How do you know if you’re one of the damned? As a child, Don wanted to become a priest. Now a grown man mostly at ease with being gay, he’s left the Catholic Church and has chosen instead to help people through his work as a parole officer. His strong faith is shaken when his latest assignment turns out to be Michael, a young man Don hasn’t seen since he took Michael to church as a child -- and saw his parish priest cast Michael out of the church as a demon. Meeting him as an adult re-ignites the obsession Don had with the boy he couldn’t save. But can Michael be saved at all? Or is the strangely compelling demon with a taste for risky sex as damned as he believes himself to be?

Angel

“You should lie down, let me deal with it—”


“It’s not as bad as it looks. The flogger’s designed that way. I’ll take a shower.”


Don felt like an idiot as Michael pushed past him and into the bathroom, his movements only slightly stiff. “So why did you let me take you out of there?”


Michael leaned on the door frame and looked back at him from under his dark curtain of hair. “You’ll figure it out,” he said, his tone amused. He unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them down over his hips, suddenly, shockingly naked. There were more scars across his buttocks and legs, Don noted dumbly.


When Don raised his eyes, he realized Michael had been watching him all the while, and flushed.


“Like what you see, Donnie? Or is it all too much, too tainted?” He moved back towards Don. “I’ll bet it’s not what you see when you look in the mirror. Is there a single blemish on you, Donnie? Is what’s under those clothes as perfect as that angel face of yours?”


Chapter 8