When Angels Fall (19 page)

“It would
n’t
have happened if she hadn’t of
had your little transmitters in her,” Gabriel s
aid, and then turned back to Dani.
“Come with me, bait. Let’s do a little Devil fishing.”

1.

“What exactly
are you going to do?
” Dani asked Gabriel.

“I’m going to use an old angel magic trick to summon a demon, and raise Lucifer out o
f Hell,” Gabriel said.
“Or at least as far
up as I can drag him.”

“Will you be able to kill him?” she asked.

“No, but he wo
n
’
t be able to kill you
, either,” Gabriel said.
“He’ll be inside a protective circle that he can’t get out of, and I can’t get into; but he’ll be able to hear and see us. I just want to let him see you and goad him enough to tempt him to rise on his own.”

“You think it will work?” she asked.

“I can only hope,” he said.

He walked in a small circle, spilling the witch’s blood on the ground. Then he held his sword against his own arm.

“What are you doing?” Dani gasped.

Gabriel looked up at her, smiled and winked, “All part of the game, love.”

She cringed when he
sliced open his arm and let his blood spill inside of the circle.

“How do you know this will raise Lucifer and not some another demon?” she asked.

“Because I’m using
Archangel
Blood
; my blood, inside the circle. Blood calls to blood, and there’s only one
Archangel
in Hell,” he said.
“Are you ready?”

“As ready as you can be to come face to face with the Devil himself,” she said.

In truth, she was terrified, but she knew she didn’t have to tell Gabriel that. She hoped Gabriel was right about Lucifer being trapped inside the circle, because if he stepped out and grabbed her all she would be able to do in her defense was pee on him and hope it grossed him out enough to let her go.

She watched as Gabriel stabbed his sword into the ground outside of the circle. The ground rolled beneath her feet and the circle started swirling with black smoke. The circle may keep
Lucifer
inside, but it was doing nothing to contain the smell. The smoke solidified and she saw a man standing inside the circle.

He had long black hair, dark red skin, and eyes black as coal.

His white teeth almost glowed when he smiled down at her, “Ahh, the last
Daughter of God
,” he said in voice that sounded like the grinding
of
stones.

It struck her soul with terror to hear that voice. She could see the greediness on his face when he looked at her. She knew without a doubt that, if he could, he would grab her and drag her to Hell.

“Hello
,
Lucifer,”
Gabriel said.

Lucifer turned and stared coldly at Gabriel, “Brother, color me disappointed. I had hoped that when this time came that you would stand by
my
side. Imagine my hurt when I learned that you’d actually showed up to
protect
this hairless monkey.”

“I am ordered by God to be here, and I won’t hesitate to kill you the next time we cross paths,” Gabriel said.

“I know why you’re here
, Gabriel
. You’re trying to get Daddy to forgive you, and let you come back home. You’re pathetic and weak, sniveling at our Father’s robes like a child,” Lucifer said, and looked
back at Dani.
“Did your
defender tell you what he did to get kicked out of Heaven?”

Dani didn’t say anything. She’d had no idea that Gabriel
had
been kicked out of Heaven, but she wasn’t about to tell this monster that.

“No, I doubt that he did, so please allow me to tell you. God ordered Gabriel to kill me; told him to strike me down. But when it came down to it, Gabriel
couldn’t
do it. When he had his chance to take my head, he laid down his sword.

“He was too weak to do the job; couldn’t stomach it, I guess. So God punished both of us. He cast me into the pit, and locked Gabriel outside of the gates of Heaven for all of eternity,” Lucifer said.

“It was a mistake I won’t be making again,” Gabriel said.

“That doesn’t tell me that Gabriel’s weak
or
pathetic; it tells me he loved his brother too much
to strike him down,” Dani said.
“
You’re
the one that’s pathe
tic; trying to climb into your
Daddy’s chair and play dress up in his robes. And now you want to throw a temper tantrum because He spanked you’re little ass when you got caught.”

Lucifer roared in rage and pounded on the walls of his invisible cage, “Don’t speak to me you little bitch! I will have you in my grasp before long, and you will pay for your words in blood!”

“You gonna send another one of your demons after me? The last one didn’t work out too well. I had to sweep Sonneillon off of my living r
oom this morning,” Dani taunted.
“Or are you gonna nut up and come up to get me yourself? No, you probably won’t; because you’re
pathetic
.”

Lucifer threw his head back and roared to the Heavens; fire and smoke bellowed from his mouth and nose. Gabriel grabbed his sword and pulled it from the ground. In one last puff of smoke, Lucifer was gone.

2.

Gabriel stared down at Dani in amazement.

“I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have said anything to him, but he pissed me off,” she said.

“No, that was…great. There’s nothing I could h
ave said to make him that angry,” Gabriel said.
“
If
that
doesn’t bring him out of Hell,
nothing will.”

“Will he come now?” she asked, looking nervously around the yard.

“No, he’s angry, not stupid. He knows better than to come and fight with me when he’s
that
mad. When you fight angry, y
ou make mistakes,” Gabriel said.
“It will take him at least
a
few days to calm down.”

“So what do we do now?” she asked.

“You stay here for t
onight
and have dinner with us,” Potter said from the porch.
“
I had some of the hunters clear out of one of the back houses for you;
you’ll have it all to yourself.
”

“You don’t have to do that,” Gabriel said.

“My sister
would want me to,” Potter said.
“She
’s
going to love it when I tell her that Dani told the
fucking
Devil
to
nut
up.”

“Then we accept, but just for the night,” Gabriel said graciously.

Gabriel spent the rest of the day talking to Potter, Harley, Seanán and Tiarnán, Jenny, Beverly, Damon, Gunner, Jeremy, Leso, and
everyone else that lived on
the property. They were a funny;
and for the most part, a happy family. They had their problems, but
they
were able to see beyond them and continue living their lives. They were altogether, very relaxing to be around. And Dani seemed to like them.

He watched Dani as she laughed and talked with her new friends. He even watched calmly when D.J. flirted with her. He knew D.J. didn’t mean any harm, and Gabriel had too much on his mind to worry about it. He had to talk to Dani, and he couldn’t put it off forever.

He thought that he could wait to tell her how he felt about her until after this mess was over, but it was weighing on his mind; and she had noticed
changes in his behavior.
And
s
eeing her standing face to face with Lucifer
had
reminded
Gabriel that there
might not be an
after
…for anyone.

Gabriel had never
really
considered the fact that he may lose in the battle against his brother, but it
could
happen. Lucifer was as strong and
as fast as Gabriel, and
just
as determined as Gabriel to succeed. But Gabriel’s goals had changed. Before, he would have been fighting for humanity and to win his Father’s forgiveness. Now Gabriel and Lucifer would be fighting over the same prize; Dani.

3.

“Where is the house we’
ll be staying at?” Dani asked D.J. in the large living room after dinner that evening.

“Around the back of the house you’ll find a small path. Follow it across D.J.’s Bridge, it will take you across the creek and just keep
following the path through the woods where you’ll come to another clearing. The house dead across from the path is yours,” D.J. said.

“You have your own bridge?” Dani asked skeptically.

“I do, and be glad
for it,” D.J. said with a smile.
“It didn’t use
d
to be there because nobody here
needed
it. When I got here, if you needed to cross the creek, someone would just pick you up and throw you like a Super Bowl football.”

“You’re teasing me,” Dani said.

“No he’s not!” Harley yelled
from another room.
“He screamed like a bitch the first time he went across!”

“
Pussy
!” Potter yelled from the porch.

“They love me,” D.J. said, and shrugged.

“Are you ready to go?” Gabriel asked Dani.

“Yeah, I’m getting a little tired, and I’d like to get a shower before turning in,” she said.

They found the path right where D.J. said it would be. The path was so dark that Dani could barely see three feet in front of her.

Gabriel put his arm around her waist, “I won’t let you fall.”

His touch made the butterflies in her stomach take flight. He said he was touching her more because he’d become accustom
ed
to her, but Dani didn’t care. She would take every touch she could get from him before he was gone from her forever.

Dani heard a small jingling sound in front of them, “What’s that noise?”

Gabriel dropped his arm from her waist, walked a few feet in front of her, and then leaned down. She was surprised when she heard him laugh.

“Come here,” he said, holding his hand out to her.

When she caught onto his hand, he pulled her
over to him, “Can you see it?”

“I can’t see a thing,” she said.

He held out his other hand and a warm glow of light emitted from it. There in front of her, hanging from two small chains, was a small wooden sign with the word
s ‘D.J.’s Bridge’ burned into
it.

“He wasn’t kidding me,” Dani said, laughing.

“It would appear not,” Gabriel said, and led her across the bridge.

“Wow, I couldn’t imagine just being hurled across here. It has to be a good twenty feet across,” Dani said and looked over the bridge
.

The drop was so deep that she couldn’t see the bottom in the dark. She could hear gurgling water below them, but she couldn’t tell how far below.

“Since he’s not crippled or dead, I think we can safely assume someone caught him on the other side,” Gabriel said.

Dani could hear the smile in his voice. This was t
he most relaxed she’d ever seen
him. He’d smiled and laughed all day long. Even facing Lucifer hadn’t seemed to ruffle his feathers. She guessed that being in a safe location where demons wouldn’t rise up, and
Cambions
were
smashed
down, had eased his mind a bit.

The
y
stepped out into a clearing and Dani pointed at the house in front of them, “That must be it. D.J. said it would be the one straight in front of us.”

“It’s empty,” Gabriel said.

“I’m glad you can see through walls. It must be nice,” Dani said.

Gabriel led her up to the house and opened the door for her. He stepped in behind her and closed the door. He reached back to lock it
before seeing that there
was
no lock. And why would there be? These creatures had
no
need for locks. Death would quickly befall the unlucky soul foolish enough to enter one of these houses without permission.

“Dani…,” Gabriel said, turning to talk to her, but she was already halfway up the stairs.

“I’ll be right back down,”
she called
down to him.
“I’m just gonna g
et the showering out of the way.
”