Page 66 of Daman
“About last night…” Daman sharply exhaled and tipped his head up to the branches weighing heavily with snow.
“There’s no need to discuss it.”
“Yeah, there is.” He looked at me, the corners of his eyes tight. “You deserve so much better than what I’ve given you. I kinda hate myself right now. When Envy takes over, it’s like I’m pushed to the background. I know what I’m saying and doing is wrong, irrational, but it’s hard to see clearly through the haze of my high-strung emotions. I didn’t mean to hit you with my wing. I would never do that on purpose. Not to you.”
“I know.” The guilt in his eyes and shake in his voice said as much. “I upset Envy.”
“Envy’s a dramatic bitch who blows everything out of proportion.” Daman stepped over a fallen tree trunk and dropped down soundlessly. When he wasn’t stomping out of irritation from being woken early, he was light-footed. I recalled what he’d said before about learning how to pickpocket and mastering stealth. I could see it now. “Why are you staring at me?”
His tone held no bite. If anything, he sounded apprehensive.
“You’re quite nimble on your feet.”
Albeit small, he smiled. “You are too. Especially for a male of your size. In times of war, a noisy soldier is a dead one. For stealth missions anyway.”
“Is that your specialty?”
“I guess.” Daman hugged his stomach, his gaze a million miles away. “Lazarus sent me on several during the war with Lucifer. I… I was the one who found the location of his generals.”
“The generals were all of your fathers, yes?”
He nodded. “I tracked each of them down. Lazarus knew all our strengths and weaknesses and utilized them. Turned us into weapons of war. Galen and Raiden were the muscle. Alastair the brain. Cas and I were the trackers. Bellamy the seducer.”
“What about the small one?” I asked, picturing the short Nephilim with the wild blond hair and big eyes.
Daman blew out a short laugh. “You won’t believe me. But Gray’s specialty is assassination.”
“Surely you’re joking. He seems so innocent.”
“Don’t get me wrong. Gray is a total sweetheart. But, like the rest of us, he has a darker side. Sloth makes him sleep a lot and turns him into a couch potato, zapping his energy. In between those lazy spells though, he’s a force to be reckoned with. Swift and deadly. The enemy never sees him coming.”
“Did he assassinate the generals?”
Shadows clouded in his green eyes. “No. Lazarus… he wanted each of us to kill our fathers.”
“What?” I stopped on the path and faced him. Flurries drifted down from the snow-covered tree branches. “Why?”
“To prove our loyalty, I guess.” Daman continued walking, not meeting my eyes. I kept pace beside him, wanting to say something but not sure what. “The day I killed my father was the first day I ever actually met him. I have his bronze skin and build but my mother’s eyes. That’s what he said anyway, since I never knew her.”
My heart ached for him. My father had been cruel at times, but even still, I couldn’t imagine being forced into a position where I had to kill him. “What was he like?”
“Kind of an asshole, honestly.” Daman watched an arctic fox move through the brushwood up ahead. “He didn’t think I had the guts to kill him. He looked so shocked when I removed his head from his shoulders. That expression was frozen on his face even in death. Only two of us failed in our mission. Castor and Gray.”
Castor was strong-willed, snarky, and uninhibited. In the little time I’d known him though, I’d picked up on his inner vulnerability. A sadness that surfaced when he was deep in thought.
“Cas loved his father,” Daman continued. “Unlike most of us, his father was part of his life growing up. Taught him how to fly, ride horses, and swing a sword. When the time came for Cas to kill him, he hesitated. So Lazarus dealt the final blow instead. That night still haunts Cas. But sometimes, I don’t know if it haunts him because he’s pissed for not killing his father himself… or if he wishes he could’ve saved him.”
“And Gray?”
“His father is Belphegor. That son of a bitch angel is still alive and kicking too. He and a demon named Phoenix are Asa’s closest advisors.”
“Why didn’t Gray kill him?”
“Like Cas… Gray loved his father. Belphegor doted on him. Spoiled him rotten. When Lazarus took us away from home, Gray cried for days. He wouldn’t eat or fight. He just curled up in the dirt and cried. One day, the tears stopped. He trained with the rest of us, and we all grew closer, first as friends and then as brothers. Found family and all that. Lazarus turned Gray into a little killer. But when he was ordered to kill his father, he couldn’t do it. Belphegor escaped and went into hiding once Lucifer was defeated.”
“How did you defeat Lucifer?”
That faraway look appeared again in Daman’s eyes. “That’s a story for another time.”
