*So before we get CHP4 rolling I just wanted to apologize. I was on a role with this, and my... well everything really... totally overhauled me, hence the delay on the chapter below. I'd also like to give a Hoorah and a super warm Thanks to QUEENOFTHEDEMONS for being the first to comment and to Lisa, for offering up her thoughts. They mean a lot to me ^_^. As you read this, remember that your comments, concerns and critiques are wanted and appreciated, as every one of them helps me grow as a writer and move this story forward.

Without further adieu…

Chapter 4. Whose I am, Whom I serve

Arin felt her face growing hotter. She stared at Gabriel through the minutes that he held onto her. He'd closed his eyes again, his upper lip tight and his jaw overly defined in the dim light from the iron potbelly stove. Her mind raced, trying to push away the thoughts she didn't want to want, trying to focus on something else. It wasn't working. Arin tried to remind herself to blink, but his motion caught her eye. Silently, he was getting closer to her, his face closing the small distance between them.

She held her breath as the angel rested his chin on her forehead. She stared wide-eyed at his massively broad, armored chest, air caught between her lips and her lungs. Unmoving. Gabriel's wings shifted behind him, arcing toward the wall Arin had pressed herself against. They blocked out the light, almost boxing her in; black and gleaming purple and gold in the light. She felt protected, and terrified. And then there was a coldness on her skin. A bead of water ran down her forehead, dissipating on her cheek. She knew it was a tear only by the hitch of breath that had taken the body of the angel before her.

"Gabriel," she whispered his name, though there was no response. "…Gabriel...?" Nothing again. "G-"

"Shhhh," the sound quietly interrupted her, more like a request than an order. His thumbs moved in her hair, brushing over her ears. His wings shifted again, but he did not.

"Please," Arin whispered, her pulse racing. "Stop."

Almost immediately after, a sigh breathed through her hair and Gabriel lifted his chin. He let his head hang a little, blue eyes half closed and watching Arin's shoulder. He took his hands from her face, the heat that had been radiating through him began to cool. The emotions, ragged like little used roads, had cut paths in his mind that he walked even now. He grasped at the traces of sentiment to keep them closer. "My apologies," he spoke quietly. "I did not mean to cause you discomfort." His eyes slid to look at her face. She was staring at his arms, hands knotted in her lap while his were on the bed in either side of her. He wanted so badly to back away, but he could not bring himself to give her that kind of space.

"It's ok," Arin finally blinked and shifted a little on the mattress. She reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "I just… um… yeah…" She turned her head away, not able to look at him.

The angel took a deep breath and stiffly rocked back to kneel at the edge of the mattress. Arin noticed a change in the air; it was easier to breathe, but she suddenly felt a little alone. It took almost everything she had not to reach out to him then. Instead, she eased her hands into her pockets and rolled the hematite between her fingers.

Silence ensued. It was long, and strained, and Arin could feel Gabriel's eyes on her. Picking her apart, like he was looking into every day she'd ever lived through incredulous attention. She shivered, enough. "Ok," she blurted out before there was anything else to follow it. The angel blinked and turned his head, even Atreyu flicked an ear forward from his post at the door. "Soooo… prophets… and stuff…" she mumbled, glancing at the man-creature kneeling about a foot off.

"You believe me?" The sound of Gabriel's voice took her on a roller coaster all over again. It was strange how beautiful and sad it sounded behind that too-stiff air.

"Well," she rolled her shoulder forward and tugged at the tank top, craning her neck to see just the barest edges of light purple-brown lines and symbols that circled on her skin. They moved, and surged and fluxed, nothing she'd ever seen before. "Yeah. For now." A light flickered in the angels' eyes and Arin's breath caught again. Damn. "What am I supposed to do?"

Gabriel stood, becoming gargantuan to her small, sitting frame. He looked over his shoulder toward the window, the firelight dancing on the edges of his skin, blue eyes glowing purple. "There are still those who fight to carry out our Father's orders, those who seek the babe and… those who seek the apostles. You are indispensible to the new age of man, and you must gather with the remaining prophets. I will take you to a man called Jeep; he keeps the mother and the redeemer safe. My brother Michael, beloved, trusted him when the world was ending. I shall trust him now that it renews."

Arin ran her tongue over an incisor and bobbed her head just a tick. Gabriel continued. "There, he will guide us both. You till teach the worlds' children your knowledge, and it will set them free. You will raise them up above their predecessors in an era not fettered by belief, but instead, charged with it. And I," he paused, losing himself out the old warped window for a moment. "I will endure with my bother to raise our maker from delusion; ascendant to the god he once was… a bringer of rapture and a buoy of benevolence… like you."

Raking her hands though her hair, Arin muttered, still overwhelmed. "I don't think I can do this."

Inhuman eyes softened and looked down at her, haloed in stars and blanketed in eons. Universes bloomed to life in those eyes, still glassy with tears and deep with more knowing than Arin would ever know to forget. "Even on your own, Arin daughter of men, you could do fathomless things." Fathoms, like his voice, her mind meandered. "I stand beside you now, and your capacity is as boundless as you bid it be." Her vision blurred, a darkness arching over her angels' head and misshaping his figure. She thought she heard Atreyu's rumble, but she couldn't have forced herself to hang onto it if she'd wanted to. "Rest now, Candor, Erudition, savior of I and my brothers on high. Sleep, and I will see you through to the morning."

Arin's eyes rolled in her head, she felt the hardness of wood against her hair, then the embrace of an old, musty mattress. Sure, see you then… she thought, not having even remembered being tired.

The stress of the day had worn thin lines in her skin, and Gabriel would not have that, not while he'd sworn her no harm. He covered her with his wings the way he had comforted Mary in her times of need. He let a little bit of the song of heaven filter though in his voice and gave the girl some peace. She succumbed quickly, and Gabriel watched her intently as her green eyes closed. Green was not quite the right word for them though. They were flecked with gold and the brightness of newly sprouted grass; etched around the edges with a hue so dark is could have been black. Dark paths like rivulets churned out from her irises. The shades of color spun like moss under current and though they didn't glow, they glittered. Riches. Her hair tangled around her round cheeks and framed her olive colored, sun kissed skin. Cream colored scars puckered right under her hair line, above her left eyebrow. Darker ones stemmed from the neckline of her shirt, leading his eyes up her neck and back to her stubborn chin and the beauty mark above her lip.

Atreyu's grumbling pulled his attentions from her resting form, her ruddy cheeks and full, reddened lips… The dog slunk up next to him, inching toward his girl, bristled. Gabriel lowered his wings and stepped back, the shepherd calming exponentially. He sat and watched the angel with a brown stare.

"I'll do her no harm," Gabriel told him.

Atreyu flicked an ear, then climbed onto the mattress and lay down on Arin's feet, still watching the otherworlder. They both puffed air out of their noses at the same time, a hint of jealousy seeding through Gabe. He ground his teeth and turned away, a painful motion. Father, do you hear me? He wondered. Closing the shutters, Gabriel watched the outside through the spaces in the slats. I have found the prayer I set upon your ears lifetimes ago. I stand in her presence and am born again; touch her skin and quantify living. Father, I have always been you're your most obedient son. I have lead your serpents from the holy fire and brought your doing to mankind for all of my creation. His eyes hardened thinking back on his years. I was driven by my love for you then, less so than I am now. Know that while my actions are carried out in devotion, I will not stand down. I will not heed your orders, nor those of my brothers whom I am certain you will send. Bare armies against us, Father, and I will return them wingless and broken.

Gabriel pulled his chin to his shoulder, feeling to metal of his collar around his neck. His eyes slid under half closed lids to watch the small, sleeping human. 'Us.' He'd meant 'me,' hadn't he? Arin stirred and sighed, firelight radiating little red and gold waves on her hair. No. Us. Gabriel returned to staring out the window. He set is jaw and unfurled his wings, wide and encompassing. Anything that came into the cabin would face his full breadth, a vision of terror and unimaginable beauty; that of an angel at war. He drew his mace from the belt slung low on his hips and gripped hard on the handle. It gave to his force, huge silver spikes jutting out of the head of it.

Rolling his shoulders, he growled low, hardly moving his lips. "Brothers… Impede us and I will tear you all asunder."