“That’s entirely plausible,” Adramelek agreed.
“Didn’t you find this reason strange?” Raziel asked.
“Oh, very.” Ondrass looked over at Adramelek. “What did Lord Lucifer say?”
“He was as baffled as the rest of us.” Adramelek shrugged. “And he thought the same way—that this was a cover story for the real reason.”
“If I may,” Samael said, “it may be that there is no other reason. It may be that all she wants is chaos. Chaos for its own sake.”
Gabriel’s brow furrowed as he thought about that. “And I’m still asking why she’d want that. This is fucking confusing.”
“Language,” Michael said. “It is, however, as you say, very confusing.”
“The dead are frightened of her.” Liam spoke for the first time, and Gabriel looked over at him in surprise. He’d almost forgotten the young Necromancer was there.
“Explain,” Raziel said. He turned so quickly to look at Liam that for a moment his form blurred.
“We went to a hell of a lot of cemeteries,” Liam said. “And it wasn’t until we got to Notre Dame des Neiges that any of the dead would talk to me. That’s super weird in itself—the dead always want to talk to me. Anyway, this family and their maid spoke to me and told me that they’re all terrified of Naamah. She’s threatened them all to eliminate them entirely from existence.”
“That isn’t possible!” Raziel said.
“Well, she’s managed to convince them that it is.” Liam shrugged. “I didn’t think it was possible, either, but if what Max said about these artifacts being stolen and all is true, maybe she can use them to do it?”
Raziel’s expression became very worried. “I didn’t think of that. Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
“Language, Raziel,” Michael scolded.
“Look, Mike, I love you, but right now is not the fucking time to tell me off for how I speak,” Raziel snarled. “I’m fucking exhausted, I’m worried, and I have more questions than answers. What I do know is all bad, and I have a bunch of hypotheses that are disastrous. So if I want to swear, then I fucking will and you’ll have to fucking suck it up. Right?”
Uriel chuckled. “I think we should call it a day. Let’s get some rest until cooler heads can prevail.”
Gabriel snorted. “That suggestion coming from you is damn weird, but aye, I agree. Let’s take a few hours and then meet just before dawn and go check out the lake.”
Raziel looked mutinous for a moment; then his expression cleared. “All right. Let’s do it that way.”
“Okay then.” Gabriel got to his feet. “I reckon this should be an Archangel-only mission.”
“That’s fine by me,” Ondrass said. “I fear there’ll be too much holy residue for my liking at this place, anyway.”
“Probably, aye.” Gabriel looked around. “Angelique, you and your pack need to reconnect. I’m sure Ondrass has a space in this palace you can use. Or the roof of Lyudmila’s building, that’d be okay, yeah?” He looked over at Lyudmila, who nodded.
“Then let’s take our break,” Uriel said.
“One moment before we do,” Samael said. “You made mention that Joseph could hear my footfalls approach as he lay on his bed.”
“Yes,” Raziel said.
“I did not collect his soul from Vinovia,” Samael said. “When I came for him, he was in a villa in Aquae Sulis.”
Raziel gaped at him. “What… but….”
“Razzy.” Uriel gave him a little shake. “He was sick and he mentioned demons, remember? His people probably bundled him up in a cart and headed south. He was dying, yeah, but he still had fight left in him. I’d be willing to bet that it was nothing more than that. Some of his people stayed in Vinovia, most of them went with him to Aquae Sulis. You’re getting sleep-silly. I’m taking you to Queensland to rest, and that’s that.”
Raziel huffed. “All right.” He let out a slow breath. “You are most likely correct, though. And rest would be welcome.”
“One moment before you leave.” It was Melcherisa. “There is one more matter we must discuss.”
“What?” Raziel demanded.
“The matter of the shifter known as Arkady,” Melcherisa said.
Lyudmila gasped. “Is he all right?”
“Your majesty, I appreciate your concern, but in this case, it’s misplaced.” Melcherisa strode into the middle of the room. “Arkady and his family, Naamah’s demons told us, have worked for her since Noah’s Flood ended. They entered her service as she was protecting some of the shifter clans from drowning. So they’ve been working for her ever since. This Arkady had the job of throwing off the scent, so to speak. He was supposed to have succeeded in having you killed, your majesty, either by the men on the train you escaped from or during the bomb blast at the Shifter Council in Paris.”
“Oh no!” Lyudmila looked distraught and Gabriel felt a surge of compassion for her. “You are certain, Lord Melcherisa?”
“I am, yeah. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” Melcherisa gave her a little bow. “I know you’re a fan of the Archangels, but I admire what you do for all who come to you needing help, regardless of who they’re affiliated with,” Melcherisa said. “I wish I had better news for you.”
“At least we know that was what he was up to,” Raphael said. “What of the Order of Midnight?”
“They were hired by Arkady, masquerading as a woman, to continue the ruse,” Melcherisa said.
“That’s very damn clever,” Haniel said.
“My cat, Sprite, said she was playing us all, as if we were mice,” Adramelek said. “I think his assessment is the most accurate.”
“I don’t know which is weirder,” Uriel said. “That you have a cat or that I agree with you.”
Adramelek laughed. “This situation has been the cause of many firsts, Uriel.”
“True. Okay, is there anything else?” Uriel looked around, and Gabriel shook his head, noting that everyone else did the same.
“Then let’s go take our breaks and meet back here two hours before dawn,” Tzadkiel said.
“Right.” Uriel stood up. “Then we’re out of here. See you then.” He clapped a hand onto Raziel’s shoulder and a moment later they’d vanished.
“That sums it all up, I reckon,” Gabriel said. “Mishka, shall we go?”
“As you say,” Michael said.
Gabriel took Michael’s hand in his and moved them to Belle Coeur.
They emerged in the world on the seashore, and Gabriel felt a slight twinge. Could they have done more to protect marine life? Had the seas really been so badly damaged, enough to create such extremes in Naamah’s grief-stricken response?
“I do not think that things are as bad as these minions of Naamah’s suggested,” Michael said. His voice was very soft, and he was looking out over the ocean. “We do not spend all our time within these waters, true, but we spend a great deal of it there. We would have noticed if there had been anything extreme.”
Gabriel sighed. “I don’t know, Mishka. We’ve been dealing with so much over the last century, would we really?”
“Gabriel.” Michael turned to face him. “You swim often, do you not? And when you swim, do not the dolphins and other sea life come to commune with you?”
“Aye, they do, why?”
“They talk to you, do they not? Share their joys and sadnesses, their experiences?”
Gabriel nodded.
“And at any time, did you hear anything to suggest that there was destruction of life or creation within the seas of the world?”
Gabriel thought back. Finally, he shook his head. “No. Not that I can think of. And I think I’d remember if anything like that came up.”
“As would I, for you would have told me,” Michael said. “And so, I think that Ondrass, Adramelek, and Raziel are right, that this is merely a convenient excuse or cover story given to these little demons by Naamah to conceal the truth of her actions.”
“Lucifer said that, too
,” Gabriel said.
Michael rolled his eyes. “I refuse to acknowledge words that come from the Lord of Lies.”
Gabriel chuckled and wrapped his arms around Michael. “Fair enough. Thank you, solnyshko.”
“You are welcome. Do you feel better?” Michael hugged Gabriel back.
“Aye, I do. How about you, though? I mean, Raz kind of yelled at you a bit after all.”
Michael shrugged. “It is irrelevant. He was under great stress and was extremely weary. I do not hold his words to heart. It was an outburst born of frustration and exhaustion. I am certain that some time with Uriel in pleasing surrounds will do much to restore his temper.”
Gabriel kissed the top of Michael’s head. “You’re so forgiving, Mishka. This is why you’re the best of us all.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps I merely do not wish to create grudges and ill-feelings when there is far too much of that in the world already.” Michael pulled back enough to look into Gabriel’s eyes. “I would rather the world was peaceful and lit with love and laughter, but such will never occur, at least not until the Last Judgment when Paradise comes to Earth.”
A chill settled over Gabriel’s heart. “Do you think about that a lot?”
“The Last Judgment? No,” Michael said. “I was merely making a point. Forgive me, I did not mean to be unclear.”
Gabriel was relieved. “You weren’t. I’m all muddled. There’s been so much information, and none of it really does us much good. I feel like we’re sifting through piles of poo for gold.”
“I beg your pardon?” Michael looked slightly shocked. “Poo?”
“You don’t like the word shit,” Gabriel said.
Michael stared at him for a moment, and then he began to laugh. “Oh, Gabriel,” he said, “I love you very much.”
Gabriel kissed Michael’s forehead. “I love you too, Mishka, my Mishka.”
“I am very glad of that.” Michael reached up one hand to gently touch Gabriel’s cheek. “Would you accompany me on a walk? I would like to walk along the beach and enjoy the peace and tranquility of our home with you.”
“Aye, I’d like that a lot.” Gabriel released his lover and took Michael’s hand in his. “Which way, left or right?”
“Right,” Michael said, and they started to walk, keeping close to the edge of the seawater as the waves rolled in and out, soaking the sand and their feet.
“Just a minute.” Gabriel stopped and tugged off his shoes and socks. He used his power to send them back to the house and then rolled up his jeans to midcalf. “There. Now it won’t matter that my feet get wet.”
Michael had done the same, and he took Gabriel’s hand once they were both barefoot. “As you say. It is a lovely day, is it not?”
“Aye.” They walked in companionable silence for a while, and as they rounded a bluff, Gabriel breathed deep, inhaling the heady scent of tropical flowers and ripe fruits coming from the ancient trees that grew only a few feet from the shoreline.
“This is a beautiful island, da bao,” Michael said. “How did you come by it?”
“It was for sale some decades ago,” Gabriel said. “I don’t remember who was selling it or why, just that as soon as I saw it, I fell in love with it, so I bought it. That was just after World War Two, actually.”
“Ah.” Michael lightly squeezed Gabriel’s hand. “I understand needing some beauty after those terrible years.”
“Aye, that was exactly it.” Gabriel looked around. “This is like an untouched paradise. I tend not to do anything here. Oh, there’s our little garden, but beyond that, I don’t do anything except make sure that there ain’t a drought or anything like that.”
“You are in tune with the land and the sea, here,” Michael said. “I believe we all are in tune with our surrounds in those places we have grown to love deeply. I feel the same way about those great mountains in Korea, and I know that Raphael feels thus about Crete. Raziel and Uriel feel a great affinity for their little part of Queensland, and Samael spends a lot of his time in Kenya now, walking with elephants and rhino. Tzadkiel is in the United States, Haniel is in India, and Metatron in the forests of New Zealand… we love our favorite places, and we would know if anything untoward were to happen nearby. So I think that this too negates what Naamah’s demons said. We would know because we love these locations, we listen to their songs and their words.”
“And,” Gabriel said as a sudden thought occurred to him, “wouldn’t the dryads have said something, back when we found their singing trees?”
“You are right, Gabriel, I do believe they would.” Michael stopped walking and turned to face Gabriel. “I feel as though what we are fighting for now is the most important thing since the war that saw the construction of Eden.”
Gabriel whistled in surprise. “Really?”
“Yes. I feel that we are fighting for the survival of Earth’s neutrality, just as we were all those millions of years ago.”
“That’s… yeah. That’s a scarily accurate summary.” Gabriel thought about it for a moment. “We were fighting demons back then, and now we’re fighting Naamah and whatever else she has up her sleeve.”
“Which could be anything.” Michael’s expression became foreboding. “Although it will no doubt grieve Agrat, I fear that I will not be able to use restraint. I will kill Naamah with my own sword.”
Gabriel licked his lips. Michael’s fury, whenever it showed itself, never failed to turn him on. He took a step closer, and rested his hands on Michael’s hips. “Oh aye?”
“Yes. She will suffer greatly, Gabriel. She will suffer for all that she has made creation suffer.”
Gabriel growled at that. “Fuck, I love it when you get all medieval.”
“Pardon?”
Gabriel didn’t answer; he kissed Michael instead. It was a hard, passionate kiss, and Gabriel slid one hand up to tangle in Michael’s hair as he nipped Michael’s lower lip. Michael made a noise of surprise into the kiss, and then he was kissing back. As Michael wound his arms around Gabriel’s neck, Gabriel cradled the back of Michael’s head in his hand and moved them both to lie on the sand. He slid his other hand down Michael’s side, funneling his power into his touch, and soon Michael was naked against him, his hard, muscled body arching into Gabriel.
“Gabriel,” Michael panted between kisses, “please, Gabriel. I want you.”
“Want you too, Mishka.” Gabriel used his power again, this time to get himself naked and then to slick his cock. He moved to kneel between Michael’s thighs as Michael grabbed him, blunt nails digging into Gabriel’s skin. With a low groan, Gabriel positioned himself and thrust slowly into Michael’s body, the groan turning into a throaty cry of pleasure as tight muscles flexed around his cock.
He felt Michael’s legs wrap around him and soon Gabriel was moving, rocking into tight heat and kissing Michael artlessly, working one hand between them to stroke Michael’s cock. As Michael mewled into the kiss, rocking back onto Gabriel’s cock and up into his hand, Gabriel made a loud noise of pleasure and his hips stuttered, his rhythm faltering.
“I love you, Mishka.”
“I love you as well, Gabriel.”
Michael’s mental voice echoed the endless love and fondness that Gabriel felt, and his heart felt full of emotion. Even with reality teetering on the brink of chaos from Naamah’s machinations, Gabriel was able to easily lose himself in his lover. He was glad to; it had been a stressful period, and drowning in Michael, feeling nothing but Michael’s warmth and strength, the splash of cool water as the sea lapped at his feet, the grit of sand beneath him, all combined to wash away the tension that Gabriel had been feeling.
Michael clenched around him, and Gabriel hissed, breaking the kiss to arch as he thrust harder, faster, and before he wanted to, he was coming, giving voice to a loud yell of passion and release, a yell that was Michael’s name. It was only a matter of moments before Gabriel felt the hot slide of come on his hand, as Michael clenched down on him again as his own orgasm crashed
through him.
Panting, sated, Gabriel propped himself up on one arm and gazed down at Michael. “I think we needed that.”
“I do as well.” Michael reached up to lightly touch Gabriel’s cheek. “Although we will need to bathe. I fear that sand will be uncomfortable before long.”
Gabriel laughed at that. “Aye, no doubt. Do you want to go indoors now?”
Michael smiled. “If it is no trouble.”
“Not even a little.” Gabriel moved them straight from the beach to the large bathroom and then used his power to turn on the faucets to fill the bathtub.
“We will rest a little before we return to Yerevan,” Michael said.
“Aye, that’s a good plan.” Gabriel took Michael’s hand in his and lifted it to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss to the back of Michael’s knuckles.
“Then that is what we shall do,” Michael said.
Chapter Nineteen
THEY GATHERED on the roof of the hotel at 4:00 a.m., a group of ten Archangels all dressed for hiking. Gabriel looked around and burst out laughing as he took in the boots, thick plaid shirts, jeans, and almost identical expressions. “We look like a bunch of lumberjacks straight out of Monty Python,” he said, still laughing.
Raziel started to laugh. “We really do. I didn’t notice until you said it, but now it’s blindingly obvious to me.”
“We all prepared for hard labor,” Samael said.
“Which is probably just as well, as I have a feeling there’ll be some of that,” Metatron said. “Any of you gone spelunking before?”
“What the hell’s that?” Uriel demanded.
“It’s also known as caving or potholing, depending where in the world you are. Essentially, it’s the hobby of climbing through caves, usually difficult ones,” Metatron said. “It’s a good thing we don’t really need to physically carry torches, but I would suggest we wear hardhats, just in case. Our forms are human, and we’ll be in trouble if rocks fall on us.”
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