We Are Bulletproof

Ugh. Lieve curled his lip as he crossed his arms. He didn't want to think of the monster that created the golem out there to be so good at something, especially something so rare. Surely, he made himself quite useful to somebody with his golems, more than just himself. Lieve eyed Jack. The one he had gone out of his way to create a likeness of with such careful detail that it had to come from love. Or obsession. A really, really unhealthy obsession.

The more he learned about this guy, the less he wanted to know.

And was he going to come after his Cori now? His fingernails bit into his own arms. Why did he agree to this? Because Cori wanted to help. But he most certainly should have taken better care of him. It was just... he didn't think that Cori just touching Brayden Smith would put Cori into this position. Lieve swallowed hard, fighting back the panic and anger.

"...he should be tied to me..." Lieve said. As long as Lieve was here, Cori could make his way back... right? He stared at Cori with furrowed brows and concerned blue eyes filled with worry. Taking in another breath to steady himself, Lieve moved over to Ken and his contraption and he saw what he meant.

"Should we let him, though? Is that a good thing? What if he goes too far?"

"Are you kidding me?" Lieve's voice rose. He didn't often get angry but lately, with everybody thrusting his Cori into harm's way constantly, he couldn't help it. That was the one thing he couldn't abide by! People wanting to harm Cori! Or people harming him through ignorance! His nostrils flared and his jaw set.

"You're telling me that I brought Cori here to die?"

If his soul wasn't there, then he was as good as dead, too, was he not? The panic was starting to take hold, over the anger. And he was the fool who thought it was fine to let Cori make the call, knowing full well he couldn't be ready for something like this! He'd never even practiced such a thing on something smaller, like a small mammal or a bird! And they thrust him into this without the slightest clue as to what could happen!

Breathing heavily, Lieve turned away from the others, trembling with anger and fear. He knew he shouldn't have got involved with this bunch. That they should have left well enough alone, that they shouldn't have-- NONE OF IT. They should have lived as they were; they were happy together. As happy as they could be, given the circumstances with Cori's mother. Cori's mother. He would get to that in a minute but--

"Wait," Lieve said. "Wait. So... This Keith. Is he a soul weaver, then? How did he weave a soul into a golem? Or did he have somebody else do it for him? And who did it?"

Even Lieve couldn't tell whether Cori was a soul weaver or not. The fact of the matter was, the two of them were still learning what kind of abilities Cori had. Not wanting to overwork him or overwhelm him, Lieve helped him daily but tried to make the exercises easy ones that would slowly ramp up to more difficult ones. Cori was getting better every day; he was so powerful but he was learning how to rein it in so he wouldn't accidentally use those abilities against somebody. (Which was Cori's biggest fear, it seemed, and Lieve wasn't about to let it get into his head.)

With every success, he swore that he could see Cori growing more confident; this was the point of starting easy and slowly ramping up. It gave Cori a clear line of progression to look back on. It gave him a foundation to work with. And luckily for him, Cori wasn't one of those impatient people who found the "easy" work boring. But... well, this was Cori. And Cori was such a people pleaser at heart.

Lieve watched Cori with his breath held in his lungs, not even really thinking about it. He was anxious for him. But he believed in him. If anybody could do it, Cori could do it. When they held hands earlier, he saw no light at all inside Brayden, which didn't seem normal or good. And Jack's was so weak, threaded and throbbing with what Lieve could only imagine was his grief.

But... it wasn't irreparable... was it? Maybe normally. But... Cori was powerful. Realizing he was holding his breath, Lieve let it out and then sucked in some air, clutching his hands to his chest worriedly as he watched. He didn't know what he expected when Cori reached out to touch him. Maybe that Brayden would be suffused in a celestial golden glow that would heal him from the inside out.

That was not what happened.

As soon as Cori dropped, Lieve was leaping onto his side of the bed and holding him, looking at his face and gently patting his cheeks to try and wake him up.

"What happened?" he demanded of Jack and Jack looked every bit as stricken by what happened as Lieve did, minus the thread of protective anger. 

"I--I don't know. I don't know anything about magic except what I've been learning about dreams and visions..."

"Cori? Cori! Cori, wake up!" He didn't appear to be dead. He still had a pulse. But Lieve's heart was racing triple time with fear. What happened when a celestial touched a dead person? How would Lieve know? This was, simply put, out of his depth.

Jack swiftly leaned down to give Brayden a kiss he probably didn't even feel before leaping out of the bed and running to the door. "Ken? We could use your help, please!" At Lieve's distrusting expression--who was Ken again?--Jack added, "He's--he knows the most, I think, out of everybody here."

Jack seemed to study Cori critically for a long moment but Lieve was unconcerned; anything Jack saw in Cori couldn't be bad. There was no bad seed inside of him, despite whatever evil his father might have tried to impart into him. Maybe Cori got the best of his father. The part of him that he must have been before he had fallen. Giving Cori one last gentle squeeze of the hand, Lieve let go of him to allow him to do what needed to be done.

For Jack's part, he seemed to come to the same conclusion as Lieve. That Cori could be trusted. He nodded after a moment, moving aside but staying close, fingertips brushing through his lover's hair so tenderly that it almost hurt to see it.

"Yes," Jack said softly. "It's okay."

There was hope now, mingled with all that anguish and despair. Hope in his tone, hope in his eyes, in his heart. Jack's aura was such a strange one; Lieve had never felt one so pulled in many different directions. Maybe this chaos was made from what happened to his lover. For that, Lieve could sympathize.

Rip... did not look good. Despite all his misgivings and doubts about him, he couldn't help but feel at least a little sorry for him--and a little sorry for being so harsh on him when they first met. But at the same time, were his worries unfounded? Rip was involved in what? Killing somebody? It was just as well that Lieve had been suspicious from the start. And he kept Cori close, glad that he didn't go rushing off like Mik, to go hug the golem. To hug Rip.

To his credit, Rip seemed wracked with guilt over what he had done. Almost the second Mik's arms were around him, he started to cry... which was new to Lieve. He didn't think golems even had the capacity to cry. But it wasn't a loud weeping wail. It was a silent kind of cry, where tears just fell and eyes squeezed closed and he held onto Mik like he was his last lifeline.

And maybe he was; Lieve... personally did not trust Rip. Not all the remorse in the world changed the fact that he had been forced to do something awful. Just like Lieve had warned Mik. And it wasn't like he wanted to be right about this; there was no gloating, no lording it over. He didn't even mention it on the drive here. Mik probably already thought about it. He probably already felt shitty enough about it.

Sighing, Lieve took Cori's hand as they made their way down the hall and into the bedroom, leaving the others behind.

He didn't like this. He didn't like coming here with Rip clearly still connected to an evil creature and he didn't like Cori being asked to do something he'd never done before. If he failed, were they all going to turn on him? Lieve squeezed Cori's hand briefly, just before they entered the bedroom.

Pure anguish was palpable from the moment they stepped inside. It was all around them, emanating from the man who looked so like Rip. He sat in bed with his lover cradled in his arms and his eyes rimmed red. This must be Jack. The resemblance was definitely uncanny. Say what else you wanted about this deplorable Keith person but his skill in creating golems were clearly unmatched.

"Jack?"

He looked up and his expression didn't even change. No surprise, nothing.

"We're here to help your--here to help Brayden." He didn't know if this was the right time for it or not but he added, "This is Cori. We're told he's your brother?"

Still Jack's expression didn't change.

"And his mother is celestial. So we think he can help."

Finally, something in Jack changed. "Are you a soul weaver?" he asked. "Brayden said he needed a soul weaver. I don't know what that is, honestly... I'm new to this magic thing..."

You might as well swing by, we can split the bill.

Of course.

Yes.
We had a talk.
He thought he was endangering me.

No, you are absolutely not hurting anybody.

We'll see, Cori.

And Mik, I thought this Keith guy was out of the picture?

Cori wants to so ...

I don't know what else to say

His soul mate.....

Good.
I don't want them blindsiding us.

If he wants to do it........
But I'm going with him.

I'm not saying it's not legit
Or that it's a trap.........
I mean it could be but

I just
Don't want Cori getting hurt.
Or used.