Jegudiel (Deadly Virtues 2)

She was sacrificing everything for her sisters too.

“We have a home,” he said, hearing Diel’s breathing get faster and faster with every word Gabriel spoke. He was close to losing it. They had to get him back to the manor. To a place he knew to be safe. “It’s secure, and far out of reach of the Brethren.”

Everything inside Gabriel fought against bringing strangers into the manor. His entire life beyond Purgatory had been to protect his family, and he did it with supreme success. It went against everything he had built to let strangers into his home. But this, the Brethren … it was bigger than him and his brothers, bigger than the security he had built for them all.

And when he’d turned the Fallen onto this path—the path to battle the Brethren head on—he’d known sacrifices would have to be made and risks taken, as they would in any war. He yearned for a world of peace, but knowing there were others out there like him and his brothers, survivors of the Brethren too … he would never live with himself if he didn’t help. After all, though he was not officially ordained, it was in the very nature of the priesthood to be self-sacrificing, and that was the life he had vowed to God to lead. “We have protection that you will probably not have.”

“How?” Noa asked, suspicion written all over her face. As Gabriel studied the woman that had handled Diel so well and captured his brother’s peculiar fascination, he saw something in her demeanor that he didn’t see in her sisters. Because he had only ever witnessed it in his brothers. Noa fostered some level of darkness in her soul. Everything about her screamed that she had walked through shadowed and dangerous valleys—maybe still hadn’t reached the end.

“It’s a long story,” Gabriel said, vowing to keep an eye on the stoic woman.

Noa turned to Dinah, and Gabriel didn’t hear what was said between them. But when they turned back to Gabriel, Dinah nodded her head. “Lead the way.” She checked them all over with a tight gaze. “But fuck us over, and you’ll be sorry.”

“Same to you, head witch.” Bara turned his green eyes on each of the Coven. A stark warning not to take him and his brothers on was written all over his face.

Sela approached Diel and put his hand on his arm to take him to the van. Diel stepped forward and joined his brothers, but the heavy look shared between him and Noa didn’t go unnoticed by Gabriel.

“Follow behind,” Gabriel said to Dinah. “And please keep your lights off. We live a life off the grid. We have learned to exist in the darkness.”

Dinah and the Coven got back into their van. Gabriel jumped into the driver’s seat of the Fallen’s vehicle, and his brothers got in the back.

“Neo-pagan witches and fallen archangels,” Uriel said, bitterness dripping from his mouth. “What fucking wild imaginations the Brethren bastards have.”

As Gabriel pulled onto the back road home, the hairs on his arms stood on end. Because he knew, after meeting the Coven, that they were just the tip of the iceberg. How many other survivors were out there, living to bring down their abusers?

Gabriel couldn’t even hazard a guess.

* * *

Gabriel opened the doors of the manor, and his brothers walked ahead. He turned and saw the shock and suspicion on the Coven’s faces. Dinah took the lead, Noa just a step behind. The others followed them up the sprawling steps and into the impressive foyer.

“Who the fuck are you guys?” Dinah said, awe in her voice, as Gabriel motioned for them to follow him into the Nave. In the chandelier’s bright light, Gabriel could better see the Coven’s faces. They looked close in age to him and his brothers, maybe a couple of years younger. Michael had disappeared to his bedroom. When he returned, he was holding a glass of blood, his lips stained red from the sips he’d already taken.

Gabriel waited until all his brothers were present to begin. Diel hovered near Sela, but he was watching Noa again. He hadn’t said a word all the way home. It was always the same after his kills and during his comedowns. Only this time Gabriel was sure the silence wasn’t because of the kills, but because of the meeting of a certain woman with a long pink braid.

“Allow me to introduce ourselves.” Gabriel removed his coat. The Coven saw his white dog collar and clerical clothing, and froze.

“You’re a fucking priest?” the statuesque blonde spat.

Gabriel had expected that reaction. “In spirituality only. Not ordained.” He smiled, but it was void of humor. “As you know, my life ended up going down a different path than I’d planned.”

Gabriel moved to Uriel. “This is Uriel.” Uriel crossed his muscled arms over his chest. With his jacket now removed, his tattoos and piercings were boldly on show. “Next is Bara.”