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Chapter 14

"I love you." The boy whispered into his side.

****

Actaeron watched the boy with confusion. For his entire life, he had never come across another boy who loved him.

"I-I love you too, Elias." He said softly.

Elias, who was now sniffling and on the verge of crying, looked up at Actaeron before tightly wrapping his arms around him and hugging him tightly, and began sobbing.

The two sat in silence before Actaeron slowly stood up and detached himself from the small demon.

"I have to go. I am going out for a few hours, hunting. I don't want you to come. It is too dangerous." What Actaeron couldn't tell Elias was that he was going after Elias' master, so he couldn't harm him anymore.

Actaeron prepared his things and left the room without another word, while his new partner sat in silence. Elias trusted him, but also worried. Something didn't feel right.

****

Actaeron headed out to the dimly lit, empty street and looked around. There were accounts of the man who claimed to be Elias' master in many different clubs and towards the sketchy part of town, most likely to find a replacement. It was no different than any other night. There was a curfew for humans, many people would end up getting killed every night otherwise, so there was always silence, lights were off except for the streetlights lining the sidewalks.

He took a deep breath and headed off towards the clubs he was seen at. Demons were often more predictable, drawn towards sin. Strip clubs, brothels, and just clubs, in general, were often crawling with them. Keeping his hand on his knife, he approached one of the clubs, but before he could reach the door, Elias' master caught him off guard and tackled him to the ground, before digging his claws into Actaeron's shoulder and easily tossing him across the street, his back hitting a concrete building.

Actaeron sat up and held his head, looking up at the demon, the only visible feature was the bright fanged grin attached to a shadow. He growled and stood up despite the pain shooting up his spine and unsheathed the knife. He wanted to do this right. No guns, no other weapons. The demon had claws as sharp as a knife, that was his only weapon, it would only count as a fair fight if he used nothing more than a knife either.

However, this fight was so much more than hunter versus demon. This would be what determined who kept Elias. Actaeron grunted as he fell into a full sprint across the street, lunging at the male and using his shoulder to knock him off his feet, but the demon quickly rebounded, only to get a roundhouse kick to the chest.

The demon growled and stepped forward, forcing his claws into Actaeron's stomach and twisting. Actaeron grabbed his arm and stabbed the demon in the neck, leaving the two face to face, standing in the empty street.

"A petty human like you should know better," the demon hissed and licked Actaeron with his forked tongue. Actaeron responded by twisting the knife in his neck. "To believe that Elias would belong to you," he paused and chuckled. "How pathetic." The demon forced his claws deeper into his stomach until his fingertips were pressed into the skin and pulled his hand up, stopping once Actaeron's ribs stopped his hand from going any further, but that didn't stop the claws from tearing every organ in his belly, his diaphragm and his lungs.

Actaeron's eyes widened as the life begun to fade from them and the demon stepped back, and Actaeron's body dropped to the ground as he held his stomach, gasping for the air escaping from his lungs with every breath. The demon laughed and stood above him, pulling the knife from his neck and dropped it next to him, licking the shimmering blood from his claws, teasing the dying male.

"Foolish." He chuckled and brought a heavy foot down on Actaeron's chest, cracking several ribs. Actaeron only laid on the street, holding his chest and wheezing. He tried, the demon was injured and bleeding, but he had failed.

A light streaked above him and hit the demon in the chest, sending the demons several blocks down from where he once stood.

Angels in golden armor ran around him after the demon and he felt his body lifted, causing him to groan and cry out in pain weakly. Excalibur watched him with an expressionless face before carrying him back towards the compound while the angels finished off the demon.

"I told you not to go after him Actaeron, I told you that your emotions would go the better of you." He grumbled under his breath. Actaeron held his throat, his eyes still wide. He didn't understand, was he dying? Had he already died?"

****

Upon returning to the compound Actaeron was immediately taken into the medical ward and brought to emergency surgery to try and repair the tears, but he was bleeding out quickly. Excalibur slowly made his way to Actaeron's room where Elias was sitting quietly, waiting for the return of Actaeron.

Excalibur quietly knocked on the door and listened as Elias excitedly stood up and scampered to the door, opening it quickly, but the excitement died when he saw Excalibur.

Excalibur sighed. "Actaeron was hurt, badly."

Without a second thought, Elias tried to duck under him and run to the medical ward, but Excalibur caught his arm and pulled him back into the room.

"I'm sorry but you can't see him now. He is in surgery." Panicked and hysterical, Elias tried tirelessly to get out of the room past Excalibur. He just didn't understand, he needed to see Actaeron then.

Excalibur shut the door behind him and held his arm, leading him over to the bed by his arm and sat him down. Elias sat, sobbing and begging Excalibur to let him go see him. The only thing Excalibur could think of was sitting down with the boy and hugging him tightly to his chest. Not once did he tell Elias who had hurt Actaeron, but once the boy calmed down he let him go down to the medical ward to wait, patiently, for Actaeron to come out of surgery.

****

The surgeons worked non stop the next 15 hours to stop the bleeding and repair his organs, while Actaeron slowly began to deteriorate, flatlining more and more as the hours passed. The surgeons were quickly running out of time, the organs were repaired and damage repair on the rest of the body, but they were quickly running out of options.

It came very close, however Actaeron survived surgery but was sent out of the OR and into recovery with machines attached to every inch of his body to monitor his heart and his breathing, as well as electrodes to shock his weak heart back into order if it had stopped once again, however, the surgeons were sure that one more flatline would be the last one.

While the surgeons went to brief Excalibur on the surgery and Actaeron's recovery options, they were sure that Actaeron wouldn't be able to walk for as long as he lived, and he would no longer get to hunt.

Elias sat quietly in Actaeron's recovery cuddled into Kiani's arms, waiting silently for Actaeron to come out of surgery. His eyes were red and puffy from hours of crying. Once Actaeron was brought into the room Elias stood, and the tears began to flow once again. Many of the nurses had to hold him back out of fear of the boy disconnecting one of the machines or causing one of the sutures to tear inside of his body.

Now, all Elias could do was wait for Actaeron to wake up again if he ever did. He couldn't possibly live without Actaeron, and felt responsible for the events that put Actaeron in this state in the first place. 

(Hey guys, sorry it took so long but life has been life. This may be the stopping point for this book, so the other books in progress can get more attention. However, if you want me to write a sequel, vote on this chapter and I will think about it, if not, start writing an outline for what it might be about. Thank you guys for being so patient with me, it was fun writing this book and seeing your reactions as this is my first book that successfully launched as it did.

~Whxsper)

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