Hero?

28

Ana walks down to the infirmary after her shower. She stills feels relaxed and energized after the session of torture. She knows that Damon isn't happy about her choice, but she likes it. She found that she got a taste for it after she killed her father.

She stops and listens to the voices  coming from the other side of the door. They are too low for her to hear clearly but she can distinguish two female and at least two male voices in the room. Ana opens the door and immediately the voices cease.

Ana raises an eyebrow, "You don't need to stop on my account." The three family members of the late Hawk and the old second, Jonah, look at her with varying degrees of red staining their cheeks.

"Mistress," Jonah is the first to recover and bow to her.

"Jonah, please take your fiance and future daughter-in-law out of the room. Then I'd like to meet with you and Damon to talk." Ana says and immediately the ladies stand and start moving to the door.

"Of course." Jonah says.

"Ladies you might want to go enjoy the sun. There is a pool or tennis court outside. If you like to ride there are horses as well." Ana invites, she wants them to feel at home for now.

"Thank you mistress, you are most kind." Trudy replies and smiles happily. It has been some time since she has been treated so kindly.

Ana has never taken her eyes off the boy lying in the bed. She gives an absent wave as the others leave the room.

Trinity has never seen someone so young have people so terrified of them before. He speaks sincerely and softly, "Thank you for being so generous to my family. After what my father did I didn't expect to survive or have them be as free as they are."

"My father sold me to Damon's father to pay his debts, then watched as that same man killed his wife, my mother,  just moments later. When Damon's father turned the gun on me and had me slit my father's throat I was more than willing. Dying in the fire he set, not so much." Ana decides to be frank with this amazing young man. He'd grown up under Hawk, yet he's far more innocent than even she is.

Trinity stares at her in horror, "How'd you survive?"

"Damon. He killed his father, thought he was being wasteful, but the fire had spread and made it so I couldn't get out of the house. Calum, now my second, saw which window I went to and Damon got me out. I spent the next month in the hospital in a coma." Ana smiles slightly, "Damon pulled me out of that as well. When I woke up I didn't remember anything of that night. Damon told me everything. Then he gave me an option, go to foster care or he'd apply to take over guardianship. When I asked him what the catch was he told me that he wasn't a good man."

"When was this?" Trinity asks not wanting to break into the young girls memories too much.

"The fire happened on my eighth birthday. Almost three years ago." Ana replies absently.

"So he gained custody of you then?" Trinity hadn't heard that Phoenix had a young girl then.

"No. The judge deemed Damon too young and inexperienced and sentenced me to the home from hell." Ana stops she has to take deep breaths, just the memory of Scott and what he did to her makes her get anxiety attacks.

"You don't-"

"I need you to understand. It's just hard. My father molested me from the earliest memories I had. He turned my only friend into a child molester as well, he was even worse than my father. But what Scott, my foster brother did, it far surpassed them both combined. Damon blames himself for not stopping it sooner. The trauma sent me into a near catatonic state. I was that way for some time as well. Once more it was Damon that brought me out of it.