Nyalla sat and watched as Gabriel paced their small cell. He’d wanted to heal her, but she worried that if one of the angels came back and found her uninjured, they’d realize Gabe wasn’t quite as human as they’d thought. He wasn’t ready to fight either of them right now. And she wasn’t sure how long it would take for him to completely regain his powers. Part of her wished that they could escape on their own, rather than having to wait for Sam to rescue them, but she was worried if Gabe was pushed to fight before he was ready, they’d kill him.

Honestly, she wasn’t sure why they hadn’t killed him already. She was the one they were using to blackmail Sam. Gabe was just another mouth to feed. Although from watching Sidriel interact with them, she got the feeling the angel liked the idea of having Gabe locked in a room, unable to do anything to escape.

“I don’t know if I can stand being cooped up in here for days,” Gabe muttered.

“Tired of my company already?” she teased.

“I’d rather have your company while walking along the beach, or jet skiing, or scuba diving, not in a tiny windowless room with nothing but hard floor and walls, and a plate of fruit and bread.”

He placed his hands on the metal door. A light glowed around his fingers and he frowned. “I can see the locking mechanism. Normally I’d just teleport us out of here, or make the door vanish, but since I can’t seem to do that right now, I think I can unlock the door and get it open.”

“Then what?” Nyalla stood and walked over to him.

“Then we get you safely back home. I make sure the Tear is never recovered. Then I take care of Tura and Sidriel. All in good time, of course. Getting you safely home is the priority.”

“But are we even in Aruba anymore? Do you have any way of knowing where we are? If there aren’t any people around to ask, or we don’t know the language, or there isn’t any kind of recognizable landmark, how will we know where we are and how to get out of here? I don’t have my passport with me. You don’t even have a passport.” She was rambling, their predicament starting to sink in. Her bruises hurt, her mouth kept bleeding, she was tired and scared. If she hadn’t been with Gabe it would have been worse.

With him, even with him deprived of his angelic powers, she felt safe.

“We have to be on Aruba or close to the island. Tura and Sidriel are probably searching for the Tear as well as the angel you captured. Both are in Aruba, and they’ll want us close enough that they can check on us from time to time. There’s a sort of angelic radar that can tell when we teleport, but we have to be paying attention and actively ‘listening in’, so to speak. I doubt with everything that’s going on among the angelic host if the Grigori are paying enough attention to catch these two, but they’ll not want to risk it by excessive teleportation or using that skill to move over large distances.”

“Well then they’re stupid. Once Sam gets here, she’ll tear this island apart looking for me. It’s not a big island. She’ll find us.”

Or not. They still hadn’t found that girl that went missing years ago.

“There.” The door gave a squawk noise, and Gabe pushed. Light streamed through the crack and into their room. The angel gave them a moment for their eyes to adjust then pushed the door all the way open, They hadn’t been in a bank vault after all, but some sort of bunker built into the side of a hill. Outside was rock and a canyon that dropped down into a huge field of cacti. Nyalla joined Gabe at the door and saw nothing but rock, sand, and the scruffy plants all the way to the horizon.

It didn’t matter that they didn’t know where they were, because the few bottles of water in the room behind them weren’t enough to take them far. It wasn’t particularly hot out, but the air was dry.

“You wouldn’t happen to have your cell phone with you?” Gabe asked.

Nyalla pulled it from her pocket and showed him the blank screen. “I think Sidriel fried it. He seems to know enough about human technology to make sure I didn’t call anyone for help.”

“Mine is in some back alley.” Gabe surveyed their surroundings. “You’re the expert at being human, how long do you think we can travel on the food and water we have?”

“Half a day? Maybe a whole day. Somebody built this bunker, and I doubt they would have placed it too far from their house. Plus, if we’re still in Aruba, we’ll have to hit either the ocean or a city in a few hours. The island is only sixty-nine square miles in size.”

“Aren’t there those people who think the apocalypse is going to occur any day now? They tend to build these things in remote areas. If that’s what this is and we’re in Venezuela, we could be days from any town.”

“If this was a prepper’s bug-out spot I would have expected there to be food and water stockpiled here.” Nyalla looked inside the small room. “I don’t think this is somebody’s end-of-the-world sanctuary. I think it’s a bomb shelter. People built them back in the fifties and sixties when everyone was afraid the Russians were going to drop a nuclear bomb on the U.S. If that’s the case, then we’d be close enough to a town for people to get out here before a bomb hit.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Gabe took a few steps forward and stopped. “Well, that was a short trip. Look.”

Nyalla shook her head. “Look at what?”

“It’s warded. Sidriel has been either working with a sorcerer, or buying magical items from one. I’m assuming if we trip the ward, it will set off an alarm. I doubt it’s lethal because he wouldn’t want to kill you in case the Iblis wanted further proof that you’re unharmed.”

“So we trip it and he comes back for us?”

“Yes. But I think I’ve got enough angel power to get us through a weak spot undetected,”

“There’s a weak spot?”

He grinned. “There’s always a weak spot. Go grab what food and water you can carry, just in case we’re in for a long walk.”

She did as he said, and by the time she’d returned, he was standing near a steep and rocky descent. “Figures. Why couldn’t the weak spot be near the path?”

“Because just as there’s always a weak spot, it’s never where you want it to be. And this is going to be a bit tricky. When I tell you I need you to squeeze between this Divi Divi tree and hibiscus. Then try not to fall down the hill and into all that cactus.”

“Yeah, I’ll try not to do that.” She shoved a couple of the water bottles in her waistband, and a fistful of granola bars in various pockets, then stood sideways eyeing the narrow space between the plants. “Ready.”

“And…..go.”

She shuffled sideways, letting out her breath once she was carefully perched on the steep rocky decline of the hill. It was then, looking up at Gabe, that she realized he’d never fit between the tree and the hibiscus, at least not without trampling the hibiscus and, no doubt, triggering the ward.

“Gabe?”

“Run,” he told her, his expression brooking no argument. “Run, and don’t look back. Find a city, take the next plane out, and don’t stop until you’re safely home with the Iblis.”

She set her jaw, and this time it was her turn to scowl at the angel. They’d kill him, and he wasn’t strong enough yet to defend himself against two angels. She wasn’t about to run away and leave him to his death. She’d rather die with him.

“Nyalla.” His voice growled, low and menacing. She knew it was supposed to intimidate her into compliance, but all it did was turn her on and make her all the more determined to not leave his side.

“No. Get your cute butt over here right now. Then we’ll both run.”

“I’ll trip the alarm. I’m too big to squeeze through the weak spot, and I can’t alter my physical form. Either you run and get away so I can fight these angels in a few days without worrying about them using you for leverage, or I trip the ward and we both die.”

“You’ll still worry even if I run,” she countered. “You won’t know whether I’m safe or not. All they’ll need to do is show you some Photoshopped picture of me with my fingers and toes missing, and you’ll back down, you’ll do whatever they want.” She adjusted her stance, sending a shower of rocks down into the cacti below. “If we’re still in Aruba, all they need to do is be watching the airport and they’ll catch me. Gabe, I’d rather die fighting by your side then have them kill you while they beat the stuffing out of me and drag me off to a locked room all by myself for however long it takes them to win Aaru.”

He took a deep breath. “I’m not happy about this, Nyalla, but I do see your point. Get ready.”

Nyalla had no time to get ready before he’d launched himself through the space, flattening the hibiscus. The air popped and crackled as he came through. Then he jumped, grabbing her and tucked her close as they fell down the hill.

* * *

It hurt to bounce along the hard ground, sliding through rocks and rough brush. At the bottom he landed first, breaking a saguaro in half and crushing several prickly pears.

“Oww.” He grimaced, jumping up and grabbing her hand. His shirt was smeared with cactus bits and thorns, his arms scratched and bloody. It hurt, but he couldn’t risk healing himself and expending energy that he would most definitely need in the next few minutes at most.

And as he expected, before they could even turn to run, the air crackled and Tura appeared.

“You two are more trouble than you’re worth,” he commented, floating down the rocky hillside toward them.

Gabriel shoved Nyalla behind him. “I won’t let you take her, Tura.”

The angel laughed. “What are you going to do, hit me with a set of bolt cutters? I’ll admit that was a frightening display of actions completely unworthy of someone who used to be a powerful archangel, but it will take more than that to stop me and you don’t seem to have any bolt cutters handy this time.”

“I don’t need human tools to stop you, Tura. You’re lucky to have escaped me last time. You won’t be so lucky this time.”

The angel shot out a whip of energy that snaked around Gabriel’s arm, burning through his flesh to the bone. It held his arm as Tura tugged him forward. He heard Nyalla gasp, felt her grab his other hand.

Gabe shrugged her off, leaning backward so Tura had to exert himself to drag him forward. The rope of energy smoked, filling the air with the smell of heat and burning flesh. Tura’s smile grew wide as Gabe stood before him.

“Kneel,” he commanded.

“No.” Gabriel responded, shrugging off the compulsion that would have had him on his knees if he’d been human.

Tura blinked. “Kneel,” he ordered, putting every bit of his power behind the word.

Gabe gritted his teeth, fighting against what he should have easily been able to resist. “No.”

“Then I’ll just have to kill you as you stand.”

He heard Nyalla cry out and prayed that she stayed where she was. Ignoring the pain in his arm, he summoned every ounce of power available to him and shoved it outward.

“I think not.”

Wings shot from his back, snowy-white and nearly twenty feet across. Gabe felt his physical form shimmer and knew that he was glowing, his eyes like silver-blue ice. The rope of energy left his arm, and Tura jumped backward, stumbling and falling on his rear as he shielded his eyes.

Gabe towered over the traitor, then he shot out a hand to grip Tura by the neck, raising him in the air.

“I demand a hearing. I demand to present my case before the head of my choir and the Ruling Council,” Tura choked out. “Procedure. Protocol. Established and followed by Angels of Order for billions of years.”

“I’ve decided not to follow the rules today.” Gabe gripped the spirit-self behind the angel’s form, and began to slowly shred Tura from the legs upward. “Today, Tura, I will be your judge and jury. I pronounce you guilty of treason and sentence you to death.”

The angel screamed, His legs and torso crumbling. The screams turned to shrieks and wails until suddenly he went silent, nothing left of the angel known as Tura beyond a pile of sand.

And now Gabe fell to his knees, wings fading from view.

Hands gripped his shoulders, stroking his back with tentative, trembling fingers. “By the Goddess, Gabe. I thought for sure he was going to kill you. I thought I’d lost you forever.”

He turned to smile at her, the ground tilting around him. “Never underestimate me, Nyalla. I am a mighty and powerful archangel.

A mighty and powerful archangel who was slurring his words and near passing out.

Nyalla eyed him with concern. “Are you okay?”

He gave her a thumbs-up. No, wait. That wasn’t his thumb, that was a different finger, and he was pretty sure that gesture meant something else entirely. “Okay. And we’re going to hike out of here and get you on the next plane off the island. Just as soon as I take a little nap here on this cactus.”

She laughed, cupping his face in her hands and kissing him. “I’ll stand watch while you nap. And so help me Goddess, I don’t care if I have to steal a passport from some poor tourist, we’re both leaving on the next plane out of here. You, me, and Terrelle, because there’s no way I’m going anywhere without you, Gabe. I’m not leaving you. Not ever.”

“Good.” He slumped down on top of a bed of prickly pear. “Because I’m not leaving you either.”