It had taken Dane two days to force himself into Damien's room, but when he finally did Drake made sure that he was outside listening to every single word. He did not trust Dane like Jade did.
"What took you so long?" Damien mumbled. "Thought you'd be racing up here the moment you set foot home."
"Sorry, I was preoccupied," Dane muttered, awkwardly.
Drake cursed Dane. He was a terrible liar. Damien would know within seconds.
"With Jade," Damien said with a yawn, not catching Dane's obvious stiffness.
Come on, Drake thought to his uncle. If he screwed this up, even made Damien slightly suspicious, Damien could force the truth out of him with the snap of his fingers. Say something you idiot!
"Yes, that's right, she's well . . ." he paused.
"You're really upset about this. Hell, I'm upset about it," Damien sighed, "I really wish she'd just left me out there I mean it would've been better had I died than she be in this miserable state."
"Don't you dare say that!" Dane shouted.
Drake found himself desperately wanting to peek through the door. Dane hardly ever yelled.
He must be furious with you. He thought to Jade.
"Calm down," Damien said slowly and suspiciously, "what's the matter with you? You refuse to see me for two days, even though I very nearly died and even though you usually follow me around as if you're afraid I'm going to perspire at any given moment and now here you are yelling at me!"
"I . . . I just don't like any of this," he said so softly that Drake had to press his ear against the door to hear him.
"I'm sure Jade will be fine in the end," Damien said with a cold laugh.
"I don't give a damn about Jade!" Dane hissed.
Drake drove his fist into his forehand. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!
"What?" Damien asked. Now he was very suspicious and now he was wide awake and for all Drake knew he was using his power. "When did the two of you get into a fight? You're usually as thick as thieves."
"I don't want to talk about it," Dane said, "I'll come to say good bye before I leave tomorrow."
"You're leaving so soon?" Damien asked, curiously.
"Business," he replied shortly.
"Right," Damien said doubtfully. "You know I wish you'd just stay until I'm on my feet, just to keep watch over Amon and the rest."
"You mean your son?" Dane growled, with a fake cough.
"Damn it," he hissed, maybe a bit to loudly. Jade! Drake was about to have a heart attack he was sure of it. His heart was pattering in his chest faster than a humming bird's wings. Why on earth did you let him come up here in such a foul mood?
Like I had a choice. He's angry with me. Besides I think Dane knows that you're standing there.
Drake didn't care about that. He needed to hear this. There was a long silence in the room and Drake wondered if Damien now knew he was listening after his outburst, but then Dane spoke.
"Forgive me, I'm tired and completely stressed. I shouldn't have . . ."
"No, you shouldn't have," Damien spat with hatred.
Drake ignored the terrible feeling in his stomach that he got whenever he remembered Damien was in fact his father. He tried not to dwell on it.
"Look, I'll stay to make sure Amon doesn't do anything stupid while your stuck here," Dane said, "but," he began cautiously, "about Drake, why can't you-"
"Just stop there," Damien laughed, "you know that I won't even talk to you about that, not yet any ways."
Jade sat on her bed listening to Drake's thoughts as Dane asked Damien, "But you cannot deny him the fact that he is your son. You know."
"Then why do I hate him so?" Damien asked sincerely. "Why should I take care of, put my time and energy into something I hate? Something that can willingly hate me just as equally."
"You only hate him because he's so much like you," Dane answered. He always knew the right answer, Jade thought.
Damien let out a laugh, "I mean I know WHAT he is, but he's nothing like . . ." his voice trailed off and Jade imagined that he was realizing for the first time how much like him Drake actually was. He was seeing him for the first time. He was probably looking past just the fact that Drake looked so similar to him, but that he thought like him, manipulated, and hated like him. He was clever like him. "I didn't . . . " He laughed, "Are you saying I hate myself?"
"Almost, but no, you hate Drake because he is like you," Dane repeated himself patiently. Jade knew that the drugs were starting to kick in once more because Damien's thoughts were becoming slow. He'd probably fall asleep soon and never remember any of that conversation. "I-I should leave now and let you get some rest."
"No wait," Damien's voice drew Drake closer to the door, so he could just peak through the crack, "would you mind wrapping some of those bandages on . . . that table," he yawned, "around my arms. I can't bare to look at the scars any more. The damn doctors won't let me put on . . . a shirt. Something," yawn, "about ripping out stitches."
Drake shook his head and stormed off, trying to shake the conversation from his head and Jade let him. She didn't want to think about it either.
It hadn't been five minutes and there was a pounding at her door. She started for the door, but Dane swung it open and stomped in first. She jumped back surprised, but that quickly faded.
"I don't give a damn about Jade?" She started angrily. However, she didn't realize that he was twice as angry as she was.
"I don't think I do!" He growled. He didn't even have to wonder how she knew. "You manipulated me with your tears. You are making me lie to my brother for you. You! You of all people."
She looked at him for a moment. She wouldn't cry, she told herself. "Are you accusing me of manipulating people? Manipulating you? Your precious brother is the one who manipulates people. He has done it to you for so long that you just lie down and do whatever he says now without even realizing it. When have I ever manipulated any of you? It is the four of you who torment me, constantly! I don't even want to be here!"
He sighed and stuffed his fist into his pocket and took out a watch. It was an old habit to try to take the tension away. Jade wondered if it would work.
"You're right," he came up to her and sat on her bed, shoulders slumped over.
"Can I ask you something?" She said, sitting beside him and crossing her legs. "Something," she continued, "that you don't want me to ask."
"You can ask," he said looking at her with piercing blue eyes, "but I might not answer."
"What was Damien like when Drake and I were kids, before I can remember?"
He pursed his lips as his hands fumbled together. "I'd like to talk to you about that actually. It's just that. . ."
"You don't want him to hear," she muttered.
"I'll say this," he offered, "even though Drake doesn't remember, he hated his father from the moment he could think. Damien wasn't the one who started this hatred. I think he might've accepted him more if he'd . . ."
He stopped, pursing his lips and sighing as he shook his head slowly.
"Wait, accepted?" Jade asked. Dane couldn't just tell her something like that and not finish.
"Drake wasn't really planned for Jade and Damien wasn't all too open to having a . . . a son at the age he was," Dane answered.
"What happened to his mother?" She persisted. Getting information out of Dane was like squeezing the very last drop of juice out of a lemon.
"I . . . it's not my place," Dane began to grumble, but he stopped and took a deep breath, rolling his eyes at himself, "our father killed her. Our father killed Lyra McClair."
"What! Why?" Jade asked as if it were her own mother. She knew it was Drake's voice and feelings more than her own, but she didn't try to push him out.
"He didn't like her. There's no good reason for what he did, but Damien eventually accepted it and focused on protecting Drake from him-"
"Protect him?" Jade whispered, thought back to Malik White. The only time she had seen him was at Dane's mother's wake. He was very intimidating looking ad not in the way that Damien was. Malik seemed much more cruel than Damien . . . more vengeful.
"Yes," Dane said slowly, looking at Jade as if he knew he were staring right at Drake, "but he didn't know how to be a father he was like . . . sixteen or maybe seventeen and when Drake had no interest in him at all and when you came into the picture . . . well he just shut him out."
"But you told him that-"
"Yes, that's true enough. Damien hates him because Drake is just like him, I'm just telling you how it started."
"What about me?" Jade asked cautiously. It was as if after months and months of wondering and occasionally begging for answers, finally that dam had broken and every answer she could think of or couldn't was rushing at her in an uncontrollably fast current.
"You and him were as thick as thieves for about about five years, but after you turned . . . I guess it was six, he realized that you . . . were beginning to challenge him. You caused him pain constantly and enraged him. I don't know if it was completely you or if it was him, but either way you had to go in the end. I-"
"What do you mean thick as thieves?" She asked. She needed to know every detail.
"Just that," Dane said, "that's all I have to say, all right?"
"I can't believe this," she said with an irritated laugh, as she stood up from the bed side.
"I know-," he started.
"No," she interrupted him,"you have kept this from me this entire time! Everyone here knew about this except for me."
He blinked a few times as if confused and then stood up, towering above her. It was then that she remembered that he was stronger than her. She liked to link them together because Damien had control over both of them, but she was just a child still and he was a grown man. She shied away from him a bit, but he wasn't looking at her.
"You need to understand that what Damien says goes," he said.
"I do," she grumbled under her breath, folding her arms across her chest.
"Sweetie," he said getting on one knee and placing his hands on her shoulders. She felt like she was three and completely powerless. "What he says goes. Do you understand."
Her mouth twisted as she tried to say yes, but she couldn't say it, "No! Why does everything have to be his way? He's ten years younger than you!"
"Jade," he said. His grip on her shoulders tightened, almost to a painful degree. "Jade, you have to listen."
"Why?" She asked trying to squirm out of from his hands. He held her even tighter though. "You're hurting me!"
He didn't let go, "You cannot defy him! The second you do he'll know you remember."
"How's that . . ." she thought and then muttered, "because I would listen to him if I didn't remember."
"Just tell me you won't," he sighed.
"I promise," she said.
He released her and while she rubbed her aching shoulders with her hands he said, "Erik is coming to visit with his father, in a week or two as planned. Damien wants to be there so you should well . . . prepare yourself."
"I can't tell you and Drake the truth and lie to him!"
"You didn't exactly tell us," he said, standing up with a smile on his face.
"Well, what's there to prepare for if I'm just pretending not to know him?"
"Damien wants you to pretend that you do," he laughed.
"What?" she asked, "that doesn't even make sense!"
"He doesn't want Viktor to know that he's weak, so he'll have well a-"
"But," she interrupted him. "That's impossible."
"It's probably a test he knows you're going to fail if you're lying. Good thing you're not. See you at dinner," he said with another deep laugh.