Lilith/Cain

Despite the forces of gravity and air trying to pull them apart, Angie kept hold around Gabriel’s waist. One thought kept rotating in her mind a million times a second. This is it, this is it, thisisit. They weren’t going to get out of this one, not this time. Not even Gabriel could survive a fall from this height.

A new force barrelled into them from the side. Too much was happening all at once and Angie could only register bits and pieces. Pain in her side, shock, the sound of breaking glass. The world spun around way too fast and when it stopped there were entirely too many limbs in their pile.

“What?” she croaked when she found she could move. She lifted her head slowly, her ears ringing. “I’m alive?”

There was a groan underneath her. Gabriel’s chest moved under hers as he tried to rise, but he gave up halfway and collapsed. Glass crunched under him as he settled on the frayed carpet.

Carpet? Angie looked the way they’d come. She could see a broken window. The frame and part of the wall was broken as well. A small TV sat on a cabinet next to it, still on. A pair of wide eyes looked at them from around a large armchair. “¿Qué haces en mi casa?” an elderly voice wavered.

“No te preocupes, vamos a dejar pronto.” Another voice, above her, also part of the pile.

Sybil released her grip on the pair on the floor and laughed as she pushed her hood back. She shook bits of glass out of her hair. “Wooo!” She punched the air. “Take that, fate!” A tinny, but perky, beat could be heard from her clothes. She fumbled in her hoodie for her phone and promptly muted it. “No, I won this time. Shush,” she said as she pocketed it again.

Gabriel tried moving again, but could only groan. Sybil looked down at him. “Sorry you had to be on the bottom, dude. Angie would have been liquified if I didn’t use you as a shield.”

“No, I’m fine,” Gabriel said weakly. “I’m just gonna lie here for a bit.” He managed to reach a hand up to the glass-covered carpet next to his head. He rubbed it lightly. “Very comfy here.” He let out an exhale that creaked from the sound of broken ribs.

“¿Cómo voy a explicar esto a mi casero?” the voice from the chair came again.

“No te preocupes. Dame un momento.” Sybil got to her feet and pulled out a white envelope. She handed it to the elderly lady sitting in the armchair. “Esto era para otra persona, sino que debe cubrir los costos de la fijación de su ventana.”

The woman accepted the envelope and nodded quietly. She turned back to the TV with a dismissive wave of her hand. “No dejes que la puerta te ha golpeado en el camino de salida.”

Sybil laughed again. “Thanks much.” She hurried back over to Gabriel and grabbed both of his hands. “Okay, time to leave.”

Angie got to her feet carefully, as her legs were so wobbly her knees knocked together. Gabriel was much more reluctant to be on his feet. “No, not yet. The floor is so nice…” he protested weakly.

“Not time to rest, we gotta get to the roof.”

“The… roof?”

She offered no further clarification, instead hauling him up to his feet. He did so with a great creaking, and a few sharp snaps, but he didn’t fall when she released him.

He put his hands to his spine and pushed it back into alignment with several pops. “Oh... that’s better.”

“Good, then let’s get going.”

Angie took a few shaky steps forward, completely surprised that, outside of a few scratches, she was unharmed. Gabriel put his arm under her hands, offering her support. “How....” was all that escaped her mouth.

“You can thank Callie later. We have to hurry. I didn’t have time to do this from the right side. We have to get back across the street.”

They left the apartment and Sybil pushed the button for the elevator. Angie put a hand on her shoulder as her head finally cleared. “You saved us.”

“Yeah, I am so badass.” She grinned. “Right in the nick of time, too. If I had been just a second later…” She looked away as she jabbed the button again, her smile dropping.

The pieces were slowing filling in. “Callie told you we were gonna fall.”

“Yes she did.” Sybil kept her thumb on the button, the light flickering weakly.

“Is she okay?” Angie asked.

“She didn’t call us?” Gabriel cut in.

Sybil put her hood up as the elevator door slid open. “She’s better now, and she couldn’t call you.”

Gabriel and Angie followed her in. “Why not?”

“You were already on Cain’s radar, and she couldn’t let him spot her again. He’s the one that made her sick in the first place. Nearly fried her brain with his influence.” Sybil pressed the floor number and the ‘Close Doors’ button at the same time.

“Why would Cain target Callie?” Angie asked.

“Because she was snooping around, or that was the way he saw it.” She shrugged. “Callie can’t always control what she sees. She’s so in tune with you, Angie, that things just come to her out of the blue. Once she saw your thread cross his, he was on her trail. She’s not even sure if he did it consciously, it could have been an automatic defense. She said-” She cut off.

Angie put a hand on the shorter vampire’s hooded sweatshirt. Sybil looked at her with bright red eyes. Her voice was shaky when she continued. “She said maybe just looking at him with her sight was enough to burn her out. He’s more than just powerful. She said it’s like he holds up the world…”

“He’s not immortal,” Angie said firmly. “He has all the influence, but I can see right under it like it’s not even there.”

“You’re going to fight him again?” Gabriel asked softly as the elevator stopped.

The doors slid open but Angie was looking back at him. “He has Chris.”

“I guess you don’t have a choice, then.”

“No, I don’t.”

Sybil led them out into the hall and to a locked door that lead to a stairwell. She broke the lock with a swift thrust and they climbed the stairs to the roof exit. They climbed up the narrow stairs, Sibyl and Angie first with Gabriel drifting behind. His gaze was on Angie’s back.

Sybil broke the lock on the door leading to the roof and pushed it open. The moon was high up in the sky now. Midnight reigned over Manhattan.

The two women stepped out onto the roof, Gabriel a few steps behind them. He reached out suddenly and grasped Angie’s hand. “We can’t go back up there, not like this.”

Angie turned to him. “We have to save our brothers from Cain. What do you expect us to do?”

He stepped close to her. Her eyes were so big he could see his reflection in them, the disguise he had unconsciously crafted with influence. That wasn’t what she saw though, she saw what was under the influence. What did he truly look like, he wondered. He had no idea.

Her heart was so pure that she didn’t pull away. Just the barest hesitation as he put a hand on her waist. She didn’t hesitate out of revulsion, but adjustment. She wasn’t used to him like this. He was almost a stranger.

He released her wrist and put a hand to her cheek. Her eyes closed and she tilted her face up to his. He pressed his lips to her as his hand moved from her cheek to her shoulder, gripping her tightly. The hand on her waist moved up, to the center of her chest.

He could feel the dark pulse of influence under her skin, slowly burrowing into her heart. He reached in with his own influence, his fingers curling around the spot just above her ribcage. He pulled his hand back quickly, miming pulling a dagger out her chest.

His influence yanked Manigault’s dark power out of her forcefully. Her back arched and her breath hitched in her throat. With no host to inhabit, it dispersed, joining the web of influence Cain used to blanket the world.

Angie pushed away from him with both hands. “Why did you do that? It was useful!”

“It was hurting you.”

“That doesn’t matter!” Her face was red with emotion.

“Cain could twist that shard too, now that he knows it is there. It’s no longer useful against him.” Gabriel’s voice was soft and calm.

He looked the same as he used to, his illusions back in place. Her vision blurred as her eyes pricked. “That doesn’t matter either.” Her breath hitched again. “It was you. I got to see what you really look like, and it was better that way…”

“That’s not me.”

She stared at him in shock while tears rolled down her cheeks. “What?”

He shrugged in that lazy way that always infuriated her. “That’s not what I see when I look in the mirror. That’s not the face I match my outfits to. To me, the illusion is the real me, the me on the inside that I choose to show on the outside.”

“But-” Her bottom lip quivered.

He put both hands to her cheeks and looked into her eyes. “You got to see something about me that I have never seen, but even though it might be ‘real’ to you, it isn’t. This is who I am.” He wiped away a fat tear. “I want to be the person I see reflected in your eyes.”

She buried her face in his shirt, wrapping her arms around him tightly. He kissed the top of her head tenderly. “It’s time to go save our family.”

She nodded and sniffed one last time. “Before they get into even more trouble.”

Gabriel looked up at the black spire across the street. “There is a good chance he didn’t kill them outright, since Lilith probably still wants you turned.”

“Well, she’s going to have to learn to live with disappointment.” Angie looked over at Sybil, who was at the edge of the roof. “So, what are we doing up here?”

“Well, here’s the thing. We can’t cross down at street level. The area is swarming with cops.” She peered down at the base of the tower. “I think I see your mom coming out now.” Sybil gave Angie a thumbs up. “She’s walking under her own power.”

Angie exhaled with relief. “Okay then, so how do we get across the street?”

Sybil sucked at her fangs. “See, that’s the other thing…”