Authors: Stephanie Jackson
Dani hadn’t let him down. He watched as she
kicked the Cambion in the chest
and laid him flat on his back in the street.
He was so preoccupied watching her
stomp on the Cambion that he’
d failed to notice
another
Cambion app
roach Dani from behind. Then Gabriel
had
intervened.
It was too much to expect her to fight off
two
of them. But, he was undeniably impressed by
what she’d done. He still wasn’t sure he actual
ly
like
d
her, but he had to admit that she had guts.
“What are you doing?” a voice asked.
He looked up and saw that his brother Raphael had materialized in the middle of the room. It had been a long time since he’d seen his brother’s pale skin and bright red locks, but
not
long enough.
“My job,” Gabriel said.
“Your job is cuddling with this
woman on a sofa?” Raphael asked condescendingly.
“I’m not
cuddling
with her,” Gabriel said.
“
She couldn’t sleep in her room because she’s afraid. This was the only way she’d
get some rest.
”
“Don’t get too attached to her, Gabriel,” Raphael said.
“
You’re here to earn the forgiveness of God so that you may re-enter the
Kingdom
of
Heaven
;
nothing more. You don’t need any unnecessary distractions from this
Earth monkey
.
”
“I don’t thi
nk that’s going to be a problem,” Gabriel said.
“
Dani isn’t
really
the kind of
person you can get attached to.
”
“Mind that you don’t,” Raphael said sternly, and vanished.
3.
Gabriel couldn’t move from the couch without waking Dani, so he had no choice but to watch her sleep all night. She had a small, quiet snore that should have been annoying, but he found it
didn’t bother him at all. H
e
also
noticed her skin
had a slight flowery scent
that he found vaguely soothing.
He found himself wondering what she was dreaming about. He hoped they were
happy
dreams. Lord knows she had lived through enough real nightmares the last three
days,
and even more so in the last few hours, to have earned herself a good dream or two. She may
be dreaming of better days with her mother or maybe
of having fun with her friends…
or of him.
No,
she
probably
wasn’t dreaming
of him. Why
would
she
? A better question would be
;
why
he would
want
her to dream of him? He forced his thoughts away from that question, turned his head to the window, and waited for the sun to rise.
Gabriel
didn’t know
how long they could stay at Dani’s home. The Cambion
, and even worse, the demons, were now actively hunting her. The three Cambions that Dani
had
come in contact with were now dead, bu
t it wouldn’t take long for other Cambion
in the area to find her. If a
nother Cambion caught her they wouldn’t
kill
her, but they would
summon their demon father to come and
collect
her.
There could be many Cambion in the area.
Vetis had fathered at least three Cambion children
of his own
.
Gabriel
knew that because a Cambion can only
summon
its own demon father. Had
Vetis not have
fathered
al
l three of that
nights Cambion
then
more than one demon would have shown up. He also knew that Vetis had not shared the information of Dani’s location with any other demon.
Every
demon wanted to be the
one to deliver the last of the B
lood of God to Lucifer. They wouldn’t share the Glory with any of their brethren. To be the demon to deliver Dani to Lucifer would place them among his favorites and therefore give them more power and a higher status in Lucifer’s court. So he had no fear that Vetis had shared this information; not even with Lucifer himself.
Neither Cambion nor demon, no matter how high the demon’s status was, would dare kill Dani themselves. That honor belon
ged to Lucifer. The demon would, however,
deliver her to Lucifer in Hell.
Once Dani was in Hell, she could no longer be saved. Just as Lucifer could no longer ascend to Heaven, no angel could cross into Hell; into Lucifer’s domain.
And Lucifer wouldn
’t just kill her. H
e would torture her endlessly; torture her in ways that no human could comprehend. And once she was dead, Lucifer would torture her
soul
. Gabriel had told D
ani that she would go to Heaven
no matter what she’d done on
Earth, but that only applied if he was successful in killing Lucifer. He hadn’t told her the
whole
truth. The truth being that, if Gabriel were to fail in his attempt to kill Lucifer, Dani’s soul would be lost to Hell for all eternity. Humanity would die out, and what Lucifer referred to as ‘their Father’s experiment’ would end.
And it would be all Gabriel’s fault. It had been stupidity and misguided loyalty to his brother that had prevented Gabriel from killing Lucifer when his Father had ordered him to. It would
not
happen again.
It was nearing sunrise when someone pounded on the front door. Dani jerked awake and grabbed Gabriel’s arm.
4.
“What is it?” she asked.
“It’s only a human this time,” Gabriel said.
“
You
may answer the door if you wish.
”
“Are you sure it’s a human?”
She felt silly for asking, but she didn’t want to inadvertently let another demon in the house.
“I’m
positive
it’s just a human,” he said with a small smile.
She tossed the blanket off and went to the door. She wished she’d looked out first. As soon as the door was opened
,
someone hit her in the face. She fell backwards onto her ass, looked up, and found herself starring up into the face of…
“Buddy,” she mumbled, wiping blood from the corner of her mouth.
“You forgot about good Ole’ Buddy, didn’t ya?” Buddy said. “You must have because I don’t remember getting an invitation to
dear old mom’s
funeral.”
He leaned down to either grab her or slap her, she wasn’t sure which, but he missed and ended up on the floor beside her.
“Go home, Buddy,
”
Dani said. “You
can’t
be here; the Judge said so.”
“Yeah, but he ain’t here now, is he?” Buddy asked, grabbing at her hair.
Gabriel pulled Dani from Buddy’s grasp,
“
I’m
here.
”
“And just who in the hell are you?” Buddy slurred.
“I’m Gabriel.”
“
You
done
replace me Dani? Is that what’s going on here?” Buddy asked, getting to his feet.
“It’s not what you think, Buddy,” Dani said.
“You don’t have to explain yourself to this…
man
, if that’s what you want to call him. You owe him nothing,” Gabriel said.
Then
Da
ni felt the strangest thing.
. A f
eeling that she’d had so rarely outside of her mother
, that she almost couldn’t identify it. Then she realized that what she felt was
safe
. She knew down to her core that Buddy would do her no more harm tonight.
“Do you know who I am?” Buddy asked Gabriel.
“Yes,
I know who you are,” Gabriel said
, peering at Buddy
.
“Y
ou’re Ennis Barnard Thompson, AKA
,
Buddy
.
”
“So Dani’s told you about me?” Buddy said, puffing his chest out.
Buddy
was
a big son of a buck. He was nearly as tall as Gabriel. He didn’t have Gabriel’s muscle mass, but he was
as
mean as a snake.
“Gabriel, maybe we should just call the police and let them take care of…” she tried to say, but Gabriel stopped her with one kiss to her forehead.
That one small brush of his lips made her tingle to her toes.
“Hush now,” he said s
oftly, and turned back to Buddy.
“No, she hasn’t spoken of you yet, but I’m sure it’s a conversation we’re soon to have,” Gabriel said.
“You did
not
just kiss my girl!” Buddy yelled.
“Yes, I did
’;
and she is no longer
your
girl
. She’s m
y responsibility now, therefore
in a manner of speaking, she’s
my girl
,” Gabriel said.
Dani looked up at Gabriel’s
face and could see
that he
was
angry, but she
could also see that he was
enjoying himself. He had no fear of Buddy, and why should he? He
was
an angel, after all. Then Buddy pulled back his fist to punch Gabriel.
“Stop,” Gabriel said
calmly
, and Buddy’s fist froze in mid-air.
“What the hell?” Buddy said.
Buddy pulled at his arm, but couldn’t move it
from the air.
Gabriel turned back to her,
“I apologize. I never would have let you open the door if I had known this man was a danger to you. You s
hould’ve told me about him.
”
“It just didn’t come up; you know, with the Cambion attacks and all,” Dani said.
“Granted,” Gabriel said and turned ba
ck to Buddy.
“Now to deal with you. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not your
average
man. In fact, I’m not a
man
at all. I’m
an angel; the
Archangel
Gabriel
to be exact. Perhaps you’ve heard of me,” Gabriel said, leaning over to stare into Buddy’s eyes.
A look of wonder and awe settled on Bud
dy’s face, and he dropped to hi
s knees and bowed his head.
“See, was
that
so hard?” Gabriel said to Dani.
“I tell him I’m an angel
,
and he bows down to me.
Bows
as any human should when in the presence of an angel, but not you
,
though,” Gabriel said in frustration.
“That’s not fair! I didn’t even see
you in the cemetery…and you never did that
eye thingy
to me!” Dani said.
“I shouldn’t have to. I only did it to him to rem
ove the alcohol from his system,” Gabriel said.
“
He should be completely present in the hour of his d
eath.
”
“You don’t have to kill him,”
Dani s
aid, only half-heartedly pleading
for Buddy’s life.
“He’s not a bad
guy
; he’s just a bad
drunk
.”
She would never admit it out loud, but she
’d
had mom
ents in her past with Buddy where
she had fully planned out hi
s murder. She’d even found a place to
dump h
is body where it would never be
found.
“No Dani, he’s not just a bad drunk. You’re put upon this Earth with free will. You get to make your own decisions in how you live your life. This man has made all the
wrong
choices,” Gabriel said.
“If you weren’t here, he wouldn’t die today,” Dani countered.
“But I
am
here,” Gabriel said.
“I don’t
want to die,” Buddy said loudly.
“I can change!”