Oops, this took a while to get together. In fairness I've been working really hard and at meetings again. This was mostly written on a train to a work gathering, it was fun. These two are starting to get to me now, though, they seem to be destined to hurt each other consantly and I wish they would stop. On the other hand, I decided not to dwell overly on the relationship between Gabriel and Kali, it's canon, it happened and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned. I'll do what's necessary by canon and no more. Although if you really want Kali and Gabriel times let me know and I'll subject myself to Hammer of the Gods to get a better feel for her. I contemplated watching it in my hotel room on Monday night and chickened out. Too painful and I'm too attached to Gabriel. It's bad.

Chapter Nine: Seduction.

It takes nearly a decade for Gabriel to meet Hecate's eyes without flashing back to the raw beauty of them in the moment before they kissed. He does not know how long it takes her to stop thinking about it, but the wistful glances that she throws his way suggest that she has not buried everything as effectively as she had hoped to. She does not talk of it, however, preferring to remain close to Anubis in public and rarely visiting Gabriel on her own. Given the pull in his chest each time he sees her alone, the lapsed archangel would rather it stays that way.

While Hecate's relationship with Anubis seems to be flourishing, however, Gabriel is getting no where with Kali. He should not be surprised to learn that human women are easy to charm in comparison to a goddess, but he is. What makes it worse is that he has no one to go to for advice, it would simply reveal too much about the nature of Loki's recovery to one of the others. Given his motivation, it does not seem right to ask Hecate for help.

As it turns out, he does not have to.

"You're going about it all wrong," Hecate informs him from the heavy chair by the fire place of his safe house when he returns from another unsuccessful attempt.

"Really?" He snaps at her as she gets to her feet. As they have every time he has seen her in the last two years, Gabriel's eyes drift to fixate on the gold ankh she now wears. Fixed around her neck on a cord of plaited leather, it grabs his attention every time. Gabriel hates the sight of it. The way that it glows red in the fire light, how out of keeping it is with everything that makes Hecate who she is. He hates the way that the leather looks like a collar and he hates how it all states 'Property of Anubis, do not touch.'

From the way Hecate brings a hand up to cover the adornment, Gabriel knows that his scrutiny of it makes her just as uncomfortable. It also makes him suspect that she holds it in as much distaste as he does. Neither of them have ever mentioned it.

"Yes, Loki, really," she hisses and he folds his arms over his chest as he glares. Hecate has taken to using his pseudonym more often when they are alone. Gabriel does not know what it means, but he does know that it cannot possibly be a good thing.

"Do enlighten me, dear maiden," he mocks in response. He knows full well that Hecate has not used the form of the maiden in well over a decade, that she has been unable to, though it is her preferred shape. She glares at him in silence for a while.

"You started too big," she relents after a moment. "You should have picked someone lower on the food chain or, better, you should have waited for her to come to you." Gabriel scoffs at that, aware that in his current position Loki is far beneath Kali's notice. "She would have done it, you know, just to create a scandal," Hecate continues, "she likes the chaos."

Hecate, Gabriel knows, prefers order, cycles. She is a moon goddess and there is a very definite routine to the moon that Hecate embraces. Which is why when she does decide to rock the boat she is rarely traced to the centre of the disturbance. This is what she is doing now, he realises, using Gabriel's interest in Kali to create a little uproar that she can hide behind while she does something the others will frown upon.

"I'm not playing games, Hecate," he responds, more of a lash to his tone than he intends there to be.

"I never said you were," Hecate smirks, turning her eyes down to examine her nails, "but you can't back away now. You have to follow through, Kali expects it."

"Follow through with what?"

"The gifts are all very sweet, but that's not the way to get her attention. You can keep it that way," Hecate explains, "but to getting it takes something a little more macabre."

"'Macabre'?" Gabriel queries, worry filling him. He had known that Kali could be more vicious than some of the others he has been exposed to, but he had not been aware that this could translate into a way of seducing her.

"She prefers brains," Hecate adds.

"Well I've got plenty of those," the archangel quips. From her expression, Gabriel concludes that intelligence was not what she was referring to and that the attempt to lighten the atmosphere between them has not been appreciated. He lets it pass and files 'whole human head' under his mental list of gifts for Kali and leaves figuring out how to get one without breaking all the rules for later.

"Since you're such an expert," he says after a moment, "what else?"

"I'm not doing all the work for you," she laughs, though it sounds a little forced, "but once you've got her attention I suggest something public, and sweet, to show her you're serious. After that you're on your own." She shakes her hair out. "Anubis and I are hosting the midsummer party this year, I expect to see you there, Loki."

"Will I be permitted a dance with the hostess as well?" He asks and later he will reflect that he is a glutton for punishment. She grants him a shy smile.

"We'll see," she whispers and he knows that this is as much of an answer as he is likely to get until the moment comes. He also knows that when he does finally ask at the party she is more than likely to say no.

"Then I'll be there," he says anyway, a promise. She nods and moves to take her leave. "Hecate," though she cannot see it, his hand twitches against his chest and he aches to reach out and touch her. "I miss you," he admits. The corner of her mouth turns up in a half smile and she moves closer to him.

"Don't go getting sentimental on me," she tells him and her eyes soften. "I miss you too, Gabriel," she whispers and brushes her lips across his cheek. The archangel's eyes slide closed at the fluttering sensation and when he opens them again she is gone.

It turns out that finding a fresh severed head is not all that hard when he is angry and frustrated.

Mostly he is angry with himself, angry for allowing the feelings that he has for Hecate to continue to affect him, angry that he still tries to act on them. He is also angry with her, because she could make all of this easier on the both of them if she would just stop playing politics, if she would just leave Anubis. It colours his judgement, drives him to start something that perhaps he should leave well alone.

The gift is delivered quietly, with little more than a grin and a bow, a promise to leave well enough alone if she does not respond to this favourably. Three days later Kali arrives with a fresh human heart on a tray of gold.

SPN

Hecate looks at the cavernous room, the way that the silks of red and gold have been draped by Anubis's worshippers almost lovingly. The light from the lamps catches them, making the gold seem tarnished and worn while the red reminds her so strongly of the blood that will later flow over the marble floors. Perhaps the thing that bothers her the most about this set up is that either one of them could have simply snapped their fingers and decorated the room any way that they had chosen to. There has been no need for such an ostentatious display and she wishes that Anubis would have allowed her to do it the way she wanted to.

She has lost a great deal of her freedom since she took up with the jackal.

Hecate has worried for months that Anubis will have discovered her visit to Gabriel, her encouragement of his pursual of Kali. She is not frightened of her lover, as such, merely more wary of him than she has been of others. Anubis likes control, likes obedience even from the woman whose association with him raises him in the esteem of others. This favour is not something that she can do for Loki, their opinion of him has sunk too low, but it is something that she can do to keep Anubis from following through on some of his threats against the trickster. Inviting Gabriel to this party may have been a mistake, but it is a necessary one. Kali must see that Loki is willing to risk his neck to have the opportunity to be with her and Gabriel must realise that even Hecate cannot be entirely trusted.

It is something that she wishes she did not have to teach him.

Later that day Hecate will enjoy a dance with Gabriel, she will call him Loki and laugh at his jokes. She will deny herself that which she is slowly coming to realise she craves in order to allow two friends a chance together. She knows that this thing between Gabriel and Kali cannot, will not, last. Kali is already jaded by humanities whims and fickleness and Hecate knows that which she craves is simplicity and security. Gabriel is neither of these, hiding behind the callous and capricious personality of Loki and yearning for family. Gabriel wants to be loved, but not as Loki. Hecate will let them try to find what they need in each other anyway, that is what friends are for, and when the time comes to pick up the pieces she will be there.

For now she just has to watch them dance and watch them laugh. For now she just has to watch Gabriel use sweetness and violence to charm the goddess he wants and she has to fight to keep the anguish from her face. For now she just has to avoid giving Anubis any hint of what has happened between her and a trickster. For this moment in time she has to be cold, distant and ethereal.

What she really wants to do, however, is tear her heart out and stamp on it. What she wants is to go back in time and change it so that she never met, never knew, Gabriel. She wonders when she lost her heart to him so completely.

Artemis