Sorry about the lateness of the chapter. It's been a crazy week with essays and midterms. Since I've been making a habit of it, I'm going to try and upload one chapter a week. Hopefully two, if I have the time. Once more, thank you for your beautiful, wondrous reviews! This is a ridiculous story, so it means a lot that you guys are giving it a chance. I have to admit that descriptions aren't a strong talent of mine, so I apologize for the crap way I handled the description of the house. That's on me. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 6 - Interview Part #5: Leashes, Peaches, & Other Worldly Creatures
"Um, is Miss Rathje still on break?"
Alex looked up from his clipboard.
"They'll be back on air in four minutes. What do you need, Simon?"
Simon, a nervous, twitchy fellow who normally worked with finances at the studio on the upper level floor, hesitantly lifted a phone.
"She's got someone on the line."
This caught Kolab's attention.
"One can only imagine who it is," he offered mischievously.
Alex sighed levelly before accepting the phone.
"Hello?"
There was no response on the other end. Only dull static.
"Nicole willingly offered to be interviewed," he began, figuring he should break the ice first.
"Take down the wards around the building...or we will destroy it."
Blinking, Alex brought the phone closer to his ear, turning away from the eyes on him.
"Nicole is inside the building," he reminded.
He heard yelling, but it wasn't directed at him.
"Of course he's not going to believe you! Sometimes, I can't believe Dad made you first. Give it to me."
Waiting patiently, Alex scanned his clipboard again. One foot softly began tapping against the floor.
"This is Gabriel," the man on the other line suddenly spoke. "Could you let me speak to Nikki?"
Straightening his shoulders, Alex stared ahead. On one hand, he didn't want to anger the probably already incensed angels. On the other, he wanted Nicole feeling safe and unburdened. Where was the middle ground between that?
"I'm sorry, Gabriel, but Nicole specifically requested not to be interrupted during the interview."
"Look, buddy, we're her-."
"-friends," Alex ended pointedly. "Only her friends. If you didn't catch the beginning, she broke off whatever sort of relationship she shared with you all. I know it may be difficult, but you have to allow her to make her own decisions. She is a sweet, charming girl that-."
"-did the bastard just call her sweet and charming?" interrupted an unfamiliar voice.
"You better not be hitting on our girlfriend," Gabriel reaffirmed.
Unable to contain his amusement, Alex questioned, "Are you all crowded around the phone?"
"Pfft...no."
"I told you there was a button so we didn't have to do this," another voice added.
Alex stifled the urge to laugh.
"Listen, Gabriel...and...others, Nicole is exercising a right none of you can take away from her. She was born a citizen of this county and is protected under the rights of the Constitution. This includes freedom of speech. Perhaps it'd be more helpful to discuss among yourselves why it is she felt the need to come on my show and do this interview in the first place. I can't speak for her, of course, but I am sure she'll reveal along the way more of what she felt."
"Cameras on in thirty," Brock shouted from the stage.
"You seem like an intelligent guy," Gabriel ventured, "but there are some details that should stay between a gal and her angels. I get we might have coveted her in a way Dad himself would think was unhealthy. We knew about how lonely and left out she felt throughout most of her life and we wanted to make sure she never felt that way again. Plus, we all took a natural liking to her, so that probably kept us a lot more invested in her than normal. But, there's a sigil connecting her to all of us that no human laws can null. At the end of the day, she belongs to us."
Pursing his lips, he debated how to seal the conversation. He may very well become a target after it.
"Your last sentence," Alex disclosed politely. "It should be 'with' instead of 'to'."
He pressed end call before they could threaten him some more.
"Poetic," Kolab approved upon his return to the demon's side.
"Common sense," he corrected. "I can see where Nicole struggled to remain true to herself. They are...intense."
Their attention snapped to the stage as Mia welcomed back the audience.
"-now, where does one go from here? Lucifer broke the contract on your soul and killed the crossroads demon. Michael was furious with you, Gabriel unwilling to agree that you should be apart from them. How did you move past that?"
Nikki mulled over how she wanted to answer the question. They took control of her life pretty damn fast.
"It probably started when they showed me the house."
"Yes, you mentioned a house! Where was it?"
"It was...away from everything else. In the countryside, but there were these beautiful hills in the distance. If it's alright, I think I want to keep the location to myself."
"No, of course. We respect that."
Smiling in relief, Nikki relaxed in her seat.
"After Lucifer killed Lynn, he started wandering around my house. We were waiting for Gabriel to retrieve Michael. I followed him because I think I was kind of lost myself. I didn't know what was going to happen next."
"So modest for one with astonishing wealth."
One of Lucifer's wings swung upward so she could catch up to his side. Though, at this point, he wasn't restricting them from randomly feeling her out.
She wished she could say the contact was unwanted and strange, but there was a certain rightness to it that she had a hard time explaining. They were stunning in their white glow and more powerful than her imagination could conceive.
And yet, when making contact with her - a comforting sweep across her shoulders, a light pull on one side of her body so she could be closer to him - she felt an intimate sort of protectiveness that she'd never experienced before.
"Did only Lucifer's wings do this?"
"No," Nikki recalled. "All of their wings had this habit of randomly brushing my body or trying to get me closer to them. But, Lucifer's did it more often. I learned later on it had partially to do with his time in the cage, away from the other angels...it's...crap, they're going to kill me for saying this. In heaven, angels regularly have their wings...taken care of."
"Taken care of?" Mia inquired, one brow rising in curiosity. "How do you mean?"
"After battles, they have them groomed...there's a book on this, by the way. A Guide to Taming Your Angel."
"Taming your-?"
Nikki chortled at Mia's puzzled expression, hiding her grin behind a palm.
"Ironically," she revealed cheerily, "the book was written by one of the three others like me. The ones who had sigils on them and were eventually found by their angel. The author wrote down their own experiences with his angel. Finding the book was extremely difficult and Gabriel ensured that I could never get my hands on it again once he found out I had it."
"Was it harmful?"
Fighting back another laugh, Nikki cleared her throat, unsure where to train her gaze.
"Let's just say I learned some really...stimulating things in there."
"Oh...oh my."
"Yes. Hopefully you can fill in the blanks on that one." She paused, regaining composure once more. "So, I learned that they have their wings groomed almost regularly and that being near other graces keeps the wings strong and lively. Since Lucifer had been in the cage for so long, away from his brothers and sisters, his wings were a bit...he's going to kill me for this...but...starved, I guess. Just being near Michael and Gabriel, made them healthier. And because my soul was entwined with his grace, I became a source of that comfort too."
"Aww, that's..."
"We got off topic," Nikki declared, heat rising in her cheeks. "Sorry about that."
"Yes, my apologies. Go on."
"What's going to happen from here? With me, I mean. Are you going to...hurt me?"
Lucifer slowly turned to her, stopping in the middle of her hallway.
"Is that what you want?"
"No, but Michael-."
"He'd endure heaven's tortures before harming you. Though, his anger is annoying, isn't it? Little room for understanding and an insufferable stubbornness. Watching you both argue is amusing."
She rolled her eyes at that, passing him on the way to the kitchen.
"Once they return, we're taking you with us," he told her.
Nikki continued walking, but she could hear him follow.
"And after that?"
"You will come to your new home with us."
"And you're not going to-?"
He appeared in front of her without warning.
"We are beings of consent," Lucifer reminded, one hand brushing across her shoulder. "While I look forward to eventually keeping you in bed for days, it will only happen when you want it."
"You thought they might-?"
"I know it seems ridiculous," Nikki defended. "But with what I'd seen of Michael's strength and Lucifer's ability to kill anyone who helped me...it was something that kept picking at the back of my head."
"You don't believe me."
"I do, but-."
"You don't."
She didn't argue as he studied her, face completely expressionless.
"Do you know what the punishment is for an angel who attempts to possess a human that didn't consent?"
When she didn't answer, he continued.
"Their wings are clipped. Which may sound like a harmless procedure, but the wings are, in part, connected to our grace. Rip out the wings and you take a part of our grace too."
Nikki tried to contain her flinch at the images invading her head.
"Also, taking your virtue without consent, assures the wings stay off. It's a peculiar sort of system. We are allowed to harm your physical self without punishment, but not your spiritual."
"So..."
"Even if I had an ounce of desire to force myself on you, I would pay consequences any angel considers worse than death," he cleared up. "Your fears are misplaced and unnecessary."
"You promise?"
Lucifer sighed with exasperation.
"What a suspicious human you are. But if it eases your mind to hear it out loud, then yes, I promise."
"I think that might have been the last time I worried about them hurting me," Nikki admitted. "And that whole being punished bit...it is true. From what I've learned along the way, it's only happened three times, and they were all cases of an angel trying to possess an unwilling human."
"And the wings are-?"
"I don't know all the details, but from what it sounded like, the procedure was like a surgery. And the angel is fully conscious through the whole thing."
"Ouch."
"No kidding."
"So, was that when you started trusting them a bit?"
"That...and finally seeing the house. What got me about it was the fact that they took the time to create everything and make it comfortable for me. Yeah, essentially, I'd just been angel-napped, but they were damned to make it as smooth of a transition as they could."
"Take a look inside."
Nikki hugged herself tighter, glancing between Gabriel and the house.
"It should be to your liking," Michael added from her side.
"And if it's not, we'll destroy it and build you another," finished Lucifer.
"Wow, I'm sorry, but that's romantic."
"It's fine," Nikki accepted. "They all put aside whatever they were feeling, Michael in particular, to make sure I didn't freak. And it worked. The house was...stunning. A lot of it was just the little things. If you grow up in a wealthy home, the idea is that not a lot after that can awe you. Once you've seen one, you've seen it all. But, the angels...they did their homework, so to speak. They knew my interests and what I was passionate about and it was less about what money could buy and more of a place I could literally spend the rest of my life in. I think I loved it immediately."
"What were some of your favorite features?"
"A fully stocked library to rival that of ancient Alexandria. I used to love reading, you see, but in paralegal studies, you read so much that the joy and adventure of it slowly seeps away. So, it was nice to start again with any genre, any time period, any world you wanted. They made me love reading again. And the library, despite how inelegant this is going to sound, was the shit. Fireplace? Boom! Huge cozy alcove with blankets and pillows? Boom! Window that overlooks the hills? Boom! An entire wall dedicated to an intricate, detailed map of the world? Boom! Guess what the capital of Ethiopia is?"
Mia stared at her, mouth parted.
"Um..."
"Addis Ababa. Guess what the only two landlocked countries in South America are?"
"Eh..."
"Paraguay and Bolivia! The library was a sanctuary," she exclaimed, unable to hold back her excitement. "I used to sit in the alcove right next to the window, watching the clouds turn gray and listening to the storms sweep by. It'd be completely silent inside, unless the fire was going. You could hear the rain hit the window pane and the thunder in the distance, approaching. At night, you could see the stars clearly through the glass. Which was a great thing about living in the middle of nowhere. No pollution or lights to block out how beautiful the sky could get."
"It sounds magical. Anything else stand out to you?"
"It wasn't massive inside. No high ceilings like the house I grew up in or long, curvy stairways. It wasn't extravagant, and that's why I liked it so much. From the outside, it was a brick white mansion. A wee bit imposing, but after I asked Gabriel to add ivy onto the brick, it looked more homey. Most of the space inside was dedicated to the massive kitchen or the two dens on opposite sides of the house. There were a lot of couches. Lots of tables. Stereo in one of the dens that could belt music through the whole house."
"Anything you liked playing in particular?"
"Personally, I have a love for all 80's music. So, there was a lot of The Police and Pat Benatar and The Cure. But, I can listen to a lot of other genres too. I once tried to get Michael into The Carpenters, mainly as a joke, but he actually took a really huge liking to them. For a month straight, he played 'We've Only Just Begun' every morning. It got so out of control that Gabriel banned every Carpenters CD Michael tried to bring into the house."
"You got the archangel Michael into the Carpenters?"
The disbelief crossing Mia's face made Nikki chuckle.
"I regret it with every ounce of my being. But, it made him happy. And that was nice too."
"Apparently," she huffed in surprise. "Go on with the rest, please."
"Gabriel had this wardrobe room for...well, role playing. But not the naughty type! Sometimes, we'd go to different cities or countries and we'd pretend we were in different professions or so and so from the royal family of who and what. One time, Gabriel and I went to Monaco and managed to convince the residents of the capital that we were related to Prince Albert II. I know it sounds childish, but it was actually a lot of fun. You could go somewhere and pretend to be someone else for a little while. I never knew that would be attractive to me, doing that sorta thing, but it was."
"Hey, no judgment here."
"Thank you," she welcomed. "What else can I say about the place? There were four bathrooms. The bathrooms, by the way, had showers that could fit anywhere from one to six peop-."
Nikki suddenly paused, looking at the camera.
"Not that it was used to-I mean not always-and the..."
"It's alright," Mia soothed with a chuckle. "What happens in the shower, stays in the shower."
"Heh...erm, right, there were some awesome art pieces scattered on the walls. Lots of Van Gogh and Aivazovsky and Hokusai. The Aivazovsky threw me because I had no idea how they knew I liked his pieces. I remember seeing them when I was seven years old, in an art gallery in St. Petersburg. His ability to add emotion into the waves and the use of color during the storms...I was mesmerized. My parents left me alone in the gallery for the day, so I spent the entire time trying to remember every detail."
"Your parents left you in an art gallery the whole day?"
"I didn't mind," she insisted happily. "They were meeting up with some friends."
Mia eyed her worriedly.
"Trust me, I'd rather have spent my time in the gallery," Nikki promised. "But, seeing some of his pieces brought back that sense of wonder and nostalgia. It was a good nostalgia because that gallery in St. Petersburg was one of my favorite places I'd ever been in and...God, they just did a seriously fantastic job with arranging the place. And they said if there was anything I wanted added or more of, all I had to do was ask."
"This is all it takes to silence her?" Michael asked.
"Shut up," Nikki mumbled in embarrassment, trying to pry her eyes away from The Ninth Wave.
"She appreciates it," Gabriel explained, watching her with glee. "It's enduring. It means our human isn't as selfish as we are."
"Selfish?" she repeated in confusion, finding his eyes. "You are not selfish for doing this. Arranging these paintings and the library and the kitchen and the den...I-thank you. No one's ever done anything like this for me before. It's always been because it could be imported and money wasn't an issue. But, this house...it's passion and glory and homey...well done guys. This makes it just a little bit easier."
"Wait til you see your bedroom!"
"There were six bedrooms, go figure. All with the kind of beds fit for-."
"-lots of sex?"
"Well, yes. But they made sure I knew it wasn't something they expected. Sort of difficult to do when you see how spacious and big and suggestive it all looks."
"I'll show her my room next," Lucifer motioned, leaning against the entryway. "She'll be in search of it more than either of yours."
"Oh, please," Gabriel scoffed, "we're going to watch so many cheesy horror films and munch on enough Skittles that she'll decide to move into my bedroom permanently."
Nikki couldn't stop the laugh from coming out of her even if she wanted to. It should have been a bit worrying, but the atmosphere wasn't tense or uncomfortable. She felt strangely grounded, warm, and clear headed.
With amusement, she looked at Michael, wondering if he had anything to contribute.
Under her gaze, Michael looked momentarily lost for words.
"He was around his brothers again," Nikki reasoned. "The bantering and contributing to a conversation without sounding menacing...it took time. Usually, he said things and his garrison did them. For awhile, he didn't know how to joke."
"I have a leash."
Gabriel exploded into a fit of laughter while Lucifer stared at him doubtfully.
"And I assumed I was the sadist in the family."
"I don't mean for you," he elaborated, brows pushed together in thought as a light shade of red crept over his cheeks. "For the cat."
Unsure how to react, Nikki stayed rooted in place, observing him cautiously.
"Gabriel," Michael snapped, glaring at his laughing brother, "you said Nicole liked cats."
"There's a cat here?" she wondered, looking around.
"It sounded like the leash was for her," Gabriel interpreted, wiping at his eyes. "Subtlety, big bro, is not your thing."
"Why would I put Nicole on a leash? Other than making sure she doesn't stray, she doesn't resemble-."
"Hey," Nikki interrupted crossly.
"It's a sexual kink," Lucifer provided. "Though, I see Gabriel as more deserving of it than Nikki."
"Hey!" Gabriel protested.
"Gabriel said you've had cats in your old home before," Michael interjected, his frustration showing in the way his wings arched upwards. "If you should want one again, I have a leash."
"Why would I need a leash for the cat?"
"I have seen dogs with leashes. Are cats not kept on leashes as well?"
"No."
Michael's wings folded back slightly as the redness in his cheeks grew darker.
"I have a leash," he repeated, attempting to maintain his dignity, "if you ever decide you want to use it, I have it."
"It's one thing to observe humanity, but being a part of it...well, for angels, some of the customs get lost in translation. Gabriel was good at it. He'd been living among humans for centuries. Lucifer didn't have too many problems. He learned a lot from reading. But Michael...some things confused him to the point where you'd forget he was God's first angel. It wasn't annoying, though. Actually, I found it a relief from all the times he was a controlling dick. Like, for example, the house rules."
"House rules?"
"They were a list of three rules I had to follow," Nikki relayed, shaking her head. "It was crap. But, apparently, they all agreed on them."
"One, you are to not leave the house without at least one of us to accompany you."
"I am a grown woman."
Michael scanned you blankly. "You may be, yes. Unfortunately, your sense of judgment doesn't reflect that-."
"-he was definitely still pissed about the crossroads demon debacle-"
"-so, until you regain that trust, you'll be under our watch."
"Gabriel?"
The archangel frowned. "Sorry, Nikki-pie, but I kinda agree."
Nikki deflated, falling back into the sofa.
"Two, we will allow you to visit friends, family, and anyone else you wish, but no one can know what we are and why we are important to you. In this case, secrecy is very important. If you must, lie."
"I...guess that's okay. I'll have to call up a friend from school to be my date to the dinner my parents have every year."
"One of us will go," Michael assured.
"Um, that's not a good idea. The moment you become important in my life, my relatives will want to know everything about you. These dinners can be brutal because they judge you on everything from your table manners to the type of fabric your tuxedo is made up of. Yes, I said tuxedo. My aunt has been known to even scope out anyone we bring to dinner by doing her own investigating. I'm bringing someone else."
Michael looked like he wanted to argue, but instead, said, "We'll discuss the dinner at a later time."
"Does this mean I can't invite people to the house?"
"What sort of people?" Michael demanded.
"Friends, colleagues, boyfriends."
"Maybe, not likely, and no."
"They didn't want you inviting men to the house?"
Nikki scratched her chin, figuring out how to phrase what she wanted to say.
"No, not...really. They assumed that I could maintain my contacts from the confines of the house. And that when I went out, they needed to personally be there if my friends were male. It was pretty damn annoying, but I wasn't the kind of person who dated a lot anyway. So, I probably should have fought it a bit more, but realistically, it didn't affect me all that much.
However, there was one time on April Fool's Day that I told them I was going to elope with a former classmate of mine named Eddy. He's still a good friend to this day. As aforementioned, it took Michael a while to understand human customs. I also made the mistake of playing this prank when all of us were more...intimate with each other. Short story version, I couldn't get out of the house. Locks wouldn't work, windows wouldn't break, and the secret door in the library that led underneath the house to an abandoned church four miles away, was sealed off."
"Are you serious?" Mia gasped.
"Deadly. I mean, obviously, I wouldn't have done it. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, I pretty much loved them at this point. But, that whole romantic bond between all of us...it was deep and intense and not something I had the chance to escape from by then. Literally."
"I'm afraid to ask, but what was the third rule?"
At this, Nikki smiled.
"Three, if there is anything troubling you, you must tell us. As frustrated as you may be by the situation you find yourself in, you need to understand that our desire is to protect you and make sure you are never neglected, lost, or unwanted again."
Michael's voice softened just the tiniest bit at the very end of the declaration and it made Nikki realize they probably knew the details of a great deal of her life.
"I don't need the attention," she maintained.
"No, but we want to give it to you regardless. You, above all of humanity, are most worthy of it."
"I still don't quite believe that, but they did, so I didn't really argue," Nikki recalled. "To make sure rule number three was being followed, they took to asking me how I was feeling. Usually Michael or Gabriel. Lucifer really wasn't the type to ask, though he did listen if I ever talked. It was odd, being asked about my emotions. Usually, I kept them to myself and poured all my focus into school."
"They wouldn't let you go back?"
"Michael, who I was starting to think loved pissing me off, said I never needed to work again because everything would be provided to me. Two years later and I still argue with him about it. He thinks something bad will happen to me without them around. Or that I'll pay more attention to my studies and eventually decide to move away. It's such a ridiculous argument that part of me is on this interview because of it. I mean, now that I'm single, I have every right to go back to school."
"You do," Mia concurred. "I'm sorry you had to give that up."
"Thank you. It's weird to hear someone agree with me."
"I'd like to ask...are all angels as controlling as Michael?"
Nikki pursed her lips, eyeing the ceiling for a moment.
"No...they're not. Though, in Michael's defense, it's a difficult habit to break when he was expected to lead heaven's army. And honestly, when compared to some, he's definitely not the worst. Ironically, that's how I met the fourth angel I was soul buddies with."
"He was worse?"
"No, no," Nikki disagreed, shaking her head, "he wasn't worse. It was those he was surrounded by...well, let me try to explain it as best as I can."
Mia nodded acceptingly.
"About a week after I started to get settled into the house, Michael announced that he was holding a rally of sorts. A whole bunch of heaven's angels would be on Earth in a top secret gathering. It was sort of a 'hey, we're not all battling, let's relax and hang out' sort of thing. Though, it was also to have me scope out the other angels there. Michael tried inviting as many as he could so we could find the other two who were part of our weird bond. Not everyone showed up, of course. But it was a good turn out and allowed me to see just what sort of creatures humanity prayed to."
"It must have been strange for them to see Lucifer again."
"Ah, well, Lucifer didn't actually...attend. For that reason exactly. Not all of them were as forgiving as Michael and Gabriel and if he did show up, I'm almost positive there would have been blood shed. Some of Michael's garrison tried to convince him to resume the apocalypse. They really, really wanted Lucifer dead."
"So, it was you, Michael, and Gabriel?"
"Lucifer wanted to go, but he knew it was best he stayed back. Gabriel only went because he knew Michael would be flocked with attention and wouldn't always be able to keep an eye on me. I think he greatly underestimated how many of his family members would want to talk to him too. See, Gabriel left everyone behind because of the fighting going on after God left. So, his appearance at the shindig was a pretty big deal."
"I'll be back. Keep a look out," Michael commanded.
Nikki nodded, internally relieved to see a group of angels waving him over.
Beside her, Gabriel mentioned, "You know, if you want, we can skedaddle and go to an arcade."
"Seriously?" she mumbled, gazing up at him.
"Damn...I want to say yes, but now that I think about it, Michael might actually kill me."
"It'd be worth it. I feel so awkward here."
"Don't worry. Michael warned most of the angels beforehand not to harm or question you."
"I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse."
"A lot of them are curious about you. Zachariah hasn't stopped eyeballing you since you walked in."
"I really don't like him."
"Neither does Mikey. That whole touching you thing in Montana, really didn't go over well with him. Oh, hey, there's Jophiel! Wow, she's really let herself go."
Nikki snorted into her water as Gabriel pulled her into his side, bright grin in place.
"I'm feeling just as awkward as you are," he guaranteed helpfully.
"You can go talk to them if you want," she insisted after taking a normal sip. "I'm sure they miss you."
"Nah, I like you more. Plus," he paused, nose hovering near her ear, "you've got something peachy on your skin that's making me really want to lick you."
"Shampoo, I think. Be forewarned, though. Men have told me I'm bitter on both the inside and outside."
"Mm, I'll think I'll be the judge of that."
His flirtatiousness was beginning to get dangerous, she realized. Dangerous because he was really, really good at it and because her insides were responding to it in the same way that they responded when she first watched Edward Norton bare it all in American History X. She'd need to keep a firm lock on that feeling. Left unguarded and who knew what could happen.
"Gabriel?"
Gabriel straightened up beside her, arm slowly removing itself from her shoulder.
"Ambriel?"
The blonde-haired woman's smile made something powerful stir in Nikki's heart.
"I'll be by the plants," Nikki indicated, placing a comforting hand on Gabriel's shoulder.
"I need to-."
"-talk to your family. I'll be by the plants, keeping a look out."
"Nikki-."
"Gabriel, talk. You need this. Stop saying you don't."
They kept eye contact for a few seconds before Gabriel kissed her on the forehead. "I'll only be a few minutes."
"Take your time."
She drifted backwards as Ambriel wrapped him into a hug that he gladly, if not a bit tentatively, accepted.
"Ambriel wasn't the only one glad to see him. Over the course of twenty minutes or so, the circle surrounding Gabriel got bigger and bigger. It was emotional to watch because you could tell how many of them missed him by the way they lowered their guard. I mean when we first got there, everyone looked stern and angry and ready for apocalypse, round number two. But seeing Michael and Gabriel together...seeing Gabriel in general...it was like they could relax for the first time in...I don't even know how long."
"I hate to ask for fear of ruining the moment, but were any of the angels you observed, part of your bond?"
"Nope. Which was strange because Michael invited nearly all of heaven and I had to have seen a good few hundred angels come and go. We were on the ground level of a hotel and there were miniature groups scattered in hallways and different rooms. I decided, after chugging down six glasses of water, that after finding the bathroom, I could maybe wander through some hallways and try to find some on my own. Michael and Gabriel looked like they might be occupied for awhile with the amount of angels wanting to talk to them."
"And how did the search go?"
"A little awkward because I was practically holding it in. I tried nearly every door, but kept finding myself in a closet. How many closets do ground floors have?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I meant the search for the fourth angel."
"My bad," Nikki apologized. "Right, initially, not so well. I had to have wandered for a good half hour without seeing wings. And in order to look for wings, I had to look at the angel. Some of them weren't so receptive to the glances. And very few spoke to me. I wasn't sure if it was on Michael's order or because I was human. One did stop to talk to me, though, and she was nice."
"Nicole Rathje, what an honor. I'm Naomi."
Nikki absorbed the woman before shaking her hand with a nervous smile.
"Michael is rather captivated by you," she followed up.
"Is he? He threatened to put me on a leash once."
Naomi barked out a laugh at this.
"Yes, well, he does enjoy his order."
"How do you deal with it?"
She looked surprised by the question, but it didn't stop her expression from growing pensive.
"I take a deep breath and go somewhere peaceful."
"And if he doesn't allow you to do that?"
"I believe you humans have a novelty liquid known as alcohol?"
"That's...actually a good idea. Thank you."
"Always happy to help. Thank you as well."
"For what?"
The woman looked around at her surroundings, a light smile in place.
"This."
Nikki didn't understand, but she nodded regardless.
"What did she mean?"
"If I'm reading into it correctly, she was one of the angels who didn't want the apocalypse to go down. By the whole "this" thing, I think she meant the reunion of her family. Though, I could be wrong. She walked away before I could ask her. I thought about following, but I picked up on some shouting in a room further down the hall and curiosity got the best of me."
"-insult to our kind."
For a moment, Nikki debated on whether she should keep going. She was a human and if there was indeed an argument happening that consisted of angels, she had no right to be a part of it.
However, the voices were growing louder and angrier. She felt just as wrong walking away from it.
Exhaling deeply and with a fair amount of reluctance, she continued forward, ears able to pick up on the words better.
"You are debasing yourself by living among the humans. Have you no honor?"
"Oh, you're going to teach me about honor, Ralphy? This should be good!"
Nikki hesitated outside the open door. What could she do even if she did make herself present?
"Do not speak to me as if I am equal to you. Know your place."
The voice held authority, but was strangely quiet. She silently hoped the individual who was goading him would stop. There was an uncomfortable level of threat in his tone.
"My place? Are you going to remind me of that?"
"You should be attending to your duties in heaven," a woman spoke up, voice just as deceivingly calm. "Continue on this path and you will be worse than Castiel."
"Love, you wound me. No, actually, I lied, you didn't. That's a pretty damn good compliment, though. Thank you."
Unable to keep her curiosity at bay at the angel's recklessness, Nikki slipped into the room.
Before her stood six angels, all with their backs to her, gathered together around in a semi-circle. Nikki tip toed a few steps to the left so she could see the angel they were threatening, but there wasn't a need to because in a split second, she saw all she needed to see.
"His wings were smaller than an archangel's, but just as beautiful," Nikki recalled. "A rich, coffee brown color with slightly lighter, gray tips. The darkness of them kind of threw me off because I'd begun to assume all angels had bright wings. Not this one, though."
"Good thing you decided to go in there," Mia approved.
"That's debatable. I might have actually made the situation worse."
She wasn't sure what to do upon seeing the man's wings arc upwards, then lower slightly and pull into his back. Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel had never done that before and it looked oddly submissive. Like he was nervous. A stark contrast to his behavior.
"If you go the same path Castiel has, we will, whether Michael commands it or not, strike you down."
"Strike me down?" the man laughed, emanating an extraordinary confidence despite the meekness of his wings. "It's not so big a secret that Michael and Lucifer have reconciled. And last I heard, Gabriel's in the building. Far as I know, Michael's not going to like the peace being disturbed."
"Michael lost focus of the mission when he kept alive the human whore. He is not equipped to lead heaven."
"And you are? Blimey, Raphael, you let the angel of bloody Thursday trap you inside holy oil! Doubtful you could command heaven, much less tie your shoe."
His insult sent a rupture of activity through the room. All five angels, with the exception of who she assumed to be Raphael, leaned forward threateningly. At least from her view, it looked threatening. And despite knowing the danger of the situation, Nikki kept venturing forward.
Her new angel was brave, but an idiot. A brave idiot. Huh. Definitely added a new flavor to the mix.
"Balthazar, I am showing you mercy. Do not try my patience or my hand. Stand down, return to your duties in heaven, and we will forget this. Disobey and I will kill you."
Still undetected, Nikki continued tip-toeing, only inches away from the group. Her heart was hammering so fast that she had a difficult time breathing. Her primary thought was, 'God, please do not let this brave idiot get himself killed'.
"Yeah, not keen on that choice," the angel decided, backing up a bit himself as his brown-gray wings flew up defensively. "You kill me and you'll be a bigger bastard than Uriel was."
"You have made your choice," Raphael imparted, hand suddenly equipped with a silver looking blade. "And by your choice, you will die."
She sprang forward without thought, body squeezing through a narrow gap between two broad-shoulder angels. There was a momentary flurry of activity as everyone turned to her while she ungracefully stopped in a front of Balthazar, eyes first shooting to his wings, then to his face.
"She's human," a voice called from behind her.
Mutely, Nikki spun around, making sure to stay in front of the blonde angel.
"You don't touch him unless you go through me," she said steadily, arms rising protectively despite how badly they were shaking.
"It was brave of you," Mia supported.
"It was stupid," Nikki denied. "They easily had the ability to kill me a thousand times over. I wasn't thinking."
"And yet, you still did what you did."
"It's because...they were going to hurt him. They knew they were. I knew they were. Balthazar knew they were. And I...really hated that idea. For as much as I brushed off the whole grace-soul bond, I can't deny there was something inside me that was physically repulsed and terrified by the idea of seeing someone I was connected to, suffer. I might not have known Balthazar that long, but I wasn't going to watch him get tortured. Maybe get tortured before him, or beside him, but not after."
"I'm uh, well, frankly flattered, darling," the blonde spoke from behind her, "but we've got a pissed off archangel and his fiercest fighters against us. Unless you've got some magic plan I don't know about, I'd suggest getting the hell out of the way while you still can."
"This...is the plan," Nikki relayed uncertainly. "Keeping you safe."
Balthazar's next words were interrupted when Raphael marched forward.
"Out of the way or I will not be held responsible for my actions. Michael's whore or not, I won't hesitate to kill you."
"I'm not a whore."
That was the only statement she managed to release before Raphael struck her solidly across the face, sending her flying across the room. She landed with a painful thud on the other side, already able to taste blood.
A lot of it.
"Oh my God."
"It startles you at first because you forget for a moment that they are unnaturally strong."
Winching at the pounding in her cheek, Nikki tried picking herself off the floor, mouth moving in silent protest. But that only made the pain sharper and ignited a vicious ache in her jaw that made her body slump back down into a growing pool of her own blood. Gingerly, she moved a finger to her cheek, only to freeze as she made contact with bone that definitely wasn't supposed to be that far outside her skin.
"I'm sorry and I know I'm supposed to be unbiased as an interviewer," Mia rapidly spoke, "but what a...jerk!"
"Couldn't have said it any better myself. Well, if I could say anything."
"Please tell me Raphael didn't hurt Balthazar."
"He was close, but help came at the last moment," Nikki reassured.
"Drop your blade, Raphael."
Nikki blinked with her good eye, lip curving up despite the pain. This may very well be the first time she'd ever been happy to hear Michael's voice. And oh was it a low, cold voice. The kind of voice you really, really didn't want to be on the receiving end of.
"Help the girl he nearly killed," Balthazar demanded, unsure if he should move from his place since he was still surrounded.
"They didn't know I was in the room until Gabriel spotted me," she clarified. "After that, I'm told things got very, very volatile. Michael didn't kill Raphael only because it took nearly the entire room to hold him back."
"Nikki?"
She raised a hand, feeling Gabriel's two warm ones immediately wrap around it. Delicately, he helped turn her over onto her back. She tried to speak, to tell him about Balthazar's importance, but all that came out was more blood and unintelligible garbles.
"Shh, just stay quiet," he eased, fingers touching the surface of her skin.
The warmth felt pleasant when it passed through her, retrieving the bone outside her cheek into its previous place while her jaw hinged itself back into position. Mere seconds passed by before the blood disappeared and she was able to see clearly through both eyes again.
"You're awesome," she muttered lazily, moving her jaw experimentally.
Gabriel pulled her into his body, one arm refusing to budge from behind her.
"You scared the shit outta me," he mumbled into her hair.
The vulnerability in his voice made her smile. Not because she liked hearing it, but because he cared enough to display it. She couldn't remember the last time she'd made someone care that much.
"Raphael did this to you?"
Nikki looked over Gabriel's shoulder, only to see Michael clutching the front of Raphael's shirt, staring at her with an icy casualness. In her head, she deemed it his murder face. The latter archangel was on his knees with a bleeding nose. And slowly but surely, more angels were filing into the room while the five who previously stood beside Raphael, had two angels from Michael's garrison on each side of them.
"It was my fault," Balthazar interrupted. "The girl was only trying to help. I should have protected her better."
"Your wings wouldn't have blocked him in time and even if they tried, he would've ripped through them," she said softly, meeting his eyes. "I like the color of your wings, by the way, so that would have been a loss to see them in such a shape. Also, Raphael lied when he said he was going to kill you. You're close to...whatever angel it was you were discussing that went off a different path. He was going to use you to get to him."
She didn't flinch when every pair of eyes in the room fell to her.
"Raphael kept rotating his wrist and tugged at his jeans four times," she pointed out with a half shrug. "Common tactics in the court room to let you know when an inexperienced lawyer is lying. By the way, my name is Nikki."
Balthazar didn't say anything, though there was suddenly great interest in his face.
"And I think, my brave idiot, that you'll be interested in the sigil I have on my skin."
Not even a second later and she slumped into unconsciousness, mind overwhelmed by the rapid energy-pain-healing cycle she'd been through in the past few minutes.
"We'll be back after the break!" Mia announced.
"Damn, woman, you'll defend your angels, won't you?" Brock complimented.
"I...guess so."
She couldn't really deny his point, though it didn't feel nearly as significant as they were making it sound.
"Did we skip over a commercial break?"
"That was the gap I was telling everyone about," Alex answered from the side of the stage. "We couldn't get any commercials in that five minute time slot."
"I'm glad," Mia continued, eyes falling to Nikki, "because that was fucking awesome!"
"Wait until you hear how Lucifer reacted," she muttered tiredly. "That was fun to experience."
"Sarcasm?" Brock inquired.
"The bleakest, deepest sarcasm imaginable," she promised.
Oh, well, hey, Balthazar makes four! Of course not everyone's going to like Nikki either. Part of me understands Raphael. Also, if you ever get the chance to look up some of Aivazovsky's pieces, please do! He's one of my favorite artists who has an incredible talent for marine-based paintings. Otherwise, let me know your thoughts in a review!