Demons (Damirae)

Chapter Sixty-One

"Right,", Lahra smacked her lips, draining another pint all-but chucked at her from Edmonde, "Well, I'll be downing a lifetime's worth of ale in here if anyone needs me!"

How Jason wished he could do the same.

***

Having been suspended from school for the next few days, Raven hadn't much to do with her life. She had stopped volunteering at the primary school due to her starting secondary and it being the holidays, however, now she was sorely missing the bubbly environment of a classroom of little children. The class she mainly worked with would have begun learning more complex phonics sounds by now, that would have been a few fun lessons. Oh well, Belladonna was at school currently, so Raven couldn't go through anything yet with her.

Sighing, Raven rummaged through her cupboard, searching for any clothes that might need mending- she way desperate for some form of occupation. Unfortunately, all her clothes were in impeccable condition, not a moth bite in sight! Neither were there any books left unread in the collection in a bedside drawer or hers. Nor had she any interest in meditating or training. Boredom was exhaustingly boring. Surprise surprise.

Releasing an aggravated groan, Raven slammed her wardrobe door shut, resting her forehead on the wood for a brief moment, gathering her thoughts.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe.breathe.breathe.

Good. That was better.

Opening her eyes with a sharp exhale, Raven made haste to the door, leaving the confines of her room to wander the corridors. A left. A right. Another right. Up some stairs. Around a corner. As tended to happen when one strolled around Wayne Manor, Raven ended up facing an imposing wall, almost laughing at her.

That papered wall stared straight back, testing the extent of her patience. Raven was tempted to strike it. Breathe.breathe.breathe. Fingers at her temples, Raven turned around, leaning against the wall to silence the temptation of tearing it down. Letting her head fall back against the surface with a light thud, Raven lowered her eyelids, extending her senses.

Like purple waves, she envisioned her mind expanding through the Manor, rushing and gushing in all directions like untameable white horses. That vengeful, blazing aura of her brother flared in the training room, clashing with the mixed aura coming from (who she supposed was training or sparring with him) Damian. His aura was an anomaly: that calm, unobtrusive water-like feel on the surface, like most humans; beneath it, a hellish inferno warred with shattering light like Zeus' thunderbolts shrouded in electric emerald green. It was an anomaly that Raven loved. A few other human auras littered across the Manor: the aged feel of the butler; the bright sparkling water of Stephanie Brown; Tim Drake's crisp aura like a fresh glass of bottled water- he was apparently in the Batcave.

The two newer auras were of mor interest to Raven, for they were, like Damian, anomalies. Not to his extent, but different all the same. Selina Kyle and Harley Quinn. Both in the kitchen, sat down, drinking some kind of hot beverage, probably tea. Selina...well, she certainly was Catwoman. Below the undisrupted ocean of her human aura, there was a fine stream of disrupted water, almost boiling. And coincidentally enough, Damian's feline, Mr Pennyworth (who slept on his bed besides Titus the dog) held a similar, bubbling aura. That explained much.

Harley, in the other hand, was the only being Raven had ever known to hold such an aura. Something akin to electricity jumped atop her human watery essence, not like that of a child of the thunder gods, but something else. It was a concerning something. A mad something.

Raven hoped that something wouldn't take control. Harleen would fall of the thin tightrope of her sanity. Problematic- and certainly so for those around her, Batman, Catwoman, Ivy and the likes. Bella definitely: she'd become somewhat attached to her 'Aunty H'.