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Gabriel crashed on the floor with a grunt, ignoring the pain coming from his shoulder. He turned around to sit against the wall and saw Alex blocking the door with a ruined, tall wardrobe.
Panting, Alex took a step back when people started banging on it, furiously, screaming incoherently.
Gabriel grabbed his own shoulder, feeling blood against his fingers, through the shirt. When Alex turned to him, Gabriel met his gaze for a moment before looking down at the wound on Alex's side, bleeding as well.
“That’ll hold for a while,” Alex said, glancing at the door one last time before checking the rest of the room. The hotel was large, and that meant lots of ways out, but also lots of entrances to keep an eye on.
With his back against the wall, Gabriel watched him for another second, before lowering his gaze, lost in his thoughts… Until Alex kneeled in front of him with a long piece of fabric.
“Use it to stop the bleeding,” Alex told him.
Gabriel scoffed. “You’re the human here. You should care about your own wound.”
“I will. I just need you to stay awake.” Alex offered the fabric again, but the other didn’t move. “Look, can you just–”
“Why did you save me?” Gabriel asked him. “Why risk your life when Michael told you to leave?”
“That’s what you want to talk about right now?”
“After what I did to you– to your people. To Michael,” he insisted, “Why not just leave me to die as I deserve?”
Alex took a deep breath, then sat on the floor, in front of him, too tired to get angry. “Because Michael still cares about his brother,” he answered. “He’ll never admit it, but he needs you. You’re still his family-”
“He abandoned that family a long time ago,” Gabriel hissed angrily. “He chose you.”
“He chose to help us, that doesn’t mean he wanted to leave you behind.”
“Well, that’s what different opinions can do to a family.”
Alex sighed patiently, slowly shaking his head. “He would have jumped into the darkness with you if I didn’t,” he said, his voice lower. "And none of you would have survived. That’s why I jumped first. I knew the marks would have protected me."
Gabriel kept staring but found nothing to say back.
“Look, I don’t care what you think about me, or if you hate this world, but I think there’s one thing we can agree on…”
“Enlighten me.”
“We both don’t want to see Micheal die because of me,” Alex said, “Right?”
Taken aback for a second, Gabriel then grinned tiredly. “We can agree you don’t deserve that level of loyalty.”
“I don’t, that’s why I saved you,” Alex nodded, “So that when the time will come, you’ll remember this conversation and protect your brother.”
Gabriel frowned, “What does that mean?”
“It means that we are at war, and I’ll do anything in my power to save the people I care about,” Alex said, his expression more serious as he stared into the Archangel’s eyes. He then stood up, offering the piece of fabric again, “I just expect you to do the same.”
Gabriel studied him for a moment, then grabbed the fabric, but the other didn’t let go. Under those blue eyes staring at him, Gabriel nodded and said, “I will.” Only then, Alex let the fabric go.
“Prepare yourself. We need to get out of here as soon as possible,” Alex said, walking to check outside the windows, where the sky was turning red.
Gabriel kept staring at him- and noticed the marks on his arms shining slightly underneath the jacket.
Is it too late? Gabriel looked away, covering the wound, wondering if he had been wrong the whole time.