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

Robert, the church elder, came over at the end of the service, as Don was about to slip out without staying for coffee. “Don, I wonder, might I have a word?”


Don felt trapped. “I, uh, I’m sure you’ve got lots of things to do…”


Robert smiled. “Nothing that’s more important than the welfare of my congregation. Why don’t you step into the office?”


He led the way to the back of the church, to what had once been the vestry, dealing swiftly and graciously with members of the departing congregation who tried to collar him. “Now, sit down, please. And don’t look so alarmed. This isn’t an inquisition. I simply noticed that—well, to be frank, you don’t look well, and I saw that you didn’t take communion today. I just wanted to be sure there isn’t some problem I could help you deal with.”


Chapter 9