Wow, gosh, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry this has taken me so long. I've been finding it really hard to write lately and really hard to find the time to do it as well. Then I lost my voice and had to come home from work sick and this was the result. Please read the author's note at the end of this, I appear to need some reader guidance. As for the rest of it, I've got a convention coming up this weekend, meeting Misha again so my brain is slowly liquefying as I type. I can't promise that all of this will be hugely coherent.

Chapter Thirteen: Hunter.

Gabriel has learnt many things about hunters in his time, even before Elizabeth. He knows that after their night together he should have left her home and never returned, he knows that getting close to the girl is foolish. No more foolish, however, than allowing a heated moment and a fight with vampires as an excuse to take her last remaining innocence from her.

"What happened to your mother?" He asks her, aware by now that the older woman should have long since made her presence known.

"She died, not long after you left," there is no emotion to the girl's voice, no light or brilliance. There is only resignation. Gabriel looks down at her, wrapping an arm tight about her shoulders as she shudders against him from the cold air that caresses her bare skin.

"And Hecate?" He whispers, not able to ignore the strong sense of his friend's recent visit any longer.

"Protection, Da taught me the symbols," she turns her face into his chest as a blush comes to her cheeks. "We live at a crossroads, you see, Da always said that we would need protection from the demons that lurk here."

The remains of an old road are visible outside, Gabriel had barely noted them his first time here and was too distracted this time to pay them much heed. Now that he thinks about it, though, he can see the reasoning behind Elizabeth's actions, following her father's footsteps in protecting the house. The ancient significance of a crossroad does not simply end because a better road with a better bridge has been built a little further away. That Hecate would come to ensure that the wards were in place around the house herself is something more of a mystery, but for the fact that the father of the woman he now holds tight against him is one of her hunters.

"The vampires?" He adds, certain that if there is something more sinister at work here it would have been mentioned.

"Is that what they were?" She queries, curling tight against him. Gabriel ignores the fact that they had fallen asleep surrounded by bodies, that it is long gone time to do something about them. "They said Da killed most of their family, they said they would take from him what he did from them."

Scent led them in, then, just as it nearly always has done with their kind. It leaves only the matter of what he will do with the bodies, of what he will do with Elizabeth. He has expended a great deal of energy protecting her, more than he has any other, it would be a shame for all of that to go to waste now.

"Are you happy?" He asks her. She shifts away from him a little.

"The parson says women weren't put on this earth to be happy, sir," she whispers. Such blatant misinterpretation of his Father's word makes something in Gabriel seethe for a moment before he brings it back under control. He has not cared about such opinions for many centuries and it is foolish for him to begin caring now. He has done many foolish things this day.

"It's not what I asked," he replies.

"I know, and I'm not. This is all I've ever known, sir, it's all I have a right to expect." Elizabeth shifts, moves away from him and reaches for her dress.

"I could make you happy," he replies and is thankful for her turned back as his face creases a little in confusion, as he wonders where that offer came from.

"I won't be a kept woman, be you Faerie or man, I've shamed myself enough."

She is unusual, he concludes. Any other woman would have been making demands of him, assumed he was proposing at least to marry her. This woman has seen all that she wishes to in the situation and has prepared herself for a fall. He finds that he can admire that.

"I think that you should be gone from here by the time that Da returns," she whispers, staring at the destruction around her. He snaps his fingers twice, dressing himself with one and taking care of the bodies with the other. She startles, drawing her arms tight about her as her grey green eyes stare at him in something like fear.

"You don't have to be frightened of me," he steps close to her again, reaching a hand out to touch her cheek and she shies away. "If I meant to hurt you, believe me, you would already have known it."

"I don't find that comforting," she mutters, still careful to keep an arms length between them. He smirks at her, careful to keep his face a mask of utter confidence and she withdraws from him further. "What are you?" The demand is not unexpected. "What is your real name?"

"Loki," he expects confusion, expects her to question the name, instead she nods.

"One of the old gods," there is a moment of silence. "I must ask you to leave."

"Leave?"

"Yes, leave. Are you unfamiliar with the word? Do you not know what it means? He can feel his anger rising, can feel the need to defend himself though he knows that she fears him. She has no right to reject him now, not after he has saved her life. He clenches his fists, drawing himself up so that he towers over her and if he enhances the body to make it that little bit more intimidating no one shall ever know. She takes another step away from him, not so much scared as worried. Elizabeth takes a breath, lowering her chin into her chest as she moves away from him, halting, shuddering.

"You've taken enough from me, don't you think?" She asks, shattering the silence. "Why take anything else?"

"You could have asked me to stop at any time," he points out.

"Would you have?" She responds, eyes narrowed. "I don't think you would."

"Don't forget, Elizabeth, you called me."

"I was frightened."

"You were foolish," because he is certain that her father taught her never to trust the gifts of the Fae. He only wishes that he knew what it was he finds so fascinating about her. Why it is that she plays on his thoughts. That she does not respond to his words is enough to tell him that she understands his meaning. Gabriel considers moving close to her again, considers pushing his advantage but something stops him. He came to this place at first because of the purity of a prayer. He helped her as thanks for hospitality. He does not want to become so like the pagan he is impersonating. He does not want to forget that once he was capable of gentleness towards a human.

"You will see me again," he promises before he snaps his fingers. Besides, she is pretty, he gets lonely and while she may not realise it yet; she belongs to him now. He has taken her last innocence.

SPN

He does not see her again for months, determined to distract himself from this girl who has captured his imagination. Quite why that is remains a mystery to him. In his years he has encountered countless dozens of young human women, some have flung themselves at him, others have accepted his advances a little more reluctantly. Most pay him little heed at all, and honestly he tends to like it that way, the unwilling girls are rare, and usually relating to a sacrifice in any case.

Elizabeth is no different from so many others. There is no brilliance to her beauty, as there is with Hecate and Kali both, little intelligence to distinguish her above the rest, but her soul; something about her soul sings to him, calls to him. If he believed in such things he would risk considering the theory that the foolish human notion of soul mates was actually a possibility. Gabriel knows better, angels are not permitted to love humans in such a way. They are not permitted to have soul mates.

They are not permitted much of anything really, and that may be one of the reasons that Lucifer found the creation of mankind so hard. The angels did not have much of their own, but they had the love that was meant purely for their Father. Having to put that to one side had been hard, even for Gabriel, he never took a moment to think how it must have been for Lucifer who loved their Father so very keenly. They do not have the freedom of will, the freedom of love, that the humans do. They cannot find this so called soul mate that humans so crave, no angel can.

Except, maybe, one who has walked into the world of his own accord.

Gabriel goes to see Elizabeth again, at first insisting that he is ensuring that all his hard work has not been for nothing. Insisting that he only wants to make sure she is still alive. He tells her that the second and third time as well. It still scares him how easily the lies come. Soon the visits are once a month, twice a month, three times. Not long after that they are once a week and he barely notices when the visits become every day, all the hours of every night spent teaching her the pleasures that he has learnt in his long existence.

Gabriel's own work suffers, he loses interest in punishing the souls of the arrogant. His fantastical life of illusionary women and egotistical gods and Faerie is ignored in favour of this simple one. He teaches Elizabeth about herbs and herbal healings. He teaches her the very basics of the witchcraft that Hecate encourages, by night he teaches her to worship him, by day he brings her closer to his dearest friend.

Eventually the others notice, they have to notice and Hecate is the one to step in. Hecate is the one to question.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on, Loki?" She corners him in the cottage while Elizabeth is out meeting with the local women. Her eyes are fixated on the sigil drawn in blood and herbs on the back of the door, the sigil calling on the triple goddess for protection.

"I don't know what you mean," he smirks, watching her trace long fingers over the sign as tendrils of power the same colour as her red black hair dance around her.

"Don't be deliberately dense. You're playing a dangerous game, the girl, and if I've noticed, I promise you that the others are beginning to."

"You can't tell me that you've never taken a human lover before," he points out scornfully, because he knows the truth of it in the same way that all the others do. Hecate is no blushing virgin, not in reality.

"Of course, for the odd night here and there, they get dull after that," Hecate's grin is predatory. "I certainly haven't kept one for three years before."

"Three years?" He questions. He had not noticed how much time was passing. In truth, when one is immortal one has no real need of time.

"You hadn't noticed?" She asks and frowns in concern when he turns to her with wide eyes. The bafflement on his face is, she realises, utterly genuine.

"I think I've done something really stupid," he admits, sitting on one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs by the fire place and staring moodily into the flames.

"More so than usual?" She queries and it is as though she is trying to inject a little lightness into the situation. She squeezes his shoulder gently as he puts his head into his hands.

"I think I've fallen in love with her," he whispers and the hand on his shoulder stills.

"You're an idiot," she says after a moment, "such a complete idiot. After everything, after Kali." There is a disbelief and a devastation to her voice that he cannot place, cannot understand. "She's mortal, Gabriel, you have to understand what that means."

He does, Father help him, he understands exactly what Hecate is referring to. She is mortal, she will get old, she will die and he will be able to do nothing to stop it. He will be forced to watch or he will be forced to leave and with the news Elizabeth gave him that morning leaving is less of an option than Hecate knows.

"I know," he mutters.

"You have to leave, you must know that," Hecate touches her other hand to his hair, a gesture meant to be comforting but it only serves to remind him of just how deep he is in this.

"I can't, it's more complicated than you know."

"I've been in love, Loki, I know how what it's like. I know how hard it is," she moves around to kneel in front of him, for once ignoring the ash and dirt that will stain her dress. "But it's only her, my friend, you're not abandoning an entire family. You won't feel that pain." He does not respond, does not try to meet her eyes. "Gabriel? Please tell me she isn't." The archangel still does not answer. "When did you find out?"

"This morning. I can't leave her, Hecate, I can't leave our child. I can't believe you would even ask me that!"

"You're being stupid," she pulls away from him, seeming to shut down every gentle emotion she has ever shown him. "It's one thing for demi-gods to be produced left, right and centre over the years, but have you given any thought to life that child will have? Children of gods are doomed to a life of trials and misery trapped between two worlds. You know that."

"What are you saying?" He demands, because this is not a woman telling him to leave Elizabeth. Her words are implying something else.

"Of all your kind, you know best you're Father's opinions on the offspring of angel and human woman," Hecate turns her back on him. Whatever she is about to say, she cannot bare to look at him as she does so. "You've done so well, Gabriel, are you going to let all these centuries slide because you've been stupid enough to father a child? What if your brothers find out? What if you Father finds out? They'll kill you, they'll kill her, they'll kill the baby."

"So you think I should do it first?" He demands, getting to his feet and spinning her round to face him, holding her shoulders tight enough to bruise and she hisses at him. "You think I'm going to kill her because you say so?"

"No," she struggles weakly against him. "You're hurting me, Gabriel, please. Please, you have to know that if they come looking for you, your family will come looking for those of us who helped you. You kill the baby, you kill her, or you stay away. You don't have a choice, if that baby survives it will be a danger to all of us."

"I can't, I won't," their faces are close together, unnecessary breaths mingling as she fights against him. "I love her, Hecate."

And here we reach the problem. Do I kill both Elizabeth and the baby, just the baby, neither of them and make Gabriel leave or have Gabriel stay until at least the baby is born. It's up to you.

Artemis