"Hey," Damien's cold voice jerked her out of her dream, "come, on we're eating now." She bit her lip and shuddered at her dream. "Jade."

She opened her eyes fully to stare at him, half angrily, "What if I'm not hungry?"

"Then you eat?" He laughed as if confused.

"So, Jade is it," the King addressed her suddenly. Her eyes widened as she observed him more. She hand't noticed that his eyes were two different colors. "How was your little nap?"

She quickly glanced at Damien to check whether or not he cared that she had been so rude as to sleep right in front of the King at his luncheon, but she could only find a smirk on his downward faced head.

Nevertheless she felt as if she needed to apologize, "Forgive me I haven't been sleeping very much as of lately."

"I'm sorry," he said almost insultingly as he took a sip of his wine, "so entertain me. Tell me about yourself."

She glanced at Damien once more, but yet again his eyes were cast down at his untouched plate of food and he was laughing softly to himself.

"L-Like what?" She frowned, glancing at the other pairs of eyes that were now fixated on her. She was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Everyone there had three if not four more the times of an amusing life than she. What was she supposed to say?

"I dunno," the King yawned lazily, "something interesting."

"There's nothing about me that will amuse you," she shook her head, "not when I have these people as my standard."

Slowly Damien lifted his head to tilt it at the king, "What do you expect from a pathetic orphan I plucked up off the street?" He laughed. Pathetic?

"I dunno," the King repeated himself and then after a pause in which his eyes seemed to grab at every part of Jade in examination, "she has an interesting face though. Wouldn't you agree that she's very beautiful?"

Jade scowled inwardly at that statement, confused about what to do with it. No one had ever said things like that to her. She was flattered, but the idea didn't entirely consume her mind.

"Yes," Damien replied coolly completely devoid of emotion, but not in an unusual way. He turned to look at her himself, "She is, but," he laughed, "I don't think that she is quite aware of it though." He threw on a sarcastic face, "Probably never had access to mirrors."

"I wasn't homeless," she growled, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Beauty is within not without," the woman who had been fighting with her husband the entire afternoon spoke bitterly.

"Thank you love, but that's not what we're talking about here," Damien smiled cruelly.

"I think that she's right though," the thin and lanky supposed genius declared, "I mean she slept through half of the luncheon. That's rude and rude is not beautiful."

"He's right," Cornelia smiled at Damien from her place about six seats down from him, "because if she was beautiful then so would you be."

Everyone seemed to nod at that. Damien rolled his eyes with a sigh but then a smile played with his lips as he reopened them, "What about Petra De'Vore then?"

"Beautiful," all of the men seemed to answer almost mechanically, even the king, while the women scowled at the name. Damien laughed hard at their reaction, covering his mouth with his hand at his complete joy, but through Drake's eyes Jade could see a strange falseness in it.

"Yes, I wish we were still on good terms. I'd have brought her with me. Then my dear King, this little luncheon of your's really would be interesting," Damien smiled to himself, picking up his glass of water and taking a sip of it.

"That's true," the King sighed, "but not in the way that I'd like."

"But now I'm curious," said the man who could hear the dead, "tell us about yourself. Like why the heartless Damien has taken in an orphan."

"Actually I'm forcing her to stay with me," Damien looked up at the man indifferently after a long yawn. "You see I've kidnapped her."

Jade froze, but everyone at the table immediately burst into laughter. Damien gave her a side ways glance accompanied with a smile, not in a warning sort of way, but more of a cocky sort. She wouldn't be able to convince these people that Damien had kidnapped her because he seemed to have no passion to motivate him to do such a thing.

"Go on," the King tilted his head towards her.

"What do you want to know?" They seemed to be repeating themselves, didn't they?

The King began to roll his eyes, while Damien stifled a laugh. "Where do you come from?" The man who had been arguing with his wife, began.

"Monorail," she paused and bit her lip, "an orphanage in Monorail."

"Ah, Monorail," he mused, "our son goes to the Airship Academy there, not that . . . well."

She closed her eyes so that they couldn't see her rolling them. Not that what? She wasn't "fortunate" enough to get in? Well, she had actually been paying her way through it for his information, not that she could read, but she was learning how to work on machines so that she could get a decent job. Damien gave her a sideways glance seeming to be able to feel her anger.

"Yes, I loved Monorail," she sighed, trying to keep up the conversation like she was supposed to. She certainly didn't want to come across as any more rude than she already had.

"Really?" The genius commented haughtily, "You don't think that living with one of the most rich and powerful men in all of the world's makes you forget about living in an orphanage?"

Now Jade was getting irritated. These people only cared about their money and status. She knew that they were judging her with their narrowed eyes, but she didn't care and only held her head up higher.

"I don't care about money," she spoke honestly, sucking on her lips as she held her hands in front of her eyes to inspect the chipping paint on her nails.

"That's stupid," the lady, who had been fighting with her husband commented. Jade heard that her name was Alice. She bit her lip as she sighed, realizing that the name was now ruined for her.

All of them nodded their heads wearing faces of pity for the poor girl who had no clue. She bit her lip as the King commented, "Isn't that how you feel Damien?"

Damien turned his eyes towards him with a smile, which he covered with three fingers, "No, not at all. I could either have my way with my power or with money. I prefer money."

He's lying. He wants the King to think that he has power over him.

"I seriously doubt that, Damien" the King muttered, raising his glass of blood colored wine to his pale thin lips. The King either knew Damien incredibly well or was sharper than he looked. Damien glared at him for a moment. Forcing the King's curiosity to ask, "What's that for?"

"Malik," Damien growled, deeply.

His father, whom he loathes and will do anything to not be like. He was a poor weak filthy wretch. Drake sighed. He's trying to give reason why he needs money.

"Hmm," the King yawned, "I suppose that we must get to business, any ways, but . . . " His eyes were lingering on Jade and then slowly shifted to Drake, "They can't-"

"Yes, I know," Damien sighed. He turned his eyes to Drake and motioned with his head that he and Jade were to leave and so they simply did, glad to escape the suffocating air of boredom.

"Why were you sitting beside Damien?" He asked her as the walked down the long hallways of the mansion.

Jade had been watching their reflections skip from mirror to mirror. She was confused to why someone would decorate a hallway with a hundred mirrors. "Jade!"

"What?" She nearly jumped through the ceiling. Why the heck was he shouting?

"Why were you siting with Damien?" He spat at her angrily.

"Why are you mad?" She scowled, crossing her arms across her body frustratedly. He had no right to yell at her.

"Just answer the question, " he growled, staring straight ahead. "Tell me you two aren't becoming . . . friends."

"What?" She spat through a hard laugh. "Are you stupid? Can't you read my thoughts? I hate him almost as much as you do."

"Then why-" He began still in a loud voice.

"Am I sitting with him?" She snapped. "You know that too. Why are you bombarding me with these questions?"

"And don't you know then?" He shouted at her. He was really upset. She focused on his thoughts.

You were thinking about running again. You are going to get me killed if he catches you in the wrong mood.

She bit her lip. The thought had done more than cross her mind, but, "No, I changed my mind I was just going to walk around, get out of that boring room. Seriously!"

"Oh," he smiled in a way that seemed completely accepting, but then growled hideously, "then you're saying that you won't ever try again?"

"Drake," she sighed, "I just want everything to be calm for a while, no arguments or excitement."

"Really," he frowned looked hard at her, completely stopping to stand still under the high ceiling of the hallway. He seemed to think about that for a moment before cautiously saying, "Then are you planning on beginning to follow Damien's in love policy?"

She smiled at him and leaned forwards to kiss him, but he pulled back quickly scowling at her. She frowned folding her arms across her chest and then he suddenly reached out and grabbed her by the chin kissing her on the lips and placing a hand on her waist. He wasn't kissing her nearly as gently as Damien had, but it wasn't quite as violent as before. It was far from even seeming genuine though, but maybe it would be good enough for Damien.

He pulled away quickly, staring hard into her eyes, "That was horrible."

"Same goes for you," she snapped folding her arms across her chest once again and pouting out her lower lip in frustration.

"Yeah," he glanced off in thought, "it's hard to put emotion into something where there's absolutely none."

She nodded in agreement, "You know, I still want to get that key off Damien's neck."

"I know," he smiled, beginning to resume his walking, "as long as it isn't running away though. I would hate to be locked in a room as small as your's for the whole night." She followed casually swinging her arms back and forth. "There should be a balcony over looking the entire city around here somewhere."