"Needing rules and having them are two different things," Gabriel pointed out, allowing Ghastly to guide him down the hallway. "Needing them is a separate argument, and we certain didn't have them. So it wasn't cheating." He grinned over at Skul. "I don't think you can win this one, my friend."

In point of fact, they hadn't bantered nearly so easily on this subject early on. Actually, the first time Skul had accused Gabe of cheating, the Archangel had reacted somewhat poorly. Unjustified accusations of cheating--it was something Lucifer had always done. It had taken a little while before Gabriel had been able to relax into the good-natured teasing Skul used.

And that wasn't even taking into account the ... incident prior to that. That little foot-race hadn't been the first time they'd faced certain death together. The first time it had been in an arena, and they'd been up against each other. After that time ... after that time it didn't matter how much Skul insisted that Gabe was worthier of living longer just because he was an Archangel. Gabe couldn't had stood by and seen Skul die again, whether at his hand or anything else's.