by Amity Hope
Her eyes darted down the dark street, to the figure looming in front of them and then back to Gabe. “I’m not leaving you here,” she told him.
“I can handle him. But only if I don’t have to worry about you,” Gabe told her, his eyes pleading with her.
She opened her mouth to protest but Gabe cut her off.
“There’s no time to explain.” Still holding her hand, he pulled her forward. “What do you want?” he grated as he fearlessly moved toward his brother. He managed to stay a step ahead of Ava, effectively putting his own body between them, continuously moving her closer to the church.
“Oh, come on Gabe,” he drawled, “we both know what I want. And you are going to bring her right to me.”
They were so close now. Gabe could see the hunger in his brother’s eyes. He could see the glint of red in his hair, reflected from the streetlight. He could feel his hatred but he could also feel the pleasure this encounter was bringing him.
“You know him?” Ava asked as the implication of his words settled in. Fear entwined with confusion swirled around her.
Gabe tugged Ava to his side, circling the stranger, too enmeshed in what he was attempting to do to bother answering her question. Neither Rafe nor Ava seemed to realize he was circling him in order to put himself between his brother and Ava. All while putting Ava closer to the church.
Rafe grinned at Gabe, assuming his approach was one of submission. That perhaps he truly was bringing Ava to him.
“Like bringing a lamb to the slaughter,” Rafe said in a voice that was uncomfortably reminiscent of their fathers.
“Excuse me?” Ava demanded. Her voice was indignant, which only caused Rafe to laugh.
“Do you really think I would just hand her over to you?d her ov yoRafe to la Gabe asked. He squared his shoulders. He was taller than his brother, but just barely. “Why would I do that?” he asked. He tried to keep his voice even.
“I think you know,” Rafe coldly replied.
“Go!” Gabe growled at Ava. He gave her a shove, firm but gentle enough not to make her stumble. When she took off, moving from the momentum he’d flung into her, he swung back in the same fluid movement, now aiming the momentum at Rafe. He didn’t hold back this time as he lunged, throwing his full weight at his unsuspecting brother.
Chapter 19
“Ava!” Gabe bellowed as he burst through the door.
“Right here,” she said from beside him. She moved to lock the door behind him.
“No, let him come in,” he demanded as he grabbed her hand and pulled her deeper into the church. “It’s the only way to have a fair fight.”
“Fight?” she asked, balking. “No! You cannot fight in my father’s church! Let me call the police! They can put an end to this!”
Before Gabe could respond, Rafe burst through the door and Gabe took off at a run. He pulled Ava with him, deep into the sanctuary.
“What is going on?” Ava demanded as Gabe pushed her behind him.
“Don’t you think it’s time, little brother, to tell her just that?” Rafe asked as he stumbled into the sanctuary.
Already a thin sheen of sweat covered his face. Gabe could see the tremble of his brother’s hands and hear it in his voice.
“Brother?” Ava demanded. Her eyes frantically flitted between Gabe and Rafe and her shoulders slumped as she took in the resemblance. Their coloring was different but this man possessed the same striking features as Gabe. And the most obvious resemblance of all, their height.
Gabe ignored her. Rafe was not the only one struggling with being in the church. Gabe was trying to gain control of the searing pain he felt ramming through his body. He fought to take control of it before it controlled him.
“Do you really think this was wise?” Rafe asked, grating the words out through gritted teeth. “Bringing us both onto sanctified ground?”
“Yes. You are powerless here. We are finally equals, so yes, it was wise.” Gabe moved toward his brother.
Rafe tried to dodge Gabe as he darted at Ava. Gabe shoved her roughly aside. She rolled and slammed into a pew. She let out a shriek as a biting pain shot through her hipbone. But at least she was safely out of Rafe’s grasp. If Rafe got hold of her, he would take her and Gabe may not be able to stop him.
Rafe swung around, using his enormous mass to slam Gabe to the ground. Gabe slithered out from underneath him as Rafe slammed a fist into his kidneys. Pain exploded through him, a blinding display of white-hot sparks. He ignored it. The fight was only a distraction. A way to keep Rafe preoccupied while Gabe employed the only defense that actually stood a chance of saving Ava.
“GRIER!” The single word exploded from Gabe’s mouth with the ferocity of a ball being expelled from a cannon.
The double doors at the back of the church swung open, slamming hard against the back wall, causing the light fixtures in the sanctuary to tremble on the ceiling with the force.
“What?” Ava sputtered but Grier didn’t acknowledge her. The lights above flickered as they swung like pendulums. Her footsteps as she strode forward seemed to fall rhythmically in time to the sloshing of the blood as it pounded in Ava’s ears.
“How dare you filthy mongrels defile the sanctity of my Father’s church with your presence!” Her voice boomed, playing off the acoustics of the raised ceiling as she made her way inside.
Ava concluded she must have not only hit her hip but also her head when she slammed into the pew because she was sure, in that moment, she began to hallucinate. With each flicker of the overhead lighting Grier began to shimmer, her image shifting like a hologram. In one step she was Ava’s sister clad in boots, worn jeans and a long sleeved gray t-shirt. In the next step she was robed in ivory, framed with golden wings that arched high over her back. Ava blinked hard, trying to make sense of the girl coming forward as her image shifted and changed.
“A Grigori? You called upon a Grigori!?” Rafe sputtered in confused horror. He rolled away from Gabe, his eyes wide as he took in the sight of the angel before him. Then a spiteful smile appeared as he got to his feet. “Gabriel, Father will flay you alive for not reporting this!” he gleefully declared as he scrambled backward, away from Gabe, away from Grier. He let out a cry of disgust as she stepped closer. His body twitched and enormous ebony wings erupted from his back.
At the sight of them, Ava faltered backward until she hit the pulpit, hard. The pain was sharp, intense enough to assure her she was not dreaming. Her sudden and intense shock was the only thing that kept her from screaming in surprise. The wings snapped and shifted, as if helping him to keep his balance as he lunged away from Grier.
“I did not come because of him,” she told Rafe with authority. She raised her hands, as if ready to heave something at Rafe, causing him to scramble backward in terror.
“No!” he cried as he leapt out of the way. The air around him began to gleam in iridescent waves as he darted toward Gabe, his eyes wild with fury. “Father!” he cried.
Grier raised her hands, as if once more tossing something unseen.
With a rush of air the shimmer engulfed the stranger and he vanished.
Ava felt herself slide to her knees, staring at the vacated spot that had held someone only moments ago. A consuming blackness swirled around her, threatening to pull her under. She took a deep, frantic breath, and then another trying to calm herself.
“Damnation!” Grier cried, spinning away from where Rafe once stood to face Gabe. He had scrambled away so that his back was against the wall, opposite from Ava.
He held hisn">
She flung her hands at him as she had at the other man. Unlike Rafe, Gabe did not try to dodge what she flung. From nothing, golden ropes appeared at Gabe’s wrists and ankles, binding him to the wall.
“What is going on?!” Ava finally managed in a voice that quaked in fear and disbelief. “Gabe?! Grier?!” she shouted when it became apparent neither was paying her the least bit of attention. She reached up, grabbing hold of her father’s podium f
or support. She managed to pull herself to her feet, ignoring the way the world rippled in front of her. Her hip ached with an intensity that made the world spin.
“Be silent,” the figure of an angel commanded quietly but with unequivocal authority. No longer shifting from one reality to the other, the girl whom Ava had thought of as a sister and a friend had vanished and a warrior of Heaven stood in her wake.
Ava wanted to argue, to demand an explanation but she was silenced to the core by the sound of her voice. She could only stand, staring in awe. She knew that she had a strong faith, stronger than most with a firm belief in God, Heaven, and yes, angels. However, to see Rafe vanish into nothing and to see Grier transformed from what she believed to be a mere human into this glorious creature was far too much for her to grasp in the moment.
“What is the meaning of this?” Grier hissed as she closed in on Gabe. “Why would you bring your brother here?”
“It was the only place I could think of that would keep Ava safe,” Gabe replied. “My brother has less of a…a tolerance for Holy ground than I do. I knew he wouldn’t be as strong here.”
Grier nodded, as if this made sense. Of course, it didn’t.
Not to Ava, anyway.
“Where is he now?” she demanded.
“He must have been pulled back by our father,” Gabe muttered.
Ava thought of the enormous ebony wings that had erupted, so black they shimmered like heat waves rolling off of a blacktop highway. Grier was an angel? Rafe was an angel? And Rafe was Gabe’s brother?
She took a step closer. “Are you an angel, too? Is that what you were bringing me here to tell me?” she asked, finally daring to speak and wondering crazily if Gabe had wings of his own.
Gabe’s gaze flicked to hers and immediately away as he hung his head. “No,” he whispered. The single syllable echoed throughout the sanctuary.
“You are very mistaken. I will not allow you to entertain such blasphemous thoughts.” Grier spit out the words, shooting them at Ava like arrows. “This creature,” she said, sweeping her finger imperiously at Gabe, “is little more than a descendent of Satan himself.”
nt>abe re
Her words impaled Ava, pinning her in place. “What?” she asked, not entirely sure she had managed to speak the word out loud.
“Demonic spawn,” Grier ground out.
Ava’s skin began to crawl with the sensation of a thousand spiders being set free.
“Gabe?” she asked, waiting for him, wanting for him to say something in his own defense. Demonic spawn. In any other circumstance the accusation would be little more than a nasty insult but coming from the mouth of this glorious winged creature they felt ominous and terrifying.
“He doesn’t deny it,” Grier acknowledged with a twinge of surprise.
Gabe looked to Grier, holding her gaze steadily in his. “What would be the point?”
“You’re a demon?” Ava asked, nearly choking on the word. She believed in God and Heaven and angels and while she hadn’t given explicit thought to their counterparts, demons were mentioned in the Bible. If she embraced the Bible as the true word, then she must wholly believe in demons as well. Believe in them? Yes. Thought there would ever be a possibility she would give her heart to one? A resounding, Not a chance in hell!
“No. Not a demon,” he said vehemently.
“You are certainly not human, regardless of your mother,” Grier maliciously replied. “And as for your father…? Just to be clear, tell Ava what your father is.”
Gabe glared at Grier in defiant silence. She lifted a finger, lazily waving it through the air in the vicinity of his chest. “I can make your heart explode,” she whispered. “Tell Ava what your father is.”
“A demon,” he admitted through clenched teeth. “But that doesn’t make me one!”
His mother was human.
His father, a demon.
The sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.
Passages from obscure Bible verses flitted around in Ava’s subconscious. Whispering their truths in her ear. Like a diaphanous secret begging to be set free.
Nephilim. The word was an echo in her mind, finally finding its escape as it slipped past her lips.
For just those few impossible moments Grier was forgotten as the word hung in the air between Gabe and Ava. Its existence palpable as it begged to be acknowledged.
“You know what I am.” The words were somewhere between a question and an admittance. Ava felt her body slump under the weight of this knowledge.
“Do not let such a pretty word fool you. Or that pretty face that was bred to deceive mankind.” Grier’s presence commanded to be recognized once again. “It is surprisingly easy to take the demon out of Hell. It is nearly impossible to take Hell out of the demon. That,” she said to Ava, “is something that cannot be ignored. Disregard both his false charm and his outer beauty. Both are only a weapon to draw you in.”
“How long have you known?” Ava demanded of Grier. “How long?!”
“Since we met,” Gabe answered, when Grier did not.
Ava could not stand to look at Gabe. She turned to Grier. “You’ve known all this time and you didn’t warn me?”
Grier’s face crumpled in puzzlement. “It was not my duty to warn you. Only to watch you.” She turned to Gabe now. “I am curious, though. About you. Is what Rafael said true? Did you not report my existence to your father?”
“No.” His answer was quiet, yet adamant.
“Why?” The word sounded like a hiss to Ava.
“Because I was trying to protect her!” Gabe cried and Ava finally dared to look at him. All she got for her effort was an intense feeling of confusion. “You know she’s in danger or you wouldn’t be here. I am powerless against them. But you? You can save her!”
Grier shook her head. “I cannot.”
“Won’t,” Gabe corrected. “You can. But you won’t.” Gabe turned frantically to Ava. “I wish I could explain what I’ve done. But there is no excuse. No explanation that would ever be good enough. I was trying to fix it. I was hoping Grier would help. She is the only chance you have.” Gabe turned back to Grier. His eyes, his expression, his voice pleading. “Please help her!”
“Help me with what?” Ava asked, finally clawing her way out of the shocked stupor she had tumbled into.
you.dth="24" align="justify">“I have orders to follow. I cannot help her. You know that is the truth,” Grier told Gabe without a sliver of remorse.
“You have a choice,” Gabe pleaded.
“Free will leads to pride, pride leads to disobedience. We all know that is why Satan fell. I will not disobey.” Her answer was absolute.
“Not even to save her?” Gabe sounded desperate. Confusion swirled around Ava, blurring her perception of everything. A demon…no, a vile Nephil was pleading with an angel for her safety?
“You will be silent,” Grier warned. When Gabe opened his mouth to speak, no words came out. He struggled against the ropes, as if he wanted to clutch at his throat.
“Stop!” Ava cried as Grier retained her mystical chokehold on Gabe.
“He is an abomination Ava! He is asking me to disobey, to risk becoming one of the Fallen. Satan was cast out from Heaven due to his pride. You do recall that story?” Grier calmly asked. “He was one of the eight archangels…Satanal, the best, the most beautiful, the brightest of the archangels. The Morning Star. In his own mind superior even to his seven brothers: Gabriel, Rafael, Michael, Zadakiel…? Need I go on?”
“No,” Ava said as she shook her head. She knew the story. She didn’t need to hear it again. What she needed was for Grier to release Gabe.
Grier went on despite Ava’s protest. A scorching dread began to sizzle its way through her marrow at the sound of Grier’s voice.
“Satanal’s hatred for the human race ran so deep he hoped to create a new race. The Nephilim. He and his followers felt a hybrid of fallen angels would be superior to humans. His hope was to
breed the humanity out of them. But humanity was saved. Do you remember how?”
“Yes, the flood,” Ava replied in a quaking voice.
“The Nephilim were on the earth in those times. The Lord saw the impiety of man was great on the earth. The intent of his heart was only evil, all the time. The Lord went to Noah—”
“Grier!” Ava cried. “Please!” Gabe’s chin rested on his chest. He was motionless.
“After the flood,” Grier continued, “the guilty fallen were chained in The Great Abyss. A punishment worse than death. Few angels have fallen since the flood, unwilling to risk being chained until Judgment Day. But a few of those vile beings escaped.” Grier took a step away from Gabe. Taking with her the unseen force that had been around his neck. The restraints that bolted him to the wall remained.
He moaned as he tried to lift his head.
“Is he alright?” Ava asked as she took a tentative step forward.
Grier’s hand flew out to stop her. “He is fine. The demon—”
“Half-demon,” Ava corrected, the words forming and being executed almost of their own volition.
“Half or full-blooded, the result is the same. Demon blood courses through his veins,” Grier’s voice trembled in anger at the words. “And what is a demon, Ava?”
Her words were immediate. “A fallen angel.”
“I did not make the choice to fall,” Gabe said, slowly lifting his head to speak for the first time in his own defense.
“Perhaps not, but your blood is infected all the same. Defiled with the essence of your race.”
Ava knew she should be concentrating solely on Grier’s words. But she felt betrayed by the both of them. Inexplicably, she was more hurt by the fact that Gabe had kept his race a secret than she was hurt by what he actually was. And Grier? What exactly was she? She wanted to demand to know how they could both keep this from her. But somehow such a demand from the deity and the half-demon that stood before her seemed like a petulant request.
“Do you understand Ava? The intent of his heart was only evil, all the time. He was speaking of the Nephilim filth. God flooded the world to annihilate creatures like him. Even his name is an abomination, as well as that of his brother. Gabriel and Rafael, they were named in mockery of the archangels.”
