Power & Fire

Everything hurts.

My body ached all over, from the very tip of my little pinky toe to the top of my head. My eyes were glued shut from being unconscious for so long that I had to squint and blink them a few times before completely opening my hazel eyes. I decided to start making small movements such as clenching my fingers and shaking my head side to side, only to feel a textured yet soft material wrapped around my head, applying a slight pressure to my forehead.

Little by little, as I started regaining consciousness and awaking my dormant body, the pain began to dissipate. Taking a deep breath I finally recollected enough strength to sit up, the sudden move made me slightly dizzy, but not significantly so. Resting once again in a new position I took a moment to look around me and situate myself. What happened?

I was sitting on a bed, creme silk sheets surrounding me, a cup of water resting on top of the night bedside table. I greedily took it and pleasured myself with the cool water, once satisfied I sat the empty cup on the bedside once again, before setting a foot on the carpeted floor.

As soon as my foot met the ground, the room got significantly dark, as the fire of the circle of red candles that surrounded the bed extinguished one by one. Regaining my balance I quickly yanked open the window on the right side of room, a wave of dust flew into air as I did so. I turned around to see the room more clearly. However I wasn't ready for the view in front of me.

Blood.

So much blood. And a trail of golden crusts that had caked up the whole floor and some spots of the bed, some of it even smearing on three candles. That blood was obviously mine, but what had caused me to bleed this much? Why didn't I just heal? And then flashes of memories surged in my mind. Melinda, Jason, Aramazd, everyone. I had passed out, but what happened after that? And more importantly, why?

I was quick to notice a door opposite to the window, and without hesitating, I twisted open the handle and turned on the lights, it was as I had expected, a bathroom. I removed the bandage around my head and splashed some water to my face to wake myself up a little more, and picked out as much as dry blood as I could from my hair, but as I was brushing towards the hair that sat on my shoulder, I noticed something on my neck, two punctured shapes were standing proudly on the spot where my neck met my shoulder and I froze.

A mark?!

Who dared to mark me without my consent? As I brushed my hair to the side and examined the scars a little more closely, sparks rushed through my body. I automatically found out who was the culprit behind this. Jason. How dared he? Claiming another woman as his Luna and then marking me without my consent?!

A wave of anger crashed into my soul making me clench my fists and explode with the sink in front of me, the water squirting all around me, leaving a wet trail towards the bed. My furious actions didn't pass unnoticed as I heard loud and quick stumps hitting, what I assumed to be, stairs that led to the room that I was in. My theory was proven correct as Aramazd and Jason both knocked and teared down the door. "Castiel!" "What are you doing? Go back to bed!"

I chose to ignore Jason who was rushing towards me as I answered Aramazd. "Hell no. I need to stretch and eat."

Jason pulled me into a hug, crashing me against his strong torso, tightening his hold on me even more by each passing second while lightly kissing the top of my head as he exhaled words of concern. Had it been any other time, I wouldn't hesitate to jump into his arms and hug him with as much force back, but right now, I was terribly mad and hurt because of his actions, so I stayed still until I felt like it was too much and started pushing him away. "Let me go."

He seemed stunned by my words as he took a step back and looked at me worriedly, I simply stared coldly back at him.

"How dare you?" I spat at him, my eyes flashing orange with hot pulsating anger.

"Castiel calm down, he-"

"Don't try to excuse his behavior Aramazd! Now please get out, there are some things that I have to deal with." I raised my voice while glancing at Jason near the end. Aramazd feeling my authoritative tone, complied to my words and left through the no more existing door and waited outside.

"Just don't do something that you might regret later." He said before turning around and walked down the stairs, his footsteps being the only thing heard throughout the whole house as the pin drop silence paired the air. Tension between me and the King thickening by each second as we stared at each other in the eye.

"I have a lot to explain." Jason started.

"You do." I glared at him, my voice low as my eyes reflected sadness and hurt.

He sighed before running a hand through his messy dark hair. I took a moment to assess him, he looked tired, completely worn out, there were visible bags under his eyes, his cheeks were more hollow as well indicating that he had lost some weight and there were stress marks on some spots of his face. My stomach churned with worry for him.

"You are in great danger Castiel. There's someone out there trying to get you, Elder Clarence, you know him right?" He asked while eyeing me to check on my memory, I numbly nodded back in response, not liking having him knowing so much about how Clarence and I were involved, what did he know?

"He blackmailed and manipulated Melinda into summoning the Moon Goddess to hurt you, and as you can guess no one can stop a God from doing what They want." He proceed to explain.

"He knows something about Melinda, something personal, and the only way to turn things around was for us to pretend to be together."

"That doesn't make any sense." I cut him off.

He looked frustrated as he replied.

"It's not exactly my secret to tell, I can't really go into detail about it, you have to trust me."

"Trust you?! Are you actually being serious? Look at me Jason, I have a bite mark on my neck, something that was meant to be special and consensual, I was unconscious and you took advantage of it!" I raised and lowered my voice as it began to crack and fail due to my emotional state, I didn't even care to wipe off the few tears of hurt and betrayal that rolled down my face in that moment.

He quickly came forward and reached out to touch me but I took a step back. He insisted one more time and successfully grasped me in his arms.

"No angel don't cry, Castiel you got it all wrong." He whispered while brushing a few strands of hair out my face as he lovingly stroked his thumb over my cheek.

"I didn't do it because I wanted to, I did it to save you love." He pressed a small kiss on my forehead. "Angel you were completely blacked out and bleeding non-stop. And you also had marks on your forehead, moon phases, it was a sign from the Moon Goddess, I'm not sure of the summoning had anything to do with it, but the Gods have an eye out for our bond, They wanted it complete, They know no boundaries, They even-" He cut himself off as his voice cracked with tears. "They even killed you for a few seconds."

I looked at him shocked.

"Your heart stopped beating Castiel." He pulled me back into his arms and tightened his hold once again, it almost seemed as if he was reviving that moment of pain as he continued to pull me impossibly closer to him. "I almost lost you angel, believe me the last thing that I wanted was to give you another reason for you to hate me. I wanted to mark you, yes. But not like that, not like this, I wanted to be able to look at you in the eyes and stare at that beautiful smile of yours as I claimed you as mine. Not the sight that I had as I pierced your already bloodied skin as it was, not with you dying in my arms." He finished as he cradled my face in his hands.

"It was the scariest and most painful moment of my life Castiel. I can't lose you, I-"

He exhaled once again and let his forehead drop against mine.

"No matter how hurt I was from being pushed away from you, I would never let something or someone else deliberately put you in danger. What I did, I did it for you, for us."

Tears rolled down my cheeks once again, as I slowly circled my arms around him. My anger was suddenly forgotten, as my guilty conscious about what I had done came right back to this present moment.

"I didn't mean it." I said after a minute of silence between the both of us.

He looked back at me with confusion.

"To push you away that day, it wasn't by my choice, I was ordered to make you stay away from me for a while." I smiled weakly at him while removing myself from his embrace.

He was about to open his mouth but I quickly shut him up by clasping both his hands in mine.

"Jason that are things about me, things that you don't know, that are better if you don't know yet. But there's something I need you to remember." I looked at him in the eyes as I said this.

"I don't need you to save me." I whispered tenderly as I caressed his face softly.

"If anything, you are the one that needs to be saved from me." I finished while standing on the tip of my toes as I pressed my hands against his strong chest.

All of my previous rage concealed to burn later, waiting for the right moment to burn later on. Right now my mind wanted peace, understanding and forgiveness.

I looked at him in the eyes one more time before closing mine, and crashing my mouth against his.