Ezekiel's eyes flew open and he gasped for air. Adrian was cradling the hybrid's head against his chest and stroked his hair. The ex-butler could hear his lover's heart racing and smell his fear.
"Adrian…" Ezekiel murmured, just beginning to steady his breathing.
"Shh, my love. It's alright, I'm here," the demon's voice shook slightly. The hybrid let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the other. Adrian smiled back sadly. "Will you always have to go through these nightmares?" the demon asked, silently hoping for his lover to answer negatively.
"I doubt it. If they don't cease entirely they will at least decrease in frequency," the hybrid answered thoughtfully. Now it was Adrian's turn to release a sigh of relief.
"I can't bear to see you suffer like this for the rest of our lives," the demon answered.
"I know," Ezekiel whispered. The younger boy leaned up to kiss Adrian. The other teenager met him halfway, and held him there.
Sebastian and his son stood at the doorway, facing ex-earl gazed at the hybrid sadly.
"I don't want to stay…" Adrian murmured.
"Adrian, I won't be gone long, and someone needs to watch the twins," Ezekiel pointed out with a sigh. Adrian nodded. He understood why they planned it this way, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. "I'll be back soon. Hopefully everything goes well and you can meet my mother," the hybrid smiled. Adrian smiled back, they kissed, and in the blink of an eye the hybrid and his father were gone. The demon sighed and went back inside their small house. He spent the rest of the day with their twin children, hoping they could ease his anxiety.
Ezekiel stood in the empty, Welsh countryside with his father.
"This is where the three of us used to live," Sebastian assured Ezekiel. The demon's son nodded, fighting off the memories of the night he lost his mother. The angel's screams ripped through his mind. His breathing became uneasy, and he grabbed his father's arm for support. Sebastian frowned and wrapped his arm around his son.
"Where is she..?" the teenager asked. Sebastian silently lead his son to a stone beside the charred ruins of a cottage.
"She is under here," Sebastian murmured, trying to be sensitive of his hybrid son's sensitive emotions. Ezekiel nodded, an overwhelming feeling of despair engulfing his entire being. The teenager closed his eyes, using all of his will to imagine the dirt in front of the makeshift gravestone lifting out of the filled-in grave. He then piled this dirt to the left of his mother's resting place. Ezekiel opened his eyes, and there she was. Sebastian audibly gasped in shock. She was completely untouched by time. Her skin was pale and radiant, as if she was still alive, emitting a gentle glow in the afternoon sun. Ezekiel and Sebastian lifted her out of her grave as if she was a porcelain doll. The teenager began to feel tears stinging at his eyes, while Sebastian's eyes were glowing at the sight of her. They gently lowered her onto the ground, and Ezekiel grabbed his mother's hand. He closed his eyes and mimicked what he had done with the rabbit accidentally. Father and son soon heard a soft inhale. Ezekiel then opened his eyes to see his long-deceased mother open her own blue eyes as well.
"Mother…" Ezekiel gasped. She sat up.
"Sebastian… Ezekiel… My son..?"
