When Angels Fall

by Stephanie Jackson

  “I see your point,” Dani said. “How are you going to find her.”

  “Without a soul, I can’t track her. So I’ll have to go up,” he said.

  “To Heaven?” she asked.

  “No, I can’t do that,” Gabriel said. “Plus, I only need to go up far enough to look down on the planet.”

  “How will that help?” she asked.

  “A natural born witch is the most evil creature to walk in your world. Being that unnatural leaves its mark,” he said. “That being the case, whatever area she’s in will hold an unnatural darkness, and I’ll be able to see it.”

  “How long will it take to find her?”

  “Anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours; it depends on how far I have to search,” he said. “She could be anywhere on the planet.”

  “Will you be okay?” Dani asked shyly.

  Gabriel pulled her back into his arms again and hugged her, “Don’t worry about me, love. I’ll be just fine. There is no demon besides Lucifer that could cause me any permanent harm. And if he’s there, then all the better. I can end this then and there.”

  She rested her head on his chest. “Are you expecting him to be there?”

  “I wish, but no. I don’t believe he’ll truly rise until he feels there’s no other choice,” he said.

  “Is he afraid of you?” she asked.

  “Afraid; no, but he’s definitely cautious,” he said. “He’s not going to face me in battle unless he has to. He knows just as well as I do that when we do meet, one of us will not walk away.”

  “Can he really kill you?” she asked.

  “He can, but he’ll have to face me to do it, and he will have to face me, whether he realizes it or not. Not a single one of his demons is going to get past me and take you. He’ll have to come for you himself,” Gabriel said. “But we’re not going to worry about that anymore right now. Let’s just enjoy what might possibly be the last peaceful few hours we have before the real shit storm really begins.”

  4.

  While Dani slept, Gabriel had packed what he thought she’d might need into a big duffle bag he’d found in a closet. Clothes, a few toiletries, and a small photo of Dani, her mom, and her grandmother together. He’d also gone ahead and repaired the damage to her home. If this was the last time she saw it, he wanted it to be as she remembered it, instead of the destruction Michael and Sonneillon had left in their wake.

  He’d let Dani sleep an hour longer than he’d really wanted to, but the sun had started to rise, and it was time to go. He went up to her bedroom to wake her. He had lain with her the night before until she’d gone to sleep, but then he’d had to leave the room. Lying in her bed with her was just a little too much; a little too intimate, for him to handle right now.

  He would tell her how he felt about her, but now was not the time. It could wait until he dealt with his brother and ended this war, once and for all.

  He gently shook her shoulder and said, “Dani, wake up. We have to go.”

  She rolled over and stretched. Her body arched on the bed and he had to look away.

  “Can we eat first?” she asked.

  “Breakfast is already made; it’s just waiting on you to eat it, but we need to hurry,” he said.

  “Okay, I’ll be down in a couple of minutes, just give me a chance to get dressed,” she said.

  He turned without looking at her and walked out of the room. He had her bowl ready when she came into the kitchen.

  “Did you already eat?” she asked, spooning oatmeal into her mouth.

  “Yes, before I woke you; and I had some extra time so I fixed the house too,” he said.

  “I saw that; thank you,” she said.

  Gabriel smiled at her, “You’re most welcome, my lady.”

  When she’d finished eating, he hurried her from the house.

  “So where are we going?” Dani asked when they’d walked down the steps to the street.

  “Not far from here, actually; maybe an hours walk,” he said.

  “Are you going to tell me what I’m not gonna like about where we’re going?” she asked as they walked.

  “Not quite yet,” he said.

  “Wouldn’t it be quicker to fly there?” Dani asked, hopefully.

  “Look at you, one flight and you’re addicted,” he said, smiling at her. “Yes, it would be quicker to fly, but I need some time to think about the creatures we’ll soon be approaching.”

  “Creatures?” she asked, and Gabriel nodded.

  “Are you expecting a problem?” she asked, trying not to worry about what kind of creatures they’d be approaching.

  “Not really a problem, but let’s just say you’re not going to be the only one not happy about us being there,” he said. “I’m just trying to think of a diplomatic solution, in case one is needed.”

  “Should I be worried?” she asked.

  Gabriel took her hand and kissed it, “Not at all; they’re going to do what I want, one way or another. I’d just rather not have to force them.”

  Dani gave him a strange look.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Why have you been…I don’t know how to say it…never mind,” she said, looking down.

  He stopped and turned her to face him, “No, not ‘never mind’; ask me whatever you want.”

  “I’d rather not,” she said.

  “And I’d rather you did,” Gabriel insisted.

  “Okay, why are you so touchy feely all of the sudden? When you first got here you looked at me as if I were something you’d wipe from the bottom of your shoe. And when I tried to say thank you to you at the cemetery, you jumped away from me like I had the plague,” she said. “Now, in the last day or so, you’ve started touching me all the time. What gives?”

  Gabriel decided to answer her as honestly as he could.

  “I’ve become accustomed to being around you, and I’ve come to understand that I’m…,” Gabriel was saying when he spotted two men at the end of the street.

  He looked behind them, and saw four more men coming up on them. Cambion. This is what Gabriel got for not paying attention.

  “Damn it,” he said, grabbed Dani up and spread his wings. “Flying it is, then.”

  He shot straight up into the air, and didn’t stop until he was a mile up. He didn’t come down until they had reached their destination.

  Chapter Eleven

  1.

  Dani looked around, but it took her a second to realize where they were at.

  “This is River Rd.,” she said.

  “If you say so,” Gabriel said, setting Dani on her feet. “I don’t really need street names to find my way.”

  “Lucky you. So where do we go from here?” she asked.

  He took her hand in his, “This way.”

  He led her to the edge of a hidden driveway before stopping to speak to her, “You will stay beside me, do you understand?”

  “I thought these were the creatures that are supposed to protect me,” she said.

  “They are, but their very strong, very fast, and they’re prone to attack before they ask questions, so stay beside me, okay?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “Come on then,” he said, and led her down a driveway that was lined by deep woods on both sides.

  They walked about a half a mile before she asked, “How long is this damn thing?”

  “Shh, they’ll hear you,” he whispered.

  She didn’t know what he was worried about; surely he could protect her from whatever was waiting for them at the end of this driveway. But she would admit that she was starting to get really nervous about the ‘creatures’ she was about to see.

  What would they look like? Would she understand them when they spoke? Did they speak at all, or would they use some kind of telepathic language? All these thoughts were rushing through her mind when they reached the end of the driveway and stepped into a large clearing in the trees. She was shocked by what was in front of them. There was a house
set back in the clearing, and standing in front of it were…

  “They’re just people,” she managed to say before several of the men pulled the swords that hung down their backs and rushed at them.

  They ran at a speed that Dani had never seen before, or had ever even thought was possible.

  Gabriel unfurled his wings, and dropped into a defensive position. All of the men that had been running at them came to a sudden dead stop and, all but one, dropped to their knees and pressed their foreheads to the ground; bowing down to Gabriel.

  The one man that didn’t bow; he had a red Mohawk and was covered in tattoos, looked Gabriel up and down. He looked thoroughly unimpressed.

  “And?” the man said.

  “And?” Dani said, offended for Gabriel. “An angel with a fifteen foot wing span appears before you, and the best you can come up with is ‘And?’ Don’t you have any respect?”

  Gabriel released his defensive position and stood up.

  “I do respect him, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to put my head in the mud,” the man said.

  “Lugh,” Gabriel said to the man. “Or do you prefer to be called Potter?”

  “Whichever feels good to you,” the man said.

  “Potter, then,” Gabriel said. “I need your help.”

  2.

  Gabriel had no intention of harming these creatures, but had taken a defensive stance to let them know he could if had to. Before he had gotten a chance to speak to Lugh Potter; the man he most needed to speak to, Dani had already started in on him. Michael was right; she had no sense of personal safety.

  Rather than physically force her to shut her mouth, Gabriel let the conversation run its course and hoped she wouldn’t start a war that would force him to kill all the creatures here. When he got a chance, he jumped in before Dani could do any real damage.

  “You need my help?” Potter said, bravely walking over to them. “What could you possibly need my help with that you can’t take care of yourself?”

  “I need to go somewhere, and I need you and your men to take care of this woman while I’m gone,” Gabriel said.

  “Nope; can’t do it,” Potter said, as Gabriel had expected. “We have problems of our own to deal with right now.”

  “How can they protect me?” Dani asked Gabriel. “They’re just people.”

  Jesus! Would this woman never shut up?! He’s trying to get their help, and she was insulting them! He watched Potter look at her in disdain, and at her words, all of the men kneeling before Gabriel rose to their feet.

  “Excuse us a moment,” Gabriel said, and then grabbed Dani and shot straight up into the air with her until he was high enough that the creatures on the ground couldn’t hear him.

  “Is it possible for you to shut your hole for ten minutes?” Gabriel snapped. “I’m trying to get these creatures to help us and you insulting them is not helping!”

  “I didn’t insult anybody!” Dani snapped back.

  “Unbelievable; we’re two hundred feet in the air and she still wants to argue with me,” Gabriel mumbled. “You called them ‘just people’. They are far from it, and I will explain it to you when we get back on the ground.

  “But if you say one more word, any word, before I ask you to, I swear before God, I will fucking seal your lips shut. Do you understand me?”

  Dani laughed, and Gabriel glared at her, “What, if I may ask, do you find so funny?”

  “You said fuck,” Dani said, still giggling.

  It took everything Gabriel had not to smile, but he managed to bite it back. He needed her to take this seriously.

  “Dani,” he warned.

  “I’ll be quiet,” Dani said innocently, and Gabriel flew them back to the ground.

  “Problems?” Potter asked when Gabriel sat Dani on her feet.

  “Not right at this moment,” Gabriel said. “Do you mind if I explain to her what you are?”

  “Be my guest,” Potter said. “I can’t wait to see how that works out for you.”

  “These men that you see before you are vampire hunters. They were created to kill vampires,” Gabriel said, and watched as Dani bit down on her lip.

  She was trying not to laugh, and that told Gabriel she didn’t believe a word he was saying.

  He ignored this and tried to push on through with his explanation, “They are very good at what they do, and as such, they’re more than capable of taking care of you for a few hours...,” that was as far as Gabriel got before Dani started laughing.

  “I apologize for her rudeness,” Gabriel said to Potter.

  “Did you expect a different reaction? Humans refuse to believe anything before they see it for themselves,” Potter said, looking down at his watch. “Which will happen for her in the next two to three minutes.”

  “What?” Gabriel said, and closed his eyes to scan the surrounding area.

  There were four Cambion making their way through the trees on Gabriel’s left. They had found Dani before Gabriel thought they would. This could only mean that a demon was feeding them directions.

  “They believe they’re sneaking up on us,” Potter said. “Do you want to take care of them or should we?”

  “By all means, have at them,” Gabriel said.

  “Go ahead and finish talking if you want; we have a few minutes,” Potter said.

  Gabriel stopped trying to explain anything to Dani, and turned to Potter instead and quickly explained, “This woman carries the last blood of God on Earth. If she dies, then everyone on this planet is doomed. I have to go find the blood of a natural born witch, but I can’t take Dani with me. Will you please, as a favor to me, watch her for a few hours?”

  Potter turned and nodded his head at the men behind him. Three of them broke from the group, jogged a couple of steps, and then launched themselves into the tree tops and disappeared. He saw a look of amazement settle on Dani’s face.

  “I guess I can safely assume that she’s the reason for the sudden increase of Cambion in Clarksville?” Potter said a second before a gunshot rang out from the woods.

  Gabriel watched Potter calmly fling his hand out in front of Dani. The movement was so fast that the human eye would have missed it.

  Dani dove to the ground and covered her head with her hands. A few seconds later, bodies started flying from the woods and formed a perfect pile in the middle of the yard. All Cambion; all dead.

  3.

  “Dani, are you okay?” Gabriel asked, leaning over her.

  “I’ve been shot at; my asshole might be permanently sealed shut; I may never shit again, but yeah, I’m fine I guess,” she said and let Gabriel pull her to her feet.

  “Here,” Potter said, holding his hand out to Dani.

  Dani stuck her hand out, palm up, and Potter dropped a bullet into it, “I believe that was meant for you.”

  “Did he really catch this bullet?” Dani asked Gabriel.

  “Yes, he did. I tried to tell you what they are, but you didn’t want to listen,” Gabriel said.

  “Your angel didn’t even try to catch it,” Potter said.

  “There was no need,” Gabriel said. “It was going to miss.”

  “Nice to meet you, Dani,” Potter said as the other men rejoined the group. “I’m a vampire hunter, and I’m nearly three hundred years old.”

  Looking at the bullet in her hand and the pile of bodies in the yard, Dani was now inclined to believe him.

  “Why would you think I’d be unhappy about being here?” Dani asked Gabriel. “If vampires existed and these men wiped them from the face of the Earth, then I’m cool with them.”

  “That kind of brings me to the part you’re not going to like,” Gabriel said, and pointed across the yard. “You see those people over there?” Dani looked at the people still standing in front of the house and nodded. “Those are vampires,” he said.

  “No, it’s daylight,” Dani said shaking her head. “If they were vampires, they wouldn’t be standing in the sun. Sunlight kills vampires. Everybo
dy knows that.”

  “And everybody is wrong; you’re just going to have to trust me on this,” Gabriel said to Dani, but she saw that it was the teenage vampire hunter that now held Gabriel’s attention.

  Gabriel walked over to him and tilted the boy’s chin up so he could look into his eyes.

  “How did this happen?” Gabriel asked.

  “How did what happen?” Dani asked.

  She didn’t see anything wrong with the boy at all. He was average height and had tight blond curls; all in all, very cute for his age.

  “He,” Gabriel said, then corrected himself. “They are Seanán and Tiarnán Donnelly. They were born as a set of twins, yet they now seem to be inhabiting the same body.”

  “We’re not sure how that happened,” Potter said.

  “Interesting,” Gabriel said, and let the boys’ face go.

  “Could you focus?” Dani asked Gabriel. “If they,” she said, pointing to the hunters, “are vampire hunters, then what are they doing hanging out with vampires?”

  “They’re not hanging out with them. They’ve managed to all come together to form a family that no one thought could ever exist; not even angels,” Gabriel said.

  “And you want me to stay here? With vampires?” Dani asked. “Are you on drugs?”

  “I could have left you with just the vampires, but the head of that particular group is out of the country on vacation with his wife,” Gabriel said. “The vampires are what may ultimately keep you alive while I’m gone.”

  “How did you work that one out?” she asked.

  “The vampire hunters can kill Cambion all day long without breaking a sweat, but they wouldn’t be able to do anything to a demon,” Gabriel explained. “But that won’t matter here because a demon won’t rise up around vampires. You see, vampires were created by neither God nor Lucifer.

  “They were created over a million years ago by a mutation of an ancient disease. The disease itself died off quickly, but the vampires remained and were able to transmit the mutated gene to others through the act of biting. They live off human blood, but the blood they needed to sustain them never had to be human.