He was too still. Aside from the occasional twitch of fingers and eyelids, he could have easily looked like he was dead. It was worrying Alec. Even his breathing was nearly soundless. The only noise he heard was this odd ticking and chattering sound and Damien shaking slightly. He had walked over to make sure everything was okay and found his son's skin to be surprisingly cooler than normal and goose bumps rising to the surface to meet Alec's stone cold hands. Alec had never seen him shiver before and it caught him off guard since Damien normally seemed over heated and ran warmer than most hybrids. After getting a thick comforter, he remained still in his little nest of blankets. Alec still kept an eye on him. He had a feeling the dosage was too high and Damien's weight had been way over estimated. He seemed lighter when he had carried him up to Alec's room.

But Joan was right. Damien needed to have a long period of deep sleep to fully heal. Slowly through the night, the dark bruises and bags around his eyes seemed to fade away and were replaced with a healthy pink, roundness in his cheeks. His lips were parted as he slowly breathed, but it also made it so he was drooling a bit. Alec thought he looked adorable and a part of him ached for when Damien was a baby, before everything had gotten so surreal and intense. Before he watched his son kill a dozen and a half vampires through the red film of Thirst. Before Damien was aware how much danger was in the world. Hell, maybe he always knew just now he understood. Alec shook his head thinking how unfair it all was. The not so small anymore boy seemed several years younger once the stress and tension seemed to evaporate out of him. Scars and bruises melted away. Ale hadn't realized how banged up Damien had gotten during the Assessment. Knuckles on both hands looked swollen and tendons out of place before realigning themselves as Damien's healed with an odd crunch sound. The scabs on his knees were already aged scars.

Alec stared in horror at the freshest of the wounds. Four identical slash marks on Damien's shoulder. On further examination, they aligned perfectly with Alec's fingers.

Alec had done this.

Alec had attacked his own son without even realizing it.

Alec had almost killed him.

He almost fed on his own son.

He had smelled his blood and in the moment of weakness it didn't matter. He would have killed him without thinking. And yet Damien slept mere moments from him completely trusting. All Alec could think of was making this pitiful promise to never harm his son again, but he knew that it was sickeningly impossible.

It didn't matter that Damien was half vampire because he would always be half prey.

Sometime around three in the morning Joham had burst into Alec's room claiming he needed to run tests on all the kids.

"I swear to bloody fuck… if you wake him…" Alec harshly whispered through clenched teeth and left the threat lay open ended as his fresh red eyes burned into Joham as he slunk back into the hallway closing the door. Alec never swore. He could hear through the thin walls Aro ask Joham what happened. Aro would no doubt talk to him tomorrow about his "insolence". Alec rolled his eyes and went back to reading. Alec never rolled his eyes at people.

Damien didn't wake up until nearly noon sleeping a total of eighteen hours. Alec doubted he had ever slept that much in his life. It took him a good hour to even get out of bed. Alec noticed his eyes were open halfway and heart speed up more. He had to hold back a smirk at how soft and puffy Damien's face was and his right cheek had a pink indented line from laying on a crease on the pillow. His hair was sticking up funny from sleeping on one side. The entire right side of his face and hair was slightly damp from drooling without realizing it.

Damien opened his eyes part way not really seeing. He didn't quite register someone was talking to him or where he was. He felt warm and comfortable. Everything was soft and muted. Eventually he began to feel the dryness in his mouth and crust in his eyes. His arm was tingling and asleep from laying on it for so long.

"Ready to get up," a voice asked jokingly.

Uh-huh, Damien smiled. His lips tickled. He thought he had said it out loud but it was hard to focus. Life was too soft. Maybe he nodded. His head felt like a good type of empty.

"Okay then. Need any help?" the voice asked again. He liked the voice. The voice smelled like new rain and old tea leaves. A thunderstorm in a library. His mouth was really dry. Tea sounded good.

"I think you could use some tea. It'll help you perk up a bit," the voice was soft, the blanket was softer. Was he talking aloud? He couldn't tell. His face kept feeling buzzy. Something smelled good. Really good. The rain and tea leaves smelled like cinnamon and warm fresh baked bread. He was sitting at a table wrapped in a blanket. There was a mug in front of him. It was warm and sweet. He blinked a couple times, things becoming a bit clearer.

Damien was in the kitchen sitting at the table in his pajamas wrapped in a blanket. The last thing he clearly remembered was having dinner with Joan. Did he spend the night sleeping at the kitchen table? He was really confused. Alec was wandering the cupboards looking for something. Joan was sitting across from Damien drinking tea too laughing as she watched Alec. She was trying to explain something. Alec was smiling even though he had egg and spices all over his shirt.

"To quote Shakespeare's Macbeth," Alec said in French and flustered, "You egg, you fry of treachery,"

"It helps if you don't whisk so hard," Joan laughed raising an eye brow.

Alec was cooking? Alec never cooked. He was a vampire. Why was he cooking? Whatever it was it smelled good.

"This didn't exist when I was human. We didn't even have proper stoves or bread this soft. You could have probably trade a horse for this entire jar of cinnamon and a carton of eggs for gold. We sure didn't whisk eggs in our free time."

The first piece of French toast was somehow black on one side and still raw. But eventually he got the hand of it memorizing the scent and colour of what perfectly golden pieces smelt and looked like.

Damien couldn't believe it. Joan was teaching Alec to cook. Everyone was smiling. They were joking and sitting as a family for breakfast. His eyes were only watering during the hallmark moment because he was still drowsy. Damien breathed in this memory capturing every bit he could think of. The creases of smiles and splatter of egg. The smell of laughter and sound of a steaming homemade breakfast. The sprinkling of egg shells on the rim of a bowl and constellation of spices on Alec's crisp black shirt. The way Alec clumsily tried to flip the bread and have the raw side splatter back at him as Joan smiled before shuffling over in her slippers to help him. Both seemed to a glow warm yellow that reminded him of sunflowers. It was strange to realize that maybe sometimes Alec craved and needed a parent in his life. Damien never realized that Alec's true smile, not the one painted on in a dusty forced portrait, had uneven dimples and excitement. The way his eyes creased and one eye brow dipped lower than the other in bewilderment. Resting his face sleepily on his propped elbow and heal of his palm, Damien realized that he too had inherited Alec's smile. He faked a yawn to explain why his eyes were watering again as he read the title of today's crossword. It wasn't backwards.

They spent the day playing cards and drinking tea. Even Alec sat with a small mug of warmed blood. The open windows brought in the fresh scent of rain and comings of spring.

Damien never wanted to wake up.

The next day the children nervously filed into the throne room after finding a note on the library door stating their daily lesson would begin there.

The handwriting was not Demetri's.

Their hearts stopped when they saw a sadistically gleeful Caius, a poorly composed Aro, and a defeated Felix and Demetri. Marcus had not been invited. Caius found him to be a kill joy. Aro broke the silence once all four lined up like soldiers. "It has become apparent that there was a clear misjudgment. After what I witness I have come to the conclusion that all of you have suddenly become a.." Aro looked back at Felix trying to remember the word for it. "Team, my Lord," Felix whispered.

"Ah yes, a team. And so, since you seem steadfast on being a team, Caius has created a new lesson for you four today," Aro said smugly.

Caius smiled twistedly as he ordered them to get on their knees. Marina tugged Damien's sleeve when she saw him squint his eyes in defiance and start to say something. They did not need this now.

"You all will get into what Felix has told me is a 'plank'. What ever the hell that is," Cauis ordered. He cleared his throat and glared when it didn't get followed immediately. Once they were in position, he gave the second half of instructions.

"First one to drop doesn't get fed blood for a week. Enjoy being a team, you dumb little shits."

All four gave each other a wide range of facial expressions. What the hell were they going to do? Given Olivia's determined face she wasn't going to be the last one to drop and was already thinking of ways to get Marina to drop first. To hell with the other three. That only egged on Tiago to get just as equally competitive. Damien shook his head. He felt like he missed something. While he spent time in fairytale land, he missed planning for Aro's next move. And now they were falling apart as a team and all trust had gone out the window. Aro had taken a cornerstone necessity and turned it against them.

"So which kid do you think will drop first?" Aro asked Demetri and Felix who just looked in defeated horror. "I bet it'll be Marina, she's always been weak," Caius taunted in Demetri's ear as he forced him to watch before trying to get under Felix's skin, "Or maybe Tiago. He's the heaviest. Or maybe Olivia. But I doubt it given she will probably sap away the strength of the other kids."

Damien started to take deep breath calming himself and getting a clearer picture as he felt his shoulder's start to ache after the sixteen-minute mark. He was sick at staring at the black and white checkered tiles. A set of pawns lined up on a chess board ready to play a new round.

Tired of having this stupid chessboard of a life rubbed in his face.

Marina's hips were starting to dip too and he didn't trust the look Olivia was giving everyone. He realized his name had not been said. Normally he was Caius' favorite thing to torment. Alec wasn't here. Which couldn't have been a coincidence. Aro was aware of how much he has strained Alec's loyalty and trust. Marcus wasn't present either which meant there is a power struggle going on and they were turning against each other. This was a desperate move that wasn't thought out and didn't have a back up plan. Damien could guess that they were hoping that this would cause simple, easy conflict and force someone to either betray the others or to humiliate one person to scramble what resemblance of dominion they had over the hybrids.

Damien looked around at the others. There had to be a way to crack this. They couldn't verbally communicate something because the second they heard them a rule would change. They had to catch them off guard. And soon.

Damien tried to focus. Already he could guess Olivia and Tiago would take this challenge literally and weren't reading into it. Their intentions were too clear. Marina's were not as much though. She was scanning the area watching every move of the vampires. Her eyes were full of questions. But one stood out to Damien.

What if they all four dropped together?

He had to find someway to communicate that he agreed with it. Time was running out and he could tell everyone was in pain at this point. He finally made eye contact with her. He blinked three times and looked down quickly. He repeated the gesture. She looked confused. He looked around them and repeated the gesture. Her eyes sparked understanding. She caught Tiago's eyes and did the same blinking gesture trying to keep her breathing even. It took a couple times but even he got it. Damien spent a good minute trying to convince Olivia who just glared at him shaking her head. She could sense everyone else's agony and desperation. It wasn't until all three were glaring at her did she finally agree. Once in consensus, Damien slightly twitched one finger. Then a second.

On the third, they all dropped gasping on the floor.

"What!"

"Oh look forty-seven minutes and fifty-six seconds a new record by everyone," Felix tried to jovially spin this positively.

"So which one lost?" Caius hissed confused and cheated of suffering.

"I think we all lost as a team," Damien laughed a little insanely.

"Class dismissed," Aro said quickly losing composure.

"It's only eight in the morning, don't we have more lessons?" Marina frowned genuinely sad she wasn't going to be learning something new today just when she was mastering finding the rate of change in volumes of spheres using integration.

"Class. Is. Diss. Missed."

Alec was livid when he later found out that the kids were punished for not only succeeding, but surviving and then having the punishment be threats and physically pitting them against each other. Jane was too as she did her classic screech and pace back and forth while talking with her hands. Alec just sat there seething at Aro and hating himself for not stopping it. He needed to break something.

His anger didn't lessen when he heard Donovan calling Jane 'babe' and trying to get her to calm down and those two again getting caught up in each other making it obvious Alec wasn't needed there. He hated how Jane made him feel obsolete and forgotten. He didn't know who she was anymore. He excused himself and left with shaking white knuckled fists.

He considered talking to Joan about it. She did say her door was open. But didn't know how. He just felt rage and guilt and frustration and he didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to talk to Aro and Caius and tell them that it wasn't okay to treat the kids like that. Talking about difficult things and feeling complicated things wasn't something he had experience in. Looking back over the last thousand years was an apathetic blur of feeling nothing in his safe little monotonous shell. Now everyday it seemed he was a hair away from having an emotional breakdown. Joan seemed to know more about this sort of thing. She made a better parent than him which just added more guilt to the mix.

He found the TV room empty and quiet. He flipped the TV on hoping zoning out would calm him mind down and he settled on an English-speaking news network.

He watched numbly liking the white noise as he held and rubbed his face trying to calm himself down.

"It's terrible," a small voice said.

Alec hadn't even heard Damien come in. Of the many things he had inherited from Alec, his ability to creep silently through the shadows was definitely one of them.

"What is?" Alec asked rhetorically curious as to what precisely he meant by terrible out of everything that had happened.

"How world leaders can act like that," Damien nodded towards the screen, "How little regard they have for their own people. How they casually take away the basic and necessary things keeping them alive. How they demonize each other so freely without being willing to just have an open conversation. How fucked up the rules are. And how people just blindly go along with it. How it's just accepted. It's not fair and it doesn't make any sense."

"Well that's humans for you. They aren't exactly the most logical or compassionate when it comes to conflict," Alec said with disdain, remembering his last stolen moments of being human. He felt himself getting angry again. Angry at the senseless injustice of it all.

"Is it though?"

"Is it though what? Also, no more using the 'F-word'"

"Is it just humans who do that?" Damien gave a mischievous smile, "I'll stop using that word when there's a better swear word."

Alec took a deep breath and rubbed his face in frustration as a funny thought dawned on him that made him laugh to himself.

"What?" Damien asked confused and scared as to how Alec when to white hot livid to laughing.

"I'm finally parenting."

"Alec, you've been parenting for eight and a half months."

"You're only seven months old and I've been gone for a majority of it. What do you mean?"

"It means I know about Jonathon and all that happened and you don't have to worry about it. Whatever has happened and what ever will happen we're family. Not the chessboard excuse of one called the 'Volturi'.

He felt his ears prickle as he sensed Joan was upstairs having a frustrating call. The humans who were supposed to come and to do renovation and repairs of the downstairs after the flooding were refusing to come on the grounds that the building was haunted by blood thirsty demons and that the Volturi lacked home owner's insurance. Both were very valid cases.

"Feel up for more family bonding time and breaking something?"

And so Damien and Alec spent the afternoon ripping and smashing the old, moldy drywall screaming the most creative swear words and insults they could.

"Thou currish pox-marked flax-wench!"

"You fucking cunt!"

"Language!"

"To quote Hamlet Act III, scene III, line 87…No."

"Try again or you're grounded."

"Thou spleeny elf-skinned scut?"

"Better."

Once the rotted debris had been cleared and plaster in the air settled, Alec realized he had no idea how to repair walls.

"I have an idea," Damien offered trying to be helpful. Alec sighed rubbing his face, "Please don't tell me it involves ghosts or some weird psychic wall talking spirit quest."

"No," Damien rolled his eyes, "I say we google it or find a YouTube video explaining it. I'm down to learn something new. We'll just ask Joan to order the supplies online and do it next weekend. It'll be nice to finally fix something that's been broken for a while."

Plus building up walls was something Alec and Damien were good at. How hard could the literal version be.

Sweeping the debris into piles, bits of shiny matter sparked amongst the rubbish. It was glass from the broken mirror. Alec looked back at the mirror that had yet to be resolved of what happened.

"So, how'd the mirror break?" Alec asked hoping Damien knew.

Damien shrugged, "I dunno. Magic?"

Why did Damien smirk oddly saying it? Why did he hesitate and his heartbeat change a bit like he was lying?

"You're lying," Alec said quickly.

Damien could see Alec's reflection in what was left of the mirror. In some of the reflections Alec's eyes were green.

"Because I said 'magic' and that's another word I'm not allowed to say in this family apparently?" Damien crossed his arms over the broom squinting at Alec with sharp green eyes.

Should I tell him?

Damien could already sense Alec was close to losing it and apologized for backtalking.

Of all the kids I get stuck with this cheeky fucking nutcase smartass.

Damien's head whipped around. Alec hadn't spoken but he had heard that clear as day.

"What are you smirking at?" Alec squinted similarly at Damien who was biting on the insides of his cheeks to keep himself from dying of laughter. He had made Alec swear. Not verbally, but it still counted in Damien's book.

And of all the people to be best friends with, I'm best friends with my seven month old son.

"Would you like to explain what happened this morning?" Marcus asked calmly.

A ro only growled to himself.

"I'm guessing whatever happened did not have the outcome you hoped?"

Joham only sat silently writing in his journal. These specimens were so exciting they made his own offspring seem like common pebbles. Imagine what they would be like once they reached maturity. And of course, started feeding on blood that was a bit more fresh that the blood bags that they weaned on. Which might have to happen more sooner than later.

"My lords," he cleared his throat as Aro quietly sulked with his arms crossed. Marcus listened curiously.

"It has come to my attention that given the current supply of blood and the common trends of when the specimens feed, we will run out within a week if not sooner. Shall I ask our secretary to place the order for more? Or as I would suggest, as a new experiment, is to perhaps find a way to slowly teach the children how to feed in a more…natural instinct inclined way?"

Aro took a deep breath, "I think that is a brilliant idea."

As promised, and allowed by Marcus, Damien and Joan made their weekly visit to the DeLeale's. It was a surprisingly sunny day and before they left the Building, Damien checked to make sure that his skin's slight glow would not be noticeable by humans.

"Are you sure you don't see a difference? I feel like I'm wearing Olivia's highlighter," Damien asked Joan paranoid as he held his hand over a patch of sunlight. She shook her head, but was thankful for him being so careful. He still wore long sleeves just in case. He knew if there was the slightest hic up and he appeared anything but ordinary he would not be able to see them again. He was already walking on thin ice as of the moment.

They were greeted with warm hugs and smiles as always. The house still smelled like sunshine. He ran after Enzo as they went back to playing with toy soldiers.

"No, running in the house!" Eliza yelled after them in Italian, "You have fifteen minutes to play inside before you boys need to go out and play. It's a shame to waste such a nice day inside."

They quickly grabbed a ball and ran outside to play in the back alley.

"School just started again. I really like my teacher. She's really nice and I told her about you, how you are my bestest friend and she said you might be imaginary since you don't go to school and had mommy come talk to her. She thinks I see imaginary things like Auntie Kathrine and that's why the other kids are mean to me. There are these year fours that are really big. One day…" Damien tuned out as Enzo rapid fire started telling a story about something that happened in class. But he kept nodding like he was still paying attention. His skin felt really tight and itchy. On edge still from this week. He could feel vibrations through his trainers of a couple people walking towards them. Damien paused trying to listen.

Thunk!

The ball bounced against the wall and slammed into his face knocking him back and making his face sting before it tingled healing itself.

"Are you okay?" Enzo gasped, looking at him funny.

"Yeah, you are just better than me at this game, I guess," Damien tried to focus again. He still felt tense like a rubber band. The footsteps were coming closer. It couldn't be vampires from the Building. It was too sunny outside. And he heard heart beats. Humans.

Something bad was going to happen.

"Ehi!" A boy a couple years older looking called to them. He wasn't alone. The now four of them gave off this weirdly terrible and shallow red colour mixed with this sickly green.

"Who's your friend?" One cackled.

Jovially and naively Enzo smiled, "This is my best friend his name i-" Damien pushed Enzo out the way instinctually as a fist swung barely missed the two boys. Enzo landed on the cobble stones hard.

"I'm so sorry," Damien gasped. He didn't mean to push him that hard. He forgot how breakable humans were.

One of the boys, or rather bullies, was tensing ready for another attempted hit.

Damien was ready. He had also forgotten how slow and clumsy humans were. He caught the next fist in his hand like catching a baseballs without even flinching. It was as easy grabbing a floating soap bubble. He could see it in their startled eyes. They were bored and trying to act tough. They didn't understand this stranger that was a good head and half smaller not to mention several kilos lighter who had moved faster than they could have imagined. They were pretty dumb in general. Well except for one, Damien could hear his heart speeding up and scent changing to fear.

"Hit him again and there will be regrets," Damien said flattly letting go of the fist, "Do you gentlemen understand me or do I need to repeat it in someway that you will understand?"

One boy charged him.

"Oh, I see how it is," Damien casually side stepped him folding his hands behind his back as the charging boy ran into the wall behind him.

Two boys now ran at him. Their intention were to hold him down as the others beat the shit out of him and Enzo who lay dazed on the ground. How unoriginal. Caius had wet dreams more originally violent and scary than these humans.

Damien simply grabbed their out reaching hands and swung them into each other redirecting their momentum. Another hand grabbed at one of his shirt sleeves. Damien spun to quickly grab the wrist. He spun too quickly.

The smell hit him the same time as the terrible crunch. The sight of the bone going through the other boy's skin didn't seem to register. Like reading an advertisement while flipping through a magazine. His only thought was the smell of blood as he couldn't seem to let go of the human's wrist. He couldn't feel the dampness of the blood soaking his shirt sleeve and staining his shoes as it dripped.

He could only smell the blood.

The fascinating red that sent cold chills through him despite his throat burning at the sweet aroma. Strange images and thoughts clouded his head. Ones that simultaneously disgusted and made him crave more. Ones that blocked out the screaming and thrashing of the human who fought to break free. The screams of the other humans fleeing.

A sick part of him felt proud. Good, let them run. They deserved it for trying to hurt En-

Enzo?

Damien made eye contact with his cousin who just stared at him with wide eyes. He was scared, terrified. Of him. Of this monster. In the reflection of a puddle left from that week's rain, he saw unfamiliar red eyes staring back at him. This isn't who you are, a soft familiar female voice whispered to him.

It was then that Damien forced himself to let go of the human's wrist.

"Go, run," Damien said quickly pushing the blood soaked, whimpering boy away.

He had messed up. He failed at being a human. This was the cherry on top of cherries that happened this week.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" Enzo cheered slowly rolling to his feel, "I can't believe I have a superhero for a best friend!"

"I'm not a super hero. Enzo, listen," Damien was cut off by a cheering Enzo, "Enzo, please listen."

"You were like this, then they were like that and-"

"Enzo, I need you to listen to me," Damien said harsher as his voice broke at the end. His chest heaved up and down at the thought what would happen as tears mixed with the blood splatters on his cheeks. Enzo was a witness to something that was terrible and unforgivable. Something that would not be given a second chance.

The small human boy paused.

"Enzo, you can't tell anyone about this. What I did was-"

The boy quickly ran and hugged the dhampir. Damien's shaking calmed as he tried to find someway to explain why he was soaked in blood and to counter whatever story Enzo was going to say. And he would have to face Joan.

"Oh my god! What happened!" Eliza gasped as they walked in the door. Damien's heart sank when he says Joan's face go white and eyes fill with fear. With disappointment.

"The boys who beat me up came back but Damien fought them and it was amazing and!"

"Is that blood!"

Damien looked down, trying to fake being surprised using humor to lessen his panic, "First, I would like to say its not as bad as it seems."

Eliza was already running to look him over, "Are you boys hurt? Are you okay? I need to have a word with those boys' mothers. Here, we can get you a spare change of clothes and washing yours before they stain permanently."

"I'm fine. The blood isn't mine. I accidently gave one of the boys a bloody nose," Damien was shocked how good he was at lying to his own family as Enzo nodded supporting the lie.

He thanked them for the change of clothes. He hadn't realized how much thinner he was than Enzo, but it fit well enough. He just knew it would raise questions when he got home. His stomach was churning at the thought. Damien couldn't make eye contact with himself as he washed the freckles of blood on his cheek and neck.

Over dinner, Damien only picked at his food. He wasn't hungry. He didn't know the full extent of what the consequences would be, but he was more terrified it would affect Enzo and the people he cared about. He even worried for the lives of the human bullies. With tense hugs, goodbyes, and apologies of what a troubling night it had been, Joan and Damien left as his heart felt like it was beating in his throat.

"No more bullshit, no more lies," Joan grabbed him harshly by the arm to make him look her in the eyes, "Tell me everything that happened. Now!" He'd never heard her yell before. Never seen her get mad or angry.

"I-I don't know I-" Damien didn't know why he couldn't speak. He felt dizzy. He couldn't move. He could only feel and hear his too loud and terrified heartbeat as the colour drained from his face. He felt himself crumple and break as Joan knelt and hugged him tight.

"I lost control," was all he mustered as he tried to regain the ability to breath, "I lost control and I was trying to protect Enzo and I almost killed them all."

"But you didn't" Joan asked her tone softening.

Damien shook his head, "No, I just broke his wrist. It was an accident. They were grabbing at me and I went to try and get him to let go of me and I lost control."

Joan remained silent as she crossly listened.

"There were witnesses. Enzo saw it. Three other boys saw it. They saw that it wasn't normal. It wasn't human," Damien was shaking. He had fucked up.

"Did you bite any of them?" Joan asked almost as if she was checking of ticks on a list.

"No, but I wanted to. When I smelled the blood…I almost did," Damien confessed just realizing the words for himself as they finally sunk in. He had almost killed an innocent human. "I enjoyed attacking them. I-I don't know why." Why was he so conflicted and this emotional mess? He had just killed over a dozen of vampires, children younger than the boys he fought, and felt nothing if not proud. He had seen worse and more violent things when he was dead. Now he was some little bitch who is crying because there was a little blood. Why couldn't his conscience make up its mind?

Joan realized Damien was terrified of what happened and was having a panic attack. He didn't want to be a monster and felt guilty for what he had done out of reflex. He feared what he became and knew what he did was wrong and the full consequence for his actions. Joan was at a loss of what to say. She wondered if she could find a way to get Alec or Marcus to talk to him since they had more experience with what it was like being a vampire. She just knew she didn't have it in her to promote killing human lives. She remembered when she had first found out her brother had become a vampire how wild he was at times, how often he lost control. Killing came as natural as blinking. She remembered walking in on him draining a young girl dry, how he described the terrible Thirst. When she saw the blood on Damien she had feared the worst and thought he had killed someone. Instead he was trying to protect someone he cared about and didn't realize how fragile humans were from lack of experiences of being around them.

"But you didn't feed off any of them. You controlled yourself. They probably thought it was a freak accident and that you are good at self-defense. They are just kids who will hyperbolize what happened and no one will believe them," Joan said scared at how dark her rational was, "Nothing you did says 'vampire'"

Damien thought about his eyes flashing red. Red like a vampire. He vaguely remembered laughing at one point. That wasn't normal.

But it was his future.

Damien knew Joan was not going to tell Aro after what happened last time when Caius had used him as a toy.

They quietly walked back to the building.

Joan sternly told him to go right to bed, giving half a dosage of his medication as he brushed his teeth.

I'm proud of you, the woman's voice called as the world numbly faded away.