When Angels Fall (7 page)

“No, Ennis, you can
’t,” Gabriel said with finality.
“
Your character is flawed; you’ve damaged your soul with the lifestyle that you’ve chosen.  I’m s
orry, but that can’t be changed.
”

Buddy dropped his head and sobbed.

“You can’t kill him,
” Dani said.
“That
would be
murder
and murder is the biggest sin of them all.
”

“If
you
killed him, it
would
be murder. The human rules don’t apply to me, though. Not only can I smite who
m
ever I think deserves it, it’s
my
job
to do so,” Gabriel said.
“Don’t you understand that this man wouldn’t have stopped until you were
dead
? How many times does he have to hit you before anything is done?”

“I did do something!
” she said.
“
I had him a
rrested
and
got an
Order of Protection against him.
”

“And how did
that
work out for you today? Here he is on the d
ay after you buried your mother,” Gabriel said.
“
He cares nothing about what your courts say. After all he’s done to you, here he is
again
.
”

“How do you know what he’s done to me? I haven’t told you anything about my relationship with him,” Dani said.

“I
can see his life
in his soul,
Dani,
” Gabriel said.

There was nothing she could say to top that. Dani was out of arguments for Buddy’s defense and instead of debating it further she dropped to her knees in front of Buddy and took his head in her hands.

Buddy plead
ed, “Don’t let him do it Dani! Please d
on’t let him kill me!”

“He’s an
Archangel
, Buddy. I don’t have any c
ontrol over him or what he does.” Dani said.
“
I just wanted to say that I’m sorry this is happening t
o you, and…I forgive you, Buddy.
”

“Well,
damn it
!” Gabriel shouted.

His shout startled
Dani,
and she looked up at him, “What?”

“You just saved him,” Gabriel said.

“From death?”

“No,
” Gabriel
said in
frustration.
“From
et
ernal damnation. You carry the Blood of God.
What
you forgive on Earth, God will forgive in Heaven. You’re sending Budd
y on a one way trip to paradise.
”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Dani asked, confused.

She wasn’t used to carrying the
Blood of God
. She didn’t
know
what she was doing
or
the consequences
of
her actions. But
Dani
refused to believe that forgiving Buddy could be a
bad
thing. Her mother had taught her that the best way to move on with her life was to forgive th
e people that had wronged her. To f
orgive them, not for them, but for herself.

“It’s not a
bad
thing, it’s just undeserved,” Gabriel said.
“
He should stand in the Judgment of God; he should be
punished
for the pain
he has so selfishly caused you.
”

She looked back at Buddy, and a memory struck her. The memory was of the Buddy that he was before the booze had taken him. She remembered when they were kids, maybe nine or ten years old. She had fallen off her bike and hurt her knee. Buddy, not much bigger than she was at the time, had carried her on his back for four blocks to get her home to her mom.

“No, there’s good in him; I’ve seen it,” Dani said.

“There’s not much of anything good left in him,” Gabrie
l said, pulling her to her feet
and away from Buddy.

“I forgive him,” she said firmly.

“It’s your decision,” Gabriel said and laid his hand on Buddy’s head.

Dani expected a flash of light, or maybe a loud noise, but neither happened. Instead, Buddy was just gone, like he’d never been there at all.

“Where did he go?” she asked.

“To Heaven,” Gabriel said. “W
here
you
sent him
.
”

His tone was jus
t a bit too pissy for her taste,
“What’s your problem?”

“You,
Dani
; you
’
r
e
my problem! How could you
forgive
him! You have to know how this would have ended if I wasn’t here. He would have had you buried beside your mother if he’d had his way! He
believed
that you belonged to him;
that you were
an object to do with as he pleased! And what’s worse is
you loved him
!” Gabriel bellowed
and stormed out of the house.

1.

Gabriel leaned against the retaining wall in front of Dani’s house and tried to catch his breath. He had rarely been this angry in all of his existence! That a
human
had brought this anger
on,
made it m
uch worse to bear. He would try
his best to protect Dani, but he would
never
understand her. He could read a person’s worth in their soul, but her soul was closed to him because of the blood she carried.

He would
never
understand how she could forgive someone who had treated her as Buddy had. Could she not understand how important she was; the cost that all humanity would have to bear if she died? Lucifer
wanted
to kill her himself, but dead was dead, and humanity would pay the price for her foolishness.

A small
voice inside him asked
if her carelessness was the
only
reason he was so mad. Of course it was! What other reason could there be? He heard her voice before he could pursue those thoughts any further.

“Gabriel, are you still here?” she asked.

He considered ignoring her, but he could hear the fear in her voice.

“I’m here,” h
e said.
“
Just…
give me a minute.
”

“Okay,” she said softly
and quietly closed the door.

He took a couple of deep breathes and made his way back up the steps to the house. One thing he could clearly understand now was how Dani had known how to defend herself from the Cambion. She’s been fist fighting with a man for years; but never again, he would see to that!

2.

She wasn’t in the front room when he entered the house.

“Dani?” he called out.

“Up here,” she answered, “I’m just getting dressed; I’ll be right down.”

While she was getting dressed, he went into the kitchen to see what he could scare up for breakfast. The sun was up, and he was cooking bacon and eggs when she came into the room.

“How did you know I was hungry?” she asked, snagging a piece of bacon from a plate.

“I didn’t, but I knew
I
was hungry, s
o I figured I’d feed both of us.
”

“That’s gracious of you
considering that it’s
my
foo
d you’re cooking,” she said, pop
ping the rest of the piece of bacon in her mouth.
“
I didn’t kn
ow that angels needed to eat.”

She licked the grease fr
om her fingers and a shiver shot down Gabriel’s
spine. He turned back to the frying pan before answering her.

“In Heaven I
don’t
eat; there’s no need. But my
e
arthly
body
has to be sustained with food, just as yours does,” he said.

“But you’re
not
human?
”

“No, but this body is basically human, and it needs fuel to maintain its strength,” he said.

“Can a human kill you?” she asked, shoveling scrambled eggs onto her plate.

“No, and is it possible that you could leave some food for me?”

“Sorry, I haven’t eaten in three days. I’m starving,” she said.

“I haven’t eaten
in over a hundred ye
ars. I win,” Gabriel said, taking
a seat at the table.
“Now
give me some of that bacon
.
”

She stuck her tongue out at him, but slid the plate of bacon across the table to him.

“How exactl
y are you different from humans?
Other
than being an angel, of course,” she asked.

“I’m faster and stronger.
”

“And you can fly,” she said.

“Yes
, and when necessary, I
can
fly.
”

Dani looked at him in wonder,
“You sa
y that like it’s not a big deal.
”

“It’s n
ot a big deal, not to me anyway,” he said.
“
I’ve never
not
been able t
o fly. Besides, humans fly
too.
”

“Yeah, in
planes
. What you do is
a little different
,” she said.
“How did you get to Earth anyway?”

“I fell.
”

“Like the Devil?” she asked.

“No, not at all like Lucifer,” Gabriel said.
“
I fell
voluntarily.
I know humans call Lucifer
a
Fallen
a
ngel, but that’s really a
misnomer. Lucifer didn’t fall from Heaven; he was
flung
from Heaven by the Hand of God.
”

“What’s the difference?” she asked.

“Well, when I fell there was a flash of lightning, and when I struck the Earth it left a dip
in the ground about a foot deep.
”

“I remember that!
” Dani said.
“
I saw the lightning and felt the ground roll, but I thought it was a loud crack of thunder.
I
thought
it was a storm coming.
”

“In a way, it was,” he said, finishing the last of the food on his plate.

“So what happened when Lucifer fell…excuse me, I mean when he was
flung
from Heaven
?”

“When you
’
r
e
flung here
from Heaven the sky splits open
and storms, the likes that humans hav
e never seen, ravages the world,”
Gabriel said. “
When that angel hits the ground it leave
s a permanent scar on the Earth.
”

Dani asked,
“Does it leave a bigger hole?”

Gabriel shook his head.
“Mo
re like a crater.
”

“A crater?” she asked in surprise.

“Yes, in Lucifer’s case, I believe you call his i
mpact site the Vredefort Crater.
”

“The Vredefort Crater in
South Africa
?”

“Yes,” he said.

“But that crater was made over four million years ago,” she said.

“That sounds about right.
”

“You’re
four million
years old?” she asked in shock.

“No, I’m much older than that,” Gabriel said.
“
Four million years is just how long it’s been since Lu
cifer was casted out of Heaven.
”

“Wow!” she said.
“How do you even process being that old?”

“I don’t feel that old. Four million year
s
to a human is different than four million years to an angel. We don’t count years as you do. Time is
different in Heaven
.
”