She took it and let him help her to her feet. His skin was like water, cool and soothing. “How can that be?” She glanced back at Tatiana. Both she and Mal hung a few feet away. “My enemy still seeks me.”
Tatiana scowled, but Michael laughed. “Your enemy is contained.”
Tatiana laughed right back. “You don’t scare me.”
His countenance radiated authority. “Don’t I? Then you’re ignorant. But I’m not here to scare you, demon.”
She sniffed. “Then what are you here for?”
Michael glanced at Chrysabelle before answering Tatiana. “You have two choices, demon. Remain within these gates for your eternity or walk through them and die.”
She laughed. “You think you can kill me? That doesn’t work anymore, but nice try.” She started forward, pushing past Chrysabelle and Lilith.
Michael turned as Tatiana approached the gates. “Walk through those gates and you’ll kill yourself.”
Tatiana stopped. “What does that mean?”
“You ate of the Tree of Life.”
Her hand slid into the pocket of her gown, no doubt to clutch the forbidden fruit squirreled away there. “Which is why I come back to life now. I get it.”
He smiled in the way of people who know far more than those they’re speaking to. “Your new immortality only works within these gates. Your human side died centuries ago when you were sired. Eating the fruit of the Tree of Life killed your vampire side, except on these grounds where there is no death.” He nodded past her. “Out there, beyond the Garden’s boundaries, you will last no longer than the time it takes for your foot to touch the ground.”
She lifted her chin defiantly. “I don’t believe you.”
He held out his hand and one of the Tree’s apples appeared in his palm. He pulled back and tossed it through the gates. The moment it crossed the threshold, it exploded into dust.
Tatiana’s mouth opened and she glared at Mal, then Chrysabelle. “You knew this. You knew this and you tricked me.” She flew toward Chrysabelle, but Michael stepped into her path.
“Neither of them knew.” Michael bent his head. “Will you stay? Or will you leave?”
Tatiana backed away from the gates, circling outside of Michael’s reach. Her eyes shone silver and she growled, baring her teeth. She pointed at Lilith. “If I have to stay, so does Lilith. She ate the fruit also.”
Chrysabelle grabbed the little girl and pulled her close. “No, please, Michael, don’t make her stay. She’s only a baby and Tatiana will—”
He held up his hand. “The child may leave.”
Tatiana screamed in frustration. “No! She ate the fruit, too.”
Michael nodded. “The child was born human and vampire. When she ate the fruit, her vampire side was killed just as yours was, but her human side remains. All that my fallen brothers did to her has been erased.” He walked toward the gate. “You are free to leave, demon.”
Tatiana sputtered, but Chrysabelle didn’t wait to hear what she had to say. With Lilith’s hand firmly in hers, she grabbed Mal’s hand with her other and pulled both of them after Michael.
Tatiana followed, cursing, but stopped the moment they stepped over the gate’s golden threshold. Slowly, the doors began to close.
Chrysabelle turned, putting Lilith behind her, and stared into Tatiana’s angry metallic eyes until the gap disappeared and the entrance was sealed. A scream went up that shook the gates, echoing into the stillness of the desert night.
Chrysabelle leaned into Mal, exhaling the breath she’d been holding. “It’s over. She’s never getting out of there.”
Mal put his arm around her. “Not alive.”
She twisted to face the archangel. “Is that right? Are there any loopholes? Any possible way she might escape the Garden?”
“No.” He held a hand out toward Eae, who was now making Lilith laugh by hiding his face behind his wing. “Even if she did, she wouldn’t make it past the guardian.”
Relief unlike anything Chrysabelle had felt before overwhelmed her. She swallowed, trying to find her voice. “Thank you.”
“You did it, my child.” He smiled gently. “You’ve always been the light of your kind.”
She wiped at her eyes. “But not anymore.” She put a hand over her belly, feeling the swell that her leathers hid. “You must know what I’ve done.”
“What we’ve done,” Mal corrected her. He stuck out his chest as if defying Michael to call his unborn child a mistake.
Michael glanced at Mal, then back at her. “I do know. The child you carry will be the best of both of you and the greatest protector of the human race.” His smiled faded. “But this child and your union with the vampire are also what separate me from you.”
Chrysabelle shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“The vampire’s blood courses through your veins. His child grows in your belly. You have become one with him.” Michael smiled wistfully. “You must understand my position does not allow me much truck with vampires.”
“Or any, I’d guess.”
He nodded and came close enough to cup her face in his hands. For a long moment, he just gazed at her. “My beautiful warrior child,” he whispered. Sadness dimmed the light in his eyes. “I also came because I wanted to say good-bye to you. My daughter.”