Page 75 of Changeling
Chapter 30
Nathanwasstillrecoveringfrom his shock of this supposed random encounter with one of Sasha’s childhood friends when both he and Cam responded to each other with the same exclamation of, “How do you know me?” to which Cam chuckled maybe a little uncertainly, shoved his hands into his pockets, and shrugged.
“Charis gave a fairly accurate description of you,” he said, all unassuming suddenly with a charming smile. “That and…well. Once Ididcheck out the pheromones on you…Sasha’s pretty distinctive.” Cam took one of his hands out of his pocket long enough to give a quick gesture up and down Nathan’s body.
Distinctive. Nathan’s lover certainly was that. “Yeah,” Nathan managed to laugh lightly in reply, as he leaned back against the wall to catch his breath. That fall into the pit had hurt like hell, but he was far from being as bad off as he had been the night he met Lindsey. “Gotta love that whole ‘this meal is already taken’ sign, right?”
“And what about you?” Cam asked, both hands in his pockets again. It was hard to believe this young guy who couldn’t have been more than 5’8”, and looked so remarkably normal compared to most sex demons Nathan had met, had two seconds ago looked like a large as life gargoyle.
Cam’s horns had curled up from his temples instead of going back and then coiling forward the way Sasha’s did. As ordinary as the brunette appeared to look now, though, Nathan did not lose sight of how defensive Cam’s body posture was.
“I’ll be honest,” Nathan said, tryingnotto eye his knife that had been knocked to the floor when they fell into the pit, “the stories I’ve heard about you didn’t come with a detailed physical description. But I’ve, uhh…sorta seen you before.”
Cam scrunched his brow in confusion.
“Long story. Memory thing. More like an echo. The incubus boys at fifteen in full-on 3D,” Nathan grinned. “You’re grown up now, sure, but I could still recognize you.”
“Huh,” Cam huffed in acknowledgement. “Fifteen? So were we talkingBuffyor sex?”
Nathan’s grin stretched. “Both?”
“Sounds about right,” Cam nodded. He visibly relaxed as he and Nathan spoke but he still looked alert enough that if something went wrong he would be ready to make a move.
Closer than it had sounded before, Nathan picked up on the sounds of Sasha and Jim calling for him, “Nathan!” he heard clearly. “Nathan, where are you!?Nathan!”
“We should probably get out of the hole,” Nathan suggested. His eyes had started to adjust to the dark and he could see the entire pit around them now. “You, uhh…mind if I get my knife?” he asked, not wanting to make any moves that would give Cam the wrong idea. “It’s kind of a keepsake.”
Golden brown eyes followed Nathan’s directed attention to the knife on the floor. Cam gave a little nod toward it like it wasno big deal even though the blade obviously made him nervous. “Sure. Just so long as you don’t mind me keeping a close eye on you while ya do it. Coz, man, you willsoowe me a beer if you try and come at me.”
That had Nathan genuinely laughing as he reached for the knife, then the scanner beside it, which thankfully wasn’t busted this time. It was still flashing, so Nathan turned it off. He tucked both scanner and weapon away as a show of good faith.
He could hardly believe the slight fear he could still pick up from Cam though, friendly as the guy was feigning. As far as Nathan was concerned, he—the simple human—was the one at the disadvantage.
“Dude,” Nathan said as they headed for the steps out of the pit. “Way I see it, you owemea beer after that fall. Hurt like a sonuvabitch.”
“How was I supposed to know it was you?” Cam defended. “All I heard was what I thought were seals talking about killing something. I couldn’t even sense Sasha. I feel him a little now. But hey,” he said as they came to the top of the steps, elbowing Nathan in the side like they were old friends, “at least there weren’t any chairs or instruments set up in the pit yet. Nowthatwould have hurt.”
“Nathan!” came Sasha’s slightly angry and irritated voice upon almost running into Nathan at the top of the steps. “We were calling for you! Didn’t you hear us? What happened? Are you oh…kay…” He trailed as his fervent eyes landed on Cam. Jim was behind Sasha, looking equally shocked.
“Hey,” Cam said to Sasha with a little halfhearted wave and crooked smile. “I swear I only banged your boy up a little.”
That caught Sasha’s attention and he started looking Nathan over like he expected to find some sort of gaping wound. “I’m fine,” Nathan assured him, even though he knew how ineffective saying those words was on his worrying companions. And okay,so his shoulder was throbbing again, but he still had some remaining pain meds for that. “We fell into the pit here and I realized my mistake.” Nathan pointed his finger Cam’s direction like firing a gun. “Not the bad guy.”
“So far asyouknow,” Cam said with a wink, but his joke fell flat. Sasha was staring at him a little too intensely for this not to be awkward.
“Cam…” Sasha said in a very soft and somber whisper. “What are you doing here?”
“Apparently meeting your boyfriend,” Cam joked again, but it was met with no more than a supportive smile fromNathan,not Sasha. Cam cleared his throat loudly and kicked at the carpet. “Come on, man…of course Charis and Lindsey filled me in. As for how I’m here, well…a friend asked for my help.”
“A friend?” Sasha gaped. “But you hate this kinda stuff. Even before I said I wanted to be a seal, you used to—”
“Say what a waste of time it was?” Cam finished humbly. “Yeah. Go me for the supportive friend award, right? At least I can’t say I’m any worse than the others.” Again Cam smiled crookedly, all wisecracks and shuffling feet to face the tense situation. Nathan could relate.
He could see Cam even more clearly now with the emergency lights shining down. All of Cam’s spark of life was there in his eyes, bright and willful and amazingly gold the way Sasha’s were so perfectly blue.
Sasha’s eyes were starting to swim. “I really…missed you, but…” He faltered, then stood up straighter. “I have no regrets.”
Cam’s smile stretched wide but somber. “I can’t say the same. I shouldn’t have let you go.” He shook his head. “No, I mean, Iknowyou had to go. But not like that. Not with all of us acting like we thought you were gonna stab us in the back the first chance you got just because you wanted to be something we didn’t understand. I mean,Jesus…that’s what we expect outtathem,” he said with a gesture at Nathan. Then he seemed to realize what he had just implied and made a face. “Sorry. Not you. Just…you know what I mean.”
