Chapter Nine

 

CAM

 

A week later, Cam watched Elithea flit around her new apartment, packing a small bag and arranging her things while he stood by the door and waited. He was stricken by the way she moved, the way her hips swayed when she walked. She wore blue shorts and a black sports top, highlighting her luscious body. Everything about her was enticing. He resolved to keep his cool over the next few hours—training her would be physical and involved. He’d have to touch her in order to teach her. Still, he would be calm and collected, no matter how tempted he was to let his touch and attention wander. He was a Power angel. This shouldn’t be that hard.

“How do you have the funds to rent me an apartment?” she had asked when he first dropped her off there. A hint of suspicion laced her tone.

“There’s a network of angels in the human world that look after Nephilim,” he had said. “This is a protected apartment owned by an Archangel I know. He said it was made recently available. And you are not renting it. It’s yours.”

She had peered at him closely, as if trying to decipher his intentions then began exploring the apartment with a building enthusiasm.

In truth, once the Archangel realized who Cam was, he had eagerly offered him the brand-new luxury apartment along with a car, a new wardrobe for Elithea and a funded bank account. Cam had taken it all in hope it would alleviate Elithea’s anger about him sabotaging her old home. It seemed to have worked—she seemed more settled since he brought her here; she looked well-rested and happy.

Before he left her to settle in, he told her to give up all of her jobs and stay indoors for the week to rest and eat properly. He was relieved she had done it without issue; she had been too thin and stressed to train properly.

Now, she glowed with enthusiasm as she prepared for her first training session with him, and somewhere inside him hummed blissfully that he was able to provide her a home where she was safe and content. He told himself it was pride in doing his job well and not the result of anything else.

“Okay, I’m ready to start, Angel.” Thea stopped in front of him with a grin on her face and a sparkle in her eyes.

He kept his expression stern and nodded, leading her out of the apartment. They walked in silence to a nearby large gym on the outskirts of her city. It was hardly ever used and looked run-down from the outside but was in excellent condition inside. They entered into the main large space.

“This is where we will train.”

She surveyed the place. “Is this owned by angels too?”

“Yes. It’s a Nephilim training space. No one else will be using it while you are training.” Cam strode to the middle of the space. “We will begin with physical combat. Most demons move too quickly for us to use our powers all the time, so you’ll have to learn how to physically fight them.”

Thea placed her bag down by a bench on the side of the space and joined him, watching him warily. Cam positioned himself close in front of her. Her eyes locked onto his, her tongue darting out to lick her full, juicy lips. How sweet would it be to press his lips on her, sliding his tongue into her hot mouth? He bit his tongue and shredded the thought.

“These are the pressure points,” he said, reaching up to touch her throat. She tilted her head upward for him, keeping her eyes on his. He put his fingers on either side of her neck, pressing gently. “Here.” He could feel her pulse under his skin.

He brought his hands to her shoulders, just where her neck met the curve. “Here.”

He continued to touch her, showing her every point, every part of the body she could hit and be most effective. He was slow and gentle, telling himself he didn’t want to hurt her, but really, he wanted more of her captivating scent and to just be close to her. Soon he was down on his knees, his hands on her legs to show her where she could kick while fighting to cause maximum pain to the demons. His hands brushed lightly over the spot just above her knees, then circled around back to touch the soft skin there.

It pleased him to discover that her body reacted to him. Her pulse increased under his fingertips, her legs shook, her breath huffed out in ragged spurts, and her scent deepened into a beautiful complex aroma.

It drove him to distraction. It took everything in his power not to slip his fingers over the waistband of her shorts and pull them down so he could extend his tongue into her folds and taste her pussy. He imagined how she would like that, how she might respond with her hands in his hair, her hips riding against his tongue. His cock ached and his back twitched with a desire to shift into his angel-form and beat his wings; to release his cock and plunge it into her. That was too much for him to think about.

After showing her the pressure points, he was almost drunk on her. He forced himself to stand so that they were face-to-face. Annoyed with himself, he vowed again to stay aloof and distant, no matter how hard it—or he—got.

“I don’t even know your name,” she said. “What is it?”

“Camael. Or Cam.”

“Cam,” she repeated.

He liked the sound of his name in her mouth, sure he would like other things in her mouth too.

“Thea,” she said, before he could criticize himself for the thought. She held out her hand.

“Thea?” He took her hand.

“No one actually calls me Elithea.” She wrinkling her nose. “It’s a horrible name.”

“It’s beautiful,” Cam shot back, holding her gaze. It was a beautiful name for a beautiful woman.

She stared at him then lowered her eyes, a pink flush crept up her neck. Amusement threaded through him at her embarrassment—so she wasn’t all anger and smart remarks. Who knew Nephilim could be so adorable?

She cleared her throat, pulling her smooth hand from his. “What’s next?”

“Now you know where the pressure points are, you have to be able to reach them quickly. You need to be able to hit hard in the right places without sustaining too much injury yourself. To do that, you need to learn footwork.”

She nodded. “Show me.”

He began by showing her footwork to move across the space quickly; how to balance her weight, dodge and pivot and gain a secure stance. He demonstrated a few sequences across the space and she copied. He made her practice repeatedly until she was completely accurate.

Cam observed her mood as she learned. She seemed eager and that was a relief. Many Nephilim, he had heard, were hesitant to fight at the beginning, and scared at the risk of pain and threat to their lives. He was glad he was the one chosen to train Thea.

She was indeed fast—not faster than him, but he had been training his whole existence. They practiced facing each other, both advancing and retreating from each other, like a smooth fluid dance.

After fifteen minutes of continuous practice, she was wheezing, drenched in sweat.

“You’re unfit,” Cam said, frowning.

“Oh,” Thea said between gasps. “Really?” She lowered to brace hands on her knees, panting. “I hadn’t noticed.”

Cam didn’t respond. Her scent billowed in the release of her sweat and enveloped him like potent tendrils, curling tightly around him.

“Jeez, I’m joking.” Thea threw her hands up. She headed to her bag and pulled out a towel and a bottle of water. “I know my fitness could be improved. You didn’t say I needed to able to run the length of the city to even start training.”

“You need to be at the highest possible level of fitness to fight demons.” Cam left out the word ‘obviously’ but made sure it was implied. “They are physically strong and superior in size and weight. Being half-human puts you at a small disadvantage, so you have to be at your best.”

“Are you always at your best?”

Surprised by her question, Cam hesitated. “I told you, I’m the best there is.”

“So you say,” Thea muttered. She took a swig from her water bottle. “I don’t know that for sure.”

Cam made a sound at the back his throat in annoyance. He strode towards her. Her eyes widened as they ran over his body, her head rising to look up at him as he came close.

“Do I look like I struggle in battle?”

For a moment, she just stared at him. Then she scowled. “Really humble aren’t you.”

“Humility will not kill demons.” He spun and headed away, eager not to remain near her potent, delicious aroma. “Let’s go again.”

Thea rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath as she dragged herself back to the middle of the space.

 

***

The next morning when he arrived at her apartment, she seemed to have just rolled out of bed, shocked at his appearance at her door in the early hours.

“Running?” The disbelief on her face was almost comical after he explained why he was there.

“I told you, you need to improve your fitness.”

Thea wasn’t happy. After much debating, arguing, and persuading—all from her, Cam was silent—they set off on a route that was mostly private. Thea grumbled the whole way, and Cam had to suppress a smile at her persistence to make her displeasure known. She actually did better than he thought she would. They returned to the gym by mid-morning and continued their footwork practice.

Over the next few weeks, with the added cardio training, Thea’s footwork had developed immensely. She moved like lightening over the space, almost matching his own speed. He guessed she should be able to move faster once she gained confidence since she was much smaller than him.

One afternoon, she levitated away from him, rising from the floor in a swoop, and hovering a few inches above the ground. Her mouth dropped open and she glanced around panicked, her eyes wide. Cam coaxed her down, hiding his own surprise. Levitation wasn’t a normal Nephilim ability—they didn’t have wings to fly and he had never heard of one being able to lift off the ground at all.

Once he’d helped her learn how to control it, she used it to her advantage, darting away from him in high leaps that floated her across the room.

After that, it was time to teach her how to fight. He stood behind her and showed her how to position her body to ensure power behind her attacks. He ended up with his arms wrapped around her, holding onto her arms, ensuring the correct technique to inflict the most damage. She was trembling all over but learned quickly. The strength in her body was almost incredible given how new she was to the type of training. When he moved from behind her, she looked up at him with fire in her eyes, geared up and ready to go.

Her expression sent shots of desire through him. That fierceness in her… he liked it.

He let her practice on him, relishing the thrill building in him. They took turns to practice hitting the known demon pressure points on each other, him being gentle with her while ordering her to hit him as hard as possible. She smiled the first time she evaded his arms, her face lighting up with joy. Cam’s breath left him, his pulse speeding up. He ignored his body’s reaction to her, focusing on her training.

It didn’t hurt when she hit him but it was effective—twice he absorbed the solid pressure of her fist to his gut, impressed. She almost took him out at the knees once with a sweeping kick to the side of his leg.

“Careful, Thea.”

She grinned at him. “Did that hurt?” she asked, with a sly expression. “Did I manage to actually inflict pain on the best warrior on the planet?” She grinned. “Ever?”

He forced himself not to laugh with her, not to allow her alluring smile to crumble the walls he’d built. “No, but you need to dart away once you hit. If I fell, you’re close enough to fall down with me. And then I could easily pin you to the ground.”

She blushed, her playfulness gone. He opened his mouth to speak but then closed it, imagining his body atop hers. Thea turned away from him to regain her composure. She was glistening with sweat, her body seemingly riled up in more ways than one. Had she been thinking the same thing?

“Let’s take a break,” he said. They had been at it for about two hours so far that day and she hadn’t seemed to tire much. Her cardio training was going well. Her advanced strength gave her energy, too, but the human part of her needed rest in order to keep going. She nodded at him and picked up the bottles of water she’d brought along for them both. He drank his down gratefully and watched her flop down on the floor, her body spent.

“This is fun,” she said. “When do I get to use my powers?”

“When you’re suitably competent. Angelic power uses up a lot of energy—you’ll need to be able to use your physical skills to vanquish the demons.”

“What happens when I vanquish one?” she asked. “I mean, what happens to them?”

“They go to hell. They can come back, but it’s hard and painful for them to get out. It usually takes a while.”

“And what if I kill one?”

“Nephilim usually do not have the power to kill demons.” He lowered to sit on the floor in front of her. “But if they are killed, then they cannot leave hell. They suffer forever in a painful state unless they are killed by someone they truly love, in which case they simply perish into oblivion.”

“Seems like an easy escape from hell.”

“Demons struggle to experience pure love. So it’s not easy for them at all.”

Thea tipped her bottle into her pink mouth, water gushing into it while she thought. Cam tried to look away and failed.

“And what about angels?” she said, once she’d finished. “Can they die? I mean, do they go to heaven?”

“When an angel dies, we return to heaven as energy,” Cam said, finding his voice. He shifted his legs to hide his erection. “Once there, we cannot reform.”

She seemed to think about that for a moment. “Do demons have powers the way angels do? The ones I saw, the ones who attacked me, they used a physical attack.”

Cam almost smiled. He was pleased with her curiosity. Learning about her powers only made sense if she understood the world she lived in. She needed to know this information, and she recognized that without him having to tell her.

“Some of them use demonic energy, mostly the higher-class ones. The demons who attacked you were lower-class. I’ll teach you more about the different classes once you get a handle on physical combat.”

She nodded, her face thoughtful, and asked no more questions. They resumed practicing and Cam taught Thea what she needed to do to vanquish the demons—where to hit them and how much pressure to use in order to hurt them permanently. They took no more breaks for the rest of the week—Thea didn’t want them. She obviously thrived on learning. He didn’t want to overdo it, so he called it whenever he saw she had reached her limit.

“Are you hungry?” she asked one evening, as they headed out of the gym. “I’ll cook something? Or order something?”

“No.” He didn’t think it was a good idea to spend any more time around her than necessary. She was just too tempting, especially after she’d been training all day. Cam wanted to lick the sweat from her body, to take her into her bedroom and fuck her while she moaned and cried out for him. His arousal had been building over the weeks and the break from her in the evenings was the only respite he got.

He escorted her home in silence and said a brief goodbye. As he headed away from her, he breathed an actual sigh of relief that he was temporarily safe from his uncomfortable attraction.