Page 10 of Far From Center
“Get off me. By the Goddess, you weigh a freaking ton. Why are you so heavy? Oh sweet Mother, you broke the wand. You broke it.” Her words choked on something that sounded like a sob. “It’s broken and I needed it.”
The human woman. It washerheartbeat filling his ears, her scent in his lungs. He’d collapsed on top of her, his weight pinning her to the ground. Rolling off to the side, he sat up and stared at his hands. It was like when he’d had the collar on only a thousand times worse. He could feel everything, hear, see, and smell everything in agonizing detail. His flesh had taken on a tanned cast. Something inside him grumbled and twisted.
“What did you do?” he whispered. Anger was beyond him at this point. Instead he felt…fear? Where were his wings? By everything holywhere were his wings?
“Me?Me? I didn’t do anything. Well, I wanted to do something, but youbroke the wand, you stupid oaf.”
“A wand.” Aaru above. Broken magical devices released all their charges at once, sometimes amplifying the effect dramatically. “What was this wand supposed to do?”
“Turn demons into a human for twenty-four hours. Ineededthat in case…well, I needed it and now you’ve broken it.” She picked up the two pieces of wand and held them together, biting her lower lip when it began to quiver.
“How many charges did it have?” Hopefully he could shake this off in less than twenty-four hours or this whole trip would be a waste of time. He could hardly track and punish a rebel angel while he was a human. And why were his insides making that noise? It was quite uncomfortable.
Her lip quivered again. “Twenty. It was very expensive. And I needed it.” She turned to him, her eyes narrowing, and that trembling lip thinning. “Youwillreimburse me for it. You broke it. You buy it. That’s a human law here. I found that one out the hard way.”
“I am not paying for a broken wand,” he retorted. “I didn’t intentionally break it. You were attacking me and I was simply trying to disarm you. Defending myself does not obligate me to pay reparations.”
“You most certainlydidintentionally break it,” she snapped back. “You twisted it. What do you expect a piece of wood to do when some muscle-bound idiot tries to turn it into a pretzel? And besides that, the self-defense excuse is phoo-hockey. You were in my room uninvited, going through my personal belongings. I have a right to expect privacy, and you were trespassing. When I subdued you and tried to run, you tackled me. You’re like a gazillion times more powerful than I am. I’m the one who was acting in self-defense, not you.”
“Phoo-hockey? What does that even mean? And at the time of the tackling incident, I was not a gazillion times more powerful than you, however much a gazillion might be. You’d put some repulsive collar thing on me and refused to take it off.”
“And when the maids freed you and took it off, did you leave?” she snapped. “No, you didn’t. You stayed behind and lay in wait for me. In spite of your promises, you intended to do me harm, and atthattime, you were a gazillion times more powerful than me.”
“You made me angry.” That was a horrible excuse. He was an archangel. He shouldn’t be so readily tempted into the mortal sin of anger. Thiswashis fault. And he would gladly have done penance for his actions, but this wasn’t the time. Tura was once again going to slip through his fingers. It might take years for him to track him down again. It might take decades. And after absorbing a minimum of twenty-times a magical spell, he was unlikely to recover in the next three days.
He’d be lucky to recover in the next month. Actually he’d be lucky to recover at all. The thought was chilling.
The woman sighed, running her fingers through her long, dark-blond hair. “I overreacted. When I saw you I should have just run for it. I guess I was angry too. And I can’t completely blameyoufor being angry after I bashed you in the head with a frying pan and tied you to my bed.”
And put that repulsive collar on him. And put those not-so-repulsive pair of tiny pants in his mouth.
“I’m sorry.” The woman shook her head. “If I could take it back, I would. If I could do something to make up for it, I would. I’m sorry.”
How horrible was it that a human woman apologized for her sin of anger, and he hadn’t yet done so? So much for being an archangel. Guilt wracked him. Whatever had happened, this was his own fault. Scaring a human, then blaming her for his own sin. How base of him.
“You said you were going to punish me. I know what demons do when they punish, and I was scared, otherwise I would never have gotten the wand out of my purse.” she continued. “But collaring you and whacking you with the fry pan — that was my fault and I’m sorry.”
Wait, demons? “I’m not a demon. I’m an angel,” Gabriel told her. He’d deal with whatever she’d done to him later. Right now his priority had to be making this whole thing right with this human and trying to atone for losing his temper and threatening her.
Her eyes widened. “No! You can’t be! Angels don’t break into people’s rooms, root through their underwear like perverts, then pin them to the floor. Angels don’t threaten to harm people.”
In all his four billion years, Gabriel had never felt so small, so unevolved. “It’s me that should be apologizing. I’m not used to manifesting in a human form, and I’m afraid I let the sensations and emotions get the better of me. Please forgive me.” He took a deep breath, steeling himself for his next words. “I am the archangel Gabriel, member of the Ruling Council of Angels, and the third eldest angel in all of Aaru and I deeply regret my actions.”
The woman looked at him in horror. “Gabriel? NotthatGabriel? The one with a stick up his butt? The pompous, sanctimonious, jerk? The smug, self-righteous, intolerably boring Gabriel?”
“No, I am not any of those things.” He scowled. Who had been saying those horrible and untrue things about him? Actually, he knew who had been saying those things, and the very next Ruling Council meeting he was going to have some words with her. Or possibly smash a pastry in her face. “I am the Exalted, Ancient and Revered Archangel Gabriel, Guardian of the Truth, the Ancient Messenger.”
She blinked at him in surprise. “Are there more titles you’ve let out of that list? Surely you have more than just the four. Or was that five?”
Was she laughing at him? “I do have more, but it seemed pompous to be reciting all thirty at this particular time.”
Shewaslaughing at him, the hussy. But just as quickly her smile faded and a look of dread settled across her face. “Thearchangel Gabriel? I hit an archangel on the head with a frying pan. By the Goddess, I am in such trouble.”
“It was my own fault. There is no blame to you in this matter.” He ran a hand through his hair. “You can’t be held responsible for your behavior. You’re just a human, and thus vulnerable to wild emotional responses, poor decision-making, with a proclivity toward sin. Such an unevolved being with a low vibration pattern and paltry intelligence shouldn’t be expected to overcome their sense of fear and need for self-preservation. You’re not to blame for this.”
“Why thank you,” she drawled. Was that a note of sarcasm in her voice? “This unevolved, lesser being still feels she bears some blame for your circumstances. If there is anything I can do to make amends, I’d be happy to do so.”
Again, he felt guilty. He should be the one apologizing. He should be the one offering to make amends. But all he could think of now was how Tura was once again going to get away and escape punishment. “There is nothing a human can do to help me. I’m an angel. I do not need a human’s help.”
She shook her head. “But you’re no longer an angel. I’ve taken your grace. You’re not an angel any more, you’re a human.”
That part of his midsection that had been grumbling and twisting solidified into a cold hard lump as her words sunk in. Gabriel looked at his hands, wondering why they were trembling.Well Gabe, you idiot. You knew sin had a heavy price, just not quite this heavy.
