A Dance Of Gods ✓

23. A normal day

Taylor

I clutch the sheets tighter to my chest and shrug. "I suppose... I could go apartment hunting. I can't stay here forever."

  I could. Rhea wouldn't mind. She hates living alone. I do too, but the prospect of getting caught fucking anybody isn't appealing to me.

Lucifer's brother- MICHAEL THE FUCKING ARCHANGEL- nods and clasps his hands in front of him. I narrow my eyes.

"Can you....turn around?" I ask. While he isn't looking at me, It hits him slowly; Nakedness in front of strangers is not a common thing for human women.

"Forgive me, of course." He stops staring at the wall above my head and turns around. I hadn't noticed before but there are two tiny slits on the upper back of his robe, where I imagine his wings would be.

I swing my feet over the edge of the bed and stand up, letting the sheets fall around me. I walk through the apartment, slowly picking up my clothes. When I'm done I lock myself in Rhea's bathroom and quickly throw them on, not wanting to waste the day. Apartment hunting in the city isn't too difficult since there are so many of them, but price is always the issue. Unlike Rhea, I can't afford a $50k a month penthouse.

When I brush tangles out of my hair, I feel nothing but Lucifer's hands in it- inadvertently creating said tangles. I'm beginning to feel the soreness in my legs and..... again, coming down from my high. By the time I comb a clear gel into my eyebrows, I'm having trouble standing. I step out of the bathroom and Michael turns to me.

"Ready?"

"Yeah Uhm...just.... Give me one second." I lean against Rhea's dresser for support. Michael sighs.

"Leave it to Lucifer to forget aftercare on a human woman....." He mumbles under his breath.

"I'm not-"

"You know what I mean. Here." He shoves his hands behind his back and a cabinet slams open in the kitchen. I tilt my head, too confused by his actions to be angry. When he shows me his hands again, one is holding an ibuprofen, and the other- a bottle of Evian.

I shove the pill in my mouth, open the bottle, and knock it back with a large sip.

"How did you.... Your hands were empty." I say, more of a statement than a question.

"Being an archangel does come with certain perks." He shrugs. "Unique abilities that aren't held by anybody else but our father. Materialization is something only I, Lucifer, Gabriel, and father are capable of. Item teleportation- just me and father."

"I thought... Lucifer wasn't an archangel." I raise an eyebrow as I grab my wallet and one of Rhea's purses.

"He isn't. He retained all gifts from when he was and... gained the ability to read the minds of hell's souls when he became the devil."

Lucifer didn't tell me that. Then again, we were busy doing other things.

We step into the elevator and he stays a few feet away, though he makes direct eye contact.

"My brother is... often misunderstood. I sometimes struggle with my father's decision to banish him." He continues.

"But he got called back- isn't that a good thing?"

  Michael doesn't reply with words, but his silence is answer enough. The rest of the elevator ride is silent, as is our walk outside- during which I'm scrolling through different websites looking for open houses a reasonable distance away. I come across one that's literally across the road, but Michael shakes his head.

  "That place has black mold and the water almost never works."

  "How would you know- never mind." I picture the information running through his head like it's nothing, suddenly becoming aware of how human I am in comparison to someone like him or Lucifer.

  "Your gifts will become stronger the more you use them. New ones may even emerge." He says, reading my mind. "Which is why it's so imperative you learn to control them as you go. Lucifer would never tell you this but human emotions are always the cause of a breakdown that leads to a descendant's death. Sadness, fear, anger.... All unavoidable, but if you learn to contain them so they don't fuel your gifts in an uncontrollable manner- you'll be fine."

  "How the hell am I supposed to control my emotions?" I roll my eyes and he shrugs his shoulders.

  "No descendant has ever been successful. I  can only hope... you are the first. Come on, there's a place a few miles away under my name that I never use. You can have it."

  "Michael.... I can't take an apartment for free. It wouldn't feel right."

  "Why not? I'm offering. It's not like you're stealing it-"

  "How would one even steal a.... never mind. My point is that... people don't just give apartments as gifts to people they just met."

  "I guess it's a good thing I'm not a person." Michael says and there's another flash of light behind him. He gently grabs my right hand, pressing a set of keys into the palm.

  Where the fuck are his pockets? The void?

  "No, my keys were actually sitting on my bedside table in-"

  "You know it's rude to poke around people's heads, right?"

  "Right...sorry....habit." He sighs. "But.... Whenever you're ready the apartment is yours. The cleaning lady comes every two weeks but you could request twice a week if necessary."

  "Michael  I can't....." I purse my lips, resisting out of habit. Knowing what he is and that he has a literal endless supply of money at his fingertips should help , but it doesn't.  I think about the amount of money sitting in my bank account and cringe. Rhea is an extremely generous boss and she's given me raises before just for the hell of it, but I refuse to play the best friend card. I always have- for the most part- when it comes to her money.

  But Michael.... Michael will literally NEVER run out of it. I'm not saying Rhea would, but there is a limit to hers.

  I finally nod, reluctantly accepting the free place to live.

  "Michael.... Can I ask you something?"

  "Anything."

  "Lucifer... gets all tense when I... ask him something that reminds him of the fall. What really happened?"

Michael tenses up for a split second too, then before I can ask what he's doing- a light emanates from his hand, so bright I have to close my eyes. He places the hand on my forehead and I feel a vibrating sensation in the middle of it.

  "You'll dream about it tonight."