Reapers and Angels

by Margie Eileen Jones

  Sean had slept through the whole funeral and felt safe in Calis’ arms. Calis stopped crying before everyone else since he knew he had to be strong. Someone had to be strong for Sean and it might as well be him.

  Sebastian took care of Christian and Ashton holding both of their hands wrapping an arm around each one every once in a while, as they stood waiting for everyone to leave as they all said their condolences. There had to be at least a couple thousand reapers coming to see the Angel and it was getting rather crowded for the little family.

  Kingsly noted Sebastian’s family’s discomfort at being surrounded by so many reapers. He told William it was time to take them home. William created the portal as he led Sebastian and his family through it back to their home.

  William and Kingsly hugged everyone letting them know they would be there for them if they needed them. As Kingsly and William left after having tea and lunch with the family they noted in the hall of records Ripley was sitting by the casket seeming to be talking to himself. It was then they realized the old reaper was talking to Anne. The lonely man still saw her as alive in his eyes and decided to continue his conversation with her knowing somewhere in heaven she could hear him.

  William worried for Ripley, but Kingsly said they needed to let him be. Ripley was soon visited by the Grim Reaper who sat with his old friend as they talked for quite some time. Ripley spent several nights asleep at the casket bringing his books to read and neglecting his shop for a time. He had some vacation time and he wanted to spend it here with the woman he loved.

  The Grim Reaper brought Ripley food, drink, and continued to monitor his old friend. Ripley seemed to be fine though and said he most likely would come back to reaping again. There was no point in staying rogue any longer other than he still wanted to keep his job as an Undertaker and his job as a jeweler. The jeweler job was only part time anyway.

  Ripley was officially brought back as a reaper and could start any time he liked. He was allowed to set his own hours and his scythe was added once again to the active logs. Ripley also had his reaper log organized ready for collecting souls.

  Most of the time Ripley could be found in the hall of records reading by Anne’s casket when he wasn’t working and that is where he slept most of the time as well. Kingsly wondered if the man lost his mind since he was always talking to her like she could talk back. Still Ripley seemed happy and the reapers left him alone for the most part except the few times he picked on Kingsly who strangled him occasionally.

  Christian eventually started taking more time to spend with Sean getting to know his son who looked so much like him that it was like looking at himself other than those eyes which were just like Anne’s. Sean rarely fussed and was spoiled rotten by everyone in the house. It was the Archangels who found out the information on when the child would start eating. They said as soon as the baby’s first tooth came in that it was at that time they would deal with a very hungry little baby boy. He also would be at that point eating soft foods and rather than formula they said he would need juice or real milk.

  Within exactly two years, Sean got his first tooth and the baby started fussing like crazy. He was constantly hungry and they had to get orajel for those teeth coming in since it made the baby’s mouth ache. That is also when the diapers got stinky and both Sebastian and Christian had to get a trash can with lid to insure the smell did not permeate the house.

  The baby also tried to put everything and anything into his mouth. That included the cat that learned to not get too close to the infant who crawled on the floor chasing the cat around the room while giggling. Calis had to save Libby several times from Sean who was a fast-little shit.

  Most of the time Sebastian was able to keep the spell on Sean’s wings so that they did not come out, but once in a while they did and the baby would be found flying around the room with everyone chasing him. The baby of course thought that was funny and giggled as he flew around the living room grabbing things off the shelves knocking things down and chewing on them.

  Luckily Sebastian and Christian could fly so they would fly up catching Sean who at that point had knocked down several breakable items that Sebastian and Christian had to fix. Calis about lost it when Sean broke his Mother’s priceless vase. He was just grateful Sebastian was able to clean up the mess and fix it after scolding Sean making his little wings disappear.

  To Calis, having Sean was worse than having a pet since the boy was destructive and chewed everything including the furniture. Sean also liked to bite people which was soon quelled when he had Calis bite him back. Calis was not going to be Sean’s chew toy.

  At age four, Sean was as adorable as you could get. He had tons of toys which ended up being spread all over the house. People just started walking over the toys since after a while cleaning them up would end up causing Sean to start throwing things. The four-year-old also was still spoiled rotten given anything he wanted especially from his Auntie Kingsly.

  Sean loved his Auntie Kingsly. Kingsly was always bringing things for his little cherubs whenever he would visit. He brought all sorts of treats too he had gotten when he and William went on a trip to Europe for a vacation. They brought real gingerbread cookies the size of Calis home for the boys and new little outfits for all the children. Kingsly found the cutest pairs of shorts for the boys especially for Ashton’s lovely legs. At Christian and Sebastian’s frustration, the shorts were very short barely covering their boys, but Kingsly made the boys go try them on.

  William said those kinds of shorts were all the rage in Europe and people went running in them so he figured the boys could use them for swimwear or to work out in since there was a small gym in the mansion. William also got a pair and Sebastian licked his lips imagining the handsome man in short shorts.

  Kingsly and William invited Sebastian and his family to go with them to the beach in a week’s time to go enjoy some real sunshine and have lunch on the beach. Now that most of the policies were in place William had a bit of free time so he was spending most of it with Kingsly.

  Sebastian and Christian were also given a pair of the short shorts to do with as they saw fit. Sebastian figured all these short shorts could be worn when they went to the beach. Sean was at this point in pull ups with Sebastian and Christian trying to potty train the little boy. He would get some of those little swimmers for when Sean was at the beach with them.

  The biggest issue they had with Sean is the boy would take off all his clothing and run around the house naked. Kingsly thought it was so cute when the boy would do this, but Calis and Ashton would be chasing Sean trying to put clothing back on him.

  Sean was also on a strict schedule and he had lessons even at age four. They were not hard lessons, but mainly in things like putting blocks in holes and other activities that required concentration. He was also learning to read rather quickly.

  The boy was a smart little cookie and Sean knew how to push everyone’s buttons. He would throw tantrums at times if he was being ignored for any reason. Calis also put a stop to that after reading parenting magazines and kept a firm hand with the little one. Calis started forcing Christian, Sebastian, and Ashton into parenting classes as well as look into programs for Sean outside the house such as preschool. Preschool was only a few hours a day and thus the spell on his wings should last that long besides the little one needed friends his own age.

  Sean loved preschool and made all sorts of fun things with glue he ate sometimes and macaroni for his parents. Christian, being Sean’s Father, at night would rock the boy after reading him a bedtime story every night. Sean loved Christian more than anyone and called him Daddy. Calis was Papa, Ashton was Pop, and Sebastian was Father.

  Christian had several single Mothers trying to date him, but Christian was not interested since the only woman he loved had died. Christian wasn’t really interested in women anyway when he had Ashton. Sebastian and Christian relieved their lust by going to the gym and hall of weapons in the reaper community even so much as sparing against each
other. Sebastian still did not find any demons to kill which was starting to piss him off and he blamed the Archangels for it since he suddenly realized he was being followed by Angel guards.

  If it wasn’t Angel guards following Sebastian, it was reapers and sometimes he would mistake a reaper for an Angel. It wasn’t until he saw their phosphorescent eyes that he knew they were not Angels. Sebastian at one point confronted one of the Angel officers that was in charge of guarding him asking what they hell they thought they were doing following him around. They said that they were to insure he was behaving himself. When he told them to stop following him, they told him they would do their job even if he did not like it since their orders came from higher up than him and that made him start battling with one of them only to get his ass handed to him. Sebastian was furious since he did not need a babysitter.

  The Angels that guarded them offered to teach Sebastian and Christian their techniques so the two Angels took advantage of that, but still got their asses handed to them most of the time. It was rare when they got a scrape in on one of these officer Angels, but on occasion Sebastian especially got one up on one or two of them for about five minutes before they slammed him down to the ground.

  Sebastian learned to completely respect his guards even if he did not like them following him. It was about a month before Sebastian saw his very first demon target. The man was walking down the street getting ready to go into a shop when Sebastian yanked him down an alley and scared the crap out of the young demon.

  The demon was a mere babe compared to Sebastian and had gotten lost in this city while searching for a fresh meal. It was unfortunate for the demon because Sebastian had been waiting much too long to rip one of these assholes apart.

  There were screams of agony and fear as Sebastian tore the little demon to shreds. The demon tried to change into his true form to escape, but Sebastian was much too fast and slammed the demon down over and over again crushing his head until there was nothing left of the demon except a pile of gore in the alley way.

  One of the officer Angels came to see what happened and noted Sebastian was covered in blood with one dead demon on the ground still stomping on parts until there was nothing recognizable left.

  “A bit excessive don’t you think Sebastian.”

  The Angel asked as he watched Sebastian use his powers to clean his clothing.

  “He will tell others and they will see his death as a warning to any demon who gets in my way. I plan to kill them all Baldric. No one kills my cat or goes after what is mine. Besides this is war.”

  Sebastian said to the Angel who wasn’t sure what to say. He had seen brutal deaths before, but this was pretty bad. There was blood everywhere and it was going to be hell for a cleanup crew. Baldric used his cell phone to call the authorities to come take care of this mess.

  Looking at his watch, Sebastian noted if he did not get going he was going to be late picking up Sean from the preschool. Rushing out of the alley, he ran at speeds that no human could even try to keep up with to Sean’s school to meet up with the boy. When he got there Sean was crying and the teacher looked terribly upset.

  “What happened?”

  Sebastian asked the teacher and she explained Sean got into a fight with another student and ended up hitting the student so hard that the child was knocked out. They were afraid the other child was going to have to go to the hospital and Sean was in deep trouble. They would also have to have a conference with the other parents.

  Gathering Sean into his arms, he saw the boy sobbing and saying he was going to jail to be put in a cage. Some other children said that to him since if the boy did not wake up that he hit, they were going to call the police. Sean being an Angel was stronger than a human and thus even one hit could hurt a child. Now several of the children were afraid of Sean and he was afraid he was going to lose his friends.

  Sebastian took Sean home and said Sean needed to apologize to the boy he hit. Sean said the other kid hit him a few times before he hit him and he did not even hit him hard. He was just defending himself and Sebastian was furious. The teacher had made it seem like Sean had instigated this whole thing so he would have words with her as well as the school board.

  “You cannot hit people Sean even if it is hard not to. Next time you need to get the teacher and tell her.”

  Sean said he tried but the kid kept pulling on him trying to knock him down and all over a crayon. Christian, Calis, and Ashton were informed of the issue and Calis wanted to pull Sean out of that school if that was the way they were going to run things. He said there were other schools if they thought they could get away with this shit. Sebastian was going to discipline Calis for swearing, but decided to wait until after they had Sean calmed down.

  “You are not going to jail Sean for defending yourself. You did nothing wrong sweetheart.”

  Christian said to his little boy as he gently calmed his little boy and got him busy to play with some toys. It was then Sebastian took Calis over his knee for swearing and spanked the daylights out of him. Calis was fuming since he wasn’t a child, but Sebastian refused to let up.

  When Sebastian was done disciplining Calis, he went about trying to figure out some damage control for Sean. The boy could not hit others so if the teacher wasn’t paying attention they probably needed to get Sean in a school where there would be better supervision. It was a given that children would fight, but Sean knew he wasn’t allowed to hit and Sean needed friends his age for now. The socialization was important. They may also have to get a lawyer just in case this family tried to sue them.

  Sebastian called Kingsly who said they had excellent reaper representation and could make it so that as if there was a camera in the room since they could recall exactly what happened with some of their new surveillance equipment that the Grim Reaper approved. They were also moving forward with computers and internet so now it was much easier to do their jobs.

  After getting off the phone with Kingsly, Sebastian felt much better. Sean had no reason to lie since they taught the child lying was bad and that no one in the house was allowed to lie. Hopefully, Kingsly would have the tapes so they could review them here and see what happened.

  Kingsly arrived at the mansion with a tape that they had from the classroom. The records of one’s life were now both in the reaper logs and on CD. Kingsly had Sebastian get out the CD player on his computer and they watched as the two children went for the same crayon and the other child who was obviously autistic started to throw a fit hitting Sean rather hard. Sean looked shocked more than anything and when he tried to get away the boy practically yanked him off his chair only for Sean to hit him one time in the head knocking the child out. The teacher had not been paying attention and was on a cell phone talking to someone. Sebastian and Christian were furious.

  Calis said they had a case if they wanted to sue the school and if they wanted to go after that teacher. It was obvious either they had to replace the teacher or they were going to take Sean out of that school. Kingsly said they had reaper ‘lawyers’ so it wouldn’t be hard to win this case if the other parents sued.

  Either way Sean was not in trouble which was good and Kingsly went over to his little cherub seeing if he was ok. He said that no one was allowed to hurt his precious little Angel as Kingsly sat with Sean playing blocks with him. Ashton was busy playing with Sean as well while Calis set up some money for the reaper representation going to his office to do the accounting for it. He also needed to check some of his stocks and take care of the finances for some of the new furniture for Sean’s room. Sean was going to get his first big boy bed.

  In some ways Calis couldn’t wait for Sean to grow up a bit more since the child was a handful, but at the same time he loved his little boy so much that it hurt. Just seeing that other child hitting his little Sean made Calis want to do violence. The teacher will lose her job if Calis had his way. It was that or he would allow an unfortunate accident to happen to her. She should not have been on a cell phone in class an
d should have been paying attention to the children.

  Sebastian was cooking lunch for his family while Christian sat with Kingsly, Ashton, and Sean playing with his son who was going to have a nap after lunch. Sean was so excited to have so many people to play with him as Kingsly brought out her doll and Ashton got his so they were playing with them as well as the blocks.

  Soon lunch was ready although Sebastian would set Calis’s aside for when he came out of his office. He would however, bring Calis his tea.

  Sebastian put on Sean’s bib and helped the boy sit up on the phone books they set at the table so he could sit like a big boy. Christian helped his son eat his lunch hoping to get more food in his mouth than on his clothes which was a given that the clothes would lose this battle. Sean ate everything on his plate and sipped his juice from a sippy cup. The cup was made so if it fell over it would not spill the juice out.

  Sean was up and going for a few minutes before Christian gathered him in his arms and Sean struggled a bit.

  “It is nap time young man.”