If they stayed and watched, Michael would try hard to impress and instill fear in the audience. If they left, Michael called them cowards and would punish them for it. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
The only saving grace was when Michael got into a zone. He sometimes was so lost in his efforts to push the line between life and death, he wouldn’t notice anything other than the victim on the slab. By the time he finished, Michael would be so high on adrenaline he wouldn’t give a fuck about anything other than the blood on his hands.
Gabriel rubbed his temples. The snake test was saved for those suspected of betrayal. Did Michael know something about Eve?
For instance, why she was drawing her number back onto her arm?
Gabriel looked to his left and scowled. Lazarus sat with his legs dangling over the edge, humming to himself. Fuuuuuck. What kind of mess had they gotten into?
Gabe was now responsible for a trickster, a lunatic, and a beast.
“So many things are like crisps, you know, potato chips,” Lazarus plucked one of his sparkly golden wings and played with it. “Can’t take just one bite. Not one breath. Not one anything.”
“Lazarus. Focus for a minute.”
The mad Angel looked over, his eyebrows popping into his hairline, “Yes?”
Gabriel slowly turned to face him, “You know what she’s hiding, don’t you?” Of course, Laz did. The Angel knew everything. Every. Thing. What a burden to bear too.
“I know nothing, Gabriel. My mind changes too fast for certainty.” He dropped his feather over the edge and let it float into the winds. “But I do know that you cannot undo.”
“No shit,” he grumbled. He couldn’t undo anything, which sucked because he wished he could undo everything…
“He meant what he said about forgiving you.”
Gabriel fought for breath. It hurt to swallow the lump in his throat. “I don’t need his forgiveness.”
“Yes, you do. You always do. And also, did you know that fried pickles are delicious with ranch dressing and—”
Gabe tuned Lazarus out at that point because the fucker started rambling about things that hadn’t been invented yet. He didn’t have the energy for that crap right now. His mind was too stuck on Raphael’s last words. “Do. It. I’m done. I… forgive you.”
Those words were never going to get out of his head. Raphael wanted to be put out of his misery, and Gabe was the reason that Angel had been so fucking miserable.
I…forgive you.
Forgiveness was breath to a suffocating prisoner - something Gabriel knew too much about. And so had Raphael, because of me.
Was Raphael truly dead? Lucifer had plunged that sword into him so fast, the warrior had no time to fight back. It spoke volumes for Lucifer’s quick moves, and also Raphael’s willingness to be freed from his own chains. Chains… Gabriel had put on him.
Raking a hand through his hair, he sighed. Did divine energy really go someplace else or did it dissipate in the air like mist and vanish forever? Gabriel hoped he never found out the truth. Especially knowing that souls of humans seemed to wander and eat energy and never go away but never truly lived again either. He had a feeling Angels were the same way. Perhaps once they died, they became remains of energy that had no life, no pulse, no purpose.
He squeezed his eyes shut and growled. Now wasn’t the time for this hypothetical bullshit. He was stalling the inevitable and that wasn’t what a leader should do. If he was going to take charge, he needed to do so now. It was only a matter of time before Michael sent out his deadliest hunters for them.
The Scourge.
Gabe’s stomach lurched just thinking about them. If Michael was infamous for never showing mercy, than those four monsters were infamous for their ability to bring ultimate destruction. They were ruthless and cruel. They had no honor. No cares.
To live with no regrets of any kind must be nice. Gabe wouldn’t know.
“Ah, there she is! Good as new!” Lazarus’s chipper tone snapped Gabriel out of his thoughts.
Both the males sitting on the ledge turned to see Eve walk out of the cave. Her wings were tucked back, her hair flowed over her shoulders and hid much of her upper body. Her hands were clasped over her lower region. The smudge of ink was barely noticeable, but Gabriel glared at it like the damned thing was as obvious as the sun in the sky at high noon.
“You look so much better, Flower.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. Eve wasn’t a flower. She was a thorn. Never mind that she smelled like an exotic bouquet, Gabe was starting to suspect she was the kind of creature that if you tried to touch her, she’d prick you and make you bleed.
She sat down between the two of them. “I don’t understand what happened,” she said calmly.
“Which part?” Lazarus asked. “The beginning, the middle, or the end?”
Eve rested her chin on her knees. “All of it.”
“Ah, well, I need to see a guy about a thing.” With that, Lazarus walked back inside and left Gabriel alone with her.
Great. “His mind is busted.”
“His thoughts are just broken a little.”
“More than a little,” Gabriel frowned. “Speaking of broken, your wings are good now, right?”
She nodded. “No thanks to all of you.”
“Con fixed you. We had nothing to do with that.”
“You all helped,” she repositioned and dangled her legs over the edge.
Gabriel kept a careful eye on her. If she somehow fell, Eve wouldn’t be able to fly with her feathers clipped. He automatically prepared to dive off the cliff if he had to catch her.
And why the fuck do I care this much? I’m a fucking idiot. “We didn’t help. We got here after Con worked his magic on you. And can you please back away from the ledge?”
She scooted back. Thank fuck.
Eve tucked her hair behind her ears, “Can you tell me what happened?”
“Ask one of the others.”
“I want to hear it from you, Gabriel. I know what happened to me. I want to know what happened to you, Uri, and Lucy.”
He clenched his teeth and considered where to start. “We saw an opportunity to break Lucifer out.” Gabe cleared his throat, “It took longer to get the chains off than we anticipated. The magic was strong. The iron, equally so. We could hear you screaming and Lucifer lost his fucking head over it.” And so did I. “Raphael came down while we were still working on Lucifer’s collar. Things progressed from there.”
“How?”
Don’t worry about it. “We did what we thought we had to do. And we got Lucifer out of there and to you. You kept calling out for him. When the snakes struck… you yelled his name.”
“I called for him?”
“Loudly,” he refused to acknowledge the jealousy in his tone. “Why would you do that? It wasn’t like Lucifer could get to you without a small miracle.”
“I wanted to be brought back to the cage with him. I feel safest with him.”
Feel, not felt. He didn’t miss the difference there. “Safest?” Gabriel punched down his envy. “You have strange preferences.”
“It’s not just him, Gabriel. It’s you too. And Uriel. And Constantine. And if I could have gotten back down to the cage, I’d have all your protection. That’s all I focused on.”
“But we didn’t protect you.” And we should have, he wanted to add. But what would have been the point?
That sat in silence for a few heart beats.
“I owe you an explanation,” Eve admitted, “but I’m not ready to give it yet.”
Gabriel kept a lid on his frustration. “You will give it,” he growled.
“Yes. But… not right now.”
“You wanted to be in the Brotherhood, Eve.” He snagged her arm and ran his thumb over the smudged number. “Trust is imperative in the brotherhood. We need to be able to trust you. And I don’t.”
“I… understand.”
Fuck, he hated that her chin quivered. “So give
me something. A show of good faith. Because what we did just now? What we’re going to have to do soon? There’s no coming back from this.”
“You didn’t do it just for me,” she argued. “You did it because you need it too.”
“That still doesn’t change the fact that it’s done.”
“Nor does it change the fact that the blame isn’t all mine.” She wrenched her arm away and stood. “I will be forever grateful to all of you for helping me out of there and for freeing Lucifer. But we weren’t the only two freed today.”
“Lazarus is not part of this discussion.”
“I wasn’t speaking about Lazarus, Gabriel.” She held her arm out in the rain and rubbed away the rest of her number as she said, “We all have chains that bind us to something. Lucifer’s were made of iron… and going by the darkness in your eyes, I bet yours were made of guilt.”
“You know nothing about me, female.”
“I know what pain and suffering is,” she snapped. “Angels aren’t blessed, Gabriel. We’re all cursed in some way, no thanks to—”
“I didn’t curse you!” he yelled.
Eve’s wings expanded like she wanted to fly away and she took a step back, “I never said you did.”
“Then don’t speak like you understand anything about curses, Eve. They’re not to be taken lightly.” Gabriel’s eyes blazed with fury. His heart thundered in his chest. His guilt ate him up inside and it felt… deserved.
“I might not be all-knowing like Lazarus, but I know enough about that of which I speak.” She turned around and flared her wings out to show him her back. Dead center, marring her otherwise perfect skin, was a series of red scars… burn marks… a curse.
Gabriel lost his breath. “Who did that to you?” The why, how, when, questions didn’t even register yet. All he cared about was, “Who, Eve?”
She looked over her shoulder and said, “I did,” then went back into the cave, making it clear she wasn’t going to elaborate.
Shit. Gabriel stared out over the ocean with the storm raging over the violent water. A war was coming and they needed to be ready.
The odds felt impossible. Michael would hunt them down to the edge of realms and right over the side if he had to. They were on their own now. This kind of freedom tasted bitter and salty and sickening.
Every action an Angel made had consequences.
So, who was going to suffer the most?
Chapter 14
Uriel sat next to Constantine and kept his gaze on the mouth of the cave and watched the interaction between Gabriel and Eve. Whatever they were discussing out there, neither looked happy. And… oh shit… Eve was just about to walk into the cave when she stopped and flared her wings out. She looked over her shoulder to say something else to Gabriel, then snapped her wings closed and came back inside with the rest of them.
Uri was never going to get that image out of his head.
Every once in a while, there was a sight so spectacular it left an imprint. Eve, naked and furious, her grey wings fanned out in all their glory, her deep auburn hair curtaining her face was now one of those images.
Uriel cleared his throat and pried his gaze away from her, only to find Lucifer staring at her with a hard expression. Lazarus, on the other hand, remained occupied drawing on the cave walls. Most were pictures of Angels, but the writing was in no language Uriel knew yet. And Constantine was still passed out.
When Eve returned to the fire, she tucked her wings in tight and relaxed enough to be able to sit on the ground with the rest of them. Angel feathers were so strange. Stiff enough to use as a shield, but so pliable – if you allowed them to relax – that they were incredibly flexible. The adjustment in texture was necessary so they could do simple things like sit and sleep.
Only recently had they learned to hide their wings – a trick Lazarus taught them in secret. The illusion only worked in the human realm so far. Staring into the fire again, Uriel wished the buzzing in his brain would stop.
Someone’s belly growled.
He looked over at Lucifer. Holy Divine Creations, Lucifer was a big Angel. And coming from Uriel, that was really saying something. All warriors were built big, but Lucifer’s body wasn’t just massive, his energy was too. If Lucifer was in the room, you fucking noticed. How they’d just escaped the brotherhood unseen was a fucking miracle.
“We need a plan,” Gabriel spoke from the opening of the cave. With the thunderstorm clashing behind him, everything about that Angel look dramatic and ominous. “Michael isn’t going to let this go.”
“Nor should he,” Uriel chimed in. “We’re fucking traitors now.”
“You were traitors before now,” Lucifer growled.
Gabriel stormed over to him, “The fuck does that mean?”
Lucifer slowly looked up at Gabriel with a bored expression and said, “You pretended with him. You pretended to not care. But you did. Therefore, you were a traitor… to yourself.”
Gabriel leaned down and grabbed Lucifer by the throat, “You know nothing about me.”
“I don’t have to know your history to see you, Gabriel. I’ve watched you. I’ve done nothing but watch, and listen, and learn about every Angel who came down to that dungeon or walked by my window.”
Gabriel let go of Lucifer’s throat and took a step back, “You don’t know shit about shit, Lucy.”
“Shall we test my knowledge, Gabby?”
Uriel snorted at Lucifer’s jibe. Fucker had balls the size of boulders to be talking to Gabriel like that. And “gabby” was something Gabriel was not. Of all the Angels who talked too much, it was usually Uriel. Not that he wanted that nickname or anything…
“You stick to your post as a Cager because you want to make sure Lazarus stays safe.” Lucifer rose to his full height and stalked towards Gabriel. “You also knew Michael tainted the food, so you would sneak Lazarus fresh apples from that tree you all deem sacred.”
Gabriel’s jaw ticked.
“You follow Michael’s orders because you feel obligated to be loyal, but really you just don’t want his distrust so that you can have more freedoms than most. But you don’t take those freedoms. Unlike Constantine who is forever bouncing from place to place with his inkwells and paper, you stay close to home. You monitor everything. Judge everything. Tweak what you’d do differently in your head and cast hard gazes to the Angels you do not think are worthy.”
“Enough,” Gabriel growled.
“I’m not even close to done,” Lucifer smirked.
“Yes, you are,” Gabriel got in his face. Both flared their wings dominantly. “Stand down,” Gabriel barked.
Lucifer pressed his forehead to Gabriel’s and gnashed his teeth at him. “Scared?”
“You really want to go there?” Gabriel hissed back.
“It’s easy to have the upper hand when what you’re up against is trapped and chained.” Lucifer took a step forward, his muscles bulging, wings fanning out. “I’m off my leash now.”
“No thanks to me,” Gabe growled.
“Hey!” Lazarus walked over and wiggled in between them. “It’s better if you just hug it out. You’re going to be together for a while.”
“Yeah, for as long as it takes for my feathers to regrow and I can fly out of here and never look back,” Lucifer tucked his wings in. “I’m not going to fight whatever war you want to wage with Michael.”
Gabriel huffed, “So you help us make a mess, but won’t help us clean it up, is that it?”
Lucifer kept staring at Gabriel, “I didn’t make a mess.”
“You killed Raphael!”
“He wanted to be dead,” Lucifer said in a deep tone. “That Angel was one of the best warriors Michael had. I know that much because I’ve seen his movements, I studied them, too.” He smiled and it was cruel and cold. “It’s amazing what someone will open up and say when they think no one is really listening. Raphael took his job very seriously, even when he was a Cager, working alone down in the dungeons babysitting us. Like
he’d die if he didn’t do his job perfectly. And thinking he was stuck down there with a lunatic and an animal - who had yet to utter a word - that Angel would ramble on and on. Do you know what he’d talk about, Gabriel?”
“Stop!” Uriel yelled from the fire. Before things got really fucking ugly, he grabbed Gabriel’s shoulders to pull him back. “Both of you just stop!”
“I want my freedom,” Lucifer deadpanned him. “There is nothing I won’t do to get it. What do you want, Gabriel?” The two dark-haired males were nose-to-nose again. “Speak it out loud, brother. Say it for the universe to hear.”
Gabriel’s eyes darkened. The air in the cave vibrated. Lucifer growled.
“I want Michael’s position,” Gabriel admitted.
“So, you agreed to help me and Eve because it served your purpose.”
“Yes,” Gabriel hissed.
“Good to know where your loyalties lie.” Lucifer looked over at Uriel next, “Remember who he serves. Because when the sword strikes, chivalry and honor will fall upon its blade before this fucker will.”
Gabriel stumbled back like the words Lucifer spat out had actually struck him. “You have…” his breath punched out of him, “no fucking clue…” more deep breaths, “what you’re talking about.” Gabriel’s wrath literally filled him. His veins popped out, eyes darkened, and hands balled into fists. In about three more seconds, the Angel was going to explode.
“Stop!” screamed Eve. She jumped in front of Gabriel with her wings flared out and arms up like that was going to hold back two raging Angels from destroying each other? “We can’t be like this!” she shouted. “We can’t have this much badness between us. Not now, okay?” She turned to Lucifer, “Lucy, go outside and cool down.”
“I’m not a dog who takes orders from their master, Eve.”
“I’m no one’s master, Lucifer. But you’re on fucking fire right now.”
Yup, he sure was. Flames were rolling off of him and trickling down his limbs.
“Please,” she begged in a quiet voice. “Go cool down.”
Like Lucifer was a sucker for big blue eyes and a pouty mouth, he frowned and stalked past the rest of the Angels and went outside by himself.
Raise Hell Page 10