by Rae Foxx
I swiped the tears away. "Well? Do you have any more good news for me?"
They shook their heads in unison.
Moaning, I flopped back on the couch. "There has got to be something we can do."
Gabe looked at Michael. "We haven't tried one thing. It's especially dangerous, and the way things have been rebounding on us, we're kind of afraid to."
"What?" I narrowed my eyes and waited on the explanation.
"If he's the only one at his office, we could call down lightning on the whole building. It would likely kill him." Gabe shrugged. "But if we do it, we have to make sure we're very far apart from one another. If it rebounds on one of us, either Michael or I, we'll need the other to heal us."
"Lightning can kill an angel," I said. "If it hit you, there would be a good chance you'd die."
He nodded. "We can't think of anything else outside of calling in more angels to combine power. But that's dangerous, too, because we don't know for sure who is behind this or if multiple angels are scheming together.”
"Can't you think of anything else?" I asked.
Gabe shook his head. "There's one other thing, but it's very difficult to do, so we'd like to avoid it."
Ugh. I didn't know if I wanted to ask what would be more difficult than possibly being struck by lightning. "Okay. Let's do it."
I grabbed my phone and car keys and headed toward the garage. "You coming?" I asked.
"Well, actually, we didn't want you to come," Gabe said. "Because of the danger."
"If you succeed in killing Lucian, I'll die anyway. What's the difference?" I spread my hands. If they managed to kill me, at least I'd be able to go see Ariel.
"Okay. But we'll just pop over," Michael said.
I looked down at my hands. I was holding my purse and car keys, having been ready to drive to Lucian's office. "Oh, yeah. Okay." I was too used to being human.
Michael held out his hand. I took it and closed my eyes. When I opened them, we were standing in the alley behind the office.
"Spread out," Gabe said. "Lil, get far away from the building."
"I know where to go." There was a strip mall across the road. "I'll go wait at the cafe tables across the street.” I turned away but paused. "Be careful," I said over my shoulder. "I don't want to lose either of you."
Gabe nodded, so I walked around the building, careful to keep to the side where Luc wouldn't be able to look out the windows and spot me. And also making sure he was the only one in the office. We didn’t want a mass murder scene. Just one murder.
Settling in at the cafe, I think I upset the server by only asking for water but I wasn’t there to fill up. I just wanted to keep my eyes on the office and make sure nobody got hurt.
Except Lucian, of course. I'd had enough of this bullshit. I wanted him to die and to give me Lucifer back. If nothing else, he might know who had cursed him. Even if he wasn't the perfect husband, I was beginning to miss my abrasive mate.
He wasn't perfect, for sure. But he was mine.
The sunny day darkened as clouds moved rapidly into the area. "Strange," the server said. "I didn't think it said we'd get rain today."
"Yeah," I murmured, trying to see if I could spot Michael or Gabriel. "Weird."
A movement to the right of the office drew my eye. I could just see Gabriel's light blond hair through the bushes near the road. I presumed Michael was somewhere on the other side of the building, probably standing well back from the danger zone.
Thunder rumbled overhead, and the server scurried inside. Lightning flashed across the clouds. I leaned forward, watching and ready to see where it would land.
One, two, three strikes of lightning crashed out of the dark clouds as the wind whipped my hair all around me. Two of them hit the lawn in front of the office, but one hit the bushes. They erupted in sparks.
The bushes that hid Gabriel. A few flames flickered around the spot I’d seen him just moments before.
The chair I sat in flew backward as I launched out of it, running across the street without even looking to see if any cars were coming.
I made it to the bushes at the same time as Michael. Crouching down, I found Gabriel clutching his arm. "I was hit," he gasped.
Michael crowded in, so I shuffled out of the way so he could get to my love. "Heal him," I hissed.
"This is beyond me," Michael said. "I'll need help."
I peered around the hedge of bushes, but nobody had seen us go in there. "Lucian is looking out the window," I whispered. "Go now, but don't stand up."
Clearly, I’d forgotten about the poofing away.
When I looked back to them, they were gone. I sighed and rocked back onto my butt. How was I going to explain to Luc that I was stuck downtown with no vehicle? I tried to think of a way I would've gotten to his office without driving myself. I wasn't dressed in workout clothes, and even if I was, it was way too far to jog, even for me.
Before I could get up, Sandalphon appeared by my side. "My lady, I'm here to take you home."
I grunted and grabbed his arm. I didn't like accepting help from him. And at the same time grateful to him. If he hadn't broken his rules, I wouldn't have Ariel. But at the same time, the pain I constantly felt was because of him. Either way, he was on my shit list.
He popped us into my living room. "May I assist in another way?" he asked. Then he gave a groveling little bow that grated on my nerves.
"No," I said. "You may go." I was curt with him, but it was the best I could do at the moment.
"Very well." He disappeared.
I paced the house, then grabbed a sponge and cleaned an already clean kitchen.
"Damn it," I yelled. If I was Lilith, in my eternal body, I could find out what was going on. I could've helped Michael heal Gabriel. I could go see Ariel; I could help find Raphael. I could help shore up the gates. Lucian wasn't the only one that had built those damn gates.
Granted, most of the power used was his, but I could help a little.
Except I was stuck in a human body. So, I paced and cleaned.
After at least an hour, maybe more, Michael appeared. "He's okay," he said immediately.
I flew into his arms with a sob. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I promise. He's resting, in Elysium. He can recharge there. It zapped his power pretty hard."
He rubbed my back, comforting me. After all that had happened, I couldn't face the thought of losing Gabriel. Even if he had pissed me off when he first revealed himself to me, and he had constantly tried to kill Luc before I was ready.
"When can I see him?" I asked. Michael pulled me over to the table and sat down with me in his lap.
"Let him have a few days to recuperate up there. When he's feeling whole again, I'll tell him to come straight to you. He probably will anyway."
I nodded. "Okay. What are we doing in the meantime?"
"I’m still looking for Raph. That's not the oddest thing—he sometimes goes off and blends with humans, tinkering and interfering in their lives. But he can't be summoned, which is odd. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
Angels can just summon each other, but Lucian had a choice in whether or not he would answer.
I twined our fingers together. "Okay. I'll just be here, doing human stuff, I guess."
"I encourage you not to try to kill Lucian. I don't want you hurt with it rebounding on you."
"I won't. I might do a little research, but I won't act without consulting you."
He nodded. "Good. I love you."
I gave him a long, slow kiss. "Give my best to Gabe, and tell him I love him very much." After I climbed out of his lap, he disappeared.
Once again, I was left with a yawning feeling of loneliness. A few days ago, I had a wiggly baby girl inside me, I didn’t realize how much her company soothed me. Today, I had no one. I looked around the kitchen at a loss. What was I supposed to do now?
Angels and Fallen can be killed in rare circumstances. Lightning, magically imbibed objects, and the combined power of their
enemies can do the job, but it is exceedingly difficult.
21
Three days later, I was in my pajamas, wrapped in a thick blanket, and watching reruns of “I Love Lucy” on TV when Gabe popped into the living room and lifted my feet. "Hey, babe." He settled my feet in his lap. "What are we watching?"
I gasped and the bag of cheese poofs I'd been munching on fell to the floor as I sat up. Jellybean jumped off of the love seat to clean up the mess for me. Nice of him.
Grabbing Gabe, I pulled him close and wrapped my arms around his neck. "I'm so happy to see you!"
He tightened his arms around me. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"I am now." Tears rolled down my cheeks as I sucked in his smooth scent. "He said you'd be gone a few days. It seems like a week. I was so worried and lonely."
"Hasn't Lucian been here?" Gabe pulled away and looked me over. "You're a mess, you know that?"
I snorted. "I'm low. Been spending a lot of time vegging out in front of the TV and eating chips to forget the pain." Luc had been here, of course, but I'd been using glamours to try to keep him from getting upset. I didn't want to risk the magic that Michael and Gabriel had used to alter his memories being unraveled.
"Oh, honey." He gathered me in his arms and stood. "Come on. Let's go take a shower."
I sniffed and considered the last time I'd taken one. It had probably been a while. "Do I stink?"
He shook his head, but he did it way too fast. "So, I do stink."
I wasn't even embarrassed. We'd been together far too long for that. As he adjusted the temperature on the faucet, I stripped and threw my clothes in the hamper. The white undershirt of Lucian's I'd been wearing was covered in cheese puff dust and drips of chocolate ice cream.
Oh, well. I was entitled to a few days of checking out after what I'd been through.
Gabriel grabbed a brush and turned me around, graciously ignoring my naked body. It wasn't the time for him to get excited to see me in the nude.
"Damn, woman, when was the last time you brushed this mane?" He worked the brush for a minute, then sighed. "Do you have a comb instead?"
I looked through my drawers until I found a wide-toothed comb, then let him help me detangle. "Here." I handed him a bottle of leave-in conditioner. "That'll help. And, it's been since the morning you were hurt."
The mist from the bottle settled on my hair and shoulders, then he was able to comb it out easily afterward. "I can't believe Lucian didn't say anything about you getting so..."
"So?" I turned and gave him a look. He was on dangerous territory.
"Upset-looking," he said delicately.
I snorted. "Nice one. I glamoured myself so I looked normal. And I did my best to act normal when he was home."
"Okay, well, I have good news." He stripped down and put his hand on my back, pressing gently so I'd go toward the shower.
"Tell me." I stepped under the spray and moved over for him to join me. "I don't need you to shower with me, you know."
"I know." He fiddled with the knobs and turned on all the showerheads - two coming out of the ceiling, two out of the walls, and a removable head.
For rinsing. That's all I'd ever used it for.
I snickered at my thoughts. Gabe gave me a confused look but didn't ask as he grabbed the removable head and held it to my hair. "We've thought of a way to break the spell."
He set the shower head down and grabbed my shampoo.
"Well?" I asked. "Don't keep me in suspense."
Michael's voice rang out and echoed across the bathroom walls. "Lignum Crucis."
I gasped. "Oh, why didn't we think of that before?"
Gabe chuckled. "That's what I said." He worked the shampoo into my hair. I stood still and let him pamper me. Why not? I was going through one of the worst points of any of my lives. My mates were a small comfort, so I'd enjoy them all I could.
Michael walked around the corner and leaned against the wall. "Hey."
I smiled, but soap ran down my forehead, so I clamped my eyes shut. "Hey, yourself."
"I hear you haven't been taking care of yourself," he said.
He must’ve been listening to us. "I took a few days off. What of it?" I asked.
"You never do that," he said. "Never."
"Well, I've also never given a child away, so let's stop worrying about how I handle that, okay? Tell me about the Crucis. I don't know a lot about it besides that it’s powerful."
It was held somewhere in Elysium, out of my reach, so I'd never really paid it much attention.
"The humans believe they have several pieces of the cross that Jesus was crucified on." Gabriel’s hands left my scalp only to be replaced by water rushing over my head. I held my breath and listened. "The pieces the humans possess are tiny. The larger pieces they believe to be authentic are not. Some of them are from the crosses of the thieves that died beside Jesus, but not from his. Other ones are ones that we have replaced so that they would not have anything powerful in their possession."
"Okay," I said. "I thought all the ones the humans had were fakes."
Michael chuckled. I wiped the water from my eyes and glared at him. "We want everyone to think that, because the pieces they have do have a considerable amount of power, but they're too small to weaponize."
“And it isn’t enough to break a curse like this," Gabe finished. "We've talked about grinding them down and creating a weapon with the Crucis inside it, but the fear is that any alteration of the wood would release the power within it."
That made sense. The death of the son of God, who was also, in some ways, still God Himself, would've created a disgusting amount of power. And it had to go somewhere. I'd heard stories about where the actual crucifixion had happened. People believed they could journey there for miraculous healings. In all likelihood, it was true. If they'd found the spot he died, where all his blood was spilled, it would be a Holy spot. The wood of the cross, the nails, his crown of thorns. All of it would be unbelievably powerful.
I grabbed my body wash and loofah and lathered it up. I considered their words as I washed my body, then handed it to Gabe to do my back. He'd used Lucian's soap to wash himself at the same time.
"So, the real Lignum Crucis is in Elysium, right?" I asked. "And you can get to it?"
"Yep” Gabe replied. “It's in Raphael's weapons room. If we knew where he was it would be a few seconds of our time. Since he's gone, we have to break in there. Not impossible, but neither of us are looking forward to it."
"So, you're leaving me again." I knew it. It couldn't be so easy. They couldn't just show up with the weapon and big smiles on their faces.
"I'm afraid so. It'll take us a few hours to get it."
I sighed in relief. "I can handle hours. Not days."
Gabriel wrapped his arms around me, then moved both of us under one of the ceiling showers to rinse off. "No, not days. We'll try not to leave you alone for that long again. We can take turns being here while Luc is at work. If we're lucky, this will all be over in a few hours."
I nodded and turned off the water.
"Okay. Hurry back to me, then."
Gabe dried off quickly and waved his hand to make his clothes appear on his body again. "See you soon, honey," he said, lifting his hand to help me from the shower. With a kiss to my cheek, he was gone. Michael kissed my other cheek then followed.
A few hours. I could handle it. What was a few more hours?
They were back before I could even finish dressing. As I pulled my jeans on, Gabe and Michael popped into my bedroom.
"What the heck?" I asked.
"It wasn't there." Gabriel flopped down onto my bed. "Gone."
"What do you mean gone? Who would've taken it? And you got in there that easily?”
Michael shrugged. "Only Archangels knew it was there at all. A short list."
I sat on the bed beside Gabe and pulled on my socks. "Anywhere else it could be?"
Gabriel grunted and Michael shook his head. "We're assuming with Ra
phael, wherever he is. He's officially on the most wanted list in Elysium."
I paused with my sock halfway to my foot. "Elysium has a most wanted list?"
Michael burst out laughing.
"No," Gabe said. "But we've got people looking for him."
"Think he used the Crucis to create the curse?" I asked.
Gabe sat up and stared at me, and Michael froze.
"What the hell?" Gabriel smacked himself on the forehead like a cartoon character. "Of course, he did."
"So, now what?"
Michael moved out of my way as I walked over to my closet to get my house shoes. I needed to get dressed, maybe even do my hair, and slap on a little makeup. Feel human again.
Ironically, since I wasn't technically human.
"We need to go get one of the pieces the humans have. It's our only option at the moment. Hopefully it'll be enough to do the job."
I sat down again and slipped on my house shoes, securing the elastic that ran around the ankle. "Maybe it'll at least unlock his memories."
Michael nodded. "We hope."
"Well, go on. He'll be home soon. I'm going to make dinner."
With another farewell kiss, they disappeared, and I moved to the kitchen to busy myself until Lucian came home.
What would happen next? We were truly running out of options.
22
Another two days passed before they appeared in my living room. I'd been thinking about changing into my night pajamas and watching TV again. "What happened to checking up on me?" I put my hands on my hips and glared at the two of them.
Michael's jaw dropped. "We went as fast as we could. We're not experts on the Lignum Crucis. We weren't sure which pieces were real and which were fake."
I dropped my arms. I wasn't truly mad. "I know you would've come if you could have. Can't you sense which are authentic?"
Gabe shook his head and pulled a small jewelry box out of his pocket. "Nope. The power is so advanced that it's almost impossible to sense until you try to directly channel it."
"Sit." I pointed to the couch and held out my hand.
Gabe placed the box in it. I opened it carefully as if whatever was inside would reach out and bite me.