Original Sin

Chapter 20

Much to her surprise, Hailey felt more confident this morning in jeans and a nice shirt than she had last night in the little red dress. She now stared into the honey-colored eyes of the last arch angel, Gabriel, ready to draw him to their side of this upcoming fight. He was cocky as ever, raising a quizzical brow at her choice of outfit. She flinched as he obviously scanned her shapely figure. Gabriel couldn't seem to keep his mind off of...that. 

Alex kept a watchful eye. He stood behind Hailey's chair and seemed ready to pounce on Gabriel whenever she would let him. She didn't think he much cared for the idea of working with another arch angel, but also wasn't blind to their current situation- They were going to need some help to make this "avoiding the apocalypse" plan work. 

"You have to know, Gabriel, Michael isn't going to let you just roam around Earth once he's taken control of every human soul on the planet," Hailey stated matter of factly.

Gabriel, however, didn't seem intimidated by this very real threat. He just shrugged his shoulders. "I've got more than enough contacts all over the world. I can hide well. Michael would definitely have trouble containing me."

Hailey scoffed at his arrogance. Did he think he was untouchable?

"You think Michael just plans on using himself for this war? He's taken so many demons from my control, I'm having difficulty keeping track of lost souls." Alex spoke up from behind Hailey's chair. His voice was prickled with disdain, but if whether that was for Gabriel or his supposedly loyal demons, she wasn't sure. 

"It's your problem. Not mine." Gabriel shook his head and fiddled with the buttons on his shirt collar. 

Hailey put her hand over Alex's, which not rested on her shoulder. She could feel it tense as Gabriel continued his determined stubbornness.

"Look," Hailey stated, channeling all of her intimidating persona, or at least what had developed over the course of teaching hot-headed high school students, "We don't particularly like the idea of a divine war either. We'd much rather just go live a quiet life somewhere. But we don't get to do that, and neither do you!" She leaned in closer to him, staring into his eyes, looking for a chink in his armor. No one, and nothing, in this universe was impenetrable. "So if you want to keep this lavish lifestyle you have going on, you best figure out how to push aside whatever animosity you have towards us and help take Michael out of the equation, permanently."

Gabriel chanced a glance at Alex then, his smile long gone. He seemed to be considering things a little harder now. The threat to his freedom and playboy life was real. Perhaps that was the leverage Hailey and Alex needed to bring him to his senses?

He sighed, clearly out of luck. His argument was lost before it even began. Gabriel adjusted his shirt collar, unbuttoning the top button like it was suffocating him. "Do you know why I dislike the two of you so much?" he questioned.

Hailey and Alex both shook their heads. "I'd love to find out," Alex muttered.

"It's a fact that neither one of you should be alive right now," Gabriel continued. "I have no idea why God decided to spare the two of you. He certainly didn't care about any of his previous angels. You remember the angel Trinity?" He nodded in Alex's direction.

The question was directed at Alex, who shifted nervously, shuffling his weight around from one foot to the other.

"God decided she wasn't doing her job correctly, taking care of her little corner of the universe, so he summoned her to appear in front of him. He snapped his fingers, and poof she was gone." Gabriel made a point of snapping his fingers and snarling at the mention of God's name to demonstrate his distaste for the deity. "Then for some reason, He decided to create humans. The minute one of His little humans makes a mistake with one of His best angels, He gets soft. Why?" He raised his shoulders and scrunched both brows together, clearly exaggerating his confusion.