“Ow ow ow!” Sachiel woke up screaming, hands flying up to scrabble uselessly at Rag’s, while he kicked his legs to get his feet under him. “Stop! Ow!”
Rag laughed, letting go of the strands he was clutching and watching Sachiel scramble to his feet. “Sleeping on the job, you deserve worse than that.”
Sachiel scowled and rubbed at his newly acquired sore spot. “There hasn’t been an attempted jail break since the humans were living in caves.”
“And a good thing, with a security team like you to keep an eye out.”
“I was having such a good dream, too,” Sachiel spoke through a yawn, pouting as he continued to rub his scalp.
“You’ll be nothing but a fond memory yourself if you take any longer to get moving. Camiel is pissed.”
Sachi paled. “Oh no what time is it?”
“Mhm,” Rag nodded. “You’re already in trouble.”
“Shiiiit,” he groaned, dropping his face into his palms.
The ride back up the elevator consisted of Sachiel frantically pacing and chewing harshly on his thumb nail, while Rag leaned against the back wall and watched him with mild amusement. The grin was quickly wiped off his face when the elevator doors slid open, revealing Remi and Camiel waiting with furious expressions.
Sachi whimpered. “Please tell me someone else pissed you off more than I did.”
“Actually, yes,” Cami hissed. “Those stupid feathered fucks wrote a letter asking Mags to come meet them in the mortal realm! As if she’s that stupid!”
“Judas went to deal with them,” Remi picked up where she left off, “but you know who has balls bigger than I thought?”
“Michael!” Cami threw her hands wide to emphasize her shout. “He has some nerve, writing to Lucenow!”
Rag blinked. “I can’t tell if you’re upset they asked for Mags, or excited to have new gossip after a couple millennia.”
“Yes,” Remi dodged the question and grabbed her husband by the wrist, hauling him from the elevator and leading him towards the exit. “So now we have to go fill Luce in and figure out which level of ‘oh fuck’ our defenses need to be on if they’re onto our plan for the armor.”
Uriel felt a bone deep sense of dread as he waited on the rooftop. It gnawed at him relentlessly, like an animal instinct warning of danger, but without any seeming cause for the sensation, he was left frustrated and anxious as he waited for his commander to return from his attempt to contact Mary Magdalene.
The soft tread of footsteps alerted him to Michael’s approach, so light that most wouldn’t have picked up on the sound but one that should have been easily detected by those with superior senses. Uriel turned, cursing himself for his slowed reaction time. It had been a long while since they had needed to scout and stalk, and apparently, he was more out of practice than he had thought.
He smiled ruefully as Michael knelt beside him. “Well, there’s no denying it now, old friend. We’re caught between a rock and a hard place.”
“Indeed.” The taller angel was clearly troubled by his task, and Uriel hated that he was about to press on the wound.
“Will you really turn her over to Him?”
“Jehovah demands her brought to him for trial.”
“That is not what I asked you,” Uriel countered sternly.
“I know.”
“So, you haven’t decided.” They both fell silent, and Uriel peeked back over the edge of the rooftop they crouched on. “I hate this.”
“As do I. But you know if we go against these orders, our punishment will be just as awful.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be serving such a broken system,” Uriel muttered. It wasn’t the first time he and Michael had had a conversation like this, though they were always careful to do so far from Heaven’s gates. Even now, he felt a tremor of anxiety knowing that Jehovah had eyes and spies everywhere.
“That’s heresy,” Michael chastened him on instinct, but there was a look of resignation on his face.
“So it is.” Uriel laid back on the rooftop, marveling at the absence of his russet wings. It was always such an odd sensation to have his wings glamoured—essentially folded into his being rather than out on display.
Though he had to admit, it was nice to be able to wear mortal clothing without having to have it custom tailored. The humans were constantly innovating with fashion and style, and the latest trend of comfortable, functional clothing was just fine with him. It was a definite improvement over the tights and doublets of the renaissance.
