When Angels Fall (38 page)

“Michael can take me away from here, and then come back and help you kill the demons” Dani said. “That way you won’t have to worry about them getting me.”

“No, he can’t,” Gabriel said.

Dani stomped her foot, “Why not!?”

“I told you that God demands that you be here while Gabriel fights Lucifer,” Michael said. “I know I’ve help
ed up until now, but now that
Lucifer has risen
,
I can no longer interfere.”

“But Lucifer is
cheating,
” she said. “Surely God won’t allow that.”

“I don’t think we can expect God to assist me with this, Dani.”

“
It’s not fair!
” Dani screamed to the Heavens. “
You can’t allow this to happen!
Do something, damn it!
”

“Dani!” Michael snapped and put his hand over her mouth. “Don’t do that!”

Dani slapped his hand away, “Why not! Lucifer is breaking
His
rules.”

“I know,” Michael said sternly. “But you don’t yell at
God
.”

“Well somebody should,” she said with tears rolling down her face.

Gabriel turned his head and looked across the yard, “He’s coming.”

Dani turned her head in the direction that Gabriel was looking, but didn’t see anything. And then a hot wind hit her in the face. The overwhelming smell of decomposition made bile rise in her throat.

And then the demons came in mass. They were preceded by a massive shimmering wave of heat. The grass burned in their wake. Instead of rushing, the demons made their way slowly toward them. Gabriel touched her arm and she felt her skin turn cold.

“What…?”

Gabriel didn’t take his eyes from the demons, but said, “It will protect you from being burned.”

Dani looked at the burning grass, “The grass didn’t burn when the demons rose at Potter’s house.”

“Lucifer wasn’t with them then,” Gabriel said.

The demons stopp
ed about twenty yards from them
and then
separated in the middle of their
mass. Then Dani saw him.

Lucifer walked through the opening that his demons had made for him and stood to face Gabriel.

“There’s no way you can win, Gabriel,” Lucifer said. “The girl is mine. Give her to me.”

“No, she’s
mine,
” Gabriel said. “You’ll have to kill me to get her.”

“Then so be it,” Lucifer said. “Get them!”

At Lucifer’s command, the mass of demons rushed t
hem. Gabriel had his sword ready, but the demons never made it to Gabriel.
Before the demons could get to them, hundreds of Seraphim descended from the sky. The Fire Angels hovered above and blocked
the demons way. The few demons that tried to run through the Seraphim immediately disintegrated.

“YOU WILL NOT CHEAT, LUCIFER!”
a voice boomed in the air.

The voice was so loud that it made Dani’s eardrums vibrate.

Michael informed her, “The only thing that can pass through a Seraph is an
Archangel
.”

The demons backed away and sank back into the earth.

“It looks like you’re on your own brother,” Gabriel call
ed
across the yard to Lucifer.

The Seraphim formed a large circle in the middle of the yard and Gabriel stepped through the Seraphim.

Michael nudged Dani, “You have to go with him.”

She stepped through a space between two Seraphim. As soon as she was through the Seraphs spread out and formed a solid wall of fire. She looked at them for a moment
longer
and then stepped over to Gabriel.

3.

Gabriel
stood in the circle of Seraph
s and waited for Lucifer to step through on the other side.

“I want you to stand as close to the Seraphim as you can, but do
not
touch them. It’s going to get hot in here, don’t try to run from the heat. You’re protected, you won’t get burned.”

“Should I try to stay behind you?” she asked.

He gave her a tight smile, “Don’t worry, love. He’s not getting over here to you. Just back up against the Seraphs and stay put.”

Michael stepped through the wall of Seraphs and came to stand by Gabriel’s side.

“You shouldn’t be in here, Michael,” Gabriel said.

“I’m not helping,” Michael s
aid. “Just bearing witness to a
historical event.”

Gabriel put his hand on Michael’s shoulder and nodded before turning back to Dani, “I love you, Dani. Never forget that.”

“I love you, too,” Dani said, tears running down her cheeks again.

Lucifer stepped through the wall of Seraphim, stood on the other side of the circle and stared at Gabriel.

Gabriel kissed Dani one last time and turned to face Lucifer.

Michael grabbed Gabriel’s arm when he attempted to make his way across the battlefield to Lucifer, “Gabriel…”

“Let me go, Michael,” Gabriel said, cupping Michael’s hand with his own. “What’s done is done
,
and I have
no
regrets.”

Michael nodded sadly, tears rolling down his own face, and dropped his hand.

“Just remember to keep your promise to me.”

Michael nodded again, “Always.”

Gabriel smiled at Dani and turned to walk onto the battlefield.

4.

Dani watched as Gabriel walked to the center of the circle and use
d
his sword to cut a line in the burned earth.
Gabriel looked at Lucifer and declared in a thundering voice:
“
Thus far shall you come, but no farther: and here shall your proud waves break!”

Job 38:11. Dani’s skin crawled at Gabriel’s words. They were God’s own words
pertaining to Satan. The look
of worry that flashed across Lucifer’s face at Gabriel’s words told
her that he knew it, too.

Michael stood next to her with his sword to his side, but she knew he wouldn’t make a move agaist Lucifer. It was forbidden. The sword was for
her
. She knew he intended to keep his promise to kill her if Gabriel should be the one to fall.

Lucifer had his own sword in his ha
n
d and made his way across the battlefield to Gabriel, stopping a few feet away from him. Lucifer was talking
,
but she couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“He’s giving Gabriel another chance to hand you over to him,” Michael said. “Gabriel said he could have you over his dead body.”

And with that Gabriel swung his sword and slice
d
Lucifer’s face. Things happened quickly after that. They kept phasing in and out of Dani’s sight, but what she could see was fierce. They were hitting, slashing and stabbing at each other.

The heat coming from them was incredible. It fel
t as if she were standing inches
from an open oven. There was a shimmering heat surrounding them and she could hear the air crackling. The air inside the circle smelled scorched. The
grass caught fire wherever Gabriel and Lucifer
stepped.

She gasped when Lucifer stabbed Gabriel through the arm, but Gabriel paid it no attention. He continued to
fight as if
hadn’t happened.

Michael explained
, “They have to take the head or
pierce the heart for it to be a kill shot.”

Dani nodded but didn’t take her eyes from the battle. Lucifer was good
,
but Gabriel was better. No matter what Lucifer did, he couldn’t get across the line that Gabriel cut in the land.

Watching Gabriel fight gave Dani
hope that Lucifer would soon fall.

5.

Gabriel faced Lucifer with no fear in his
head or
heart. Lucifer may have stabbed
him
in the shoulder, but it had only been a lucky shot.

He
slashed at Lucifer and laid his left thigh open. He swung at Lucifer’s neck, but he ducked the blade just in
time. It was starting to look l
ike his Father was going to spare Gabriel’s life after all.

He kicked Lucifer to the
ground and was about to stab him
through the heart when he saw a flash of bright red hair from the corner of his eye. He turned his head just in time to see Raphael standing behind Dani with his sword raised to strike her down.

Gabriel screamed, “
Raphael!
”

Michael turned and in one swift motion, drove his sword through Raphael’s chest.

The whole scen
e unfolded in two seconds, but it was just enough of a distraction for Lucifer to jump to his feet and drive his sword through Gabriel’s side and pierce his heart.

“
NO!
” he heard Dani scream as he fell on his back to the ground.

Lucifer laughed and leaned over Gabriel’s dying body, “I told you she was mine.”

Gabriel rolled his head to look at Dani. She had fallen to her knees and was sobbing. Gabriel smiled at her and winked.

“And I told…you…that…she is…
mine,
” Gabriel said through the pain.

He swung his sword one last time and took Lucifer’s head. The King of Hell had fallen and was no more.

6.

As soon as Lucifer’s head left his body
,
the wall of Seraphs disappeared.
The battle
was over.

Dani ran across the burnt grass and dropped to her knees next to Gabriel and cried, “No, Gabriel! Don’t die!
Please don’t die
!”

“It’s… alright, love. You’ll… be okay… now.”

“No I won’t,” she cried hysterically. “I don’t want to live without you.”

“But…you
will
…
live
.”

Gabriel’s
body was starting to turn to mist before her eyes.

Blood ran from the corner of his mouth as he smiled at her,
“I told…you I…would…smile…as I died…for you. I love…you…my wife.
Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.
”

With those last words, Gabriel’s body tur
n
ed
to mist and then he was gone.

“
No
!” Dani screamed one last time before she fell into darkness.

1.

Dani woke in her own bed with early morning sunlight streaming through the window. Someone had brought her home. She looked around her bedroom, but there was nobody in the room with her. She guessed the angels decided that with Lucifer dead, it was safe for her to be by herself again.

When she walked down the stairs she found Michael sitting, fully dressed, on the couch reading a book.

He looked up at her, “H
ow are you feeling this morning?
”

“Not well at all,” she said. “What are you still doing on Earth?”

“You’ll be seeing a lot of me from now on,” he said. “I promised Gabr
iel that I would watch over you.
”

She busted into tears at the mention of Gabriel’s name.

“I’m so sorry, Dani,” Michael said, walking over and wrapping his arms around her. “I attempted to take you
r
grief away, but I can see that it didn’t do too much good.
”

He led her over to the couch a
nd sat down next to her, “Your
friend has been her
e
four times in the last three days checking on you. I told her you were down with the flu. The last time she wouldn’t leave until she saw you for herself.”

“I’ve been asleep for three day
s
?” she sniffled.

“Yes, I didn’t wake you because I thought it best to let you sleep off your shock.”

“Donna didn’t demand to know who you are?”

“She did,
actually
” Michael said. “She’s under the impression that I’m a home health
care
nurse. I told her you refused to stay in the hospital to recover.”

“Did she ask about Gabr…him?”

“She did ask, but I
told her I didn’t know who that
was,” he said. “I thought I’d leave what to tell
her about Gabriel
up to you.”