them. They probably already know you will be one of them.”
Cam nodded. He grabbed the demon’s head and jerked it to one side, snapping his neck, then sunk an energy spike into his brain so he could not reform from hell. That was the true difference between vanquishing a demon and killing them. Nephilim were trained to focus on severing their necks or spinal column to vanquish them, but piercing a certain part of their brain killed them and prevented them from reforming. It took a lot of precision and practice to know where to strike.
Cam fell into deep thought as he fished his dagger from the pile of demon dust on the ground. The situation was worse than he thought. The Legion task force had been smart. It had taken ages to figure out which Asmos demons they were using to complete their smaller tasks, but now it seemed clear that there was enough Legion to spread out across the human world and complete the tasks they planned without drawing on other demon classes.
His mind drifted to Thea. He had two days until he got to see her again and he ached for her. Throughout the week his rage became steadily stronger and wilder until it was almost unbearable not to submit to it. But the way Thea fucked him when he arrived home, the way she still demanded what she wanted, sometimes even without speaking, forced the rage to almost disappear. She softened and calmed him, and he held out as hard as he could until he could get to her.
By the end of the week, he had located 30 St Mary Axe—a tall, glittering, pickle-shaped, black and silver building in the heart of London—and identified eighteen of the Legion attending the meetings. However, they had been cautious and posted numerous lookouts in a wide circumference around the building. Cam couldn’t afford to kill any or they would know they had been found, and at the moment that was the only leverage he had. But his rage boiled within him, driving him crazy with the need to spill demon blood.
On Sunday, when he should have been heading back to the Angel Realm, he noticed that one of the lookouts was missing. He slipped toward the building, twisting around some of the smaller streets that he knew they wouldn’t be watching, and then settled into a coffee shop on one of the streets. He would probably have to sneak his way toward the Gherkin slowly whenever a chance came up. Strategizing and formulating a plan, all thoughts of the Angel Realm and Thea disappeared as Cam’s intense focus on the Legion task force consumed him.
***
As Cam landed on his balcony, he narrowed his eyes at the view in his living area. Thea appeared to be pacing in there, and she was fully fucking clothed. She wasn’t in one of her luscious positions preparing to give him the attention he needed. What the fuck?
He shifted into his normal form and stalked inside. “What are you doing, Thea?”
She turned surprised, her eyes sparkling, her sweet lips forming one of her most stunning smiles. “Cam!” She ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck.
He embraced her, squeezing her tight to him and lowering his head to kiss her neck. Her scent calmed him somewhat, but it wasn’t enough. He began to move toward the bedroom but she pulled away.
“Cam, I need to talk to you,” she breathed.
“After,” he said, still moving toward the bedroom, holding onto her arm.
Her face dropped slightly. “It’s important, Cam.”
“So is this,” he growled, pulling her along.
“Cam,” she said as she tried to slow down behind him. “I need to talk about this now.”
“And I told you what I need whenever I get here. I wasn’t joking, Thea.”
She yanked her arm away from him, her face contorting in anger. “So you need to fuck me before I can talk to you about something important?”
He stilled, battling the anger rolling within him. What didn’t she get? He needed to revel in her during the short time they had or he couldn’t function. He couldn’t go back out for another week without being close to her. He turned to face her slowly, stepping close.
She glared at him with that sexy fierce attitude that made his cock hard. Now was no exception, although interestingly, his rage was softening under her harsh gaze.
He stepped closer still and she stood her ground, her scowl forcing his rage into submission. And that made him want her even more.
“You have until I undress you to say whatever you have to say,” he said, beginning to unbutton her blouse.
Thea blinked in surprise but remained in her scowl. After a moment of watching him, seeming to weigh up his command, she decided to speak. “Dani says my father is ready. His memory is largely repaired.”
Cam finished the last button and slipped his hands underneath the shirt and edged it over her shoulders. “I thought it would take at least three Angel Realm weeks. Is she sure he’s ready?”
“It’s been six weeks in the Angel Realm, Cam,” Thea said, her voice soft.
Cam froze as shock hit him. Six weeks? Not possible. That would mean he had already spent nearly ten months in the human world and he’d only killed a quarter of the task force. His rage began to rise again at his own incompetence.
“So I need to know when it would be okay for me to go and see him,” Thea was saying.
“You can’t.” He threw her shirt on the floor and slipped his fingers into her leggings. “Not until this is over.”
“Dani’s not sure his memories will stay clear,” Thea said. “We need him to confirm what I am. Not just for the Dominion League, but for the Thrones. For our mating.”
Cam nodded, suddenly remembering. That meeting with the Thrones felt like a distant memory. He lowered to the ground, pulling her leggings to her ankles. “Yes, I remember,” he muttered. It was the one opportunity they had to find out that crucial information. But it was too risky.
Thea was silent, watching him closely.
He glanced up at her. “No. I can’t risk any Legion demons finding out who you are. What you are to me.”
Her eyes widened. “You would really throw away the chance for me to find out what I am because you’re scared of Legion demons?”
Cam growled and rose to his feet. “I am not scared of Legion demons.”
“Then let me go,” she shot back.
“No!” Cam roared, suddenly furious. “You will not be put at such great risk for something so small. It doesn’t fucking matter what you are!”
Thea’s mouth tightened and her eyes narrowed. “It matters to me!”
“The answer is no, Thea,” he warned.
She stepped back from him, her leggings around her ankles, blue eyes blazing. “It’s my assignment, Cam. Not yours. The Dominion League gave it to me. And if I have to do it on my own, I will.”
He watched her, fury snaking its way into his chest at her insinuation.
“You need to trust that I won’t put myself at risk.” She bent down and pulled up her leggings. “Just like I trust, and hope, that you will come back to me at the end of each day unharmed.”
“I have been a trained Power for millenniums,” he snapped. “You cannot and will not compare yourself to me.”
Thea’s mouth dropped open and she was silent for only a second. Then, yelling a string of curses, she stormed to the balcony.
“Where the fuck are you going?” Cam said, bewildered. Only when he heard her flapping away did he remember she could fly now. He glanced down at the floor. Her shirt was still there. She only had her bra on! Unbelievable. He rushed to the balcony, jumped over the railing and shifted.
The sky was a blanket of velvety indigo covering the Empire. Night was the only time the clouds were white and they swirled lazily high above. Thea’s pearly wings glittered against the deep blue and he was almost breathless at the sight of her in easy, smooth flight. No matter what she was doing she looked beautiful. His angel-form seemed to hum with satisfaction that his mate was also in hers and he was acutely aware of her. She was already a good distance away so he sped up, closing in on her.
“Fuck off, Cam,” she shouted at him as he approached.
“You’re practically naked,” he bellowed. “Get back to my quarters, now.”
“No.” She tilted, angling to the left and pushing her wings harder to speed up.
His anger spiked. “Elithea! I am losing my fucking patience!”
She twisted back to look at him then swooped upward.
“Eli—” Something hit him in the head from above. He slowed, pulled the material away. It was… her bra.
He looked at her in shock, unable to speak. She stuck her tongue out, glared at him, and zoomed away.
A burst of hilarity exploded within him and he couldn’t help but laugh, hard. She had attacked him with her bra. That was, of course, clear and irrefutable proof that she was capable of dealing with Legion. Great. He smiled as he watched her fly away, no doubt furious with him, and a sense of calm spread through him. He sobered, suddenly aware, and astounded, that his hot-boiled anger was simply gone. A bra in the head—that was all it took. He shook his head, flying lazily after her, until he suddenly realized she was now topless.
Picking up speed, he raced after her, approaching her fast. Before she could even say anything to him, he barreled into her from behind, pressing his body against her and wrapped his arms around her, forcing her wings down against her body. They rolled over repeatedly in the air, and he wrapped his legs around hers locking her still. In less than a moment, he had immobilized her.
Thea yelled in frustration. “Cam! Let me go, that hurts.”
He stretched his wings wide to level them out then tilted back to his quarters. A thrill burned through his whole form at the feel of his mate in his arms. He leaned in to her, unable to reach her ear with her wings in the way. “Shift.”
“No!”
“You will be uncomfortable with your wings like this until you shift, Thea.”
“Unless you let me go,” she shot back.
He brushed a hand over her bare breast and squeezed. “Do you want me to?”
She hesitated. “Yes.”
“You don’t sound sure,” Cam decided. He moved his other hand to her other breast, brushing both thumbs against her hard nipples. “For some reason, you have a thing about being topless. I told you this body belongs to me. You don’t get to put it on display in front of the whole Empire.”
“Hardly anyone flies at night.”
Cam kissed every part of her he could reach. He cupped her breasts in his hands, rolling tiny circles on her nipples with the pads of both forefingers. “That’s not an excuse. There are buildings all over, some of them are even airborne, Thea. Anyone could see you.”
She was unusually quiet and he could tell she was purposefully trying to hold in a moan.
“It’s your fault,” she said, finally. “You and your fucking unreasonable nature.”
“You are the one being unreasonable,” Cam said, lowering an arm and slipping his hand down the front of her leggings. “I told you I would look after you and always protect you. Sometimes you might not like it or might not agree with it but I don’t care. You can throw as many tantrums as you like.”
His hand reached between her legs and he slowly dragged his fingers up and down her pussy through her panties. She did moan aloud this time and the sound vibrated through him, sending an uncontrollable spike of excitement through his angel-form. Shit, he almost came. She suddenly shifted out of her angel-form and he pulled her tighter to him, biting her shoulder and pressing his erection up against her.
She pushed back into him, rolling her hips back into his erection and then forward into his hand. “I wasn’t throwing a tantrum. I needed space from you and I like flying at night. It helps to keep me from worrying about you.”
Cam scowled. “You don’t need to worry about me.” Then he realized what she said. “When have you flown at night?”
She was quiet for a moment. “The nights you haven’t come back.”
“What?” Cam pulled his hand from between her legs. “What do you mean?”
She didn’t reply, but they had arrived at his quarters anyway. He landed gently on the balcony and turned her toward him. Tears glistened in her eyes, and suddenly he was unsure of himself.
“There have been nights you haven’t come home, Cam,” she said quietly.
Cam shook his head. “No. Thea, I always come. I look forward to it.” He lifted a hand to her face. “I cannot continue for long without seeing you.”
“It hasn’t been a lot,” Thea admitted, leaning into his palm. “Only a few times. But when you did arrive the next day, you were… different.”
Cam tensed. “Different, how.”
Thea lifted her shoulders and averted her eyes. “It’s like you were a shell. You don’t speak to me, you don’t smile, you don’t respond to anything I say. There’s a darkness in your eyes that’s…” She glanced up at him. “You just want to have sex and lie in bed. Then you’re gone the next morning.”
Cam’s heart dropped as those nights came back to him in fragments. There were times he hadn’t been able to return and had been out of his mind by the time he did. They seemed fleeting and distant to him but, for Thea, it would be more frequent. He pulled her to him, pressing a kiss on her forehead and wrapping her in his arms. “I’m sorry, Thea.”
“I worry, Cam,” she continued into his chest. “I worry about what this assignment is doing to you. And now it’s clear you don’t even remember that you don’t come back sometimes—”
Cam moved to the couch and settled them both on it, taking her hands in his. “Thea, this assignment is more complex than I thought it would be,” he said. “The Legion task force is bigger than usual and they’re planning something on a large scale. It’s been difficult for me to make progress so sometimes I have to take the chances to disable them when I can. And it doesn’t fit neatly into the week so I always end up having Sundays free to come back to you.”
“That’s not a problem, Cam. I understand that. But I’m concerned about what happens to you when you’re out there. You change, you’re different.”
Cam held her eyes, unsure how to tell her that he simply becomes a monster. He didn’t know at what point his tumultuous rage took over, but when it did he lost all track of time. In truth, it had helped him to get further in the assignment, but he wasn’t willing to address that. The moments he came back to Thea eased the pressure off, but the rage still had him in its grip. Until tonight—until her bra.
He squeezed her hands. “That is how I’ve always been in the midst of an assignment, Thea. You don’t need to worry. I’m sorry if you feel like I’m not tending to you properly, but spending time with you is the only thing that helps me to refocus. I don’t know how much longer it will take but it’s better I’m thorough. I just need you to not worry.” He leaned in and kissed her.
“What if other Powers were to help you with the assignment?” she said, as he pulled away. “Take the pressure off you.”
He laughed. “That’s not necessary, Thea. And that’s what the task force are expecting. It’s better if it’s just me.”
She stared at him, a flush rising at her neck, her nipples still hard. She lifted her hand and brushed her fingers over his mouth. “You haven’t laughed like that since before the assignment,” she whispered.
Cam’s chest tightened, disappointment in himself rising. He had sworn he would do whatever it took to get her to trust him, and his behavior lately had not shown he’d had her needs in mind. He pulled her onto his lap, resting his head on her breasts. Her hands found their way to his hair. “You can go see your father.”
Thea’s breath hitched in her chest. “Really?”
“But only if I come with you.”
She squealed and hugged him tight. “I was hoping you would say that.”
He lifted his head to her neck and kissed it. “And Thea?”
“Yes, Cam.”
“It’s never that I want to just have sex when I come home.” He rose to look in her eyes. “That might be where it ends up going, but it’s more than that. I can’t explain it. I need to be close to you. And being with you at your most vulnerable and most beautiful, it helps me to go back out there.”
Thea feigned a frown and crossed her arms, though he noticed the blush on her cheeks. “So I’m most beautiful when I’m having an orgasm?”
Cam lifted his shoulders. “Well, I thought so until I saw you poking that tongue out at me tonight.”
Her laughter set his mind at ease and lifted his spirits. As he lay down on the couch to hold her until morning, he told himself he needed to do better.