"Love is just a history that they may prove

And when you're gone, I'll tell them my religion's you

When Pontius comes to kill the King upon his throne

I'm ready for their stones."

- Lady Gaga, Bloody Mary

and relaxed. The demon just looks the same. Slate's eyes bore into mine and I feel myself freeze; earlier he wrapped his arms around me while we stared ahead, into the distance, watching the ocean cut through the horizon. Slate moves forward until our clothed chest is almost touching, his hot and minty breath fanning my face.

I watch his eyes; they darken, then they become bright.

The wind brushes past us, and his hair flies and Slate looks magnificent, so handsome, and God, perfect. I have this strong urge to close the distance between us and capture his lips with mine. Is it possible to crave for something you never tasted, you never felt, you never touched? The more I think about his lips, the more I feel like I've already kissed him, tasted him.

Slate looks away, his jaw clenching. "We should go back home to our unit." He says, not giving me a brief glance. He walks towards the shore, wears his shoes (and ignores that his feet are still wet), and leaves me at all. I scurry, wearing my shoes hastily and running after him. Once I reach him, I walk beside him, making sure to keep a couple of distances away from him because God knows much I want to hold his hand. Am I being ridiculous? Am I going insane? Probably yes. Only a crazy angel would want to hold a demon's hand and be happy about it.

Leaving this place is kind of a disappointment. Since this is the first time I've been in a beach, it makes me want to stay more. In fact I could just stay here forever. But if Slate wants to go home already, then so be it. Plus, I think there will be a day that I'll be able to go back here. It's not really the end of the world so I'm sure that I'll be back here someday. Maybe alone; maybe with Slate again. Who knows?

Continuing to follow him, I get suddenly lost that I bump into his back. Slate slightly turns his face around, looking at me over his shoulder.

"Wait me here," he says to me, his tone leaving no room for a conversation as he saunters away from me, being a face in the crowd as he swims through the sea of people walking across the theme park. Yes, we're back in the theme park and I enjoyed staying at the beach more than here.

Waiting patiently, my eyes scan the area – mortals are scattered everywhere; they are holding gadgets in their hands, arms stretched out, as they pose for the camera, angling their faces so they'd look good. It looks amusing how mortals can easily be drawn by these gadgets that they don't really need – well, maybe they do need the gadgets because they think that it should be part of their lives when it's really not. I think? Maybe this is my angel-side speaking. I mean, what do I know of being a mortal? I've been born an angel and I barely know how mortal things work.

They give out their best smile, laughing along with their friends when they see that it's not what it should look like and that they should pose more. I roll my eyes at them because I don't even understand it. Looking to my left, I see someone very familiar to me. I squint at my eyes, trying to see whether my assumption is correct.

When the guy with the jet black hair, gelled up rather messily, looks sideways, my assumption is seriously correct. I'm looking directly at my old servant Leandre Bonavi. He still looks the same and I miss him so much; his eyes roam around, scanning the area, and his forehead is creased. I run towards his direction and when he's within reach, my arms stretch forward and curl around him. Immediately he tenses, breaking free, looking at me with malice and alertness in his eyes, and when his eyes meet mine, recognition flickers in his eyes and a bright smile tugs into his lips.

"Master Hadraniel!" Leandre practically screams, his arms shooting around my neck, hugging me tight, choking the life out of me. I push him away just so I can have a time to inhale air and exhale. His expression remains the same – shocked and happy. "I've been practically searching for you ever since I've known that you were temporarily vanished from our home! I was so worried about you, Master Hadraniel. You had no idea! The Pond of Life... it's not working so we can't track you. There has been a breach in Heaven and guess what? Rahab is now a fallen angel. Apparently he's the one who pushed you thus the reason why you're here. He's a traitor. He made sure that you have no power before he pushed you. You know your father would not take away your power and throw you here in Earth, right?"

Would my father really do that to me? I mean, I'm his son. So he wouldn't, right?

"Now that I have found you, we can go home now. Our home is kind of a wrecked right now, but it's still fine. The King and Queen are so worried about you." Leandre says to me.

The demon's words suddenly flash into my head. I'm basically free since he had taken the leash off of me a long time ago. I'm now with an angel, my servant, and he could stand a chance at fighting the demon and we could take off and leave the Earth... but that will also mean me leaving Slate. I'm not really sure about that. I'm not sure if I want to leave Slate. I mean... damn it. I guess staying with a demon is not really a good idea. Slate is a bad influence. A big bad influence to me and to all the mortals in the whole wide world.

With reluctance, I shake my head, ignoring his offer. Leandre's smile turns into a frown, then he becomes confused the more he stares at me. I want to go with him, to leave this place and go back home, but I don't want to leave Slate. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'd choose to stay with Slate.

"Wait, why?" he asks me, confusion etched on his face.

I can't leave Slate. "I think staying here makes me see the purpose of what I exist." I simply say to him, lying completely in front of an angel. His brows furrow even more, then he begins to shake his head. While we were growing up, I've grown accustomed to him being a persistent angel. And if I hadn't known him all my life, I'd be pissed when he decides to throw all the valid reasons why I should go with him and leave this place. "Believe me, Leandre. I'm finding good things here. You can tell my parents that I'm okay and no one is harming me. But please do not tell them where I am. I trust you, Leandre. Please promise to me that you will not tell them about this."

"I... I'm not sure about that, Master Hadraniel," he says dejectedly, shaking his head at me. "You know, we angels cannot lie."

"I know, I know about that, Leandre." I say to him, trying to make him see the fake reason that I'm putting up. I know I'm asking too much of him, but I need him to do this. "Alright, you can do this instead. You can tell them that you have found me but tell them that I wish to be left alone as I'm now seeing the purpose of being the Angel of Love, you know? I just need more time to figure this all out. I'm just living here in Brooklyn and I'm not going anywhere. Okay? You can go back here, talk to me, make sure that I'm okay, and that's fine."

"That will do, Master Hadraniel." He says, bowing his head. "But what are you doing here?"

"I'm kind of in a middle of a date right now," I say.

"What?" he asks, his eyes wide.

"What do you mean 'what'?"

"You are on a date?" he looks at me, mouth agape.

"Yeah, what's wrong with me being on a date?" I ask him, brows furrowing as I look at him with confusion in my eyes. Did he not know what a date is? Well, I can gladly explain it to him. I mean, Leandre doesn't really know everything about mortal stuff and neither do I, but he knows things while I know the others. "A date is –"

Leandre cuts me off. "You are on a romantic appointment with someone?" Now it's my turn to look at him with wide eyes, jaw hanging. "Okay, okay, so you met a mortal girl, and you're now dating? How come? How'd you know her? Is she beautiful? Is she good? Does she pray a lot?"

"Date means having fun together..." I say, unsure now.

"Yes, date means having fun together..." Leandre confirms, then frowns. "But that's not what the internet says! Apparently human technologies are kind of awesome and I have searched that word once. While you are correct that date basically means having fun together, it actually means 'have a social or romantic appointment' with someone you think is special!"

Blushing, I ask meekly, "Are you sure about that?"

"Duh, of course I am," he says sassily, rolling his eyes. "I'm dating a werewolf, remember? In their dictionary, it's mate or something. So being stuck with a werewolves and being around with mortals, I learn more of their stuff. Believe me it's not just about having fun, Master Hadraniel. So where is this girl you're dating so –"

"Holy Heaven, Holy Heaven, Holy Heaven," I say, panic rising up in my throat as I see Slate's figure emerging from the sea of people. He should not see Leandre here with me. God knows what Slate will do if he sees Leandre, an angel, a mortal enemy of his, with me. And Leandre can't see him either. Leandre looks at me incredulously, arching a brow. "You need to go now, Leandre. Seriously you need to go now. I'll be seeing you soon. Bye!" I run towards the direction of the demon walking forward towards my direction; I meet him halfway, clutching his arm and turning Slate around.

At first Slate seems pretty shocked about me, but I really don't care about that. If Slate sees Leandre, this place will be a battlefield and I can't just let mortals see it. I refuse to look back at Leandre because I don't want to see what expression he wears.

Then Slate stops moving at all. He eyes me, looking at me suspiciously and I give him an awkward smile, jerking my chin forward, telling him that we should go home ASAP. But Slate just looks at me, arching a brow. He crosses his arms across his chest and my eyes flicker to his great and lean and strong arms. God, those veins running across his forearm up to his wrist, it looks so sexy.

"You're hiding something," he says.

"No I'm not hiding something, why would I hide something? Nothing's really worth hiding something," I ramble, looking straight ahead. "Someone told me that date means to have a social or romantic appointment with someone you really like, is that true?" I HAVE TO!

Slate blinks. "What the fuck?"

"No cursing!" I whisper-yell. "Is that true?"

"Sort of?" he says, shrugging. "We're on a date. We're enjoying the company of each other."

I'm blushing madly now. He's not really lying and I admit, I'm enjoying his company. "Okay, we can go now." I say meekly, hiding the blush that is so obvious in my cheeks. Slate throws me a smirk. "And for your information, I don't like you. And we're not on a date anymore!"

Let me know your thoughts about this chapter? Just to inform you guys, Leandre Bonavi first appeared in The Broken Werewolves: The Guardian so if you want to get to know him, you may want to read the book. The first to comment will have this chapter be dedicated for him/her!

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