Chapter XIV:
For Thy Love


He woke up to the uncomfortable feeling that tingling in his lower back. Soon, it spread outwards like spilled milk across a filmy counter table. It tickled down to his thighs and all the way up to his shoulders, attacking his heart with a nervous flutter.

Something wasn't right.

His eyes quickly cleared from their sleepy state and he craned his neck, tilting his head to the side. He froze, startled to see a pale golden hand resting in his vision. Above the hand was none other than Pip Pirrip.

Pip smiled down at him weakly, "Hello, Damien," he greeted in a rough but quiet voice.

He jerked and sat up quickly, practically pushing Pip off of the bed. Before the blonde could fall properly, he grabbed his wrist and yanked him further onto it. "What the fuck are you doing here?" he whispered fiercely at him, vision temporarily turning white. "How the hell did you get in here anyway?"

Pip smiled weakly at him before he sighed, "Forgive me please. I needed to see you... about... you know." He allowed a thin fingertip to trace against the bumpy surface of his stitches. He shivered, almost as if he weren't expecting to feel of it.

Damien shivered with him. He didn't want to talk about this. He didn't want to see Pip. No, he wanted to see Pip. No, that wasn't true; he didn't want to see Pip like that. No, that wasn't correct either! He just wanted to see things go back to the way they were. To a time where his confidence was unstoppable, a time where Pip was being stupid and gay, to a time where he could take correct steps with that. But no, he was stuck with this universe where Pip had almost died and it was his entire fault.

His heart nearly stopped. "Fuck," he whispered softly. There he went thinking that sort of shit once again. It wasn't his fault; there was nothing to take the blame for! He wanted such a thing done and the only regret he should feel is that of it being a failure! He didn't feel bad for Pip being hurt, fuck no! But there he was, feeling that way, wanting things to be different and for Pip to be okay.

"What's wrong, Damien?" Pip must have read his mind, his hand lifting up and conforming to the curve of Damien's cheek.

He could feel his face flash red. He pushed Pip's hand away from his face, settling for it to rest on is knee instead. "It's this thing with you! I despise how you can act like I'm the victim here and not you! Fuck, you slit open your throat by my demand and you're so fucking stupid that you think I'm the one who needs comforting!"

He hesitated before his smile grew warmer. "Oh Damien... I could never treat you any other way. I'm not a victim. I did this on my own will; it barely had anything to do with you—"

He gripped his face, dragging it closer to his own. "Why did you do it, Pip? Why?" He whispered sharply to his face.

Pip laughed softly, but the noise only came out jagged and painful. "I did it to prove a point."

His eyes narrowed. "What?"

"I did it to prove how important you are to me. I would do anything for you Damien. I love you." His smile was genuine and it made Damien's heart stir.

"You're so fucking stupid Pip. I wonder if you should have died back there." His heart squeezed again and he sighed, knowing full well he said the wrong thing. God damn how Pip was able to make him so stupid as well.

But Pip simply chuckled again in that tough wheeze of his and he placed a small kiss on his cheek, leaving Damien's face red again with shame.

"I'm feeling," his tongue tied as his confidence wavered, "bad about this... still."

"Why is that?" He questioned, gentle blue eyes flickering across his face.

"Because this all happened because of my stupid, stupid fixation with Satan..." His stomach nearly ripped itself apart, or at least that was what it felt like.

A look flashed across Pip's face. It wasn't a bad look; it was actually a little hopefully. But soon it disappeared, as quickly as it came, and Pip presented him a still, wide-eyed face.

"What?"

Pip held up his hand to Damien's mouth and thoroughly hushed him. His eyes lifted and he concentrated on something else entirely. He shivered, his hair almost visibly standing on end. "What is that?" He whispered sharply, his eyes narrowing. He stood up swiftly, up and away from the bed.

"Pip, what are you doing?"

He shivered sharply, "C-Can't you feel that?"

His gaze narrowed at him, "Pip, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

His hand snaked up to his throat and he looked around nervously, eyes widening once again and blonde hair frizzing a little around his soft face. The hand clenched around his neck and the look on Pip's face only grew more and more panicked. Finally, as if reaching a climax in his small freak-out, Pip dropped to his knees and slumped forward.

...over his own bloodstain in Damien's carpet.

Damien sat, transfixed, in his bed. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. He wasn't even sure what Pip had done just a moment again.

The blonde kept in the same position as he shivered, small gasps escaping him as he continued his trembling. "Damien..."

He carefully got out his bed and he stepped over him to softly, tip-toeing practically. "What?" He asked as he leaned over him.

"Damien... Do you believe in Satan?" His voice seemed smoother, perhaps the pressure was helping?

He licked his lips, "Pip, you know what I'm going to say..."

"What are you going to say?"

Damien stared down at the curtain of golden hair that shielded his face from Damien's view. "I do believe in Satan."

Something strange was going on, Damien could feel it in the marrow of his bones.

"Do... Do you follow Satan?"

He chewed his lip and fought back the urge to pull back Pip's head just so he could look at him correctly. In the end, he wouldn't. Instead, he replied to the odd blonde, "I don't. Not anymore."

Pip tilted his head back and he smiled sharply up at him.

Damien flinched back at the sight of clear, blue eyes staring back at him. "Wha—?"

Pip's hands uncurled from around his throat and he lowered to the floor.

Energy crackled around them, snapping at Damien's feet and making Pip's hair frizz out. Smoke filled the room and invaded Damien's lungs.

A deep, low laugh echoed through the basement and Damien felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle. "What the fuck is going on?" He shouted into the smoke, soon thereafter coughing violently.

"You won't follow me anymore, Damien?"

He shivered and looked around quickly. The only thing in view was a very startled and very blue-eyed Pip at his feet. The rest of his vision was filled with grey smoke.

"And here I was, hoping that you would sacrifice this... boy, to me." Whatever it was chuckled thickly.

The room aired out slowly and the outline of whatever it was filled Damien's vision. It was large, hulking, muscular and... red.

His eyes widened at the sight. His mouth slowly slipped open as he gaped, unable to hold himself back. "S-Satan?"

The giant red creature stepped forward on fawn-like legs, a dangerous smile stretched across its toothy mouth. "You rang?"

Damien swallowed thickly. "Why have you come now? Why not before?"

"Simply to see if you continued to stay loyal to me. I've been following you for some time now. It was quite a disappointment to see you change so drastically for... that boy there." He pointed over to Pip's still form.

He too looked down at him, face scrunched and his lips pert.

"You shouldn't give up on your dreams for this boy." He said to him with an easing tone and a sly smile. "You've worked too hard so far for it to end so quickly."

He paused, eyes still pointed down at the blonde.

"Really now, why is he more important than your dreams? He's trying to take away your aspirations and goals simply because he thinks I'll harm in. That's not true at all. In fact, I'm rather fond of my followers."

Pip slowly regained life, his eyes filling back into their usual vibrant color. His sucked in a sharp breath and stood up quickly. He latched onto Damien's shoulder and looked over at Satan with beaming eyes. "Damien," he whispered sharply into his ear with that rough but sugary voice, "Don't listen to him. Satan has had thousands of years to perfect his persuasion skills. Don't let his lies take over you."

He snorted at Pip, "Really, which of us is better, hmm, little boy?" His look was all knowing as it made contact with Pip's own, "My word against yours, which one is more trustworthy?"

Pip frowned at him, face twisting ugly with the negative look. "My word will always be above yours."

"Oh really now? You've certainly had enough time to practice your "persuasion skills" too, isn't that right... Pip, was it?" Satan shot back, looking cocky as ever.

Damien stepped away from the blonde teen and he surveyed both of them.

Pip's face flushed golden red, "Don't,"

Satan laughed, "Oh, I think I will."

"No, don't you dare—!"

"Really Damien, who would you believe more? Me, whom you have followed for years now... or this angelic boy over there who has succeeded in corrupting your very thought-process in the length of a few weeks?"

"Angelic boy...?" He questioned, ears preening at the use of words. It seemed right to describe Pip as such, he certainly found himself thinking that on occasion. But it was a surprise in itself that Satan, an all powerful creature of doom and evil, would do the same thing.

"Stop that right now!" Pip's grainy voice raised into a tone Damien had never heard before.

"Yes, Damien. You must have noticed by now, correct? That golden face, those clear and knowledgeable eyes... The convenient timing of things. How do you think he got into your room tonight? The door is locked, just as it always is..." He liked his lips and sneered at Pip.

He glanced nervously at Damien, his eyes softening. "Please Damien; this is Satan who is talking to you. Satan has always had a lying streak... Please don't fall for his lies."

He squinted at the blonde. A dangerous sense of déjà-vu rushed through his body. He always thought that Pip seemed familiar, but he could never pin-point how and from where. "Who are you really, Pip?"

He shivered as he looked between the two satanic entities. "Damien, please..."

"Ah, ah, ah," Satan voiced quickly, shaking his finger at him, "The boy asked you a question. Don't avoid it, angel."

Damien glanced quickly over at Satan before he returned his gaze back at Pip. "Pip..."

He gulped, "Damien..."

"Answer him now or I'll have to show him!"

Pip gaped at Satan, "Oh no you won't!"

Satan took a step forward and he gripped Pip's head with his large hand.

The blonde-haired teen struggled, thrashing his legs back and forth while his arms clawed at the large hand encircling the crown of his head. "Let me go!"

"Let him go!" Damien cried out, his heart hammering in his chest violently.

He sneered down at the black-haired boy before he gripped Pip's face with his free hand and tore.

Damien nearly screamed at the sight. He quivered, eyes wide, as he watched the skin on Pip's body shed away, revealing not muscle or bone or blood but another, brighter version of Pip's skin.

Satan threw aside the skin of Pip's self and allowed the blonde to slump onto the floor in a heap.

Damien's eyes drifted down Pip's bare neck and to the white mess that accumulated on the teen's back. His mind flickered and jerked as it made sense of it and finally, the words clicked: wings.

The glow around Pip's face grew from what Damien usually saw and everything seemed to make sense. Everything seemed to come back to him. From the Sunday weeks before. The angelic visit from that strange boy, it was Pip. Everything that had happened was because of Pip. Pip the angel. Pip the Guardian Angel.

Anger surged through Damien.

Satan appeared beside Damien, both set of eyes falling down upon the paining angel. "You know what you should do Damien?"

He looked over at him quickly, chest raising and falling with anger, and he asked him what.

"You should de-wing him."

Pip gagged and rolled over, staring wide-eyed at the two of them. His chest rose and fell quickly, sharply, and breath entered through his perfect neck fluidly.

"Why don't you do it?" He asked while his face twisted. He looked down at Pip in mild disgust. He couldn't fathom how Pip was able to do it. How Pip was able to disguise himself as human and change Damien so much? His heart still ached for the boy, despite his anger towards him. It sickened Damien.

"Well, it's more dramatic if you do it." He said coyly, "And the fact that I can't. Only a person who is deeply loved by the angel can take away their wings."

He stared at the red creature for a long moment, leaving the room to complete silence.

Pip said nothing.

"What do you mean, 'deeply loved by the angel'?"

"The angel does love you, Damien. It's quite obvious." Satan pointed out.

Pip groaned, "Every Guardian Angel loves their human! That kind of love doesn't count!"

Satan snorted in amusement, "Is that really what you think, pitiful angel? Your attraction is far more than just that. It's true, sexual attraction."

He face betrayed him. Pip flinched and looked away fearfully, "That isn't true."

"Oh, but it is."

Damien hesitated. "What will happen to him if I take them?"

"He'll turn human like you."

"...that's it?"

Satan smiled, "It's enough. He's lived in a life of pleasure. Under the care of God, he wouldn't be able to fend for himself if he were human again. He's become too soft."

"What do I gain from all of this?" His chest ached and bled.

He cackled, "Good thinking there, Damien. Not only will you get your revenge on the angel for what he has put you through, I'll also give you what you've wanted all along: power."

Damien smiled at the idea. Yes, he has always wanted power. Power was one of the most important things to life. He couldn't pass it down, not with such an offer. The ache only grew stronger.

"Please, Damien, don't do it."

His smile grew wider at Pip's plead. He crouched down to him and flipped the light angel over, making him cry out.

"Please, Damien! Don't do this!" He struggled to flip himself back over, but Satan and planted a foot onto his lower back and successfully flattened him.

Damien gripped at the base of the first white, wide wing and he clenched it tightly. He pulled on it with all his might and was surprised to find it sliding off of Pip with relative ease.

Pip screamed at the top of his lungs, filling the room with the sounds of his pain.

He ejected the wing from Pip's back and watched as it started to crumble away into ash. He looked up at Satan and found him smiling with pride. He moved his hand to the other wing and felt his stomach churn with the pleads that escaped from Pip's trembling mouth.

"Please, Damien! It hurts so much!" Tears rolled down his cheek, fat and salty.

Something inside him felt like with was drying, withering, and dying... much like how his wings acted once out of Pip's back.

The hole from which the wing came swirled and shriveled up, leaving not a sign that anything out of the usual had extended from it. All that was left was smooth, milky skin.

The golden glow from Pip's face was fading once again, leaving him pale and shaking.

He gripped the remaining wing and tugged at it too, pulling it free from the flesh. A new batch of screams released and Damien was too distracted by them to fully watch the other wing crumble to ashes.

Satan seemed to cheer in his excitement over Damien's actions, his face twisted and beaming. "That's my boy, Damien! Well done!"

Pip was motionless under Damien's hands.

"Now, Damien, sacrifice him! Sacrifice him to me so that you may gain your power!"

He jerked his gaze up at the red entity. He stood up quickly and glared at him. "Hold on one minute! You said that if I did this, you'd give me my power! You didn't mention sacrificing Pip to get it!"

"Do you want your power or not? Pip," he lifted his foot off of him and nudged him in the side a little, "He is of no use anymore. He's human now and he would make a lovely sacrifice. Might as well end his soon to be miserable existence now, right?"

His stomach squirmed again and he could feel bile rise to the back of his tongue. "If I kill Pip... you promise to give me the power I seek?"

"I promise you that." He smiled eagerly.

That wasn't a part of the plan. It wasn't right. He had killed Pip already. He couldn't do it, he couldn't do it, he couldn't do it. He could do it?

Would he do it?

Would he..?

"No."

Satan jerked and he looked at the boy startled, "What did you say?"

Damien took a deep breath and he closed his eyes. His body felt... fluttery. His tongue sopped up the saliva that was in abundance in his mouth. "Satan, I want you to..."

He growled.

"To leave us alone. Forever." Damien opened his eyes to an enraged Satan.

"What did you say?" Fire erupted around them and the look on the demonic entity was entirely indescribable.

It left a mark on Damien's mind, burned and frightened... but he kept strong, "Leave us," Damien commanded as he stood his ground, "And never interfere with my life or Pip's ever again!"

Satan stared at him for a long moment before he sucked in a deep breath and with a flash, vanished.

Damien stood numbly for a moment before he dropped down to Pip. He flipped the blonde over carefully and he stroked his face softly. "Pip?"

He didn't move.

"Pip, wake up." He couldn't see if there were any injuries, but he was sure that Pip was suffering from a great deal of shock, transitioning from being an angel to being a human once more.

"Pip, please wake up." He placed his lips softly against his brow.

Pip's eyes slowly fluttered open, bright blue irises peering up at him. "Damien?"