Saving Her Angel (Archangels) (5 page)

“I do.” He’d had humans trust in him many times over his eons of existence, but the words out of Eleanor’s mouth meant more, hit him more profoundly than they ever had before.

She finally looked up at him and smiled. “I should be thanking you. Whatever that weird guy wanted with me couldn’t have been good, but you saved me. You and Michael. I appreciate it.”

The warmth of her appreciation filled him until he could barely choke out a response. “You’re very welcome.”

They resumed eating, but her words kept echoing in his head. To be completely honest, he’d have to tell her everything about his brothers and him, but he wasn’t certain he should confess, since it had been forbidden for so long. They had to be extremely selective with who knew about them, though most wouldn’t believe it anyway. The last thing he and his brothers wanted was attention from the human population—that could lead to all sorts of unpleasant repercussions. They were a religious fanatic’s dream and had seen enough zealots in their time to know better than to chance exposing their true nature to the wrong sort.

Finally, she stood, and he gulped down the rest of his meal.

“I’ll clean up after Sel has a chance to eat. You think he’ll be here soon?”

He grinned. “Yeah. Selaphiel should be here any minute.”

Laughing, she rolled her eyes. “Okay. I’m sticking with Sel this time.”

He chuckled as she left the kitchen.

A mental call told him Sel was in the sky above his house. Cam hurried to his room and grabbed a T-shirt for his brother then met him at the back door.

“Here,” he said. “Put this on.”

Before yanking the shirt over his head, Sel smirked. “Mike said she didn’t bat an eye at you two earlier. How did you explain it?”

“I told her we were playing basketball when I got the call about a possible threat.”

Sel snorted a laugh. “She was probably just thanking her lucky stars and hoping it would happen again.”

Cam frowned at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Rafe mentioned how she watches you. You can’t tell me you’ve never noticed your little secretary has a crush on you?”

That gave him pause. Did she? Really? Equal parts annoyance and elation filled him. How had he never noticed before? So much time wasted.

This time, Sel laughed out loud. “You honestly hadn’t realized?”

“No. To be honest, I hadn’t noticed a lot of things about her until today.”

“Wow.” Sel shook his head and walked over to the stove. “Is this beef stew?”

“Yeah. She insisted we save you a bit for some reason.”

Sel grinned and grabbed a bowl from the cabinet. “I love her already.”

Amazingly, that statement caused an unexpected pang of jealousy to rip through Cam. He tamped it down but not before Sel looked at him over his shoulder with a knowing grin.

“Shut up,” Cam growled.

Sel just laughed as he filled his bowl. Sometimes having his brothers feel his emotions was annoying.

By the time Eleanor entered the kitchen again, Sel was done with his second helping and scraping the bottom of the pot looking for more. When she realized what he was doing, she laughed. “Sorry. Your brother only keeps enough food here to feed a mouse.”

Sel pouted. “Don’t I know it. Nothing like Rafe’s house. He always has chocolate milk, too.”

Cam rolled his eyes. “Stop whining. We’re buying groceries in the morning, so you won’t have a chance to waste away.”

Sel nodded gravely. “It’s a distinct possibility.” He winked at Eleanor when she laughed, and Cam barely stopped the urge to hit him in the back of the head. That just made Sel grin.

“Come on,” Cam growled. “I’ll show you what I’ve figured out so far in the map room.”

“Oh, uh…” Eleanor glanced between the two of them then looked away at the dishes in the sink. “I’ll just clean up here.”

Sel said nothing, but he nudged Cam’s shoulder hard as he walked past him out of the room.

What?

Invite her into the map room with us.

Cam cleared his throat and watched Eleanor take the remaining dirty dishes to the sink. “I’ll take care of those later, Eleanor. Come see what I found out.”

The surprise on her face made him feel like an ass, but the smile that followed shot every single thought out of his head.

“Really? You don’t mind?”

It took a second for him to understand her question. “Huh? Oh, no. Uh, no, I don’t mind. Come on.”

To retain some semblance of intelligence he had to turn away from her. Luckily, she followed without another word.

They studied his topography and geological maps of the U.S. until the wee hours, finding no definitive link between the quake sites.

Eleanor finally released a frustrated growl and threw her hands up. “God, this is crazy. There has to be some type of scientific explanation for multiple earthquakes happening all over the continent.”

“There’s no precedent for it,” Cam replied. He wanted to comfort her but held himself in check.

“It’s just odd.” She ran her hands down her face, drawing his attention to how pale she had become. She swayed, and he closed the distance.

“Hey, are you all right?”

“Yeah. Just tired, I guess. It’s way past my bedtime.”

Before he knew it, his hands were on her arms, rubbing the chilled flesh up and down. “You have goose bumps.”

“Really? I’m burning up.”

That made him study her more closely. She did indeed have a fine line of moisture on her forehead and under her eyes. He placed the back of his hand against her forehead. “Damn. You’re running a fever.”

Sel looked up from the map.
Her core body temperature seems to be rising steadily.

What the hell would cause that?

No clue. I just stopped it though. She should start to feel better soon.

“All right,” Cam said aloud. “Time to hit the sack. You’ve had a long day, and it’s obviously catching up to you.”

“Good idea. Do you have something I can take for my fever?”

“Sure.”

Luckily he kept a minimal amount of medicine for any human guests. He found a couple of aspirin and escorted Eleanor to her room.

“Get some sleep, and I’ll wake you early so we can go find breakfast somewhere before getting groceries.”

“Mm-kay.”

Her sleepy smile warmed him almost as much as the brush of her hand on his arm as she moved past him and into the bedroom. He watched her for only a moment before forcing himself to shut the door and walk away. Though he was no stranger to the company of beautiful women, Eleanor’s innocent attention was getting to him, and he shook his head at the thought. Perhaps it had been too long since he’d tried dating. He never did it for more than a temporary distraction, since he couldn’t exactly marry a human woman without telling her the forbidden truth.

His thoughts strayed to his happily married brothers, and he laughed at himself. No, he definitely wasn’t ready for that. He had duties, responsibilities handed down to him since the beginning of time. A minor fling was all he’d ever allow himself. Maybe now that Eleanor no longer worked for him she would consider one, too.

…

The next morning, they piled into his SUV with Eleanor in the front passenger’s seat. She looked around the small clearing in front of his house. “Where’s your car, Sel?”

He cleared his throat and ran a hand over his hair. “Uh, it ran out of gas on the main road, and I hiked the rest of the way.”

Cam snorted a laugh, while Eleanor gasped. “Why didn’t you call so Cam could pick you up?”

He shrugged. “No phone reception out here.”

As Cam pulled away from the house and headed for the path to the main road, he sensed her confusion.

“How do you make calls with no cell service?” she asked.

“I have a satellite phone. You’ve never noticed?”

“Um…no. I just know you answer when I call. That’s all I care about.”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t do me a damn bit of good,” Sel chimed in. “But that’s okay. It’s a nice hike. I love these woods.”

“Me, too,” Eleanor said with a sigh. She was looking out the window so her expression was hidden from Cam. Sel’s amusement thrummed through him, and he rolled his eyes.

“So I guess we’re stopping at the gas station to get gas for your car after we get groceries?” Eleanor asked.

“Um…no. That’s not necessary. I can call roadside assistance when we’re done and take care of it so you two can get the food back to the house.”

“Oh, but—”

“Don’t worry about it, Eleanor,” Cam interrupted. “You don’t have to try to organize everything.”

She gasped. “I do not.”

“You’re kidding, right? You put a taped list of items in each of the boxes for the movers.”

“You’ll appreciate that once they arrive at your house.”

“You’ve alphabetized the classical CDs in my office how many times now?”

“You’re always looking for specific ones and that would make it faster. Not that it matters now.”

“And who actually keeps the receipts for lightbulbs?”

“They’re supposed to last two damn years, but the stupid things never do.” She threw up her hands in frustration. “Argh. Just shut up, Cam.” She frowned at him, then crossed her arms, and turned back to the window.

You’re an idiot,
Sel said in his mind.

Why?

You just hurt her feelings.

Really?

Yup.

Cam glanced at her, but her head was completely turned away from him. Since he didn’t know what to say to fix it, he concentrated on driving instead. Though he’d felt her annoyance, he hadn’t sensed any pain. Maybe Sel was reading her wrong. Hopefully.

…

Eleanor wanted to reach over and slap Cam, but it wasn’t really his fault. Sure, everyone always chided her about being so organized and strict on schedules and such. She simply couldn’t help her obsessive-compulsive tendencies, though she’d never been actually diagnosed with OCD. It was as much a part of her nature as breathing, though more than one man she knew had acted as if it was the worst trait a woman could have. True, she sometimes went a bit overboard, but in the end things always worked out. Usually because of her organizational skills. Anyway, wasn’t that one of the things Cam had always complimented her on at the office?

After a couple of minutes, she couldn’t take the silence between them anymore and started fiddling with the radio. There was no reception in the woods, so she changed it to the CD player and whatever he already had in there. A piano concerto filled the vehicle, and she smiled. She should’ve known.

“Oh man, come on,” Sel groaned.

“Shut up, cretin,” Cam replied.

She just laughed as Sel dramatically fell back against the seat with his hands over his ears.

“A little culture never killed anyone,” she said over her shoulder.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Cam just shook his head while she laughed again.

Almost an hour later, they were finally at the closest restaurant. It was a truck stop off the highway, but Cam claimed their pancakes were some of the best he’d ever eaten. Eleanor forced a smile as he held the door open for her, but she hated diners and truck stops. Sel snuck in before his brother had a chance to follow. Cam kicked him in the calf.

“Ow. Cut it out. We’re in public.”

Cam just grinned and shoved him in the shoulder to keep him moving. When Eleanor stopped at a booth, Sel was quick to slide in next to her. Cam glared at him until the waitress showed up, but Eleanor didn’t know why. Though their juvenile display amused her, she couldn’t shake her unease at being in such a place. She had spent a lot of time in a diner when she was younger. Back when she had nowhere else to go. A shiver snaked up her spine as she shoved the memories away.

“Hey, you cold?” Cam asked.

Sel threw his arm over her shoulders, and Cam growled. With a forced laugh, she shrugged Sel’s arm off. “No, I’m fine. Goose walked over my grave, I guess.”

“That’s got to be one of the weirdest sayings,” Sel muttered.

That brought a true smile to her face. She concentrated on the menu and the handsome men sitting with her rather than thinking about the past. Cam had promised to keep her safe. She just had to have faith in his ability to do so.

Although they talked about the weather and other inconsequential things after placing their orders, Eleanor really wanted to know what the hell was going on. All her efforts to steer the conversation to the odd events of the day before had been thwarted by both men while in the map room and in the car. She seriously doubted she’d have any more luck in a public setting, but decided to try anyway.

“So, Cam, we never talked about the threat your brothers received that had you running to my rescue.”

Sel choked out a laugh, spilling his coffee on the table. “Shit.”

Cam just sighed and threw a napkin at him. “I can’t tell you everything yet, because it involves Asta’s father. He’s a really bad character, who’s threatened her before. Now his threats have spilled over to us.”

She frowned in thought. She’d met Asta but never really had a full conversation with her before and certainly not about her family. “Um, okay.”

“When we pulled onto your street I saw someone walking up to the front door, so I used your neighbor’s yard to get to your back door. Then you spilled hot tea on yourself, and I just ran inside without thinking.”

Sel frowned. “You burned yourself with tea?”

“I’m fine now. It wasn’t that bad.”

Both men looked at her chest as if they could see through her shirt. Warmth filled her cheeks at their scrutiny, and she crossed her arms. “So anyway, you didn’t explain exactly what happened with that guy. The one who disappeared. Or did he blow up again?”

At any other time, their matching blank faces might have been funny, but before she could push for an answer the waitress arrived with their food. The conversation halted as they ate, and as soon as they were done Cam insisted they get to the store. It was little more than a convenience store/gas station, but it also had a meat market. Sel walked away from them while she and Cam each grabbed a hand basket and walked through the store filling them up. Unfortunately, the place was too small for a push cart.