Chapter 5.

Once settled into their new rooms, Jasmine thoughtfully changed my son and gave me two bottles of milk for him.

“If you need me to feed him still, you can leave him with me,” Jasmine offered as she stroked his head.

The fondness she felt for my son was still apparent, despite the fact that he had put her daughter’s life in jeopardy. I would always admire her for that.

“Thank you for the offer, Jasmine. But I’m hoping his mother will be awake by the time I get back.”

I tucked him into the carrier Jasmine had given me to wear while I flew. It would be handy if I needed to fight with him in my arms.

I swallowed hard as I prepared to make my apologies. “I don’t know how to thank you enough, or apologise fully for the danger I placed you in, Jasmine. I should have brought you to the hotel earlier. But I honestly had no idea that the Demons could get to you inside your home.”

I ran a shaky hand through my hair and Jasmine gave me a soft smile of understanding.

I’d never had to use Tabitha’s hotel before to save a target. Never. I fought hard and long against the Demons, and they never returned once I’d vanquished them.

But something had changed.

Dramatically changed.

“It’s all right, Gabriel. As I said before. I owe you my life. Nothing is too much for you to ask of me.”

Jasmine stepped closer and put her arms around me, squeezing tight while I kissed the top of her head.

So much affection.

Such a strange year I was having after so long without human touch.

I tried to step away, but she held me tight.

“I need to go, but you know what to do. There are Angels and well-trained humans everywhere in this hotel. If you see even a glimmer of fire, you scream your head off. Got it?”

Jasmine finally pulled away and wiped away a tear that had slid down her cheek.

“You know I’m kinda jealous. Of Kadie and you.”

A ripple of unease ran through my chest.

“What do you mean?”

She wiped at the air with her hand as though to dismiss what she’d said.

“Oh, I know I’m happy now, and I have my baby girl. But I had such a crush on you when you first saved my life. I wanted you to need me, as I needed you, but it didn’t happen.”

“We aren’t allowed to have relationships with our targets,” I recited.

She raised one eyebrow and glanced down at the baby in my arms.

Heat raced up my cheeks like a fiery flood. I didn’t know what to say. How could I tell the beautiful human in front of me, that Kadie had been the first woman to tempt me in five hundred years?

“Kadie is part Witch. I don’t think I had much of a choice,” I managed to choke out.

Jasmine frowned. “Part Witch? Is that how she managed to conceive your baby? I would have thought it to be practically impossible, since you’re immortal.”

She sat down on the couch and I stopped a minute to speak to her. Perhaps she’d have a point of view that I hadn’t seen before.

“Yes. It is possible. Because no one has ever heard of a half-Angel baby before. What are your thoughts?”

Jasmine was extremely clever, empathetic and slightly clairvoyant. Some of the many reasons she’d been a target of the Demons.

She rocked on her seat for a little while and I waited for her to say something.

“I knew something was different about him. Not just the Angel-Dad thing, but there is a magic about him. A fate that will not be denied,” she murmured, almost to herself.

“I know. Is there anything you can tell me to help me in this quest Jasmine?”

She turned her head to look at me, her eyes focusing on my face in a strange way.

“You can’t go to them, Gabriel. You’ll die. You have to get them to come to you. Take them all on. With the woman by your side. You need to kill the uprising.”

“The uprising?”

Jasmine’s gaze fell away and she moaned a little as though in pain.

“Are you all right?”

“I have a headache.”

“Lie down then.” I gestured to the couch she sat upon and she slowly lay down, her daughter already safely asleep in one of the cots provided in the guest room.

“I’ll go, but will check in on you guys tomorrow.”

Jasmine’s hand snaked out and grabbed me as I turned to leave.

“Be careful, Gabriel. You and your son are the only things standing in their way.”

Her eyes slid shut once again and I placed her hand back on her stomach so she could rest peacefully.

So, there was an attack coming? Of course there was.

My path had been determined from the moment I was born.

I needed to stop it. I had assumed as much, but hadn’t really put it all down to one final battle. Until now.

Did that mean I couldn’t call on the other Fallen Angels? Or I shouldn’t? And if I failed, did that mean the war was over and the Demons won?

I bloody hoped not. We hadn’t battled it out for millenniums for the good side to lose while I was still standing.

There was a glimmer of silver in the black clouds surrounding me.Jasmine had said that Kadie would be there, fighting by my side. Hopefully she was right.

I flew to Tabitha’s house with my arms wrapped around my sleeping son. The moment we landed he woke up.

His bright blue eyes seemed far too alert for an infant as he tried to look around.

I took him out of the carrier and held him up to my face where he reached out a hand and stroked my cheek.

Love blossomed inside my heart like the desert flowers under the moon.

My throat closed up and tears tingled at the back of my eyes. How was it even possible to love someone so much after such a short amount of time?

“Gabriel.”

Tabitha was waiting for me on the porch.

“How’s Kadie?” I asked, though I could see the answer in my Angel Agent’s face.

“She’s alive and doing well, though not yet conscious…. Oh, is this him? Let me hold the baby who has been foretold to save us all.”

I chuckled at Tabitha’s tones as she reached into my arms and gently took the baby from me.

She stared down at him in the way that Jasmine had. With total adoration.

“Don’t put the world on his shoulders just yet, Tabitha. He was only born yesterday.”

She lifted him up and down for a moment and unwrapped his blanket to look at him properly.

“He’s grown a lot in only a few days.”

“Yes. His growth is quite accelerated if Jasmine is to be believed.”

Tabitha nodded, her mouth twisted with thought.

“Let’s take you to see your mother, shall we beautiful?” Tabitha cooed at the baby who was reaching out for her long hair.

“What are you going to call him, Gabriel?” she asked as we walked into her house and made our way to the bed where Kadie still slept.

I moved over to the other side of her bed and ran my hand along Kadie’s arm. She was warm, and felt strong. But she didn’t move, nor make a noise as I touched her.

I tried to ignore the twinge of disappointment that ran through me.

I wanted her to wake up and I needed her to recognise me when she did.

Although not a fan of the fairy tales told to humans about true love and destiny, the sleeping beauty tale was weaving through my mind. I couldn’t get the idea of kissing Kadie out of the mantra in my mind.

“He doesn’t have a name yet?” she asked again.

I looked from my Kadie’s face and up to Tabitha once again.

“I think his mother should have a chance to name him. Don’t you, Tabitha?”

She nodded quietly, then did something strange. She pulled the blanket down to expose Kadie’s breasts, then lay our child on top of her.

“What are you doing?” I asked, slightly alarmed. Wouldn’t he roll off?

“Just watch,” she said.

The baby began to softly cry, his head coming up and bobbing around as though looking for something.

Kadie didn’t stir, but the baby kept looking for her breast.

His head came right up and he seemed to be looking at her face, before continuing to bob around. He moved sideways, his mouth on her skin as he licked her. Tasting her.

He came closer to my side of the table and I offered Kadie’s breast to him.

He dove on the nipple like a starving man and made grunting noises as he suckled.

Then the sweetest sound came into the room as he began to swallow.

“He’s feeding,” I said, to no-one in particular.

“Kadie’s coming back to us. She is. I’m sure of it,” Tabitha declared.

I put my hand on my son’s back to make sure he didn’t roll off, and bent my head to kiss Kadie’s lips.

Her breath caressed my mouth as I pressed my lips to her warmth.

When I pulled back I saw a flutter of her eyelids. I blinked. Surely, I’d imagined it.

“Kadie?” Tabitha asked, grabbing for her arm.

Obviously, it wasn’t just me who’d seen the movement.

Simone came rushing into the room with a mug of steaming hot water that smelled like the bottom of a sewerage pond.

“Damn. Get that away from me,” I said.

Simone shook her head and gave me an intense look. “Trust me, she’s going to need this. Get the baby off her and get ready for the fight.” Simone instructed and without thought I grabbed for the mewling baby and placed him safely in a basket on the floor.

Kadie sat bolt upright and began swinging her fists at me, screaming in a vicious tongue.

“Hold her down. She needs to drink this.” Simone yelled, coming forward with her sewer water, a look of grim determination in the lines of her young face.

“Get away from me! You all deserve to be thrown into hell! You do! Oh, you fucking do!” Kadie screamed at us all, grunting and laughing as she scratched at my arms with her sharp nails.

I grabbed her wrists and held on tight, pulling her arms above her head and tugging her backwards so she was lying down again.

She writhed and screamed and spat at me.

“Do whatever you’re going to do, or I’m going to have to knock her out,” I told Simone, my heart cracking as Kadie fought me.

The baby was crying for his mother and I could see none of my beautiful Kadie left in the woman who now fought me like the Demons that had tortured her.

Simone came forward and Kadie kicked at her.

“Tabitha. Get her legs.”

Tabitha lay across Kadie’s thighs using her body weight to hold Kadie down.

Simone walked forward, clinging to the mug she held for grim death.

Margaret came up next to Simone and gripped Kadie’s tormented face.

She pried open Kadie’s mouth by pulling down her chin and Simone dumped the black muck on her face.

It went up her nose and in her mouth and Kadie screamed in outrage.

Damning everyone in the room to a Hell most horrible.

All I could do was hold her tight and cling to the hope that the woman I knew was strong enough to claw her way back to us.

“More,” Margaret said.

Simone threw more of the water into Kadie’s mouth until the mug was empty and the room was filled with a pond like stench.

Kadie’s screams began to slow and then she was no longer fighting us.

Simone took a step back, but continued to watch Kadie with expectant eyes.

“Tabitha? Gabriel? What’s going on here?” Kadie’s eyes were now clear and she looked at me with utter confusion.

“Oh, thank you, God,” I declared to the sky and let go of Kadie’s arms.

Tabitha came forward with a towel and offered it to Kadie. She sat up and wiped at her mouth, pulling at the blanket to keep it up over her nakedness.

Bit late to be modest, but she didn’t know that.

I came around the table and pulled her into my arms, holding on as tight as I dared. I knew that all my prayers had been answered and now I would have to pay the piper for bringing home my girl.

“You came back,” I whispered, my heart knitting together stronger and brighter than before.

Kadie softened in my arms and pulled away so she could look up at me.

“Where’s my baby?”

I smiled down at her and touched her face with my fingertips for a moment in reverent prayer before I bent down to scoop up the helpless infant.

“Here he is.”

I gave him to his mother and he began to cry louder.

“He’s still hungry,” I said at her confused smile and she dropped the blanket to offer the baby her breast.

“Here you go,” Tabitha said, arranging a pile of pillows behind Kadie so she could rest back a bit.

The baby attached hungrily once again and Kadie gasped at the pressure.

“What happened?” Kadie asked, absently stroking our sons head. “And what on earth is that smell?”

I looked towards Simone and Margaret who stepped forward. They were looking at Kadie with a strange awe like wonder, which I wasn’t sure I entirely understood.

“I’m Margaret, and this is my niece Simone,” Margaret said. “Gabriel found us and asked us to come here and help you pull through.”

“Was I badly hurt?” Kadie asked, her gaze shifting to me, a lack of understanding clear in her gaze.

“Your wounds healed well,” I told her. “It was more the poison they’d fed into you via a drip.”

Kadie gasped and turned back to the women.

“You’re both Witches?” She asked.

“Yes,” Margaret said. “Simone is a new, untrained Witch like you. Yet, she has great power and a true innate ability for potions. She brewed the remedy that you can smell, and probably still taste.”

Kadie chuckled. “I thought there was something strange going on with my stomach, but as I am intensely grateful to be alive, I wasn’t going to ask about the flavour in my mouth.”

Tabitha handed her a cup of tea. “This will be really sweet, but your body needs the sugar. Drink up.”

“Thank you, Tabitha,” Kadie said, taking the mug and lifting the baby gently away from the heat of the water.

“Can I take him?” Tabitha asked, then proceeded to pick up the sleeping baby and rock him.

“So, what have I missed?” Kadie asked, hugging the blankets to herself and gripping the sugarey tea like she needed it for an anchor.

I stepped up and explained what had happened at the castle that night, and everything since. Including the premonition from Jasmine.

“So, our son is two days old and people are already seeing visions of him saving the world?” She shook her head and laughed. “I know some parents have unrealistic expectations, but that’s a bit much.”

Tabitha brought our son closer again and spoke to Kadie softly.

“Your son’s conception and birth is a true miracle, Kadie. One that we have foretold for centuries. He will be immortal, like his father, like me. I am also a Fallen Angel, Witch conception. But I was not the saviour they had all predicted.”

Tabitha swallowed hard and for the first time I sensed the pain inside of her. The disappointment at being born the wrong sex. At the wrong time.

I reached out for Tabitha and lay a hand on her shoulder.

“You have been my saviour for five centuries Tabitha. You are perfect, just as you are.”

My Angel Agent. One of the smartest and kindest women I have ever known.

“Thank you, Gabriel, but we are going to lose this war if we aren’t careful.”

“What war?” Simone asked.

I sighed. This was not a discussion for humans.

“There has always been a war between good and evil,” Tabitha said, giving them a modified truth. “The Demons fight on the side of evil, and with their growth of power, comes a blow to our side. We can’t let them win the war, because we have no idea what they’ll do if they succeed in overcoming us all.”

Kadie pulled herself to sit up.

“Not to be selfish, in any way. But, what about me? With the whole immortality thing? Am I to die like a normal human?”

Kadie looked to me and I looked to Tabitha for the answer.

Tabitha pulled herself up straighter and I knew the answer wouldn’t be good. “My mother died at a normal age for a human of her era.”

“Which was when exactly?” I asked.

“1310,” Tabitha replied, a slight twitch at her shoulder belying the pain she’d gone through in seeing her mother die so soon.

Kadie slumped in her chair, pain rippling over her face. “And your father?” She asked.

Tabitha’s gaze darted away. “Died. At the hands of a Demon. Very soon after my mother died.”

A shiver coursed up my spine at the images those words invoked in me.

We rarely lost a Fallen Angel to a Demon. Unless there was a group attack, or the Angel was compromised in some way. Heart-sick perhaps?

“Tabitha?” I managed to say, though the question I wanted to know couldn’t be said.

She stared straight at me for long moments. “You know that Angels love with all their hearts Gabriel.”

Tears threatened my eyes as I looked away.

I did know that, and I’d once thought my love for Teramea would be my undoing. But as I looked at my son in Tabitha’s arms and Kadie resting, alive and smiling, I now knew what true love was.

Kadie caught my eye and she pulled herself up. “I need a shower and some food, and we need a plan. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m not really interested in sending my new born son off to war without me.”

Fire burned in my gut as my blood began to pump around my body with renewed heat.

The fight was on, and together we would stand.

 

THE END of part 2.

 

Thank you for reading ‘Fallen’ part 2.

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