The chapel lighting was soft, yet was cast so dramatically on the harsh angles of the walls and columns that it was hard to see much of anything. There were a few people scattered about the wooden pews and a few around the casket at the front of the room. It was peaceful with only the soft murmur of echoing voices for sound.

However she could feel Dane tense up beside her within seconds of entering the room despite the fact that she wasn't even touching him let alone looking at him. "Damien," he spoke slowly and softly with surprise.

Jade followed his eyes to a dark corner in the room, where only one other person was, a person sitting beside Damien in the pew. They were talking.

"Who's he with?" Jade mused aloud, almost on accident.

"My uncle," Dane squinted at the pair in an attempt to see them better, "Aldric. Damien . . . he knew that I would come?"

"Are you going to speak with them?" Jade looked at the two harder, noticing that Aldric was an older man at least in his fifties.

"No," Dane sighed, shaking his head and then turned his eyes onto a rough looking man who was quickly approaching them.

"Son," the man embraced Dane heartily, but with softness. Jade stared at him with wide eyes. He looked nothing like Damien. His jaw was square, his eyes beady and thin wrinkly grayish skin was stretched over his body.

"How-" Dane began when they had parted.

"A stroke," his father had a rough voice. It sounded like the voice she'd get after yelling loudly for a long time. "I-It was sudden."

For some reason Jade felt uncomfortable around Dane's father even though she had never met him before and knew nothing about him. He seemed cruel, but she didn't know why.

"I have already spoken with Damien," he grimaced and spat the name.

"Y-You what?" Dane tore his eyes from his father and threw them at Damien. "H-He-"

"Come on sit with me," he sighed as he head and shoulders drooped. "It's been a rough day."

Dane pursed his lips, but nodded nonetheless, "Dearest," he spoke to Jade, "go sit with Damien."

She scowled at the thought, "No!"

"Jade, this is a lot. I need you to do this for me," he muttered through half-closed eyes. "Check that he's all right."

Check on Damien? She sighed and feeling sorry for him, she did what he wanted and made her way through the pews to where Damien sat now alone to her dismay. He glanced at her, but didn't speak or even move a muscle. It was almost as if he were in a trance.

"Damien," she began as she sat down behind him.

"Go away, Jade. I'm feeling tired," he used her name with such cold voice that it almost completely froze Jade. She could feel the pain in her heart. He sounded more exhausted than even Dane. He was awfully pale, almost sickly looking. Then he turned his head so that she could only the back of his pale hair once more.

"Your father is terrifying," she laughed, trying to shake off the awkward coldness he was throwing at her, but for what reason she had no clue.

"I don't want his hate anymore," Damien almost whispered and then collapsed weakly onto the floor, sending Jade to her feet abruptly.

"Damien!" She cried out, grabbing on to the back of his pew with white knuckles.

Dane seemed to be at his brother's side in a blink of an eye. He helped him up onto his feet, but he was still weak and barely conscious. Then Aldric was at his other just as quickly.

"I didn't realize," Aldric spoke in a gasp.

"We're leaving," Dane hissed at Aldric. Everyone was staring. Although Jade couldn't understand why he was so angry. In fact she had never seen him angry until that moment.

"I wish that you would stay Dane," Malik gave him a pitiful look, but Dane shook his head at his father with clenched teeth and then with Aldric's help escorted Damien out the doors, Jade tagging along.

"Here," Aldric handed Damien a banana once they were all seated on a bench outside of the church, listening to the tolling of the bells.

Damien sighed, but peeled the fruit nonetheless and then stuck it in his mouth, not biting down on it. Dane stared hard at him as if he were waiting for him to pass out again when Jade finally realized what was afflicting Damien. Through the light colored fabric of his long sleeves, red stains were shinning in the light. Some of the blood was even running down his hands and pooling on the ground.

"Oh my god!" She exclaimed with a gasp, turning quickly as shivers ran down her body, "We need to get him to a doctor!"

"Wouldn't help, child," Aldric looked up at her calmly, seeming to appreciate her concern. Why not? She wondered silently.

"What happened?" She frowned, trying to find Damien's eyes, but he was staring at the ground motionlessly.

"Just give him some time and he'll be as right as rain," Aldric smiled encouragingly to her. "Now, tell me who are you?"

She narrowed her eyes at the question, because the same thing had been running through her head about him. She stared at his silver haired beard and then into his pale brown eyes, which were similar to Damien's but not near as powerful. "Who are you?"

"I'm Malik's brother," he sighed, "and these two's uncle." He was a lot like Dane, Jade thought to herself. "And you?"

"I'm Jade Swan," she titled her head, "recently kidnapped and imprisoned by your nephew."

"Oh? Is that so?" He bit his lip and glanced at Damien, who still hadn't bitten into the banana.

"I don't need your opinion," Damien muttered weakly almost inaudibly through his uneaten banana. "I already know it."

"Damien, you really should eat that. You've lost a lot of blood," Aldric insisted.

So glaring at his uncle Damien ate the banana in two bites scowling the entire time. "I'm leaving," Damien sighed, shaking his head and standing as he threw the band peel at the ground as if it had offended him somehow. However his wobbling legs forced him to sit back down with a deeper sigh. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath.

"Come on we'll help you back to your house," Aldric placed a reassuring hand on Damien's knee.

Damien shook his head though, "Work."

"You can't stand on your own though," Dane frowned.

"Fine, take me to my home then," he sighed, rolling his eyes.

So Dane helped him up and then became his crutch as Aldric and Jade followed behind. No one spoke for a long time and they simply walked in the cool evening air thinking to themselves as the street lanterns were lit one by one.

"I don't understand how he got hurt," Jade muttered to Aldric at last, who had his head tilted back staring up into the empty air.

"How old are you Jade?" He asked, completely ignoring her question. He was creepily calm and always seemed to have thought out each of his words minutes ahead.

"Fifteen and a half, why?" She bit her lip uncomfortably, swinging her arms at her side as they walked on.

"I can't tell you Jade, what happened," he looked at her with pursed lips, "it isn't my place and I don't understand it fully. Really only he does, so only he can tell you."

She shrugged, "At least you're honest about it." She thought about what Dane has said, "I guess that it does make sense though that Damien would have a screwed up relationship with his father. I mean he and Drake's relationship has become so bad that it's irreversible."

"Drake?" He tilted his head at her, "Who's Drake?"

"His son," Jade narrowed her eyes at him. Maybe he and Damien weren't as close as she had thought.

"I'm sorry," he frowned, "you're probably thinking that I don't actually know Damien and to an extent you're right. I don't know anything about the last twenty something years of his life. I only know about his life with Malik, his father."

Jade simply nodded as Aldric raised his eyes to the sky. She wasn't sure how to respond to that. "So, is Damien always in a state of constant disarray?"

"Yes, usually," Aldric glanced at his nephew, pressing his eyebrows together in thought. "He isn't very good at taking care of himself, but I suppose that you've already noticed that. I mean that is why he surrounds himself with so many people, no matter how unconsciously it really is. I wouldn't doubt if you ended up saving his life someday in the not too distant future."

She gave him a funny look, "No, I don't think that I would."

"Honest," he nodded to himself, "but I disagree."

"Why? You don't know me." She laughed as they rounded a corner. Who did this man think he was? They had just met.

"No, but I do enough to say that," he smiled to himself like he knew something that she didn't. Both his presumptions about her and they way that he kept looking up at the sky wistfully annoyed her to no ends.

"What the hell are you looking at?" She said the clenched teeth and tightened fists.

He glanced down at her with another all-knowing smile, "I'd say the sky, but I don't want to sound full of myself," well it was far too late for that Jade thought to herself. "Why are you so mad so suddenly?"

"I-" She began angrily, but then stopped herself with a sigh to calm her boiling blood, "you act like you know everything about me and you aren't the first. You don't know me!"

"Ah," he nodded his head again, "my nephews act like they know you because they used to."

"Yeah, but I was six!" she folded her arms across her chest.

"Why does that make you angry? People thinking that they know you?" He had now directed all of his attention onto her.

"I don't know," she mumbled to herself half thinking aloud, "you assume that my hatred for Damien wouldn't override my heart, but you don't even know that I even have a good heart. Dane thinks that I only want to start fights when I really just want basic human rights and Damien thinks that I am terrified of him, but I'm not. It's all wrong and they treat me like a person that I'm not, instead of simply getting to know me before making these presumptions like you are."

"You didn't mention Drake," he looked at her with wide eyes.

"Yeah, well that because he's in my head and he does know me or at least my intentions," she muttered even more quietly. He shook his head laughing softly at her. "What?" She growled.

"You," he smiled grimly, "you think that you have it bad, that you know what suffering is. You don't though, not in the least bit."

"Are you belittling Damien killing my guardians, kidnapping me, hitting me, locking me in my room and forcing me to pretend to be in love with his son?" Now she was irritated again.

"I suppose that I am," Aldric responded in that same thought out way. "You've been sheltered, being with Damien will do you some good. You'll soon see what real suffering is, Jade."

"From him?" She laughed, "He is the biggest baby! Oh, he's angry and hit someone, but it isn't his fault he has a hard job making more money than anyone can imagine. Poor Damien he has the power to get whatever he wants, but he can't control it so it isn't his fault if he uses it against you. Little Damien needs you to stay here Jade because of his great sorrow that no one can mention or speak about! It's bullshit! And he knows it. He just doesn't care enough to deny any of it."

He stared at her silently almost as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing from her. Sucking hard on his lips, he finally sighed, "It will come to light in time." He laughed. "I don't see how it can't. I can't believe that he is able to keep his eyes off of you."

"Why?" She snapped. "Because I'll run away?"

"Surely you wouldn't," Aldric frowned at her seriously.

Jade shook her head with an irritated sigh and then looked up to see that they had arrived at the house. She hoped that Drake had had enough time to make a copy of the key.

"I don't know if you want to come in," Damien turned to look at his uncle, "but you are certainly invited for dinner."

Dinner! Jade rolled her eyes. She had forgotten all about it. She didn't want to be forced to sit and awkwardly eat with Damien and his family. She wanted to be alone. Then her mind stopped as Drake's familiar voice rang in her head from the previous night, think about someone other than yourself for once! She sighed, rubbing her eyes hard.

"I'll join you both and hopefully I'll get to meet your son," he spoke casually, unaware of the word he had just used. Jade could just see the hair rising on the back of Damien's neck as he smiled in a doll-like manner.

"Hmm," he turned back around and with Dane's help made his way into the house.

Drake refused to come to dinner. He was completely furious that he had been excluded from meeting his grandfather, but that only seemed to lighten Damien's mood as well as a few drinks. He was very weak and Dane had to keep telling him to eat and to put his drink down. It was all slowly biting away the hatred Jade had built up against Damien. She was starting to feel pity towards him. How could he be so powerful one moment and then completely and utterly defenseless and in need of help the next? Then she noticed that he was staring directly at her. It stopped her heart to see those murderous eyes staring through her. However she slowly realized that his mind wasn't on her, he was day dreaming. But still that glare . . . what was he thinking?

"Damien," Aldric yawned.

He shook his head and then moved his eyes towards his uncle with one raised eyebrow, "You need somewhere to stay tonight don't you?"

"That isn't what I was getting at," Aldric muttered in a low voice directing Damien's eyes down onto his bandaged arms, blood was beginning to seep through and stain the table cloth.

Damien pursed his lips, "Is it not going to stop then?"

Dane was staring at Damien as if he knew for sure that it meant nothing but certain death as he bit at his finger nails, while Aldric shook his head, "No you just need to stop clenching and unclenching your fists. Every time that you do, you reopen the wounds."

Damien let out a loud sigh and let his fists free, "You'll stay here tonight. I don't know when you were planning on going back to Morven."

"A day or so," Aldric shrugged, "thank you."

That put a smirk onto Damien's face until Dane snapped at him, "He said to stop clenching your fists idiot."

He turned his head towards his older brother who was sitting right beside him, "I can't. If I do my mind won't stop."

Dane bit his lip and then grabbed his brother's hand which made him let out a long sigh of relief as his "mind stopped" and his eyes closed.

"So," Jade began trying lighten the mood, "what's your power Aldric?"

"That's a bit intrusive," Damien scoffed at her, peeking open one eye.

"I don't mind," Aldric smiled with a shrug, " I'm a healer."

"Oh," she frowned, recalling her last encounter with a healer. She didn't quite understand what had happened, but she hadn't liked it at all. In fact it scared her. "How does that work?"

"I don't think that's a-" Dane began cautiously, but Aldric interrupted him stretching his arms high above his he'd with a yawn.

"It's really fine," he pulled his arms down to untie the bun he had his hair knotted in, letting it fall down in a silver shimmer far below his shoulders. He turned to her now seeming a different person and all only because he had let down his hair. It made him seem younger for some reason, erase the wrinkles somehow? "I've only healed a couple of times," he began, "each healer only has a certain amount of heals that is their life source, like say a battery. Use up all of your heals and power's out for good. So I try not to heal ever unless it's absolutely necessary."

"It looks like the bleeding has stopped," Dane spoke, clearly trying to redirect the conversation. He wasn't comfortable with the subject. He reached out to begin to untie the bandages that were wrapped up to Damien's short sleeves, but his brother stopped him abruptly.

"Please don't," he muttered, placing a hand over Dane's, "not in front of her."

The blood? Jade wondered. When had he ever taken her into consideration like that? It must have been because his mind was so foggy, "I can look away. The blood shouldn't be that much of a problem."

"As usual Jade, it isn't about you," Damien growled darkly.

"You just said that you didn't want me to see," she snapped, "how is it not?"

He smiled at her cruelly as he widened his eyes at her, stopping her heart for a second time. The look on his face was terrifying, "It'll give you nightmares for the rest of your life, my love."

"Don't," Aldric spoke darkly as Damien reached for the bandage, "she's young and innocent, you aren't thinking straight."

"What?" Jade frowned, becoming curious. "What is it?"

There was a long silence as Jade waited for her answer. Dane eyed Damien, while he eyes his uncle. Finally he broke the silence though.

"It's been another long day is what," he stood with a sigh, seeming to have regained some of his strength, "it's late and I'm going to bed. Dane would you lock Jade in her room and take Uncle Aldric to the guest room?"

Jade couldn't help, but notice the specific way that he had worded everything. She was catching on. He was too weak to restrain his power. A smile slipped onto her face

"Lock her in?" Aldric frowned, stopping Damien from walking away. Had he not been listening to her earlier that day?

"She'll run if I don't and it will be a pain in my ass," he frowned. "You couldn't have any better ideas."

"She isn't going to run, Damien I can promise you that," Aldric said standing up and turning towards her with a warm smile. "Will you?"

She thought about it for a moment. "No," she replied. She would get away someday, but she wasn't going to run away anytime soon. Damien would catch her instantly and it would become a waste.

"Why not just command her," his uncle shrugged indifferently.

"I'm not in the mood," Damien raised one of his bandaged arms meaningfully and then turned to leave, muttering as he left, "don't lock her in then like I give a damn."