by A L Williams
Runs in the family.
When we entered the kitchen, I dropped in a chair, watching him walk to the fridge and open it. He inspected its contents and then leaned in, shifting things around.
I settled my chin against my hands, my mind drifting back to the box. I didn’t know Laura, but the little bit that Cory would tell me made it clear she was a good woman. When he told me she had died, he didn’t explain the details. I did some research and found a report of a man and woman violently attacked.
My heart hurt for him. I just wished he would talk about it. Even now, my stomach churned at the thought of what those assholes did to them and their...
“Scrambled eggs?” Cory asked, glancing at me.
I smiled. “Sure.” I watched him in silence as he began to crack eggs into a bowl. “Where’s Gabriel?” he asked, whisking the egg mixture.
“I don’t know.” Cory didn’t respond.
He turned and poured the mixture into the sizzling skillet.
“Cory?” I said.
“Yeah?”
“I miss my mom,” I said, biting my lip after the final word.
He tensed and then began to scramble the eggs, filling the kitchen with the aroma of fried eggs. Once he was done, he separated them into two plates and carried them over, placing one in front of me. He took his seat. “I do, too,” he finally said.
We fell silent and started to eat. A cool breeze drifted in through the window as we finished our food. I stood and grabbed both empty plates, carrying them to the sink and rinsing them off.
Once I stuck them inside the dishwasher, I returned to the table and sat down. Cory stared out the window, his mind somewhere far away. I was pretty sure where. “You miss Laura, too.” He tensed. I reached across the table and grabbed his hand. “It’s okay to talk about it.”
“It’s in the past.”
“Doesn’t make it hurt any less.”
He looked at me. “What has you thinking about Cindy?”
I sighed and leaned back, too exhausted to push. “Bobby and the other missing child. They must be so scared.”
He nodded. “Like you were.”
I balled my hands into fists on my lap. “We have to find that bitch and put an end to this.”
He smiled weakly. “Maybe you can help her see what she’s doing is wrong.” I frowned. After everything Cory had been through, his heart was bigger than it should be. I envied that.
“She’s not saveable.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do,” I said.
“Just like you did with Gabriel?” he asked. I played with my fingers looking aside. “You too seem to be getting along now.” I glanced at him, seeing the blush on his face. He must have heard us. My face warmed a bit. “Sorry about that.”
He rubbed the back of his head. “Just try to be... quieter next time.”
I smirked. “I’ll try,” I said with a wink. He shook his head and returned the smile.
“Not everyone is a hopeless cause. Look at you. You have come so far.”
I frowned. “What she’s doing is wrong.”
“Hurt people hurt people.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“No. It doesn’t. But you can’t hold on to your anger. It will consume you. It does nothing for you, other than push people away. You have to learn to let down that wall and trust someone.”
I licked my lips. “I trust you and Jamie.”
He chuckled. “To a certain extent. I think you still hide behind jokes and banter when things get too intense for you. Not that I have much room to talk.” He reached up and played with his necklace. “So, you and Gabriel, huh?” he said with a lopsided grin.
I rolled my eyes as warmth spread through me. The feeling of Gabriel’s body pressed to mine, cradling me in their arms, drifted through my mind. The same arms that had tried to hurt us.
People make mistakes.
I knew that, but those mistakes destroyed lives. How was I supposed to just forgive that? How was I supposed to just trust them? These questions twisted around in my head.
“I’m happy for you. I think you two are good for each other,” Cory said, breaking through my thoughts.
“Yeah.”
Let down that wall and trust someone.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gabriel
The sky grew dark as I strolled along the sidewalk, heading for Lucifer’s apartment. I needed to talk to him for some perspective.
The night was silent, and the full moon shone bright above, its light mingling with the yellow of the streetlamps. I tucked my hands in my pocket, staring up at the thick clouds drifting across the twilight sky. Ashley’s words danced in mind. Did I trust Hayley? I did not know, but I liked the thought of her trusting me.
In the corner of my eye something moved. I peered around, seeing a figure appear from the shadows.
Lilith.
I tensed as she approached, her bare skin luminescent in the moonlight. “Beloved.”
“What do you want?”
“You.” She crept closer.
I took a step back. “Unless you are planning on returning the children from whence they came, we have nothing to talk about.”
She frowned. “They’re our children now.”
“Send them back.”
Her gaze softened, and she inched closer. “Come, my love.” I stared at her, realizing that there was no reasoning with her. She had grown insane over the years. Perhaps she had always been, and I just did not see it.
As I pondered that, she stood before me, only inches away. I could feel her breath against my skin. She gazed at me with a smile. She reached for me.
A second later, a ball of fire knocked her back. She remained on her feet.
I looked around, finding Lucifer and James running over.
Lilith sneered. “You will not interfere.” Darkness burst forth from her form, billowing plumes of black clouds, void of light and space, surrounded us. The cement and asphalt beneath our feet rolled and crumbled around us.
“Hayley!” James yelled. My heart skipped a beat, and I looked around. Hayley was standing with wide eyes. What was she doing here? The ground tumbled like flowing magma under her feet. She stumbled and, as if by instinct, I rushed towards her.
“No!” Lilith’s voice echoed, and the earth split.
Houses plummeted into the darkness below. Guilt enveloped me for the families that were inside. My heart skipped a beat as Hayley fell back. I ran, desperation and fear fueling me. When I reached the edge, I found Hayley holding on to a rock jutting out from the cliff side.
I knelt and held out my hand. She looked at it. I waited, knowing that this was up to her. I did not have my wings so that was all I could do. It may have been seconds, although it felt like hours. She reached up and gripped my hand, and I hauled her up. She landed on top of me, and I wrapped my arms around her, not wanting to let her go ever again.
When we separated, we turned to Lilith who was seething with rage, her eyes red. “You choose her?” she growled.
Without a second thought, I said, “Yes.” I waited, preparing for her attack. This was not going to end well. I knew her fury well.
Sirens blared from the distance, and her face shifted from rage to a smile so quickly it sent a chill down my spine. “I will have you,” she said, vanishing a moment later.
“No!” Hayley yelled. She ran forward and I grabbed her, pulling her against me. She fought for a moment and then relaxed.
“We will get them back,” I whispered. She tensed and then nodded weakly with her face pressed against my chest.
“Fuck!” James said. I looked at him as he pulled out his phone. He called Andrew and explained what happened.
When the call ended, he turned to us. “We need to get out of here.” He released his wings, and Lucifer did the same. I guided Hayley over to them, and we faded in a veil of black and white feathers.
This needs to end.
We decided
to go to Adam’s condo, given that Lucifer’s apartment was in ruin. When we stepped inside, Adam walked out into the living room. Lucifer met him and pulled him close. They shared a kiss, and then Lucifer filled him in on what occurred.
I guided Hayley into the room and settled her on the couch. She had not said a word since we left the scene, and I was getting worried. I sat down next to her, rubbing her back. She smiled at me, but I could see the exhaustion on her face. This was all catching up with her, and it was my fault.
“Well, this is a fun way to spend the rest of my vacation time,” Adam said with a nervous chuckle.
“I am sorry, Love,” Lucifer said.
“It’s not your fault.” Adam kissed the side of Lucifer’s head. “So how are you going to stop her? She seems to have some serious firepower.”
“It is not natural to her,” Lucifer said.
James furrowed his brow. “She didn’t have it before?”
“No. When we were together, she was just human,” I said, still rubbing Hayley’s back.
“How did she get it?” James asked.
I glanced up. “I do not know.”
A knock came at the door. “It’s us,” Andrew said through the door.
“It’s unlocked,” Adam replied.
Andrew and Ben walked in. “What the hell happened out there?”
I turned my attention back to Hayley as the others filled them in. She looked up at me. “I need to use the bathroom.” I nodded, and she got up and moved down the hall.
“It felt familiar,” Lucifer said.
“How so?” James asked.
Lucifer leaned into his lover and touched his own chest, where his scar still stretched across his torso under his shirt. “It felt like the darkness that I carried inside me.” I thinned my lips. The darkness he had carried. The evils of the world had been the very essence of dark power. Was that why she was acting so insane?
“You did not behave that way when they were inside of you,” I said.
Lucifer looked at me. “No. I also had millennia to adjust to it. When it first became a part of me, I felt like it would swallow me whole. It was the best and the worst feeling of my life. Pure power.”
I nodded. Lilith’s lust for control would revel in that kind of power.
“Where do you think she found it?” Andrew asked.
Lucifer crossed his arms on his chest. “When I banished it, the power went back into the abyss.”
James’s eyes widened. “You didn’t destroy it?”
Lucifer shook his head. “You cannot destroy that type of evil. There will always be darkness where there is light.”
A thought hit me. “The Garden. That is where you were when you banished it.” I said. The others turned to me. I stood. “She could be in the Garden of Eden.”
Lucifer nodded. “Perhaps. It would not hurt to check.”
The faint rush of water reminded me that Hayley was in the restroom. “Do not say anything to Hayley,” James said. I looked at him with a furrowed brow. “I don’t want to lie to her, but Hayley will go ballistic if she finds out. So, don’t tell her, okay? The last thing we need is her charging in and getting herself killed.” I nodded. As much as I did not want to lie, I knew he was right.
A second later, Hayley came back into the room and walked over to me. I smiled at her, pulling her against me, and she leaned in. I pushed away the sting of guilt.
“The government is getting involved now,” Ben said. “Inspector Williams is coming back.”
“He handles diseases, why would he be involved with this?” Adam asked.
Andrew crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Apparently he got a promotion to the FBI. He told me that the missing child problem here has caught the FBI’s attention. They have been paying close attention to this region after what happened a year ago. We are walking on thin ice.”
I could understand the worry in his words. The human world was ridiculous. The minute they found out about angels and the rest of the supernatural world, everything would be in chaos.
Hayley yawned and covered her mouth. I glanced at her and then back to the others. “We should get some rest. We have a battle ahead of us. Lilith will not be easy to defeat.” They all agreed.
James released his wings and curled them around Hayley and I, returning us to the house. My mind drifted to the day Lilith and I were forced apart.
I knew why Father made that decision.
Father glared down at me. “She is not for you.”
I flinched. “But I...”
“You question me, child?”
I balled my hands into fists. “No, Father.”
“You will not return to the Garden.” He lifted his hand, and my back tingled as liquid fire spread along my skin. My body grew light, and I glanced back. My wings of gray and brown feathers were smaller. My eyes widened, and I slumped in despair and defeat.
His eyes softened. “You will understand one day, my child.” He turned and walked into the clouds, fading into the haze. I gritted my teeth and shook, slumping on the floor.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Hayley
Later that night, I laid cradled in Gabriel’s embrace. After almost plummeting to my death, I was shaken to say the least. She had almost killed me. Gabriel pulled me closer, and I realized I was trembling. I prided myself on being strong and handling everything that came my way, but this was too much. I was scared, and that pissed me off.
That bitch would not get the best of me.
“It is alright to be frightened,” they said.
I stiffened and then pulled away, my chest growing tighter. “I’m not afraid.” I sat up and turned away from them.
There was silence for a moment, and when I thought Gabriel would not say anything, they spoke. “Why do you do that?” they asked.
“Do what?” I stared down at the floor.
“Hide behind false bravery.”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you the same question?” I snapped. I glanced back when they did not respond and clenched my jaw at the hurt in their gaze. I furrowed my brow. Gabriel didn’t deserve this. They had saved my life, and I was grateful. I scooted closer, leaning into their warmth. “I’m sorry. I just…” I trailed off, trying to get the words out. “I promised myself I would never let anyone hurt me again. I promised myself that I would be strong, and I could get through anything.”
They reached up, running their fingers through my hair, and I hummed, soothed by the gentle touch. How could they make me feel so good? It was ironic that, not too long ago, they were bent on destroying my life and the ones I loved.
We didn’t speak for a while, enjoying the warmth of each other’s body, until a question drifted into my mind. “Why were you so determined to kill Jamie and hurt Lucy?” I felt them tense. “You don’t have to answer.”
“No. I want to.”
I waited, giving them the silence they needed to speak. “When we were created, Father appointed Raphael…” They trailed off, and I looked up, noting the frown on their face. Raphael was a sore subject. “Uriel, Michael, and I as the archangels in the service of our brother, Lucifer.” Gabriel rubbed my arm, and I watched their mind to another time and place as they continued to explain. “Although I was given the title of archangel, Raphael would not treat me as such.”
“Why?” I blurted.
They smiled. “I do not know. They spent quite a bit of time making my existence difficult, and I had no idea why. I keep racking my brain for a reason. Did I do something?”
“Sometimes people are just assholes.” The day I ran from the group home flashed through my mind.
“Perhaps. Corbin told me I had what humans called middle-child syndrome. I still do not know what that means. I do know we were all created at the same instant, but I was always put between them. Lucifer was the leader. Raphael and Uriel were second to him. Michael was, although respected, far more timid than the rest of us. I was…”
“Ignored.”
The
y nodded. “I don’t think it was intentional, now that I have a clear mind, but at the time it...hurt.”
I pressed my body further into them, offering as much comfort as possible. I, more than most, understood feeling alone and isolated. Todd had made sure of that.
“When Father created Earth and mankind, I was drawn to Lilith.”
I frowned. Gabriel chuckled, probably sensing the tension from the mention of her name. They squeezed me close and then continued. “She said I was beautiful. I know that’s not good enough of a reason, but…”
“She cared. At least you thought she did.”
They nodded again, thinning their lips. I reached up, running my finger along their bottom lip. They smiled and kissed it. “She was filled with so much life and strength. She made me feel alive. Wanted. Now, looking back, it was not me. It was the idea of possessing me that she wanted. Her lust to claim and to own rivals any other.”
I bobbed my head. It was easy to get pulled into someone’s kind words and promises when you had nothing else. Countless times, I had trusted, just to be let down. A thought hit me in that moment. I looked up at them. “Is that why you won’t touch me again?”
They looked away. “When you were limp and unresponsive, I thought... I thought I had taken your will from you as she did from me.” I finally understood. Lilith had violated them the same way I was violated. She had taken Gabriel’s choice away. I balled my hands into fists, my blood boiling just below the surface. They reached out and placed their hand on top of mine, and I relaxed. “I never want to hurt you.”
I pulled away and faced them. “You didn’t. You... you gave me something I think I needed. I have spent years keeping others at a distance. Not trusting. I have been hurt so many times in my life. I carried with me the shame and the self-blame. I always thought it was best to not let anyone close to me. That they would hurt me, or I would hurt them.”
I leaned in, pressing my forehead against theirs. They closed their eyes, and I followed. “You have given me the best gift. You have taken that shame and turned it into something else. Something warm and inviting. Vulnerability is not easy for me, but I feel safe with you.” They tensed. I opened my eyes and leaned back.
