Tom waited until his parents had gone to bed to summon Ezra. While they had been at the library, fifteen demons entered for drinks, and according to the locals, that was a threatening number. Just like all the fights before that evening, a human had provoked a demon and was first to throw a punch. The entire pub fought hard. Two people had died in hospital, and all the demons involved had their souls stripped. Seven chairs had been broken, one table was snapped in half, seventeen glasses were smashed, the glass-stained window in the left front door was smashed, two curtains were ripped, and one painting of a bull had a big hole in it where someone's head had been forced through it.

He stood by his windowsill in black shorts and a black t-shirt, with damp hair from his shower. Various bruises started forming on his hips, knees, and elbows where he had been flattened to the hard path, but he wasn't hurt enough to notice any pain. He stared up at the big round moon, half yellow behind thickening clouds. "Ezrakhell," he whispered, and not even a shiver could reach the bottom of his spine before warmth pressed into his back.

He turned to look up and into beautiful brown eyes. "Hi," he whispered. The house was too quiet for footsteps, let alone deep male voices.

"Hi," Ezra replied. His black hair was freshly washed, fluffing around his forehead. He had changed into a black t-shirt that poked above his dark blue hoodie, and black jeans with rips at the knees.

"Are you calm now, or do you need more time?"

"I'm calm."

They stayed close, taking in each other's fresh smells and soft, clean faces. "Will you stay here tonight?"

"I will. Are you hurt?"

"No, are you?"

Ezra shook his head to say no. "You fight well. Every time I looked over, you were kicking someone to the floor."

Tom chuckled, though he didn't feel much joy. "Come lie down. Are you still feeling low on energy?"

Ezra sat on the side of his bed, unlacing his boots. He explained how each soul he took also took his physical and mental strength with it. If one soul strained his energy, fifteen made him struggle to keep his eyes open. He wasn't the best at explaining, and kept his talking brief, as if it was effort to string together sentences.

Tom laid next to him on the bed. They faced each other, and Ezra's eyelids were half closed. He yawned into the palm of his hand before tucking his arms under the duvet. Tom wanted to snuggle up close. He wanted Ezra's large arms to wrap around him, and for his lips to plant soft kisses into his hair.

"Go to sleep," he whispered instead. "The pub isn't opening tomorrow. Sleep for as long as you need to." He watched Ezra's eyes droop closed before turning off the bedside lamp.

Morning came too soon. Tom hadn't woken once. The neatness of his bed hinted that he barely stirred, and neither had Ezra, who still slept next to him. He faced the wall, so Tom studied his black hair that faded into short stubs on his neck, next to a cluster of freckles. He stared at his barbed wire tattoo stringing around and around in a rich black ink, and at his back with muscles pushing against his t-shirt with each breath. He watched until Ezra rolled over and stretched his muscular arms above his head. He rubbed his eyes without opening them and yawned into both of his hands.

Tom stretched too, and Ezra blinked sleepily in his direction. He looked at Tom for a few seconds before scrambling out of bed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to overstay my welcome." He grabbed a boot and clumsily shoved the wrong foot into it as Tom leapt out of bed too.

"Don't be so stupid!" Tom said, and Ezra paused with his foot hovering above the ground. "I confess my feelings for you, and you still think I want to wake up alone?" Ezra said nothing, though his guilty face spoke for him. Tom flopped back onto his bed and buried himself under the warm duvet. When Ezra didn't move, he said, "You really don't have to go yet."

Ezra slowly got back onto the bed, also burrowing himself under the duvet. He watched Tom carefully, and tensely, as if he expected him to change his mind at any moment. "Did you sleep okay?" he asked.

"Like I hadn't slept in years. You?"

"Same." He was quiet for a moment before adding, "You could've kicked me all night and it wouldn't have woken me."

Tom grinned into the duvet. "I don't kick in my sleep."

"You do. Maybe Cal kicks in his sleep because he's kicking you back."

Tom laughed and rubbed his eyes, stretching again. When he looked back at Ezra, he had a warm adoring glimmer in his eyes. Tom settled against his pillow, clenching a hand into a fist to stop himself from reaching over and tracing a finger over his neck tattoo. "It's going to be hard being just friends, isn't it?"

Ezra nodded with a hint of a wistful smile. "If I was a human, I wouldn't push you away, not ever."

"That doesn't help."

"No." Ezra stared until Tom was the one blushing.

"Well, I'm still not giving up."

Ezra's expressive eyes darkened with desire growing his pupils, and he pursed his lips. "That doesn't help."

"No," Tom repeated. "I know." He grinned and forced himself out of bed. Ezra hadn't looked at him like that before. His feelings were growing too, now that they knew they couldn't be together.

Ezra left to get his own breakfast, and Tom got ready for the day. In the kitchen, his family were sitting glumly around the dining table with half eaten toast or porridge, and cold cups of coffee. "Uncle Tom!" Catherina yelled, bursting with a smile, and flinging herself around his legs. He picked her up and caught Gerry's glare before he turned back to his toast.

Tom made her laugh by spinning her and then plopped her onto the countertop.

"Don't put her up there!" Gerry snapped. "She'll fall."

"It's fine, I'm holding onto her."

"I don't care, put her down."

Tom glanced at his mother, who stared firmly ahead to avoid conflict. Tom put his niece down, and the smile left her face. And once again, he was wondering why his sister had married such a loser.

"So, are we not opening today?" he asked.

"No. We're on the news too. The village has called for a council meeting. I think they'll want to shut us down if we don't change our rules."

"Change them?"

"To ban demons, wasn't that obvious?" Gerry muttered. "You should have done that months ago. Now it has taken two deaths for you to finally see how dangerous this is."

"And what about all the demons?" Tom asked. "Fifteen lost their lives last night. Humans constantly go unpunished. What is fair about that?"

"Everything. Demons are vile creatures." Gerry crossed his arms, smirking at Tom, knowing nobody else could see him.

Tom wanted to tell him that for the past few weeks, a demon had been sleeping under the same roof, but he clenched his fists and made himself look at his dad, who was giving him the calm down stare. "Don't let them bully you into changing the rules, dad, please."

"I won't. We are demon friendly and always will be. I'll argue till I'm blue in the face, don't you worry son."

"Me too," his mother added, frowning irritatingly at Gerry, and then at her daughter who always kept quiet. "Demons have every right to drink in our pub."

"Well, if you ask me, demons deserve to be shunned onto an island of their own. Or even better, another planet."

"Well Gerry, nobody fucking asked you, did they?" Tom growled.

"Hey!" Neasa scolded. "Don't swear in front of your niece."

"Sorry." Tom pointed to Catherina. "Don't ever repeat that word." He then pointed at Gerry. "Enough of the demon slander."

"I can say what I want about those freaks."

Neasa said nothing, and Tom flung his hands up in the air. "What, so you're okay with him teaching your daughter to hate demons?"

"I want her to be wary of them," Neasa said calmly.

"You can't trust them," Gerry added. "Or maybe I should be teaching her to be wary of you, Tom. I've seen you hanging around that soul stripper."

"He's my friend."

"Is he?" Gerry's eyes powered up with a look that made Tom's gut churn. "Is he just your friend?"

"What do you-" Tom's heart stopped. He turned his head slowly to face his sister, who stared at Gerry with wide eyes. "You told him?"

"Tom, I-" Neasa's eyes started to water. "I'm sorry, I-"

"Why?" Tom shook his head in disbelief, feeling a chill from head to toe. "Why would you do that?"

"I'm sorry," Neasa repeated. "It came out by accident, Tom. I really didn't mean to-"

"But you told him? Him of all people? That homophobic prick?"

"Homophobic?" Declan repeated, looking from his daughter to his son. "Are you gay?" he blurted.

"I'm not gay, I'm . . . " Tom's arms hung by his sides. Everyone in the room was staring at him. "I'm not ready to say it," he whispered. "I wasn't ready, Neasa." He looked at his sister, suddenly sad by the frantic tears streaming down her face. He left without another word, but she ran after him, yelling his name, following him from the building and down the path towards the country road. "Just fuck off!" Tom yelled.

"Listen to me!" she screamed, grabbing his arms.

Tom stopped and wrenched free. "How could you do that to me? This is a secret and I trusted you with it! Only you and Cal were supposed to know! How could you tell him!"

"We were just talking one day about celebrity crushes. One of yours came up and without thinking I said something about us having similar tastes in men." Neasa scraped brown hair from her sharp features. Tears shined against her cheeks. "It was an accident, I'm so sorry! I begged him not to tell anyone. He promised me he wouldn't tell, he promised!"

"Just how you promised me you wouldn't tell? Maybe you two are not so different after all. And we don't have similar tastes. I don't have a thing for fuck ups like Gerry. He's a state of a man. The worst thing you have ever done was marry that monster!" Tom said coldly. "If this ruins my relationship with mum and dad, it's your fault."

Tom stormed down the road towards Cal's house. He tried to phone his best friend, but he didn't answer, so Tom knew he was at work. He paused in the middle of the road, listening to the animals lazily calling to each other in the field to his left. When his own tears threatened to fall, he climbed through the bushes, over the wooden fence and onto farmer Joel's land to drown his sorrows among the sheep because at least they wouldn't judge him.