Reapers and Angels

by Margie Eileen Jones

  “I so look forward to working with my partner too. I will be working with a seasoned reaper which Mr. Reynolds here said was his protégé Michael. Michael is a level one reaper so it will be a great honor to work with him.”

  Liam said with a wide smile. He so looked forward to this evening since Michael was going to take him out for his first time to watch how actual reaping was done. Then on their second encounter Liam was to learn how to control the records which would entangle a person if they did not know how to use their scythe properly. Michael’s scythe was a double-bladed axe. Liam’s scythe was the average beginning scythe that all first level reapers received that would change based on their choices of death scythes after they became full-fledged grim reapers.

  Ashton also noted that although the brown showed in Liam’s eyes they were also a phosphorescent color like all the reapers had. It was really cool and Ashton had to admit it would be pretty damn cool to be a reaper.

  “Liam come with me and let me introduce you to Christian. Christian is my butler and my boyfriend. I love him so much and I just know you will like him once you get to know him.”

  Liam frowned a bit as Ashton dragged him over to where Christian was sitting on his computer not wishing to cause any problems plus he was brainstorming on ways to win Liam’s approval. Really, everyone in the reaper community was brought up to date on Christian’s past behavior since Ashton and Calis were under all the reaper’s protection. They were also brought up to date on his current behavior and to watch him in case something changed. Sebastian was also on a watch list since any demon or former demon was to be watched on a daily basis just in case one decided to go against the lists or start killing innocents under the reaper’s watch.

  “Christian this is my little brother Liam. He is a reaper now isn’t that great?”

  Ashton gushed in excitement as he bounced around a bit. Christian couldn’t help but smile at Ashton, he was so damn cute.

  “That is great news Ashton. William did introduce him to me earlier and I must apologize since I was not ignoring you, I just did not wish to intrude on your conversation with Lord Midnight.”

  Christian said to Liam who looked down at Christian with a look of distrust.

  “You hurt my brother and I don’t know if I ever want to talk to you. I cannot see what Ashton sees in you, but my brother is too important to me to make miserable by telling you what I think of you. For now, I do not approve of you marrying my brother and I do not know if I ever will approve.’

  “Ashton is impressionable and still somewhat naïve. I do not know if you have tricked him into loving you or if you are genuinely sorry for all you have done. I shall give you a year to convince me you are worth my brother’s affections. However, I am not going to start it today. I really do not wish to be around you today since I don’t know what I might do to you.’

  “Ashton, I will spend time with you and we shall go somewhere where we can be alone for a while. Lord Midnight I am told you have a car. I would like to take my brother out and go visit town since I rarely get to see it other than from rooftops. I have some money so I can pay you for the use of the car if you wish.”

  Ashton pouted then kissed Christian who looked a bit upset at Liam’s words. He wanted to try to get Liam to see him as he was now, but it would take much to show Liam his redeeming qualities.

  “You may use the car for most of the day free of charge Liam and please call me Calis. You are my guest as well as family and you are welcome to anything in my home as well. I do highly suggest that Ashton takes the .22 pistol out with him.’

  “I am sure you will protect him, but Ashton tends to wander off at times so you will really have to watch him. The only times he pays attention to where he is going is when Christian is with him. Sebastian and I at times are at our wits end with Ashton, but normally he is a very well behaved young man.”

  Calis went back to reading his newspaper and Liam looked at Calis funny. The boy talked like he was Ashton’s Father.

  “Liam, Calis kind of is like a big brother to me. He and Sebastian kind of adopted me, taking me in and so forth. They raised me and taught me a bunch of things.”

  Ashton said making Liam do the ‘oh’ face. He wondered why Calis seemed so serious for such a young man.

  “I see, so later you will have to explain to me what Christian does to have earned your love and respect. I want to know your side of the story before I make any judgements.”

  Liam gathered his coat and watched as Christian gathered Ashton’s things dressing him in a rather large coat, a scarf, a black beanie, and looked at Calis.

  “Calis can Ashton borrow your gloves until we get new ones? For some reason there are only one pair of gloves in this closet that will fit Ashton’s fingers. We are also missing some things. I certainly hoped we were not robbed.”

  Christian said in confusion. Also, Ashton’s ear muffs, parka, and scarf were missing so that was why he put his own scarf as well as his jacket on the boy.

  Calis got up and looked in the closet noting the things missing.

  “Sebastian! Get in here!”

  Calis roared since his butler and husband obviously had hidden these items from them all.

  Sebastian came running in after he settled Anne once again in the sewing room. William was still waiting for them to leave.

  “Yes, my dearest? What is the problem?”

  Sebastian asked as he wondered what the problem was, then looked at Ashton realizing this might be a problem so he thought up a very quick lie.

  “Where are Ashton’s things?”

  Calis asked tersely since he really did not want the boy wearing his gloves and his beanie. Ashton also looked ridiculous in Christian’s coat.

  “Oh, well there was a rip in Ashton’s coat that was not fixable. There were also holes in his gloves from moths since I forgot to put moth balls in the closet and there was another hole in his scarf. I believe all your and Christian’s things are all right since I killed the moths that were in there, but my scarf did get damaged.”

  Sebastian said as he swiftly pulled it out and before anyone could question him he produced five holes in the scarf in less than a blink to confirm his little white lie as truth.

  “Very well, we shall buy you some new outdoor clothes also. What happened to the ear muffs?”

  Calis asked since moths would not have destroyed those.

  Sebastian thought up a lie really quick.

  “I stepped on them and broke them. They fell from the top shelf while I was cleaning it out and I stepped on them.”

  Sebastian lied with William smirking a bit since Sebastian was damn good. William could not have made up these stories as fast as Sebastian and fact was it was damn near impossible for William to lie.

  All of Ashton’s things that were missing had been destroyed during the removal of all the things Allen had touched so that also included Ashton’s coat, gloves, scarf, and ear muffs. With the memory removal of anything to do with the rogue reaper Allen, all but a few reapers, William, and Sebastian even knew of Allen or what he had done before they had to kill him.

  “How come I don’t quite believe you Sebastian and how come you couldn’t just fix them?”

  Calis asked since if Sebastian could fix a tea cup, his ring, not to mention a plethora of other things he should certainly be able to fix a pair of earmuffs.

  “I did not think they were that important to bother with. A new pair could be easily bought to replace them. Besides those are so small they barely fit the boy.”

  Sebastian said since he hoped the idea that he threw them out would not piss Calis off. He of course was wrong.

  “Those muffs belonged to my MOTHER! How dare you throw them out! I could possibly see you setting them aside to be fixed later, but throwing them out! I suggest you find a way to find them, repair them, and clean them! I do not care if we buy another pair for Ashton, but you will bring those muffs back or I will kill you!”

  Calis roared and Wi
lliam whispered something in Sebastian’s ear.

  “Very well my Lord, I shall retrieve them after William and I do this trial for Kingsly. You will have them before the end of the day.”

  Calis grabbed Sebastian by the collar of his shirt bringing him face to face with him.

  “Before you throw something out you had better ask me first! I have very few things left of my Mother’s and Father’s so know if you get an epiphany to throw something else away it had better not be something of theirs!”

  Calis fumed as he looked Sebastian in the eyes making sure his point was taken.

  “Very good my Master.”

  Sebastian said swallowing since he was in deep shit and it really wasn’t his fault. William did look apologetic at him, but fact was they did have to go.

  “Go with William and when you return I want those muffs in pristine shape.”

  Calis marched back over to the chair by the fireplace reading his paper grumbling about butlers and their ideas of what was garbage.

  William and Sebastian left with Sebastian quickly repairing his scarf, gathering his coat, and gloves which had been cleaned of the blood that had been on them. He had also cleaned Calis’s coat, gloves, and scarf before anyone would be able to figure out anything had happened to Calis and Ashton. This whole mess with Allen really did a number on them all and having to hide this shit was not easy.

  “William, I do not want Calis to kill me so I hope you are right and those ear muffs are something I can have.”

  Sebastian was indeed concerned about this.

  “We have replicas of everything you own. The items destroyed in the sweep are gone, but I can get you the replicas. No one will know the difference plus anything that is old will eventually be replaced as soon as you buy new things. We keep track of what you leave and arrive in. It is necessary for the relocation projects. Making Calis’ earmuffs was a bit fun and the reaper who does the remakes made himself a bigger pair than Calis’ in black. They are so big that we started calling the guy Mickey.”

  William said with a smile.

  “We do lock the doors so how do you get in and what if there is an inscription on the items?”

  Sebastian asked since he was curious about this.

  “Reapers can go anywhere. Locking your door does not keep us out. We can simply materialize from thin air through portals. Like I told you it is damn near impossible to kill a reaper. Only a few of us are given the privileged information on how to dispatch one of our own. It is not a common practice.”

  Sebastian did not like that at all. What if they suddenly materialized in their room one night? Sebastian felt it was a bit of an invasion of privacy for reapers to be able to just appear out of nowhere whenever they felt like it.

  “Sebastian, just so you know only Kingsly and I have been in your house. The inscription on the back of the muffs was duplicated. The ring Calis wears was recreated although the diamonds we create are nowhere near the value the one Calis wears.’

  “However, we were able to procure some mother of pearl which I will have Mickey use on those muffs since we can infuse them with it although the original duplicate was made mainly for destruction purposes.’

  “All relocation project items are made with synthetics and nanotechnology so we can duplicate them multiple times without the costs being an issue. This relocation project of yours is concerning a drowning and destruction of a vehicle. If we really wanted to, we could make the vehicle, but that is much more complicated. It is preferable to use one that you have been using.’

  “We do have the stolen vehicle already picked out and it was already stolen in the first place so the police will be pleased that the vehicle is found even if it is burnt to a crisp. It will be case closed for the incident for that particular vehicle.”

  William said and as William got to the place to go to the hall of records and thus he had Sebastian wait while he created a portal. They were in a rather empty area where no one was around so when they disappeared it would not be a problem.

  “This portal business makes things so much easier than it used to be. Now I can use the watch you gave me to time these portals perfectly. By the way, you do know by giving a grim reaper a watch you are stating you love them, don’t you? It is a gift a lover would bestow upon a reaper or an engagement gift.”

  William stated with a grin in Sebastian’s direction since he was indeed flattered. It had been a definite surprise and William wasn’t stupid enough not to find Sebastian attractive since as an Angel he was stunning.

  “I never intended it that way. I merely wanted to give you something to show my deep respect and care for you as a friend. I do consider you a friend William.”

  Sebastian said blushing a bit which was quite fetching on him. William sighed and shook his head. He now did understand what Kingsly saw in Sebastian and had developed a little crush on the man.

  “Well my dear Sebastian, you should have asked Kingsly. I did give Kingsly a red and gold pocket watch as an engagement present along with his ring. You should have seen Kingsly when he got that watch. I thought he was never going to stop bawling. He was so in love with it he does the same thing I do with mine. Every day he polishes it and of course unlike me he kisses it. A watch is a huge deal to a reaper Sebastian even if it is from a friend. You really should have asked me or Kingsly about the present Allen received from Ashton. We did honestly think those two would end up together so that is the only reason we had not said anything. Allen assumed Ashton was in love with him and as far as he was concerned that watch meant the forever kind of love.’

  “My dear friend, I know your gift to me came from your heart and I shall treasure it. However, you must not let another reaper like Ronald, Michael, or even Liam get a watch from anyone in your household unless you are serious about loving them.’

  “I personally do not see an issue with Ashton buying a watch for Liam since they are brothers, but if a grim reaper gives you a watch it is a big deal too. I in turn for your gift to me am giving you my former watch. I don’t know why I am doing this other than it feels right to me. I also care for you, probably more than I should.’

  “I implore you do not for any reason go back to becoming a demon. I have plans for you and we are in grave need of Angels right now. I personally do not care what Christian does, but you are important to all of us. I don’t just give hell fire whips to anyone.”

  William said with a genuine smile and handed Sebastian a very old mechanical pocket watch in excellent condition. It was beautiful and the designs were intricate.

  “What will Kingsly say? I don’t want him to get upset about your giving me something so personal to you.”

  Sebastian asked as he looked at the watch. On the back of the watch was a silver rose with a ruby blood drop. There was a circle of symbols with tiny diamond stars and strange words that Sebastian did not understand.

  “That is the reaper’s code of ethics in our most ancient language. Honor, Courage, Faith, Hope, Death, and Redemption.”

  William said pointing to the words on the back that Sebastian did not understand.

  “I will explain what each means to us after the meeting and while we wait for Mickey to make your ear muffs to your specifications. You will have to give him the exact date of the muffs and the type of ink used for the inscription so just in case an antique dealer sees them he will believe them to be of that particular era.’

  “The nanobots will help add flaws or make the piece so that none of the mother of pearl will be damaged. Also, we need to know if the white fluff on the muffs is of a certain type of animal fur. Replication of animal fur is fairly simple, but for an exact match we need to know the particular breed as well as the exact color.”

  William stated as he led Sebastian into the hall of records through the portal. Sebastian followed and kept looking at the watch in curiosity. It was such a fine thing for William to give him. It just worried Sebastian a bit since if a watch was a gift of love, that meant William loved him.
Sebastian cared for William, but did not love him.

  “William as much as I appreciate your gift to me I do not love you. I don’t know if I can accept it especially since this is something you should give Kingsly.”

  Sebastian said worried about taking something like this and Kingsly seeing it in his possession.

  “Kingsly knew I wanted to give this to you. He hates my old watch. He says it is too me, to by the book. I want someone to have it that will take care of it and treasure it. As I said I care deeply for you and respect you.’

  “I love Angels. I know it may seem weird to you, but reapers have certain things that they love. I love my work and I love Angels. I was rather happy you became one and I hope that by giving you this watch you will remain one.’

  “I know the watch you gave me wasn’t given out of romantic love for me although I would have been terribly flattered if it was, but I am logical Sebastian.’

  “I love what you are, what you represent. I absolutely adore cherubs though. Cherubs are the perfect children and if Kingsly had his way we would have a whole house full of little cherubs. Kingsly loves cherubs and just likes the idea of getting kinky with a full-blooded Angel. Male of course and you of course.”