Something woke me, maybe Aden, who was curled in my arms breathing quietly. We had slowly graduated to this. Propped up, my back against the pillows on my bed, the quilt over our legs. Aden's head lay on my chest, and her eyes were shut, her lashes long and dark on her cheeks. I could see her face in the pale sliver of moonlight that fell on her through the crack in the curtains. The light was silver on her face, making her beauty seem unreal, untouchable. 

Suddenly it didn't seem so far-fetched to think of her as an angel, even one of death. I reached one hand up, moving slowly so I wouldn't disturb her, stroking my fingertips across her cheek. She was strength and fragility together, fierce and breakable. I remembered her hesitant confession and it made me smile. Aden's hand was resting on my knee and I placed mine on top of it, curling my fingers around hers. She murmured, and shifted slightly in her sleep, her hair tickling my arm. The spell was broken by a loud thump from over head. Aden jerked awake and looked around in blurry confusion.

"What..?"

I was about to make some reassuring joke about bats in the attic when there was a louder thump right above our heads, making us both jump. I clutched Aden's hand, "What the hell is that?"

She turned to look up at me, eyes wide, a finger over her lips. I nodded and we both looked up at the dark ceiling. There were scuffling sounds, a few more thuds and then silence.

"It's the person on watch in the widows walk," Aden said in a hushed voice, "they may be trying to warn us."

We tensed as footsteps thundered down the hallway and Aden was suddenly curled like a spring in my arms, ready to jump up any second. My door flew open and a disheveled, pissed off looking Morgan stood in the doorway dressed in her red sweater and a pair of black silk pajama pants.

"They're here," she said flatly.

Aden sprang up and I yelped in surprise as she grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. Studying her fragile beauty in the moonlight had obviously addled my brain and made me forget she was strong enough to beat the ever-living shit out of me if she wanted to.

"Let's go," Morgan turned abruptly, her curls swinging down her back, "Follow me and do exactly as I say."

Aden looked like she was going to argue for a second, but Morgan was already starting down the hall.

"Right." Aden grabbed my hand. "Come on, clearly she knows something I don't."

We followed Morgan down the stairs and into the main section of the church. Everyone was already there, aside from Beefcake. The Malake ha-Mawet were all crouched behind pews, all staring at the wide wooden side door, tense and ready.

"What-" A huge crash from outside cut me off, and the wooden door bent in its frame. Nothing should be able to warp solid oak like that. Nothing natural. Someone called for us to be "steady" and the others braced themselves, ready for battle. My knees were shaking, actually shaking. My companions were wearing kevlar vests and brandishing pistols over the tops of the pews. I wondered if they'd slept in those vests.

Morgan turned to Aden as the door shook and bent inwards with each heavy crash. "When they get through, take him to the third confessional on the right. Push the knob under the priest's seat. It will lead you out into the vineyard," She dug into her pocket and handed Aden a tiny silver tube. "Use the flashlight, and whatever you do, don't look back, just run. Hide there until the switch."

A giant splintering crack, and then the door caved inward, ripping away from its hinges. The Malake ha-Mawet were already shooting as men in black suites shouldered past the broken door frame, and I clapped my hands over my ears to block the deafening noise.

I could feel Aden pulling my arm. She was shouting something at me, but I couldn't hear anything but the thunderous shots and a high pitched ringing in my ears. Aden was dragging me away from the chaos, toward the hallway, but I couldn't take my eyes off Morgan, off her red sweater. She was walking forward, oblivious to the gunfire. And when Freckles took a bullet in the neck and went down gasping and choking on his own blood, she merely glanced at him briefly and then reached down to relieve the dying man of his gun.

Aden was insistent in pulling me away, and in my last glimpse of Morgan she was staring thoughtfully down at the gun in her hand while Amazon screamed at her to get to cover. Morgan's face had been blank, slack.

We ran down the hallway, and Aden went straight for the confessional on the far right, yanking back the curtain and groping under the seat. Something creaked loudly over the noise of gunfire. The back of the confessional swung away slowly, revealing a black doorway and steps that descended into darkness. We both hesitated and Aden grabbed my hand tightly. Abruptly the gunfire ceased and the high pitched ringing in my ears took over in the silence.

"Is that good or bad?" I said, my voice sounded muffled.

"I don't know." Aden shook her head and we both stayed where we were. I hoped desperately that we had won. That all of this was over. Someone appeared down at the end of the hallway, a tall man in a suite.

"Go! "Aden turned, yanking me into the blackness.

We ran, the little penlight casting a dim glow ahead of us, bouncing wildly off the cement walls. If I was claustrophobic I'd be peeing my pants by now. Still, we were running from a pissed off deity down a narrow cement tunnel and gain, I heard another gunshot behind us, sounding much more distant this time. So I was nearly at the pants peeing stage. The passage descended so sharply that I nearly lost my footing, then Aden stopped short and I almost ran into the back of her.

"Here," she said breathlessly, and I could hear her finally, over the ringing in my ears. I looked over her shoulder at what appeared to be a rough-hewn door in the wall in front of us. There was an iron ring set on the side and Aden grabbed with both hands and heaved throwing herself backwards. It didn't budge.

"Shit," she said frantically. "I think we're stuck! That guy is probably right behind us!"

"He'll take longer, he hasn't got a light. Here, let me try."

She gave me a sideways look. "Thanks, but this isn't like a girl needing a guy to open a jar of pickles, we don't have time" she hesitated, obviously not wanting to emasculate me, "I'm about a million times stronger."

Ouch, so much for not emasculating me.

She planted one foot on the wall beside the door and yanked on the handle again, her face going red with the strain.

"Wait, Aden. Let me try something." I had noticed something, something I hadn't spotted before in the narrow beam of light. There was a metal rod poking out of the cement right beneath the iron ring. I nudged Aden aside and grabbed the rod, tried twisting it. Nothing. I yanked it, nothing happened until I tried pushing on it with my thumb. The rod slid back into the cement with a rusty grating sound, there was a "click" noise from the door latch. I wrapped my hand around it, gave Aden a pointed look, and pushed. The door grated slowly inwards. The damn thing was really heavy, and I tried not to show what an effort it was taking to push it open. A slice of light appeared, growing slowly larger as I pushed the door open. When it was large enough to slide through I stopped, panting a little.

"You could have let me..." said Aden.

"No," I said. "I figured out this particular jar of pickles, so I had to open it. Let's go." I put my back to the wall and slid through the door.

The night sky was lit by a buttery looking full moon, bathing the surrounding grapevines in silver. It was clear, and the lights from the church were minimal, allowing the stars to shine. I stopped for a moment, pausing to look at the sky, and my breath collected in little clouds around my face. It was beautiful, and really cold. A t-shirt and sweatpants doesn't do much to keep you warm. My arms were already starting to break into goose bumps. I turned to see Aden emerging from what looked like an old crumbling tool shed. So that was where the exit was. Aden turned and shoved at the door, it creaked in protest before booming shut.

"That will keep him busy for awhile." She shivered and I wished I had a coat to give her. She was a little better off then I was though, in blue jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt. She gave me a tight little smile. "Look, we came out right next to Harold."

I turned to look at the fountain behind us. Harold was resplendent in all his ugly, moonlit glory tonight. "What now?" I said, half to my companion and half to the stone gargoyle frozen on his perch. "What do we do now?"

Aden hesitated. "I guess we hide. I haven't heard anything from the church." Her face looked pale in the moonlight. "I don't' think that's good."

"Right, let's get out of here before he figures out the door."