“Language.” Michael was silent for a moment. “I know the feeling well, however.”
“Aye.” Gabriel hummed as he held Michael close. “Is that the only thing that were bothering you?”
Michael grunted at that. “No. But I fear there is nothing I can do about any of it, so I must remain silent and endure.”
“Share the load,” Gabriel advised. “It gets lighter with two of us carrying it.”
“I do not wish to burden you.”
“It ain’t ever a burden.” Gabriel brushed a soft kiss over Michael’s lips. “You ain’t ever a burden.”
“You are very kind, Gabriel.” Michael smiled. His smile faded as he continued, “However, I fear that you and I may disagree on this thing. Have you heard the talk of Raphael’s new… paramour?”
“You mean his lover, Israfel? Aye, I’ve heard. Why?”
Michael huffed. “Israfel is very young.”
Gabriel blinked, confused. “He ain’t that young. He ain’t some new, wet behind the ears angel.”
“Compared with Raphael, he is young.”
“Love, dirt’s young compared with us.” Gabriel laughed. “It’ll be fine. If Raph’s happy—and he seems to be—then that’s what matters.”
“I suppose.” Michael fell silent, pressing closer to Gabriel once more.
They stood together for a while, soaking up comfort from each other and listening to the crash of waves on the sand. As the sun began to set, Gabriel felt Michael’s hands beginning to inch toward his wing joints, and he hid a smile.
“Something you want?” he asked.
“Perhaps.” Michael caressed the soft down.
“Only perhaps?” Gabriel slid his hands over Michael’s back, sending one drifting down to his ass, the other sliding up to caress a wing.
“Definitely perhaps.” Michael’s voice was a little breathy as Gabriel gently tugged a handful of feathers. “Gabriel.”
“Mm, Michael.” Gabriel shifted and kissed him.
Michael kissed back with an eager enthusiasm that made Gabriel groan, a quiet noise of pleasure, as Michael melted into his embrace. He would never get tired of this, of feeling Michael in his arms like this, kissing him, touching him. As Michael tugged at his feathers, Gabriel groaned again, nipping Michael’s lower lip.
“Want to go to bed?” Gabriel asked as he broke the kiss.
“Yes.” Michael tugged Gabriel toward the doors. “Please, Gabriel.”
Gabriel moved with him, shucking his clothes as he went. “Michael,” he growled as they hit the bed, “get naked.”
Michael whimpered and complied, using his power, and Gabriel pushed him back onto the mattress, ducking his head to mouth at one muscled shoulder. The whimper that came from his lover was louder as Gabriel nipped warm skin, then kissed his way down Michael’s arm to the inked black lines of his tattoo. Slowly, Gabriel traced the ink with the tip of his tongue.
He was totally unprepared for Michael’s reaction.
Michael growled, low and primitive, raking his blunt nails down the length of Gabriel’s spine. Before Gabriel could react to the spark of pleasure from the scratches, Michael tightened his hold and rolled them, pinning Gabriel to the bed. Gold light shimmered around him as he pressed down on Gabriel, tip to toe, rocking into him, cock sliding against cock.
Gabriel moaned, so turned on by Michael’s aggression that all his higher brain functions shut down.
“Arms up,” Michael purred in a rough voice in Gabriel’s ear.
Gabriel obeyed, unable—unwilling—to stop the shiver that Michael’s voice gave him, rough and full of sinful promise, demanding and dominating all at once. He started as he felt the cool touch of steel against his skin, heard the clink of chains, and realized that Michael had cuffed his wrists to the headboard of the bed.
That was a surprise, but a welcome one, and Gabriel being Gabriel, he couldn’t stop his cocky smirk or the smug “You sure those can hold me, baby?”
Michael gazed at Gabriel with half-lidded dark eyes, the irises ringed with the gold of his power, his expression predatory. “Yes.”
Gabriel tugged experimentally at the cuffs, raising an eyebrow as he realized that his lover had reinforced them with his power. He was entirely at Michael’s mercy now, and as Michael bit his chest, Gabriel let go, surrendering to him entirely.
“I do not wish to think of sorrows,” Michael said, his voice still that rough growl but his tone matter-of-fact. “I do not wish to dwell on unpleasantness. Not so soon after the war has ended. I wish to spend this night with you.”
“O-okay,” Gabriel panted, writhing into Michael’s touches. “Whatever you want.”
“Do you want, da bao?”
“Oh, yeah. Fuck, yeah.” Gabriel writhed a little more urgently. “Please, Michael, touch me, bite me, suck me, please!”
A ghost of a smile crossed Michael’s handsome face, and he resumed his ministrations to Gabriel’s body.
Gabriel cried out as Michael bit one of his abs hard enough to sting but not to draw blood. As Michael kissed his way down Gabriel’s stomach, his long, black hair brushing over Gabriel’s skin in a faint caress, Gabriel whined, arching helplessly. He had no words now, only sounds and panting and increasingly desperate wriggling and writhing to describe how much he wanted Michael.
Michael finally reached Gabriel’s cock and gave the head, slick with precum, a gentle lick. Gabriel moaned, arching almost entirely off the bed.
“Michael,” he panted, “please, please, please!”
“What do you desire, Gabriel?” Michael asked.
Gabriel had the fleeting thought that Michael was very gifted at torturing him. “You. Your mouth, on my cock. Sucking me. I wanna fuck your mouth, Mishka.” He was almost dizzy with the wave of arousal at that mental image. “I want you to fuck me. Hard. Make me scream for you. Fuck me, bite me, mark me.”
“As you say.” Michael opened his mouth and gave Gabriel’s cock one more lick before swallowing him down to the root.
Gabriel yelled, a mishmash of languages, thrusting into the warm wetness of Michael’s mouth. He curled his fingers tightly around the chains of the cuffs holding his arms above his head, and the wood of the headboard cracked, a sharp detonation that made Gabriel clench his teeth in an effort not to pull too hard and break the furniture.
It was a futile effort, however. Michael’s tongue swirled around the head of Gabriel’s cock, teased the slit, and Gabriel was lost, closing his eyes as everything went white and he came, yelling Michael’s name at the top of his lungs.
Panting as he came down from the high of his orgasm, Gabriel watched Michael pull his lips off Gabriel’s cock and crawl up his body, all muscled grace and power, olive skin damp with sweat, his hard cock blood-dark and leaking. Gabriel licked his lips as his eyes zeroed in on that straining hardness, and before Michael could say anything, he’d lifted his legs and wrapped them around Michael’s hips.
“Fuck me,” Gabriel said, his voice now a low growl.
Michael whimpered, and Gabriel realized his lover was not as in control of himself as Gabriel had thought. Michael, trembling, his desire obvious in his every move and gesture, slicked himself with his power and thrust his cock into Gabriel. The moan as he buried himself in Gabriel’s body was loud, ragged, and full of need. Gabriel’s own moan as he felt that hard cock thrust into him was just as loud.
“Gabriel,” gasped Michael, gripping Gabriel’s hip with one hand, hard enough to bruise.
“Uncuff me,” Gabriel said. “I want to touch you.”
Michael reached up with his free hand, brushing his fingers over the cuffs, and Gabriel felt the touch of power as the metal fell away. He immediately moved his hands to Michael’s wing joints, finding those spots that were the most sensitive and rubbing, teasing, touching with a deft caress, making Michael shake and pant as he thrust artlessly into Gabriel’s body.
As Michael latched onto his neck with his mouth, Gabriel tilted his head, clenching aroun
d Michael’s cock as Michael used his teeth to graze Gabriel’s skin. Michael’s moan was loud in Gabriel’s ear, and Gabriel tugged at handfuls of the strong feathers at the base of Michael’s wings. Michael’s thrusts sped up, and Gabriel rocked into each one as their pleasure rose higher and higher.
Michael moaned again, and his entire body tensed as he came. Gabriel wrapped his arms around Michael’s body, holding him tight as he felt Michael slowly relax against him.
“Okay?” Gabriel asked.
“Yes.” Michael slipped out of Gabriel’s body and shifted a little, getting comfortable on top of Gabriel.
“Good. Me too, before you ask.” Gabriel grinned, nuzzling Michael’s cheek. “You give good sex, baby.”
“Hush.” Michael shook his head against Gabriel’s body. “It is not proper to speak of these things.”
Gabriel burst out laughing at that. “How do you figure?”
“It merely is not.”
Gabriel laughed harder and hugged Michael tight. “I love you.”
“And I am grateful. I love you as well.”
Sobering, Gabriel hummed as he pondered how to word his next question. “Do you still feel all… discombobulated?”
“Pardon?” Michael raised his head to look at Gabriel in confusion.
“’Bout what all Tzad said.”
“Oh.” Michael’s expression cleared. He sighed. “I confess I have had uncharitable thoughts, and I dislike them within myself.”
“Like what?” Surprised, Gabriel raised his eyebrows. Michael lowered his gaze, refusing to look Gabriel in the eye. “I find that I am pleased that the humans are able to take these situations in hand by themselves and repair their lives without our assistance. I am relieved that we do not need to knit together the surface of the Earth as Raziel described it, that we are not to try to do so, nor strengthen the ties that hold the continents in place.”
“And this is uncharitable because…?”
“Because all my life, all I have done is help others. First, our kind. Then the monsters. Then humans when God created them. Everything I am, everything I do, is for others, Gabriel. I am a sword, a shield. I was made to protect and to guide, and I was made to think of others before thinking of myself. Now I find that I am thinking of myself before others. It is… unseemly.”
“I’m still confused,” Gabriel admitted. “How come thinking of yourself first from time to time’s a bad thing?”
“Because it is selfish.”
Gabriel opened his mouth to protest, to say that no, it was normal and natural, and not something that Michael should be ashamed of, but with a sudden insight, he realized those words would mean nothing to his lover. Michael had lived forever, slightly longer than Gabriel himself, and that was a very, very long time to be fixed in one’s habits. The phrase “stuck in the habits of a lifetime” was applicable, but when it came to Archangelic lifetimes, they were so long that time became meaningless; no number existed to say how many years they had been alive.
It took Gabriel several minutes to rearrange his thoughts to take that into consideration. When he spoke, his voice was cautious. “Michael, do you believe that God knows everything that’s going on, everywhere, every when?”
Michael looked up at the question, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Of course.”
“Good. Okay, so do you believe that in His omniscience, God knows about you and me?”
“I… yes, I suppose.”
“I’m so glad,” Gabriel drawled. “Anyway. Considering that God is in everything and everywhere, and yeah, everyone, don’t you think that if He didn’t approve or thought you were doing a bad thing, He would’ve pulled you up on it?”
Michael blinked several times. He opened his mouth and closed it again. It was clear to Gabriel that Michael hadn’t thought of it like that.
“That is not fair,” Michael said finally.
“How, pray, ain’t it fair?”
“Because you are using the omniscience of our Maker against me.”
Gabriel burst out laughing. “And you have no argument against it?”
“No, I do not.” Michael was pouting.
Gabriel chuckled and ruffled Michael’s hair. “So I’m right.”
“Perhaps. I still do not like it.”
“This is what it’s like being involved with an equal.” Gabriel smirked. “You ain’t outdoing me in terms of power or ability. Okay, sure, you got a few centuries on me, but age don’t always bring wisdom.”
Michael stuck his tongue out. “You play unfairly.”
“And you’re only just now realizing this?” Gabriel grinned. “Come on, Michael. You’ve known me forever.”
“I know. I did not think you would be so underhanded.”
“Underhanded? By pointing out the obvious?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes even as he laughed. “You worry too much. And often about stuff that don’t need to be worried about.”
“And you do not worry enough, so it seems that together we balance out.” Michael sighed and relaxed against Gabriel’s body. After a moment, his voice barely a whisper, he said, “Thank you, da bao.”
“What for, solnyshko?”
“Everything.”
“Nothing to thank me for.” Gabriel slowly ran his fingers through the silky long locks of Michael’s black hair. “’S like thanking me for being me.”
“I would thank you for that too, except that I think you would laugh at me.” Michael hummed in contentment, snuggling closer.
“Probably, aye.” Gabriel fell silent, and they lay together listening to the other breathe as the sound of the sea crashing against the sandy shore filled the room.
“We should go wash,” Gabriel said after perhaps an hour.
“Hm?” Michael looked up at Gabriel.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you’d dozed off.” Gabriel used a wing claw to pull up a light blanket. “Sleep, solnyshko. We’ll wash when you wake.” He knew that Michael, using so much of his power to shield all the homes and refuges of the Venatores, needed to sleep from time to time, to replenish and refresh himself. It was never for long or very often, but Gabriel could tell when Michael was in need of sleep.
“As you say.” Michael yawned and lay back down. “Will you sing for me?”
“Of course.” Gabriel hummed a moment, then started to sing, a lullaby from medieval France. He’d just finished the first stanza when the sound of Michael’s breathing, even and slow, told him that Michael had fallen asleep. Gabriel fell silent and let his mind reach out, looking over the world and seeing how the situation fared.
There was not really anything pressing that needed his attention, Gabriel found as he held the sleeping Michael cuddled to his body. He sent his thought to Shateiel, asking his lieutenant to take some supplies of grain and clean water from Eden to Cambodia, where a mudslide and flood had depleted the stores of food and water and the people were looking at the approaching winter as being one of great hardship and hunger.
Eden. Gabriel sighed to himself as he looked at the city with his power, serene and inviolate, isolated among the endless stretch of sand. The white walls were unscathed by battle or time; the buildings, sheathed in marble, were the same. The grass was long and overgrown, the trees reaching toward Heaven with their branches. The animals that still lived within the city dwelt in perfect harmony with each other, fed by the Grace of God and watered by the fountains and the river that meandered through the city.
The storehouses that had become a place for the Archangels to keep emergency supplies of goods and water for times of great hardship among the humans were the only parts of Eden that showed any use. Gabriel knew that Uriel and Raziel visited the city regularly to make sure that it was safe and protected. He knew that he wasn’t the only one to make irregular deposits of goods—food, water, blankets—to the storehouses. Although the Archangels hadn’t ever discussed it, Eden had become the last secret resource to help humanity in times of the direst
circumstances.
Gabriel wondered if the gates of Eden would ever be reopened and humans allowed to return. He knew that Metatron had prophesied to Enoch’s son many, many years ago that the only time Eden would be permitted to return to human governance would be in the end of days, when Lucifer rose from Hell to fight Michael and the Son stood poised on the threshold, waiting to walk the Earth once again, the Four Horsemen moving in front of Him.
They were bleak thoughts, and Gabriel shook his head. He didn’t want to think about the end of days. He didn’t want to think about Michael and Lucifer fighting for the ultimate destination of the souls of all mankind and for dominion over the Earth. Gabriel knew Lucifer well, knew that the Morningstar would not have spent his eons in Hell languishing. He would, after getting over his fit of pique at having been foiled in the Rebellion that had led to his Fall, be practicing, training, making ready. Gabriel hoped that Michael would be better. Better enough to kill the Devil and not die himself.
He tightened his arms around Michael as that thought tore through his mind, and Gabriel shook his head at himself. No. No, Michael would not die when he met Lucifer in combat. He, Gabriel, would be close and he would help, whether Michael asked for it or not. Michael dying was simply an unacceptable outcome.
In his arms, Michael stirred, stretched, and pressed a sleepy kiss to Gabriel’s chest. Gabriel felt his lips curve in a small fond smile as he looked into Michael’s eyes, his lover raising his head to meet his gaze. He would defy God Himself for Michael, Gabriel thought, keeping his thoughts tightly locked where Michael could not hear them. He would kill Lucifer with his own star-born sword, stab him in the back, point first into Lucifer’s tarnished Grace. And if that meant that he would have to endure punishment in Hell, then so be it. It would be worth it to keep Michael alive.
Michael smiled, the shy, almost childlike smile that Gabriel knew was for him alone, and Gabriel lightly touched Michael’s cheek.
“Sleep well?”
“I did. I trust you were not bored?”
“Nope.” Gabriel ran his hand through Michael’s hair. “Weren’t you going to cut this?”
No Surrender, No Retreat Page 6
