'vs. Uriel' by Ashley R. Wynn
 

The black-winged angel sat, perched in her sanctuary. The cold, empty cathedral echoed silence. A low growl escaped her throat as she caught her reflection in a sliver candle holder. Mismatched eyes stared back at her: one blue, the other brown. She tossed her head and her straight brow tresses went flying about her, as the tiny black braids in the front of her hair fell across her face. She looked up at the huge stained-glass window in the ancient cathedral and shook her head. Candlelight from the hundreds of sticks of melting wax that littered every surface of her sanctuary danced around the room. She stood and folded her soot-colored wings behind her and slipped into a black leather jacket that matched her combat boots. She moved for the heavy wooden door and pushed it open and stared out at the rain- soaked world.

She sniffed the air, sensing another life force. A familiar one. Who? She was alert, curious. Not human...
"Uriel," she whispered. Where? Close.
"Right here." She turned and faced him.
"What do you want?" She spat out accusingly.
"If you will not go with your beloved Gabriel, then come with me," he said simply. Lamplight sparkled on the droplets of water in his perfect ebony hair, hair as dark as her wings.
She made a face, bitter, fierce. "And what would you promise me? Gabriel promised me Forgiveness from Him. Him whom we have not seen since he gave his monkeys souls," she finished, muttering.
He smiled boyishly, almost innocently. A thin stretching of his thin lips across glowing, perfect skin. "It's not what I promise you. It's what the First will give you. Besides, everyone knows how much better than Heaven that Hell is."
She did not answer.
"They both want you... love you. You must choose one." He paused and then began again, "Think of being the Queen of Hell." He leered beautifully as she quoted, " ‘Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.' I have... I have thought about it..." her voice trailed off almost wistfully.
He sensed her switch in moods and found his chance. "Come with me now. Say your good-byes to this silly search for a soul and your lust for humanity. If He had wanted this for you, He would have given it." He stroked her darkest fears and continued trying to persuade her, "Come with me. Lucifer will give you whatever you desire. More than He could. If He were still in Heaven..." He added with a sly, thin-lipped, divine smile.
She turned her back to him and stared at the cars moving down the street in the fluorescent lamplight. "I have not made up my mind yet. I will not choose yet." She paused.
"If he wants me as his queen, then let him come to me. Why does he send you, Uriel? Can he not seek his queen on his own, or must he have help?" She snapped at him. "How can he, the devil himself, love me? How can he love anything beside his job, beside his Creator? And how should I know that Gabriel loves me? How can he know love beside the love of humanity, of God Himself, who has not been with Us since He went into the flesh?"
Uriel was caught off guard by her barrage of questions and accusations. He involuntarily took a step back. All confidence suddenly lost, he panicked and fought for a way to persuade her to return to Hell with him. After all, he was sent here to get her, and told not to return without her. He had angered Lucifer before and disliked failure and becoming the focal point of anyone's anger, especially the First's.
Fire burning fiercely in her eyes, she detected the scent of fear on Uriel. "Well?" she demanded, waiting.
It began to rain again. Droplets slid down the lamppost, mimicking the sweat sliding down Uriel's brow.