Herald

Chapter 1 Gabriel cringed away from the light that pierced through his eyelids, head pounding. Somebody chuckled off to his left in a deep, easy roll of sound and Gabriel moaned as the headache intensified for a second. He could only grumble softly at that chuckle. “Anyone get a look at the Kraut who dropped that mortar on my head? I need to return the favor.” There was a snort. “No,” the rough, amused voice answered. “I doubt it was a Nazi soldier who did whatever you’re complaining of.” The man’s voice hardened ever so slightly. “And Kraut is pretty f*****g rude.” Gabriel’s eyes popped open of their own accord. Interesting that the man found a word objectionable. With a painful lurch, Gabriel rolled over as far as his wings would let him and faced the dish of a man perched painfully straight in a chair next to the bed. It didn’t take a genius, much less a mind-reading angel, to see the soldier in the man’s hard body under long sleeves and trousers or sharp, vaguely hooded hazel eyes. Even the severe toffee-colored high and tight screamed military. Soldiers rarely had a problem with slandering an enemy. An uneasy feeling of displacement washed through his essence as he stared at this familiar stranger. The soul of the man glowed like moonlight in his sight, another of trillions that had come through his hands at its creation. The layers of life and personality obscured the details of the man’s soul, but Gabriel was pretty sure that this man wasn’t supposed to be alive during the war. “What year is this?” The man straightened up to agonizingly so and frowned. “What’s the last thing you remember?” “Stumbling inside a house with Michael,” Gabriel answered promptly. There looked to be little point in dissemination, when he considered the circumstances. His wings were tumbled all over the bed and he didn’t have any energy to vanish them. Michael was most likely in the same state. “We woke up in the dark, covered in snow. Michael was insensate. I hoisted Michael up and started hoofing it westward.” Despite a very frightening sensation of falling, conspicuous like a peacock in a crowd, the rest of his memory blurred unpleasantly and he wasn’t even sure he could trust what he remembered about getting to the house. The uncertain look must have shown on his face. “You guys came stumbling in about six A.M., three days ago.” The man shrugged his broad shoulders in a careless gesture. “Would’ve hit the floor if I hadn’t caught you both.” The barest flicker of memory flashed through his mind…a scarred arm closing around him like he was fine china…a behemoth of a man murmuring reassurance as Gabriel was cocooned on a opulent bed…rough fingers gently carding through his feathers, reverence bleeding from the touch…soul singing insidiously of mate and home. Such care, and Gabriel hadn’t even gotten his name yet. That was easily fixed. “What’s your name?” He quirked a grin, but refused to sit up. His whole body throbbed. “I can’t just call you human for however long I’m here. Or doll face, for that matter.” The man’s sharp face softened a fraction into a grin of his own. “Name’s Danny. You’re on my farm. Thought you would know that, Gabriel.” Gabriel frowned. “Doesn’t work like that. I’m not God.” “Castiel says you can.” It was tossed out there with the subtlety of a hand grenade. Danny had gotten his attention though. “Castiel is here?” With another groan, Gabriel finally found enough strength to get his arms under himself and pushed up to sit. The warm blanket covering him slid down his naked body to pool haphazardly in his lap. The bottom-most left wing ended up under his bare ass and he struggled for a second to move it by hand. Even his wings were too sore to move. He turned his full attention back to the human waiting on him. “Tell me. How is Castiel here and what happened after we came here.” And Danny did just as he asked. From Jason, the eldest, finding Gabriel’s kin in the pumpkin patch on through the attacking adaphat and how Castiel had repelled the entity, to mate bonding with Jason and his slow integration with the world. “Then, you two showed up on the morning of the solstice. You’ve been out of it since then.” Danny frowned, razor thin mouth curled down hard at the edges. “Michael isn’t awake yet, but he sorta opened his eyes yesterday.” That was weird. “What do you mean sorta?” Gabriel winced at the panicked crack in his voice. Danny carded a big hand through his toffee brown hair. He cut his eyes away from Gabriel to stare at some point past his shoulder. “Michael’s eyes just popped open for a moment. They closed again for the most part. You can see a little sliver of silver and his eyes are moving like he’s dreaming.” Glancing back at Gabriel, Danny’s face scrunched up a little, like he’d swallowed a lemon. “Do angels usually have such startling features?” Gabriel couldn’t help it. He snorted, curling his lips inward to muffle the cackle that was doing its damnedest to bubble up. It was a battle he lost and for a minute there, Gabriel clutched his sides as the laughter rolled up out of him in an avalanche. With a handful of gasping breaths, Gabriel finally managed to cool his mirth to a simmer. At least, down enough to respond incredulously, “We’re angels. What else did you expect?” And really, once Danny’s jaw dropped, Gabriel couldn’t help another round of laughter. Sure, Danny looked at him like he was on the hip, but it shouldn’t have been news. Gabriel was an angel. He knew how humans thought of him and while the tales weren’t entirely accurate, one of the few things they got right was the ostentatious physical forms angels wore on earth. Gabriel gulped down more air and finally got himself under control. Danny still hadn’t answered his question and they were getting too far away from it. “So, you gonna tell me the year?” A strange twisted settled on Danny’s lips and his hazel eyes flashed. “You want that in the actual date, or just how many years since the last World War?” “Look at the sass on you!” Delighted but wearing out quickly, Gabriel managed to keep his amusement to a chuckle. Danny’s expression didn’t change though. “The actual date, if you please. Brain’s slow enough to make a mudcat outta me.” There was that look again, Danny’s brow pleated right down the middle. “Uh, 2015 at the moment. New Year’s is in a week.” “The f**k all it is!” Gabriel could only stare at Danny, whose face suddenly split into a grin that softened the harsh angles of his face in an instant. “What?” Danny shook his head. “You are absolutely nothing like what I thought the Archangel Gabriel is supposed to be.” “Oh.” He felt kind of wrong-footed for a moment. “Well, what can I say? Humans can’t get everything right all the time.” “Anyway,” Danny cleared his throat roughly, “you’re in Arkansas. You and Michael crash-landed in our pumpkin patch, probably the same way Castiel did.” Danny leaned his big frame forward, elbows resting on his knees. “I want to know how you both got knocked off your perch up there in the first place.” It was second time Danny had asked basically the same thing, and Gabriel honestly couldn’t remember what happened. He recalled the flash of pain when the mortar hit his foxhole in Belgium. The warm, exultant light of home surrounded him after that. But the specifics were hazy. After an assignment on Earth, Gabriel knew what the protocol was for cleansing the persona from his essence, though he had no memory of it this time. If the colloquialisms that tumbled out of his mouth indicated anything, the persona he had previously worn wasn’t as purged as it was supposed to be. Stood to reason that he was ejected from on high before he was completely himself again. Joy. “No idea.” Gabriel grimaced and looked at his hands, twisting them together in a fidget. They still bore the marks of another lifetime. Calluses from a rifle, scars from various stunts both as a child and as a soldier, even the slight bend in his fingers from badly splinted breaks. “I’m assuming some scheme hatched by the adaphat. Only thing that makes sense, really.” Danny hummed, a rough tumble like river water rushing over stones. It was a surprisingly enticing sound. “Castiel said about the same thing.” “You don’t buy it?” “It’s possible something else is going on.” That was an interesting idea, but Gabriel couldn’t figure what else it would be. “Like what?” “Could have been God,” Danny offered with a calculated nonchalance. The statement was even less subtle than the last one, a 105 mike-mike when compared. Gabriel scowled. “No. The Creator doesn’t work like that.” He looked up, catching Danny’s eyes in an attempt to make the man understand how profound the knowledge Gabriel was imparting was. “We are the eyes and ears and sentience of the Creator. It is a force of the Universe only. Like a spontaneous viral outbreak. It can’t do more than execute whatever purpose It has.” “Sounds like a robot,” Danny ventured. “In a way.” Gabriel ignored the soreness in his body and leaned toward Danny. Bless the man, Danny leaned closer as well, until they nearly shared the same breath. “I think Its building Itself a consciousness. That we are all pieces of Its mind and soul.” “If that’s true,” Danny murmured and eyes alight, “then how did we humans get the idea of God we have now?” “Good,” Gabriel whispered back, pleased. “Michael is the one humans have been following all this time.” Danny sat back with a jerk, astonishment so apparent it colored the very air. “Michael?” “Yep.” Gabriel sat back as well and got as comfortable as his sore body would let him. He knew it would pass, but damn, flesh could be such a hassle sometimes. “When humanity first became aware, sentient, Michael just had to make an appearance. The rest is history, so to speak.” “Sparked the idea of Gods or a Supreme Being. Every good and bad thing that happened was attributed to It or Them. Then the ideas were written down, rewritten, cannibalized for other stories.” Danny nodded. “Makes sense. But then, how did we figure out about angels?” Gabriel paled. “That started with Lucifer.” “We heard.” Danny reached out and hesitantly squeezed Gabriel’s blanket-covered knee. The warmth of his hand seeped through the fabric, soothing and welcome. “You don’t have to tell me.” That was such a relief, Gabriel sagged a little. “Anyway,” he plowed on, “Lucifer’s body was seen during the fall, and some humans had the instinct to run before Toba erupted from the force of the impact. Story of what they saw spread and here we are.” Danny made a small noise of confusion. “Then why didn’t the same thing happen to you, Michael and Castiel?” “We’re alive.” Gabriel shrugged. “For a loose definition of alive. Lucifer wasn’t.” “And no memory of how you got here?” Danny asked. “None.” “You’re sure?” Gabriel growled at Danny and pulled the blanket up around his wings and shoulders, dislodging Danny’s hand on his knee at the same time. “What is this? You don’t trust my word?” “I don’t,” Danny answered bluntly. “Yeah, Castiel confirmed who you are, but he can’t tell me why you’re here. An Archangel who falls out of Heaven for some inexplicable reason, two in fact, and you honestly think I’m not suspicious of why? That’s a really f*****g stupid assumption.” “So, what, I’m here to give you a sixer for being a queer? Or maybe do you in for murdering others as a soldier?” Gabriel snorted his contempt when Danny flushed scarlet, embarrassed undoubtedly. Despite not having the strength for it, Gabriel clutched the blanket tighter and clambered shaking off the far side of the bed, far too offended to even bother asking for his armor. “Screw you, pal. Where’s Castiel?” “Hold on a second—” Danny rose up out of his chair, tall as a giant, and lifted his hands in an obvious attempt to placate him. Gabriel’s annoyance flared into irrationally bright anger. How dare this human question his honor? Gabriel shed the blanket that covered him in an instant, wings unfurling to span the whole bedroom. If this man needed a holy proclamation as a guarantee of Gabriel’s honesty, that could be arranged. He pulled up the barest trace of power and stripped his flesh of the automatic illusion of humanity. The room around him brightened and Gabriel focused his full, undivided attention to the human that fell to his knees before him. The form did nothing to hide the soul while Gabriel was in this half-state. Daniel. A steel sword pretending to be a man. Protective, determined, strong. Damaged. Weary. Yes, he recognized the soul. Had searched fruitlessly for it across countless eons. Gabriel brushed all of that aside, because he would willfully burrow in Daniel’s soul and never leave. Instead, he stayed with the display of power and buried that inconceivable impulse. “Where is Castiel?” He was a choir in full voice and even the floor shivered under the sound. Daniel simply gaped at him like a fish. f**k it. Gabriel was really too tired for this, but Castiel would ensure him and Michael weren’t prisoners because of some paranoid human. Though his kin should have shown up by now at even the smallest whiff of Gabriel’s power. He tucked his wings close to his body and turned away from Daniel, who was still kneeling on the floor like a felled oak. Gabriel reached for the door closest. Suddenly, Daniel’s rough hand closed around the back of his neck, but Gabriel held his ground when Daniel tried to pull him away from the exit. Again, Daniel pulled at him, but Gabriel shrugged him off with barely any effort at all. “Don’t touch me,” he murmured this time, so the room didn’t tremble from his voice. “Look, I’m sorry,” Daniel began, soul bleeding regret into the air like a heart wound. “It’s just, well…” Gabriel glanced over his highest radial joint, waiting for the human to finish the ridiculous statement he was about to make. Daniel said nothing else, only spread his hands in a helpless gesture. But Gabriel knew what he wanted to say, all the same. “You fear my intentions.” Daniel turned his face away, but Gabriel had already seen the answer in his wary eyes. What had happened in the last seventy years that even an Archangel was suspect? Gabriel glared at Daniel and grabbed the doorknob. Then, light as a butterfly, the human pressed close enough that Gabriel could feel his body heat directly against his skin and touched just the tips of his fingers to the back of Gabriel’s hand. A plethora of emotions streamed through the contact and Gabriel had a hard time parsing out what Daniel was doing. “Please wait.” Gabriel snatched his hand back. Something about the whole business was off and he wasn’t going to wait to find out what. He flexed his wings just enough to push Daniel back without damage, feathers tingling where they brushed against bare flesh. The door came open in a rush and shattered against Gabriel’s body, Castiel screeched to a halt and mantled, a living shield between Gabriel’s powerful presence and his fragile mate. Those dark eyes darted from Gabriel to presumably Daniel and back, confused. Jason, and a spark of Castiel’s Grace jealously guarded in the man’s soul made Jason’s identity blindingly obvious, got a hard look to his rugged face. “What the f**k’s going on here?” “Dodrmni toltorg,” Gabriel growled at Jason. He hadn’t really meant Jason, but Castiel backed up a pace all the same, which forced Jason back as well. “Christeos etharzi, Gabriel.” “No!” The walls groaned this time. Castiel stepped back again, black wings almost completely hiding his mate from Gabriel’s sight. Behind Castiel, Jason’s attention was called to something out of Gabriel’s direct line of sight, and flapped a hand at whatever it was. The other two brothers, if Gabriel’s senses weren’t fooling him. And Daniel hadn’t seemed to move from behind him. On top of all that, he was naked still. Peachy. With a deep breath, Gabriel pushed his anger down enough to converse civilly. “I will not be trapped and interrogated in this room, like some prisoner.” “Interrogated?” Castiel’s face scrunched up, then his head tilted to the side. Jason pressed a hand to Castiel’s shoulder. “Ah.” With a sigh of relief, Castiel tuck his wings against his back, revealing Jason fully. “There has been a misunderstanding.” Gabriel fixed Castiel and Jason with a baleful glare, but allowed himself to draw down his threat display. Even this small bit of power usage ate away at his drained Grace and he would fall on his face if he kept it up too much longer. An unexpected, warm weight dropped onto his wings and shoulders and Daniel’s hands came into view, pulling a green blanket closed around Gabriel. Surprised, Gabriel glanced up at him, but Daniel refused to meet his eyes. The second Daniel stepped away, Gabriel snapped his eyes back to his kin. “What misunderstanding?” “I fear he might have been overzealous in his curiosity, but nothing more.” Castiel shrugged, feathers rustling with the move. “You are not a prisoner. My mate would never do that to family.” “Doesn’t help that you’re naked.” Jason grinned at him and stepped up to Castiel’s side. Daniel made a strange sound, a blip of protest. “Can’t have you wandering around like that, scaring our innocent little brothers.” Gabriel couldn’t help it and cracked a grin. “I doubt that.” Daniel cleared his throat. “Well, still can’t go wandering naked.” Just like that, the nervous tension in the room dissipated as though it had never been. Exhaustion started to settle like a fine morning mist over Gabriel and he wilted where he stood. Used too much energy. The slump throughout his entire body must have screamed his utterly drained state, because Daniel’s hand was back on his shoulder. He refused to grumble over a human, especially this one, herding him back to bed as if he were some wayward child in need of guidance. No, he wouldn’t argue. The bed was more comfortable than it had any right to be and Gabriel sank on his side into its softness with a narrow look at Daniel. “I can do this myself, you know.” Jason snorted against the hand that Castiel suddenly clamped over his mate’s mouth and then smiled at Gabriel as he pushed Jason back out the door. He focused back on Daniel’s drawn expression. “What kind of host would I be if I let you collapse on my bedroom floor?” Daniel quipped. Gabriel stared at him as he drew up the blankets around Gabriel’s shoulders and tucked him in. Finally, he found his tongue. “Look at the sass on you!” With a smile, Daniel patted his covered shoulder, his avoidance of Gabriel’s lax wings noticeable even though his brain was practically mush. “Sleep.” He turned with an enviously crisp pivot and marched out of the room. It didn’t matter that there was no longer a door to close, Daniel’s entire posture radiated bug out. If there had been a door still there, Gabriel was pretty damned sure his mate would’ve slammed it. Sleep sang its siren call again and Gabriel chased it down into the fat sea of pillows Daniel had.