Angel's Honor (8 page)

“Ariel has her.
Over
by the steps.”
Raphael pointed. “Your sister was fierce. After I got her
off you, she took her right out of my hands.” His eyes glittered with a
combination of amusement and satisfaction. “I like your sister.”

Gabriel smiled briefly. “Why
am I
not surprised,” he said to Raphael. He glanced at the
crowd of angels surrounding them.
When they saw him looking,
most bowed respectfully.
He took a deep breath. He was their Alpha,
proven by right of challenge as well as through God’s marks. He would get used
to the responsibility. He had to. He found his sister. She stood over Hania,
her face a thundercloud.

“Time for my first judgment,”
Gabriel said softly.

Raphael gave him a sympathetic
look. “You are not alone.”

Gabriel nodded and walked over.
When he reached the steps, he looked down at Hania. “You interfered in a legal
challenge combat.”

She shuddered, not meeting his
eyes. “I had to! He told me he would cut me open if I didn’t. That’s how the
demons get inside.” She slid up her sleeves and Gabriel winced. A fine crisscross
of scars marred her wing marks.

Raphael crouched down and put a
hand on her forehead. For a moment, he held his breath,
then
he let it out and stood up. “She speaks the truth.”

Gabriel didn’t ask how Raphael knew
this. The powers of an Omega were to be trusted implicitly. Besides, he had a
feeling his mate was going completely by instinct at this point.

“Do you wish to remain with the
People?” Gabriel asked her. He could feel magic stirring in his bones.
Unfamiliar magic.
He swallowed, letting it move through him.
He sensed a greater power directing the energy through him. This was the power
an Alpha held over the angels who followed him.

She shook her head. “I just want to
go somewhere far away.” She began to cry, head bowed, long hair sliding down
over her shoulders.

Gabriel sighed. “Raphael?”

His Omega knew immediately what he
wanted. “Let her go.”

Gabriel looked to his sister. She’d
calmed down, thankfully, and now her face held only sympathy. For some reason,
her wings gave the impression of magic, too. She had a hint of midnight blue
shading along the dark brown of her feathers. “Let her go,” she said, adding
weight to Raphael’s advice.

Gabriel nodded slowly, then knelt
down and put his hands on Hania’s head. If she had been abused for years, she
needed healing, not punishment, regardless of the crime she’d committed against
him. He steadied himself, feeling the People’s eyes on him as he made his
pronouncement. “Hania, as Alpha, I release you from the People. Go in peace.
May God be with
you.
” A surge of electricity shot
through him and down his arms. Hania gasped. Before his eyes, she changed. Her
scars disappeared, but so did her marks.

“What have you done?” she asked,
trembling. She stared at her arms.

Gabriel reared back, shocked.

“God has spoken,” Raphael
whispered.

“You’ve taken my wings,” Hania
said, her voice breaking. “I’m human.”

Gabriel swallowed. He hadn’t meant
to do it. He couldn’t imagine a more horrible punishment. He hadn’t meant to
punish her at all, but then she looked up at him for the first time, eyes
shining with tears. “Thank you.
Alpha, thank you.”
She
hurled herself at him. He barely had time to catch her before she let go. “I’ve
cursed my wings since the day I was mated to Samael, may he rot in Hell
forever. You’ve given me my deepest wish, and after I hurt you…” She trailed
off, crying again. “How can I ever repay you?”

Gabriel stepped back, troubled. “Just
go. Live in peace.” He didn’t know what else to say.

She nodded, gathering herself. “I
will. And I will tell everyone about your honorable actions. God chose wisely.”
She turned and ran into the castle.

“You did well,” Gabriel’s mother
said, coming up behind him.

He shrugged, still uneasy. “I had
no idea she wanted to become human.”

“She was far too damaged to
continue as an angel. You had faith God would help you find the right way.
Raphael had faith and healed you. Our People have a new leader. For all the
tragedy of this night, it has concluded well.” She leaned into him, a warm,
solid presence.

Gabriel turned to face the circle,
careful not to dislodge his mother. She needed him right now. It couldn’t have
been easy to see he son fighting on the very ground where her husband had died.
And hell, he needed her, too. The People who’d come to see the challenge had
gathered closer, waiting for him to speak. He looked at Raphael for help, at a
loss.

His Omega looked back at him
steadily,
then
stepped forward. “You have all seen
what happened here tonight,” he said, raising his voice so everyone could hear.
“Go home. Tell your children.
Your grandparents.
Call
the People who live far away and tell them that they have a new leader, an
Alpha, chosen by God.” He paused. “And tell them demons are among us. Be wary.
Be safe.”

Chapter Seven

“Well, that was exciting,” Raphael
said, thinking the exact opposite.
“A challenge, a fight.
Demons.
Hey, I have a great idea. Let’s not ever do
that again. Okay?” Gabriel flashed him a smile that told him he agreed with
Raphael’s sentiment.

Ariel laughed.
“Sounds
good to me.”

“You’ll need to interview all the
angels who worked for Samael,” Raphael’s mother said, sitting down at the
table. They were in the castle’s cavernous kitchen. It was late enough that the
humans hired to cook for the angels had gone home for the day. Gabriel ate
ravenously, his body clearly trying to make up for the energy expended during
the combat and the blood loss afterward. Raphael took a big bite of his
sandwich, still a little freaked out over being able to heal his Alpha.

“Tomorrow is soon enough for all
that,” Gabriel said, picking up a cup. He took a sip of water. “I’ll interview
everyone who works in Archangel Castle tomorrow. Tonight I’m going to finish
eating, shower, and go to bed. I’ll probably sleep for an entire day.”

Raphael raised an eyebrow. Gabriel caught
his look and he sat back, smirking a little. He’d be with Gabriel during all of
that.
Enjoying it to the fullest.
Sleep sounded like
another great idea, he decided.

“At least we have a true leader
again,” Gabriel’s mother said, smiling at her son.

Raphael’s mother smiled too. “True.”

Raphael swallowed his bite of
sandwich, still amazed that his mother had come. “Did Suriel help you get here
in time?”

She rolled her eyes at him.
“Of course.”

“Suriel is starting to sound very
intriguing,” Ariel said, flopping down into the seat next to him.

Raphael wondered what she meant by
that. “I love him, but he’s a pain in the ass.”

“You should be nice to your
brother,” his mother said. “He’s the reason you’re here. You should be thanking
him.”

“Thank Suriel? He’ll think I’ve
lost my mind,” Raphael teased. His mother gave him a look and he grinned. She
was right. His brother was the one who’d told him he had to go study at Castle
Archangel. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll thank him next time I see him.”

“Which will be soon,” Gabriel said.
“If he’s talented as you say, I think we need him to come.”

Raphael’s smile dropped away as he
considered the implications of Samael’s possession. According to the People’s
history, where there was one demon, there were usually more. “I think you’re
right.”

“I knew Samael was evil, but I had
no idea he’d been possessed,” Ariel said quietly. She pushed her drink away
from her with one finger,
then
idly played with the
condensation forming on the side of the glass. “I had no idea an angel
could
be possessed.”

“I suspected,” Gabriel’s mother
said quietly. “When my husband died, I felt something on his body.
Something terribly evil.”

Gabriel stared at his mother.
Raphael put a hand on his arm. He could feel his mate’s consternation through
his skin. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

She shrugged. “You were young. The
evil dissipated after the burial ceremony. His soul was free and nothing we could
do would bring him back.”

“Still, if you knew there was
something wrong…” Gabriel trailed off as Anahita shook her head.

“You needed time.
I
needed time, Gabriel. We were all
grieving. I didn’t have the mental energy to consider the return of such evil.”
She glanced at Ariel. “And I didn’t want your sister worrying about it. She was
very young, only twenty.” She took a deep breath. “Everything will be changing
now. It’s time to focus on bringing the People’s honor back to the fore.”

“Oh Mom,” Ariel said. “I was young,
yes, but I would’ve managed.”

“I didn’t want you to have to
‘manage,’ Ariel. I wanted you to thrive,” Anahita said.

Ariel opened her mouth to say
something, but then obviously thought the better of it, taking a sip of her
drink instead.

Raphael frowned slightly. Anahita
seemed different, somehow.
Stronger.
As he looked at
her, he thought he saw some subtle shading along her legacy marks, similar to
his brother Suriel’s, but then she shifted and he decided it must be a trick of
the light. There couldn’t be two sorcerers born to the People in one
generation, could there? He dismissed his speculation. He had enough to worry
about without letting his mind gallop over a crazy theory like that.

“Everything
will
be
changing, but not until tomorrow. Which is why I need to get some sleep,”
Gabriel said, standing up. He put his empty plate in the sink.

Raphael stood too, cleaning up the
debris from his snack. “I’m with him,” he said, jerking a thumb at his mate.

Ariel chuckled. “You guys are such…
guys.”

Raphael grinned. “What? You want us
to act all lovey-dovey?” He made a kissing face at Gabriel, who just stared
back, all
patient
, strong Alpha. Raphael could tell he
was laughing inside, though. His eyes gave it away.

“Um, yuck.
I think not,” Ariel
said, standing up too. “I’m heading home. I know you picked out a room for me
here, but I’d rather wait to sleep here until I get my stuff and my own bed
carted over. It’ll feel less weird that way.”

Gabriel nodded. “What about you?”
he asked his mother.

She stood. “I’ll go with your
sister. I want to sleep in my own bed. See you in the morning, dear.” She
hugged him and the two women left after exchanging good-nights with Raphael’s
mother.

“Will you be okay in your room?” he
asked her.

She smiled at him. “I lived here
before, you know.
When I was a girl.
My room was still
empty and not even dusty. I’ll be fine.”

Gabriel shot him a surprised look. “Oh.
Raphael didn’t tell me that.”

“You’ve had a busy day,” she said,
smiling at them both.

She has a
point
,
Raphael thought.
What with the demon and
the mating flight and the fight. Not to mention the discovery that I can heal
Gabriel.
“That’s true,” he said mildly, cutting her some slack. “Well, I’m
glad you’ll be comfortable, Mom.” He hoped she’d get the hint and go to bed. He
wanted to be alone with his mate.

“What he said,” Gabriel added,
smiling.

“Thank you,” she replied, eyes
twinkling.
“Goodnight, boys.
Sleep tight.” She didn’t
budge from her spot at the table.

Raphael unsuccessfully fought down
a blush as he interpreted the look she gave him as meaning:
have fun with your handsome Alpha
. There
were definitely drawbacks to having such a close-knit family. “Mom, you’re killing
me here.” He reminded himself for the thousandth time that no one ever died of
embarrassment.

She laughed, clearly enjoying
herself.

“Goodnight, Charmeine,” Gabriel
said admirably evenly. Raphael was impressed. Gabriel had just met her, she was
technically his mother-in-law, and he still managed to maintain his composure.

His mother finally took pity on
them. “See you tomorrow, dear.” She hugged him briefly and headed out of the
room smiling.

Raphael rubbed his face. “Sorry
about my mother.”

Gabriel chuckled. “It’s fine. I
like her.”

“She lives to torment her
children,” Raphael said glumly.

“Isn’t that the prerogative of a
parent?” Gabriel asked, tugging Raphael to his feet.

“Hmpf.
She seems to enjoy it
more than most.” Raphael let his Alpha tug him out of the kitchen. “And she’s
really good at it.”

“We’ll have to keep her and my mom
as far apart as possible.”
Gabriel mock-shuddered.
“Can you imagine what they could do together?”