So, instead of giving in to the urge to pick her up and fly off with her, he offered her an impish grin. “It’s like I told you. I’m a do-gooder. And I think I’ve got everything I need for now. You go home, okay? I’m heading back to Grayson. I’ve got some more calls to make.”
“I thought you don’t do tech. I remember you saying something about it exploding on you.”
“I have a little better luck with phones. Not much, though.”
“So… I can’t call you?”
Cam hesitated. As an Othersider, he didn’t need a phone for her to call him. But after the near miss with his wings… maybe it was better if he didn’t tell her that.
“If you need me and you’re not close by, call Shea. If she’s at her shop, she can get a message to me. If not, she’ll get it to someone else who will.”
“About Grayson… should I still come by tomorrow? Maybe you’ll have good news for me.”
He almost said yes.
Almost.
“Why don’t you sit tight and see if Heather comes home? You never know. If she doesn’t have her phone, maybe she won’t call, but she’d head for the apartment and the rest of her stuff. Wouldn’t she?”
Avery exhaled. “You know, that’s what I keep telling myself.”
“Stick around Spring Valley,” he said. And if he slipped a little more suggestion into that command, he was only doing it for her own good. “If I hear something one way or another, I’ll come to you.”
“I’ll try.”
That was probably the best he could hope for from this determined mortal. “Night, Avery.”
Before she could say anything in response, Cam bent his knees and launched into the air. Her gasp, the sound pure shock mingled with delight, chased after him as he corkscrewed up in the evening sky before vanishing as soon as he passed the tops of the tallest trees.
He was a do-gooder, and a bit of a show off, too.
One of Cam’s favorite things about his borrowed building was that it came with roof access.
He had its previous tenant to thank for that, an Othersider who must’ve played as fast and as loose with the Claws Clause as Cam did. If a cop or some kind of bureaucratic dickhead caught him mid-flight in a no-fly zone, he’d be in breach of Ordinance 7304. At least, this way, he was only hurting his own point tally every time he went to spread his wings.
The roof made it easier for him to come and go without any soul seeing him. Launching was trickier, since he was visible for longer, but landing was a cinch. He didn’t lose his camouflage until he touched down on the ground. On the roof, it would seem as if he appeared out of thin air and, even if a bystander saw him, he could say he’d only just popped out of the roof entrance.
That night, as Cam flew back from Spring Valley, some soul was waiting for him. Perched in the center of the roof, tail wrapped around her front paws, Dina looked like a kitty statue, she was so still. Her head was cocked skyward, her cat’s eyes seeing him even though he was hidden, the way they tracked him the only clue that she was a living creature instead of decoration.
Oh. Looked like his auditor finally decided to make an appearance.
Any of the good mood he’d found when he was talking with Avery had died a quick death on the flight home. With some space between them, Cam was beginning to worry. The way she fought against his suggestion. How she felt like she needed to return to the scene of the crime—right after Cam arrived. Her open admiration of his wings, and the monster hard-on he’d been sporting since then. The way he wondered what it would be like for this mortal female to relieve his ache...
He didn’t want to leave her. When he was halfway to Grayson and he had to fight against the desire to wheel around and go back to her, he knew he was in big fucking trouble.
The last thing he needed was to find Dina waiting for him. He wasn’t in the mood for another lecture, especially after she ditched him earlier.
As soon as his boots were on the ground, he folded his wings and crossed his arms over his chest. “If you want to give me shit for doing what I said I would, save it. Okay?”
Dina rose up so that she was on four legs. “That’s not why I’m up here.”
Could’ve fooled him. “Look, I know you don’t agree with me doing this, but I thought you had my back.”
“I do, Camiel. I always have.”
Yeah? “You were a great help at the scene. Oh, wait. You weren’t there, and I got caught mid-trace by a mortal.”
Dina hissed, baring her pointed fangs. “Did they give you any trouble?”
“It was Avery,” he admitted, unable to lie to his auditor, “but that doesn’t matter. It could’ve easily been another of the locals. I had no soul to warn me and I almost got caught. What would I have done then?”
Good question. Caught completely unaware, what would he have done if it turned out it was another Spring Valley local that snuck up on him?
Othersiders didn’t have to hide what they were. Like the rest of the paranormal races, when technology made it impossible to keep their existence a secret any longer, Othersiders came out in the open. There was even a star Othersider quarterback in the PFL who earned his points working with the Make-a-Wish foundation.
Cam, though? He’d spent his first two decades hiding out. It had been a hard habit to break and, eventually, he decided against it. He didn’t deny being a Para, but he didn’t advertise it, either.
So while he wasn’t doing anything wrong exactly during his trace in Spring Valley, the fact that the town had some kind of barrier surrounding it was a pretty big clue that he wasn’t welcome. If the wrong person caught him, it wouldn’t take much to twist the Claws Clause against him.
Who knows? Avery assured him that Heather’s disappearance was under wraps for now, but if he couldn’t find her, how long before he became a prime suspect?
“I called for you, Di. I know you’re pissed, but you could’ve answered.”
“You don’t think I tried?” Dina’s ears twitched in obvious frustration. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, Camiel. My portals wouldn’t open up inside of that place. It was like hitting a brick wall. I could reach the town limits, but that was all. Something stopped me from going any further.”
“What?” He thought about that push against him as he flew high over Spring Valley. “You were blocked? I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Neither did I. And there’s something else. I could hit the magic with my paw and only just give it a push. It made my fur stand on end. It was more than a block. It was a warning. If I forced my way through, I’d pay the price for it.”
“I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. Shit. Sorry, Dina. I didn’t know.”
Dina brushed off his apology. “That’s not what I mean. Don’t you understand? This town is more than just against paranormals. It’s actively trying to keep them out. But if a shifter was determined enough to fight it—”
Cam thought he understood where she was going with this. “Was it powerful enough to turn a sane shifter feral?”
“It felt that way to me.”
“It ruffled my feathers, but it didn’t affect me. Probably because the perimeter only goes so high and they never would’ve expected someone to fly over it.” Another Othersider bonus. Being one of the rarer, less well-known Paras definitely had its perks. “That would explain my trace, too. I could sense the beast, but he had some control. He was fighting against turning feral when he tracked Avery’s sister down.”
“Like I told you. There’s something about this situation that I don’t like. You shouldn’t have agreed to help that mortal.”
And… again with that. “I need the points,” he said firmly, hoping that his auditor would leave it at that.
For a moment, Cam thought he got through to her. Until—
“So the girl found you during your trace. That’s interesting, Camiel. I thought you suggested she get some rest.”
Of course Dina would know that. A true angel could plant a su
ggestion in a mortal’s mind with no guilt, no compunction, no consequence. Not Cam. Though an Othersider’s suggestion didn’t completely erase a mortal’s free will, most found it difficult to refuse so that was just splitting hairs, wasn’t it? Any time he overrode a mortal with his suggestions, he lost a good chunk of points. As his auditor, Dina would’ve known the second he slipped the idea into Avery’s mind.
It didn’t work, though. The way she snuck up behind him proved that. Cam wasn’t sure why, and he had refused to think about it too closely while he was with her.
Now, with Dina waiting for his answer, Cam sighed. “It didn’t take.”
“Didn’t take?” she repeated. “What do you mean? She’s mortal, isn’t she? It has to take!”
“That’s what I thought, too.” He paused for a moment. “You haven’t heard anything about a mortal being immune to it before, have you?”
“No, but I might know someone who has.”
“Could you?”
Dina lifted her paw. Unsheathing her claws, she made a slash in the air in front of her. Cam could see the faint shimmer of the portal she just opened.
“On it,” she announced before she jumped into it.
As soon as her tail slithered through the portal, it closed behind her. Cam stared at the empty space for a moment before shoving his hands through his hair while exhaling roughly.
What he wouldn’t give to be staking out Main and 3rd again, just hoping he could pick up half a point here, half a point there by being Grayson’s de facto crossing guard.
Since that wasn’t going to happen until after he finished this job, he figured he might as well do what he told Avery he would.
Cam didn’t carry a cell phone on him. The only soul he was in constant contact with was Dina who, as his personal auditor, was never far from his side and, when she was, he could contact without any kind of tech. His trip into Spring Valley notwithstanding, he usually just had to turn around, call her name, and she was there if he needed her to be. Besides, with the whole opposable thumb problem, it wasn’t like Dina could answer a phone of her own anyway.
He grabbed one of the phones from his desk. There were more than ten thrown in the bottommost drawer, some of them fried, most of them dead. He rubbed his finger along the charger port, shooting it with enough of a spark of energy to have it booting up.
Focus, Cam. Finding Fido had been easy, but though he was a pup and Heather was a mortal, the principle should be the same. Find the trace. Follow the trail. Use everything he knew—and could learn—about his target to find his way toward her as quickly as he could.
And not just because she’d been gone for four days now.
The sooner he tracked down Heather, the sooner he could put the temptation that was Avery where it belonged: behind him.
7
Someone’s got a crush
Avery had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. Over two days later and she was still dazzled by the memory of seeing Cam take flight before melting against the skyline, disappearing entirely.
Actually, she confessed—if only to herself—that that wasn’t quite true. While his midnight black wings were stunning, and the sight of his strong body launching into the sky like that literally took her breath away, it wasn’t just that. It was Cam. He was the hottest thing she’d ever seen before, movie stars and male models included. But since the wings were attached to Cam, it made sense that they would be just as jaw dropping, didn’t it?
Wings plus that face equaled an Avery who, if only for a moment, could actually forget about her missing sister.
Shea warned her. Avery thought she’d been prepared, too. Nope. It had all started when Colton told Avery that he hadn’t found out anything about a feral running off with a human. Shea had almost immediately offered up Cam’s name. If Colton and his packmates couldn’t help Avery, maybe the Othersider with a penchant for good deeds could.
She’d waited until her growly mate walked away to take a phone call, then the kind witch made sure to mention that Cam was an Othersider. Aside from the powerful celestial aura surrounding him that made it difficult not to be affected by his presence, the guy had a face to match. No wonder Shea couldn’t admit that in front of Colton. As pretty as he was, he’d hate hearing that his mate thought another guy was attractive.
Not that Shea was attracted to Cam. She was just being objective. She’d always heard that Othersiders were really demons in disguise, but the way Shea described him, he was an angel on Earth.
Yeah. That was putting it mildly. Somehow, Shea had managed to undersell his dark beauty. Cam was a temptation to sin, and though Avery went in prepared to ignore his looks… it wasn’t long before she got snared in his trap.
Days later, she still hadn’t found a way to break free. And she blamed it on the wings. Sure, Cam was super gorgeous. But add the wings?
Oh, mama.
Even more amazing was how he didn’t even seem to notice. Which made sense. The one thing she discovered in her research was that, while it was possible for an Othersider to have a fated soulmate, most of that race was asexual. At the very least, celibate. Her fear that he’d exact payment from her on her back? She didn’t have to worry about that, and not just because he refused to take anything from her in order to help.
And then there was how… how safe he made her feel.
That first night, feeling drained and looking like she’d just rolled out of bed—which, yeah, she totally had—being around him had made her feel… better? Was that the right word? She was still worried about Heather, and she hoped Shea’s friend was an answer to her prayers, but for days she’d been obsessing over her sister’s fate. She was wound up so tight, she felt minutes away from exploding, and it didn’t help that Shea had managed to undersell Cam’s allure.
The guy—no, the Para was freaking gorgeous. Even when he scowled at her, her heart fluttered. When he refused to take money for helping her, she jumped to the worst conclusions if only because, jeez, there had to be something wrong with him, right?
Wrong. He didn’t accept payment because, as an Othersider, he was only interested in doing good deeds.
Seriously.
And then, within hours of promising to do the best he could to help her, Cam was in Spring Valley, already getting to work. She never expected him to start so soon. If she’d been thinking straight, she would’ve remembered the perimeter spell that her neighbors had all chipped in to keep Paras out. Though she didn’t really know much about Othersiders, she would’ve thought he’d never get in even if he did try.
But he did because of his wings. Those beautiful, beautiful wings that carried that beautiful, beautiful man up into the sky before he waved his hand and winked out of sight.
She’d heard that Othersiders could do that. It wasn’t like they went invisible or anything. It was more like they camouflaged against the sky, a way to keep hidden during their flights.
Despite being human, Avery had always been amazed by the paranormal races. Since Heather’s frantic call that ‘he’ was after her, that a feral shifter—wolf, based on the print and the howl that Avery heard over the phone—was chasing her, she’d done hours and hours of research on that type of Para instead of just for her own education.
Never underestimate an enemy, she figured. An ally, either, which was why she headed home Wednesday night and, though she knew she should get some rest like Cam told her to, logged onto her computer to read up on Othersiders.
There wasn’t much she could find. She was focused, despite how tired she was, and she would’ve kept going if it wasn’t for the strange urge she had to return to where Heather’s phone and car had been abandoned. So she did, and that’s when she found Cam on the same exact spot. As if he knew—or sensed it.
And maybe he had.
She felt better knowing that he could sense the trace of the shifter. It helped her knowing that she wasn’t imagining things. Her sister really had been abducted by a feral shifter.
Since th
en, though, she hadn’t heard from him. Not wanting to be pushy, she lingered around Spring Valley, even though she had to fight the urge to drive back toward Grayson. He told her that he’d contact her if he discovered anything, and she forced herself to accept that no news was good news. Sure, that meant he still hadn’t found Heather, but he hadn’t found Heather’s corpse yet, either.
She’s not dead, you know…
Avery clasped her hands in a silent prayer. Heather better stay that way—or she’d kill her herself.
Her older sister was all she had left. First there was her parents’ divorce when Avery was only twelve, then their deaths—three years apart—all before Avery hit twenty-five. She’d shared an apartment with Heather since she was eighteen and, though she was twenty-nine now, she hadn’t thought that would change anytime soon. Even during Heather’s long-term relationship with Jason Cunningham, he’d really been the third wheel to their duo.
She had to bring Heather back if only because she hadn’t been exaggerating to Cam. Heather would do nothing less for her if their roles were reversed.
So, while she waited to hear from Cam—or from Heather herself—Avery tried to keep up appearances as if nothing was wrong. She gave bogus updates to Janice at the library, turned the light on in Heather’s room for a few hours every night, and when her friends tried to get in contact with her, she made excuses. She was sick. She was doing a research project. She’d even used Heather’s spare key to bring her car back to the complex, parked next to Avery’s coupe where it belonged.
Whatever it took.
Way Avery saw it, her job was toast. And that was fine. She didn’t work in Spring Valley on purpose—unlike Heather, she hated the anti-Para town—and there was always a store looking for a manager somewhere. She’d be fine. Heather’s whole life was in Spring Valley. Avery would preserve it for her the best she could.
If she did that, she could keep convincing herself that Heather was coming back.
She wouldn’t let herself think anything else. Even if it was Saturday now and a whole week had passed since Heather’s sudden disappearance. She was hopeful and tenacious and if she was slightly distracted by Cam, she’d deal if it meant he’d help her track down Heather.
True Angel: a Fallen Angel romance (Curse of the Othersiders Book 1) Page 6