When Angels Fall (27 page)

She suddenly felt like the pot in a poker game, “God doesn’t really care if I survive this, does He?”

Michael considered this for a moment, “I wish I could say that He did, but I think He set this whole game into motion to force Gabriel to do what he refused to do the first time around; strike down Lucifer.”

Dani heard the sound of wings and looked up. It was a Bald Eagle. It flew over her head and then dropped to glide in slow circles over the river.

“Gabriel doesn’t sound like a bird when he flies,” Michael said with a smile.

“I know,” she said. “I thought maybe demons…”

“Demons can’t fly,”
he said. “God clipped their wing when he cast the down.”

“Lucifer can’t fly?”

“Lucifer never ceased being an Archangel when he was flung from Heaven,” Mi
chael
said. “And an Archangel’s wings cannot be clipped. Lucifer
can
still fly, but he’ll have to rise from Hell to do it.”

“He’s
really
still an Archangel?” she asked. “Why didn’t God just turn Lucifer into an ordinary angel before he cast him out?  Wouldn’t that have made it easier for Gabriel to kill him?”

“Once you are created, you will always be what you were
created
to be,” Michael said. “What you are is written in your essence; it can
never
be changed. Lucifer was created as an Archangel; he will
be
an Archangel until his dying
breath. And
I don’t believe God ever
intended
killing Lucifer to
be
easy for Gabriel.”

“Do you believe that Gabriel can defeat Lucifer?”

“Honestly, I had my doubts until last night,” he said. “But the amount of power Gabriel put off last night when he declared
h
is love for you to the Heavens took all of those doubts away.

“
His love for you has made him stronger than I’ve ever seen him before. He
will
strike Lucifer down for you, Dani; have no doubts about that.”

She watched as the eagle skimmed the water
’
s surface. It caught a fish in its talons and flew away.
To the Victor goes the Spoils
, Dani thought. And
she
was the proverbial fish.

Then it occurred to her what Michael had just said, “You saw what happened between Gabriel and I last night?”

“All of Heaven saw it, just as Gabriel intended,” he said.

Dani dropped her head in
to
her hands in humiliation. She’d never thought of Heaven looking down on them as they made love. Of course they would be watching Gabriel’s every move!

“There is nothing to be ashamed of, Dani,” Michael said, pulling her hands away from her face. “What Heaven looked down upon last night was a beautiful site to behold; a little
confusing
at times…but beautiful. Tell me, how
did
you learn how to tear a button fly open like that?”

“Hold your tongue, Michael,” Gabriel said from behind her, “Or I will hold it for you.”

3.

“Gabriel!” Dani said and jumped from the bench to hug him.

He kissed her lips for a long moment before pulling away an
d handing her the travel
bag, “I though
t you might want to get dressed.
”

Dani went behind a big tree to change clothes and Gabriel turned to Michael. “You’re going to get in
to
serious
trouble if you don’t stop coming down her
e
to help me.”

Michael said, “God decreed that no one could help you strike down
Lucifer
. Lucifer hasn’t risen yet, so
technically
, I’m not breaking any rules.”

“Our Father does
n’t
deal in technicalities,” Gabriel said.

“He’s not the unforgiving Father you’ve built Hi
m up in your mind to be, either,
” Michael said.

“
You’ve
never suffered His wrath,” Gabriel said. “You’ve never given him a reason to bring His judgment down on you.”

“And I never intend to,” Michael said. “If He orders me to stop helping you, I will do so. Until then, I’ll do what I can for you.”

Gabriel looked at his br
other and smiled, “You’re crazy.
”

Michael laughed. “It must be hereditary.”

Dani came back around the tree, “Did you kill all those demons?”

“I would have
, but it wasn’t necessary. As soon as they realized that you were gone, they retreated.”

“And the vampires?” she asked.

Gabriel sat down on top off the picnic table and pulled her up into his lap, “They’re all fine, as is Wesley.”

“Why was Wesley there?
” Dani gasped
.
“
He could’ve been killed!”

“I thought he
would
be killed. But as it turns out, the swords the hunters ca
rry around are made from silver,” Gabriel said with a smile.
“
If I was surprised by it, I
know
he shocked the hell out of those
demons.
His bravery is absolutely astounding.”

“He didn’t have to put himself in that kind of danger for me,” Dani said.

“He
didn’t
. He
knew you were gone,” Gabriel said. “He was out the
re fighting for the lives of a
family that hates him.”

He explained to Dani th
e dilemma Wesley was in with Potter’s
family and what Wesley had done to find himself in his situation.

“But that was so long ago,” she said. “Surely it’s something they can work out.”

“I hope so,”
Gabriel said.
“But I can fully understand Potter’s hatred. I’m not sure how willing I would be to forgive the man who attempted to kill
my
wife; brother or no.”

“You don’t
have
a wife,” Michael said.

“I’m aware of that, but if I did
,
I could understand how Potter feels,” Gabriel said.

“So
why
exactly were we under siege by demons tonight, anyway?” Dani said. “I thought they wouldn’t rise up around vampires?”

“Consider it the First Wave,” Michael said. “Lucifer is
very
prideful. It was his pride that led to his attempt to take over the Throne. He used his demons today as a show of power. It’s his way o
f showing Gabriel that he’
s not afraid of him.”

“If that’s the case, then why didn’t he rise up to face him?” she asked.

“Because, though he would never admit it, Lucifer now finds that he
is
, at least in part, a
little
afraid to face Gabriel in battle after Gabriel’s show of power last night,” Michael said. “So he sent a show of power of his own for Gabriel to see.”

“He’s going to have to do better than that,” Gabriel said. “I have
no
fear of demons.”

“I think it was the
number
of demons that was supposed to be intimidating,” Michael said. “He knows his demons can’t defeat you, but in the right situation, that number of demons
could
overwhelm you and make you unable to guard Dani. He only needs a moment of inattention from you to take Dani away forever. And he wouldn’t even have to rise to do it. His demons could deliver her to him.”

All
of Hell will have to rise to take Dani from him, “That will
never
happen.”

“Now
you
sound prideful,” Michael said.

“It isn’t pride that’s leading me to this end,” Gabriel said, pulling Dani closer to him. “I care nothing for power, nor do I ever wish to take the Throne. What
I’m
fighting for is much more personal and precious. What I’m going into battle for is actually
worth
fighting for. And Whoa be to Lucifer if he can’t see that.”

Dani looked over
her
shoulder
at Gabriel, “What happens in Hell when you kill Lucifer?”

“A demon will rise up to take
h
is place,” Gabriel said and frowned. “It could be one of several high in Lucifer’s court. But if I had to make a guess, I’d lay money on it being Azrael.”

Dani said, “Azrael? I know that name from somewhere.”

“From the Bible, most likely,” Michael said. “He is the angel of death. He’s mentioned in the Christian, Islamic and Jewish faiths. Some religions call him an Archangel, but that was never the case. There were only ever four of us. The S
ikh scriptures ca
me the closest to what Azrael
really
is.

“The scriptures state that
Azrael appears on Earth in human form and hits sinful people on the head with his scythe to kill them and extract their souls from their bodies
. Of course he doesn’t
actually
use a scythe, but you can’t have everything.”

“So he’s like Sammeal,” Dani said.

“Not even close,” Gabriel said. “Sammeal
is
an angel of death, but he waits until
after
a person commits a particularly heinous sin to rip their soul from their body. Azrael is
The
Angel of Death. He doesn’t wait for the sin to actually be committed”

“You said only
Gabriel
can smite someone,” she said to Michael.

“Gabriel said
rip
not
reap,
” Michael said. “When an angel of death rips a soul from the human body, the soul suffers damage.  Only Gabriel can reap a soul without causing the soul any harm.
”

“Azrael doesn’t wait for the human to actually
commit
the sin before coming to
collect the soul,” Gabriel said.
“He collects that soul while it’s just
thinking
of committing a major sin.”

“
You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Dani said. “If he stops a person from being harmed or killed or diverts a major atrocity, how could it be wrong?”

“It’s wrong because a human can change their mind at any time. Humans can become angry and fully plan out a murder or mass killing, and then never carry through with the crime.” Gabriel said, still frowning. “Azrael is ripping and destroying human souls for sins that may never have come to pass. A soul should never be committed to Hell for all eternity based on a
thought.
”

“You smote Buddy because
you
thought he would have eventually k
illed me,
” Dani pointed out.

“That was different, he’d put his hands on you,” Gabriel said
, and shrugged.
“He vexed me.”

“He
vexed
you?”

“That’s Gabriel’s way of
not
saying that he smote someone out of sheer irritation,” Michael said. “He didn’t like him, so he killed him.”

“He told me he did it because there was no good in Buddy,” Dani told Michael.

“There may have been no
good
left in him,” Michael said. “That doesn’t mean he’d committed a crime worthy of death.”

“He hit Dani,” Gabriel said. “That was and will
always
be
a crime worthy of death in my mind.”

“Well I’m going home to see what I can see,” Michael said and stood up in the brightening early morning sun. “Maybe I can find out what Lucifer’s next move is going to be.”

“Keep me posted,” Gabriel said.

Michael nodded and vanished.

4.

“Why does he have to go home to
see what he can see
?
” Dani asked as the first morning commuters started ma
king their
way down
Riverside Drive
.

“We can only see so far around us when we’re
here on Earth. For instance,
I have no idea what’s going on in
China
right now,” Gabriel explained. “But from Heaven, we can see
everything; every person, place, and thing on your
planet.”

“How do you keep up with all of that information?” she asked. “It seems impossible.”

“I don’t really know how to explain it,” he said. “It’s not as if we watch
everything
at the same time, though I could if I needed to. Every angel has a few humans that they are supposed to watch over. Each
Archangel
has a thousand or more souls, at any given time, to keep track of.”