Gabriel nodded. "I know, but it's time. How old are you?"
"Thirty-four," I replied, and the implications sank in. "Oh, man. That's the longest we’ve ever been away.”
Gabriel nodded, his blond hair slipping from behind his ear.
I took his hand. "Come sit down and visit with me while Lucian is away. He has no idea who he is, of course."
Gabriel nodded. "I know. If he did, he would've recognized my owl."
Gabriel's chosen animal form was an owl. Always had been.
"Of course." I shook my head as I walked into the living room. "You would think I would have remembered that."
He sat on the couch, and I snuggled close. I didn't know how long it would be before I saw him again, or if my memories would remain without him nearby to help.
Angels and Fallen were tied to Earth. We lived in our own realms, Heaven for the Angels and Hell for the Fallen. But being out of the Earth realm weakened us, and every five hundred years or so, we were reborn as humans, lived a short human life, then returned to our own realms. The only catch was that while we were human, we remembered nothing of our eternal selves, usually. Gabriel said Adam remembered being Michael. If that was true, it was a rare occurrence.
"How is Hell holding up?"
"The gates are weakening," he said again. "Lower-level demons are starting to slip out."
Fear tickled up my spine.Anydemons escaping Hell would wreak havoc on Earth. There was a reason we had the gates. They were sorely needed. "That's not good."
He shook his head. "No. And it's only going to get worse. We've got to get Lucifer back to Hell or the gates could weaken to the point of crumbling."
I waved my hand at him. "Oh, that won't happen."
"Lilith." He put his hand on my leg. It felt strange to not be called the name I'd been born with. My human and eternal memories were fighting for room in my all-too-human head. "Lucifer has never lived this long. No Angel or Fallen has. Thirty-Five has been the longest recorded human cycle, and that was several hundred years ago."
I nodded. "I know, but it's a fluke. Something will happen and we'll go home soon." He was overreacting. "Can't we just enjoy this stolen time together until Lucian gets home?" I asked.
Gabriel squeezed my hand and smiled at me. "Lucifer. He's Lucifer, try to remember."
He was right. It was exceedingly easy to slip back into my Constance memories and let Lilith slip away. "Lucifer. Yes. Well, try not to worry, dear." I pulled my hand from his and stroked his cheek, desire blooming through me. I would've loved to have slipped upstairs and greeted him properly, but it didn't sit exactly right with Lucian's baby inside me.
Lucifer's.
The baby. My heart squeezed in fear and horror. "Oh, for the love of Hell," I cursed. "The baby."
Gabriel nodded. "I wondered how long it would take you to get there."
"How?" I asked, wrapping my arms around my stomach. "In the thousands of years I've been alive, all the times I've been human, I've never been able to get pregnant. Gabriel, how could this have happened?"
It had been a part of the Fall. When Lucifer and I abdicated our thrones and left the royal family, we'd been given edicts. One was that our lives would forever be tied to one another. The other was that we'd never be allowed to have children, neither of us. Not together, not apart.
Gabriel stared at my stomach. "That is something we need to find out."
7
Michael
Iwasn’t a human named Adam. I didn’t putt-around in a house and didn’t have a strange, unexplainable need to be close to the human woman next door. No, I was Michael. An angel. And that woman? She was Lilith, my lover.
Hissing, I rubbed the back of my head as I climbed off of my living room floor. Gabriel must have restored her memories, but this wasn’t how many human lifetimes had gone so far. I’d never regained my memories while still in my human form. And usually, I was with someone, found a partner.
What the hell was going on?
Stumbling over to the wet bar, I poured myself a stiff scotch and sank back onto my couch, taking a long sip of it. Fuck. An angel? Really? And I was in love with the queen of Hell?
