A FALLEN ANGEL.

A/N I've set this story in the late spring after my one shot story "Don't Make me Choose" where Pogue broke up with Kate. This story will contain male bonding, which may or may not become slashie. Definitely no Mary Sue, but maybe Gary Stu. Tee heee heeee. Sly wink!

Disclaimer. The world of The Covenant and it's characters belong to the creators of "The Covenant". I only own my own original characters.

CHAPTER 1

Pogue Parry settled himself on his favorite rock, beside his favorite stream, which ran through his favorite piece of woodland. Stretching his muscular swimmer's legs out, he lent back on his elbows, closed his blue eyes and tipped his head back to enjoy the warm spring sun. His long blond hair fell back from his shoulders and hung behind him.

The sun was feeling so good, Pogue got the urge to feel it on more of his skin. He sat up and pulled his shirt and t shirt up over his head in one fluid movement. He flexed his broad shoulders and stretched his muscular arms before settling back on his elbows again. His abdominal muscles flexed and rippled in the warm sunlight as he settled himself back into position again. His jeans as ever sat low on his hips, so much of his pelvic region was exposed. The hard defined creases between the tops of his thighs and lower abdomen could be seen plunging below the waistline of the jeans, with a tuft of blond hair showing. His friend Reid was always teasing Pogue about this and threatening to forcibly wax his friends "bikini line" as he wore ridiculously small speedos when he swam.

Pogue's superb physical condition was no accident. He and his three closest friends, Caleb Danvers, Reid Garwin and Tyler Simms were the four top swimmers in their school's swim team. Pogue's specialty stroke was butterfly, so he had developed great upper body strength and flexibility. As with most swimmers his strength came with suppleness and definition rather than bulk. A physique which combined with his blond haired, blue eyed Norseman looks made Pogue a wildly attractive young man.

Understandably Pogue was a popular romantic target amongst the female population of the exclusive Spencer Academy where he, Caleb, Reid and Tyler were known as the "Sons of Ipswich". They were the descendants of four of the five original founding families of Ipswich.

The descendant of the fifth bloodline, Chase Collins, caused the boys a great deal of trouble the previous fall. For the boys were more than just close friends. Their familys' bloodlines carried a secret.

Nobody knew how it started or where the power came from, but the eldest male of each generation inherited supernatural powers. The families fled from the witch hunts in Europe and settled in New England only to be find themselves in peril again. This time it was the Salem Witch Hunts.

To protect the families and their descendants they formed "The Covenant". A pact between the four surviving families to protect their secret. Pogue and his friends were the eldest males of their generation of "The Covenant".

Chase Collins was the eldest male of the fifth bloodline which was believed to have died out during the witch hunts.

Chase had come to Ipswich to try and take the other boys powers for himself. He had found out too late that the powers had severe side effects. The powers were addictive. They also fed on the body's vitality. The more you used the powers, the more your body wasted away, aging at a frightening pace. Chase was totally addicted before he found out about the consequences.

He believed that with more powers he could defy the aging process. He needed to find a member of one of the other blood lines and coerce them into willing him their powers. A process which was not allowed within the "Covenant" because it would result in the death of that person. Chase didn't care. He had already killed many times to gain his level of power and to protect his own secret.

He had tried to force Caleb into willing him his powers. He put a spell on Kate, who was Pogue's girlfriend at the time, leaving her on the verge of death. When Pogue heard, he raced to protect her. It had been a trap to lure Pogue into Chase's web. Once he had Pogue, he had proceeded to greviously injure Pogue, to in turn lure Caleb into a trap. The attack had left Pogue in the intensive care ward of the local hospital.

Caleb had confronted Chase. He too would have succumbed to the fury of the power hungry youth, only his mother had persuaded his prematurely aged to father to will his power to his son. He did so knowing that it would cost him his life. But he did it knowing it would save Caleb's life. The huge power boost was enough for Caleb to defeat Chase.

Although Chase had been engulfed by fire, no remains were ever found. He had disappeared without trace.

Nearly six months had passed since then. Over the following winter Pogue had recovered from his injuries. He had turned 18 which was when his powers matured and he "ascended". The huge increase in his powers had made his recovery remarkably swift, astounding his doctors. He didn't even have to use. It just happened. Of course the temptation to use was huge with his new powers. He and Caleb, who had already ascended, worked through it together and were able to keep it under control. They were having more trouble with Reid, who had also ascended, but had always been a reckless user. Tyler had yet to ascend, but he was pretty steady. They thought he should be ok.

While lying in hospital, he had time to think about his life and where he was heading. Being beaten nearly to death does that to a man.

He had realized that his and Kate's relationship was not a healthy one. He had to be honest that as much as he liked Kate, he would much rather spend time with Caleb, Reid and Tyler. Guys are supposed to have girlfriends though, so when Kate showed interest he went along with it, thinking it was the right thing to do. He knew now that it hadn't been right. The feelings he had been expecting were just not there. He had expected to feel at least some "zing" when she was around.

Nothing.

He cared about her, but only as much as he would care about anybody he knew and considered a friend.

Not feeling as he thought he should about Kate made him feel very insecure, which made him very jealous of anybody being around Kate. The jealousy in turn angered Kate. It was becoming a vicious circle.

Once he had been able to be that honest about his own feelings, he had taken a good, hard, objective look at how Kate was with him. He had to admit that he was nothing more than a trophy boyfriend! His last conversation with her when he was in hospital had confirmed that. She hadn't seemed at all concerned about how he was. All she was worried about was being seen out with him so that people would know he was her boyfriend.

Again, he had to be honest with himself. If he really did like Kate as a true girlfriend, she would have been much more of a focus for his attention.

In the end, Kate brought things to a head when she tried to have him make her the center of his attention. She had tried to make him choose between her and the other boys in the Covenant.

He had decided then to put an end to that act and sent her away.

They still saw each other around the campus. He was always happy to see her, but just as pleased to move along. She always gave him a little smile and wave. He hoped that she didn't feel any bitterness or animosity. She really was a nice girl and deserved someone good for her.

Since he had been discharged from hospital and while recovering, Pogue had been taking time out on his own to think. Once the weather had warmed enough he had been coming to this special place that had been his favorite since childhood. It was so tranquil. The quiet chuckling of the stream, the sounds of birds and the forest scents all worked to calm Pogue. If you went a little further upstream, the stream cascaded over a water fall into a deep clear pond, ideal for a bracing swim. He considered it to be his own little piece of paradise.

"Parry's Paradise!"

He laughed at his own little piece of alliteration, stretched again and turned over to warm his back. His back of course was well toned and defined, the muscles rippling and flexing in the warmth. With his jeans sitting so low, the swell of his buttocks were exposed where they flared from the base of his spine. There was also a good deal of what Reid referred to as Pogue's "builder's cleavage" showing.

Having supernatural powers didn't make Pogue aware of everything going on around him. If they had, he would have known that someone was standing nearby, watching his act of sun worship.

XXX

Barton Forbes the 3rd was a student at Spenser.

Like many of the student body, he came from old money. The kind of family that Provost Higgins liked to have sending their offspring to Spencer's hallowed halls. Oh there were token scholarship students and, whisper it, "new money" kids. But the older the money the better!

As with the "old money" families, there had been several generations of Forbes attend Spencer. Barton had no choice about where he attended high school. It was preordained that he go to the same dusty halls his forbears had trod. He had been enrolled at birth.

He had saw it not as an exciting chapter in his life, but as a vast, dank, bog land he had to wade through. There were other schools he would much rather have attended. Particularly the local public High school. That had never been an option. He had been left with no alternative but to wade through the bog.

He was that rare breed of red head with dark copper colorings, the kind that other lesser mortals spent vast amounts of money and time trying to emulate. Barton was naturally blessed with the russet tones from birth. He hated to think what would have happened if he had been born a fair featured, fiery red head with freckles. His parents would have put him up for adoption! He had seen his mother looking down her nose at those other poor unfortunates with their skin frying in the sun. He could tell exactly what she was thinking.

He was also blessed with the ideal athletic physique. His father was convinced he would be a star quarterback or line backer as all the previous Forbes had been. He made no effort to hide his bitterness when Barton refused to try out for the team. Lacrosse had been suggested as well but had received the same disinterest, much to Barton Forbes seniors disgust.

Barton wanted to play ice hockey. He loved the fast moving, flowing pace of the game. Football was slow and lumbering by comparison. Both parents refused as they considered hockey players to be a bunch of thugs. Barton skated well and joined in with scrimmages but kept that very quiet from the family. The compromise they allowed was swimming, so he had joined the squad. He wasn't the star quality of the "Sons" but performed well enough as he enjoyed the physicality of the sport. He knew them to say "hey" to but no more.

His other secret passion was rock climbing. As a pass time his father considered it a pointless exercise. Barton spent much of his spare time on his own, exploring the country around Spencer looking for rock formations he could scale on his own. He would have loved to find some one to partner with so that he could try some more challenging climbs. He had yet to find any body in the student body who would share that interest.

The area of his life which was causing most angst for his parents was a complete lack of girlfriends. None had been mentioned on his visits home and his parents discrete inquiries with his contemporaries had failed to come up with any names. In their reality a good White Anglo Saxon Protestant boy should have girlfriends. From the right families of course. His parents were expecting to have to vet the girlfriends. They never imagined that he just wouldn't come forward with any. Barton was getting heartily sick of the questioning when he returned home for holidays. Even worse were the stuck up insipid daughters of family friends who were always being invited over for dinner, and then not very discretely being left alone with him.

His lack of interest caused some concern for Barton himself. He attracted plenty of attention from girls on campus, but he couldn't work up any interest in return. He dated a few. Very briefly. Every time they just left him cold. He put it down to being surrounded by the type of snobby bitches he wouldn't want to know anyway. He was able to convince himself for a while that he was being picky.

At lease it was a way to cause his parents grief. So that was good in his book.

He had been following this particular stream hoping to find some interesting rocks to test himself on.

Having clambered over a pile of rocks he had been just in time to witness Pogue's turn over. Barton recognized him straight away. What he wasn't prepared for was how the sight affected him. He felt a tightening somewhere in the region of his chest along with a flush of warmth through his entire being. The rush of feeling left him rooted to the spot.

This was how he had expected to feel when he was with one of his dates. Not at the sight of one of his team mates! What was wrong with him?

Pogue's head was pillowed on his arms, his face towards Barton, his eyes closed. Some of his long blond hair had fallen across his face, giving him a vulnerable, unguarded look. It took Barton's breath away. He never thought he would ever use the word beautiful to describe another male, but that was the only word that would do justice to the vision before him. His eyes swept from the blond hair, along the smooth back to the base where Pogue's buttocks swelled above the waist line of his jeans. The dark cleft between.

Maybe if some of the girls at school would allow themselves to be seen this way, he would have reacted this way to the. They preferred to project the flashy, sophisticated party hack image. Somehow Barton didn't think they would have this much impact on him though. He was sure his face was flushing a deeper shade.

As if sensing someone was watching him, Pogue's eyes opened and locked with Barton's. He lifted his head from his arms and more of his hair cascaded across his face, brushing his lips. Barton found the sight deeply affecting.

Pogue's eyes widened at first at realizing someone was standing not ten feet away, watching him. They settled though at recognizing Barton.

His lips parted slightly in surprise, for he was finding himself strangely affected by the sight of Barton. He had seen his school mate before but never quite like this. He was dressed in denim shorts which stopped just short of his knees. One foot was up on a boulder so the shorts had pulled back to expose the boys tanned legs, his muscular calves tensed as he held his stance. He wore a tank top which left his swimming and climbing toned arms bare. One hand rested on the raised knee.

Barton was startled by Pogue catching him out, his face had flushed attractively, his startling green eyes had widened. Pogue wondered if he had ever seen such amazing eyes. The green was rimmed by black, giving the eyes a strange intensity that drew you in. The dark copper hair glinted in the sun.

Maybe it was the setting that made the difference, but both boys now seemed to be caught in some kind of spell. For a split second Pogue even wondered if that was what was happening. Was Reid hiding somewhere nearby punking him? It took another fraction of a second for his senses to tell him there was no supernatural power at work here. But he knew he never felt like this when he saw Kate.

It was Barton who finally broke the silence.

"Hey" he said hesitantly, raising his hand from his knee giving a tentative wiggle of his fingers.

Pogue blinked, then propped himself up on one elbow, brushing his hair out of his eyes. Barton's breath caught at the sight of the flexing and tensing of muscle in Pogue's shoulders, back and buttocks. What was going on here?

"Hey. You're Barton right?" Pogue's voice brought Barton out of his trance. "You're on the swimming team."

"Aahumm, yeah." Barton finally mumbled. "Pogue right?"

"Yeah."

They continued to gaze at each other for a second before Barton became nervous.

"Sorry. I hope I didn't disturb you. I was just..." his voice trailed off helplessly.

Pogue sat up and turned to face Barton.

"S'ok." he said putting his hand out. "Nice to meet you properly. I've seen you at training."

"Same, but there's never time to talk is there."

Pogue laughed lightly.

"That's for sure! Coach keeps Caleb, Reid , Pogue and I hard out. By the time he lets us finish most of you other guys have gone."

"You guys are awesome together. Great relay team!"

"Hey thanks!" both boys were much more relaxed now.

"You want to join me?" Pogue asked patting the rock beside him and smiling.

Barton's face lit up in a wide bright smile.

"Cheers." he said shrugging off a small back pack and flopping down next to Pogue.

"It was good to see you come back to squad. I hear you got banged up pretty bad."

Pogue shivered slightly at the memory.

"I can think of much more pleasant ways of getting off school." he said ironically.

"You up here hiking on your own?'

"I've been looking round for some rocks to climb. Thought there might be some up here somewhere."

"There's a waterfall a bit further upstream with some good rock faces around it. You like climbing then?"

"Yeah. I have to do it quietly though because my parents don't approve. Don't approve of ice hockey either so I can't play that. They want me to play football or lacrosse but I can't stand either of those."

"Swimming is allowed though?" Pogue asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah that's about as close as we have ever come to agreeing on something."

"You know, I think Spencer Academy must have the highest rate of parental interference in student lives in the whole country!" Pogue said laughing.

"Particularly in my case!" Barton said bitterly. "I'm expected to uphold the traditions set by four previous generations of Forbes who have dragged their sorry asses through Spencer."

"Oh man. Tough shoes to fill." Pogue said giving Barton a sympathetic look.

"What about you Pogue? Your parents give you much grief?"

"Not really. My Dad died young and my Mom hasn't been round much since. Trust fund kid!" he said looking at the space between his shoes.

"Shit! Sorry Pogue. I didn't know."

"Course you didn't!" Pogue said, looking back up at Barton quickly to let him know he wasn't upset with him. He turned a little towards Barton, laying on his side and slid one foot up by his butt to brace himself. He propped himself on his elbow. Barton was touched at the intimacy of the posture. He leaned back on his elbow to bring his eyes level with Pogue's.

"Caleb, Reid and Tyler have been my family really."

"Ah. The "Sons of Ipswich"." Barton said making quotation marks in the air with his fingers. Pogue chuckled quietly.

"Grand title, I don't think! It's just our families have known each other for generations, so we all grew up together. Like brothers."

"You all seem real tight."

"Our fathers all died young. We pretty much look out for each other. Try and keep Reid out of trouble." he said pulling a face.

"He does seem to be pretty full on."

"Drives Caleb crazy!"

"You're not with them today?"

"No. Caleb is out with Sarah. His girlfriend." He said looking at Barton to make sure he knew who he was talking about. Barton nodded to show he was following.

"Reid dragged Tyler off somewhere. Probably to go scam some poor sucker at pool."

"Aaron?"

"Oh, you've seen them at work!"

Barton laughed softly.

"Yeah, once or twice down at Nicky's"

"I don't remember ever seeing you there." Pogue said in surprise.

"I don't go there much. Spent most of my time avoiding those flashy, pushy Spencer types who think that all boys want to date them! Ended up leaving early every time."

Pogue snorted, looking down at his hand where it rested on his other arm.

"I know the ones you mean!"

Barton wondered with a start if he had put his foot in his mouth as he remembered Pogue went out with Kate.

"Sorry Pogue! I didn't mean your girlfriend!" he exclaimed.

Pogue looked up quickly and reached out to touch Barton's hand reassuringly.

"S'ok buddy. That's just what Kate was like. It took me a long time to figure that out about most Spencer girls. Good for you being able to see that. I split up with her when I was in hospital."

"Oh"

"Hey it's alright. Really." Pogue said giving Barton's hand a squeeze. "Talking to me must be like walking through a mine field!" he said laughing.

"I don't know. Maybe I've got a talent for saying all the wrong things." Barton's hand was tingling where Pogue's was still laying on top of it.

"Don't worry about it! I'm glad you came along. I'm enjoying talking to you! What about you? Have any of the "flashy, pushy" types managed to snare you yet?"

Barton laughed dryly.

"Nooo! I've tried dating a few. Just left me cold. When their first question is "Hey sugar, what kind of car do you drive?" it doesn't exactly flick my switch. It's driving my parents crazy!" he laughed again brightly. "Every time they see me I get quizzed. They reckon a good W.A.S.P. boy like me should be dating and checking marriage prospects." this time he shivered and the corners of his mouth pulled down into a frown.

"They have this whole picture of how they want me to live my life and expect me to live that way. Honestly they're worse than the British Royal Family!"

"Oh man!" Pogue breathed sympathetically. Neither of them seemed to notice that Pogue's hand was still on top of Barton's and that his thumb had hooked underneath so that he was actually holding Barton's hand. It felt so natural.

"I don't get to make many friends because my parents either disapprove, or they really embarrass me by quizzing everybody about what I do." Barton said very quietly, then with more animation.

"I wouldn't mind so much if it was me they cared about! But it's all about them and their image!" He looked at Pogue ruefully. "That's why I come up here on my own." Now he was the one looking down. His hair brushed across Pogue's forehead.

"Hey" Pogue said firmly, squeezing Barton's hand again. "You've got a friend here, and I don't scare easily! Neither do my friends." he said, his eyes dancing.

Barton hooked his thumb around Pogue's and squeezed to show his appreciation.

Both boys became aware that they were holding hands, glanced at where their thumbs were hooked together, then looked up at each other. They were both wide eyed with surprise that they were this intimate and didn't mind. They both flopped onto their backs, shoulder to shoulder and just laughed at the shear joy of being with another person and there being no awkwardness. No pretense.

Pogue leaned up on his elbow to look at Barton.

"Hey. You want to go check out this waterfall?"

"Hell yeah!"

They both scrambled to their feet and gathered up there discarded gear. Shoulder to shoulder, they set off through the warm sun.

A/N. OMG! Where is this heading? Will they fall in love and give us lots of slashiness? (Is that a word?) Or will they just become bestest friends and be best men at each others weddings? Will there be angst? Will there be tragedy? Will there be passion? Is Barton a Gary Stu? Check in soon and see. MWAHAHAHAHA!