"Now's a pretty poor time. You're good at bad timing." Damien laughed, and there was actual relaxation and happiness with the noise. It was strange being inside of his mind, feeling what he felt. If she was here again though, she must be sleeping soundly. "Now, where do you think you are going?"

It took her a second to realize he was not talking to her, and then a sickening crunch finally registered what she was seeing. Strewn about on the ground, headless torsos lay and black blood seeped into concrete.

"What are you doing?" Mer must have sounded hysterical because Damien's happiness faded from her concern.

"I told you it was a bad time." Damien sprang into the air, and it was hard to get her eyes to focus on anything as he swung what appeared to be a large black scythe through a few more vampires.

Mer could feel their dark energy coursing through the air in a much stronger way than she could as a human as they came at him. They fell to the ground, and she could see Damien's hands as if he were stretching.

"You missed the main event. I already killed the monarch and all his sons. I'm just cleaning up the higher ranking officers."

"Why?" Why was he killing all of them, and why was he happy to do so?

"Well, Dusk, I do what I'm told. It's not really a glamorous lifestyle, but I am okay if what I am killing are vampires."

There was burning rage and hatred in his mind when he said the words. For someone to hate vampires so much, it felt almost as the mages did. Had Damien been a mage? It seemed to her that his rage toward them was much heavier than what a normal person would feel.

"Who told you to kill these vampires?" Mer was curious and yet terrified to wonder about who was pulling Damien's strings. Around her, he was kind, calm, and offered to protect her. How far would that go if his master told him to kill her?

"Vincent Arc. The man is Neil's father, my sire," Damien said, dancing a few steps around another vampire before the scythe cut its head in half.

It was nauseating how with Damien's eyes she could follow the movement and see his face split and explode with black blood as the man fell away. At first, she'd been disoriented, but as her mind calmed in his, it was truly existential how much she felt she was him

"What did these people do to him?" While it really didn't matter, sometimes she wondered if vampires had reasons for their violence.

"Nothing."

Guess not...

"I had been refusing to wipe them out for him because it was a lot of work, but I changed my mind." Damien had been refusing to kill them at his sire's behest? Well, it looked like the man had some wiggle room to refuse orders.

"What changed your mind?" she asked. Vincent Arc didn't particularly interest her, but Damien intrigued her. Supposedly twice as strong as Rush, he was jovial and kind, though he really loathed vampires. At least he answered questions directly, unlike Rush. The man still wouldn't give her a reason for why he was helping her.

"You don't want to know," Damien said, sitting down, and everything around him stopped moving.

"I do..." Mer insisted.

"You don't." Annoyance bubbled up inside of her, and Damien laughed.

"They did something to anger me. If you're a vampire, it's best if you don't get on my bad side. I will not elaborate further." There was a feeling of nervousness when he said it. He didn't want her to know why he'd decided to kill them, but it felt as if he were being protective rather than secretive. What reason did he think would negatively affect her?

"Tell me, Dusk, you're a mage right?" Considering she'd just probed his mind, it seemed rude not to answer honestly as well.

"Well... I'm... not really."

"Not really?" Surprise flooded his mind. "I felt very strong power when I sat next to you."

"Well, yes, I come from a strong mage house, but I never learned about magic." The silence was deafening, and it was accompanied by a feeling of nausea and then a mind bending hatred and loathing.

"Then you are completely at Remus Shade's mercy."

Rush owning her bothered him? "I suppose, technically, but Rush has been very kind to me."

"Kind." A feeling of heavy skepticism, much like her aunt had felt when she'd said she didn't feel Rush was a monster. "You consider tearing into your neck kind?"

"That's not fair." Mer immediately defended him. "There were extenuating circumstance. I sort of... blew up his arm."

Damien laughed so heavily that it washed away his loathing and hatred to be replaced by disbelief and... pride? What sort of feeling was that toward her?

"You poor thing. You don't know any spells so your power erupts from your fingertips."

That about accurately summed it up.

"Allow me to teach you a few easy spells."

Teach her? Damien wanted to teach her a spell... in her sleep... that she wouldn't remember when she woke up.

"Look here." The smell of blood flooded her nostrils, tainted with dark magic. It took her a moment to realize it was Damien's, and she watched as he ran his finger across the concrete. The blood symbol was simple enough. It looked like a pound sign with wings, though not really. The lines were ornate but that was the closest thing she could relate to to remember it.

"I'm looking. What am I looking at?" Curious about learning her first spell, she hoped it wasn't too hard. More than anything, she seemed to only have skill in blowing up things.

"This symbol here has to be drawn in blood, but it's a protection spell. If you are ever in danger, you can use this spell. It's easy, as its construct and blood magic keep it stable. All you have to do is force your magic into the symbol with your hand." Damien Paused. "Just don't use it at night."

"Does it summon an army of zombies if I use it at the wrong time?" Mer mused, and it caused a rush of enjoyment to flood her mind from Damien. Why did he like her so much? It wasn't even attraction, more like affection, and it was confusing.

"No, Dusk. It's just that it won't be effective at night. If at night you are ever in danger you can cast this one." Opening his finger again, he drew another symbol in his own blood. It looked like a little person under a flat roof. "You don't have to use your blood for this one. In fact, you don't have to draw it at all. All you need to do is imagine this symbol and pour your energy into its shape in your mind."

"What does it do at night?" Hopefully not zombies.

"This you can use in the day too. It's a homing spell."

"Homing... like a missile."

Damien chuckled. "No. It will transport you and anyone you want to the place you feel safest. It locks onto your feeling of safety and returns you to it."

"Oh, I can move myself with this one. Like Rush does." Mer was excited, but her excitement with Rush caused a feeling of annoyance to roll through Damien's mind again. "You don't like Rush."

"No." Damien's answer was short, but his feelings were not. There was sadness and concern but also an underlying feeling of confusion and fear. "Does he hurt you?" Connected to his mind and inside of his emotions and essence, she knew he was speaking of Rush.

"No. Rush has been very kind to me. A little blunt, sort of emotionally braindead, but not cruel. Not like Neil and Mark."

"You sound like you like him." Heavy silence that blanked Damien's thoughts and feelings.

"Is it wrong if I do like him?" Mer wanted another opinion aside from Rush's, but Damien already seemed biased. "Rush tells me to trust no vampires, not even him."

"Rush is right. You shouldn't, but you can't help who you care for, I suppose. I don't like the thought of you in a Shade's clutches, but you also aren't asking me to save you."

To save her? What would it be like to be saved from one vampire by another vampire? Wasn't that just switching one master for another? Knowing very little about Damien, that seemed like an entirely bad idea.

Save her.

"Please don't consider hurting Rush." Mer knew his feelings about Rush, and he'd already offered to kill him.

"Well and done, I'm afraid." The thought of killing Rush brought him a feeling of glee and... completeness. As if killing Rush would settle some sort of debt that was weighing on him. "Tell me not to hurt him, and I won't. But if you do... know that agreement is forfeit if he harms or kills you."

Tell him? What position was she in to tell a vampire to do anything? Still.

"Please... don't hurt Rush. I don't want him hurt or killed, and I know he feels the same about me."

"Very well, Dusk."

~~~~~~~~~

Word Count: 1563