Falling Into Darkness Page 8

  “Why would I want to hide?” Lucifer said. “I’m leader of a great army. What would I have to gain by giving that up?”

  Michael kissed Lucifer’s ear before whispering into it. “Me.”

  They formed the plan quickly, and if Michael was surprised at Lucifer’s easy capitulation, he refrained from commenting on the same.

  Michael left him with a final lingering kiss and flew back to the camp just as the herald was about to sound the start of the battle again. He raised his hand to stop him blowing the horn and hurried to the archangels’ tent.

  As he soared through the camp he saw the place was in disarray. Tents had been burned to the ground, some still smoldering in the early dawn light. The camp had been attacked during the night, and Michael now understood why Gabriel had not returned with reinforcements.

  Inside one of the few remaining tents, he found Gabriel announcing the morning strategy. His friend glanced up at Michael’s entrance and his eyes widened in astonishment. Michael felt a slight twinge of annoyance that Gabriel’s expression signified he hadn’t believed him capable of winning the fight against Lucifer. Then he remembered he hadn’t.

  “Michael!” Gabriel rushed round the table and pulled him into his arms. “You must be exhausted.”

  “I’m good. I slept a little last night.”

  Gabriel stepped back and guided Michael to a cushioned chair. “Is it over?”

  Michael nodded.

  Gabriel faced the rest of the archangels. “Spread the word. With Lucifer defeated the tide will turn. We will be victorious and this war will end today.”

  The archangels dispersed to pass on the news. Gabriel remained with Michael and when they were alone he took hold of his hand.

  “How are you?” he asked kindly.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure?” Gabriel sounded doubtful. “Perhaps you’re in shock. Maybe you should go home and leave the rest of us to finish this off.”

  Michael didn’t want to run away, but the days of battling Lucifer had taken their toll. Even though he had slept a little the previous night, the few hours on the hard, damp ground hadn’t been enough. Right now he wanted to spend another week curled up in bed, preferably with Lucifer in his arms.

  “Go home, Michael,” Gabriel said. “That’s an order.”

  Michael gave him a smile. “I thought I was in charge around here?”

  “I took over command while you were busy. You can have your position back once you’ve rested. Now go home.”

  Once Gabriel had left, Michael breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t needed to concoct an elaborate set of lies. Maybe later that would be necessary, when his friends asked for details, but right now they were satisfied to make assumptions, ones Michael didn’t intend to correct.

  The sound of the horn was loud, but the cheers of victorious angels almost drowned it out.

  Michael closed his eyes and concentrated on home. A moment later he sat on his beach, watching the waves lap against the golden sands.

  He cast his armor aside and lay back on the dunes. Was the war truly going to end today, or was it merely moving on to another stage?

  He wondered where Lucifer was right now. Had he kept his side of the bargain or had he revealed his presence after all?

  Perhaps the archangels had already discovered Michael’s deception and were even now considering how to deal with him.

  No, he couldn’t let himself think that. Lucifer wouldn’t betray him. He was as tired of this war as Michael, he was sure of it.

  Closing his eyes, Michael slept, while the battle raged on Earth.

  * * * *

  Michael woke when Gabriel shook his shoulder.

  “It’s over,” Gabriel said. “The demons have retreated to the Underworld. Without Lucifer leading them they’ve fallen into disarray. They’ll no doubt regroup in time, but it gives us the opportunity to recruit and hopefully be better prepared when the next war starts.”

  “The next war?” Michael didn’t want to think about another war.

  Gabriel sat beside him. “It’ll come eventually. Only the destruction of every living demon could end it all.”

  “Or every living angel,” Michael pointed out.

  Gabriel acknowledged his comment with a nod.

  “What were our losses?” Michael asked.

  “All the archangels have survived, but we lost a great many lesser angels. Metatron’s losses were the heaviest.”

  Michael wasn’t surprised. Metatron, known as the Scribe, had never been comfortable fighting, and the angels he had recruited over the years were of a similar disposition.

  “What of Raphael’s angels?” Michael asked. Many of his friend’s angels were healers and often torn between fighting the demons and healing their fallen comrades, putting themselves in further danger in the process.

  “He’s lost many, as expected, but his favorites survived.”

  Michael was glad for the small mercy. He knew Raphael took it harder than any of them when he lost one of his angels, often considering it a personal failure on his part.

  “There’s one more thing before I go,” Gabriel said. “We couldn’t find Lucifer’s body.”

  “You searched?” Michael whispered.

  “Of course. He was once one of us. We had hoped to bring him home.”

  “His home hasn’t been here for a long time,” Michael said.

  “Still, I thought you might have wished to say a proper farewell to him. We can still have a memorial service for him, if you want.”

  Michael shook his head. He couldn’t go through with such a sham, not without confessing what he had done.

  Gabriel patted him on the shoulder and stood to leave. “Goodnight, Michael. I’ll see you tomorrow in the archangels’ chamber for the debriefing.”

  Michael watched Gabriel walk away before he made his way to his house, a slightly larger abode than it had been all those centuries ago when he had sat here on the beach with Lucifer. The world had moved on a great deal since then. Perhaps it was time he took another look at modern architecture and did some more remodeling. The work would help take his mind off things, or at least he hoped so.

  * * * *

  The debriefing the following day was relatively swift. Michael said little. The archangels had made assumptions about what had happened and he’d let them. He kept his responses short and to the point, only lying when he absolutely had to, and keeping it as brief as possible. Even so, the guilt nearly tore him apart.

  He had never willingly lied to anyone before, and to do so now was killing something inside him.

  As he sat in his chair, listening to the archangels discuss the remaining demons and strategies for how to deal with them in the coming years, Michael’s thoughts drifted. Was this how it started? Had he taken the first step toward falling from grace himself? How many lies did it take before he was lost?

  When Raphael asked him a question more than once, Michael did his best to concentrate on the meeting, but still his worries lingered.

  Would there soon be another fallen angel in the Underworld?

  * * * *

  For several weeks, Michael resisted the temptation to use his key to the Underworld. It helped that Gabriel kept a close eye on him, rarely leaving him alone for long periods of time, and encouraging him to socialize with the rest of them, even when he would rather have wallowed in his misery and guilt alone.

  After a while Gabriel began to give Michael some time to himself. Michael had often been a loner and no one thought it unusual that he wished to enjoy the solitude on occasion.

  Michael touched the gem and whispered Lucifer’s name. At first nothing happened. Then the world shimmered around him. One moment he was seated on the grass by their pool, the next he sat in the center of a luxurious bed in a lavishly furnished cave.

  “Michael?” Lucifer grinned and ran across the room, leaping onto the bed and tackling Michael as he toppled him onto the covers. “You’re here, at last. You don�
��t know how many times I’ve considered risking everything by traveling to the realm of angels to find you.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  Lucifer ducked his head. “I feared you may have changed your mind.”

  “No, I haven’t, as you can see.”

  Lucifer smiled and kissed him briefly. “Have you any idea how dull it is to be invisible to everyone? Even worse when the only man who knows you’re alive is in another realm, and the one realm I can’t view from here.”

  Michael hugged Lucifer and laughed with sheer joy at being in his lover’s arms again. “I’m thinking you might have missed me.”

  Lucifer kissed him again and tore at his clothes. “Whatever gave you that idea? I’m just deathly bored.”

  Michael grabbed Lucifer’s hard cock and gave it a squeeze. “I think it’s a little more than boredom,” he teased as Lucifer bucked into his hand.

  “You could have come sooner,” Lucifer chided.

  “I’ve been watched. My friends are concerned for my wellbeing. It’s hard to slip away when you’re monitored every minute of every day.”

  “I’ll have to teach you how to shield yourself from the eyes of others,” Lucifer told him. “It isn’t so hard to achieve, and if you’re going to visit me here, you should take the time to master the ability.”

  Michael’s first instinct was to refuse the offer, until he remembered Lucifer had been able to make himself invisible even before his fall. The power wasn’t demonic, simply an angelic ability Michael had yet to learn. “I’d like that,” he said. “And I’m sorry for not coming sooner.”

  “It matters not,” Lucifer said. “You’re here now and I’m not going to let you out of my bed until you’ve been well and truly fucked.”

  “I can’t wait,” Michael said. “But I need to know something first.”

  “Ask quickly. I can’t wait much longer.”

  Michael drew in a breath for courage. “There are many handsome demons among your ranks.”

  “There are, but that’s not a question.”

  “How many have you had in your bed?” Michael asked.

  Lucifer pulled back and stared at him in astonishment. “You think I’ve been unfaithful to you?”

  “It’s been centuries,” Michael reminded him. “I’ve watched you for much of that time in the pool of visions. I’ve seen you laughing and flirting with many men, both humans and demons.”

  Lucifer sat back. “Yes, I laugh and flirt with my followers and the humans. It means nothing. Have you ever seen me do anything more than flirt?”

  “No.”

  Lucifer nodded. “That’s because there has been no other except you. I have ached for you since the moment we parted. You are the only one to ever share my bed, either in the past, the present, or the future. I want no other but you. Do you understand me?”

  Michael nodded.

  “Say it out loud,” Lucifer ordered. “Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

  “Yes,” Michael whispered.

  “Good,” Lucifer said. “I came to your bed a virgin.” He took Michael’s hand and placed it over his groin. “Your hands are the only ones to have touched me this way. I have only ever tasted your lips, your cock, your seed. Yours is the body I crave day and night. I won’t give you up, Michael.”

  “I’m here,” Michael said. “I shouldn’t be, and I’m risking everything by coming here, but I can’t stay away from you either.”

  Lucifer swept Michael into his arms and rolled him over the covers. Michael groaned as Lucifer rubbed against him, grinding their cocks together.

  “Tell me you love me,” Lucifer begged. “Please, Michael, let me hear the words I’ve longed for all these lonely years.”

  Michael couldn’t deny him such a small thing. “I love you, Lucifer, more than anything.”

  Lucifer kissed him as they rocked against each other. Michael wrapped his legs around Lucifer’s waist, holding him in place above him.

  “Will anyone hear me if I scream?” Michael asked.

  “My chambers are completely soundproof,” Lucifer assured him. “Yell as loud as you want, no demon will hear you.”

  Michael took Lucifer at his word, and when he came a few minutes later, he screamed out Lucifer’s name so loudly he thought the entire Underworld must surely have heard him anyway.

  Afterwards, he rested his head on Lucifer’s chest and closed his eyes, shutting out reality for a few blissful moments.

  “How long do you think we can keep this secret?” Lucifer asked.

  “For as long as we can,” Michael replied. “It’s just a matter of time until one of the angels searches for me in the pool of visions and sees me here in your arms.”

  “The pool cannot show anything here,” Lucifer said.

  “We’ve seen the Underworld many times in the pool,” Michael said. “We’ve watched you in your throne room, holding court.”

  “Yes, but you’ve not seen this chamber, have you?”

  Michael thought about it and realized he hadn’t.

  “These rooms, my private chambers, are shielded from all angelic methods of spying,” Lucifer explained. “So long as we remain within my rooms, we’re invisible to the archangels.”

  “Then this is the only place we can be together?”

  “We can be together anywhere, but this is the only place we can be sure of not being caught.”

  Michael supposed that would have to do. He could see about putting some of his own touches on the chambers, maybe bring Lucifer some of the gems from his former home too. He was still contemplating decorating the cavern when Lucifer raised a problem Michael hadn’t yet considered.

  “What are you going to tell the archangels if they ask where you’ve been when they can’t see you in their spying pool?”

  “I don’t know,” Michael said. “I hope they trust me enough to not search for me in the pool.”

  “Do you truly think they won’t notice your absences?”

  Michael sighed. It was only a matter of time before they questioned him. They had wondered where he was at breakfast when he had been spying on Lucifer. His friends were far too observant at times.

  “Let’s not worry about such things today,” Michael said. “We’ve been apart too long. Let us enjoy this time together while we can.”

  Lucifer didn’t argue. He ran his fingers through Michael’s long hair and held him as he slept.

  * * * *

  For the next few years Michael slipped away to see Lucifer in the Underworld every chance he could. He cherished the time spent with his lover as they rediscovered the pleasures to be found in each other’s body.

  Occasionally Lucifer raised the idea of Michael joining him in the Underworld permanently, but he didn’t press the issue when Michael refused.

  Michael didn’t dare meet Lucifer anywhere except his private chambers, and he soon began to think of the rooms as his second home. He spent as much time there as he did in his own beach house.

  Secure in the knowledge that if the archangels suspected anything they would have raised their concerns long ago, Michael soon forgot how observant Gabriel in particular could be.

  * * * *

  “Good morning, Michael,” Gabriel said as Michael arrived back in his beach house.

  Michael nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of an unexpected voice in the dark. “Gabriel! What are you doing here so early?”

  “Waiting for you.”

  “What for? Is something wrong?”

  Michael lit the lamp on the table. In the illuminated room he could see the worry on Gabriel’s face.

  “You tell me,” Gabriel replied. “Where have you been all night?”

  Michael shrugged. “Out.”

  “Out where?”

  “Just out.”

  “Michael, please don’t lie to me. I’m going to ask you one more time. Where were you last night?”

  Michael didn’t want to lie, yet he could not tell the truth either. Gabriel
wouldn’t understand. No one would. “Does it matter?”

  Gabriel stood and walked over to him. He reached for Michael’s necklace and touched the stone. “You still wear Lucifer’s gift.”

  The moment Gabriel spoke Lucifer’s name the room shimmered and the two of them found themselves standing in Lucifer’s chamber.

  “Did you forget something, Michael?” Lucifer asked as he turned round. “Oh fuck.”

  Michael wasn’t sure who appeared more shocked, Gabriel or Lucifer.

  Gabriel recovered first, dropping the necklace back against Michael’s chest and stepping over to a nearby chair, which he dropped into heavily.

  “Gabriel?” Michael whispered. “I can explain.”

  “Don’t.” Gabriel raised his hand. He didn’t seem angry, just disappointed, which to Michael was even worse. “You lied to us. You lied to me. I thought we were friends. I knew you were keeping something from me, but I never imagined your secret to be this. How do I get out of here?”

  “Just think of home and you’ll be there,” Michael replied quietly.

  Gabriel didn’t waste any time with more questions. He disappeared from the room in an instant.

  Lucifer hurried across the room and took Michael into his arms. “Stay here and you never have to face the archangels again. Take your place at my side.”

  Michael shook his head. “I must go back. I have to explain.”

  “Explain what?” Lucifer asked. “How you lied about my death and have been sharing my bed ever since?”

  “I owe it to them to face the consequences of my actions. Do you understand?”

  “No,” Lucifer said. “I don’t.”

  Michael sighed and stepped back from Lucifer. He couldn’t always think clearly when Lucifer took him in his arms. “I’ll be back soon.”

  “Will you?” Lucifer said. “Do you honestly believe the archangels will let you come back to me, now they know where you disappear to?”

  Michael didn’t know, but he guessed he would soon find out.

  Lucifer gave Michael one last kiss before he stepped back and sat on the bed. “I’ll be waiting for you, and you know my offer still stands. If I’m about to be resurrected, I want you at my side.”