Beast in Me (The Divination Falls Trilogy) (14 page)

Chapter Twenty-five

Trace was nowhere to be found. That hurt, but Cam had no choice. He had to run. And run he did, the trees smacking and plucking at his skin as he barrelled up the path that led toward the falls. When they reached the gate that Trace had set out to secure the area, he had no choice but to hop it – it had been chained up. He nearly fell and broke his neck, but recovered his balance at the last minute. Slaughter practically pole vaulted over the thing, but Luke struggled just as Cam had.

He grinned at the two men waiting on him as they all started to run again. ‘I was not, as you can see, varsity … well,
anything
.’

Cameron grinned. It felt good at that frightening moment to smile like an idiot. This was wild and crazy and full on stupid, going to fight a monster that seemed damn near invincible. ‘Me either. Don’t worry.’

‘How much farther?’ Luke gasped.

Slaughter put a burst of speed on. ‘Not much. We’re almost there.’

And then, sadly, they were there. Around a bend, up a hill, through a copse of trees, and Cam could see the rushing water. See how the land dropped off, a blanket of dead leaves that fell away and earth became sky. He saw the monstrosity twisting and turning in the choppy water beneath the falls.

It looks like it’s trying to get out, he thought. Where would it go? Why …?

There was no time to worry about that. The moment he saw it he knew what he had to do. He’d dreamt most of it, but who can ever tell what fucked-up parts of your dreams are actually significant and which aren’t.

He ran full speed ahead, hearing the other men yell “Wait!” His feet slid out from under him and he took a good portion of the drop on his ass. Then he found his footing again and ran down another incline that seemed to be the perfect point to do it. Putting on a burst of speed, he hit the lip of the outcropping and he dove. It was all he could think to do. The only sport he’d ever been good at. He plunged through the air toward the dark, gristly abomination and he thought of a wolf with purple eyes and the taste of his mouth and the feel of that man’s hands along his skin.

When the impact came, water and body and air all melded together, he said it out loud. Wishing he’d had the nerve to say it to Trace when he’d had the chance.

‘I love you,’ he whispered.

And then the lightning came.

There was a perfect long, slow moment under the water. He was wrapped in the tentacle and the lightning coursed through him; energy kissing water and melding into one magical, vibrating dance of pain. His whole body ached from the thing’s grip but also from Brother Lightning running through him so fast, so very furious. His teeth ached as if they were going to fall free of his gums. His eyes burned as if they’d pop in his skull – maybe they would.

Cameron didn’t struggle. He did the opposite. He went limp and he let himself be the receptacle. He let himself be the conduit. He felt more than saw the approach of the things maw. His power was part of what it had been drawn to, that was clear now. This thing was of water; if anything could appreciate the power of an element, it was this thing. And yet, it bellowed when a particularly powerful jolt coursed through Cameron, turning the water around them a shocking lavender.

Like his eyes …

Part of Cam wanted to laugh. The thing was in pain – it hadn’t counted on that.

Come on, brother, he silently called to the lightning. You have more juice than this. I don’t care about me. I got my gift. The time I had. But I do care about this town. Take me to save them …

Then the world went white. He felt the maw and that was that. Darkness swallowed darkness for the span of a single heartbeat, and then the white was back as lightning shook Cam’s limbs and rattled his bones. White turned to lavender and he was pretty sure he was dying.

The noise in heaven – or wherever souls ended up – was horrible. A whooping, rushing noise backdropped with a ton of shouting and …

Light fluttered into his eyes, moving in dips and swirls like butterflies. Cameron became aware of pain. Lots of pain. And a horrible smell.

‘Cam?’

He tried to focus on that voice. He knew that voice. He …
loved
that voice. Did that mean Trace was dead too? Surely dead Cameron could admit how he felt to his lover.

‘Love that voice,’ he grunted. Had that sounded even vaguely human?

‘What?’ Hands smoothed over his forehead. It hurt and felt wonderful all at once. ‘What did you say?’

‘What’s that smell?’

That was not what he’d said, but it popped out.

Laughter. ‘That is fried calamari.’

‘What?’ Cameron figured it was a joke but his mind wasn’t sharp enough to process it.

‘You fried that motherfucker. More voltage than I have ever seen – than
anyone
has ever seen – ripped through you and ultimately fried him. He bubbled and baked and cooked almost out of his skin in spots. We’re trying to figure out how the fuck to get rid of him now.’

‘Am I cooked too?’ Cameron asked, touching his body. His face, his chest, his hair.

‘I think you’re missing a bit of hair, a few big chunks of your clothes. And … Yeah, an eyebrow.’ Big fingers smoothed over his eyebrow and Cam smiled. It was nice to be touched. It hurt, but it was nice. ‘You’re not even burned that much, to be honest. I don’t know how –’

‘Conduit,’ Cameron said. ‘And what I said before was
love that voice
. Yours. I love that voice.’ He swallowed, wanting to say more.

Trace interrupted. ‘You scared the fuck out of me, Lightning Boy.’ His warm lips were pressed right up against Cameron’s ear so only he could hear. ‘You’re not supposed to scare the man who loves you.’

More pain. Not really pain, actually. More like prickly tightness in his eyes and his throat. Cam willed himself not to cry. He smelled a bit burnt, was sprawled prone on the ground, and apparently missing an eyebrow – plus his head was pounding and it felt as if his shoes had been melted to the soles of his feet. The last thing he needed to do was cry.

‘I love you,’ he said simply, and then all of it be fucked, he cried anyway.

‘Let’s get you up.’ Trace was smiling. Cameron still had his eyes shut, but he could tell.

‘No. I’m all … gross. I think it slimed me.’

Trace chuckled but someone else was laughing too. ‘There’s the hero.’

Slaughter.

‘Hero. That’s funny,’ Cameron said.

‘No it’s not. You dove in there. You
dove,
and it was to save us, wasn’t it?’

Cameron said nothing, but Trace whispered, ‘Yes. Dumbass.’

That made Slaughter laugh and Cam couldn’t help but do the same. But my God, it hurt to laugh.

‘Well, that act of selflessness was what killed the damn thing in the end. You should have seen it, Cameron. He ate you. He.
Ate
. You. And then this bolt of lightning – it looked big as a fucking tree trunk from where I stood – spiked through you and the water started to churn and, my God, the most awful noise …’

‘That thing was screaming,’ Trace broke in.

‘It was just a horrible sound. And then it spit you out. The way we’d spit out a rotten piece of fruit. But it was too late. Shit, its hide peeled off in spots.’

‘The bleed-throughs?’ Cam asked, trying to sit up.

‘From what we’re hearing nothing’s been spotted since big, smelly, and ugly went down.’

‘Thank God.’ Cam had his eyes open, willing them to adjust to the light.

‘No, thank
you
, Cameron,’ Slaughter said.

Trace waited for the sheriff to walk away. The town ambulance was pulling in but Trace put up a hand to hold them off for a second. ‘If you ever do anything like that again, Cameron …’ Those purple eyes were trained on him – loving, intent, and serious as hell.

‘Yeah?’

‘I will spank you so hard you won’t be able to sit down for a week.’

‘Understood,’ Cameron said. ‘But you do realise that’s not
entirely
a dissuading argument.’

Trace just shook his head and waved the medics in. ‘Time to take care of you so I can get you home. You’re staying here, you know.’

It wasn’t a question.

‘I am?’

‘You are. We’ll get a place. You’ll be my mate. You’ll live in Divination Falls. You’re one of us now.’ He trained his gaze on Cam for three pounding heartbeats. ‘I mean … If that’s OK with you, hero.’

‘It’s the best thing I’ve heard in ages.

Trace gave one sharp nod and kissed Cam’s knuckles. It was settled.

Then it was a flustering crowd of medical types around them like an agitated flock of birds.

Epilogue

‘How long?’ Trace said, pressing the very tip of his cock to Cameron’s well-lubed ass.

Cam hung his head, willed his lover to just fucking move. To enter him. His body was one large pulse – all need and want and eagerness.

‘Two months.’

‘Two. Months.’ Trace pressed forward, breaching that ring of muscle, stretching him so that Cam gasped and gripped the bedsheets in his fingers.

‘Yes!’ He moved back just a hair, impaling himself on Trace’s cock. The friction of the bed against his dick maddening and comforting all at once.

‘I love it.’ Trace eased forward and finally he was in.

All the way in. Filling Cameron the way he needed. They stayed there – frozen in an intense moment – until Cameron’s whole body exhaled. Trace tickled his fingers up and down the ladder of Cam’s spine – raising goose bumps, making fine hairs sway – until Cameron shivered because he couldn’t help it. Trace started to move, slow at first, but then his strokes got shorter, faster, stronger. His body greedy to take Cam’s body where it needed to go.

‘I know. Me too.’ Cameron wrapped his fist around his cock and pushed back on his knees to open himself further. He teased at his erection so it didn’t feel too good, too fast. He wanted to last. It never got old, their fucking. How their bodies went together as if it were meant to be.

Cam had not encountered Brother Lightning in two months. Not since his fight with the beast. He could tell he was still connected to spirit. But it wasn’t ever-present and it wasn’t a worry.

Trace fucked him slowly. Relishing the sounds they made, Cam knew. The wolf stroked him softly to show he loved the feel of Cam’s skin under his fingers. ‘Do you think you’re cured?’ he asked.

‘Can someone ever be cured of their nature?’ Cameron laughed.

Trace put one big hand to the back of Cameron’s neck and pressed him down a bit. Getting him a little more submissive. A little more prone. He rocked in and out, in and out as Cameron echoed the rhythm with his hand on his cock.

Trace grunted, pushing a bit harder on Cam’s neck. His fingers curling in the hair at his nape, tugging just enough. ‘Come for me,’ he whispered before going faster, deeper.

Cameron surrendered. Gave in to the pressure and the pleasure and the deep strokes that held him in the very throes of ecstasy without pushing him past the line. Until Trace commanded it, and then he gave in. Squeezing and stroking his cock, thrusting back to take the wolf deeper, until it all built to a delicious, syrupy need to let go. So he did, his hand hot with his own come and the sound of Trace’s breath reaching that raspy breaking point.

‘Yes,’ Trace hissed. ‘You can be cured of your nature.’ He drove into Cameron once more, harder – it almost slammed him flat under Trace’s big body. And then Trace was coming. A long, slow exhalation followed by a small chuckle.

He kissed the back of Cam’s back, lingering to lick a line up his back to taste the salty sweat there. Trace tugged Cam down and rolled so they were together, sticky and sweaty and happy.

‘What do you mean?’ Cam finally said. ‘You can’t be cured of your nature.’

‘Sure you can. My nature for almost half of my life was to be alone. Unhappy. Angry. You fixed that. You cured me. Maybe your grand – and insane, might I add, as your partner – gesture might have cured you.’

‘Brother Lightning’s still here.’ Cam sighed. ‘He’s not going anywhere.’

‘Never said he was,’ Trace said, stroking Cameron’s hair. ‘I’m just saying you don’t seem to have to be on guard all the time any more. You know your strengths and lightning knows his. You have a … symbiosis. More balanced than before.’

Cameron thought he was right. He nodded, smiled, licked along Trace’s chest to taste his skin. ‘I think you might be right.’

‘Poor you.’ Trace sighed, drawing a lazy finger down Cam’s back.

‘Poor me, what?’

‘You do this awesome deed and you are so brave it makes my head hurt and your reward is …’ He shook his head. Laughed.

‘What?’ Cam asked, confused.

‘Me! A beast like me.’

‘Best reward ever,’ Cam said. ‘You and a place to call home.’

‘Oh, you’re home all right,’ Trace said, wedging Cam under him for a long and proper kiss. ‘I’m not letting you go anywhere.’

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