chasing damnation ✔

-thirty-seven-

A V E R Y

'Damien, we're having a meeting to go over the details tomorrow,' I said, biting my lip in anticipation of his answer. 'Will you come? I mean, you run this place, so it would be-'

My dad smiled at me before ruffling my hair a little, leaving me scowling and smoothing it down again. 'Of course I will, darling. And I'm completely on board with the idea, by the way.'

'Good. Any question? I have to go tell Maddie and then Sienna wanted me to help her go over her thesis.'

Damien thought for a moment, and when he turned back to me, there was an amused glint in his eyes. 'Who is going to be there?'

'Um, me, you, Maddie, Mason, the twins and Sophie, if she can make it. Her parents have an event to go to in the evening, so she's not sure whether she can come.' Damien was grinning unabashedly and I frowned at him. 'What? Why are you smiling in such a creepy way?'

'Firstly, Avery darling, my smile is not creepy, and second... Did you say Mason was going to be there.'

I groaned and shook my head. 'Yes, he will. So be nice.'

My dad huffed a little. 'I won't make any promises, darling. If he wants to date my daughter, I might actually have to do a background check for surety.' He was smiling again, but at the mention of dating, my face dropped, and he caught on straight away.

'What did he do? Did he hurt you? My God, I will kill that-' A dangerous look entered his eyes and I winced internally for anyone who had first-hand experience of it.

'No, no,' I chuckled, resting my head on his shoulder, 'God, you're even worse than Maddie.'

Damien pulled away and gave me an affronted look. 'Well, I certainly hope so.'

'Is Damien being a hard bastard again?' Martha sing-songed, appearing in the doorway of the lounge.

'Nah, he's fine. Just the usual over protectiveness.' I laughed when Martha slapped his shoulder and left them to it.

I had to tell Maddie about the meeting. And then help Sienna. Right, yeah. I was totally consuming myself with work so that I didn't have to think about Mason, but that was besides the point.

'Maddie! Mads, where are you?' I yelled up the stairs, tilting my head up to see if she was on the landing. She'd said she would be upstairs trying to find a knife she lost when we were training - apparently Eric had taken it to look after for a bit, and now she couldn't find him.

Typical Eric, disappearing when you needed from him - it was funny, actually, the places he went off to. Once, there was a mission in the afternoon and the guy left to go and get a taco when there were five minutes left before we left. Five minutes. Regardless, we somehow managed to stop the weapons trade and Eric led us through the whole thing back at base, eating his lunch happily.

'Are you insane?' Damien said, not angry - no, he was more shocked we'd come out winning.

Eric shrugged, grinning. 'Well, I didn't have breakfast, so..'

Damien stared at him for a minute while the rest of us watched in silence. Damien pretty much never yelled, but something reckless like that could've pushed him over the edge. Instead, he laughed and slapped our 'weapons master' on the shoulder, and said, 'Next time, bring me back something, you inconsiderate man.'

'Yes, sir.' Eric had replied, leaving the room with a happy smile that was bordering on smug. Maddie and I had just looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

Anyway, I was completely off topic.

'Maddie! Where are you?' I called again, gripping the banister as I took the steps two at a time. 'Hello? Maddie?'