Page 46 of Ramiel

Pushing her barely eaten food away, his cambion looked everywhere but at him.“I did something bad the night Granny Blaze told me I needed to leave.They must know about it by now.They’ll have ostracized me from the clan for sure.”

“What did you do, Caterina?”Ramiel asked, reaching over to touch her arm.

“I killed someone,” she said, eyes now brimming with tears.

“Did you have a good reason to kill this person?”he asked in a non-judgmental tone.

Wiping a tear away with a brush of her fingers, she shrugged guiltily.“I probably could have handled it without murdering Luca, but I can’t undo what I did.”

“Tell me what happened,” he requested.

Taking a deep breath, his female laced her fingers together on the tabletop and stared at them.“One of my distant cousins was obsessed with me,” she began.

Ramiel’s fury rose from the first mention that Luca had tried to persuade his younger cousin to sleep with him.By the end of her story, he was blazing with rage.“You did the right thing by ending his life, female,” he said in a raspy tone.Her gaze snapped to him and he caught and held her eyes.“His soul turned black right in front of you.We both know what he would have done not just to you, but to other females as well if you hadn’t destroyed him.”

She nodded jerkily and a sob escaped from her.“Maybe his soul wouldn’t have turned black if I’d just given him what he wanted,” she said, taking the blame on her shoulders.He wished he could resurrect the human so he could kill the male himself.

Ramiel left his seat and rounded the table.Lifting his female to her feet, he put his arms around her.“It wasn’t your fault, Caterina Blaze,” he said, refusing to allow his body to react when she hugged him in return.“Luca was always borderline evil from what you just told me.He finally succumbed to his basest temptations the night you left your clan to search for me.He would have used you to satisfy his lust, then killed you and disposed of your body to hide his dark deeds.”

Weeping against his chest, she nodded in wordless agreement.She was slender and toned as he ran his hands up and down her back soothingly.His cambion was his exact type, which he didn’t think was a coincidence.Fate had engineered for them to meet, but he didn’t know why.Maybe Granny Blaze would have the answers he was seeking.

“Sorry,” Caterina said when she regained control of her emotions.“I’m not usually the weepy type,” she said in embarrassment, trying to dry his damp t-shirt with her sleeve.

“Are you alright now?”he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.

“No,” she said with raw honesty.Her eyes were red-rimmed, but she was still lovely.“I’ll take you to the camping site, but my family might shoot us both when they see us, she warned him.”

“I’ll approach them alone,” he decided.“Your oracle might have seen us coming in a vision.I don’t want to risk your life, since this is my decision.”

She nodded, then sat back down to eat her breakfast without enthusiasm.

They grabbed their gear when she was done and climbed into the truck.Caterina guided him along the freeway, then directed him to leave it a few hours later.She’d come a long way on foot and he was even more impressed now.

“The camping site is only a mile away from here,” Caterina said when she finally directed him to stop.“I’ll wait here for you.”

“I’ll be as quick as I can,” he promised, then climbed out.She shifted to the driver’s seat, then locked the doors.

Sprinting down the road, Ramiel reached the camping area a short while later.He’d already sensed it was empty, but he needed to verify it.The caravans were gone and had left a few days ago judging by the state of the coals in the campfire.

Returning to the truck, he motioned for his female to move over.“They’re gone,” he said.“But I think you need to see something.”

Her eyebrows rose as he switched on the ignition.He could tell she had some questions, but she kept them to herself as he drove to the camping site.

He parked in the lot and they climbed out.Caterina gazed around sorrowfully.“They must have left shortly after I did,” she figured.Spying a mound of dirt and a cross near the public bathrooms, she crossed to it.She read the inscription engraved on the cross out loud.“‘Luca.Despicable outcast who is unworthy of our clan.’”

“It seems your oracle knows the truth about what happened the night you left,” Ramiel surmised, then pointed at a picnic table.“She left something for you,” he told her.