Saving Her Angel (Archangels) (6 page)

“Finished?” he asked her after a few minutes.

She was looking over the disappointing selection of vegetables and grabbed a little of everything offered before sighing. “Yes.”

He took her basket and carried both to the register. The old man at the counter looked them over, his eyes widening at the amount of food they were buying. But he said nothing as he rang it up and bagged it. Cam handed over a credit card without batting an eyelash, even as Eleanor cringed.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have grabbed so much pasta. Or all those spices.”

He frowned at her. “Don’t worry about it. The kitchen’s practically empty. It’ll get used.”

She doubted it, if she was only going to be in his house for a couple of days, but said nothing else. They carried the bags to the truck, and he opened the back to reveal a couple of ice chests. Sel appeared with a bag of ice. The men set to organizing the groceries in the chests while Eleanor looked around. They were still surrounded by trees but were closer to the public entrance to the park. Despite it being early fall, people milled around in shorts and tank tops. The weather was still a bit humid and almost spring-like. Typical for southeast Texas.

A woman brushed dirt off her barefoot toddler’s feet, and a pang of longing hit Eleanor. Would she ever do that? In the past four years, she’d only gone on a handful of dates, which had barely lasted through dinner. She just couldn’t seem to find a man who could hold her interest for even an hour. She glanced at Cam. Not true. He’d held her interest for years, but he was her boss. Well, not anymore. But he clearly wasn’t interested in her. She had the distinct impression that he often forgot she existed, sometimes even when they were in the same room. With a sigh, she walked over to the passenger’s door of his SUV.

A dark shadow flowed over the truck and brought a chilly gust of wind with it that sent a shiver down her spine. She released the door handle and wrapped her arms around her body as she shivered. The mother grabbed her toddler and shoved him in their car as she snuck glances at the sky overhead. Eleanor gasped at the dark, angry-looking storm clouds forming above her. Lightning sparked within the clouds, which kept swirling even as they spread. Soon the area had darkened to the look of early dusk. Eleanor jumped when someone suddenly grasped her elbow.

“Get in the truck,” Cam said in her ear.

The urgency in his voice spurred her to action as he ran around the front of the vehicle. He jumped in and started it while she strapped on her seat belt. He pulled his on even as he was backing out of the parking space.

“Wait. Where’s Sel?”

“The store owner’s son is going to drive him to his car with some gas. Then he’ll drive back here and fill up before heading back to Mike’s.”

He hit the road and accelerated quickly. She didn’t know why, but she felt the need for speed, too, and almost asked him to drive faster. The road into the woods wound back and forth while ascending slightly, but luckily not much. They were still on mostly flat ground in this area.

“What do you think is happening?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but I think we need to be safely inside my house when it hits.”

The first golf ball-sized piece of hail hit his windshield like a gunshot. She cried out, but he didn’t even swerve, as if he’d been expecting it. His face showed no sign of strain or apprehension, but Eleanor’s nails dug into the door handle on one side and the console on the other. Even as she fought to stay calm, her knuckles turned white from the strain. The hail increased in size and frequency until finally they made it beneath the canopy of the deeper woods.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the wind rattled the trees around them. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on breathing slowly. She had full confidence in Cam—he had always been a rock, there to weather any storm that came their way.

Before he’d come along she’d hit rock bottom so hard it had nearly killed her, but then he’d shown up out of the blue, and she’d never looked back. Since then, very little had affected her over the past four years, as if his presence in her life had scared all the bad stuff away. Now scary, unexplainable things were happening again, and she prayed it didn’t hurt either one of them.

A loud clap of thunder rattled the windows, and Cam hit the brakes. “Shit.”

“What—”

She opened her eyes to see a large tree lying across the road. “Oh no.”

“It’s wedged between the trees, too. That’s not going to be easy or quick to move.”

“Move? It’ll take a crane to budge that thing. Is there another way to your house?”

He put the truck in park and stared at her for a moment before giving a slow nod. “Yes. And if I wasn’t worried about what this weather means, I’d never subject you to it. But you do trust me, right?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“All right then.” He whipped his shirt off and got out of the truck. She took a moment to appreciate the view before wondering what the hell he was doing. Then her door whipped open, and he was there.

“Take off your seat belt,” he said calmly.

“What? Are you crazy? It’s not safe out there with the lightning—”

“Take off your seat belt.”

They were yelling now to be heard over the wind and the sound of rain and hail hitting the trees.

She hesitated another second before doing as he said. He slipped one arm behind her back and the other beneath her knees. “Wrap your arms around my neck.”

“Cam, I can walk.”

“We’re not walking, Eleanor. Do it.” He pulled her out of the truck and jumped into the air. As the ground dropped away from them, she screamed. When large, beautiful white wings appeared over his shoulders, she simply stared at them…and then fainted.

Chapter Four

Cam took a second to scan Eleanor and make sure she hadn’t been hit with hail before he put all his concentration into getting them to his house. It wasn’t too far by flight, but he couldn’t chance going above the canopy of the woods and fully extending his wings—the trees were all that protected them from the hail that had reached softball proportions.

He wound through the trees and looked down at the wildlife running below him, desperately looking for shelter. He didn’t envy them that struggle but knew he couldn’t do a damn thing to help them this time. Eleanor had to be his first priority.

His house came into view, and he made a beeline for the safety of the porch. His front door opened, and Uri was there with a towel in his hands. Relief filled Cam. He landed and waited for Uri to drape the towel over Eleanor before he carried her into the house and went straight to the sofa in his den while his brother lit a fire. The room warmed while he began pulling off her wet clothes.

“Sel is already at your truck. I’m going to help him move the tree and drive your supplies in,” Uri said. He left without another word.

Cam had removed her shoes, socks, and jeans without a thought, but he hesitated once he pulled the towel away. Her thin T-shirt was glued to her body from the rain. The lacy bra beneath it stood out, as did her hardened nipples beneath the lace. He groaned and shut his eyes for a moment. He’d never really looked at Eleanor as a woman. She was his secretary, the best he’d ever had. She was pretty much his right hand at the office. Even the day they’d met, it wasn’t her beauty that had caught his eye but her purity, her innate goodness. Never before had he seen her as a sexual being. That time had come.

There was no ignoring her enticing curves and the pale perfection of her skin. Skin that proved to be silky soft when he finally slipped his fingers beneath the hem of her shirt. She moaned softly and a slight frown formed on her face, but she didn’t wake. He slid the shirt up her torso and fought the urge to simply rip it off her. Instead, he gently maneuvered her arms until he’d pulled the wet fabric off completely. That left her glasses adoringly askew. He grinned down at her a moment before gently removing them.

Her lingerie was a matching set of red lace. He groaned at the sight, then laughed quietly when he remembered her embarrassment at the cloth sticking out of her bag. So this was what she’d been hiding. He longed to know what else was in that bag. Then she shivered, and his attention snapped back to taking care of her. Softly, he rubbed her down with the towel then pulled a blanket over her that had been lying across the back of the sofa. She sighed contentedly when he finished, and slept on.

“What the hell am I going to do with you now?” he whispered.

The corners of her mouth turned up slightly as if she’d heard his question. Did that mean she was laughing at him in her dreams? Somehow that wouldn’t surprise him. He shook his head and left the room to check in with his brothers.

The storm had grown stronger in the few minutes he’d been home, but it was centered solely over Huntsville. A quick check of the news proved similar storms were hovering over the other quake sites as well. Overall, there were forty-eight sites, one in each of the contiguous United States. Not a one of them was within a major city, but close to the largest metropolis in that state. Cam shook his head at the oddity of it all.

Mike’s voice sounded in his head.
Do you remember in the fifties when there were a few freak storms in Alaska? Then it was discovered a portal had been opened after a couple of tries? Perhaps the attempt to open a portal is what caused the quake and now these storms. It means whoever wants these portals opened hasn’t given up.

These portals have to be the work of one seriously strong demon,
Cam replied.

Or more than one working together, though the chances of any high-level working with another is slim at best. Still, it’s possible.

“Shit,” Cam muttered under his breath.

Sel and Uri came into the room just as Cam clicked off the television. “Maybe you should take her to Rafe or Zerach,” Sel said.

Cam’s attention snapped to him as he fought an instant denial. “Why? I can keep her safe here.”

“The assembly is beginning. Over half of the expected Watchers have arrived at the Dome already. Don’t you want to go?”

Cam had wanted to attend, had fully expected to. But how could he leave Eleanor in someone else’s care? Both of his brothers were now mortal since they had chosen to
fall,
although they retained some angelic qualities. They couldn’t speak to each other telepathically, but they had heightened senses that would alert them to a demonic presence well before they were attacked. They would have time to make a phone call and were also stronger than any human, but neither of them had yet tested that strength against a demon.

Eleanor’s image filled his mind, and his chest ached at the thought of anything happening to her.
No
. He couldn’t leave her when they didn’t fully understand what they might be up against. Especially since she seemed to be a target.

“I’ll keep her here. She’s obviously a target, and there’s no use in taking her to Rafe or Zerach and putting them and their wives in harm’s way. You two go to the assembly and keep your minds open for me. I won’t miss a thing.”

They headed for the door.

“The storm isn’t slowing,” Sel said. “You still have the generator, right?”

“Yeah. Uri?”

“I’m on it. It’ll be running like new if you need it.”

Once his brothers walked out the door and into the storm, he walked back through the house to get to Eleanor’s side. She had always meant something to him, but that was as his secretary. Thinking about her now made his pulse speed up and his body warm. He was starting to care for her in the way a man should care for a woman. She was becoming more than his ex-employee, but what it was, he couldn’t name yet.

…

Eleanor was so pleasantly warm and cozy she just wanted to stay asleep forever, but there was something nagging at the back of her mind. Something weird had happened again. Something she really should think about and study or investigate. But doing that had gotten her into trouble in the past. The last time weird things had happened and she’d been nosy, trying to figure them out, she’d gotten hurt. It had been horrible.

Did she really want to go through that again? Not really. Besides, Cam would take care of her. She woke with a gasp.

“Cam.”

For a moment, she lay there, disoriented, and looked around the room. It was lavishly furnished with beautiful antiques. A fire roared a few feet from the plush sofa where she rested. She sat up gingerly and ran a hand through her hair. What had happened to her? Before she could start to worry, the door opened, and Cam walked in.

“Hey, you’re awake. Do you feel all right?”

He sat on the edge of the sofa, where she was cuddled up in a warm blanket, his bare chest gleaming in the firelight and the light from lamps on either side of the sofa. His pale skin held a golden hue she’d only ever seen on his brothers. Without thinking about it, she reached out and laid a hand on his chest, right over his beating heart.

“What happened?” she asked.

His throat moved as he swallowed, and she barely resisted the urge to slide her palm up to touch it. Already she was doing more than she ever had before with him. Sure, she had been in a few relationships in the past, but that was before she’d met Cam. What would he think if he knew she’d held every man she’d met up to his standard?

“What is that look on your face for?” he asked.

That startled her out of her thoughts, and she caught his gaze. “What look?”

“I don’t know… Pensive? Concerned? What are you thinking?”

As the events of their race back to his house flitted through her mind, she frowned—she’d fainted.

“I…fainted. Didn’t I? Because you…” Her eyes widened, and she dropped her hand. “Oh my God. You had
wings
.”

Trying to scoot back in the cramped space, she pushed him away. He stood but didn’t move away from the sofa.

“You have nothing to fear from me. I would never hurt you.”

“But…wings. How can you have wings?” She shook her head. “No. No, I must’ve been hit in the head with hail or something. Wings are impossible.” She looked up at him in fear. “Or I’m starting to hallucinate again.”

He frowned and ran his hands over his face. She had never seen him look so exhausted, even after a few trying counseling sessions. Usually he just looked thoughtful and not quite aware of the world around him. That was why she didn’t take it too personally when he forgot she was there.

Maybe he was trying to think of a way to tell her she had a bad head injury?

“I did hit my head, didn’t I? Back at the car after the earthquake. And I’ve been having odd delusions this whole time. You just don’t know how to explain it to me without freaking me out.”

“No, you didn’t hit your head. There is a pretty lengthy and unbelievable explanation, and I’m happy to tell you all about it.” He waved a hand at her vaguely while he turned his gaze to the fireplace. “Can you, uh…wrap that blanket around your shoulders or something?”

Confusion rose at the strange request until she looked down. Then she gasped and grabbed the blanket, pulling it up to her neck. “I’m naked.”

“Not quite.”

“Damn near.”

A brow lifted at her anger, and he gave a halfhearted shrug. “You were soaked to the skin. What did you want me to do?”

With no ready response, she just scowled at him instead. It was actually ridiculous to be mad at him when she’d normally have been overjoyed to have him undressing her. While she was conscious, at least.

“Fine. I’m covered up now. Explain what happened.” She gingerly ran her hands over her head. “How bad was I hurt?”

“I told you, you don’t have a head injury.” He sighed again. “And I do, in fact, have wings.”

Firelight hit his back as he paced away. The thin outline of a finely etched pair of wings glimmered on his skin, and she blinked a couple of times before realizing they were really there.

Relief made her giddy, and she laughed. “Your tattoo.”

He faced her again. “It’s much more than a tattoo.”

Then his white wings were back, slowly rising past his shoulders and stretching across the room. Fire singed her lungs as every ounce of breath left her. Her heart raced, and panic seized her by the throat.

He froze and stared at her with his hands held up. “I would never hurt you, Eleanor.”

That actually calmed her. Despite the absolute unreality of the situation he was still Cam.

“Turn around, please.”

He complied and proved that, yes, the wings were fully attached. They melted into his skin seamlessly so she couldn’t tell exactly where they began. The feathers seemed to move to an invisible breeze, and she longed to touch them, but maybe it wasn’t safe. Maybe
he
wasn’t as safe as she’d always thought.

The image of another pair of wings from another time popped into her mind out of nowhere, and she gasped. She covered her eyes with one hand and rubbed the other over her chest to soothe her still-racing heart. He faced her again, concern on his face, but she ignored it.

“What are you, Cam? Why do you have wings, and what else can you do besides fly? And pull swords and armor out of thin air?”

He took a deep breath, and his wings disappeared. Then he dragged the coffee table closer to her and sat on it.

She listened closely as he explained that he wasn’t actually human.

No, of course not.

The seven Maxwell brothers were actually Archangels. They had been living as humans in this realm for centuries and changed their personas every ten to twelve years to keep the humans around them from realizing they weren’t aging. That’s why he had “retired”—because it was time for him to make that change. That’s why he’d disrupted her happy life by laying her off. So he could become someone else.

Anger filled her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

He stopped his explanation and blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You really mean to tell me you think your clients would notice you’re not aging? That’s why I’m unemployed?”

He blinked again then choked out a laugh. “That’s what you got out of that whole explanation? That I let you go?”

“Well, no, that’s not all, of course, but… I loved my job, Cam. It really hurt when you said you were retiring. None of your clients have even been around for ten years.”

After staring at her a moment he started laughing. He wrapped his arms around his belly and let his head fall back as he laughed and laughed.

“Oh, you…asshole.” She grabbed a pillow off his sofa and threw it at him hard enough that it knocked him backward off the coffee table. “Hah. Not so strong are you?”

Still laughing, he climbed to his feet. “Yeah, actually I am. You just got in a lucky shot.”

“Oh…whatever.”

He chuckled a bit more before his amusement finally ebbed. “I’m really sorry, Eleanor. I didn’t mean to upset you so much by sending you away. I thought I was keeping you safe. My brother Rafe has had a terrible feeling the past month, and I was worried something bad was coming. And it looks like we were right. I do need to change personas but could’ve waited another year. I just wanted to get you away from me while it was still safe.”

That deflated her a bit. “Oh.”

He shook his head. “I guess I wasn’t quick enough. Despite everything, you’ve still become a target, and I don’t know why other than your association with me. I’m really sorry.”

Guilt ate at her as she watched emotions cross his face. He thought it was all his fault just because he was an angel. But she had a past he knew nothing about.

When it came to the war between good and evil, she had become a player at a very young age.

Those memories were pushed deep down so they wouldn’t keep her up at night, but it wasn’t hard to set them free and drown in them. She had to be very careful not to let the bad stuff creep in and take her over completely. Maybe it was time for her own confession.