Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 1

business trips. Cole starting his own business. Cole's success. Daniel had claimed Cole took him for granted, and Raziel had to admit that, yes, maybe, just a little, but Daniel's betrayal...
    Raziel crouched in front of Cole, resting his hands on Cole's knees. Cole couldn't see him. None of his wards had ever been able to see him. He'd never wanted to be seen, but now... now he wanted to be seen. He wanted to touch. He wanted to soothe. He loved Cole. Raziel loved Cole in a way that was forbidden and new and thrilling and frightening. He wanted to wipe the pain from Cole's eyes and ease his soul's burden, but that was not his place.
    His place was to watch. To guide silently.
    "I'm sorry," Raziel whispered. "I'm so sorry, Cole. I just don't know how to put your feet on the right path, away from Daniel."
    Daniel wasn't coming back, but Cole hoped. Raziel knew Cole hoped. Daniel had been the love of Cole's life, even if Cole hadn't been Daniel's. Cole's heartbreak was Raziel's, and Raziel didn't know how to patch it all together. All he knew was that Cole now walked a dark path. Alcohol and anguish and fury. He didn't know how to fix it, but he knew he had to. Somehow, he had to find a way, or he would lose Cole forever.
    ****
    "Daniel," Cole murmured into the phone. "Come home; we can fix this." How many times had he said that over the last three months? Even to his own ears he sounded pathetic. "I love you."
    Daniel sighed on the other end of the line. "Cole, stop calling. Let this end before we really hate each other."
    "I'd never hate you," he insisted. "Never."
    "I have to go." Daniel's voice was tight. "It's over . I'm sorry it's ended the way it has, and it hurts me, too, to see the last ten years end like this, but it's done. While you moved up, I moved on, and it's time to just... just stop ."
    "Daniel—"
    "Goodbye, Cole."
    The line went dead. Cole slammed the phone down, his chest aching with such intensity, he wondered how the fuck he survived. He stumbled over to the bar and yanked one of the bottles of vodka out of the cooler. Just stop? How do you just stop loving someone? That was what he needed to know. Because despite Daniel fucking around on him with a number of men before settling on Lindsey, Cole still loved him. He still loved him, wanted him, and needed him, and Daniel... Daniel had moved on.
    He knew calling again would just get him another clipped reply followed by the dial tone, but if he could get Daniel back on the line, he'd ask him how to stop loving. Daniel obviously had some practice, and he wanted to throw it in Daniel's face almost as much as he wanted to beg Daniel, yet again, to come back. It was useless, though. If he kept calling, it would only force Daniel to change his phone number or send Lindsey after him. He had no idea what attracted Daniel to the stupid lug, but he knew that stupid lug could beat the shit out of him. It just added more fuel to the anger, the hurt, the damn helplessness that made him take a long, burning swig of vodka straight from the bottle.
    Vodka wasn't enough, though. It had been the first few nights, maybe even the first week, if he was generous, but every failed attempt to get Daniel to come back seemed to dampen the effect. He had to do something about it. He had to get away from his heart, from the work he'd poured so much of his life into, work that now felt hollow and worthless. It wasn't worth staying sober, and if alcohol wasn't doing the trick, then he knew exactly who to call.
    It took three tries to dial the right numbers on the phone, but when he was certain the sequence on the screen was right, he pressed the plastic to his ear and waited until there was a voice on the other end of the line.
    "Boss? It's nearly two in the morning. If this isn't insanely important, I'm hanging up and going back to sleep."
    "Shut up, Rob," Cole all but snapped, squeezing his eyes shut before taking another swig of vodka to bolster his courage. "That drug you took that night we took off to party on the business trip. You remember the trip I'm talking about, right?"
    There was silence for a few seconds, and then Rob slowly, hesitantly drew out the response. "Yeah..."
    "I want you to get some of it for me. None of that shitty stuff you can get on the street corners that's cut with who knows what, but the pure stuff. Whatever you shell out, I'll pay you double for." Cole knew that was a damn good offer, and it kept his hands clean to use Rob as a middleman. At