Demons (Damirae)

Chapter Nineteen

"Damian?"

Raven frowned at the blur sitting at the base of a large fir. It felt like Damian, but a little more. The hellish side passed down from Ra's and Talia was shining through as his aura darkened. Closing her eyes, Raven turned her powers down, returning her vision to its normal state.

She stepped around the tree, brushing twigs out of her face and made her way closer to Damian. In front of him, Raven noted the deathly pallor his skin had undertaken: from its usual subtle tan to something akin to Raven's complexion.

Shaking her head in amused exasperation, the demon-witch kneeled down to be at level with the sleeping boy. After studying his visage for a moment, Raven tapped him on the shoulder.

"Damian!"

He awoke swiftly, seamlessly pulling himself in to a fighting stance as if being attacked. Raven jumped backwards, startled by the sudden movement- though she should have expected it. Having realised that it was his friend in front of him, Damian relaxed his posture, sliding his katana back in to its sheath.

"Raven.", he acknowledged with a nod of his head, evidently irritated.

"Damian, what-", she stopped, having looked in to his eyes.

They reflected a blood red so unexpected it took Raven a few seconds to comprehend what was happening. When she came to her senses, all it took was one look for Damian to know she was furious.

"You told me you would take care of it!",  she said, arms tightly folded.

Her irritation reverberated off of the very trees around them, chilling the surroundings with a kind of quiet rage only Raven could posses. She was rightfully upset and the forest could feel it: the branches curled away, withdrawing from the scene.

Damian knew what the consequence of his actions could be, so Raven didn't understand why he didn't take her advice. If anything were to go wrong and he ended up losing control, Raven would be the one to deal with it.

Agitated , Raven waited for an answer.

"Raven, ", he began sharply, reminding her of the Damian from two years ago, the one who found everything unnecessary -that Damian had been replaced by a more subtle person-, "it's my issue, allow me to deal with it! I told you I would take care of it, and I will. Now could you stay out of affairs that don't concern you."

She laughed harshly, "Oh, matters that 'don't concern me'?! Answer me this, who is going to have to deal with you when you loose control? Who is going to stop you from harming everyone in that, ", she gestured towards the Manor, "house?! From draining their blood clean away! Damian, I'm going to have to deal with that! You're forgetting how easy it'll be to just rip out their throats! One second of weakness is all it takes for Jon, Tim, Kori- Azar, even your father!- to be dead!"

"You think I don't know that?!", he shouted, slamming a fist through the tree besides him in anger.

He removed his arm from the trunk, shocked at the deep dent marring it.  A huge hole the shape of his fist ran almost the whole way through the evergreen. Wide eyes trailed from the damage to his hand to Raven. An understanding passed between them, as they stared in mortified awe at the wreckage. 

Damian finally found it within himself to speak, features contorting with frustration and...fear.

"R-raven, ", he got a hold of himself, straightening his back, "do you have a bottle with you?"

She nodded mutely.

Safely distracting herself, Raven swirled her hand, summoning a portal. Unlike the other times, where it had just been a fiery mass of purple, this time Raven could see through it and in to her room-like dimension: Raven's own pocket in the universe where she would store her personal items. Stepping through the portal, Raven brushed aside the bookshelves and chests of her items, walking straight towards a fridge at the back of the cosy space. Opening the metal door, she pulled out a bottle of red liquid that sloshed about lazily. The two holes in the lid made for easy drinking access, unlike the pouches of the stuff that lay slumped in the corner of the fridge.