That night Damien himself came up to lock Jade in a few hours after their dinner gathering. She had been sitting in her bed with the sheets scattered around her like some sort of makeshift nest. On her nightstand was a plate with a slice of cake, which was serving as her dinner. Her windows were wide open, letting the fresh moon and star light in. Flipping casually through a book filled with pictures of all the different worlds by the light of a candle, she glanced up as she heard his footsteps nearing her open door. It wasn't long before he stood in front of her. He seemed shocked that she was still awake.

"Its past two in the morning my dear," he frowned, leaning against the door frame and glancing around her plain, almost empty room.

"All right," she shrugged indifferently.

He narrowed his eyes, "What are you doing? Planning your escape on paper?"

"No. Looking at the pictures in this book," she spoke quickly and in a monotone voice.

"Damn it," he hissed, pressing the palm of his hand hard into his forehead.

She sucked hard on her lips, really observing him for the first time. His light shoulder length hair that swept this way and that to form around the sharp jaw that outlined his face, his broad shoulders and muscular frame, his pressed lips, and as he looked back up at her his burning brilliant eyes. They were so pale that it appeared that only a mere black pupil floated in his eyes adding to his dark looks.

"What?" He spoke, damning himself again as his bit down on his bottom lip nailing it to his lower teeth.

"I'm just looking," she muttered, ignoring the forced words as her eyes dropped to the black cord fastened around his neck, "at you."

"Oh?" He released his lip into a devilish smile, stepping into the room, much to Jade's dismay. She scooted away from him as he sat on the edge of her bed. "I'm not going to hurt you," he smiled cruelly.

"Then what do you want Damien?" She snapped, hating his every aspect.

"Dane, seemed to think that you could convince me that you won't run away again and that I have no need to lock you up," he muttered, clearly expecting a response even though he hadn't asked her, commanded her. He was playing games. He wanted her to prove to him whether she was lying or not.

She'd take it though. Hiding a smile she tried her best, "I really won't Damien." She pleaded in earnest, "I mean where the hell would I even go? This is really my best option. Besides," this was more quiet, "I hate being locked up here in the dark."

He stared at her hard, piercing her soul and forcing her to look away, "You're lying," he sang in a chilling way. She turned to look at him again and fear stuck her through the heart. Now she knew Drake's feeling from a first hand experience. His face was but inches away from her's. His icy breath was fluttering around her skin and his grin was shining in her eyes. "Hmm," he stood up abruptly, "didn't Dane tell you that I hate prevarications." There was a redness to his pale complexion that breathed his anger. Reaching behind himself he slipped out the key to her room from his back pocket, muttering viciously, "Dane will slide your food beneath the door for the next few days. I hope that afterwards you will think before you lie to me again . . ."

Jade stared at him in shock, "You can't be serious!" He was a monster! He was going to lock her in that room for the "next few days"? What gave him the right? She was a person not some animal. She shouted at him, "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Yes," he smiled kindly, taking her completely by surprise, "lock you in a room. God," he rolled his eyes, "I'm not evil, my dear. Besides," he muttered under his breath, "I know what it feels like to be locked in. I wouldn't wish that on anyone . . . when it isn't necessary."

He was looking off into the distance out into the open night through her window. Jade was finding it hard to believe that he was being genuine and if she was to be honest she was always guessing. He was too hard to read and he loved his games too much. This could have all been some sort of set up to get something out of her, but what she had no clue. He seemed like a statue to her staring like that unmoving. Curious and bit too bold for her own good, she reached up to touch his cheek, but before her hand could get an inch from his skin he took a step back from her staring at her as if she were a ghost. "Wha-" He paused with an irritated sigh.

"N-Nothing," she stumbled over her words, looking down at the ground as her cheeks grew hot and red.

A smile slipped on the man's face as he reached out and grabbed her chin between his thumb and pointer finger, forcing her to look up at him as he flashed his eyes at her. There was something in the center of them that she couldn't quite place her finger on. "Is Drake still awake."

Yes Drake's thoughts grumbled in her head and I wish that you'd send him on his way already. I'm sick of hearing his voice through your head!

She simply nodded and Damien lowered himself some that he was eye level with her, "Then tell him to take notes because soon I'm going to need to take the two of you into public. That is balls, dinner, meetings etcetera. I desperately need the two of you to wear a mask of intimate adoration and passion for one another. I don't want you two behaving violently, but rather like this," he then leaned forwards and gently kissed her lips which had parted in shock. His lips were soft and warm compared to the rest of him. The kiss seemed to stretch out forever and for some reason Jade didn't find herself repulsed, well at least not in those moments as Damien caressed her lips between his. Slowly he pulled away and immediately Jade slapped a hand over her mouth turning away in embarrassment and in an attempt to hide her flushing cheeks. However out of the corner of her eye she could see that Damien was trembling violently. It made her turn around. His hand was also over his mouth and he was hunched over with eyes wide open with a traumatized vigor to them. Then his trembling stopped and he sank to his knees and vomited, albeit there wasn't much to it.

What the hell Drake laughed in her head. He hates you so much that a kiss from you physically makes him sick.

Great Jade rolled her eyes I guess I'll be expected to clean up his puke.

And even though she was being bitterly sarcastic. She didn't even remotely care about the rank smell of vomit flooding the air. Her mind was still tracing the flavor of Damien's mouth lacing her lips. It was like a spicy hot sort of vanilla and cinnamon flavor that stung like a pepper.

Damien had stood, but she didn't notice until he growled, "Do not tell Dane about this," then he added, "seriously."

Another command, but this one was clearly intended. "What?" Jade began sarcastically, trying to throw off her wrecked nerves. She wanted to see how much more she could torture him and reached up with a gentle hand this time actually making it to his face where she caressed his cheek, but when the action was only met with a blank stare filled with pure white hot hatred. She retreated embarrassed and hugged her knees to her chest, placing her chin on top of them. "Why did you react like that?" She asked. This time timid as a mouse.

He stared at her in complete disgust, wearing a snarl. He shook his head, "I think I'm coming down with something."

She stared back at him hard for a minute or two, "And you just decided that now was a prime time to kiss me?"

He opened his mouth as if to say ah, but instead closed it, pursing his lips. "You're right." It had clearly been a lie. He sighed probably knowing that there wasn't a point. "Honestly, it's just that my head is fucking killing me," he moaned.

"That's probably because you've been starving yourself," she rolled her eyes.

"Well, aren't you the know it all," he growled, but in a half whiny way.

"You should eat," she said indifferently. All though Drake's voice was berating her in her head.

Do you actually have sympathy for him! He's the devil!

"You just don't get it," he snapped, "and your naivety is beginning to irritate me."

She was the one who was irritated, reaching behind herself onto the plate filled with cake she took a hand full and stuffed it into Damien's open mouth which was about to lambast her and he was forced to swallow the moist glob of strawberry dessert. Jade watched as his eyes began to water from the overwhelming taste of food. His face immediately regained all of its color and the dark circles sagging beneath his eyes lifted as an electric energy shot through his eyes.

What the hell have you done? His temper-

He doesn't want to command us about. Being more or less alive has no affect on that. Surely you aren't stupid enough to think otherwise.

That's not what-

Damien sat down on her bed again with a heavy sigh, placing his head in his hands and staring down at the floor hard. "You shouldn't have done that my dear. Fluctuations can-"

"So what?" She laughed. "What now? Is the entire world going to catch fire?" She pointed to the open window for emphasis.

"You cannot control me!" He shouted, infuriated all of a sudden, "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've eaten? How hard I've worked? And you've just made it all worthless!"

"No, but starving yourself, won't make you able to control yourself anymore!" she folded her arms across her chest. "You either speak or don't. In fact if you asked me-"

"I didn't," he growled, his face turning redder and redder by the second, "and that is beyond the point! Do you think that I'm starving myself? No! I'm starving my power. It would have been over tomorrow morning if you hand't . . ."

He collapsed onto the bed face down, shaking in frustration.

You need to get him out of your room. Being around you is just spiking his anger and that's not including your idiotic actions.

And how do you suppose I do that, Drake?

"I'm sorry," she finally got the words to leave her mouth, "I didn't know. I-I,"

"You what?" He sat up flashing his eyes at her and crushing her insides with them.

She flinched as her mouth quickly spat out in an almost painfully forceful pace, "I feel bad for you!"

"You have no right!" He went on shouting as he stood. "Why, why on earth would you feel that way?"

His temper Jade!

"Because you're so hapless and miserable!" Her mouth was moving so drastically that it bit the very tip of her tongue, causing it to begin to bleed.

"Do you mean weak?" His hissed, his anger was sky rocketing and she had no idea how to calm it, "Because my lovely darling. I am actually anything but that. Are you not afraid of me?"

"Yes, I'm not!" Now tears were streaming down her face as her tongue was sliced between her teeth once more.

"Why the fuck not?" He screamed at her, towering over her and yet even with her bleeding mouth she still wasn't afraid.

"Deep down I know that you can't seriously hurt me. You aren't evil!" She cried.

"Is that honestly what you think?" He laughed furiously, swiping his hand through the empty air.

"Yes," she bit her lip.

He then raised his hand to slap her, but before Jade knew what had happened, Dane was standing between the two of the holding onto Damien's shoulders so tightly that his knuckles were a ghostly white. "Calm down," Dane spoke softly and slowly. "Just sit for a minute." Damien followed his brother's commands and then Dane turned towards Jade irritatedly, "What the hell did you do?"

"I stuffed his mouth with cake," she spat angrily.

Dane frowned, looking past the smugness in her voice and seeing the underlying actions, "Such an innocent act of kindness and yet," he shook his head, "his temper is directly correlated to his power, love. When his power is calm he-"

"For fuck's sake, Dane," Damien hissed, "I'm not some subject to study!"

"She doesn't know Damien," Dane sucked on his lips.

"And I'd rather that," he growled, "I just need some time to adjust to her being here. It adds a whole new dimension to things."

"Or," Jade smiled at him, "you could just send me away."

"Hmm," he smiled back at her half hearted joke as he grabbed the corner of his loose shirt and put it to her mouth. "Don't pull back, my dear."

And so she couldn't, not having a clue to what he was doing until his hand left her face and returned to his lap. The piece of shirt was stained a rose red with her blood. She looked at Dane quickly so that her mind couldn't take it in. He glanced between his brother and her, seeming to understand the kiss that had occurred without even the slightest hint or word about it.

Damien picked up on this, "What?"

And so his brother answered, "I'm just thinking that there's smeared lipstick on your mouth."

Jade tilted her head at Dane, curious to how he would respond. She honestly wouldn't have expected anything if Damien had not commanded her to keep the incident from him. "What exactly are you implying?" Damien growled angrily, raising a hand to touch his lips gently.

"And the same lipstick smeared on her lips as well," Dane continued as he shockingly bypassed his brother's command. "Did he harm you?" He turned to Jade.

"No," she frowned. Harm her how? Did accidentally biting her own tongue and lip count? "Why would he?"

"And there she goes again," Damien laughed through a hideous anger, "that's twice. Test me a third time and you'll see you're wrong."

"Mhm," she smiled, "just like locking me in my room for days on end?"

That seemed to be strike three because he actually did strike her with the back of his hand, sending her into Dane, who caught her with open arms. "You're abusive," Dane snapped at his younger brother.

"Hardly," Damien spat back, standing, "and you know it. She'll learn eventually not to cross the line separating me from my temper."

"Or you could just control yourself!" Jade turned away from Dane to glare at Damien.

Stop, Jade.

"Must I keep on hitting her? When the fuck will she stop?" Damien laughed, throwing his hands in the air and then letting them rest on the back of his head.

"Learn to bow down before you?" Jade mocked him.

Jade stop it now, seriously.

"Fine, have it your way, my love," Damien said as if it were some answer to a decision, "you will stay up here in this room for the next four days."

He then stormed out of the room, leaving Jade with a gaping open mouth. "Sorry, Jade but you were asking for it," Dane sighed sympathetically.

"Whatever, fine," she snapped, folding her arms furiously across her chest, "he'll do what the hell he wants to. I don't give a damn."

Poor little baby gonna cry?

"Agh!" She screamed out in frustration throwing her hands over her ears and then took them off to grab the empty plate on the table to throw it out the door that she couldn't poke a finger out of, in the direction that Damien had turned. There was a subsequent loud shatter, assuring Jade that the plate had not hit Damien. That only furthered her irritation.

"Get out here and clean this damn mess up!" Damien shouted at her from down the hallway.

"Then you clean up your puke all over my floor!" She screamed back as her body was torn out of her room and into the hallway.

She almost ran into Damien he was so unexpectedly close to her door. "Stop," he looked like he wanted to tear her head from her neck, but it wasn't Dane who stepped in this time, but Drake.

"Jade," he snapped, "enough! How badly do you want to make everyone here miserable? Think about someone other than yourself for once!"

"Oh? Like the lot of you?" She countered him. "He is the most selfish, most stuck up-"

Slap. This time Drake struck her across the cheek for his father. Only her face moved, her chin being shoved to her shoulder. Slowly she returned it to its place so that she could meet Drake's eyes evenly. Her anger wasn't calm in the least bit and she was shaking from it.

"You are selfish beyond belief!" He exclaimed, reading her thoughts.

"How?" She spat.

"It is fucking three o'clock in the morning! Don't you think we'd all rather being in bed?" He began. "Dane is a nervous wreck because of this and frankly you don't seem to even notice. It is all about you and how you are suffering. You know how I feel and you ignore it because it all falls in the shadow of your great pain. You are worse than him. At least he doesn't blame everything on his pain, whatever the fuck that is. He doesn't make our lives fucking miserable unless we step on his toes. Is it fair no, but at least it's more decent than you."

"It isn't right that I'm forced to be here!" She growled, her hands in two tight fists.

"Nothing is fair okay?" He hissed through clenched teeth.

"He started it," she tried once more to oppose Drake, "he came into my room when he could have just locked it and left."

"Well, I can tell you Damien doesn't go looking for fights dearest. Look at him he's exhausted," he snapped.

"He kissed me!" She almost shouted.

"And?" Drake laughed as if confused. "I've kissed you. Besides you didn't exactly object. Did you Jade?"

She blinked hard for a few moments, living with these people was messing with her mind. It was wrong for Drake and Damien to kiss her for whatever reasons whenever, wasn't it? Why were they acting as if this were normal? She had let him do it, but that was mainly because she was too shocked to react. "If anything, Jade," Drake sighed, "just let me sleep, please. I don't feel like having any more bruises or cuts on your account."

She fell silent as her anger bubbled down into dust. She glanced at the red place on his cheek the was identical to the one on her's. Selfish? Had she really been that? It seemed that it could be possible. She had been thinking an awful lot about herself since she arrived, but why would she think about her abductors needs?

"We are people Jade," Drake spoke icily. "Dane is a person and however stupid it is he cares about you. I am a person with real feelings, you get them in your head you should know. Amon is and so is Clara. At least you could treat us like we are."

"And him?" She nodded her head at Damien, who was glaring at his son in a blank sort of way.

"He is the devil, dear. Just bow down to him and shut the fuck up. Otherwise you'll be not only putting yourself in a whirlwind of pain, but everyone else in this house," he sighed.

"Enough," Damien growled in a deep, voice looking down on Drake and Jade. He seemed to have regained complete control over his mind and power because it wasn't a command. With the help of Drake's thoughts she was beginning to catch on to what was happening. Damien's temper had reached an all-time high because she had fluctuated his power so rapidly with the energy that came with even that small amount of cake and just now he had taken back the reigns to his own mind. "I am exhausted that much is true. I'm sure all of you are. Jade I do apologize for stepping over boundaries I shouldn't have. Dane, go to bed I'll be gone the rest of the week so you can loose some of the tension that is strung so tightly in your muscles."

Drake laughed to himself, growling under his breath, "Same old tune, viciously attack and then meekly apologize."

Damien's entire demeanor had changed though. She was still trying to understand him. Was this really who he was? Calm and controlled?

Yes, but that does not by any means give him a heart.

"Where will you sleep?" Dane muttered, walking closer to his brother.

"Elsewhere," he shrugged. "It's for the best. I cannot bear to be around her anymore and vice versa I am sure. It's really fine."

He apologized to you, idiot.

"I'm sorry Damien for racking your temper," she mumbled, spitting out each word with great pain.

He sucked hard on his lips as he studied her, "Yes, well I wasn't quite myself and I'm still not completely, besides I realize that you don't like the idea of being locked up at night. I can understand that, my dear, but at the same time I cannot trust you, yet."

Say something.

Why? He doesn't look like he's in the mood to start shouting again.

You my friend need to get on his side in order to be happy here. I for example am on his side. Dane is on his good side. You right now are on the very, very furthest edge of his bad side.

You want me to suck up to him?

I'd advise it.

She sighed, desperately wanting sleep like the rest of them. "I know," she said stiffly, "but I cannot apologize for hating being forced to stay here."

"I wouldn't expect you to," he cocked an eyebrow at her, "but . . . I cannot explain it to you. You . . . you simply have to stay here."

"You don't have to leave your own house," she looked away hard, afraid that they'd mistake her act of generosity for caring.

He studied her of a long time, probably trying to decide if she was being genuine. "If you are all right with that, but I cannot keep having these terrible vicious fights with you. They are killing the both of us and everyone around us." She bit her lips, feeling guilty. "Even if they have mostly been due to unfortunate circumstances."

She nodded, "Yes, stay."

"All right then," Damien smiled. Then walking past her he gently touched her shoulder in appreciation.

The touch seemed to freeze her, bringing back a spicy flavor in her mouth and a hot red to her cheeks. Dane touched her hand and broke the spell. When she looked around she noticed that Drake had vanished.

"He kissed you?" Dane raised his eyebrows as he guided her back to her room, leaving the shattered plate forgotten.

"Yes," her cheeks felt even hotter and she couldn't understand why when she despised Damien so much.

"And . . . " Dane let his voice trail off in an expecting sort of way.

"It didn't mean anything if that's what you're asking. God, he's old enough to be my dad and besides that I hate him. He wanted Drake to understand how to not kiss me violently so that when we are with him we don't look like we want to tear out each others eyes," she sighed, stepping into her bed, knocking off the picture book.

"Right, but he just kissed you and that was it?" Dane pulled the sheets over her.

"Like I said it didn't mean anything and it would be disgusting if it did. He vomited afterwards, but he said that that was because of the terrible headache he had," she mumbled.

Dane glanced to his left and noticed the very small amount of vomit resting on her floor. The man had barely eaten enough to even throw up at all. Dane looked at her almost accusingly before sighing, "Well, goodnight dear. Tomorrow will be a long day. Amends have not been made yet, despite what you think. You, dear have created deep rifts and tomorrow you will need to start filling them."

"You mean suck up to Damien," she was about to roll her eyes and then realized that she needed to let it go. "I'm sorry." She sighed and then asked, "So I guess I won't be locked up in here for the next four days after all."

"See what wonders come from getting along," Dane spoke dramatically, but sincerely.