Son of Blood and Bone

Author's Note: I'm a bit nervous as this is my first time ever posting to this site and this is my first time ever writing a story of this kind. Constructive comments both positive and negative are greatly encouraged and welcome.

Also, I want to thank Khasy for editing this for me!

I'd like to mention that this story is a work of fiction and any similarity between the characters and any live person is coincidental. If it is illegal in your jurisdiction to read material containing m/m romance between consenting adults then LEAVE NOW AND NEVA' COME BACK.

Enjoy! -Freedom

Copyright Disclaimer- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Any unauthorized use of this material is prohibited. No part of this story may be reproduced without express written permission from the author.

It looked as if a thousand sunsets had passed before her empty eyes here, though she couldn't have been dead for more than a few days. Her brittle shape, shadow less, weightless, encrusted with maggots, was adorned with silken webs of spiders, weaving intricate patterns in her spinal column. Darling, how scandalous of you to reveal your secrets once so aptly hidden beneath sinew and bone, I thought as I gazed at her white-washed skull. It glittered becomingly, iridescent in the light of the late afternoon sun, her yellowing teeth forever bared in an obscene smile.

I'd never seen a sight so lovely.

I was abruptly brought out of my silent revelry by the sound of heavy footsteps. I gazed over my shoulder as long legs strode towards me, coming to a stop next to my crouched form. I let my eyes slowly travel up the well-muscled legs, trim waist, wide chest and broad shoulders of the detective assigned to this case. When I reached his eyes I was met with bright blue irritation. I sighed and gazed back at the object of my admiration, the dead body of the fairy girl in front of me.

"Tell me what you know, necromancer," the detective's deep voice growled. I met his eyes again and he broke the contact to look at the fairy's dead body, shuffling uncomfortably. I saw him roll his shoulders, no doubt itching to get the chance to stretch the wings he kept veiled. The Phari, fierce, beautiful winged beings that had fueled the images of angels for centuries, were never quite comfortable around me or my kind. Though I had been working with him in the missing person's unit of the New Parais Police Department for several years now, the detective, Cassiel Anson, had never gotten used to my presence. He'd made very little attempt to.

I reached forward towards the skeletal remains of the fairy and carefully ran my fingers across a split rib bone where a miniature seed of nature's decomposing miracle had begun to bloom. "Despite her appearance, she hasn't been dead for very long. She'd been missing for seven days, most likely dead for five of them. It's very interesting, her state. It's not natural, even for the Fae, to decompose so quickly," I offered reluctantly, nervous to admit what I was really thinking. But Cassiel narrowed his eyes after a seconds' thought, hearing what I didn't say.

"Abhorredson" He hissed, using the derogatory term for Necromancers that had been adopted after the Dead Man's War. I stiffened. The war had seen the rise of eight vainglory Necromancers called the Bone Eaters. Greedy and prideful, they had sought to conquer the world by using their extensive powers to sacrifice the living, human and supernatural alike, to bring the dead from the Wait, a limbo where confused souls stayed, and build an undead army known as the Horde.

For decades, the Bone Eaters terrorized the world, leveling cities and decimating entire populations. The living fought valiantly but to no avail; the undead could never die. It wasn't until the Magicians rose from anonymity that the tide of the war changed. There were only two Magicians, an old, wizened man named Bael and his young apprentice named Max, but two proved to be more than enough. In a matter of weeks they defeated the Horde and freed the enslaved souls back into the Wait. The Bone Eaters, sensing their imminent doom, fled to all corners of the world to grieve their setbacks. In the aftermath Bael outlawed necromancy, and those whose very nature it was to practice it were persecuted. His crusade against my kind lasted for many years until his death and left an ugly scar. The world hated us.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, smothering the feeling of worthlessness and misplaced guilt, calming myself before I looked at Cassiel again.

"Yes. This is the work of a necromancer. They most likely used her blood to bring several souls back from the Wait. Though I couldn't imagine the reason, they must've known the risk if they got caught."

Cassiel heaved a heavy sigh. "Well do your work, Mars. We don't have all goddamn day."

In truth, I hated this part. Entering the Wait and learning the secrets of the dead was no walk in the park. I would have to hold on to her until I was beneath her, around her, and consuming her. I would have to be her and hope within a short time she would in turn embrace me and tell me all she knew.

I softly caressed one of her knuckle bones before wrapping my fingers around it and closing my eyes. I took a deep breath and focused my whole being on her cold, stiff, and wondrously lifeless bone. I murmured beneath my breath, "Oh, beauty, reach for me. Come to the one that is so like yourself." I felt the ink of the ancient runes carved into the skin of my hands and back grow cold and shift slightly. My sight shifted, and suddenly everything was awash in colors most would never see on a visible specter.

Then all the world was gone.

*******

In the cold and heavy mists of the Wait she candidly denied my touch, her spirit darting here and there until finally coming to a stop and turning to face me. Large violet eyes of the most uncanny hue regarded me curiously, alive and wanting. Her skin was colored a beautiful peach and her figure was petite and willowy. I liked her less this way.

"What will you want of Laeyah, Son of Sin," she asked me in a voice imbued with the peculiar enchanting resonance of death. I could just make out the sing-song lilt that many of the fairy kind had when they spoke.

"You have been taken from the world before your time. Only you and one other know who did this. Share with me their name, and I will leave you in peace," I whispered back to her. Through her transparent form I could see other spirits wandering around idly. I wished to leave before they noticed me, a living thing, here. The dead were a nosy lot.

She took a step towards me and her hand rose to intertwine her fingers with mine. Upon making contact, they crumbled and I was bombarded with a series of images and feelings.

The burning of my magic in my breast, the force that gave me life.

Running through the darkness as I'm chased by the dead.

Pale fingers. Pale hair. Pale eyes.

Possessed by a swift and terrible coldness.

Nothing.

"The Bone Eaters will return, abhorredson," she whispered, "The beings of the living world will fall, as they are predestined only to decay, and the Horde will rise again anew. They will be tomorrow as they are also today but never will they be yesterday, for that's an entire day not their own."

She said this in a voice filled with such sadness, such injustice, it brought me to my knees to lament that so much life she still had was wasted; but I had to leave now for the living had no place here.

"Travel well, Laeyah," I said softly, tenderly, as I willed myself back to the land of the living. I opened my eyes and regarded her rotting corpse adoringly. I would only take her this way.

*******

When I returned from the Wait the mist of the spirit world had frozen to my clothes and skin. I shivered as my runes settled back into place and all of those beautiful, indescribable colors disappeared. I stuck the tip of my tongue out and swiped it at the frost clinging to my lips and brushed away the clumps on my eyelashes. I don't think I'll ever get used to the cold after effects of visiting the other side.

After I had relayed my news to Cassiel I was quickly bundled up into a car heading back to the precinct as the cleanup crew came in behind us. The entire ride back Cassiel kept his hands so tightly clutched to the steering wheel that the knuckles of his fingers stood out in sharp relief. I opened my own hand and look at Laeyah's knuckle bone before shoving it in my pocket. He didn't need to know I'd kept it.

Before too long I smelled burning rubber and glanced over again to find smoke wafting up from underneath Cassiel's hands. I ignored it and gazed out the window at the city. New Parais was one of the first cities to be built after the war. It was made up of several Parishes, the largest being Zenith, villages, the swamps, and the St. Nathanael Cathedral. It was a beautiful city very diverse and populated and, in more recent days, dangerous. It was home.

When we pulled up into the precinct parking lot, Cassiel stormed out of the car and slammed his door, large wings of the most brilliant white bursting from his back in a large flame. I sighed and followed the temperamental Phari into the building. Several of the human cops edged nervously away from the angry Cassiel as he stomped towards the captain's office, unconsciously fingering their firearms on their hips.

Cassiel banged open the Captain's office door and barely waited until I was fully in the room to slam it shut. "Those evil bastards are back, Sir. That fairy girl, Laeyah Rael, that's been missin' for all these days, was found in Ville Amber. Her body was nothin' but a damn husk," Cassiel nearly yelled as he paced the short length of the office and ran a hand through his blonde locks. His wings brushed several papers on the Captain's desk which went up in flames that the captain quickly batted out before glaring at the agitated Phari.

"Anson, you get the hell out of here before you set this entire place on fire," Captain Dempsey said in a smooth voice that harbored an undeniable power as he regarded Cassiel with sharp eyes. He was a strange being, of an origin no one, not even the ancient Phari, were quite sure of. He was a small male, an inch or two shorter than my small frame, with dark skin and dark eyes and what would've been a pleasing face if one were able to study it for any period of time. In the past, every time I had tried to look directly at him I found my eyes sliding off his face to gaze at a wall or the floor.

Cassiel turned and opened the door abruptly, the tip of a wing brushing my face ever so gently. I gasped indignantly as I felt my skin burn but he kept walking pass me and out the door. I felt the weight of Dempsey's gaze settle on me as I lightly touched my burned skin, feeling along the welt that had risen.

"Are you okay?"

Do you even care? "Yes, Sir."

"Tell me what all you've found out."

Before I could begin he interrupted me.

"Need I remind you, Mars, that my allowing you to work here is a rare gift even for one as powerful as you? I have no love for you, necromancer. If I, for one second, think that you're trying to protect one of your kind I will have you strung up outside of the Cathedral. Do you understand me," the Captain said softly. He took every chance he could to remind me that I was nothing but a dead, evil, worthless thing to him.

Everyone did.

It didn't make it any less hurtful to hear.

I cleared my nervously throat before starting. "I understand, Sir. I... There is a Bone Eater in New Parais. From what the fairy girl showed me, I think...I believe it's Xesil Sanguis, the third of the eight. He took Laeyah's life blood to give bring back more than just a single soul. I can't say how many but I know for sure he's attempting to bring back the Horde."

"You know for sure, do you, abhorred," The Captain hissed slyly. I chose not to rise to the bait.

Silence reigned in the office for several moments and as I recalled the sight Laeyah's flaxen hair, her yellow teeth, and hollow eyes I dotingly rubbed her knuckle in my pocket.

"Call the Magician," Captain Dempsey said after a time, "Tell Max the dead have returned to the city".

*******

I went to the restroom after leaving Dempsey's office to inspect the damage Cassiel had done to my face. An angry red line cut itself across one of my cheeks and I was happy to see it was rather short but still stood out starkly against my pale skin. There was a smudge of dirt in the corner of my nose and my white blonde hair stuck wetly against my head from the melted frost. Dark, puffy bags hung heavily under my honey colored eyes and the runes that framed them had turned a deep shade of brown. I glanced down at the runes on my hands to see the same colored brown there beneath dirt and chalky remains of Laeyah. I returned to my office and leaned back in my chair with my eyes closed and a plastic bag of ice pressed to my cheek. I listened carefully to the flurry of activity in the main room of the precinct.

"Magician in New Parais..."

"I heard he sent back half the Horde by himself..."

"...went mad after Magician Bael died..."

"...hates abhorredsons, right? Ten dollars says he kills Mars the second he sees him."

"The necromancer doesn't stand a chance..."

I sighed tiredly and willed myself to relax but stopped as soon as I felt electricity dance across my skin. A hush came over the precinct and I walked into the main room to see all of the officers watching the front doors expectantly. They had felt his power too.

The doors opened on their own accord and the Magician stepped through slowly, dramatically.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

The air crackled around him, Maximus Vadimus, and the electricity of his power danced along all of our skin. The brightest, greenest, most intelligent eyes I had ever seen regarded every one of the officers' coolly, meeting hard gaze for awed gaze, peering into each soul. His thick chestnut hair gleamed in the florescent light as he turned his head slightly to take us all in. He took a slight step forward again, his well-muscled body moving with the tempered power and grace of an animal. Yes, the few short weeks of war had molded him into an incredible male. He was exquisite.

As his eyes came to rest upon me I was hit with his anger and hatred in the form of a painful flare of heat. His beautiful cupid's bow shaped mouth flattened in disdain as his leveled his stare on my own. He took another threating step forward this time towards me and I felt fear well inside of me and took a half step backwards.

He blinked then shook his head slightly, taking a deep breath. Captain Dempsey came from his office and clapped a hand on the young Magician's back steering him into his office and firmly shutting the door. Released from his gaze, I sagged against the nearest wall, and ignored the curious looks my coworkers shot my way.

I retreated into my own office and leaned against the door. Thoughts came unbidden to my mind like a poltergeist invading the forbidden terrain of the live world. I had never found a living thing so enthralling as him. I was hopelessly entranced by him; a ripe, plump cherry full of life and layers upon layers of feelings and odds and ends, none of them familiar before the last.

Splendid.

Intoxicating.

Lovely.

Divine.

There is no other in this world as beautiful as him.

And he hated me.