When Angels Fall

by Stephanie Jackson

  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 was 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 using Dani as bait repugnant. Vetis 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 watched over them. He 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 being in here with her distasteful and a bit unsettling.

  Gabriel was struck 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 makeup 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 Cosmetology 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 two 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.

  Chapter Seven

  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 conversation 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 use one right now.”

  She 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 and 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 Gabriel 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 Dani’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 f
or 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, but 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 here 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.

  Gabriel tried his best to not to watch Dani dance with the man he’d seen standing beside their table, but he couldn’t stop himself. He saw the man slide his hand down to the upper curve of Dani’s behind and cringed.

  “Excuse me?” he said when he realized Donna had said something.

  “I said, ‘So Dani’s your cousin’?” she repeated.

  “Yes, my cousin,” he mumbled.

  “What?” Donna said loudly.

  “Yes, she’s my cousin,” he said louder, so she could hear him over the music.

  “She’s never mentioned you before,” Donna said.

  “We’re distant cousins. We don’t get to see each other very often,” he said, going along with the story Dani had told her.

  “That’s a shame; you should visit more often. I know I’d like to see more of you,” Donna said and purposely brushed her breasts against his chest.

  Gabriel pulled back from her, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  He tried to step away when the song ended, but Donna tugged him back to her and trapped him for another song. He glanced back to where Dani and the man had been dancing, but they were gone. He looked back to the table and saw Danni sitting at the booth, draining the last of her drink.

  “Shouldn’t we go and sit with Dani?” Gabriel asked. “I don’t want her to feel left out.”

  Donna looked back at the table just in time to see the man Dani had danced with return and hand Dani another drink. Dani smiled and took the drink from him. The man slid into the booth and sat close to Dani; too close.

  “She’s doing just fine without us,” Donna said, and laughed.

  “Do you think it’s a good idea to leave her with a stranger?” he said, trying to come up with a reason to leave the dance floor.

  Donna looked back over her shoulder at look at the man again.

  “He’s not a stranger; she’s danced with him before. I think she might have even slept with him, but I can’t remember for sure. I think his name is Evan or Everett,” Donna said.

  “Ethan,” Gabriel said.

  “That’s it, Ethan…but how did you know that?” Donna asked, pulling back to look up at him.

  “He looks like an Ethan,” Gabriel said quickly, realizing too late that he should’ve kept his mouth shut.

  “Okay…” Donna said, and pressed up against him again.

  The song ended, and Donna let him step away, but grabbed onto his arm to lead him back to the bar.

  “We left our drinks up here,” she said.

  3.

  Donna grabbed her drink from the bar, swallowed it down in two gulps, and ordered three more. She threw a handful of cash on the bar when the bartender returned with the drinks. Then she finally led them over to the booth where Dani had been sitting.

  Gabriel looked around the bar to see where Dani had gone this time and spotted her out on the dance floor with Ethan. The glass she’d been drinking out of was sitting empty on the table.

  It was a fast song playing now, and Gabriel watched Dani dance. He really didn’t like the way she was dancing with Ethan. She was allowing the man to be way to intimate with her. Dani was facing away from Ethan, and Ethan had his hands on Dani’s hips.

  “It’s good to see her having a good time, isn’t it?” Donna said. “This is the first time Dani has been out in months.”

  “She’s getting drunk,” Gabriel said.

  “Lord, I hope so!” Donna said. “With what she’s been through this year, she deserves to party a little.”

  He hadn’t meant that Dani getting drunk was a good thing, but Donna seemed to take it that way.

  The song ended and Dani followed Ethan from the dance floor…and to the bar.

  “I knew that men would love Dani in that dress,” Donna said, laughing.

  Gabriel knew that Dani looked beautiful, but was more prone to believe that what Ethan would really love would be to see Dani out of the dress. Just the thought of it made Gabriel angry, and he finally admitted to himself that he was attracted to Dani. He knew it was wrong, and completely unacceptable, but it was the truth.

  The thought of Dani’s dress lying on her bedroom floor stirred the human parts of Gabriel’s body, and caused him to shift in his seat. What he was thinking was unimaginable. Nothing could ever come of it; it was forbidden, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to smite Ethan when they returned to the table.

  “Hi, Donna,” Ethan said when he slid into the booth.

  “Hi, Ethan,” Donna said, and slid over closer to Gabriel.

  “Ethan,” Dani said, making the introduction. “This is my cousin, Gabriel.”

  Ethan held out his hand to shake Gabriel’s. Gabriel stared at the hand for a few seconds before finally reaching out and shaking it. It was all he could do not to rip Ethan’s arm from its socket. What made it worse was knowing that Ethan was a good man. He didn’t want to believe it, but the human soul didn’t lie.

  He sat quietly and listened to the three of them talk nonstop for at least an hour. Dani drank the second drink Ethan had gotten for her, and the second one Donna bought her. That brought her total up to four drinks. Gabriel did a little math in his head.

  He figured in Dani’s weight with the amount of alcohol she’d consumed, and came to the conclusion that she was drunk. Figure that in with how many months it had been since she’d last imbibed and that brought her up to damned drunk. She was handling her liquor well, though. Better than Donna, who had begun to cackle wildly and kept slipping down in the booth.

  He watched Ethan turn to Dani when a slow song started, and knew he was going to ask her to dance again. Gabriel cut him off before Ethan had the chance to ask.

  Gabriel held out his hand to Dani, “Dance with me.”

  “It’s alright, baby.” Ethan said and slid from the booth to let Dani out. “Go ahead and dance with your cousin.”

  Gabriel took Dani’s hand when she stood up. She swayed on her feet and started to tip over, but Gabriel caught her around the waist before she could fall.

  “Sorry,” Dani said. “I’m just a little dizzy.”

  “Those shoes aren’t helping matters,” Gabriel said.

  He picked her up and sat her on the table. He was secretly pleased when he saw goosebumps race up her leg when he cupped her calf in his hand and slid the shoe from her foot. He removed her other shoe and tossed them both in the booth beside Donna.

  Then he scooped Dani into his arms and carried her to the dance floor before setting her back on her feet. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist to prevent her from falling over if she got dizzy again. He tried to tell himself that that was the only reason he was holding her so tightly. It was, after all, his job to protect her.

  Dani draped her arms around his neck and laid her cheek against his chest. The scent of her drifting up to him was far more intoxicating than any alcohol. He lost himself in the
moment and found himself rubbing his hand slowly up and down her back. He stopped when he realized what he was doing and dropped his hand back to her waist.

  He happened to glance back at the table and found both Donna and Ethan staring at him and Dani; Ethan in confusion, and Donna with suspicion. He could imagine how strange it looked to Ethan to see Gabriel caressing his own cousin’s back. Gabriel believed, however, that Donna had figured out that she’d been lied to.

  He turned Dani in a semi-circle so that his back was now facing their booth. He lifted his hand from Dani’s waist, put his finger under her chin, and tilted her head back so he could look into her eyes. Her eyes were glassy from the drinks, but beautiful all the same.

  “Are you having fun?” Gabriel asked.

  “Absolutely, but can you tell me something about Ethan?” she asked.

  He felt his back stiffen. It bothered him that she was dancing with him, but thinking of Ethan.

  “What do you want to know?” he asked rather coolly.

  “I’m a little drunk, so I’m not sure I heard him right, but did he call me ‘baby’, and then give me permission to dance with you?” Dani asked.

  “He did indeed,” Gabriel said.

  “That’s not gonna work for me,” Dani said, slurring slightly.

  Gabriel relaxed when he knew Dani was irritated with Ethan.

  “I don’t know what Ethan thinks is going on with me and him, but whatever it is, he’s sadly mistaken,” Dani said. “Do you know he had the nerve to ask me if I want to go home with him tonight?”

  “Can you blame him for wanting to sleep with you again?” Gabriel said, gazing into her deep green eyes. “As beautiful as you look tonight, he’d be crazy not to want you.”

  4.

  His hand, of its accord, had once again started to rub up and down Dani’s back. He had to force it back down to her waist again. Dani gazed back at Gabriel, her lips were slightly parted and she was leaning toward him.

  He thought she was going to kiss him like she’d done in the graveyard, but tonight, on this dance floor, he didn’t think he’d have the strength to pull away from her. He found his head dipping towards hers, when a frown creased Dani’s brow.