Next to each other on the bed, Damien rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, moving it soothingly while testing her nerves. She had been tensed when they had left Wovile but after a night of sleep and far away from the land, she had finally relaxed. He could guess that she has shaken with what happened. After she had woken up from the sleep he had put her in, the only words he had said was,
“The massacre was stopped.”
Penny was glad to hear it but her main concern had been something else. It was her mother who had been so intent on killing her off. If there was something that was registered when she was in Wovile it was that her mother didn’t care about her. She was as good as a dead person and she tried to digest everything. The look on her face where she wasn’t bothered as fire surrounded and was ready to kill her.
“You don’t have to keep it in yourself,” she heard Damien say next to her and she turned her head where she had been staring up at the empty and black ceiling, “If you aren’t feeling okay let me know,” he rubbed his thumb gently over her fingers.
She had been feeling blank since her thoughts went back to what happened. She shook her head, her eyes meeting his red ones that looked at her in concern, “I am not doing okay,” she whispered, the heaviness in her chest slightly shifting as she told it out to him, “Every strand of hope didn’t just break but it has been burnt with no return.”
“Relationsh.i.p.s like those are better to be burnt else they will burn you. She doesn’t deserve you,” he said shifting his body to lay on his side and she did the same, “No mother would set their very child on fire. Are you sure she is your mother and she didn’t steal you from another person?” it was something that had been bothering him for a while now but at the same time, Father Antonio had already said on who Penelope’s parents were.
“She is my mother,” Penny sighed heavily, “To think she was also involved in the massacre. I feel ashamed,” she closed her eyes.
“Hey,” Damien tugged her hand, and she opened her eyes again to look back at him, “It isn’t your fault. She might be your mother but this had nothing to do with you. In fact, if you didn’t make out of the circle during the start of the massacre there would have been bloodshed. Four cities of death where the black witches would come to rule Wovile by claiming it back. You should be happy about it.”
It was Damien’s ability that had stopped the massacre. Without the ability, they would have been late in getting out of the circle, “Teamwork?” she asked him to see a boyish smile appear on his face. It was a time like these did he appear to look young without that look where he was going to throw someone to the sea so that they would never return back.
“Teamwork,” he agreed to her, “Talk to me,” he said when she started to fall quiet, “I am here ready to listen to anything you have to say. If you want to cry I am here.”
“Don’t be so nice,” Penny’s voice came to be soft and her eyes fell on his chest.
“Why not?” Damien questioned her, unhappy that she had lowered her eyes where he couldn’t see what exactly she was thinking so that he could decipher it along with her emotions.
“I am not used to people being nice to me,” she could feel her chest feeling heavy and to let the heaviness out she took a deep breath and let it out, “I don’t think even my mother was that sweet even after erasing my memories.”
“Someone told me that many sons-in-law don’t get along with their mother-in-law. I don’t think we can fix that.”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to fix it,” Penny smiled with her pressed lips, “I don’t think it’s worth the trouble of going to fix it. I can’t believe you think about such things even during some serious situations,” she frowned at him, her eyes finally coming to meet his.
“What can I say, I am Damien Quinn. Let’s ignore your mother, we’ll deal with her when time comes,” he smoothed her hair strands, pushing it away slowly behind in concentration, “You have me with you. I don’t think anyone can match the great me, unless you think otherwise,” Damien was being very nice to her right now. Penny knew that he was trying to get her mind off her mother while trying to cheer her up and she didn’t know how grateful she was for it.
At the same time there was something that bothered her, “Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
She parted her lips to speak, “Why didn’t you kill her?”
Penny knew if Damien wanted he could kill her mother by hunting her down but she was still alive and the danger now not only fell on her but also on him. It worried her tremendously on what might happen if her mother were to ever hurt him. Things like the voodoo doll didn’t work on the pureblooded vampires but that didn’t mean he was entirely safe.
“I had other important things to deal with. I had put my darling girl to sleep, I didn’t want to be late to find you were in trouble again or if some animal had eaten you during your slumber,” his finger ran behind her ear to settle down on the side of her neck, “You cried way too much that night. Your eyes were swollen and red. Did it scare you that I was gone?” he hadn’t had the opportunity to ask her this before but now that they were here, he couldn’t resist but ask her.
Damien already knew how she felt but he wanted to hear it from her through her lips.
