Ishtahar didn’t even crack a smile, although mirth sparkled in her eyes. She patted Uriel’s cheek gently. “Thank you.”
“So, you’ll do it?” Tzadkiel asked.
“Yes.” Ishtahar nodded. “I will.”
“Thank you.” Tzadkiel inclined his head respectfully.
“I will assign Pete and Sarah to join you.” Michael pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “I will have them fly to New York tonight and go to a safe house I own there where they can meet you. Sophiel, you should go with Ishtahar and meet with my people to brief them on their backgrounds and what they need to know, set up their aliases and so on.”
“Yes, Sir.” Sophiel stood up and moved to the dining table, gathering together her papers and her laptop.
Michael moved away from the group as he made the call to Venatores. Gabriel watched him out the corner of his eye as Tzadkiel straightened.
“Now that we’ve got Ish and her undercover team sorted out, what’s the rest of your plan?” Gabriel regarded Tzadkiel with narrowed eyes. “Because if this goes bad, we’re looking at a lot of bloodshed of innocents, and you know I’ll be the one that’ll have to do it.”
Tzadkiel nodded. “I know,” he said simply. “I’m sorry.”
“May I ask a question?” Agrat interrupted them.
“Of course.” Tzadkiel smiled at her.
“Why did you ask me to attend this meeting? Shateiel is of the opinion you mean to ask me to use my powers to do something.”
Tzadkiel looked at Shateiel then back to Agrat. “He’s not wrong. I feel like I’m asking everyone’s loved ones to do dangerous tasks.”
“We are what we are.” Agrat shrugged. “Our Orders are the same—protect and guide humanity. So tell me, Tzadkiel, what is it that you would have me do?”
“Lower their inhibitions.” Tzadkiel’s blue eyes were hooded. “I mean to have Ophanim scouting the estate and the land around Taytton’s mansion. I need his minions—human and demon—to be… less than alert.”
Agrat chuckled. “That’s easy. I don’t even need to be seen to achieve that. When?”
Tzadkiel looked indescribably relieved. “Tomorrow?”
“Certainly. Consider it done. There,” she said, turning to Shateiel, “you see? That wasn’t so bad.”
Shateiel shrugged. “This time. No offense, Sir.”
“None taken, lieutenant.” Tzadkiel smiled the ghost of a smile. “Considering how Remiel reacted, I consider your reaction to be a walk in the park by comparison.”
“I’ll do this tomorrow afternoon,” Agrat mused, “and I’ll let you know telepathically. The effects of my power on them will last twelve hours. Will that be enough time?”
“Yes, that will be plenty. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She smiled. “I’m sure Mr. Bob Taytton will be horrified to learn how relaxed his staff were. He’ll be suspicious, though, you do know that.”
“Yes, but what can he do? He’ll have nothing to ground his suspicions in, and the man’s ego is already huge. He thinks he’s Sécaire, remember!”
“True enough.” Agrat rose gracefully. “Then my husband and I will take our leave. I’ll speak with you tomorrow. Archangels.” She bowed respectfully to them and vanished with a rustle of feathers. Shateiel bowed as well and followed, barely a heartbeat behind.
“That is a lot of woman,” Metatron remarked.
“Amen,” Haniel said emphatically.
“Don’t let Shateiel hear you say that,” Gabriel warned. “He’s possessive.”
“Oh, believe me, I had no intention of saying it in his presence. Besides, he’s well aware of her appeal. It’s part of Agrat being Agrat.” Metatron smiled ruefully. “I hear his prayers of thanks every night as they reach the ears of God.”
“That don’t surprise me in the least.” Gabriel stretched, rolling his shoulders. He was tense, he realized, his body reacting to the million “what if’s” that he was refusing to consciously think about. Tzadkiel’s plan for getting information was sound enough, but Gabriel still had a strong sense of foreboding. He couldn’t shake it.
His eyes met Michael’s across the room as Michael ended his call and pocketed his cell phone, and suddenly, Gabriel wanted to be away. He knew the Seraphim he had on duty in Deep Bay would keep an eye on his children and the town itself, so he wasn’t worried about that. Yet, he wanted to leave the company of the Brotherhood and be with Michael, just the two of them, alone and without any interruptions. The expression on Michael’s face said louder than words that he felt the same.
Standing, Gabriel rested his hand on the pommel of his sword. “Keep us posted,” he said. “Michael and I will be discussing this and planning potential contingencies.”
“Yes.” Michael moved to Gabriel’s side. “Do not hesitate to call if something happens or if you hear anything.”
Tzadkiel nodded, also rising. “Thank you both for coming,” he said. “And thank you for letting me put your people into this operation, Michael.”
“It is what they are trained for.” Michael inclined his head. “They are en route even now. Which reminds me; here is the address for you, Ishtahar.” He handed her a card with an address printed on it.
She took it with a nod. “Thank you, Michael. I will take care of your people and make sure they eat properly and get enough rest.”
Gabriel bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing even as Michael’s expression softened.
“I appreciate that, my lady Ishtahar,” he said in a voice full of profound respect. “Until later, then.”
Gabriel had no time to say anything else as Michael touched his elbow and moved them both.
When the world solidified again, Gabriel looked about his surroundings with a raised eyebrow. “And where are we now, then?”
“Xi’an, China.” Michael smiled. “Just outside of it, actually. I spent five years here many centuries ago. During the reign of the Tang Dynasty. I had a hermitage of sorts in the hills. That is where we are.”
Gabriel looked around, taking in the shape of the land, the glint of sunlight on the surface of the river in the distance. It was quiet, save for the sounds of birds and small animals that made their home here in the greenery of the hills near Xi’an. He felt instantly more relaxed and at peace.
“Beautiful spot.” Gabriel sat down on the grass, lying back and leaning on his elbows. “I should take you to Mount Aspiring in New Zealand one of these days. That’s my favorite place to relax and commune with nature. It’s… beautiful. Although beautiful isn’t a strong enough word for how lovely it is.”
Michael sat down beside him. “Many of God’s creations are too beautiful to describe with any adequacy. Often I find myself lost for words standing among the creations of His hand. And again, when I see the creations of human beings, their inventions and their art, music, poetry. We are very blessed, Gabriel.”
“We certainly are.” Gabriel turned to smile at Michael. “I own an island.”
“Pardon?” Michael blinked, obviously confused at the turn the conversation had taken.
“I own an island,” Gabriel repeated. “There’s lots of small islands that are for sale, like, private islands for the very rich. I own one. It’s like my little piece of paradise on Earth just for me. No one knows I own it; most likely, no one even realizes it’s there. I’ve, ah, encouraged curious eyes to look elsewhere.”
Michael’s brow furrowed with thought. “I cannot recall….”
“That would be ’cause I protected it with my power.” Gabriel shrugged. “Sometimes, I need to be alone—truly alone. I’m not out of touch from the Host while I’m there, but none of you can find me.”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because.” Gabriel rolled onto his side and faced Michael, taking his hand in his own. “I want to share it with you. As our little piece of paradise. Just for you and me and no one else. It’s in the Indian Ocean, in the Seychelles. A granite island with a big villa
-type house and loads of wildlife and tropical fruit and a rainforest. And the most gorgeous beaches.”
“Gabriel.” Michael was gazing at him with an unreadable expression. “You are certain?”
“Aye, I’m certain they’re the most gorgeous beaches.”
Michael laughed softly. “I do not doubt that. I mean, are you certain you wish it to be ours?”
“Aye.” Gabriel lifted their joined hands and brushed a soft kiss over Michael’s knuckles. “We’ve lived forever, after all. There’s going to be days—probably a lot of ’em—that we’ll need to be alone and have absolute privacy to just be together.”
“I like the sound of that.” Michael smiled, wide and bright. “I like the sound of it a very great deal.”
“So, after this Sécaire business is finished and over with, I’ll take you there.” Gabriel kissed Michael’s knuckles again.
“Or you could show me now?”
“You sure? I thought you wanted to hang out here.”
“I am certain.” Michael nodded. “I would very much like to see this island.”
“Then….” Gabriel grinned and moved them.
They emerged on a beach of pristine white sand, with palm trees and lush, thick green rainforest growing almost immediately from the end of the sand line. The sea was calm and blue, waves lapping gently at the shore. Brightly plumed birds flew overhead, calling to each other, and a narrow, cobblestoned path led from the sand into the forest.
“Welcome to Belle Coeur,” Gabriel said.
Michael looked around. “It is beautiful, Gabriel.” He squeezed Gabriel’s hand. “You are right—it is a paradise on Earth.”
Gabriel grinned. “C’mon, it’s this way to the house.” He tugged Michael’s hand as he walked toward the path, and Michael, chuckling, followed him.
It was not a long walk. The path was simple, with a gentle curve, and was several hundred feet long. It ended at a pristine, well-manicured lawn fronting a white, plantation-style house. The porch surrounding the house was made with stone-washed oak planks, and here and there were benches with plush cushions and footstools.
“What do you think?” Gabriel asked.
“It’s lovely, Gabriel. I am certain the inside is just as lovely as the outside.”
Gabriel grinned and pulled Michael into his arms. “And it’s ours.”
“That is the best part.” Michael’s arms slid around Gabriel’s neck. “I love you, da bao.”
“I love you too, solnyshko moyo.”
Chapter Ten
GABRIEL led the way through the interior of the house, pointing out the furnishings and the rooms, his hand holding tightly to Michael’s. He knew that soon they would be going off to fight something—most likely demons—and he didn’t want to stop touching Michael if he could help it. That earlier sense of something bad approaching was growing, and now it was almost a tangible thing, alive and swirling between them unspoken.
In the kitchen, Michael stopped and tugged Gabriel to him gently. “Da bao, we can both feel the impending danger, yes? And the impending… doom, I suppose. We know that something approaches and that it will not be good. It will remain a Sword of Damocles here if we do not mention it.”
Gabriel sighed. “I know. I just… okay. This isn’t how I wanted our first months together, like this, in a… well, you know, relationship. It isn’t how I wanted them to go.”
“I understand, da bao.” Michael smiled a little sadly. “And yet we must endure this. It makes it easier to do so with the knowledge that we are together in all ways.”
“Most ways,” Gabriel corrected.
“What do you mean?”
“We ain’t married or bonded or anything.” As soon as he said it, Gabriel wished he hadn’t. It was too soon for such attachments; although they had known each other since the moment of their creation by God, this new element to their relationship was still too fresh to discuss such things.
“We will talk of these things after the fight is done.” Michael rested his fingers on Gabriel’s lips. “I have considered them already. Yet I fear it would do both of us no good if we were to enter into such intense, meaningful entanglements before battle. You know as well as I that if something happens to one half of an angelic bonded couple, the other half goes mad with it. And you and I both will need our wits about us to fight properly.”
Gabriel blinked, honestly surprised. He wasn’t sure if it was Michael’s calm explanation or the fact that Michael had actually considered marriage or bonding that astonished him more. “Wow. Okay, then.”
“You seem surprised.”
“I am, yeah.” Gabriel ran his free hand through his hair, mussing it, and laughed ruefully, shaking his head. “I didn’t think you’d thought about it.”
“How could I not?” Michael’s head tilted slightly to one side, and he gazed at Gabriel with dark eyes, his expression as close to adoration as Gabriel had ever seen it, an expression that made him squirm inwardly. It was too honest a love for him to look at for long, and he felt that he wasn’t worthy of it. He hadn’t earned it—at least not yet, anyway.
“’Cause I’m not all that and a bowl of chips,” Gabriel said. “I’m… you could do so much better than this. I mean, I know I’m gorgeous. I know I’m damn good in bed. I’m a brilliant warrior and General, but long-term romantic partner? I’m not that good. I’ve got my flaws and vices, me, and I’m pretty fond of my vices. I’m battle-scarred and probably a little insane. You really could do loads better than me.”
“No, I could not, and I do not wish to, even if I could. Which I cannot.” Michael frowned. “Do not think so little of yourself, da bao. You are amazing, kind, wonderful, distracting, frustrating, beautiful, and I love you very much. Talk of bonding and the human ritual of marriage can wait. They are merely formalities.”
Gabriel looked at Michael with fond amusement. “Solnyshko, you see me with rose-colored glasses.”
“I do not wear glasses, Gabriel.”
At that, Gabriel burst out laughing. Michael’s expression became a puzzled frown.
“They’re not literal glasses, Mishka. They’re… metaphorical glasses.”
“I see,” Michael said in a tone of voice that indicated he didn’t see at all.
“Never mind.” Gabriel laughed, pulling Michael into a hug. “It ain’t important.”
“As you say, da bao.” Michael nuzzled his neck, and Gabriel smiled, his hands sliding up and down Michael’s back.
“Do you want to see the bedroom?”
“I would like that very much.”
Gently disentangling himself from Michael’s embrace, Gabriel took Michael’s hand back in his own, twining their fingers, and led him from the kitchen and down the corridor that led to the bedroom.
It was the largest room in the house, obviously designed with angel wingspans in mind, for the width of it was twenty feet and the bed was in the precise center. Opposite the bed were three pairs of French double doors curtained with soft, filmy white gauze, and a wardrobe in the corner with a cabinet beside it. Elaborately carved iron and pottery lanterns with colored glass panels hung from long, thick chains attached to the dark beams that crossed the ceiling, and Gabriel gestured grandly. “Ta-da.”
“It is lovely.” Michael was looking around. He pointed at a door set into the far corner of the room. “And what is through there?”
“Bathroom. En suite type thing.” Gabriel nodded. “With a big bath, kinda like what the Romans liked to use. It’s set into the floor, and the water’s constantly refreshed. There’s a heater underneath, in the foundations of the house, a wood heater. Light that, and that’s how the water gets warm and stays warm. One of the many things the Romans did very well was baths. It ain’t quite so large as some of the baths of the Roman aristocracy were, but it’s big enough for two, and the room is big enough for our wings to be comfortable. There’s a shower in there too, but I’m well fond of the bath.”
“You are decadent,” Michael teased.<
br />
“Yeah, I like my vices and pleasures, it’s true,” Gabriel agreed. “Life is long, why make it all about pain and suffering?”
“To better understand what humans endure?”
“But they don’t all endure that. And even in the most wretched conditions, there’s still hope. Still joy. Still faith. Still happiness.”
Michael smiled a small smile. “Perhaps.”
Before Gabriel could press the issue, Michael’s lips were on his, his hands in Gabriel’s hair. Gabriel made a small, surprised noise as Michael kissed him, his lips parting automatically to the almost tentative touch of Michael’s tongue against them. After a moment, Gabriel got control of himself and wrapped his arms around Michael, holding him tight as the kiss deepened.
“Well, howdy. What brought this on?”
“I wished merely to kiss you, da bao. Is that all right?”
“It’s very all right, solnyshko. You can always kiss me.”
Michael hummed at that, and Gabriel’s lips tightened into a grin as they kissed. Then Michael’s hand was slipping beneath his shirt, and all thought, apart from want, vanished from Gabriel’s mind.
He walked Michael back toward the bed, his hands making short work of unbuttoning Michael’s shirt, shoving it off as they moved. He would never get enough of this hard, muscled body, Gabriel thought, as he broke the kiss to nibble and nip his way down Michael’s chest, his hands roaming over Michael’s stomach, caressing between muscles, trailing over dark hair.
“Gabriel,” Michael gasped, his fingers in Gabriel’s hair, and Gabriel hummed as he reached the waistband of Michael’s pants. Deftly, he got them open with teeth and tongue, eliciting a low moan from Michael, and then he shoved them down. As soon as the fabric was out of the way of his goal, Gabriel growled low in his throat, a rough, hungry sound, and licked his way slowly over and around Michael’s cock.
“Gabriel!” Michael’s voice was full of need and hunger, his thigh muscles trembling as Gabriel took Michael’s cock into his mouth and began to suck. Tongue winding lewdly around the head, Gabriel hummed as he sucked and licked, knowing the vibrations of the sound on the sensitive flesh would add to the sensations Michael was feeling.
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