Authors: Amber Hughey
“Not used to working with people?” Sam asked with another smile.
“A Chaser works with an Enforcer. You two – “ he said as he gestured at Amalia and Sam, “Aren’t either.”
“So?” Amalia said as she started down the steps. Please don’t fall. Please don’t fall, she thought to herself, repeating the refrain.
“So?”
“So? Do I hear an echo?” she asked, mocking him with a smile. “So, you’ve been working with me since I started working with Gabriel. We’re just…well, not cutting out Gabriel, but…pulling me closer.”
A slow smile spread across his face.
“Not like that,” she snapped. “To the investigation. Dork.”
He laughed, and it echoed against the woods. Snow fell softly around him. The sky was dark and full of rolling clouds. The clouds hung low over the trees, and the snow fell like thousands of tufts of cotton. “Fine.” He turned to Gabriel and gestured towards his Jeep. “I’m driving.”
“So where are we going?” Amalia asked again as Gabriel came up behind her. He laid a hand on her shoulder, helping to steady herself.
“Jessamyn’s,” Matt replied, climbing in the Jeep. He gestured towards Sam, and then to the passenger seat. “You’re riding with me.”
“Why?” Sam asked, “turning to me now that Amalia’s rejected you?”
He stared at her with a smirk dancing on his lips. “Because those two are taking his car. They’ll follow us.”
Sam looked at Amalia, an unspoken question in her brown eyes.
“He’s all right,” Amalia said as Gabriel gently guided her to the passenger seat of the Aston. “Uh, how am I supposed to ride in it?”
“Already switched the seats out,” Gabriel said as he opened the door for her. He helped her slide in the seat and get comfortable, showing her the best way to sit so her feathers wouldn’t bend.
He straightened, ran a hand through his hair, then looked at Matt. “We’ll follow.”
Matt nodded as he turned the Jeep around. He saluted Gabriel as they pulled out of the driveway.
Gabriel slid into the driver’s seat. Turning to face Amalia, he softly smiled. She wasn’t very comfortable. She kept shifting her weight, an irritated look on her usually happy face.
“Are you all right?” he asked, knowing damn well that she wasn’t. Who would be?
She turned her unamused face toward him and scowled. “Would you be all right if you had a fairly normal life, a good job, and then all of a sudden, you were a different species? A human?”
“Well,” he said, pausing to collect his thoughts. He started the car and slowly turned it around before starting again. “No, I wouldn’t be. But I’d probably take it better than most.”
“I’m sure you would,” she said sarcastically, pressing her back against the seat, already feeling the crick in the muscles from the weight of the wings.
He looked at her sidelong before pulling out onto the road. “Amalia – “
“Gabriel,” she shot back, crossing her arms in front of her. “Gabriel, my whole life has changed in less than a day. What the hell am I supposed to do now? I highly doubt that my job will still be there when I get back, especially now,” she finished bitterly, twitching her wings angrily.
“Why wouldn’t your job be there?”
She stared at him in disgust. “Small town prejudices. North Shore is lucky if we see two angelus pass through the town in a year. Having one live and work there? Yeah, ain’t gonna happen.”
“They can’t fire you,” he replied evenly.
“No, they can’t. But they can make it damn uncomfortable for me to work there.” She heaved a heavy sigh and stared at her hands. What the hell was she supposed to do now?
“It’s not all bad,” he persuaded as he quickly caught up to Matt’s Jeep.
“Really? Because from where I’m sitting, it looks pretty bad.”
“Longer life? Better eyesight? Better reflexes?” he offered with a small smile.
She glared at him. “I really didn’t need any of those.”
“To be with me you might,” he said softly.
She stared at him, mouth hanging open. “What if I want to be with Matt?” she said, quickly catching herself, trying to turn her reaction into a joke, but knowing it hadn’t worked.
He gave a shrug and a smile. “While I wouldn’t recommend it, same thing. It’s hard for angelus to be in any kind of romantic relationship with a human. Any relationship, other than a business one, actually. So for me, it’s a plus that you’re angelus. So, there is a silver lining in this thundercloud.”
“We’ll be there soon,” he said when she didn’t respond.
She stared at the dashboard, watching the different lights on the radio flicker. She turned her startled gaze on him and asked, “So how did this happen?”
“How did what happen?” he asked, confusion in his gray eyes.
“The change. The wings. How did it happen? Sam said something about it pulling from my body?” she asked, playing with a strand of curly red hair.
“Quickly. Extremely quickly. You know how your clothes are looser? You’re probably starving?”
“Yeah,” she said slowly, thinking about how her clothes seemed to hang on her normally curved frame.
“Your body changed by drawing from itself. You need to replenish everything. Calcium, vitamins. Everything. Changing that quickly made it hard on your body.”
“Which is why I’m still hungry,” she offered, softly smiling.
“Yeah. Speaking of which, there’s a couple candy bars in the glove box,” he said, gesturing towards the receptacle before her.
“I thought I already ate what was in there?” she asked as she opened the door and grabbed a Snickers.
“You did. I replaced them,” he said casually, “I knew you’d be hungry if we had to take my car. Which was the plan.”
“So what happens now?” she asked as she watched Sam animatedly talking with Matt.
“We ransack Jessamyn’s house, hope to find some clues, and then track down Aleks. And deal with him,” Gabriel finished tightly, just the thought of Aleks making his temper rise.
She raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t search thought his stuff at the house? And what do you mean ‘deal with him’?”
“Of course we searched the house. Nothing there at all. Despite our best efforts,” he said with a sigh. “And by deal with him, I mean mete out the justice that’s due.”
“He was your best friend,” she said softly.
“He was,” Gabriel confirmed. “Now, he’s just a solan ass who killed a bunch of angelus.”
“Humans,” she corrected, flitting a glance at him. He stared straight ahead and didn’t notice her staring at him.
“Angelus,” he repeated firmly. “If he hadn’t changed them, if he’d left them as humans, then you’d be right. But since he changed them, that changes the laws that rule over what I can and can’t do to him.”
“Worse or better?”
“For him?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“Worse,” he said with a grim satisfaction. “We forgive some crimes against humans. They happen. Especially with a younger angelus who doesn’t know their own limits and strengths. But with another angelus…no mistakes. Not like what he’s done.”
“So what are you going to do with him?”
“Execute him,” he said harshly, eyes a steely gray that held no remorse.
She stared at him, silent. She closed her mouth, and then opened it again. “If they’d been human?”
He glanced at her, eyes like hard slate. “He’d to away for some education as to why human lives are worth preserving.”
“But since he killed angelus,” she started slowly, and then stopped as her stomach clenched.
“His life is forfeit. It’s one of the basic rules of the angelus. If one kills another, except in very few situations, their life is forfeit. He knows the rules. He’s an Enforcer, for Mother’s sake,” Gabriel snapped, face heated with the rising emotions. “If anyone knew better, it’s him. Enforcers preserve life. They make sure other’s follow the rules to do the same. We don’t kill without a damn good reason.”
She laid a warm hand on his arm, stopping his tirade. She swallowed hard before saying, “Gabriel, to him, he had good reason. If he truly was trying to save his sister – “
At the look of pure hatred on Gabriel’s face, she stopped. She gazed evenly at him before continuing. “I’m not saying he was right. I’m saying that if he was really trying to save his sister, I can see why he’d stop at nothing to do it.”
“You feel sorry for him?” Gabriel asked, choking out the words.
She started to shake her head before nodding. “Yeah, I do. Because I think if he went to the Dark Side, then it’s because he either thought no one he trusted would help him, or that no one could help him.”
“He went bad out of necessity?” Gabriel said, outrage tinting his normally smooth baritone.
“To save his sister, yeah, I think that’s a possibility,” she said, giving his arm a squeeze before settling back into her seat.
“So I should be merciful?”
She smirked and shook her head. “I didn’t say that. It’s up to you. You’re the one with centuries of experience. I’m just a lowly former human.”
He shook his head and smiled. “So, be merciful. Got it.”
She snorted and shifted her weight, feeling the wings pull at her already sore back muscles. “I didn’t say that. But, if we find out why he did what he did – beyond what he’s already told us, I mean, then you should take that into consideration.” She stopped, and a questioning look came over her thin face. “And
ask Sam what to do. I’m sure she’d have an idea or three.”
“I’m afraid to ask Sam,” he said with a smile. “I can already picture what she’d tell me to do to him.”
“If it were up to her,” Amalia said with a low laugh, “I think she’d kill him herself and bury his body where no one will ever find it.”
“And you wouldn’t?” he asked with an arched eyebrow.
“Oh, I would. But I wasn’t kidnapped and experimented on,” Amalia said as she twisted the hunk of hair around her finger.
Amalia clumsily climbed out of the Aston with Gabriel’s help. She leaned on him as she overbalanced, mentally cursing herself for needing his help at all. She really, really didn’t like depending on anyone else. But, she reasoned with herself, at least it’s Gabriel she’s depending on. And not Eric. Thank god it’s not Eric. She suppressed a shudder as she stood next to Gabriel.
He looked down on her, the crimson tips of his hair reflecting in the scant sunlight, making his hair look like it was dipped in fire. He furrowed his brow as he stared at the house. “Ready?”
“Ready for a B & E? Always,” she joked as she started towards the house. She slowly walked up to Sam who was still in an animated discussion with Matt.
“You two ready?” Gabriel asked in a low voice
Matt nodded and pressed a hand on the back of his neck. “I’ll start – “
“Most of her work was in an office off the kitchen,” Amalia broke in, knowing where they’d need to look, “but she probably has another room upstairs, a bedroom-turned-office where she keeps everything else. Gabriel and I will start downstairs. You two start upstairs.”
“All right then, Miss Bossypants,” Matt said lightly.
“Glad we got that settled.” Sam smirked before starting towards the large colonial.
“So how are we getting in?” Amalia asked.
“You don’t have a key?” Gabriel said in mock dismay, inciting a light slap to his arm from Amalia. “Matt will get us in. He’s great for picking locks.”
“Another thing you never picked up?”
“What, aside from creating vaccines? No, I can pick most locks. Who do you think taught Matt how to do it?” Gabriel said.
“You? I doubt it. You’re too prissy for something like that,” Sam said, turning.
“Prissy?” Gabriel said incredulously. His eyebrows rose in surprise and he stared at Sam’s back.
“Yep. I mean, it’s not bad or anything, but you’re just too…dandy to be lockpicking.”
“Wait – what?” he sputtered.
“You’re much more of a gentleman thief than a burglar,” Sam said, giving Amalia a devilish grin.
“What?”
“He does know how to say things other than that, right?” Sam said to Amalia with that same grin.
“Well, when we first met, we had a great conversation. Can’t say much for the ones since, though. I think it was just a ploy to get me
interested,” Amalia replied, trying for a casual shrug and almost succeeding.
Gabriel narrowed his eyes at the two women before deciding it would be better to ignore them than to let them keep with the comments. He shook his head, flipping the hair out of his eyes. “You in yet?” he asked Matt testily.
“Almost. Don’t take it out on me that I’m the lockpick and you’re the pickpocket. Not my fault. Must be my rugged good looks,” Matt said absently.
“Rugged?” Amalia shot, “you mean adolescent.”
Sam giggled at the look of annoyance he sent Amalia before popping the door open.