Cam was too intimidated by their leader to argue his case. He just looked down and bit his bottom lip in frustration. He started to play with his button again.
Gabi had to admit that, at first, his blond, spiked hair and earring were a bit off setting, but they did not know Cam like she did. He was the sweetest, most compassionate angel she knew. She felt the mama bear in her raise up.
“I would take Cam over any of them.” She met Cam’s eyes and saw his gratitude. “There is nobody I trust more.”
“Peace, I wouldn’t want you to take your crossbow out on me. Do you two want to know who your new roommate is or not?”
When they both nodded their heads, he continued by simply saying, “Abdiel.”
Gabi felt as though someone had punched her in the stomach. Anyone, please, anyone but him. For the first time in her immortal life, she felt a real honest to goodness panic attack building up inside her. She kept her face calm because she did not want to upset Cam.
“I though he worked in the armory making weapons,” was all she said.
It was common knowledge that ever since he had lost his family to Satan, he had never fought again. He had shut himself off from any contact with other angels. The only one he had let get close to him was Michael.
There were still many angels who did not trust him. They thought he was no better than his family. After all, he had been one of Lucifer’s angels along with them. To make matters worse, his demon brothers had been very aggressive in their war against the angels. There was not an angel family that had not taken a casualty because of Douma or Forcas. The mere sight of Abdiel reminded too many of them of his heritage. As far as they were concerned, the apple did not fall far from the tree.
Abdiel did not make matters any better with his sullen ways. He never smiled or talked with anyone. His dark hair and eyes matched his disposition and seemed to make him more sinister. Mother angels would warn their children away from him while male angels would never look him in the eye. They called him the Dark Angel behind his back.
In short, he was disliked by some and feared by all. He was the bogeyman of the angel world.
“Yes, it is true, he has been working in the armory ever since the battle in Heaven,” Michael told her. “But I have always made sure that he has kept up with his training. It is time he became an archangel again. You should be honored. There are not many who could match his skills.”
“Are you sure he is ready for the human world?” she asked.
“I’m sure Camael will be more than happy to tell him all the joys of humans. Get ready for him. He will come tomorrow.”
With those words he disappeared from the room. Gabi and Cam just stood there for a moment, both of them shocked. The younger angel finally turned and looked at her.
“Why are you so upset?” he asked, his blue eyes searching her face.
“I’m not,” she lied. There were times when she hated living with someone who was able to pick up on her every mood.
“I can feel your anxiety, your fear.”
“Nobody likes a nosey empath,” she snapped back at him, not wanting to share her worries. She immediately felt guilty for taking her anger out on him. It wasn’t his fault that her life was about to go into the crapper.
“Have you ever met Abdiel?” Cam was still trying to read her feelings. Damn his hide.
“We knew each other as children. Ever since he lost his family, he has kept to himself. No one really knows him anymore.”
“I know he makes good weapons. All my brothers use him.”
“You and your brothers, also, happen to think Deep Blue Sea was the best movie ever made. Excuse me if I happen to doubt your opinions.”
“I can’t wait to call them about our new archangel. Wait until they hear.” Cam continued to chatter as they walked into the kitchen. Gabi was relieved he was no longer probing her feelings.
“Are you going to tell Ana?” she asked, referring to Cam’s older, overprotective sister.
“Tell her what?” Cam made horror music noises and wiggled his fingers at her. “That we have the Dark Angel coming.”
“Stop it.” She laughed. “Don’t you have one of those human college courses to go to?”
For some insane reason, Cam had insisted on enrolling in the local college. He always said it was because he wanted to learn as much as he could about humans. Gabi knew better. Cam loved the human race and truly enjoyed mingling with them, being one of them.“Yeah, I have religious studies.”
“Cam, you’re an angel. You are religious studies.”
“I agree,” he said as he shrugged on his backpack. “But Ana insisted, and I must always obey my big sister.”
With that, he grabbed a Coke out of the fridge and turned his iPod on. He flashed her a peace sign before he ran out the door. After a few moments, she heard his motorcycle gun up. Leave it to Cam to rely on human transportation. Any other angel would simply flash himself to his destination.
Gabi smiled. He rebelled against everything an angel was supposed to be, and she would not change him for the world because she did too. That was why they got along so well. Although she would never admit it to him, she loved those horrible sci-fi movies just as much as he did.
As soon as she thought about Abdiel, her smiled faded. Of all the archangels in the world, why did it have to be him? Old feelings of hurt that she had thought were long gone suddenly washed over her.
Ever since she had first laid eyes upon him, even though they were both just small children at the time, she had loved him. He had been such a cute little male too. He had the sweetest dimples. To make sure he had known of her intentions, just like any other small girl would have, she’d kicked him in the shins. He had retaliated by yanking on one of her dark braids.
As they had grown older, her feelings had only gotten stronger. The year before they graduated from school, she had sat across the room from him and she had spent the entire time sneaking glances at him like a lovesick puppy. She still had the folder that she had written “Gabi loves Abdiel” on in her room.
She had been such a klutz around him. She would be walking across the classroom and trip over a desk because she was looking at him instead of looking where she was going. Whenever he did talk to her she would always stutter back. Yeah, she had been Miss Smooth around him all right.
She still remembered his dark, soothing eyes that sparkled whenever he teased someone. His black hair was always cut collar length, but one lock still managed to always fall just over his eyes. Even though he had been young at the time, he still had a muscular build that put most archangels to shame.
However, he never even knew she existed. He had stayed close to his inner circle of friends and was head over heels in love with Persephone. He never so much as looked at her.
Her throat closed up at a particular painful memory. They had all been teenagers at the time. Angel teenagers could be just as cruel as human ones. The real kicker was, angels went through their “teenage” stage for several years. Those lucky mortals only have a few years of agony. Nothing like living through several of being the dork to kill one’s self-esteem.
It had been after school and she had been making her way across the courtyard to go home. She had been walking with her head down, her hair shielding her from the taunting looks. The females who had hung out with Abdiel loved to tease her because she was royalty. Even though she was a princess, she did not look like it, and they made sure she knew it. To make matters worse, Gabi did not have her mother to turn to for advice and support. She had been raised her entire life by different nannies.
“Hey Gabi,” Persephone had called out to her. “Come here. I have something to show you.”
She should have known better, but she had wanted them to like her so bad. She nervously walked over to the females. When she peeked over at Abdiel, she saw that he was engrossed in a conversation with the males. He was not paying any attention to the females at all.
“OK, that would be neat,” sh
e had said as she had tucked her hair behind her ear.
Persephone handed her a folded piece of parchment. Gabi had giggled as she had opened it. Her smile had quickly turned to a look of horror as soon as she saw the picture that had been drawn on it. It was a crudely drawn picture of a naked male.
As the females laughed at her expression the males turned around to see what was going on. Abdiel had worn a small frown on his face. Beelzebub looked over at the parchment and snickered at her. Beelzebub had always been one of her biggest tormentors. Half the time when she had tripped, it had been because he had either bumped into her or stuck his foot out as she walked by.
“Come on, your Highness,” he said snidely. “You have an older brother. Surely not even you are that naïve.”
“Leave her alone guys,” Abdiel interjected.
Gabi dropped the parchment, and then she had turned to run. Of course, being the klutz that she had been, she had fallen flat on her royal face. Her dress had flipped up and shown off her royal hot pink panties too.
She scampered to her knees as she had frantically tried to gather the rolls of parchment scattered around her. Abdiel bent down and helped her. She still remembered what he had said to her.
“I’m sorry, little mouse.”
He had called her a rodent. That had hurt worse than the scathing laughter from the others. He had thought of her as some dirty, ugly mouse.
She remembered the day they had found him bloody and unconscious. He had fought bravely and had been cut down like a dog. She had never seen an angel that injured. It was miracle he had not been destroyed. It was only because he was so strong he was able to survive. His own family and friends had done that to him.
All the healers had been called to help him. That had included her even though she was just barely out of her specialized healer training. She had been in the room while he had talked to Michael, although he never knew it.
“Abdiel, the healers are never going to be able to totally heal you unless you want them to. You must find the will to go on.” Michael had sat on the edge of the archangel’s bed as he talked.
“How can I, Michael? I have lost everything I have ever loved.” Gabi had to strain to hear him.
“I am so sorry about your family.” Michael started to touch his shoulder, but stopped himself.
“It’s more than that, Michael. Persephone betrayed me. I loved her and she threw that away. I’ll never be able to trust anyone again.”
With those words she had known that she never would have a chance with him. She had mistakenly thought that if she had rushed to his side in his time of need that he would finally realize she was the one for him. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Even though Persephone was gone forever, he still loved her. Gabi had let the hot tears fall unchecked down her cheeks as her world fell apart. It had felt like her heart had been torn out.
After that, he had completely isolated himself from anyone. Not that she could really blame him. She could only imagine the pain she would feel if her own mother and father had done that to her, but it had still devastated her nonetheless that he had not turned to her.
She had forced herself to forget him. Instead, she had focused on her skills as a healer. She had worked hard and none could match her skills now. She had told herself that she was over him, that it was time to move on. Now he was coming here and everything was going to change.
With a firm shake of her head, she headed off to the gym to work off some of her aggression. She was no child and she refused to allow herself to be run by her emotions anymore. If that arrogant angel thought he could come back in her life and turn it upside down, then he had another think coming. She would show him who was the master of this house.
Chapter Two
Abdiel walked to the front of the armory. He wore leather gloves and a leather apron. He took his gloves off and impatiently wiped the sweat away from his brow. He wondered what in the hell Michael wanted him for. Although he had already had a pretty good idea what it was, his gut tightened in anticipation.
He found the chief archangel sitting on a bench. As usual, even in Heaven, Michael was dressed in human garb. He had on a pair of blue jeans with a red plaid shirt and was tossing a baseball up in the air and catching it. His dark blond hair was cut short and a pair of sunglasses hid his brown eyes.
“You wanted to see me?” Abdiel asked as he crossed his arms and gave his leader a droll smile.
“It’s time, big guy.” Michael tossed him the ball.
As Abdiel caught it, the smile faded from his face. He knew this day would come soon. Although the chief had been satisfied with him doing the occasional solo job in the past, Michael had been hinting lately that it was time for a permanent position. That did not mean he was happy about it though.
“I hope it’s another solo job.” He tossed the ball back.
“Nope, you’ll have an empath and a healer, just like all the other archangels. It’s time you learned to live with others.”
Abdiel bit back a curse. Used to being alone, he did not look forward to having to live with others. He was happy being lonely and miserable. That was the way things had been for centuries. Why change them now?
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Michael.” He gave him a look that showed how uneasy he was.
“You’ll like these two, I promise. They won’t bite. They might even give you a room where you can go and be all alone and brood.” Michael had the gall to smile at him.
“Who are they?”
“I’ll let you be surprised by that one.”
He hated when Michael got all bossy with him. If it weren’t for the fact that his chief could easily destroy him, Abdiel would beat him for it. It was almost worth it though.
“Will you at least tell me where I’m going to be stationed?” he asked with a resigned sigh.
“Detroit, Michigan. You’ll like it. The city sees a lot of action.” Michael turned to him and gave a wicked smile. “Of course, they have a terrible winter season. You might want to pack extra gloves.”
Abdiel let out a curse. He hated snow and hated cold, and Michael knew it. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought his chief had it out for him.
“When do I leave?” He threw his arms up in surrender, as even he had to obey Michael.
“Tomorrow. I did not want to give you time to make up any excuses.”
“Fine, just note for the record that I think this is a bad idea.”
“Noted.” Michael started to walk away before he turned around. “At least you get to pound some demons into the ground. That should cheer you up.”
Abdiel gave Michael a sarcastic salute before he slipped his leather gloves back on. The chief laughed at his impetuousness. There were not too many other angels that would dare give him such guff.
“Trust me, Abdiel.” Michael’s face turned serious. “There is going to be some bad stuff going down in that city. You’re the only one I can count on to stop it.”
“You’re the only one I trust, Michael.” Abdiel was slightly taken aback by the chief’s sudden somberness.
“I know I was sometimes real hard on you, harder than any other archangel. I had my reasons. You’re about ready to find out why.”
“Ah man, I hate it when you talk in riddles.”
But Abdiel was talking to empty air because Michael had already flashed out of there, leaving the archangel to grumble by himself.
The next day, Abdiel hesitated before the door of the enormous house. He still could not believe he had let Michael talk him into this. It would have been better for everybody if he had just kept working at the armory. He just did not play well with others, plain and simple.
Knowing his luck, the healer and the empath he had to live with would hate him. Or worse, they would fear him. He always preferred hatred to fear. Hate was an emotion he could relate to.
He dreaded walking down the streets of Heaven. He would hear the whispers of “The Dark Angel” and feel the sidelong glance
s of fear. Females actually crossed the street to avoid walking past him. Worse was when he made young angel children cry.
What was Michael thinking?
Before he could change his mind, he knocked on the large, wood door. When it opened and he got a look at the young male angel, he was hard pressed to hide his shock. He even looked behind him, half expecting Michael to jump out and say, “Surprise, joke is on you.”
The youth was dressed in baggy, holey jeans that had to be a least three sizes too big for him. The kid had them tightly cinched at the waist with a belt. He was wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with a cartoon character on it. His blond hair was spiked up high and had enough hair gel in it to supply a whole angel warrior battalion. Good God, he has an earring too. The little punk was even chewing gum.
If not for the fact that this kid in front of him could see him, Abdiel would have sworn it was a human.
“Hey, you must be Abdiel.” The young angel smiled and put his hand out. “I’m Camael.”
Abdiel shook his hand, smiling as he recognized the name. So the angel in front of him wasn’t deranged after all. He was just a member of the Lehor family.
The group of eight brothers and one sister were always referred to as the Lehor family. Not because that was their last name. Angels do not have last names. Lehor was their mother’s name and it was always easier to refer the large bunch by one name.
Anachele was the oldest and the only female. She had taken care of her eight little brothers ever since their parents had been mentally destroyed by a demon who had captured them and taken them to Hell. Although they were eventually returned to Heaven, the damage had already been done. Their bodies remained intact, but they were catatonic and lived in the human equivalent of a mental ward. It was a danger that all empaths faced, if they got too close to Hell, as all the agony and pain overloaded their systems.
Anachele was very overprotective of all her little brothers. She had taken the task of raising them seriously and had never taken any time out for her own enjoyment. It had not been an easy job either. The Lehor brothers were known throughout Heaven for their antics.
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