When Angels Fall (37 page)

2.

Gabriel rematerialized next to Michael and started killing and smiting demons at fast as he could, keeping in mind how long Dani had before she hit the ground.

Michael caught Gabriel’s eye for a brief moment and Gabriel shook his head. He didn’t have time to explain where Dani was. It would take Dani approximately forty-five seconds to fall from the 30,000 feet he’d released her at. He had about twenty seconds left before she st
r
uck the Earth.

With five seconds left, Gabriel shot back into the air, caught Dani five hundred feet above the yard, shot back up to 30,000 feet, and released her again. Then he teleported back to the ground and started the countdown again.

He repeated the process four times before all the demons that had risen had been killed.

“Where did you put Dani?” Michael asked when the last demon had fallen.

Gabriel raised his hand at Michael and shot back into the air to catch Dani, this time bringing her back to the ground. She was holding her hands to her ear
s
.

He sat down on the grass with her in his lap and placed his hands over hers to remove the pain from her ears, and then wrapped his arms around her trembling body. She was freezing. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms and back, warming her skin.

“I
’m so sorry about that, honey,”
Gabriel said. “It was the only way to keep you safe while we killed the demons.”

She didn’t say anything. She just continued staring at the ground and trembling. It took a few minutes for her shaking to slow. When it finally stopped, she got up, grabbed Gabriel’s sword at the hilt and tried to pull it off the ground.

Gabriel looked at her in confusion, “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to fucking kill you!” she yelled.

“Dani, I said I was sorry.”

“You’re
sorry
?” she shouted at him. “You dropped me from 20,000 feet
four
Goddamned times and all you can say is you’re
sorry!?
”

“It was
30,000
feet and you’re overreacting,” Gabriel said, getting to his feet. “You weren’t in any danger.”

“
You shut up!
” she screamed and punched him in the face. “
You’re a douchebag
.”

She turned on her heel and stormed off toward the house.

She turned back to them when she got on the porch, “And just in case you’re wondering why the front of your legs are wet, it’s
my
piss you…
you…
asshole!
”

With that she stormed into the house and slammed the door.

Gabriel
looked back at Michael, but he was no longer standing where he had been. He was lying in the grass
,
laughing so hard that he couldn’t breathe.

“I’m so glad you
’re
enjoying yourself,” Gabriel said scornfully.

“She actually
hit
you,” Michael cackled, gasping for breath. “If she could have lifted your sword
,
I believe she really
would
have killed you.”

“Shut up, Michael,” Gabriel said. “Go home.”

Michael disappeared from the grass and Gabriel followed Dani inside the house.

3.

Dani went into the upstairs bathroom and turned the shower on. She was pulling her
wet shorts
off when she had to stop
to vomit. She could feel all the
nerves in her skin crawling. She’d never been as petrified in her whole life as she’d been when Gabriel had vanished, leaving her to freefall through the air.

And she was still
freezing
. She wiped her mouth, finished undressing and stepped into the spray of the shower. She stood there and let the hot water warm her skin and thought about what Gabriel had done to her. She knew he thought he hadn’t had a choice, but Dani could s
ee one other thing
he
could’ve
done.

He
could
have run with her. He
could
have just picked her up and flew away. They could have found another place to stay. He had
chosen
to let her fall.

When she felt warm again, she washed her body and stepped out of the shower. Exhaustion hit her as she was drying off. She could barely hold her eyes open while she brushed her teeth. She left the bathroom, walked down the hall to the bedroom and fell across the bed. She was asleep before he
r
head hit the pillow.

4.

Gabriel waited for Dani to come back downstairs, but she never did. He was keeping his
inner eye
on the whole house. If
anything
entered the house he could be by Dani’s side in a millisecond. When
he finally went upstairs to check on her
,
he found her asleep on the bed.

He wanted to wake her up to apologize again, but he knew she needed the sleep. He should have warned her of what he was going to do before he’d released her, but there just
hadn’t
been time. He didn’t think she’d be this angry about it. She’d acted as if he’d tried to
kill
her.

All he’d been trying to do was keep her safe. Her life was just as important to him as it was to mankind’s survival. He had to admit that she had a good right hook, though. If he’d been human he was almost positive that she would have broken his jaw.

He almost felt sorry for the Cambion she’d gotten a hold of in the street the first night Gabriel had met her. If she kicked as hard as she punched she probably
would
have killed that
Cambion
if the other
Cambion
hadn’t have come along.

He waited the night out sitting at the kitchen table, doing nothing but keeping a watch over the house. It was mid-morning before Dani came back down the stairs. She had slept a full twelve hours.

She rummag
ed through the cabinet until she
found a box of cereal. The
n
she poured a glass of milk and sat down at the table. She ate the cereal straight from the box and chased it with the milk. She did all of this without muttering one word to Gabriel.

Gabriel cleared his throat, “I think you’re supposed to put the milk
in
the cereal.”

“Don’t tell me how to eat,” she snapped at him.
“
Just sit over there and mind your business.”

“I’m sorry about last…”

“I kn
ow you’re sorry. I heard
you
the first time you
said it,” she said. “I don’t care anymore about your apology today than I did last night.”

“I didn’t have another option.”

“Yes you did,” she said. “You just chose not to take it.”

“What would you have had me do?”

“Run,” she said. “You could have run.”

“Run,” he said, irritation tingeing his tone. “I love you
,
Dani, God knows I do, but I will
not
run
, not
one more step. Where I am is where I’ll be when Lucifer rises. The time for running is over.”

“But…”

“No, that’s the end of it,” he said firmly. “You’re not
leaving here until this is done
.”

“Fine,” she said and went back to eating her cereal.

“Dani, please try to understand,” Gabriel said. “I’m just trying to keep you safe. I never would have done anything to put you in danger.”

“I know,” she said grudgingly and threw a piece of cereal at him.

Gabriel caught the piece of cereal, popped it into his mouth and stood up, “Come outside when you’re done with your breakfast. I want to show you something,” he said and walked out of the house.

5.

Dani put the cereal back in the cabinet, rinsed out her glass and followed Gabriel outside.
The sight
before her was
amazing
. Gabriel was out in the yard with his
h
ands and wings outstretched, and he was
surrounded
by hummingbirds.

There had to be a hundred of them. They were clinging to his wings and circling his head. They were
so
colorful and were at perfect peace with Gabriel.

“Come out here,” Gabriel called to her.

She shook her head, “I’ll scare them away.”

“No you won’t,” he said. “Come here.”

She walked slowly out to him, fully expecting the hummingbirds to scatter, but they didn’t.

He turned her so that her back was against his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist, “Hold out your hand.”

She held her hand up and three hummingbirds landed on her fingers, “They’re beautiful.”

“I thought you might like them.”

Dani laughed, “You’re only doing this to get back on my good side.”

Gabriel nibbled her ear and whispered, “Is it working?”

“A little bit,” she said and
turned in his arms to kiss him.
“How did you do this?”

Gabriel smiled, “I called to them.”

“Can you do that with anything?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “After I make love to my wife, I’ll summon you a swarm of butterflies.”

She smiled up at him, “You sound very confident.”

“About making love to you or about the butterflies?”

She laughed, “No, about the wife part.”

“Wesley called you my wife,” he said. “I like the sound of it.”

Dani giggled when Gabriel swept her up into his arms and carried her towards the house, “I didn’t say I forgave you.”

“Come on,” he said. “You can’t find a better apology than a flock of hummingbi…”

Gabriel stopped talking and jerked his eyes to the sky. The hummingbirds that were following them scatt
ered, and Gabriel nearly threw
her to the ground. She looked up and saw a ball of fire falling rapidly from the sky.

She thought it was going to crash into the ground, but it stopped inches abo
ve the grass and hovered in front
of Gabriel, “
He comes
,” the fire bellowed and vanished.

“What was
that
?”

“It was a Seraph,” Gabriel said. “But the voice was my Father’s.”

“That was the
Voice of God
?”

Gabriel nodded.

“What did He mean
he comes
? Does he mean that…?”

Gabriel nodded again, “Lucifer is rising.”

1.

Fo
ur angels crashed to the ground
but kept their distance from Gabriel and Dani. The angels were
Antares
, Formal
haut, Aldebaran, and Regulus
.

“Who are they?” Dani asked, clinging to Gabriel’s arm.

“They’re Watcher Angels,” he said. “They watch all major events on Earth and record them in the Gospels of Heaven. They’re here to observe the battle between the two most powerful Archangels ever created.”

“Gabriel…” Dani said, tears welling up in her eyes.

“It’s alright, love,” he said. “I
promise
that you’re going to be just fine.”

“I’m not worried about me.”

“Have a little faith in me, love.” Gabriel said, laying his hand across Dani’s heart. “I
will
defeat Lucifer for you. You have my word.”

2.

Michael was at Gabriel’s side
in
less than a minute after the Seraph’s announcement.

Gabriel looked at him, “Where is he? I expected him to rise here.”

“They’re gathered about a mile from here,” Michael said. “I’m sure
t
he
y
’ll make their
way to you soon enough.”

“
They?”
Dani asked.

“Yes, Lucifer and about ten thousand of his demon minions,” Michael said. “I guess he’s trying to make a showing.”

“He’s supposed to face me alone,” Gabriel said.

“I know,” Michael said. “But when has he
ever
played by the rules?”

“How am I
supposed
to face down Lucifer and ten thousand of his demons
and
keep them all away from Dani?” Gabriel said with a worried look on his face. “It’s impossible.”