His Advocate

Chapter 11

Gabriel POV

This was nice. We walked along the stone path that wound around the large pond. There were people walking their dogs, having picnics with their families, children playing, birds sang. But we were caught up in our own little world.

Somehow we found ourselves at the edge of a small dock. Standing in companionable silence, enjoying the scenery. Huge koi leapt from the water.

I reached over and poked his side, making him jolt and whip his head around to look at me with mild surprise. Taking hold of two of Azrael's fingers, and squeezing them lightly. His shoulders slumped back down.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked quietly.

He lifted his face to the sky, pondering. Then he turned to me with a thoughtful expression.

"Your eyes." He answered wistfully.

"My eyes?"

I tilted my head, my interest piqued.

"Yes, today I find myself fascinated by your eyes." 

He tilted his head to look at me straight. Reaching to brush the hair from my face.

"Their quite beautiful." 

I felt my face heat up and I had to look away. Behind us, we heard someone yelling at their dog. I shook my head, chuckling.
There he goes again with the flirting. At least I'm pretty sure he's flirting with me.  

"No,"

He stared down at me in confusion, his eyebrows raised.

"Pardon?"

I smiled and touched my fingertips to his cheek bone, tracing the three little black diamonds under his right eye.

"Yours's are far prettier than mine," I murmured.

"Not to mention they happen to be set in such a strikingly handsome face."

He smiled brightly and held my palm to his face. Closing his eyes and kissing my inner wrist. A warm fluttering sensation arose in my stomach. 

The heavy padding of a big dog's paws on the dock made me break away from him. A huge dog was charging right at us. Its owner was yelling. I stood frozen. It lunged and hit me full force with it's shoulder.

I was launched into the pond.

Fuck.

My intention was to kick off from the bottom and resurface. But my foot plunged into what felt like a rocky crevasse.

I'm stuck.

My lungs were on fire.

Help.

I had my eyes shut tight. The water was cold despite the warm weather. Fish slithered around me. I didn't want to die like this. I had no air in my lungs. 

I shouldn't panic.

People always said that drowning was a silent occurrence. It was true, I couldn't hear anything other than the sound of my heart desperately pounding in my ears. I don't know how long I had been holding my breath but my consciousness was already wavering.

My lungs are going to explode.

I clutched my throat, my body trembling. 

Drowning in a pond only eight feet deep was just a down right embarrassing thing to do.

My eyes stung as if I was crying. I slowly slipped away. 

Then I felt something warm and soft press against my lips. My eyelids shot open and I met a pair of red eyes staring back at me. Azrael held the back of my head, gently forcing my mouth open and sharing his air with me.
He yanked me from the rocks with little to no effort.
I could feel the heat radiating off his body. It felt so good in this freezing water, that I wrapped myself around him even tighter.