A Fire in the Heart

by L. J. LaBarthe

  “No, but—”

  “But nothin’. They’re trying to evict us and make us unable to do our job. And speaking of that, we need, as a Brotherhood—hell, all of angelkind—we need to start treating this planet with more respect and less like bad houseguests who use all the toilet paper, eat all the food, and leave the milk out of the fridge overnight.”

  Michael turned his head to stare at Gabriel, his face wreathed in confusion. “I beg your pardon? What does milk have to do with anything?”

  “It’s an analogy. I was talking to Adramelek, and during our chat, we both realized that with this alliance between God and Lucifer, the reason for so much damage to Earth is kind of redundant now. We’re not at war with Hell, so we don’t need to fight demons and stuff. Hell takes care of anyone who breaks the truce, and so does Heaven. So, basically, after Transom have been dealt with, what we need to do, all of us, is stop behaving like Earth’s a battlefield and start behaving like the true guardians and protectors of it we’re supposed to be.”

  “I see.” Michael’s expression cleared. “Your thought has merit. I believe that we should address our Brotherhood on this matter… and then all of us should speak to the rest of angelkind. If they do not like it, then they can speak with God. But we will enforce the truce and make it last.”

  Gabriel smiled at him. “I love you.”

  “I love you as well. Why does what I said make you say this?”

  “No reason.” Gabriel leaned forward and kissed Michael’s cheek.

  “As you say.” Michael turned so that he completely faced Gabriel and reached up to cup his face. “Let us not speak any more of things that are sad or painful. Let us spend this time together so that we can return to our task refreshed and content.”

  Gabriel turned his head so that he could kiss Michael’s palm, then turned back. “Aye, okay.”

  “Good.” Michael leaned up and kissed Gabriel then, a sweet, almost innocent kiss, and Gabriel wrapped his arms around Michael and pulled him close, deepening the kiss and making a soft purring noise into it.

  They kissed for several blissful moments before Michael pulled back. His cheeks were flushed, and his eyes were shining. “Would you join me in the bedroom, Gabriel?”

  “Aye, I’d like that.”

  Urgency and desire were building, passion burning between them, and Gabriel felt his control slip. He opened his eyes a fraction and saw the silver light of his Grace mingling with the gold of Michael’s own. “Mishka. Let’s take this outside.”

  Michael didn’t reply, but Gabriel felt the shift as his lover moved them both. It wasn’t to the beach or to the bank of a lagoon as he’d half expected, however; it was to the sky. Gabriel unfurled his wings on instinct, and a moment later, he felt the rub and press of Michael’s as feathers rustled together. As one, they locked their wings and soared, kissing with unbridled passion, the bright light of their combined Graces shooting up into the sky and beyond in a column of brilliant illumination.

  Gabriel gave himself over to Michael completely, lying back in the air, hovering over the island and Michael covered him, their legs tangled as their wings and their power kept them from crashing. There was a whisper of power in Gabriel’s mind, and the next thing he knew was the feeling of Michael’s cock pressing between his thighs. He spread his legs wider and then wrapped them around Michael’s hips, bucking up into him even as he clutched at Michael’s body with his hands, his nails digging into hot skin.

  “Gabriel… my Gabriel.” Michael’s mental voice trembled, and Gabriel could hear the myriad emotions in it. He felt warmth spread through him and then pleasure as Michael pressed his cock into Gabriel’s body.

  The wind carried them gently over the island as they moved together, touching, kissing, fucking, and when they hit a warm updraft, Gabriel flared his wings, catching the thermals. Together they moved upward the column of air in a lazy spiral, and as Gabriel managed to work one hand between their bodies to stroke his own cock, he felt Michael’s hands on his ass.

  “Gabriel,” Michael’s mental voice was now a rough growl, and Gabriel opened his eyes and looked at his lover, seeing the love, the desire, the need writ as clear as day on Michael’s face. “I will not last long,” Michael went on.

  “’S okay, don’t think I will, either.” Gabriel panted out loud, even as he thought the words to his lover, moaning again as Michael’s cock slid over his prostate, making sparks flare in his vision.

  “Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel,” Michael’s mental voice gasped, the last utterance of his name ending on a mental shout as Michael tensed and came, filling Gabriel with his come.

  Gabriel clenched tight as he could around Michael’s cock, feeling the pulsing sensation as Michael came, and it was only a few more strokes of his own cock before Gabriel was coming as well, hot and thick over his hand and abdomen.

  “Michael,” Gabriel thought, “I love you.”

  “I love you as well.” Michael took Gabriel’s come-covered hand in his and raised it to his lips, then licked it clean. Gabriel hissed as he watched, the sight more erotic than anything his fantasies could conjure up.

  It was with a sigh that Gabriel realized they should head back to Portland very soon. “We need to get back.”

  “I know.” Michael took charge and, with their wings still locked together, returned them to Earth.

  Once he was on solid ground and on his feet, untangled from Michael, Gabriel gave him a rueful grin. “I guess we’ll be in for some teasing,” he said. “The weather reporters and meteorological bureaus of the world are gonna be reporting on strange lights in the sky.”

  Michael blushed crimson. “Wonderful,” he said.

  Gabriel laughed.

  “We should get cleaned up first, however.”

  “Aye, probably not a good idea to go into a place with beings with super noses who can smell sex a hundred yards away. They’ll just mock us forever.”

  Michael wrinkled his nose, an action that Gabriel found absolutely adorable.

  “I do not wish to endure such teasing. It is bad enough with Ondrass’s innuendos and Markus’s sly remarks. I do not wish the rest of Brotherhood to engage in such behavior, and certainly not my Venatores.”

  Gabriel began to laugh, and he pulled Michael down against him, cuddling him close. “You are so adorable.”

  “I do not understand how, and I do not agree. I am not adorable.”

  “Oh aye, to me you are.”

  Michael sighed. “I suppose this is one thing that I must endure. Your misguided belief in my adorability.”

  Gabriel laughed harder. “Aye, absolutely.”

  “I suppose, then, if I must, it will be my cross to bear.”

  “You’re so giving about these things,” Gabriel said, between his laughter.

  Michael kissed his shoulder. “No,” he said, “it is that I love you so much that I do not wish to deny you anything that gives you joy or happiness or pleasure.”

  Gabriel tightened his arms around Michael and kissed his cheek. “You really are amazing, solnyshko. I ain’t really worthy of you, but I don’t want to argue about being worthy or not worthy or whatever. I just want to love you for as long as you’ll let me. Is that okay?”

  Michael pushed himself up to lean on one arm and gazed down at Gabriel, his expression inscrutable. He was silent for a long moment, and Gabriel raised one eyebrow, wondering what was going on inside Michael’s head. Finally, Michael touched Gabriel’s cheek with his index finger.

  “I want you to love me forever, Gabriel. I hope you do not find this to be an imposition.”

  “Not even a little,” Gabriel said.

  Michael smiled. “You are very kind,” he said. “I am content.”

  20

  AHIJAH HAD left Ondrass’s building and gone out into Portland. He wandered its streets, pausing every so often to look into the window of this or that store, enjoying the displays of the various wares available for sale. It had been a long time since Ahijah had bee
n into this part of North America, and Portland, he was pleased to see, had come out of the war relatively intact. Of course, he mused, as he paused to peer at a window display of a store selling candy, Portland and all of Oregon had been protected by the Archangels, so no demons could enter it.

  Nowhere was that more obvious than here, in the Portland street market on the banks of the Columbia River. The river was bright blue, and birds swooped and dived, calling to each other. Their calls were only slightly less raucous than those of the food vendors, who called out enticements to shoppers for this or that meal or snack.

  Ahijah paused only long enough to buy himself a plate of Turkish kebobs, with flatbread, hummus, garlic sauce, salad, and two dolmades on the side. He walked slower, eating and savoring the food, almost inhaling the hummus. How long had it been since he had eaten this cuisine? He couldn’t remember. Centuries, probably. Turkish and all Middle Eastern foods were what he’d grown up with, and as well as enjoying the flavors, there was a certain fond nostalgia in eating things that he and Hiwa had scoffed as children, living in Semjaza’s palace in Eden.

  “So this is where you have come to.” Samael walked up to join Ahijah, smiling.

  Ahijah hastily swallowed a mouthful of dolmades. “I was walking around Portland,” he said. “I overheard some people talking about the markets, so I thought I’d come and take a look. Would you like some dolmades?”

  “No, thank you. May I walk with you for a while?”

  “I’d like that. As long as you don’t mind me eating for a bit.”

  “Not at all. I would not dream of delaying you from your meal.” Samael nodded at the plate in Ahijah’s hands. “It looks very much like the food prepared in Eden.”

  “Tastes like it, too. All the food of the Turkish and Middle Eastern region does, even today. It’s a nice bit of continuity,” Ahijah said.

  “I remember you and Hiwa stealing pastries from the kitchens when you were both very young,” Samael said. “And you would take the fruits of your pilferage and climb to the top of the walls of the city. The two of you would sit there, legs hanging over the edge, and eat, and Michael would walk past and sigh and tell you that theft was a sin, and you would both giggle at him and then give him some of your pastries.”

  Ahijah laughed. “I’d forgotten that. He used to look so put-upon.”

  “He frequently looks put-upon these days, too,” Samael said, but his voice was full of fondness, not criticism.

  “I thought Uncle Gabe was softening him up a bit.”

  “And he is, but there are some things that Michael will never stop doing.” Samael chuckled. “Scolding everyone is one of them.”

  “He was always good at that. But his scoldings were only words or disappointed looks. They made us squirm a bit, but they didn’t hurt us like Semjaza’s beatings did.” Ahijah frowned. “Semjaza used to beat up Hiwa all the time. He thought Hiwa was growing soft because he spent so much of his time with Michael. I think he was more frightened that Uncle Michael’s influence would make Hiwa like Semjaza less.”

  Samael growled softly at that. “Your father was a terrible husband, a worse friend, and an abominable parent. I refuse to acknowledge him as angelkind. He brought shame to us all.”

  “But the rest of you aren’t like him at all.” Ahijah finished his food and threw the plate into the trash. “We learned so much from all of you Archangels. What happened after the Expulsion, when God kicked us all out and then made Uncle Uri unleash the Flood and guide Noah—that wasn’t anyone’s fault but Semjaza’s, even if God did punish the Nephilim for the crime of simply existing.”

  “That will always hurt, I know,” Samael said gently. “I understand.”

  “I know. That’s why I say this to you, because I know you won’t get tetchy or weepy.” Ahijah shrugged. “Like you said before. We lived, we made lives for ourselves, and they’re pretty good lives, all in all. It could be worse.”

  “The glass is half-full philosophy,” Samael said.

  “Yeah.” Ahijah stopped walking and leaned back against the fence that separated the promenade from the bank of the river. He looked at Samael closely, really looked at him, and saw that beyond the wise dark blue eyes, there was a peace and serenity there in Samael that he had never really noticed. Samael looked happy, and he looked relaxed. He nodded politely and smiled to a young family, the father of the group rolling his eyes theatrically and then grinning at Samael as he struggled to stop his young daughter from running off.

  “You love these people, don’t you?”

  “Pardon?”

  “Here. On Earth. You love the people.”

  “Oh.” Samael nodded. “Yes, I do. Very much. I agree with Gabriel: humans are interesting and full of odd and wonderful quirks and nuances. I agree with him, too, that one can learn a great deal from simply walking among them and listening to them, talking with them, hearing their stories and histories. No human is an island, after all, and they have such bright, vibrant lives. All of them are dear to me. All life on this planet is dear to me. Animal and vegetable life, and mineral life, for we hear the songs of the mountains and the rhymes of the stones.”

  “Transom are not going to shut you guys out,” Ahijah said. “No way.”

  “Your faith and confidence is touching.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s also true.” Ahijah looked around them. “Earth would be so much less without you guys around.”

  “I think we’d be so much less, too,” Samael said. “We’re all tied to this planet; we all love it deeply, as well as all life upon it.”

  “A lot of the residents of the planet—those that know you particularly—would be very sad to have you gone,” Ahijah said.

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  “Everyone, come to Ondrass’s boardroom immediately. Emergency meeting.” It was Tzadkiel who had interrupted, and his mental call sounded almost triumphant to Ahijah’s mind.

  “Did you hear that?” Samael asked.

  “Yeah. I think he called everyone involved who isn’t currently in the building,” Ahijah said.

  “Then we must go.”

  “He sounded like he had good news,” Ahijah said. He started walking again, quickly this time.

  “I thought the same. Come, let me ’port us. It will be much quicker.”

  “Please,” Ahijah said. He reached out and took Samael’s hand in his, noticing that it was warm and dry and that Samael’s dark skin was very soft. As their fingers twined, Samael gave Ahijah a single nod, and then he moved them. The world fell away and, a moment later they were in the lobby of Ondrass’s building.

  AHIJAH QUICKLY saw that almost everyone was in the boardroom. Absent were Declan and Angelique, and even as he wondered where they were, the two of them rushed in together, hand in hand. Ondrass, Ahijah saw, was sitting at the head of his table, his feet up on it, and the large screen that had held the images of Max and Minnie during the last group meeting was up once more, the faces of the two in question beaming smugly from it.

  As he sat down beside his brother, Ahijah wondered what Tzadkiel had to tell them. Hiwa grunted a greeting, but his gaze was locked on the screen that projected the images of the hacker and the witch.

  “Are we late?” Ahijah asked him.

  “No. Everyone sort of arrived en masse. I don’t think anyone was far away,” Hiwa said. “I’d just got back, actually. I’m glad Uncle Tzad called this meeting because I’ve got information to share, too.”

  Ahijah raised an eyebrow, but before he could ask, Tzadkiel had stood and was clearing his throat, calling everyone’s attention.

  “We’ve had a bit of a breakthrough,” Tzadkiel began without preamble. “Our most excellent Minnie and Max have something for us.”

  “Can I just start out by saying that, Ondrass, your corporation is amazing,” Max said. “It wasn’t hard for me to hack into it so I could piggyback what you were doing on the markets, but once I did, whoever it is who’s your broker is a bloody genius.�
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  Ondrass smirked. “You can tell him yourself, young man. Markus?”

  Markus gave Max a shallow bow. “You approve of what I’ve been doing, I assume?”

  “Oh yeah. Making up a future in medical stocks that would appeal to our evil enterprise that we’re hunting down was a good idea, but you made it so it was damn hard for anyone to get involved in the speculation for it. They weren’t happy, but they were bloody determined to be a part of it.”

  “What is this?” Michael leaned forward in his seat. “Explain.”

  “Of course, Prince. It’s quite simple. Ondrass and I made up a medical discovery: the ability to synthesize human tissue and grow it with demon DNA. The projected date of delivery of the future would be six months from now. Transom wants it—it is, after all, quite an amazing commodity, if, in fact, it actually existed. They don’t know that it doesn’t, that everything we showed them as part of it is fabricated. They are salivating over air and pixels. They are negotiating trade price on it as we speak.”

  “I see,” Michael said. He sounded quite bewildered, and Ahijah couldn’t blame him. He wasn’t sure he understood all of what Markus had said, either. “And so, Max, you were able to track Transom by this means?”

  “More or less, yeah. I’d explain it, but it’s pretty complicated,” Max said.

  Michael sat back. “That is all right. As long as someone I trust is aware of how this works, that is enough for me in this matter.” He turned to look at Tzadkiel. “Please proceed, Tzadkiel.”

  “Sure. Well, the information our clever friends over there found out by hiding in Ondrass’s account is extremely useful. We now know where the new facility is going to be built. It’s on a rather large acreage in a rather beautiful spot called Engineer Pass in Colorado. Just to be certain, I asked a friend of mine from the area to drive around and have a look. She’s a former police officer, so she didn’t mind.”