City of Enoch, Late Spring, 3586 BCE
The city seemed calm and peaceful at night, as the three Archangels walked through it. A few dogs barked and a baby cried out for feeding. The water lapped at the shore; the reed boats rising and falling as the water breathed in and out. In and out. A few night birds called for their mates beneath the cloudless sky.
The sounds were gentle and normal. Night in the great city of men.
Michael led them from the salt-smelling docks, mostly because it made her feel better to be in the lead. She was still chaffing because God had forced her into a female corporation after the angels failed to protect the Garden. Her bitterness grew because God had placed Gabriel in charge of the remaining angels (in spite of losing a battle with the Demon Prince, and in spite of losing his spear). The female must always submit to male, said God. And that Michael needed to learn some humility. Michael was not very good at submitting (nor humility), and Gabriel rarely cared to force the point.
So far, Gabriel's only punishment for losing his spear had been that God refused to make him another. And, of course, this new assignment. As much joy as serving God gave him, Gabriel did not enjoy his sudden inheritance of Michael's place. Michael was becoming increasingly sour, and Gabriel's work was endless now.
Though, the endless toil was probably for the best. He couldn't chance sleeping anymore. The demon haunted his slumber. The ghost of their lips and hands found him in the quiet times, and left him with a need that he couldn't name. That he dared not name.
All of the wounds from their insects healed, minus the first. Just above his collarbone, on the sensitive skin where his neck joined his left shoulder, there remained a single golden dot. It might be a freckle, or just one of the blooms of gold that adorned angelic skin.
But it wasn't. Gabriel knew what it was. It was their mark on him. Something to remember the battle and the demon by. Some attachment that the demon had left on his skin, and was using to visit him.
On those sweaty, frustrating nights when his sleep was stolen by the demon, he woke up clutching that spot. Wishing, where he hoped that God could not see, for the demon's hands and lips to return there. Wishing for those hands and lips on all of the other delightful places that the demon sought out in his dreams.
He told no one of the demon's nocturnal visits. Weakness was not tolerated in this new Heaven. Gabriel simply stopped sleeping. Became more efficient that way.
The city, however, slept quite well. Ignorant of the angels among them, the denizens of Enoch fell into deep, dream-filled sleeps, courtesy of Uriel.
The city's walls were stone, but most of the buildings were reed and mud houses. The smoky light of torches and grease lanterns flickered. This is where Cain had built a home for his children. Where Cain had made those children, having been gifted with a wife from...somewhere? Gabriel wasn't certain of the details, but why would he be? God's plan is unknowable. Ineffable.
God gave Cain a wife, and Cain had children, and those children built a city. That was a few generations ago. Now, Cain's family was causing God some bother, and She'd sent Her best to deal with it.
Even in the wan light of the moon, they could see the ziggurat. It rose above the huts and smaller stone buildings.
"Foolish," Uriel hissed. "They built it on sand. Should be nothing to topple it."
"That's human pride for you," Michael agreed. "They think they're smarter than the Creator, but they build something like that. To honor some made-up god! Idiots."
Gabriel shrugged, but remained silent.
They walked down the wide, rutted dirt pathway that went from the docks to the temple. The lights of silent homes winked at them as they passed. The city guard, long accustomed to traders, allowed them through without any questions. In the night, they were simply three cowled strangers walking to the temple. The guards would not think them special or dangerous. Many went to the temple to thank the gods for their safe travel, or to ask some other favor.
As they approached the temple, Gabriel marveled at the size of it. It was taller, perhaps, than the walls around Eden. According to other angels, Watchers sent to keep an eye on humanity, the local humans were trying to build a stairway into Heaven. Gabriel did not think that the humans intended anything that grand. He thought that the curious little beasts were just building this temple to see how high they could build it. At any rate, they'd built it too high. God needed them to learn a lesson before all of the humans tried to do the same thing.
Gabriel recognized the markings on the temple stone. His stomach dropped. The tower was Hers-the other capital "H" her in the world.
"Lilith..." Uriel spat. "Should've known."
"How else did you think Cain got a wife?" Michael asked. "It must have been the Lamia. All of his children are tainted."
"They are tainted anyways, by the sins of their father," Gabriel replied, gazing up at the thin smile of the moon that hung over the temple. "Let us be done with this, and be gone. The night is Her time."
"The moon is thin," Uriel said. "She is not at Her full power. Yet, perhaps we should wait? Until the sunrise?"
"No," Michael said. "It's to be done at night. God said so Herself."
"The priests are all inside," Gabriel said. "They'll be crushed. It's part of Her plan."
"What's our plan, then?" Uriel asked.
"It's to be struck down with lightning. That's me," Gabriel said. "I suppose that the two of you should go after anyone who manages to make it out."
"Agreed," Michael said.
Uriel nodded and her golden spear formed in her hands. "There should be a back entrance."
"No survivors," Michael said as her own spear appeared.
"If Lilith should show up, get back to Heaven," Gabriel said. "Don't wait for me."
"Gabriel..." Michael said. "Lilith is more powerful than that fly beast. Perhaps you shouldn't face her alone."
Gabriel wasn't planning on facing anybody. He planned to be done with this errand and back home. Quickly. But Michael knew that. She was so desperate to prove herself worthy of a male corporation that she welcomed an attack by the Lamia.
"It's...an order. Don't wait for me. We won't be able to see each other. If Lilith shows up, you flee."
"It will take some time for us to find the back door," Uriel said.
"I have to gather the clouds," Gabriel said. "You have that long."
Michael and Uriel nodded, and turned to go.
He would give them plenty of time to locate the other entrance...entrances...of the temple. Then he would strike. He gathered the clouds, slowly. He didn't want to frighten the other people of the city. They might run to the temple, and he didn't want them to do that. It must look like a typical spring storm, rolling in from over the water.
Gabriel watched his clouds slide darkly over one another, swallowing the moon and stars. Lightning jumped from one to another. The movement of the clouds reminded him of the slide of flesh over flesh.
He could smell flowers, the green and growing things of the Garden. The smell of the demon. They were haunting his waking hours now, as well?
Gabriel was startled to see the small figure suddenly beside him, cloaked in black. The Prince of Hell stood still and silent, watching the clouds with crystal blue eyes.
"You..." Gabriel said.
"Yezz, me," the demon said. "Of courzze. Why would I not be here, Archangel?"
"This...has nothing to do with you."
"I dizzagree," Prince Beelzebub said. "I have buizzinezz here."
"What business?"
"My buizzinezz. That'zz all you need to know."
Gabriel frowned at the Prince, wishing to know more, but doubting that he'd get a response. This was obviously a test of some sort. The demon could have waited in the shadows, but they chose to approach him. This infuriated Gabriel, and his real question sprang from his lips before he could stop himself.
"Why are you haunting me?" Gabriel asked, and his voice sounded far more petulant than he intended.
"Haunting you?" the demon asked, laughter in their voice. "You think highly of yourzzelf. You are only in my thoughtzz when I happen to lay eyezz upon the zzpear and armor that I captured from you."
"Lies!" Gabriel roared, leaning over the Prince who regarded him with a mirthful smirk. "You come to me in my sleep. You do...THINGS to me!"
The demon's eyes widened in surprise. "I do thingzz to you? What izz it that I do to you? In your zzleep?"
Gabriel flushed. "You already know. You just want me to speak it."
The demon smiled, lips spreading over their even, white teeth. Their small hands caught one of Gabriel's, and the clouds above them stopped moving.
"Whatever izz happening to you in your zzleep, Archangel," the demon said, voice light and sweet. "It'zz not my doing. You dream of me becauzze you wish to dream of me. Did it never occur to you that I might be the only perzzon to ever touch you with kindnezz?"
"You. Are. A. Demon!" Gabriel hissed, although the demon was probably right. "You are not capable of kindness! And anyways, you marked me!"
"I did what now? Show me."
Gabriel pulled his hand away from the demon and pulled his cowl down. "Right there! That's the first place that one of your nasty little insects bit me!"
"Clozzer. I can't zee."
Gabriel obliged them, leaning down further. The demon ran a cool finger over the mark, causing Gabriel to shiver.
"That'zz a zzcar," they said. "Have you tried to heal it with your miraclezz?"
"...No."
"It should dizzappear if you heal it. It'zz a battle zzcar," they lowered their lips to it, and Gabriel felt that touch race over his skin to the Effort that he never made. "Nothing elzze," they whispered, their soft, sweet breath tickling his ear.
Gabriel's heart hammered in his chest as the demon stepped away from him. The demon's eyes sparkled in the night, and a small, knowing smile played on their lips.
"I don't believe you," he said, wanly. He cursed his weakness, and he cursed the demon, who gave him visions and nightmares and feelings that vexed him to no end. "And I want my spear back!"
"You challenge me?" the demon asked.
"Yes!" Gabriel said.
"What do you have that Hell wantzz?"
"I-what?"
"After the lazzt time, I zzaid that you might have zzomething that Hell would want. What do you have?"
"I won't destroy this temple."
"Bold of you to azzume that Hell doezz not want that temple dezztroyed."
"Wait, what?"
"Anywayzz, your offer izz no good. You would never dizzobey. Even if you did dizzobey, God would zzend zzomeone elzze." The demon reached up and cupped Gabriel's cheek with one hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking," said Prince Beelzebub as their hand traced his jawline and fingernails brushed the curve of his ear. "I don't think you really want to fight me. But what you want is clozze to fighting. You only need to put a name to it to rezzieve it, Archangel."
Gabriel swallowed hard. They were so close to him, bodies nearly touching. Their hand still roamed over his face, blessing cheeks and eyelids and the sensitive skin of his throat. A whimper escaped him.
"Alazz, Archangel, you don't have anything that Hell wantzz. Yet."
But their hand did not leave his face. Weakly, he asked, "Why are you touching me?"
"Becauzze I choozze to give you pleazzure. Do you want me to zztop?"
Gabriel breathed hard as he tried to avoid answering the question. Prince Beelzebub's fingers found the soft hair at the nape of his neck. He bowed his head to let them wander, to comb through his hair, fingernails scratching his skin. He closed his eyes, and startled when he felt the light brush of the demon's lips against his own. He opened his eyes, watching the Demon Prince watch him. Then Prince Beelzebub closed their eyes and deepened the kiss. Gabriel tasted honey, and inhaled the scent of the demon's body. The smell of green and growing things. He closed his eyes, and surrendered, silently, to anything the Prince wanted to do to him.
Gabriel felt his wings unfurl, through the slits in the back of his robes. His clouds moved again; he could feel them. The lightning leapt from one black mass to another, illuminating the coming storm as the demon parted his lips with their own. The first drops of rain fell as the demon tightened their grip on the back of his neck, pressing themselves to him. And the great bolt of lightning struck the temple down as he felt the demon's tongue enter his mouth.
The ground shook as the stones fell. Gabriel wrapped his arms around the Demon Prince, to protect them. But Prince Beelzebub denied his touch, immediately dissolving into their insects. They flew away from him.
"Wait..." Gabriel cried, helplessly. "Please..."
"I muzzt go," they buzzed at him. "You should not zztay here much longer. She comezz."
They did not have to clarify who "She" was.
Gabriel watched the cloud of insects as they hovered between the raindrops around the ruins of the temple. Souls began to float above the fallen stones. The priests and worshippers. They clustered around the Lord of the Flies, and the Demon Prince collected them in their swarm.
That's what they were here for. The souls that would rise from the dying flesh of the crushed mortals of the city of Enoch. They were stealing the souls from Lamia. Gabriel realized that he was, at best, an amusing diversion for the Prince. The demon would continue to pursue him, to tempt him. Of that, he had no doubt.
"Gabriel! I got them! No survivors!" Michael called. Gabriel saw her waving from across the ruins, her hair a bloody banner, limp and wet in the rain. She hurried over the rain-slick, crumbled stones to Gabriel's side.
"Good," Gabriel called back, as Michael negotiated the rubble. "We have to leave! Lamia comes. Where is Uriel? Uriel!"
"I'm right here," Uriel said, softly. She was nearly on top of Gabriel, and he had no idea how much of his interaction with Prince Beelzebub she had seen. "You're right, Gabriel. We should go."
The ground had shaken when the ziggurat fell, but that was nothing compared to the rumble of the earth now. The lightning illuminated the fiery serpent that rose from the waters. On his back, a naked woman shrieked. Her voice was the sound of mountains breaking, of glaciers cracking, of the earth splitting in twain.
Gabriel summoned a lightning strike. It carried the three of them away from the rage of Lilith, to the bright corridors of Heaven. They arrived clean and dry, because Gabriel wanted them to. He excused himself to his office for paperwork. Michael and Uriel left to do their own.
Several hours later, after submitting all of the forms that Metatron required, Gabriel collapsed into his bed. He willed the demon to take him, to soothe him, to give him passion and peace.
Instead, he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. He woke refreshed, physically. But somehow, the absence of the demon in his dreams left him drained and hollow. He wondered if they were feeding on him somehow, stealing his life the way that they had with their insects. He curled his wings around himself, shielding his face from the always bright light of Heaven.
He still wouldn't give a name to his need. The name was a sin. The need was worse.
Still, he touched the scar on his shoulder, the one that he could probably heal. (He knew he would never heal it.) Gabriel shivered at the memory of those small hands and those warm lips and his terrible need. Tears slipped from his eyes, unbidden, falling like the first raindrops of a storm.
Gabriel curled into himself and cursed the demon through his tears.