Over the next couple of weeks my life slowly fell into a routine. I would wake up paint and paint a picture of Cephi. Then it was off to Tim's to earn some money. And finally, I would end up at Cephi's house. We hung out constantly and I really enjoyed being in the man's company. And he clearly enjoyed mine too. So it only makes sense that when I was finally nice and comfortable with how our relationship was progressing that something would happen to change that.

Cephi greeted me with a kiss as I walked through the front door of his house. It was deep and searing, leaving me gasping for breath and wanting more. His hand lingered on the small of my back and I found myself being led toward his couch.

"Would you like to watch a movie?" he asked.

I could think of a million things I'd rather do on that couch right now but still I nodded my head.

After extensively scrutinizing every DVD he owned I finally decided I wanted to watch a movie with angels in it. Cephi strongly refused to watch Angels In the Outfield or All Dogs Go to Heaven , why he even had those movies, I'll never know. So we ended up watching The Field of Dreams. Mostly because he could stand the movie and I absolutely loved it. I mean where else do you get questions like, "is this heaven?" that have an answer of, "no it's Iowa." and the epic whisper from beyond of if you build it he will come. God I love this movie. Even went to the place when I was younger. My dad and I played ball on the baseball field and had our pictures taken coming out of the corn.

I lounged lazily against Cephi as he gently ran fingers through my hair. I had never had such a problem paying attention to a movie before in my life. And the soft stroking was so relaxing it almost put me to sleep. I was so content sitting here with this man. The man I had fantasized about for months.

A thrill, that I'm not ashamed to admit went straight to my groin, went through me as he began kissing my neck. I mewled in appreciation as his gentle touches continued. God I loved watching movies with him.

I was starting to really get into the fooling when there was a flash in my memory. I sat up rigidly and Cephi stopped his touching. He gave me a look but said nothing. Just watching for what I was going to do next.

My eyes went wide. I had forgotten...

A guy with curly blonde hair and freckles.

Friend of Tiearyu's. Cephi.

I forgot to tell him that guy said hi.

Aww, I can't believe I did that. And for nearly two weeks. I turned around and looked up at him, knowing that I had to tell him now or it'd probably be another two weeks (or longer) before I thought of it again. For some unexplainable reason I felt like I needed to tell him. I couldn't just brush the man's words off as too late to matter. If an old friend of mine had seen Cephi and told him a message for me, I'd want Cephi to tell me.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you," I looked up at him a huge smile on my face. "Theophilus says hello."

The reaction was instantaneous and totally not what I was expecting.

A small gasp left the beautiful man's lips and he swiftly wrestled me beneath him, straddling my legs. His hands were pressed non-too-gently on my shoulders. He shook me violently and I winced as my head snapped back hitting the arm of his sofa.

Ouch, that hurt.

I looked up at him in confusion.

Why was he doing this to me?

Not two seconds ago he had been kissing me and now he looked like he wanted to murder me.

His lips curled back into a dangerous sneer. "So that's what's going on here," he muttered darkly emitting a sick chuckling sound absolutely devoid of humor.

And I'm glad he knows what's going on, 'cause I have absolutely no clue.

One of his hands snaked its way around my neck and squeezed. Not enough to stop the air flow completely, but i really had to work for it. It succeeded it thoroughly scaring the crap out of me as well. I was acutely aware of how easily he could decide he didn't want me breathing any more.

"You, my friend, almost had me fooled."

I looked at him in fear and confusion, "Wha-

He tightened his grip on my neck. My eyes went wide in panic. I couldn't breathe.

"I knew you were too good too be true," he was muttering. Mostly to himself, didn't seem to care if I heard what he was saying or not. "Should have seen it the first day. No human speaks Messenger. No human works for him." There were black spots dancing around the edges of my vision. If I don't get air soon, I'm going to pass out.

"Show them to me," he slammed my head against the arm rest. My teeth jarred together with the force of the blow and I bit my tongue. My head hurt so bad. And now he wants me to show him God knows what.

"Show you what?" I attempted to rasp out. But no air generally equals no voice.

There was a sharp stinging on my face and a resounding slap. my head snapped to the side with the force of the blow. "You are not passing out on me," the guy growled.

He had moved his hand from around my neck when he slapped me and I was now greedily taking in as much air as I could possibly manage. I felt tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. No... no way was I going to cry.

I was fixed with a cold disgusted look, "Wow, you're a good actor. No wonder he chose you."

Both hands were on my shoulders now and I was swiftly flipped over so my back was facing him. My face pressed into the hard arm of the sofa.

"SHOW ME THEM!" he growled, clawing at my back. I heard the fabric of my shirt rip. Felt the heat from the unfriendly body above me. The body that had made me feel so comfortable earlier.

I felt his hand on my back. It wasn't moving, just resting there. Maybe he was having second thoughts?

"Stop please. I don't know what you want," I cried desperately clawing blindly at the furniture in an attempt to get away.

Both of his hands were on my back now and I was terrified by the strength he possessed. I couldn't move. "Fine, you want to play dumb, I'll make them come out myself."

I struggled against his iron grip. Whatever he wanted out, I was determined to keep in. His hands raked gently up my back searching for whatever he was looking for. Slightly below my shoulders he began to prod my back. Massage it.

And... holy poop on a popsicle. It felt amazing. I moaned. Jesus I moaned. My struggling had been forgotten and I was practically writhing under him.

Why am I having this type of reaction?

I heard a low hiss of, "I knew you were lying," but it sounded muted and far away to my pleasure overloaded senses.

I couldn't explain what was happening. It felt so good. All he was doing was massaging my back and I couldn't even think straight.

It just felt so good.

Why was it affecting me this way? I let out another breathy moan as he kneaded a particularly sensitive spot.

And I felt it. A pressure building up. Where his hands were fondling. The pleasurable feeling was growing. And I dimly wondered if this is what it would feel like if my shoulders were getting ready to ejaculate.

Then all of a sudden the good feeling was gone. The pressure going from amazing pleasure to immense pain. Agonizing pain.

Oh God this was torture.

I whimpered, overcome by the horrible throbbing in my back.

It was like I had been stabbed in the back. I screamed.

I felt my skin rip like fabric.

And something shot from my back, flinging Cephi off of me in the process. I gave a gut wrenching sob and buried my head in the crooks of my elbows.

"Get out," the low dangerous voice of the other man hissed at my shuddering form.

I jerked my head up in shock and felt my vision swim. If I could barely lift my head how was I going to leave?

Over my shoulder I caught a glimpse of white.

"Get out," he boomed, much louder but still as deadly.

I clamored to my feet. And immediately fell to the floor. My legs were shaking too bad to support me. "Oh for the love of..." he growled and grabbed my forearm roughly hauling me to my feet. "Stop acting like you've never released them before. Get out of my house."

I was dragged roughly to the door and pushed through the frame. My new appendages were barely through when he slammed the door shut. I heard the resounding click of the dead bolt. My legs buckled under me and I sat in his hallway willing my body to miraculously gain some strength. "You know, God, if you wanted to help me out here, I'd be much obliged," I whispered jokingly to myself. If I didn't try to joke about something I was very certain I would dissolve into tears again.

My pain slowly started ebbing away and I attempted to stand again. My legs were still wobbly and I leaned heavily against the wall for support, but I could stand. I staggered slowly back to my apartment.

The first thing I did when reaching home was run into my bedroom to stand in front of my floor length mirror. I wanted too see what Cephi had forced out of me. I stared at my reflection in awe., walking right up to the glass I extended a hand to its surface outlining my features. Actually most of me looked exactly the same and rather disheveled from my earlier rough treatment. But the things that were different were so... breathtaking I found myself wanting to cry just looking at them. My eyes almost seemed to glow. There was a new light to them that hadn't been there before. The biggest difference were the two wings sprouting out of my back. They looked so soft, so pure and white. I reached a hand back to make sure they were real and caressed a cloud. Never had I felt something so soft. I used muscles I didn't even know I had and flexed them. The shuddered. They were very hard to move. I'd have to work on that.

The longer I looked the more I thought and my thoughts, after the bout of awe, were not happy. Why hadn't I know what I was? Why did Cephi know? Why did he think I was working for Theo? I thought they were friends. And more importantly, how was I going to get the wings to go away? I couldn't go out like this. That meant I couldn't deliver my paintings to Tim, or go on late night walks when I couldn't sleep. It also meant I couldn't go back to Cephi and give the man a piece of my mind.

Hot anger coursed through me. I curled my hand into a fist overcome with the urge to hit something. The mirror never stood a chance as I brought my fist back and punched it sending shards of glass everywhere. Instead of feeling calmer I only felt more enraged at the site of the mess I had made. I growled in despair and my lights flickered and then went out completely.

The electric must have gone out for some reason.

Fuming, I fumbled my way over to my bed and flopped down on the old thing. I curled up and let my wings wrap around me crying fat angry tears until, exhausted, I fell asleep.