attire.
He was all decked in black, trenchcoat included, as was the Circle's customary approach to undercover missions. If asked, Damien would say that they should try thinking of other more inconspicuous ways to blend in with the rest of the human population. But, only if they truly wanted to go unnoticed.
“Damien.” The nephilim acknowledged him as they went into the nearest mausoleum to talk.
“What in the nine circles of hell is going on, Nathan?” Damien asked outright. There was no need for pretenses between them.
Nathanael Eden was Buer's eldest and Damien's friend. If you could call it that. He only realized it after meeting Kennedy and getting to call her his friend. He was the closest thing that he had to a brother, his own blond counterpart notwithstanding.
He had always been around his training years at the manor and served regularly as his sparring partner of choice. They often bantered playfully, but whenever it was time to stand up for Damien, he was always present at his side, no matter what any member of the Brethren had to say about it.
Nathan didn't have a life mate of his own. Being nephilim, his lack of one was not questioned as long as he agreed to breed with the females of their race. Which he did, often, or more like he engaged in the practice of it.
“Your shadow – brief pause at Damien's growl – he barged in during one of our sessions and demanded to be heard.” Damien wasn't surprised. He nodded at Nathan to continue.
“He said that Riser had made direct contact with his daughter and that you were so preoccupied with romancing the girl that you had lost your handle on things.”
“And Buer believed that?”
“It doesn't matter if he believed it or not, Damien. You know how these things work.” He was right. If Buer had turned a deaf ear to Tyler's allegations simply because Damien was his pupil, it would have made him look weak.
“Father did the only thing that he could do, he motioned for a vote.” Nathan made a you know face. Indeed he knew, nothing good ever came from those.
“A hit was ordered on the Risers and a captured alive warrant for you.”
So, he was to be brought in before the Circle's elders for judgement? He doubted that they only wanted to question him. Buer still held some power over the meetings, but Damien was sure that even the son of the Elder wouldn't be able stop them when they decided to execute him.
“I see, then it won't be long before Dante can sway them all to accept Lilith's ideals with his cunning use of twisted reasoning.” Nathan shook his head at Damien's words.
“I can assure you that Dante is not involved in this.” That was by far the one thing that Damien found extremely hard to believe. He pinned Nathan with an incredulous look. He of all people should know of the bad blood between his half brother and him.
“It's true, Damien. Tyler must be working directly with Lilith on this one.” He took advantage of Damien's angry silence to make his point.
“Look, your animosity towards him aside, it was Dante who pushed for a motion of safe passage for you through the Circle's meeting grounds, father only seconded it.” Damien trusted Nathan enough to know that his friend believed what he was saying.
It didn't change the fact that he might have been misled by Dante's acting skills.
“All the same, what I really need from you right now is the location of the Golden Archer.” He saw that there would be no changing Nathan's mind at that moment, so he decided to go ahead and ask what he had gone there to ask. There had been enough talk of Dante for one day.
“What for?” Damien's answering silence made it clear that he wasn't going to say anything more than that. “Okay, be like that. After all the trouble I went through to sneak out of the manor and come see you.”
“There's a lot more at stake here than just your fading privileges, Nathan.”
“Fine then, but you know that the whole brooding and mysterious thing only works on girls, right?” Damien rolled his eyes at him. He didn't have time for jokes.
“I'll go to Reconnaissance and try to see what I can find.” At last, something sensible came out of the nephilim's mouth.
“Thank you.”
“Don't thank me yet, just be at Vermögen tonight. I'll send word for you there.” Perfect.
Damien wanted to strangle him. He understood the need for secrecy and intrigue but he just hated the idea that he had to prove the damned seer right after all.
It was dark when Damien got back to the motel. The meeting with Nathan had taken longer than he'd expected. He was already anticipating Kennedy's tantrum and decided that he wouldn't try to escape it. She had every right to fume and vent her frustrations and he would let her. Mostly, because he was the cause behind many of them.
If someone had told him a couple of days ago that he would have been wary about facing a scrawny teenage girl, he would have punched them in the face.
Now, he just braced himself before going into the room where said fuming girl awaited.
Her shouts of, “Finally! I have been going crazy trapped in this cheap ass motel room all day long!”, and, “Are you like my jailer now?”, greeted him as soon as he walked through the door.
Damien was grateful for having the right mind to refuel the Charger and buy her a few candy bars and some soda before heading back or he probably would have been vanquished by an eighteen year old human girl on chocolate withdrawal. Then, where would they be?
Her angry tirade didn't last long. As soon as she saw the cocolate that he held in his hand, she smiled greatly and changed her tune.
“You can't always buy me with candy and soda pops, you know?” She mumbled and instantly contradicted her own words by taking the chocolate bar and opening the wrapper.
“Sure I can and when that stops working there will always be popcorn, cookies, cotton candy–” He trailed off at her murderous look. He used to be so cold, uncaring.
If Buer saw him now he would probably have an aneurism.
That did it! Kennedy wasn't the boss of him and he definitely wasn't a schoolboy for her to reprimand.
“Look, there was something that needed to be done and it was best if you stayed.” He ran a hand through his midnight hair. She made him feel so old and young at the same time, it was exhausting.
“What, do I cramp your evil style?” She squared her arms in front of herself and shot him a fiery look. It dared him to assent.
“Okay, I am going to pretend for a minute that I understand half of the things that come out of your mouth and say that, no, it was not that.” He moved to sit at the edge of the bed as he talked. “It was just safer for you that way.”
“Please, don't do that too.” Her eyes softened. “Don't keep me in the dark with my safety as an excuse. It doesn't work and I'll be better prepared to deal with things when I actually know what's going on.”
“All right then, sit down.” He patted the spot next to him. She complied without a fuss. “I am telling you what I know. But, you have to promise me something in return.”
“What?” She asked looking up at him.
He shifted his gaze to the wall behind her head. She had special eyes, that girl. They were the color of quicksilver and shone like cooled iron every time that she looked at him for longer than it was appropriate. He'd seen eyes like those before, but he never thought that he would see them on a human.
A single look from those eyes and already he was willing to face whatever punishment the Circle held for him. He would never tell her that, it would give her too much power over him.
“That you will do as I say if I ever ask you to stay behind and that you will run if I ever tell you to run, no looking back.” She didn't answer, but followed his line of vision to the wall instead.
“Kennedy?” He placed a hand on top of hers to get her attention.
Big mistake.
The places where his skin made contact with hers hummed. It was greater than a static shock and it was clear that she felt it too. Her eyes shot
up to his the moment that their hands touched.
“Yeah, okay.” She whispered, unconsciously edging a little closer to him.
His body ached. It yelled at him to close the distance between them. She was right there. All he had to do was lean a few inches, but he couldn't.
She was an innocent that he needed to protect and to do anything other than that would only drag her further into that mess. He refused to give her a reason to follow him into the shadows.
So he let go.
They were silent after that. Damien went to stand guard behind the curtains of the big window while she moved about the room picking up everything that she had strewn around during her time cooped up in there.
When it was time to leave for Vermögen, Kennedy insisted on going with him and just because he didn't want to give her another reason to distrust him, he agreed to let her go and filled her up on the way.
Andrea Scmidt had already given word to her bartender, the same snippy kid from the previous night, that she was waiting for them, much to Damien's distaste. They had gone into her office to find her reclined on the big leather chair behind her old fashioned oakwood desk, smoke rose from a lit cigarette clasped between the fingers of one of her expertly manicured hands.
There was animal print fabric everywhere, tapestries, rugs, seat cushions, window treatments and even painted furniture tables. Kennedy felt sorry for the entire jungle of animals that had to die in order to decorate that gaudy space.
“We meet again, Lion.” She greeted in her raspy voice and