The Land of Angels

Part 7

The bar is empty in the morning. Damien pays for the room and we head out. 

"Stay in the shadows, guards will be around, pull your scarf up over your face if we need to run." He says tying a scarf/bandana type thing around my neck making it easy to pull up and hide my identity, "Guards and people will recognise me and if not me my scar."

I nod and we walk down a path. Into an alleyway. The buildings are tall and there's a thin alleyway which is much darker than the streets. We walk down to the end. The streets are busy with people walking one way or the other. Guards walk down the oposite  side of the street to where the alleyway is which we're currently standing in the shadows of. 

He pulls up his mask and says once they're gone, "Follow me."

We walk through the streets around people relatively unnoticed. The long days of walking is seeming to get easier on me. We stop at a market for lunch and I buy us some some food with Damien's money. He keeps his head down covered by his hood. He says he's killed plenty in this city over the years so they're told to look out for a man with a big face scar. 

It's the afternoon when a guard walks over to us and says, "Hi there, would you mind stepping aside for a quick chat?" He asks. I look at him with a questioning look.

"What about?" I ask.

"The swords." He says pointing to Damien's two massive swords, "Where are you two from if you don't mind my asking."

"The Day Kingdom." I say casually. 

"Ahh, well they must have forgotten to tell you at security when they got of the boat that carrying around weapons is forbidden unless a member of the guard. Or of court the court, but not many people meet them." He chuckles. 

Damien slams his fist into the guard's face and picks me up throwing me over his shoulder and sprinting at lightning speeds away. You can hear guards yelling but Damien is a VERY fast runner. He puts me down and starts climbing up the ladder for fire escape on the side of a building. I follow behind him quickly.

He jumps into an open window a fair few stories up. I get there as well and he pulls me inside. 

"You I can run right?" I answer sitting up.

"Yes but not as fast at me." He says pulling down his mask. 

"Damien..." I say just now noticing the shocked looking woman standing in the kitchen which is connected to the living room. A little girl is sitting on the couch right next to us.

"Shit." He curses. The woman looks like she's about to scream bloody murder, "If you scream I'll have to kill you." 

I look at him sharply but the woman shut's her mouth quickly, "Sweety come over to Mommy." The little girl stands up and walks over to her Mother, her Mother hides her behind her own body and asks sounding scared, "W- what do you want?"

She looks utterly terrified, "Relax," He says, "I won't kill you as long as you do what I ask."

"You can't have my daughter." She says protectively.

"We don't want your daughter," I say calmly to her, I look at Damien, "What do we want?"

"A place to stay tonight." He says not looking at me. 

I open my mouth in shock, "Were you going to do this to me?"

"More or less." he says shrugging, "Do you have a husband?" He asks her bluntly.

"Y- yes." She says, "Why?"

"We're staying here so I want to make sure he isn't some braveheart guy." He says looking around. She stares at us for a few moments, and Damien growls, "You got a problem with that?"

"N- no," She stutters, "No problem at all, please, make yourself at home."

She takes her daughter with her into the kitchen constantly glancing at us. We sit on the couch. 

"You know you don't have to be so mean." I say to him.

"Am I mean to you?" He asks raising an eyebrow at me, I shake my head and he says, "Then I don't see a problem."

I look at his weirdly, "You should still be nice to other people." 

"Lyra," He says giving me a look, "I am a trained killer, I have killed MANY people, women, men, nobles, and royalty. You don't seem to gather who I am."

"All that doesn't matter," I say, "As long as you're nice starting today, you haven't killed anyone while I've been with you."

"Yes, because I know you'll freak out if I do and run away from me." He says, "You're a very soft person."

"Hey." I say frowning, "I can be violent."

"Are you bragging or claiming?" He asks smirking slightly at me, his face turns more serious as he asks, "Have you ever killed someone Lyra? Watched the life drain out of their eyes and know that you're the soul cause for that? Have you ever dug your sword deep into their chest and watching them stop struggling and go numb falling limp and you have to then pull your sword out of their corpse?"

"No...." I say quietly looking away from him. 

We don't talk for a while. I'm just lost in my thoughts. 

"W- would you two like dinner?" The Mother asks cautiously.

"Yes." Damien says standing up and walking into the kitchen.

I follow him and add, "Thank you."

We start eating some spaghetti. I ask the little girl who's sitting next to her Mother, "So what's your name?"

"I'm Penny, I'm.." She could on her fingers, "3!"

"Well it's nice to meet you, I'm Lyra." I say smiling at her. Damien gives me a look and I shrug. 

All four of us hear the front door open. A lanky man in a suit walks, Penny squeals, "Daddy! We have guests, she's Lyra and he's someone!" 

She runs over to him and he lifts her up, when he sees Damien his face turns white as a ghost. 

"Mariah tell me I'm seeing things." He murmurs. 

"Um," She says, "No, they popped in, through the window, they're going to stay the night."

He blinks a few times and says to Damien, "You going to kill us aren't you? Please don't hurt Penny."

"I'm not going to kill you unless you decide to announce our little.. pop by, to other people." Damien says his voice holds threat. 

"N- no, I won't, just please don't hurt us." He says sitting at the table.

We eat in silence and Mariah sets up their spare bedroom for us. We get into bed and I look up at the roof. "Hey Damien?" I ask.

"Yeah." He answers next to me.

"Was there ever a point in your life which you knew you didn't want to inherit the whole assassin thing?" I question.

"Yes." He answers before rolling over and pulling me into his stomach not saying a word, wrapping his arms around me protectively. I feel so safe like this, so comfortable around this guy I met only a few days ago. Suddenly I remember where we're going and why. Even if he does succeed he'll still probably be killed or at least locked away forever for killing a member of the court. 

I close my eyes tightly and just concentrate on being here, with him.