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Camael clutched his own weapon, unsure of the Nephilim's true intentions. It would not be the first timethat he had bore witness to a half-breed's descent into madness after manifesting the full extent of itsheavenly might.

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leviathan

Aaron stood before him, heavenly armament in hand, and he studied the fearsome countenance of the Nephilim. In his weakened state, Camael wasn't sure if he could survive a battle with such an adversary,but prepared himself nonetheless. Neither spoke, but the angel warrior watched for the slightest hint ofattack. If there was to be battle, his first strikes would need to be lethal.

"That thing really pissed me off," Aaron said as a small smile played across his warrior's features. "Glad

to see you're all right."

And Camael lowered his sword, confident that the Nephilim's mental state was still intact— at least forthe moment.

Aaron placed his hand on Gabriel's side, watching the rise and fall of the dog's breathing. TheLabrador 's yellow coat was saturated with slime. "Hey," he said softly, giving his best friend a gentle shake. "It'stime to get up."

At first, the animal did not respond, his mind still in the embrace of doggy paradise. Aaron shook himagain a bit harder. "Gabriel, wake up."

"I am awake," replied the archangel wearily, still resting his emaciated frame against the cave wall.

Aaron looked up. "I was talking to the dog," he told the messenger of God. "His name is Gabriel, too." He smiled briefly and looked back at his friend, who was finally beginning to stir. "Hey, pally, you awakeyet?"

The dog stretched his four limbs and neck, emitting a low, throaty groan that began somewhere in lowerregions of his broad chest. Then he sighed, his dark brown eyes coming open.
 
"I was having a dream, Aaron,"
 
he said sleepily.
"I was
chasing rabbits and having lots of good things to eat."

Aaron stroked the dog's head lovingly. "You can do all that stuff out here—without being eaten by a seamonster."

The dog lifted his head and gazed about.
 
"Where are we?"
 
he asked, sitting up.
 
"The last thing Iremember . . . the old woman,"
 
he said, a wide-eyed expression of shock on his canine face.
 
"She spitsomething at me, and it made me numb."

"Yep, I know," Aaron nodded. "But I think we've taken care of that," he said, and looked in the

direction of the still smoldering remains of the mythological sea monster.

"The spawn cannot continue to exist without the beast's mind," Camael said, standing over the fleshy sacks that Aaron had liberated from the monster's body. He was checking to see which of the captives of Leviathan were still living. "They were all part of one great beast—and the parts cannot survive without the whole."

Gabriel stiffly climbed to his feet and shook, spattering the surrounding area with the digestive juices thatstill clung to his fur.

"Watch that," Aaron said, covering his face, his wings reflexively coming around to block the spray. "I've

got enough of that crap covering me."

"Then you won't notice a little more,"the dog said, and smiled that special smile unique to theLabrador .

"Maybe there's still a chance I can shove you back into one of those stomachs," Aaron grumbled with mock seriousness, giving the dog a squinty eyed stare. Gabriel barked and wagged his tail, none the worse for his experience being captive in the gut of a sea beast.

"Who's he?"the dog suddenly asked, coming forward, his nose twitching.

Aaron noticed the angel Gabriel now stood by him, and seemed to be studying his dog of the same

name.

"Gabriel," Aaron said to the animal, "this is Gabriel." He motioned toward the archangel.

Gabriel padded closer, nose still sniffing, tail wagging cautiously.
"That's a very handsome name,"
 
thedog told the angelic being.

The archangel looked from the dog to Aaron, a quizzical expression on his gaunt features. "You namedthis animal—after
me?"

Aaron shrugged his shoulders. "Not specifically. It's just a very regal sounding name. When he was apup he looked like a Gabriel to me, that's all."

"I was quite adorable when 1 was a puppy,"thedog said with a tilt of his blocky head.

The still weakened angel carefully walked toward the dog, reaching out a trembling hand to touch theanimal's head. The Lab seemed to have no problem with that, licking the angel's hand affectionately.

"This animal has been changed," the archangel said, stroking the fur on the side of Gabriel's handsome

face. "It is not as it should be." The angel looked back, as if seeking an explanation.

"Gabriel is very important to me," Aaron began. "He was hurt—near death. I saved him."

"You saved him," the angel repeated, holding the dog's face beneath the chin and gazing into his dark

chocolate eyes. "And so much more."

"He did,"Gabriel said looking back.

"What other wonders can you perform, Aaron Corbet of the Nephilim?" the angel Gabriel asked,

fascination in his tone.

Aaron didn't know what to say, feeling selfconscious beneath the scrutinizing eyes of the messenger of

God. "I really don't know, but..."

"He is the chosen of the prophecy," Camael spoke up. The former leader of the Powers was kneeling beside the now deflated digestive sacks, and the remains of the angelic beings they contained. He gazed at the bodies of the heavenly creatures, many just barely alive—on the verge of death. "What other wonders is he capable of?" Camael asked sadly among the desiccated and the dying. "He can send our fallen brethren home."

Aaron remembered what he had done for the dying Ezekiel—how his newly awakened power had

forgiven the fallen angel of his sins and allowed his return to Heaven. This ability, this power of redemption, was what the ancient prophecy that had taken over his life was supposedly all about, and whether he liked it or not, it was his job to reunite the fallen angels of Earth with their creator.

He found himself drawn to the dying angels, his entire body beginning to tingle as if some great electricalcharge were building in strength inside him. Aaron was becoming familiar with these feelings. He movedamongst the withered bodies, their life forces taken by the voracious appetites of a creature of chaos, andfelt an incredible sadness overtake him.
How long
—
how many centuries has the monster beendrawing them here?
he wondered gazing down at what were once things of awesome beauty—nownothing more than empty shells of their former glory. Those that had fallen from grace, soldiers in serviceto the Creator, twisted mockeries of angelic life created for servitude: They were all here, lying amongstone another, all desperately in need of one thing that he was capable of bestowing upon them.

Release.

Aaron felt their great sadness—their disgrace, as the churning supernatural power inside him settled in aseething ball at the centerof his chest. He knew precisely what to do; it now felt like second nature tohim—like breathing, or blinking his eyes.

He laid his hands upon them, one after another—the vortex of power swirling at his center coursingdown the length of his arms into his hands. Whether they be Orisha, fallen, or heavenly elite; Aarontouched them all, igniting their dying essences with the force of redemption. "It's over now," he said tothem, their bodies glowing like stars, fallen from the night skies to show the fabulous extent of theirbeauty.

Camael stepped back, bathed in the radiance of their transformation, and Aaron wondered if it was onlyawe that he saw expressed upon the angel warrior's face, or was it envy?

What the angels had become, as sustenance for a monster's hunger, was no longer a concern—burnedaway to expose the final flames of divine brilliance that still thrived in each of them.

"You're free," Aaron said as they hovered above the cave floor, reveling in the experience of their rebirth. He spread his wings of shining black and opened his arms. "Time to go home," he proclaimed, and with those words spoken, the dank, eerie darkness of Leviathan's lair was filled with the light of the divine, and any trace of evil still alive within the monster's dwelling was routed out and annihilated in purging rays of heavenly brilliance.

The vivified angels gravitated toward theArchangel Gabriel, orbiting around the messenger of God,bathing him in their luminous auras—and through the light, Aaron could see that Gabriel was growingstronger, gaining sustenance from his angelic brothers.

Aaron felt at peace as he watched the long-suffering creatures of Heaven reunite, and let his angeliccountenance recede back into his body— sated, for now. The arcane sigils that were etched upon hisskin started to fade, and his wings furled, gradually withdrawing beneath the flesh and muscle of his back. Both Camael and his dog had joined him, not wanting to interfere in any way with the once-imprisonedangels' communion.

"They're very happy to see one another again,"the dog said, tail wagging happily.

"They have been too long without the company of their own kind," Camael said, his eyes riveted to the

scene before him, and Aaron questioned if the warrior was not in some way speaking for himself as well.

The Archangel Gabriel was restored to true glory, armor glistening as if freshly forged and polished,wings the color of a virgin snowfall opening from his back. The wingspan of the messenger wasenormous, and he curled them around the children of Heaven, drawing them closer to him.

"We have much to thank you for, fellow messenger," the archangel said in a rich, powerful voice that vibrated in the air like the lower notesplayed on a church organ. "The monster has been vanquished—and our freedom regained."

Aaron was speechless; even after all that he had seen over the past life-changing weeks, the sight beforehim filled him with awe. They all floated in the air now, Gabriel as the center of their universe, all thosewho had survived their ordeal, enwrapped in his loving embrace. He was taking them back—the Archangel Gabriel was escorting them home.

"Know that my blessing goes with you on your perilous journey, brave Nephilim," the angel continued,

"and that your acts of heroism shall be spoken of in thekingdomofGod ."

His dog nudged his hand with his head.
"Did you hear that, Aaron?"
 
he asked excitedly.
 
"They'regoing to be talking about you in God's kingdom."

Aaron petted his ecstatic friend, still mesmerized by the awesome vision before him.

"With these acts, you have done much to expunge the sins of the father and to fulfill the edicts of

prophecy—"

Aaron was so caught up in the melodious sounds of the angel's proclamation of thanks that he didn'timmediately catch the meaning of the last sentence-but it gradually sunk in, permeated his brain, andalarm bells began to sound.

He hadn't even heard the final words of gratitude spoken by the messenger. The Archangel Gabriel hadlifted his head toward the ceiling of the cave, the heavenly glow about them allgrowing in intensity. Bringerof Light had appeared in his hand, and he pointed the mighty blade toward the cave roof—toward theircelestial destination beyond the ceiling of rock and the world of man above.

Aaron charged forward, shielding his eyes from the blinding light of their ascension. "Wait," he cried ashe tried to find theArchangel within the radiant spectacle. "Did you say the sins of the father?"

He could just about make out the outline of the angel messenger at the center of the expanding ball oflight. Through squinted eyes he saw that Gabriel was looking at him. "My father's sins?" Aaron asked,wanting desperately for the emissary of Heaven to clarify what he had said. "Do you know who my fatherwas? Please . .."

The light burned so brightly now that he had no choice but to turn away, or go blind.

"You are your father's son," Gabriel said within the light of Heaven. "At first I did not see it, but then it

was oh so obvious."

His back to the departing creatures now seemingly composed of living light, Aaron begged for answersfrom the messenger. "If you know who he is, can't you tell me something— anything ... please!"

Aaron could feel the pull of the celestial powers as the angels were drawn up to Heaven. He wanted

nothing more than to turn around and throw himself into the light, to prevent

Gabriel from returning to God's kingdom—untilArchangel told him what he knew.

There were sounds like the world's largest orchestra tuning their instruments all at the same time—and heknew that it was only a matter of seconds before Gabriel and the others were gone form this plain ofexistence, taking their valuable knowledge with them.

Aaron fell to his knees upon the cave floor, both physically and emotionally drained.

"You're the messenger," he said, holding out all hope that he would be heard. "Give me a message ...

give me something."