Blood Reigns

The next couple of days was a routine of wake up, try to talk Johnny into bathing with me while he blushed, then doing my usual thing only with Johnny either on my lap (cause I dragged him there) or tucked to my side. The bath thing almost became a game because I enjoyed the way he played his fingers over my chest while refusing. He'd become enamored with my chest, my skin, my eyes and lip piercing. He didn't let his gaze travel any farther up than my eyes, refusing to acknowledge my horns. My fangs he didn't have a problem with but my horns made him uneasy. After a couple of days, I woke up and decided to just . . . hide them. I didn't like him being uncomfortable. After the same old mini-argument with Johnny, in which I was tempted to make him go into the bathroom with me but resisted, we went down to breakfast together. He walked in front of me and I had to give Father props. Even if he was shy, Johnny was a hot number. I had a hard time keeping my eyes off his wriggling ass. Father smirked at me when we sat down at the breakfast table, side by side.

"Your horns, Matthew."

My surface name, used in taunting, angered me and my horns threatened to come up whether I wanted them to or not. Just barely, I controlled them, "They're gone for now, Father." When I said this, Johnny looked at me with his eyes narrowed before smiling just a bit. I smiled back watching as he slowly started to relax.

Maria giggled from her place on Father's lap, "I'm so glad Daddy never hides his horns. Don't you find them sexy, Johnny?"

Johnny's face reddened. I reached under the table for his hand, "It's alright, she's just teasing you."'

"And your father." He mumbled back.

I glanced over to see Father's face buried in her neck and could hear Maria's moaning. I rolled my eyes, "Want to skip breakfast . . . go to the surface?"

"Can we?" His eyes lit up and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

I coughed, "Yeah, sure. Let's go get Zacky and Synyster, okay?" His face fell and I prodded him, "What up?"

"I thought it was just going to be us."

So he did want to be alone with me, just not in a situation where we were both naked. I nodded and stood, him still clinging to my hand. We met Synyster at the door. He looked like pure out shit but gave me a grin, "That's nice."

"What?" No one had said anything to him yet.

He waved his hand at Johnny's stubby fingers enclosed in mine, "To see you like that. It's different."

I shrugged and Johnny moved closer to me.

Johnny seemed to enjoy my attention even though he was still scared, wary, and shy. I bit my lip in debate and lowered my head to peck his lips. He smiled but that's as far as it went. I knew I had to put a leg on it soon and get him in my bed . . .well, in my bed naked but I couldn't bring myself to pressure him. As soon as we were in the hall away from Father's ears, I asked Johnny where he wanted to go.

"Honestly, I don't know where to go."

"I don't want to go to Jimmy's, it's too early for that." Truthfully it was. Who wanted alcohol that early?

Johnny shuddered obviously remembering the last time we were at Jimmy's, "Yeah, let's not."

I laughed, "You'll get use to it, man. It just takes some experience. Speaking of which . . . why haven't you ever drunk? You said you were a druggie."

"I took drugs out of stupidity. I don't think I've ever really been tempted to do much else. I was a good kid." He shrugged.

Yeah, so how did he end up being the mate to the son of the devil. Maybe it's time to start asking questions. I pulled him close to me, "Come on, we'll go to this place to eat since you didn't really get to."

He clung to me but reached up and stroked the side of my face, close to my mouth, "Your fangs."

"I'll put them away when we get there. Hold tight now." I put my arms around him more securely. I'm sure he remembered that that wasn't necessary but hell it meant I could touch him without him going all shy and innocent on me. I was taking advantage of it. Before he knew it we were in a back alley in between a diner and what Zacky had confided was where he use to live. I straightened my clothes and opened my mouth, "Tell me when to stop, don't want them looking stupid."

He nodded and held his hands up when my fangs looked like normal teeth. I shivered, having forgot my coat and pulled him toward the restaurant. He pulled back, "Matt, how often are you on the surface?"

"Not too often." I confessed.

He shook his head, "Then you should probably know that people don't exactly like to see guys together."

"Johnny, are you honestly forgetting who I am?" I laughed, a deep laugh cause really his innocence and concern was funny.

He shrugged and I got the point. He'd rather do this his way than to see me lose control over him. I'm not sure exactly how I knew that, but it just came to me. I nodded and simply walked beside of him instead of forcing him to cling to me. We ate breakfast, talking lowly about the people around him and I idly read random thoughts to see what people made of us. One guy knew right off the bat that we were somewhat together. Another girl though it was cute to see someone my size with someone his size. I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

He raised his eyebrows, "What?"

"Someone thinks we're cute." I murmured.

He smiled eyeing his coffee cup. Nasty stuff, I couldn't stand it but so far, other than the beer and Jack at Jimmy's, it was all I'd seen him drink. I sat back and looked him up and down, "Hey, Johnny . . ."

"Hum?" he looked up at me.

"What are you exactly? You're not mortal obviously. Your skin stays so cool all the time and . . .there's just something about you." As in I couldn't keep my eyes off of him no matter what he was doing.

He sat back too and rubbed his face, "Um, can we go somewhere quieter?"

"Yep." I stood and reached for the bill. His hand on my arm stopped me and I took a peek into his head to see what was wrong. Do demons have money? I smiled and snapped my fingers then reached into my pant pocket-with difficulty-to extract the exact change and tip needed. After we left there, I decided Jimmy's farm was the quietest place I knew. I blinked us there from the alleyway and we settled into the grass outside of the toolshed, facing each other.

He sighed, "When I was a little kid, I wasn't very healthy. When I was about six, I contracted a virus from somewhere-they barely knew what the virus was, let alone where it came from. It almost killed me. My mother was desperate. She thought God wasn't listening to her prayers-"

I made a little noise and Johnny smirked at me, with a slight shake of his head. Okay, okay, I had to let him tell his story without interrupting when I shouldn't. Got it.

"-So she decided to take a different route. Apparently, she made a deal with the devil."

"A.k.a. my pops."

"Right. And the deal was that her soul would of course belong to him."

"Sorry, he's a little cliche like that."

"Shadows." Wow, little Johnny sure didn't like being interrupted.

"Sorry."

"It's okay. Anyway, on top of this apparently he knew his son was . . .erm, lacking in affection for females so he arranged that I would be a mate for his son after I died. You know the whole enternal soul bound yours by way of contract deal?" He looked at me squarely as if I was suppose to have heard of that before.

I shrugged. I liked the delicate way he called me straight out fag though.

"Yeah, so . . . I did the bad things I did but they weren't horrible and eventually I went to church and found God and all against my mother's better judgement. Along the way I started helping other kids find their way out of drugs and into church. Around about the time my name was spread around the community like a saint, guess what happens? I was flattened by a stoned and drunk driver-ironic huh? So when I got to heaven-where I wasn't suppose to be-I was promptly made into an angel. I didn't even have to earn my wings. Then . . .your father learned I was dead. Did you know your dad and God do actually speak?"

"Yeah, I figured they had to. You can't be rulers of two opposite ends of creation and not at least have to correspond."

"I was never taught that in church, oddly enough. Anyway, he sought out God, showed him the contract, and I was exiled to earth to wait for you. Now, here's the deal breaker."

There was no deal breaker. Plain and simple, Jonathan "Christ" Seward was mine.

He thought differently, "If and when my twenty-fifth birthday rolls around-alive or dead-and we've not had sex yet then the whole thing is off. I get to be the angel I was meant to be and you can find someone you actually want to be with."

"You like that idea?" I practically growled.

"Before I met you, I loved that idea. I loved being an angel. I'd never drunk a drop and I certainly never found guys attractive. Or anyone for that matter, I was more than slightly asexual." He shrugged.

I frowned. Asexual? I bet I could change that. I reached across and hauled him to my chest. He squeaked and his arms instinctively went around my neck. I crashed my lips to his and he opened his mouth to let my tongue in. I caressed his with mine, aware that it probably looked like we were swapping smoke from a distance because of the heat of my mouth and the coolness of his clashing. His small hands grasped my skin, nails digging in in a desperate attempt to hold my mouth to his but I had no intention of pulling away until I had to. I let my hands span his tiny, but slightly pudgy, waist and grasped his belt loops to grind us together. He moaned, stealing the last bit of my breath and I pulled back then. I smirked at him as I panted, "Johnny, you're no angel."

He snickered and reached down to pull his shirt off. I only got a second to gaze at a strong chest but soft stomach before he was turning around. "Oh no?"

Strapped to his back, held down as flat as possible, were a set of wings. Not the white fluffy kind you expect on an angel but sleek black ones. He grinned over his shoulder and I ran my hand down one wing wincing because I could feel something like acid burn my fingers before they started to heal.

I turned him back toward me, "I don't think I was suppose to touch those, but . . . wow."

He nodded, "God seemed to think like you- I wasn't exactly the white wing type, you know?"

I pulled him against me, "You wanna know something?"

"Hum?"

"I know I'm different from my father because of what I'm about to say."

He looked up at me.

"I'm giving you a choice, Johnny. If you don't want me by the time your birthday gets here . . .then I'll let you go. But I'm going to try my damndest to make you want me because I want you. I didn't when Father first told me about you but god damn it-"

"Shadows." He said sternly.

I flicked his nose, "It's a term that means nothing to me, shush. You took over, Johnny. In just a few days, the only thing I can think about is getting you in my bed."

He looked like he was about to say something so I cut him off with my lips. Just as I did we were both blinked, against our will. I looked up to see Zacky and Maria grinning at us. They were holding hands. I glared at Zacky and he let go.

Maria laughed a tinkling laugh, "Stop it, Shadows. I was just using his power to blink you both back here." She was plenty powerful herself but it took a lot to blink someone against their will. I've only done it once myself . . .we were kids and I didn't want her around me. I blinked her to Cancun.

"Fine, now what do you want?"

"Daddy's hunting for you. He wanted you to take his place today because he wants to spend a little quality time with me." She grinned.

I was spending quality time with Johnny, couldn't you tell?

It can wait. He can't. I can't. Whichever. Come on, Shadows, please.

Ugh, I can never resist her pleading especially in my head. I nodded and tugged Johnny to what I'd begun to think of as our chambers to get him a new shirt. I rolled my eyes at myself, just remembering that I could have conjured him one but sometimes I do things the hard way without thinking. I blinked us into Father's antechamber and he nodded before leaving the room, Maria's voice resonating through the halls to call him to her. I sat down on the throne next to Father's because I didn't dare sit on his and assume the responsibility as ruler of hell just yet and let Johnny slide onto my lap before calling for the first group of souls. About thirty entered at once and I groaned. It was going to be a long day.