Chapter 8

The summer house of the Trivium boys was quiet early in the morning. It was barely past dawn, but it already found Matt in the living area with an old codex on the coffee table in front of him. He was sitting on a big pillow with a straight back, wearing a sleeveless band T-shirt and briefs, showing off his many markings on his long arms and thighs. Corey was sleeping cuddling Paolo upstairs in their bed, but Matt couldn't sleep. He felt the pressure to learn as much as he could as time was getting short, he knew. So he was using his extra time to do exactly that.

He continued that for about half an hour, getting so lost in the old texts about Cherubs and the different casts and types of angels (realizing just how much the group raising him kept him in the dark), that he looked up only when he heard the front door open then close quietly.

Raising a brow as he heard some soft footsteps – as if their owner didn't want to be discovered – he saw Brent trying to sneak upstairs to his own room. Of course once Matt focused, he knew it was their drummer, but he didn't expect to see him in human form again. Most of the time since they had arrived, he's been in his natural form.

To draw the attention of the clearly sleepy demon, he cleared his throat. It was kinda like a scene when the father smoothly lets their kid known that they are busted sneaking home from wherever they were.

The short man in just jeans and a T-shirt froze in his tracks and turned toward the voice, blinking at Matt. He looked and felt like said kid busted by the strict daddy... He cursed inside that the more fun and laid-back daddy was not there...

"Err... Evening...?" he asked but it was very unsure. Frankly he didn't know what to make of the situation. But his newly found self-consciousness made him turn and walk to Matt and drop next to him on the floor, trying a small smile. "Reading?"

"Try morning instead..." Matt murmured and nearly rolled his eyes, but chose to examine Brent closely with his intense black Asian gaze, taking a long pause. "I am. Learning," he said and maybe even leaned a bit closer to the other man as if taking a sniff from his scent before straightening back up. "Should I be worried about you? You've been sneaking off alone quite a lot lately..." Matt hummed and only crossing his heavily marked arms in front of his chest was missing from the picture.

"Dunno…" Brent could take it till that and started to giggle like a lunatic. Really, the whole awkward situation was like a scene from a sitcom and him not having any kind of family things ever now was delighted about it all. "Am I in trouble, daddy?" he asked with a fake pout after the fit of giggles.

By then Matt was fighting a smile too, but managed to more or less keep the strict daddy mask on his face. "Not, unless you do drugs. Are you taking drugs?" he frowned just for the show then finally chuckled too.

Once they calmed down a bit, he kept smiling but his eyes became a bit more serious again. "But I'm serious. Are you okay? You know you can talk to me... us about anything you want. You're family and now not just that 'big bad demon' and his angel sidekick cares about you but I do too."

"Yeah... I'm okay. Very okay actually," he grinned and bit his lip, maybe blushed a little bit. "I meet up with Christos every night... And... remember the conversation we had on that rooftop about never having no one to get close to?" he asked biting his lip again and looking expectantly at Matt to put two and two together.

Matt's frown quickly turned into an expression of surprise as he did the math. "No waaay!" he exclaimed a bit shocked. "Well how did that happen? I want all the dirty details!" he grinned from ear-to-ear. "I'm very happy for you! You deserve to be finally happy with someone! I know sometimes it wasn't easy for you to be around our trio because of... obvious reasons.... But anyway, is he good to you? How serious is it? Are you doing the naughty yet?" he wiggled his brows with a dirty grin at the end, unable to stop his usual many questions.

"No we did not… yet... No..." Brent said blushing till the tip of his ear and looked down. "It turned out that I am a descendant from a race of war demons the gods used to command. One night I was looking around and bumped into Christos… And he is nice to me... And... it seems it’s serious... He says he has waited an eternity to find me…" Brent spoke quieter and slower as now the spoken-out lines felt like validating it all. As the words were shared with Matt, he felt more moved as it was real. He is the pair of an old God and is very much in love…

"Oh my... You know that sounds a lot like you are mates?! Damn, Brent, you aim high right away! A god as your first lover? Nice!" Matt chuckled patting his friend's shoulder. "So proud of you, son!" he deepened his already deep voice as a joke then sighed. "They grow up so fast..."

"But joking put aside... Make sure you go at your own pace. Don't let him or the situation pressure you knowing that he's been waiting thousands of years for you..." the Cherub said softly. "Also... seriously... You tell us if we need to go kick some ass. No questions asked," he added, squeezing said shoulder in a reassuring manner.

Brent just laughed. "Thanks, dad. He is not pressuring me at all... I think I want to... You know…" he inhaled deeply and looked at Matt again. "I think I am the one less patient by now. He is very kind to me. Waited for me to start getting closer to him too... But when I left tonight, I was thinking about it all the way back here... I want him... So the next time it will be the time," Brent said even nodding very seriously but still very much blushing.

Matt gave Brent a dad-ish 'you're welcome' kind of nod then listened to him, sipping on some tea he had made himself earlier. Secretly finding the blushing demon damn cute.

"That's the right way of doing this. I mean... especially if he knows that you are untouched. Does he know? Either way... if you really want to do it and you listen to me... to avoid uncomfortable situations or regret, before you get into it, you should talk to him honestly about what you want and what you don't want. Damn, I really feel like a parent giving his kid THE TALK. Sorry. You are just too dear and important to us to see you disappointed or sad in case something goes wrong. But... judging by what you just told me about Christos, he is patient and after all, the god of wisdom so I doubt he would object."

Brent was very grateful for the talk and care and smiled at Matt patting his knee as they were sitting next to each other. "No... I never said that I am… But I think he knows it on his own about me… Well, I said I must kiss him ‘cause I have never done it before... But talking it over is important. I think that too. ‘Cause... he is a God and even if we are a pair of mates, he is different than me in power and all. But I really want to do it. We… started getting closer... Taking things step by step... Making out more and with less and less clothes on and all... He is patient and kind to me. And I have awesome daddies and a big bro to back me up if needed," he grinned suddenly hugging Matt tight. "Thank you."

"I think he might know too. And don't worry, I know you are a clever boy and all will work out fine. Pairs are meant to be. The universe doesn't make mistakes. Just look at me and Corey! We fit perfectly together because we compliment each other. So really don't worry about it. Or even better if you talk about these with Christos too. I'm sure he can give you much better answers than me, but you are very much welcome," he said while hugging Brent back.

"Alright. Now that the talk is over, go eat something then sleep. I can tell you need both. Shoo! Daddy needs to learn a lot," he grinned at Brent after letting him go.

***

The fun activities in the God's private quarters was... let's say very fulfilling to all of them.

The next morning Corey woke up in his man's arms still in the huge posh bed, looking up at the kind smile of Seth.

"Are you certain, brother?" he asked in a whisper.

"Yes. We came here to finish this," the red-haired man said with a sad smile and looked over at his sleeping love.

"Alright then. Wake him up. I call the others," Seth nodded and straightened up.

Corey sighed and nodded too. More like reassuring himself than anything else. He tucked his longer curls behind his ear and crawled to Jim to kiss his face and call him awake softly.

Seth made Mick and Kerim transport into the angel's residence, leaving the other pair alone with him and Sotiris. But in a blink of an eye Christos appeared too out of thin air and stood next to his brother, facing the bed.

As Jim opened his eyes, he saw his small cute demon's shining blue eyes and soft pink lips kissing him good morning. He just thought he wanted to remember that image for as long as he lives…

"Morning, love. We need to do something very important," Corey said and took Jim's hand to help him sit up and see the Gods.

"Morning," the big man replied on his deeper morning voice and blinked at the very formally standing there, fully armored figures.

The trio moved a few steps apart from each other and they seemed to grow... Being in a form of ancient Greek-Egyptian males. They were not too tall and more like on the short side... But with a thick dark swirling fog surrounding their forms, they grew more than double that size now. Hands raised up, palms open to the sky, and they chanted some alien ritual. Each of them in a different tone and it made Jim think about a choir. Not that it would take away from the slight shock he felt…

The fog swept closer to the bed and in the next moment they found themselves sitting with Corey on a flat stone-like floor in the middle of some ancient ruins. Next to them laid a strange short sword, shining in a green hue.

Source

"What's going on...?" Jim managed to ask holding onto Corey during the unusual trip and he looked around. On the higher side of the ruins’ walls he saw the Gods standing and looking down at them.

"Things happen as they are supposed to happen. The prologue is done. Let's start the conflictus!" Seth said raising his chin and his hands high to the sky…

"Yes, it is an Amphitheater... For once your dramatic show is excused," Christos stated shaking his head at his brother. "Let them be alone and be it done," and with that they all disappeared.

"Jim... There is something I must do to help you become what you are supposed to be," Corey started. He stroked his man's face, looking into his eyes with a strange solid calmness radiating from him. "You have to promise some things... First… you always have to keep your open mind. And second… never really hurt Paolo. Things are beyond our understanding and can't be erased. Promise me, please..."

"What? Why should I hurt him? Corey what's going on?" Jim asked starting to panic and hold Corey's upper arm that he didn't let go yet a bit harder than it was needed. But the calmness and seriousness coming from his love made him nod and calm down. "Yes. I promise both. Why are we here?"

"We are here because I need to make you whole..." Corey smiled with love and murmured some magic spells that made circles and runes shine up all around them. "This is yours. The Blade of the Immortals. You will become whole and finish the final transformation. Making you the first immortal of the Earth-born beings in the new era. You should use your powers for good, to keep balance and life safe," Corey spoke a little fast, clearly wanting to tell all he needed without being interrupted.

"And know always that I love you, and will never leave you on your own," he said picking up the blade that now was shining brighter and gently as he could touched it over Jim's glowing rune, making a small cut to have blood on it. Then made a small cut next to it too on the unmarked part of Jim's chest. His free hand reached up to pull his man closer by the nape and pressed a deep love-filled kiss to his lips.

Just as their connection spiritually opened up more from the emotional kiss, Corey moved the tip of the blade to his chest and with one move stabbed it over his body, gripping onto Jim's nape to keep the shocked man in place while he moaned his pain into the kiss and suddenly only a thick blinding black fog appeared around Jim, seemingly slowly being sucked in by his body that was trembling in the transmutation. Bones were rebuilding and a new glowing green rune appeared at the same spot where Corey cut him. But the small creature vanished with the black fog as the air slowly cleared up around Jim, only leaving the demon mask and the sword before the panting man.

Jim couldn't hear the outside world as he desperately tried to get some much needed air into his sweaty body which was curled forward, big hands resting on the dusty stone floor of the amphitheater. The magic was too much. The transforming was too much. The confusion and shock were too much. The pain was... unbearable...

He was staring at Corey’s demon mask and the sword but didn’t think about anything or felt anything for a sweet minute...

Then the panic gripped his heart as he tried to make sense of what just went down since Corey woke him up with those gentle caresses and that sweet, sweet kiss.

Where was Corey?

"Corey?" Jim asked hoarsely and barely audible at first. "Corey?!" his voice failed him as he asked louder, the mask of his lover staring back at him unmoving and lifeless... and dead silent. "COREY?!?!" Jim shouted, suddenly looking frantically around the empty ruins but he was alone.

"Nonononono! Corey! Number 8! Come back! Appear! Come back, you little shit! It's not funny! COREY!!!" Jim shouted at the top of his lungs, but deep down he knew.

Corey had left him for good...

"Corey...?" he called for his love in vain as tears welled up in his eyes, starting to snap something else in place deep in his soul, but he didn't want to recognize it. He had to call Corey back from wherever he went. He NEEDED Corey. He LOVED Corey.

From another part of the secured place a sudden feeling hit Paolo hard. He knew it… Been talking a bit with the small demon too about it... Corey... the Mercy Demon has left this world and completed Jim. And the mating bond snapped into place in Paolo's soul...

With a heavy sigh he spread his golden wings and hurried to where he felt the unbearable pain of his... pair... 

"Jim… Let me help you…" he said after landing a few steps away from the crying man, trying to send his healing light around his still forming body.

By the time the guardian angel arrived – not wanting to notice him but he did because of the bond that snapped into place in him too – Jim's pale face was covered by not just sweat but tears too. He was still staring at the mask and the bloody sword in front of him as he tried to get over the shock.

But when he felt that light of the guardian angel... his... "pair"... something snapped in Jim.

"LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!!!" he shouted as anger and bitterness were building up fast in him as he finally moved his head and stared at the bald angel with glowing eyes. One a bright ocean blue, the other his greenish-hazel one.

And with that his back arched then curled forward and a huge wave of energy burst out of him as a shock-wave, wiping away Paolo's light and pushing him off his feet. At the same time the T-shirt on his back was torn by his shoulder-blades and Jim shouted in pain as a pair of chestnut-colored demon wings sprouted out from under his skin, making him land on his tattooed forearms, his face touching Corey's demon mask as he kept sobbing and calling for him.

The force that pushed Paolo away was shocking... The Nephilim was stronger than him, the guardian angel could feel it at once. And the pain was unbearable to feel through their still faint and forming bond...

"Jim… I'm sorry… I promised him... I want to help you…" he tried to slowly walk back again to the heavily sobbing man.

"NO! STAY AWAY!" he shouted. "YOU KNEW IT! YOU KNEW IT AND DID NOTHING AGAINST IT!" he shouted again as his rage and mourning took over him and needed an outlet, though on a basic level he remembered the promise he had made to Corey and didn't try to hurt Paolo just instinctively pulled up that protective shield that could close out everything. And it was way stronger too than before.

Jim didn't care about the appearing audience of the drama unfolding on "the stage" of the Greek tragedy. Namely, the King and Matt and Mick with Kerim. He ignored all of them, including Paolo, not wanting anything to do with the angel when he just lost the love of his life.

Turning his head back to the mask which he could barely see from the tears, he picked it up and pressed it against his chest, his new wings (!) covering his form from everyone else as he kept sobbing like never before.

Paolo stopped and he felt his heart twisting from all the pain Jim was feeling. Sensing the others around him, he looked back at Matt and King questioningly, then to Mick who caressed Kerim's shoulder… The angel was crying and the rest wasn't too far from it either as they all stood there around the shielded-up man wrapped in the brown wings he just inherited... They all mourned the small Mercy Demon.

In the next moment the Gods with Brent appeared again. Standing with the others on the stairs of the ancient theater.

"I take care of him. My blood is still in his system," Seth said quietly and walked to the power field-like bubble.

Jim had no idea what the others around him were doing, but he didn't care either as his heart was breaking into a million sharp pieces. No wonder though as he started to realize that no matter how many times he called for Corey, he wasn't going to come back to him. And everything happened just so fast that he couldn't even say goodbye to him!

He was now angry at the small redhead for keeping him in the dark about all of this. Though now Jim realized that he could have put the pieces together. Corey's weakness and all the double talks with the shamans and the gods and probably even with the others. Everyone knew about this except for Jim. And it hurt. It hurt so badly, he wasn't sure he was going to be able to carry all this pain and grief in him as everything was heightened by his even sharper senses.

He blindly reached out and looked at the familiar chestnut wings around him. They were Corey's – except for when he touched one with a shaking hand, he realized it was now his. It was like another stab of the still glowing sword on the ground, but this time right into his own heart.

The Nephilim was so lost in his pain that first he didn't even feel or hear Seth approaching, but no matter how hard the shield tried, the god slipped through it as if it wasn't even there.

"Jim… You were just reborn as an immortal. He wanted to give you the final piece you needed to be whole. You are a new entity now, with his powers too. He knew you would stop him, so he wanted not to tell you. He found a purpose to exist in helping you with that and giving his life force and powers to you," Seth said quietly, knowing Jim could hear him in his mind. Slowly letting a healing force cover the still aching body, he was easing the pain of the transmutation and the heartache.

"I didn't want this! I never wanted this! I love him! I want him back! He is the love of my life!!!" he shook his head blindly, not caring if his words hurt Paolo. "You all betrayed me..." he sobbed. "I trusted you and you knew about this and helped him. I was so stupid for not seeing this! And now he's left this world because of me. I killed him! It's all because of me! I fought so hard to have him as my pair and now he's gone! It's all my fault!" Jim continued sobbing and closing up into himself despite Seth's healing powers and his promise to always keep an open mind. He just wanted to be alone and mourn his first true love who was torn from him so cruelly.

"Take me away from here. I don't need an audience. I want to be alone..." he whispered feeling broken like never before.

Seth nodded and with that they appeared in one of the empty houses’ living room. He was holding Jim on his feet and helped him to sit on the couch.

"He loved you more than anything Jim. He wanted you to be strong and whole. I know it feels like a betrayal... but it was his wish. And when you arrived here it has already started. Way before that even... His whole existence was for you... You can be alone here. And we are here for you too," Seth said and vanished, leaving the new immortal with his mourning.

***

The more he saw from the scene, the angrier Matt was getting. Not because of the clear stubbornness of the now complete Nephilim (as losing his love was surely terrible!), but because of how he treated Paolo...

Matt didn't have to be bonded to the guardian angel to feel how bad being rejected and pushed away felt to him.

Without thinking, he spread his dark Cherub wings and left his own pair behind to fly down to the golden angel who was still staring at the spot from where Jim and Seth and the mask disappeared, but the sword stayed, its greenish light dimming since its owner wasn't there anymore.

Putting his slender hand on Paolo's shoulder, he looked at the strained profile of their lover, searching his reactions and feelings.

"It's okay. Don't worry, honey..." Paolo said but the tone of his words betrayed him. "He just lost his love. He needs time."

Mick and Kerim flew there too, the demon picking up the sword. "I'm sorry Paolo. You all must know that he never let no one close to him, even was hard for him to accept Corey. He needs to realize how things really are inside him," Mick said feeling Matt's anger. "I go now... I lost my brother too..." he said without getting into a fight with any of them, flying away with Jim's sword. It was the two of them now…

Kerim looked at the two other Gods and with a nod he and Sotiris disappeared too.

"He must learn about these things. Please continue not saying anything about Corey's sacrifice. What he must know Seth will deal with," Christos said. He was the last God to stay even if he had no place in that scene, but he was reluctant to leave Brent behind.

"I get it that he's hurting. But this is... He can't fight the bond between him and Paolo for long," Matt added huffing and puffing as he looked at the bald angel. He could sense that bond faintly in him as they were connected on some level too since they became lovers months ago. Matt knew Paolo's every vibe intimately.

"He's hurting him!" he waved towards the short guardian. "Why should he endure it? It's unnecessary cruelty! I think Jim should know all. He's unstable enough already!"

"I understand that Paolo is close to you. But also, just because we appear in human form and similar to you all, don’t mistake me or my mates for simple beings of this world. I know what you’ve been through and how you hurt King with it. Out of ignorance and fear of the new. Jim lost the love of his life, went through a spiritual and physical transformation without much of his agreement. Everyone was patient with you, cherub. It all just happened to Jim. I go now. Be patient, even with finding your mate..." Christos spoke calm, looking directly at Matt but turned to Brent at the end and pressed a light kiss to his face before he vanished too.

Being put into his place by a god made Matt's hands curl into fists and his face turn red. Of course he knew there was truth in Christos' words, but he was just too pissed and maybe felt a bit humiliated even. His jawline tightened as he kept staring at the spot from where Christos just disappeared.

"Whatever..." the stubborn Cherub murmured under his nose and put an arm around Paolo's shoulders. “Come on, Goldie. Let's go home... "

"I'm okay... Sorry, Matt. I want to be alone too... Thanks anyway," Paolo said with a small sad smile and spread his golden wings to fly away.

"Come on, my love... We take the kid home for now. You are a good friend to stand up for Goldie. Things are just more complicated," King said walking up and closing Matt in his arms. "I love you. Things will work out…"

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