When Angels Fall (18 page)

Gabriel stopped trying to explain anything to Dani,
and
turned to Potter instead and quickly explained, “This woman carries the last blood of God on Earth. If she dies, then everyone on this planet is doomed. I have to go find the blood of a natural born witch, but I can’t take Dani with me. Will you please, as a favor to me, watch her for a few hours?”

Potter turned and nodded his head at the men behind him. Three of them broke from the group, jogged a couple of steps, and then launched themselves into the tree tops and disappeared. He saw a look of amazement settle on Dani’s face.

“I guess I can safely assume that she’s the reason for the sudden increase of Cambion in
Clarksville
?” Potter said a second before a gunshot rang out from the wood
s
.

Gabriel watched Potter calmly fling his hand out in front of Dani. The movement was so fast that the human eye would have missed it.

Dani dove to the ground and covered her head with her hands. A few seconds later, bodies started flying from the woods and formed a perfect pile in the middle of the yard. All Cambion; all dead.

3.

“Dani, are you okay?” Gabriel asked, leaning over her.

“I’ve been shot at; my asshole might be permanently sealed shut; I may never shit again, but yeah, I’m fine I guess,” she said and let Gabriel pull her to her feet.

“Here,” Potter said, holding his hand out to Dani.

Dani stuck her hand out, palm up, and Potter dropped a bullet into it, “I believe that was meant for you.”

“Did he really catch this bullet?” Dani asked Gabriel.

“Yes, he did. I tried to tell you what they are, but you didn’t want to listen,” Gabriel said.

“Your angel didn’t even
try
to catch it,” Potter said.

“There was no need,” Gabriel said. “It was going to miss.”

“Nice to meet you
,
Dani,” Potter said as t
he other men rejoined the group.
“I’m a
vampire hunter
, and I’m nearly three hundred years old.”

Looking at the bullet in her hand and the pile of bodies in the yard, Dani was now inclined to believe him.

“Why would you think I’d be unhappy about being here?
” Dani asked Gabriel.
“
If vampires existed and these men wiped them from the
face of the Earth, then I’m cool with them.
”

“That kind of brings me to the part you’re
not
going to like,” Gabriel sa
id, and pointed across the yard.
“You see those people over there?” Dani looked at the people still standing in front of the house and nodded. “Those are vampires,” he said.

“No, it’s daylight,
”
Dani said shaking her head.
“If
they were vampires, they wouldn’t be standing in the sun. Sunlight kills
vampires. Everybody knows that.
”

“And everybody is wrong; you’re just going to have to trust me on this,” Gabriel said to Dani, but
she saw that
it was the teenage vampire hunter that now held Gabriel’s attention.

Gabriel walked over
to him and tilted the boy’s chin up so he could look into his eyes.

“How did this happen?” Gabriel asked.

“How did
what
happen?” Dani asked.

She didn’t see anything wrong with the boy at all. He was average height and had tight blond curls; all in all, very cute for his age.

“He,” Gabri
el said, then corrected himself.
“
They
are Seanán and Tiarnán Donnelly. They were born as
a
set
of twins, yet they now seem to be inhabiting the same body.”

“We’re not sure how that happened,” Potter said.

“Interesting,” Gabriel said, and let the boys’ face go.

“Could you focus?” Dani as
ked Gabriel.
“If they,” she said, pointing to the hunters, “are vampire hunters, then what are they doing hanging out with vampires?”

“They’re not hanging out with them. They’ve managed to all come together to form a family that no one thought could ever exist; not even angels,” Gabriel said.

“And you want me to stay h
ere? With vampires?” Dani asked.
“Are you on drugs?”

“I could have left you with
just
the vampires, but the head of that particular group is out of the country on vacation wi
th his wife,” Gabriel said.
“
The vampires are what may ultimatel
y keep you alive while I’m gone.
”

“How did you work that one out?” she asked.

“The vampire hunters can kill Cambion all day long without breaking a sweat, but they wouldn’t be able to do anything to a demon,” Gabriel explained. “But that won’t matter here because a demon won’t rise up around vampires.
You see,
v
ampires
were created by neither God nor Lucifer.

“They were created over a million years ago by a mutation of an ancient disease. The disease itself died off quickly, but the vampires remained and were able to transmit the mutated gene to others through the act of biting. They live off human blood, but the blood they needed to sustain them never
had
to be human.

“The nest of vampires here figured that
out
and has been surviving on the blood of animals for years. But they still carry
one
gene of the original disease; they can touch a demon and kill it
almost instantly. The vampires here
won’t hurt you, Dani,” Gabriel said,
and
then turned back
to Potter.
“Will you help me?”

“It goes against my better judgment to say yes, but I don’t
really
believe you came here to give us a choice in the matter,” Potter said.

“
No, I didn’t;
nor am I
leaving
her here without a warning to you. If I come back and she’s been harmed in anyway; if she has so much as a
broken hair
, I will lay
you and
everyone in your family to waste. That is a promise,” Gabrie
l said, and turned back to Dani.
“I have to go, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

She was looking up at him
,
and he leaned down and kissed her softly on her lips, and then shot into the air.

4.

It only took three hours for Gabriel to locate the witch, and he wasn’t wrong about her having demon guards. They were all lower level demons and Gabriel would bet his life; or what might be left of it, that they had fathered the Cambions that had followed him and Dani today.

He went through the demons with no problems, and got his hands on the witch.

“You don’t want to kill me,” the witch said when Gabriel held his sword to her neck.

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, because I really
do
want to kill you,” he said.

“Lucifer will come after you,” she said.

“I’m counting on it, but you won’t be around to see it,” he said and slit the woman’s throat.

He held a jar under the gushing
wound until the blood
stopped
flowing
,
and
then tossed the witch on the floor and walked out of the small shack she’d been living in.

He flew back to the house where he’d left Dani. There was a larger pile of Cambion in the yard than when he’d left
,
and Dani was nowhere in sight.

“Where is she?” Gabriel asked Potter.

“After the gunshot, I thought it would be wise to keep
her in the house,” Potter said.
“We found her a human to play with.”

“How many
more Cambion came after I left?
” Gabriel asked.

“We have nineteen in the pile now; including the four we killed be
fore you took off,” Potter said.
“Then about thirty minutes ago, the flow just stopped.”

“I
thought it might,” Gabriel said.
“I killed their fathers
’ and the witch that was providing
their fathers’ with Dani’s location.”

“Oh w
ell,” Potter said, and shrugged.
“It was fun while it lasted.”

Gabriel laughed and said.
“I o
we you one, but before you ask
, I can’t help you with you current situation.”

“I wouldn’t ask it
of you,” Potter said.
“We can take care of him ourselves.”

“I can put in a good word f
or you with my brother, Michael,” Gabriel said.
“
He can tell God what you’ve done for Dani today; it might help a little ways in get
ting some of your sins forgiven.
”

“No need,” P
otter said
, smiling
.
“Dani’s given a blank check of forgiveness to everyone she’s met. She even forgave the family that we lost recently, though she admitted that she didn’t know if it would help them since they’re already dead.”

“It will, even if they’re in Hell her forgiveness will raise them from it,” Gabriel said, and sat the jar of blood on the edge of the porch just a
s
vampire walked out of the front door of the house.

“Your brother’s name is Michael?
” Po
tter asked.
“
That would mean you’re…?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t
even think to introduce myself,” Gabriel said, holding his hand out to Potter.
“I’m Gabriel.
”

“
Archangel
Gabriel?” Potter asked and shook Gabriel’s hand.

“One and the same,”
Gabriel said.

“Potter, Jenny wants you,” the vampire said, trying not to look at Gabriel.

“That is
not
the body you were issued at birth,” Gabriel said
to the vampire
.

“I can explain,” the man said.

“Don’t bother, I know
the man that is supposed to be
in th
ere is dead,” Gabriel said.
“And even if he wasn’t, I bet Dani already forgave you.”

“That w
as
real
? She can really do that?” the vampire asked
.

“Yes, she can, and I should go get her before she finds a way to forgive Hitler,” Gabriel said, making Potter
and
the vampire laugh.

“Can you put your wings away before you go inside
? If you
break anything with them, Beck will kill all of us,” Potter said.

Gabriel pulled his wings back inside him, stepped up on the porch, and walked through the open front door.

The fi
r
st thing he saw was Dani and a human man playing checkers on a coffee table. She was so focus
ed
on the game that she didn’t even look up when Gabriel walked over and stood above her.

“I could be dead now
,
and
you’re
calmly playing a board game,” he said teasingly.

“Gabriel!” she said
and jumped guiltily to her feet.
“You’re back.”

“I told you I would be. I told you not to worry about me,” he said.

“I didn’t; hence the board game,” she said, waving her hand at the checker board, “I’d like you to meet…” Dani said.

“David Jakob Dupree; aka D.J,
The Time Bender,” Gabriel said.

“The what?” Dani asked.

“D.J. here used all of the
intelligence
God gave him
to come up with a way to allow humans to travel through time; an impressive feat that not even an
Archangel
can pull off,” Gabriel said.

“Thank you,” D.J. said.

“It
wasn’t
a compliment,” Gabriel said.
“
It’s reckless and dangerous and irresponsible, and I would
seriously
s
uggest that you not do it again.
”

“I don’t intend to, but in my own defense,
I
didn’t send Beck back to
1888 the last time,” D.J. said.
“She was struck by lightning, which I’m
pretty
sure is an act of
God
.”