Authors: Stephanie Jackson
“Well shit, never mind then
,
” she said in mock terror.
He had to suppress a small smile. He wasn’t sure that he actually
liked
her, but she was starting to grow on him.
2.
“You know you can’t go out dancing tonight, don’t you?” Gabriel said when they got back to her house later that afternoon.
“Oh, yes I can. I promised her I would go. I’ve never broken a promise to Donna before, and I’m not about to start now.”
“I won’t allow it,” Gabriel said.
“You can’t stop me. The one thing that God gave to humans is freewill; you said so yourself. And it doesn’t seem to matter where I am, the
Cambion keep finding me anyway,” Dani said.
“
It will be harder for them to find me in a
room packed with dancing people.
”
“A bar is not a safe environment for you to be in right now,” Gabriel said.
“Apparently, neither is my home
,
” she said.
“If you go, I go.
”
“Of course
you’re
going. I wouldn’t
dream
of going without you, but can you dial b
ack the angel mojo a little bit?” she asked.
“
I don’t need everybody at Kickers breaking
their necks to bow down to you.
”
“I can try to blend in if you’d like,
” Gabriel said.
“And
I promise to do my best to keep my
‘angel mojo’
in check.”
“Good.
Now
if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll try to take a nap before I have to get ready
to go
out tonight.”
3.
He thought she’d go upstairs to her room, but she walked over and
laid
down on the couch instead. She was asleep in a matter of minutes. He walked over to the smashed window pane on the floor and waved his hand above it. The glass swirled for a moment before rising from the floor. It rose into the empty window frame and repaired itself.
He couldn’t believe he’d been foolish enough to leave his sword at the cemetery the night before. He’d been in such a hurry to get Dani out of there, that he’d left it behide. It was a mistake he could
not afford to make again. It had taken precious time to summon the sword back to him. Time he may not have the next time.
He could have easily have taken care of Vertis
without
the sword, but he’d been lucky it had only
been
Vertis. It could have been a much more powerful demon, or worse, Lucifer himself. He didn’t expect Lucifer to rise from Hell unless he absolutely had to, but he couldn’t bet Dani’s life on that.
But Lucifer
would
rise. Gabriel was counting on it. And all he had to do to make that happen was to make sure no other demon got their hands on Dani first. At some point
,
a Cambion or demon was going to see Gabriel, and they would report it back to Lucifer. Or Gabriel would send Lucifer a message himself to inform him that he was here.
Then the game would change. Lucifer would start sending high level demons after Dani. And Gabriel would strike them down, one by one.
As soon as Lucifer realizes that none of his demons will be able to get to Dani, he would rise to collect her himself. Then Gabriel would have his chance to destroy him, as he should have done four million years ago.
Gabriel always knew that this would be how this game would play out; with him moving the woman he was protecting around like a pawn on a chess board. She wa
s the bait he would use to catch
Lucifer, and the thought had never bothered
him
. But that was
before
he'd met Dani.
Now he found the thought of u
sing Dani as bait repugnant. Ve
tis had said that Gabriel despised humans, which wasn’t exactly true. He used to hold a certain animosity towards humans, but
that had
faded as he’d
watch
ed over them
. H
e still found most of them to be petty, vindictive
,
and childish.
He’d seen humans do the most horrible things to each other, but he’d seen kindness and compassion, as well. He still didn’t particularly
love
humans, but he had respect for the fact that his Father did. And he could sometimes see
why
He loved them.
Gabriel knew he would never have the same love for humans that His father did, but Dani was…different. Gabriel didn’t want her to get hurt, and he would defend her at all cost; even if it meant his own destruction.
4.
Dani had already gone upstairs to take a shower and get dressed when a petite blonde woman came through the door. She didn’t even knock; she just strolled in like she owned the house.
“Where’s Dani?” she asked, shifting a large bag from one arm to the other.
“She’s upstairs,” Gabriel said.
“Thanks,” the woman said, and ran up the stairs.
He of course knew the woman to be Dani’s friend, Donna. She hadn’t bothered to ask who he was, though; as if she was used to seeing random, unknown men in Dani’s house. Gabriel found the idea to be rather disturbing. He knew it wasn’t his business or concern; Dani was a grown woman, but he found the idea of a man bei
ng in here with her distasteful
and a bit unsettling.
Gabriel was st
r
uck momentarily speechless when Dani came down the stairs an hour later. She was wearing a very tight, very
short, very low cut black dress, and
back
high heel shoes that made her at least four inches taller than she actually was.
Her make
up was perfectly done and her hair was pulled back, except for two tendrils that were curled and hanging down either side of her face. She was stunningly beautiful, and Gabriel didn’t like it
at all
.
“No,” Gabriel said.
“No, what?” Dani asked.
“You can’t go out looking like that,” Gabriel said.
“What’s wrong with how I look?” Dani asked, looking at herself in an antique mirror that was hanging on the living room wall.
He didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t tell her she looked
too
beautiful.
“You look like a Jezebel. People will get the wrong idea about you,” he said, and Donna laughed.
“Thanks, that’s the look I was going for when I bought her the dress. With any luck, it might even get her laid,”
Donna said, then turned to Dani.
“You said he was your cousin; he sounds more like your father.”
“It’s not his fault. He was raised in a
very
religious community,” Dani said, glaring at Gabriel.
“
He’s going to try to loosen up
a little tonight, though.
”
“Are you going to introduce us or not?” Donna asked.
“Sure; Donna, this is my cousin Gabriel. He came
into town for my mom’s funeral,” Dani lied.
“
Gabriel, this is my best friend Donna Stanton. We went to Cosmet
ology school together.
”
“Nice to meet ya’,” Donna
said, and shook Gabriel’s hand.
“Do you have a last name, Gabriel?”
“Angel,” Gabriel said, and glared back at Dani.
“Well Mr. Angel, shall we be on our way?” Donna asked, and slipped her arm through his. “Do you want to just take my car or do you want to follow me there?”
“We’ll just take yours,” Dani said.
“
There’s no sense
in wasting gas in t
wo cars to go to the same place.
”
“We’re
driving
to the bar?” Gabriel asked.
“You didn’t think we were gonna walk eight miles in these heels, did you?” Donna asked, and looked down at the strappy red heels she was wearing.
They were a perfect match to her red dress.
“It’ll be fine,” Dani said, and walked out the front door.
1.
Gabriel rode to the bar in the back seat and Dani rode in the front passenger seat beside Donna. She kept up a chatty conv
ersation with Donna, but inside
she was
seething
with anger. He’d called her a Jezebel! And he’d done it in front
of her best damn friend, too.
What was wrong with him?!
When they got to Kicker’s
Dani went straight to the bar for a drink.
Donna touched Dani’s arm,
“
What are you doing? Don’t you wanna scope out the club first?”
“No, I want a drink,” Dani said.
“
God knows I can u
se one right now.
”
S
he laughed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. For all she knew ‘
God
’ really did know she needed a drink.
“What’s so funny?” Donna asked.
“Nothing,
” Dani laughed.
“I’m just glad to be out and about.
”
“What can I get for you?” the bartender asked.
“Jack a
nd Coke on the rocks,” Dani ordered
.
“I’ll take a Jack and Coke
, neat,” Donna said, and then turned to Gabriel.
“What do you want, Gabriel? The first round is on me.”
Dani was sure that G
abriel would say he didn’t consume alcohol
, so she was shocked when he
actually
ordered a drink.
“I’ll take a Jack and Coke as well, then,” Gabriel said.
“Should you be drinking?” Dani asked when Donna started talking to the man next to her.
“Don’t worry about it,
” Gabriel said.
“
I’ll be fine
.
”
“If you say so,” she said.
When they got their drinks, Dani looked around the bar for a vacant table. She spotted a booth in the back and went to grab it before anyone else could claim it. She looked back over her shoulder after she sat her drink down, expecting Donna and Gabriel to be behind her, but they weren’t.
She finally spotted them
slow dancing on the dance floor. Donna had her arms draped around Gabriel’s neck, and he had his arms around her waist. They were slowly swaying to the music. Dani
didn’t like it at all, but she didn’t know why. It just felt wrong somehow.
She should have known that Donna would be attracted to Gabriel. Why wouldn’t she be? Gabriel was sexy as hell; even more so because he didn’t seem to know it, or to care. He'd been made by God’s own hand, which explained
why he was so beautiful. Actually,
he was more than beautiful; he was perfect. Any woman in their right mind would be attracted to him.
But she didn’t care for the way Donna was clinging to him. It was Da
ni’s fault for telling Donna that
Gabriel was her cousin, but she hadn’t known what else to tell her. She’d known Donna since she started Cosmetology school when she was eighteen. She couldn’t have passed him off as a friend
,
because Donna knew all of Dani’s friends.
And she couldn’t have told her that she’d just met
Gabriel,
because Donna knew she’d never let a man she
’d just met into her house. Their
only option left was to say he was a relative she hadn’t seen for a long time, so she’d gone with he was a distant cousin that had come in for the funeral.
She could have told her the truth and said he was the Archangel Gabriel, here to protect her against the rising of Lucifer, bu
t Donna would have thought Dani
had already started drinking.
She felt sorry for Gabriel, though. It had to be uncomfortable for him to have Donna hitting on him. He’d said that angels didn’t mix with humans like that. Though, he didn’t
look
all that uncomfortable with his arms around Donna’s waist like they were.
“Would you like to dance, Dani?” a man asked, startling her.
It was a guy Dani
knew;
she’d even danced with him before. She remembered his name was Ethan.
“Sure, Ethan, that’s what I’m h
ere for,” she said, and let the
man lead her onto the dance floor.
2.
Gabriel hadn’t wanted to dance with Donna, but she’d insisted. He’d resisted by telling her that he didn’t really know
how
to dance, but she’d just laughed and dragged him onto the dance floor anyway. Short of pushing her away from him, there wasn’t really anything he could do about it.