"Listen to me!" Alastair pleaded with Damien. He had grabbed him by the hand and yanked him closer to him. He seemed completely frazzled.

"What do you want old man?" Damien hissed, jerking his hand out from Alastair's in disgust.

"You must either stay the hell away from Lyra or command your father to never harm her directly or indirectly!" He almost seemed on the verge of tears, he spoke so passionately. "He's mad! He want's her dead and believe me if you don't act, she soon will be!"

Damien smiled gently, although his eyes were lit with an icy fear, "I will not command anything of the sort from him," he scoffed. "But," he began more solemnly, "I do understand your point. I will stay away from Lyra and to ensure that this will divert all of my father's attention away from her, I will make certain that she hates me more than she has ever hated anything before because I don't think I could stand to see her die."

"My boy, if you care for her that much," Alastair frowned, "why don't you simply order your father-"

"No!" Damien whispered, panic rising in his voice as his entire body went stiff with fear. Drake looked down to find his hands tugging down on his sleeves neurotically. His breathing began to quicken and Drake was wondering if he might hyperventilate.

"Damien," Emerson muttered darkly, who was standing next to his father with arms crossed. He put a hand on his shoulder gently.

Damien looked up and shrugged him off, regaining all composure, "I realize," he laughed easily, "how that may be of use and convenience to you Alastair, but it ill suits me and I cannot do it. That is all."

He turned to leave and Alastair simply sighed, shaking his head, but Emerson hurried after him, Drake and Jordan trailing behind monotonously. For some reason Emerson had seemed to give Damien much more attention the past few months since that party. "Damien, how do you plan to make my sister hate you," he asked, gravely.

"You'll see," Damien sighed without offering Emerson so much as a glance as he walked even faster.

"Wait a second my friend," Emerson laughed angrily, grabbing Damien's hand and jerking him to a stop. Damien's eyes widened as his body swung backwards.

"Yes," he slammed his attention onto Emerson with full force. His eyes were raging with a dark fire.

Emerson paused, naturally. "Whatever you're planning to do to her, I know a better way."

Damien smiled, eerily. "Oh, of course, I never doubted your intelligence."

"Y-you expected me to come up with a plan for you?" Emerson sputtered.

"Why of course," Damien laughed as if it were obvious.

Emerson frowned, but Drake smiled Lyra's brother was abnormally smart, being one step behind was unnatural to him and probably irritated him greatly. He folded his arms not daring to take off his frown and walked forwards, sending another chilling laugh out of Damien, "Oh come on, don't be that way."

"Why are you so cheerful about this!" Emerson hissed, suddenly stopping, "Anyone else would be absolutely devastated."

"I'm simply not anyone else," Damien laughed again.

Drake bit his lip, having learned to read Damien's laughs as cries of his pain. He did very well to seem happy.

Emerson shook his head bitterly, not noticing the anguish in Damien's eyes, "Whatever. If you even have a heart Damien White, you won't break my sister's heart immediately but slowly. Otherwise she'll be suspicious and your father will swoop in and strike sure. Get it? That is my masterplan."

Damien cocked an eyebrow, "That's it?"

Emerson nodded solemnly. "You are good enough at making people loath you. For me to even try to instruct you on the subject would be a joke!"

"Well," Damien sucked on his lips as if thinking, "well, I suppose I expected something a little different from you . . ."

"Like what?" Emerson snapped, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.

"I don't know," Damien almost yelled. He sighed and said more calmly, "I don't know. I suppose I just thought that you might be able to concoct some sort of genius idea in which she didn't have to actually hate me, in which I didn't actually have to hurt her so much."

Emerson's eyes widened as he saw that Damien actually did care, but with a heavy sigh and with what looked like great regret he spoke, "I wish there was another way Damien," he paused, because the two of them knew that there was in fact another way, "but to you Damien this is it or she will be killed."

"But surely!" Damien cried out, "Surely you can think of something else. I'm the king's chief advisor for God's sake! I can command anyone to do anything!"

"Yes!" Emerson snapped in half, "Yes, Damien we are all very aware and you could easily stop this. All you have to-"

"Shut-up," Damien commanded him through icy cold eyes, "I will not hear it again, nor will I think of it again."

"Why?" Emerson broke through Damien's binding words, completely baffling him, "Why on earth not?"

Damien shook his head furiously and tore the sleeves up his arms to reveal the scars. "I physically can't, Emerson."

"I," he paused to look away, "I don't get why not. Why not command him to not do that to you ever again."

Damien smiled, gently, "So much for being a genius. You really don't get it do you? That's his power, hurting causing injuries. Whenever someone uses their power on him he can do this or at least it seems to make it easier for him," he held up his arm, "unfortunately, I cannot command someone to not use their power or at least not him."

"So," Emerson spoke bitterly, "you can't take one more fucking scar? Are you serious, Damien?"

"No," Damien almost whimpered, seeming to crumble inside, "no it isn't that. I-I just physically cannot face him. You don't get it I can't look him in the eye. I can barely stand in the same room as him, I-"

"You are pathetic," Emerson growled to Drake's surprise and then to his horror Damien melted to the floor and began to weep.

Emerson shook his head. "Do what I told you to," he said, turning to leave him there.

Damien quickly stopped sobbing and sat up to stare at Emerson darkly, a look that pierced through Drake's very soul, the hot tears squeezed out of eyes still finding their way down his cheeks. Emerson pursed his lips, uneasily as he turned his head to meet those eyes.

"W-what?" He stumbled over his words, trying to speak as confidently as he possibly could.

"Anyone else would have melted to the ground with me," Damien began with a soft fury in his voice as he whispered, "anyone else would have had pity on me and then," he stood, speaking louder, "I would have had you. You should be mine!" He shouted. Drake's eyes widened. Again the younger Damien was much more hotheaded.

Emerson's eyes widened as well as he realized the act Damien had just fooled him with, in a failed attempt to gain his trust and friendship. He laughed, softly, "I can't tell what's real with you and what's not!"

"No?" Damien's eyes lit up as he pushed down his sleeve. "But your sister does."

"Yes, she does," Emerson nodded solemnly. "Dane probably does too, I'd expect."

Damien looked away as if thinking it through, "Hmm, I haven't seen my dear brother in a while," he laughed through a grin, "well either way he does seem get me better than you that's for sure."

"It isn't a matter of getting you or not, Damien," Emerson responded icily, "you make and break the rules, you toy with people so that they can never fully figure you out. It's unfair."

"What?" He continued to grin, "A genius like yourself can't figure me out?"

"No, not yet," he shrugged, "but I will soon."

"Oh?" Damien cocked an eyebrow, "Well you will have to submit to me first and that is something neither of us can control. So we'll wait."

"My friend," he began, "what defines submitting to you?"

"Pure sympathy and utter compliance to me?" Damien asked him, "I'm not one to analyze things, right? That'd be you."

"Ha!" Emerson burst out, "You want me to believe that you don't analyze things? Oh that's precious!"

Damien raised an eyebrow as if raising a question, but without words.

"Aha," Emerson continued to laugh, doubling over so that his glasses clattered to the floor. Now tears were streaming from his eyes uncontrollably and as he wiped at them with the back of his hand, he smiled, "Damien, surely above all else you can see that I am no idiot."

The corner of Damien's mouth tilted up in a half smile. "I know," he hummed the words almost like a melody, "but the matter of fact, Emerson, is that in these past few moments I have cracked you, directed you and have won you over and you don't even realize it yet."

Emerson squinted his bare eyes at him and Drake wondered if his eyes genuinely couldn't see Damien at that distance. "Won me over?" He muttered.

Damien nodded, taking hold of both Emerson's forearms and pulling him closer to him so that he could hiss something into his ear. Emerson immediately tried to jerk away, but Damien had a tight grip on him, forcing him to shake his head at Damien.

"You can't help it," Damien finally released him, "you're right you're a genius, who has to know the answers to everything. You can't stand to let me run circles around you with my antics can you? No! You will inevitably inch closer and closer to me until the day comes that you find yourself considering me your closest ally. You see I've set your collision course."

"Why?" Emerson snapped at him. "Why do you want me?"

Damien looked up as he thought, pinching his lips together and then opening them to run his tongue along his teeth, "Well," his eyes snapped back down onto Emerson, "for one you're a good asset to have, obviously in that you are quite smart and are Alastair's son. Secondly, I find you . . . amusing."

For a moment Emerson glared at Damien as if he were prepared to fight him with his every fiber of his being. However, the look softened into a smile, even though Drake was inwardly rooting for Emerson to break free of Damien's nonsense.

Through that gentle smile, Emerson asked one more question, "Why not command it of me?"

Damien gave a short laugh brimming with contempt, "Are you fucking serious?"

"What?" Emerson shrugged, indifferently, before stooping down to pick up his glasses from the floor. "What is so outlandish about that sentiment?"

Damien eyed him as he began to clean his glasses with edge of his sleeve, "It's done easily enough," he muttered, looking away, laughing, "too easily," he sighed, "but," he paused to laugh again, "where's the fun in that, Emerson?"

Placing his glassed back onto his head, Emerson frowned at Damien. Drake couldn't help but recognize how similar his features were to Lyra's. His crystal blue eyes, sharp jaw, and even the gentle curve of his lips, not mentioning their hair color. "Fun?" The words were barely audible. "You are such a damn child!" He screamed at Damien, whose smile immediately disappeared. "You treat people as if they were your toys. You have had nothing your entire life and yet you act as if you were a spoiled brat! The world is not yours to toy with, Damien! It owes you nothing and yet you demand of it whatever you wish! Your childish nonsense is driving me insane, damn it!"

"A child?" Damien smiled after some time, "A spoiled brat," he laughed, "oh well, it doesn't bother me that much. In fact I enjoy hearing your thoughts. They are so hard to decipher most of the time."

"Nothing gets through to you does it?" He shook his head in disbelief, but then for a split second his panic paused and he thought clearly, Drake could see it in the calmness of his eyes. "Unless, this is another game."

"Aha," Damien let his smile go, "you catch on almost as quickly as my brother."

"Well, is it all an act or not?" Emerson said, exasperated.

"Mmm," Damien tossed his head back to look up at the ceiling high above their heads, where a golden chandelier hung. His head snapped back forwards soon enough, but not to look at Emerson, rather in order to walk away.

"Why won't you tell me?" Emerson grabbed onto Damien's arm, jerking him towards him harshly.

"Damn it!" Damien growled under his breath as he flinched in pain.

"Forgive me," Emerson looked down as he carefully released Damien, opening his hand to find his palm soaked in wet crimson blood. He tore a piece of his sleeve from his shirt away and then tied it tightly around Damien's bleeding wound.

"Do you really want to know?" Damien looked deep into Emerson's eyes.

He nodded slowly, taking his hands away from Damien's arm.

"I don't know completely myself," he spoke bitterly, "but maybe that's what I want most of you. The knowledge of myself because you are the only one who can solve me. I suppose that subconsciously I planned this out, for you to ask me these questions, get frustrated and I made sure that my right arm was closer to you, but then again I can't say that I'm sure of it. It may all be an act, but what I am certain of is of your sister."

Emerson tilted his head as he examined Damien, "I can't tell if you're a monster or so damaged that you are innocent and I can't tell nor do I care if I am giving into your ultimate plan by saying this, but consider me on your side-"

"Really," Damien interrupted him through a nasty grin.

"Yes," Emerson took back the silence, fully realizing the death note he was signing, "but I am not Dane, Damien, nor am I Alastair, the king, nor Lyra and most definitely not Petra De'vore. I will not coddle you, I will not make false promises to you out of fear of you, I will not try to control you, and I certainly don't love you, but rather I find you amusing, and I will not be dependent on you."

"So what does that leave?" Damien half laughed, probably realizing what Emerson was pointing out so clearly that was that everyone who had ever fallen into Damien's trap had a very specific relationship to him. "Hate? Jealousy? Friendship? Surely not, maybe you'll take up the role of a doctor and try to psychoanalyze me?"

"No," Emerson scoffed, "I highly doubt any of those. They don't suit me. Remember you don't quite fully know me, Damien."

"Yes, I do," Damien rolled his eyes, beginning to make a circle around Emerson as he paced around him. "Remember I have all your sister's memories, including those of you."

Emerson smiled at him, letting his eyes follow him as he moved, leaning on one leg and crossing his arms as if he'd just won the argument, "Have you ever considered that I may be trying to implement the same thing on you that you are on myself?"

"What?" Damien shook his head, drowning in Emerson's swirl of words.

"I could be tricking you into trusting me, into desiring my friendship, Damien," Emerson explained to him patiently.

"That would truly be interesting," Damien sighed, clearly loosing interest in the conversation itself. He stopped pacing circles around Emerson and turned to leave, rolling his eyes.

"Where are you going now?" Emerson laughed at him.

"To Petra's" He sighed again.

"What on earth for?" Emerson hurried behind him, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Damien scoffed at him shaking his head in disbelief. "Because I want to dummy."