When Angels Fall

by Stephanie Jackson

  Gabriel dematerialized and rematerialized in the room that Dani was in.

  He was confused as to why he was in a bedroom instead of in the bathroom where Dani was supposed to be showering. The peculiar scene before him gave him pause. There was a man standing in the middle of the room, and Dani was folded in half and wedged between the bed and the wall. All that was visible of her was her feet, her arms, and the top of her head. And she was now laughing.

  “Explain yourself, Wesley,” he demanded of the hunter standing before him.

  “It was my fault,” Dani said between giggles.

  The man held out his hands, palms extended, and quickly explained, “I just came in through the window to get my bag so I could leave. She came out of that bathroom behind you, and I guess I startled her because she punched me in the face. I very gently picked her up and tossed her onto the bed. Only she didn’t quite stick to the mattress the way I thought she would.

  “Instead, she kind of bounced and got stuck between the bed and the wall. I swear I wasn’t trying to hurt her. Please don’t kill me Mr. Angel.”

  “Can you get me out of here?” Dani said.

  “Are you hurt?” Gabriel asked.

  “Not at all,” Dani said.

  “Are you naked?”

  “All the way,” Wesley answered for her.

  “No you can’t get out yet; just stay there until I deal with him,” Gabriel said.

  “It was my fault; please don’t hurt him,” she said.

  “I’m not going to, just…hang in there for a second,” Gabriel said.

  Gabriel turned back to Wesley, “Your brother needs you. You can’t just leave him.”

  “He doesn’t need me. He has a new family now. Besides, he hates me,” Wesley said.

  “They could be your family too, if you let them. As for your brother hating you, I can’t deny it, but you gave him a good reason to hate you. Now you have to change his mind. He’ll lose everything if you leave him,” Gabriel said.

  Wesley seemed to consider this before speaking, “I couldn’t help him if I wanted to. I seem to have suffered an emotional trauma; or at least my brother says I did. I thought my brother killed my mate, and I can never be sure that he didn’t. I’ve always been convinced that he did it, but he swore it wasn’t true. I even created a complete false memory. I’m not safe to be around anyone right now.”

  “I can fix that. I saw this same situation befall Cain and Abel; I don’t wish to see that happen to you and your brother. Your family did me a great service today, and asked for nothing in return; so I’ll give a gift to you instead, and hope it blesses your family as well,” Gabriel grabbed Wesley and placed his palm on Wesley’s forehead.

  He pulled the false memory that Wesley had created from Wesley’s memory, and forced the real memory from Gabriel’s mind, into its place. Wesley dropped to his knees before Gabriel; not to bow to him, but in shock and betrayal.

  “It was him,” Wesley groaned. “I loved him like a brother!”

  Wesley jumped to his feet and headed to the window, “I’m going to find him and kill him.”

  Gabriel stopped him before he jumped. He leaned down and whispered two secrets into Wesley’s ear.

  Wesley pulled back and stared at Gabriel in awe, “That’s impossible.”

  “What is meant to be will always be. It’s God’s Will. But keep this to yourself until the right time. You’ll know that time when it comes,” Gabriel said, and placed his hand on Wesley's shoulder. “Until that time, stick around. Watch, wait, and help save this family. You’ll get your revenge in time.”

  Wesley nodded, dropped from the window and disappeared silently into the woods.

  “Hello,” Dani said, waving her hand above her head. “My legs are starting to go numb over here.”

  Gabriel laughed and went to set her free.

  5.

  Gabriel climbed onto the bed, grabbed Dani by the arms, and pulled her out. He fell backward with her and she landed on top of him, with her bare breasts to his bare chest. She rose up on her elbows and gazed down at him…and Gabriel was lost.

  “To hell with it?” he murmured.

  He rolled over and pinned Dani underneath him and crushed his lips to hers. She let him kiss her for a few seconds, before pushing at his chest. Gabriel rose up and looked down at her.

  “You can’t…” she started to say, but he cut her words off with a gentle kiss.

  “I can,” he whispered into her mouth.

  He ran his hands down the sides of her body, memorizing the texture of her skin. He cupped her bottom in his hands and pressed down against her. He didn’t know what he was doing; this was not what he had planned on, but his body had taken over. It knew what it wanted and what to do. He put his hands on the bed and rose up so he could kiss his way down her chest.

  She gasped when he pulled her nipple gently into his mouth. He felt his fingers rip through the bed sheet and tear into the mattress. He paused to catch his breath. He was getting carried away, and the last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt her.

  He kissed his way back up to her neck and she arched beneath him; driving him to the edge of all reason and sanity. She ran her nails down his back and pushed on the waistband of his jeans. He rolled away from her just long enough to rip the jeans; the only clothing he’d been wearing, from his body.

  She moaned when he rolled back on top of her. The sound brought him partially back to reality.

  He pushed himself up and asked, “Do you want me to stop?”

  She moaned again and pulled his body down to hers. It was all the answer that his body needed. Gabriel used his knee to nudge her legs apart and eased his body into hers. Once inside her, he froze. It was a feeling that couldn’t be described with words.

  He could feel her squeezing and pulsing around him, and he lost his ability to breathe. He didn’t know how human men survived this much exquisite pleasure. He wasn’t sure that he would survive it. Then Dani bucked beneath him and he started to move with her. His body slid in it out of her like it had been doing it since the beginning of time.

  Dani was panting and nibbling at his shoulders; her nails clawing down his back. Their bodies moved in the perfect rhythm of the ages; then Dani cried out, and Gabriel shattered. He was lost in the most magnificent white light; for how long, Gabriel wasn’t sure.

  It could have been seconds or days. This had to be God’s greatest gift to his favorite creations; humans. Something Gabriel could never be.

  He suddenly realized that he was lying on his back, with no memory of having rolled off of her, “I love you, Dani,” he said softly into the darkness.

  Dani didn’t say anything; she didn’t even acknowledge his words. Gabriel’s stomach crawled with the fear that she didn’t care for him after all. He looked over at her and…she was asleep. He didn’t know if she fell asleep naturally or if he’d accidently put her to sleep when he’d shattered, but she was out cold.

  He reached over and cupped her right breast in his hand; and then guilt began to hit him in waves. What had he done? Had he taken advantage of her? He now felt as if he had. She may have felt obligated to lie beneath him, as Eve had been to Adam.

  He was an angel, and not just any angel; he was an Archangel! She may have been afraid to say no to him. She may have been afraid he’d take her anyway, no matter what she’d said.

  He suddenly felt sick. He slid to the end of the bed, sat up, and dropped his head into his hands. He should have talked to her before this ever happened, but he’d lost his head. He got up, grabbed his pants, and left the room. He repaired the jeans when he got downstairs, put them on and stepped outside.

  He walked away from the house, knowing that Dani would be safe there alone. He walked to the edge of the clearing before shooting up into the air. He flew as fast as he could, hoping that the rushing wind would soothe the shame that was consuming him, but it helped nothing. His guilt would not be appeased.

  He flew until the sun started coming
up on the horizon, and then headed back to the ground to face what he had done. He had to talk to Dani. He didn’t expect her to forgive him, but he wanted her to trust him enough to protect her life. He needed her to know that he will be there to lay down his life for her when the time came.

  Chapter Thirteen

  1.

  Dani tried to resist waking up from the most amazing dream she’d ever had. She was afraid that if she opened her eyes the dream would fade away, and she wanted to hold onto it as long as possible. The wind blew through the open window, and Dani felt something tickle her shoulder.

  She reached up and slapped at whatever it was, and little pieces of something rained onto her face. She grabbed some of it and opened her eyes to see what it was. It was foam…from the mattress. She sat up and looked down out the bed.

  There were two holes on either side of where her head had been. It was where Gabriel’s hands had torn into the mattress. It hadn’t been a dream.

  Shit! She was going to Hell. She was pretty sure that fucking an Archangel would burn her guaranteed ticket to Heaven to a crisp.

  And what had she done to Gabriel? She had thrown herself at him. She’d just let her naked body land on top of his and had stayed there, when she should have jumped away from him. She had been frozen in place; he’d been so beautiful laying there that she hadn’t been able to look away from him.

  He was already kicked out of Heaven; what would happen to him now? She’d heard what Lucifer had called her; the last Daughter of God. Gabriel had never said it like that, but it sounded important. Could he be in trouble for having sex with her? She couldn’t believe she’d taken advantage of him that way! What was wrong with her?

  When she’d first accused him of wanting to have sex with her, he’d been disgusted. He’d said, ‘Mate with you; a human. You must be joking’. He’d said, ‘An angel and a human…it’s just not done. We’re not even the same species; not even from the same plain of existence. It’s unthinkable that an angel would lower himself to that level’.

  And as soon as he’d told her that he’d become accustomed to her, she’d thrown herself at him like a common whore.

  He must feel horrible about having lowered himself to a level low enough to have sex with her. And she felt like trash for leading him into it. She just hadn’t been able to pull herself away from him.

  She knew he would hate her now, and she would expect no less. She wouldn’t blame him if he just handed her over to Lucifer and threw humanity to the wolves. She got up, got dressed, and went to look for him.

  She opened the door and stepped out onto the small porch. When she looked out across the yard she saw Gabriel in the middle of the clearing staring back at her. He looked guilty, and hurt, and ashamed. It made her chest physically ache to look at him. She’d done this to him. She’d made him feel this way.

  Dani started to cry, and she turned and went back into the house. She couldn’t face him, not after what she’d done. She didn’t know how she would ever face him again. She crawled into a big chair, curled up, and wished for death.

  2.

  Gabriel had never cried a day in his life, but he felt tears running down his face now. Everything he had feared had been confirmed when Dani had started to cry. He had hurt her in a way that she had never experienced, and the knowledge of it was destroying him. He was no better than Buddy.

  Leso had been talking to Damon when Dani walked out onto the porch; and now tried to stop Gabriel as he walked toward the house, “Gabriel, wait! You should know that…,”

  But Gabriel didn’t have time for him right now, “Leave,” he said, and waved his arm across the yard, never even turning to look at Leso.

  Gabriel teleported everyone that had been on the back half of the property up to the main house across the creek. Teleporting them that way wouldn’t hurt them.

  He walked the rest of the way to the house and stepped through the open door. Dani was curled into a ball in a chair.

  “Dani,” he said in a broken voice, but she wouldn’t look at him.

  He swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat and tried again, “Please look at me, Dani. I need to talk to you.”

  “No,” she said in a muffled voice.

  “Okay, just listen then,” he said and sank to his knees in front of the chair.

  “You don’t have to say anything. I know what I did; I saw the hurt on your face, and I’m so sorry for what I’ve done. I remember the things you said the night I met you,” she said, still not looking at him. “I know that you hate me now, and I understand you can never forgive me. I’ll never forgive myself for what I’ve done to you. There’s nothing you can say to me to make me feel any worse.”

  Gabriel looked at her in confusion. She was apologizing to him? She thought that he hated her? She would never forgive herself? What in the world was she talking about? He thought back to the night they’d met and remembered the things he’d said to her about angels mating with humans. Could it really be possible that she thought, in some way, that she’d harmed him?

  “Dani, no; you don’t understand,” he said.

  “Please just go away and leave me alone,” she cried.

  “That is not going to happen,” he said and pulled her out of the chair.

  He sat down and put Dani on his lap, “The only thing that will ever pull me away from you is death itself.”

  Dani finally looked at him, “You don’t hate me?”

  “Hate you? Never, love. There’s nothing you could ever do to make me hate you,” he said, and kissed the tip of her nose. “The hurt you saw on my face was from what I thought I did to you.”

  “What are you…,” she was saying, but Gabriel stopped her.

  “Hush woman and let me say this while I still have a chance,” he said. “After what we did last night, I thought I’d taken advantage of you. That maybe you’d felt in some way obligated to give you body to me. It even occurred to me that you thought I’d take you anyway if you didn’t agree.”

  She looked up at him with tears still sparkling on her lashes, “That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard in my…,”

  “Shh,” he said, and laid his finger across her lips. “I feel absolutely no shame for making love to you. I don’t feel like I’ve lowered myself in any way by making love to you. If you believe nothing else I say, please believe that.”

  “But you said…” she tried to say.

  “I know what I said,” he said, cutting her off again, “and I was wrong. The only thing I can say in way of an explanation is that I was a child then.”

  “That was like, four days ago, and you’re over four million years old. That’s hardly a chi…” she said.

  “Would you, for once in your life, please stop talking and just listen for a change?” he said, smiling down at her. “Maybe I should have said I was like a child then. I didn’t understand what it was like to fall in love. I didn’t even know that I could fall in love. Even if I had known it was possible, I would never have thought I’d fall in love with the last Daughter of God.

  “And I did fall in love with you,” Gabriel said. “I love you Danielle Renee Coulter; I’ll swear it before God, if that’s what it takes to convince you. I’ll fight for you when Lucifer comes; not because of God’s orders, but because I won’t allow him to harm the woman I love.

  “I did believe that an angel would lower themselves by being with a human, but I was wrong, Dani. Being with you has done nothing but lift me up. The only thing you could do to hurt me now is to tell me you don’t feel the same for me,” he said. “Do you love me?”

  “I…yes, I do,” she said, nodding her head.

  He saw the truth of it in her eyes, and he felt his heart swell in his chest. He hugged her tightly to his chest; then groaned when he’d realized what Leso had been trying to tell him.

  Dani pulled back and looked up at him, “What’s wrong?”

  “Leso tried to tell me that you and I were confused, but I didn’t even try to listen t
o what he had to say,” Gabriel said. “He was trying to help me before I could make matter’s any worse, and I thanked him by teleporting him and his family to the front of the property and creating a bubble around us so that they couldn’t get back in before I finished begging you to forgive me.”

  “How could he have possibly known that we were confused about anything?” she asked.

  “He has a gift that allows him to read the emotions of others. His sister-in-law, Beck has the same ability,” Gabriel said. “He read us like a book and tried to warn me, and I banished him for it.”

  “What are you going to do?” she said when he stood up and set her on her feet.

  “I’m going to go apologize to him,” he said.

  3.

  Dani held Gabriel’s hand as they walked along the path to the house at the front of the property. Gabriel was carrying his sword in a sheath that hung down his back. Gunner had given it to him the night before. They ran into Leso who was leaning against the railing in the middle of D.J. Bridge. Leso looked down at Dani and Gabriel’s’ linked hands and smiled.

  “I tried to warn you,” he said.

  “I know you did, and I deeply apologize for what I did to you and your family.” Gabriel said. “It was rude and ungrateful.”

  “It’s alright, everyone thought it was kind of cool,” Leso said with a smile. “We can all run and jump, but only Richard, Beck and Potter have ever transported. Unless you count the rabbit, and Jenny usually does.”

  They walked on to the main house, and Dani listened to Gabriel apologize to everyone else he’d vanished into thin air.

  “So are you two going to set out today or do you want to stick around for another night?” Potter asked.

  “It’s up to Dani,” Gabriel said, and kissed Dani’s hand. “Would you like to stay?”

  “If I can spend most of that time alone with you,” Dani said, blushing.

  “That’s not going to be a problem. All of the hunters are going to Nashville tonight to try to take care of some unfinished business,” Potter said. “The vampires are going to stay here to help take care of any stray Cambion and grab any demons that sack up enough to try to rise up on this property. You’ll be safe here for the night.”