Chapter 5

“What are you going to do?” I asked him.

Uri sat on the toilet. We had locked ourselves in the bathroom almost acting as though we were locking ourselves from the rest of the world. The look on his face showed worry more than anything. He wasn't here with me even though he was.

“It's mine,” Uri replied.

“You sure about that?” I asked.

Uri looked over at me. He knew more than I did about what him and Gabby were doing when I was locked up. The idea of them being intimate honestly made me sick to my stomach. I bore it though crossing my hands and just staring at Uri.

“I had sex with her,” Uri replied, “ I had sex with her...a lot of times. It wasn't...like you. It was just...I don't know...”

To hear the words I could feel a stab in my heart.

“So what does that mean for us? Are you going back to her?” I asked.

Uri got quiet. The look on his face said it all. His heavy eyebrows lined up, getting low as in deep thought. Whatever he was thinking must not have been good. I just watched. I just looked at him trying to read him. I was hoping this wasn't happening to me right now. My heart beat faster. I finally get out of jail. I finally express how I feel about him. We are finally on the same page and now this?

This pain. This heartbreak.

He still didn't reply.

“Uri, I asked you a question.”

“It's complicated.”

“COMPLICATED!”

My voice had got louder than I thought it was going to get. Emotion drafted over me like a tornado. There was anger. There was so much anger. I was surprised my angelic abilities didn't kick in. My eyes burned looking at him. I loved him. This had to be what it felt like.

“I'm going to need you to calm down,” he replied, his voice the same calm, masculine in control guy that he had always been.

I wish I could have been that though but I couldn't. I just looked at Uri drifting away. That emotion that I had seen earlier when we were laying together was going away. I could feel the energy leaving. Maybe it was the third sense. Maybe that's what it was but it seemed almost like colors fading after a rainbow.

Uri shook his head, “None of us grew up with fathers. You know? Does that make sense to you? I am about to be someone's father.

Rape. That's what it felt like. He hadn't taken my body by force but he had taken my heart by force. Just like before. He had raped me, taken me by force just like that preacher years ago. And just like that preacher he didn't care to stay. I was nothing but a vessel to be used for a time and then abandoned. And he had the nerve to talk about what our fathers had done.

“It doesn't make sense to me. Raising a child is one thing. That look that you are giving me now is saying that you want nothing more to do with me.”

“Of course that isn't the case. Things...just complicated.”

“Uncomplicate them.”

There was a knock on the door at that moment.

“GIVE US A SECOND!” Uri screamed at whoever was knocking on the door. Then he walked over to me and grabbed my hand, “Michael. You know how I feel about you. You know how spiteful Gabby can be. I just need time to figure things out with her. That's all. Maybe we just keep our distance for a little bit. You know.”

“That's exactly what she wants. She's won.”

“This isn't a game Michael.”

“It is to her. And you are letting her win.”

There was more knocks on the door. The person seemed desperate to come in for whatever reason. It seemed like now the tables were turned. I didn't know what Uri was looking for when he looked in my eyes. Was he looking for understanding? Was he looking for me to be happy for him? I wasn't sure and I didn't care. That emotion that I had for him was sinking back as well. I had shown too much. I had given this too much though. I had expectations! I never had expectations.

Hope hurt.

“Can we please...please have a moment?” Uri stated to the door.

I shook my head, “No. I'll get it.”

“We weren't done talking.”

“We were. You made your point. If you think I'll just be waiting around in the wings for you to figure out if he want to be back with Gabby, you've got me wrong,” I replied as blunt as easy as I could manage, “If you think you hurt me just now...you've got it wrong.”

I tried to make my face cold. I wasn't going to let him know that he got to me. I wasn't going to let him know that I had been broken into pieces. I wouldn't give him that power. I wondered if he knew though. His eyebrows wrinkled up and stared at me. He seemed to want to do something. Touch me probably. I wouldn't let him. I backed up giving him space and moved towards the door.

Broken.

I answered the door. It was Ariel.

“My water...it broke,” she said.

Tears were in her eyes at that moment. Pain. That is something I could relate to. We were all tragic in a way.

“Should we call...the ambulance or...” Uri asked.

She shook her head, “I need you guys to take me somewhere...”

=========================================================================

“WHERE ARE THEY!”

She stomped into the main area. Cham and Raphael were playing chess. They spent a lot of time together. Her anger was getting the best of her.

“What now?” Cham asked.

He glanced over at her with annoyance. Raphael hadn't picked his head up from the game. Maybe they all assumed it was like Gabby to be loud or dramatic. Maybe they were right. She didn't choose her behaviors for other people. Gabby knew Cham found her annoying. She knew that weak Raphael was turning on her. It was fine. It was the one thing that she had in common with Michael. They didn't care about what other people thought about them. She was a lion. Why would a lion bother with the opinion of sheep?

“They are gone?”

“Who?”

“Michael and Uriel. They ran off,” she stated her heart beating faster and harder, “They ran off together. I'm tell you.”

Raphael finally picked his head up off the table. Yes. She finally got his attention now. The fact that Raphael's sweetheart ran off would definitely make him pay a little bit more attention. Regardless of what Raphael said she knew that he hated the idea of Michael and Uriel together as much as she did.

“Why would they run off together?” Raphael asked with an urgency that gave his own emotion away.

Good. That's what she wanted from him. Urgency. This was a serious fucking matter.

“They're in love dumbass.”

“No...you know what I mean. Why would they run off now?” Raphael asked, “Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Why are they missing now?”

His eyes looked at her.

Gabby touched her stomach at that moment and flashed him a smile, “Uri found out I was pregnant with his child.”

The look on their faces was priceless to her. Ariel's pregnancy must have spooked them because now they just seemed so shocked and ready to believe something like this could be true. It was Cham's face who took the cake.

“Are you serious?” Cham replied.

“No congratulations? No happy hugs?” Gabby asked.

Cham looked like there was a lot that he wanted to say. Gabby didn't neeed some third eye to read his emotions. She could tell he was studying her trying to see what was up. Maybe he couldn't get past. She wasn't sure how his abilities worked honestly. Cham scared her most of all. His eyes seemed to wander from her to the walls of the house. He must have been picking up on something else.

It was Raphael who spoke, “Uri doesn't seem like the type of guy to run off of on a pregnant woman.”

“Michael is though,” Gabby replied bluntly, “And Uri is easily led astray by Michael which we know already.”

“Something's wrong,” Cham stated.

Cham got up.

Gabby rolled her eyes, “I told you something was. Michael thinks he is getting one off of on me. That's not happening. We need to find them. There's no way in hell I'm letting them go.”

“They aren't the only ones missing...” Cham stated.

Cham got up immediately and walked out of the room. He seemed to be in a rush. Gabby watched him walk out of the room. It was rude of him to walk out while she was in the middle of this discussion. It was rude of him to walk out in the way that he did.

As he did walk out of the room she noticed Raphael's eyes though. His eyes tackled her. He was attacking her with a stare. She could feel the tension that he had. It amused her really.

“You wouldn't go that far, would you?”

“I don't know whatever it is you're talking about.”

“Bitch, you aren't pregnant,” Raphael replied.

“Not yet.”

She snickered as she said it. The look on Raphael's face was one of disgust. She couldn't understand it really but then she had to remember that Raphael was always weak. He thought he had an active power but he had spent so much time as some secondary healer that he still talked like a goddam nurse. The only thing that was missing was a sexy nurse outfit to match his redefined muscular frame. He disappointed her. Even with all his muscles. Even with all his frame. He was still not even half the man that Uri was.

“You've gone too far,” was his only reply.

Gabby sighed, “You haven't gone far enough. Do you want to be with Michael? Do you want to be with him?”

“This isn't about that.”

“Yes it is. In this world you take what you want. You hear me? That's how we win this war. That's why we are who we are. We take what we want. I am going to take Uriel. And if you're smart...you'll take Michael.”

Raphael shook his head, “You think Uriel won't figure out sooner or later that you aren't really pregnant? He'll hate you then.”

“I'm ok with that.”

“What about Michael? Michael will hate me if I don't tell him.”

“Hate isn't the opposite of love. The opposite of love is indifference. That's what Michael feels towards you. Indifferent. That is what truly hurts. My mother ignored me for most of my life. When I left home, I never got a call. I never got a thought. That will never happen to me again.”

He'd gotten quiet. Maybe something in his experience had triggered him to rethink what he was saying. She hoped so. She remembered her sisters. She remembered having to reach out and fight for attention.

'Fuckin' loser', her one sister called her over and over until it was drilled into her head.

Her sister reminded Gabby of Michael. The cold stoic man that never smiled. The person that walked into a room and caused destruction everywhere. Gabby was a product of that destruction. She was a woman desperate to be strong in the face of a stronger opponent. She wasn't strong enough back then. She was strong enough now. Now she would get the attention that she wanted. It would be all about her.

She had competition now. Her competition was Michael and this was all a game. No Dice. This wouldn't be a game of chance.

“This is going to backfire. I can feel it now,” Raphael stated.

“Are you going to tell him? Are you going to tell Michael what I've done?” Gabby asked.

She knew the answer to that question even before she asked. Raphael loved Michael. He was in love with him. She knew it. Regardless of how weak of a backbone he had, she could make him stronger. Strong women made men stronger throughout history. She could do the same for Raphael. She could turn him into a champion.

He looked resistant now...but soon, he would be everything.

“No. But you still aren't pregant.”

“I'll get pregnant before he finds out. Uri is a man. A real man. He would want to take responsibility. He would want to start a family for the sake of the child.”

“Doesn't that bother you, that he won't love you for you?”

“No.”

Winning was winning.

“You think Uriel is still going to want to have sex with you...with Michael living in the same house?” Raphael asked.

She walked over to Raphael. Raphael was Italian but he was a dark Italian. Whose to explain genes anyway. It wouldn't matter by the time the child came out. She'd make sure that Uri fell in love with the child by then. She'd blind him.

Gabby was grabbing onto Raphael's dick. A decent size. Hefty. He would have a strong son. That's what she wanted. A son.

“The two of us can get creative.”

She wouldn't be a loser anymore.

She stepped away just in time for Cham to run back in the room.

“Ariel is gone too,” Cham stated, “I think she's gone into labor.”

=========================================================================

We had driven nearly 20 miles away from the town. When we got to the place it looked like some sort of clinical office.

“Is this place safe?” Uri asked her.

He was helping her out of the car. I wasn't. I didn't understand why she had chosen Uri and I to bring her here. I didn't get it. I understood Uri. He had his flames and his flames kept the danger away. I didn't understand why I was here though. I didn't get it.

“This is my private midwife's office,” Gabby stated.

As we pulled up men surrounded the car. They were helping Gabby out of the car. They must have been expecting her. I watched as they put her in a wheelchair and wheeled her into a building. The building was all white on side of a cliff. It seemed about four stories high. As they rushed her in a woman walked over to where Uri and I were standing.

“My name is Drita Vancoff,” the woman stated, “I am Ariel's midwife. She made an appointment with me. How lucky she is to have friends like yours

She was a thin white woman about middle aged. She had long black hair that fell to her shoulders. Her eyes were hidden behind large white glasses. She stopped us midway up the driveway and extended her hand to be shaken. Uriel was the only one who shook it. I stood off from her. I was suspicious of it all. Something felt wrong about this place.

“I'm Uriel, a friend of Ariel's. Is there a waiting area.”

“I'm sorry. Our office is closed off to guests,” Ms. Vancoff replied, “Only family. By the looks of it I must assume that the two of you aren't family.”

She was referring to our skin color no doubt. Ariel was white and clearly not related to Uri or I.

“We aren't going to leave her either.”

“It was Ariel's choice to have a child here. She knew of our policies,” Ms. Vancoff replied smiling, “I understand your concern but the office is closed off unfortunately.”

“I don't give a fuck about your policies...unfortunately,” I replied.

“Michael...” Uri stated.

“I'm afraid I must ask you to leave the property,” Ms. Vancoff stated.

“I'll wait.”

“It could be hours before she gives birth,” Ms. Vancoff replied.

“I'll wait,” I stated.

Something was off. Something was off about this place. Something was off about this Ms. Vancoff lady. How did Ariel find this place? Why didn't she go to a regular hospital? Even if this was a regular child I would have felt uncomfortable leaving Ariel alone here. That wasn't a regular child though. My third eye was going crazy. I assumed home births were done at home. Why didn't Ariel have one of the doctors come to the house. That was blessed lands.

Uri grabbed my arm, “Look around us.”

I noticed what Uri was talking about. Cars had stopped all around us. People had gotten out of their cars. Random people. They didn't move. They just stood there. Outside of the cars. My heart raced as I looked at them.

Men were coming out of the delivery clinic. They stood the same. They all had that stoic look on their face. That scary look.

I looked over at this midwife, This “Six...Six...”

“Don't,” Uri grabbed my hand, “This is how it happened last time.”

We had left. I couldn't believe we had left. By the time we got back to the house I could feel my heart racing fast. I wanted to go back.

“We should have done something.”

Uri shook his head, “Everywhere we go we are followed. That is how it happened last time. Gabby and I barely escaped with our lives.”

“So we don't try? We run?”

“We lost that battle a long time ago,” Uri replied, “Ariel purposely came back when she was about to deliver. She didn't want us involved. Clearly she didn't. She chose that place. Ariel didn't want us to be there for the birth.”

“You don't get it. We could have done something.”

“Like what?” Uri asked me, “Delivered her baby for her? We had no clue how to deliver babies.”

We were walking back up to the mansion. Uri had parked the car and I was walking up to the door. I could feel my heart racing. There was something off about that place. There was something off about Ms. Vancoff. I didn't trust anything about it. I could have fought. I could have fought them all.

“I didn't intend for that baby to ever be born.”

“What?” Uri asked before grabbing my arm and stopping me, “STOP. I said what the fuck did you just say to me?”

“We don't know what that baby is?” I stated shaking my head, “Did you forget we are in a war? We should have...destroyed it when we had the chance.”

“You want to kill someone else's child against their will?” Uri asked, “Are you serious? Is that the kind of person you are? If a child isn't convenient for you...you just kill it? YOU said it already. We don't know what that child is. What—did you want to kill Ariel too while we were at it? What kind of monster are you?”

I pulled my arm away from Uri.

“The worst kind.”

With that I walked away from him. I could see him looking over at me. His eyes were staring at my back. I had the feeling that we should have died before giving Ariel to that clinic. We couldn't trust anyone anymore. The world wasn't the same anymore.

It was us against the world. Uri didn't understand that. He still had his heart, but mine was black. And I knew by the silence that Uri and I were losing each other.

By the time we got back into the house we heard footsteps.

Cham met us in the foyer. His eyes lit up.

“I had no choice,” Cham stated.

“No choice for what?” I asked him, “What are you talking about?”

“The church sent someone. Someone...else...”

Cham led us into the dining room area. The first person I saw was Raphael. He was standing on the wall. His arms were crossed and he was looking down. Gabby was sitting at the dining room table. At the head of the dining room table was a boy.

He was handsome. He was about Cham's complexion. He looked like one of those guys who you couldn't really tell his race or origin. He was too light to be black and too dark to be white. He could have been Spanish or from the middle east. His hair was curly and flowed down to his shoulders. He reminded me of a softer, younger Jason Momoa. He had no facial hair. It was completely smooth. His eyes were what stuck out. It might have been what everyone else was looking at as well. His eyes looked like a wolf. They were this very, very pale gray color. It almost looked like they were white.

To be honest those eyes took my breath away. He seemed to look at me...not even noticing Uri standing there.

He had a collar on. A priest's collar.

“Pretty young for a priest...” I noted.

“Michael. Michael it's me...” he stated.

“Excuse me?”

He took a few steps towards me. Our eyes connected. There was something so...familiar about him. I didn't know where I had seen him before. I didn't know why he looked so fucking familiar.

I let him approach me. This tan boy walked up to me...an innocent yet sharp face almost like Taylor Lautner. His eyes were bright. They pierced me.

“Whoa...fall back,” Uri stated.

“No...no it's ok,” I stated.

I didn't know why. I didn't understand why this was ok. It didn't matter. Before long I knew that this boy walked up to me and he was KISSING me!

Uri had jerked back confused. Everyone in the room actually seemed confused. Raphael had grunted a little bit. Cham and Gabby were reduced to childish giggling but at that moment that kiss seemed to be so fucking familiar. I didn't understand it. Why was this so familiar?

Why was I so taken by this boy?

“Is everyone gay but me?” Cham asked rolling his eyes.

“Who are you?” I asked taking a step back.

“My love. Don't you remember me? Here...maybe this will help you.”

My love? Did he just call me his love? He took a step back and that was when it happened. He took off his shirt at that moment. His body was toned and defined. What blew my mind was the fact that he was covered in tattoos. Every part of his torso was in a tattoo. It was sexy. It was sexy as hell but since when did priests have tattoos? I was confused.

He turned away from me. I noticed the tattoo that spread across his back. They were tattoos of wings. They looked so familiar. As I looked at the wings something began to move...

His shoulder blades expanded. The bones under his skin broke through. A blinding light filled the room and where once there were only tattoos were golden wings...the most beautiful golden wings I had ever seen in my life.

He was an angel. And I knew him. For some reason I knew him all along.

It wasn't just that. I didn't just know him... I loved him.

Why did I love him?

“Who the fuck are you?” Raphael asked, “I thought we were the only angels.”

He wasn't the only one on edge. Uri was on edge as well. I assumed the two of them would be. I had a flame at one point with both boys and had emotion tied in with both boys. Now all of a sudden there came a third who was throwing around the L word and kissing on me like he had done it a million times. I had never seen this boy in my life yet he looked so familiar.

“There are many angels. I am the archangel Jophiel...the beauty of God,” the stranger who I loved replied.