Path Of Shadows: The Awakening

Chapter 36

"Long day?" Damien asks, startling me. I jump up.

"I forgot you were here." I say as I take a breath to calm down then I sit down on my bed.

"Sorry. I wasn't trying to startle you." Damien says as he sits next to me.

"It's fine." I say. We sit there for a moment before speaking.

"This doesn't have to be awkward." Damien says.

"It's not. I just, I don't know, things are different." I say.

"Maybe for you." Damien says. I sigh.

"A lot of things are different, for both of us, not just me." I say.

"Nothing is different for me. I still feel the same about you." Damien says.

"I-I don't know what to feel." I say.

"You're angry with me. Once that anger passes though, you'll see you want me just as much as I want you." Damien says.

"Damien, I can't have this conversation right now." I say as I stand up and slowly pace my room.

"Why not?" Damien asks.

"First of all, I don't trust you. I did but then you showed me that I can't trust you. You deliberately tried to put a wedge between Kaden, Dane and I. Regardless how they feel or how I feel, they're my friends. They've been here through a lot. You haven't. You lied to me and I don't know what's worse, the fact that I put myself in the position to be manipulated or the fact that it was you who did it. If you loved me like you said then you wouldn't have been with someone else and only came back because you happened upon me. You tell me you don't care about what your father does and then you disappear. You're confusing me." I say even though I hate to admit he got close enough to hurt me.

"I don't know how many times I have to apologize for what I did, but I am sorry. It's not an excuse but it's what I know. What I do. You're changing that." Damien says.

"I don't want you to change for me. If you want to change then change for you, for the greater good even, but not for me. I can't be the thing that anchors you to do good or to be a good person." I say as I sit back down next to Damien.

"I want to change. I think that is the reason my father doesn't want me around you. I'm next in line for the throne and if I'm to rule Hell, I can't be soft, kind, compassionate even. I have to be what he is. I don't want that and he knows it. He knows that you're a big part of the reason why I've changed." Damien says.

"I guess if you're doing it for you, then that's a good thing. I'm really tired though, so I think I'm going to go to sleep. Are you going to stay?" I ask.

"Of course. I'll be here when you wake up." Damien says.

I lay back on my bed and fall asleep almost instantly. I feel Damien cover me up with a blanket then I feel him sit down then lay back on my bed with me. I'm too tired to tell him to take the chair in my room so I allow him to stay on the bed with me. As I sleep I have strange dreams but I don't remember them. I just remember tossing and turning. Feeling restless. Hopeless.

The next morning I wake up I'm still tired but I fight to get out of bed. Damien is still here.

"Usually when I wake up, you're already gone." I say as I look up at him sleepily.

"I told you I was going to be here when you wake up." Damien says.

"I know, I'm just used to waking up and you not being there." I say.

"I was thinking.." Damien says.

"That's a dangerous pastime." I say.

"I only was with Jenna a couple weeks when we were together but the whole time, I didn't feel anything for her. Her and I didn't have a connection, really. I don't even know why we were together in the first place." Damien says.