A Matter of Time (The Angel Sight Series) (25 page)

Both men parted, heading in different directions. The closest one circled wide around me.

They returned shortly with another set of footsteps behind them. I pulled myself to my feet, hoping Cam would hold me and tell me everything would be okay. It wasn’t what I wanted, or needed, but it would suffice until I could find Dad and Laylah.

Elyon stood behind his guards. His tall frame was wrapped with lean muscle, his rectangular jaw clenched only slightly. His mild brown hair was trimmed, neat, and well combed.

I was physically sickened to see him alive, while Kade and so many others were not.

“Where’s Cam?” I barked, bending at the waist to project my voice and stop myself from crumbling apart. “You’re the last person who should be anywhere near me right now.”

He strolled around his men. I couldn’t see so much as a single feather trailing behind him. “You have expelled all your power. There is nothing you can do to me now.”

I peered over my shoulder to find another set of wings missing. My own.

I guess that meant I couldn’t see the wings any longer. The loss was as much a blessing and a curse as the power to see them had been.

Here, now, me without my power—without my usefulness—I was on my knees, and all Elyon had to do to be rid of me was swing his sword.

I should have been worried. Or kept my word and punched him as hard as I could. Instead I sighed. Without Lucien’s essence my anger was no longer an all-encompassing thing. Hitting him wouldn’t have been worth my time.

“What happened?” I asked.

“You succeeded,” Elyon said. “The Fallen are all gone. Ash amidst the streets.”

Tears broke the surface, swimming in my vision but not falling. “Where’s Cam?” I asked again.

“Camael isn’t with us anymore,” Elyon replied.

I narrowed wet eyes at him. “What exactly does that mean?” My fists clenched in the dead grass by my sides. “If you did anything to him—”

A new figure ran up Sacramento Street, blowing through several piles of ash on his way up the hill to us.

It was another man with no wings. This one was blond. As he got closer, I noticed he didn’t have the same perfect complexion as the others. He was pale, and sweat tacked some of his hair to his forehead. I looked again.

“Cam!” I jumped to my feet and ran into his arms, nearly knocking both of us to the ground. Puffs of ragged breaths expanded his chest as our hug dragged on. “You’re alive.”

“I’m more alive than ever,” he said, holding me at arm’s length.

“Really? Because you kind of look like shit.”

He laughed, that sound of large, heavy bells reminding me of sitting across from him in History class, ten lifetimes ago. The sound was almost enough to make me laugh. Almost. Until I remembered why I might never so much as smile again.

I let him lead me to the nearest bench, watching over my shoulder as Elyon and his guards strolled down the other side of the hill toward Angel Central.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m sitting, which is what you want, because I imagine you have a lot to tell me.”

“Are you sure you’re ready to hear it all?”

“Listening is about the least dangerous thing I’ve done in as long as I can remember. I have to know.”

“After the Fallen were destroyed, your wings burnt away and a blast of wind took their remains and spread them over the city, healing it from the war. ‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing.’”

“Was that … from the Bible?”

Cam nodded. “Malachi. Chapter four verses one through three. Almost like it was written about you.”

A strange swirling formed in my stomach. “That was beautiful and all, but I could do without the Bible right now. What else happened?”

“In the aftermath, I followed Elyon up to Heaven again, without his knowledge. I snuck into another meeting with the Governing Fifteen. I told them how, without the Fallen, our way of life was going to have to change. Not only our work, but our choices. It took some time, and I almost got myself thrown out more than once, but I convinced them to listen. I told them how angels should be allowed to choose a new path. Rather than risk Falling, they should be given a choice, choose to be human. We know the resources of changing an angel were available to Lucien, so why not our side?”

His eyes were all over the place, wild and bright, fresh with a new light I’d never seen before. Like a child at Christmas.

“When they finally agreed, and settled on a way to institute the change, I volunteered to be the first to make the transformation.”

My mouth hung open. I touched my fingers to my lips. That’s why he looked so different. Cam had finally been given a chance to be human, to experience all the things he’d always wanted, the way real people do.

“I’m so happy for you, Cam.” I reached out and hugged him. He was human now; no one had the right to judge him for what he did anymore.

He’s all I had left. And I was so glad to have a friend.

I swallowed back my own tears, happy for him, but afraid of what I had to ask next. “Are all the Fallen … ?”

“They’re … they’re all gone. But”—the way his eyebrows rose in excitement gave me a sliver of hope—“there are rumors. Several angels claim to have seen a few Fallen they recognize, those who were rumored to be wingless.”

“Wingless?”

My hope bottomed out along with most of the strength I had left. What a cruel, cruel world. The worst of the worst would survive, and the best man I had never known was … was … I wiped at my tears. “How did they survive?”

Cam didn’t get a chance to answer.

“Those of us without wings did.”

The voice behind me sent ghostly chills across my skin.

My chest swelled, filling with sunshine and butterflies and … and
love
. By the time I turned toward the voice my eyes were so filled with tears I couldn’t even make him out. Still, even if it was a hallucination, or trick, or another of fate’s cruel jokes, it wouldn’t have mattered.

I sprang from my seat and didn’t stop running until that familiar pair of arms was around me. I sobbed and dropped to my knees. This time, not even he could hold me up. He simply followed me, on his knees, refusing to let go.

“But … but you were so close to me. How did you … ?”

I couldn’t finish the sentence, couldn’t finish the thought.

“I guess when I sacrificed my wings, I got passed over. I felt the blast when it came out of you. It knocked me out cold, but … ”

Without letting him finish, I looked up at Kade, alive and well. I kissed him. Once, twice, again and again.

When my tears had dried and my knees ached, I asked, “So, does this mean we can finally go on that normal date you promised me?”

“Now why would I do that?” he asked, cocky smirk tipping up one side of his lips.

“Because, in case you haven’t heard, I’m kind of a big deal.”

His face broke into a real smile, something soft and genuine and amazing.

“In case you haven’t noticed, you’ve been kind of a big deal to me for a long time.” He kissed me softly this time, sensually, taking his time, worrying my lower lip with tiny nips.

When he pulled back, I noticed his face had changed. Something was wrong. I knew that look, and when it showed up, nothing good could come of it.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, noticing the look he and Cam exchanged.

“I’m going to have to take a rain check on that date. Cam and I, along with a few other angels, are going to track down the remaining wingless Fallen.”

“What? No. Y–you can’t!” I shook my head and pleaded with my eyes.

Kade lowered his voice, preserving this part of the conversation for just him and me. “We have to. They’re out there somewhere, just as dangerous as before.”

My voice pitched as I pushed off Kade and found my footing. “No, you don’t have your wings, and Cam”—I glanced back at Cam—“he’s
human
! What good are the two of you going to be in a hunt?”

Kade inched forward, cautiously, like I was a rabid bunny. “We know some of their faces. I know places where they might go. They’re stuck on Earth now. Word is even Lucifer is dead, and only the demons are left to run Hell. These few are the last ones.” Another step. “We both agreed to see this through, Ray.”

I back away, even though it was the last thing I wanted after thinking he was dead. Still, being in his arms now would cloud everything, and I needed a clear head for this conversation. “There’s no talking either of you out of it?” Both my boys shook their heads. “Then I’m going with you.”

Kade shook his head again, adamantly this time. “All of this, the angels, the hunt for the Fallen, the reopening of the city, it was all on hold until you woke up. We agreed that nothing would go forward before we knew you were okay. Now we know.”

The wheels in my head turned, trying to follow his lead. The clunky cogs spinning rusty gears failed. Miserably. “Which means?”

Kade rubbed his palms on his pants, the same dark gray military style pants he wore on our trip into the city. “We have to go. Now. And you, you have to go home, to your family.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve lost you again and again and again. Too many times. I won’t say goodbye anymore.”

Intensity crept into his face. Everything near his eyes sharpened, then slowly softened as he gazed into me, through me, to my very soul.

“If it takes one day or a thousand, I will come back to you. I will put everything I am into that promise, everything I have left. It’s—it’s all you.” He stroked the side of my face. “I have to go, and so do you. I will find you. Come Hell or the second coming of the goddamn apocalypse, I will find you.”

He tipped his forehead to mine, lacing his fingers at the back of my neck. “Okay?”

I could feel his breath, forced, as he inhaled and exhaled, waiting for my reply. This was when it hit me; he was just as much of a wreck as I was.

I cupped his face in my hands and tipped my forehead against his. “You’d better. Because if you don’t, I’ll come looking for you.”

A shadow passed above us. We both looked up, breaking our embrace. Elyon swooped down, still wingless to me, and landed beside us. “Quickly, Rayna, we have a helicopter coming for you. It’s already on its way.”

Kade and I looked at each other again. That face I thought I’d never see again. The face that I would never tire of seeing. He must have read something in my eyes to crane his head down to me again. In the softer-than-a-whisper voice that we used to communicate in Hell when we assumed we were being watched, I said, “Is Elyon coming with you, to hunt the rest of the Fallen?”

“No way I’d trust him farther than I could kick him.”

“Good.” I draped my fingers over his chest, reveling in the very real feel of him. “Heaven help you if you don’t come back to me in one piece.”

He hugged me. I broke the hug short, leaving Kade’s arms to sneak a hug to Cam.

Looking over Cam’s shoulder at Kade, I said, only to Cam, “Take care of yourself and take care of him.”

The whirring of an engine hummed in the distance. I separated from Cam. The first hint of any man-made machine in the sky since our return from Hell; the sound of progress. The beginning of the return to normalcy for the human world. For all our worlds. Every eye in the area shifted skyward, watching the propellers cut through the blue sky.

Determination sparked in Kade’s face. He took two ground-eating strides and wrapped me up in his arms again. I’d never had so much physical contact with anyone before in my life. Our separations had only solidified the crazy, absolute need to be near each other, with each other, no matter the cost or consequences.

“Take care of yourself and Cam too. Give the poor guy a chance to be human, okay?”

Kade nodded, his chin brushing the top of my head. I buried my face deeper into his neck, storing the memory of his scent. The wind picked up, the blades of the helicopter louder than I ever would have guessed. My hair whipped into Kade’s face. He only held me tighter. We clung to each other until there wasn’t anything left to do but turn our heads together to watch the aircraft that would ultimately separate us again.

A man dropped down from the passenger side, ducking to avoid the still-spinning blades. His light gray suit and brown leather dress shoes looked out of place when the rest of us were still dressed for battle—well, I was in a hospital gown and a bathrobe, but everyone else was dressed appropriately—until he straightened his white tie against his stark white shirt. He had to be an angel; they had a knack for wearing white better than any human I’d ever seen. If it was possible, Kade held me even tighter as he approached.

“The pilot is influenced,” the angel called over the din. “The less you talk to him and look him in the eye, the less we’ll have to wipe from his brain. Now let’s get you in the air. It’s a long flight to the Caribbean.”

The Caribbean was a long way from San Francisco. A long way from where I was leaving my heart.

I stood on my tiptoes, grabbing the back of Kade’s shirt. “Don’t make me hate you forever.” I meant for it to sound intimidating. The result was much shakier.

Kade tipped his lips to mine and claimed me, softly, sweetly. Drawing his tongue across my lower lip, he nipped it once. Heat built up in my cheeks and my stomach, and for the first time in a long time I didn’t have to worry about what might happen if I let myself go. I was safe with Kade, and more importantly he was safe with me. This knowledge helped me relax into him as he lifted my feet off the ground.

When he put me down, the only thing I could think about was how he’d never kissed me that way before. Nothing felt more like goodbye than that kiss had. He released me so slowly it hurt. I reluctantly followed the angel to the helicopter.

The angel placed me in the back seat and slid into his seat beside the pilot. I slipped the oversized headphones on the way he simulated, then steadied myself before I looked out the window at Kade, Cam, Elyon, and my home as the helicopter lifted steadily off the ground. I watched them until they became tiny black pinpoints. Soon, all I could see was water, the Pacific Ocean and the tears swimming in my vision. All I could feel was emptiness.