Too Close

Ohh shit , I think I'm dead.

Damon had always heard rumors that when one is dying, his life flashes before his eyes, waves of waves of regret and disappointment. Guess they were right after all, today had been a disaster and he was stuck reliving it.

***************

",So", Alastor Fallenstar, his father broke the thick silence in the room, his expression filled with disdain.

"I DO NOT INTEND ON GOING" , Damon told him, his eyes level at his father.

"I don't remember asking ,you fucking bastard ", Alastor shot back angrily, " the senator is going to be visiting for dinner which means you must be on seat with the rest of the family",each words feeling like a blade, icy and dismissive.

family, Damon laughed in his mind, like hell.

Damon stalked out of the room and Alastor didn't bother saying a word, he knew the boy would be back , he always came back no matter how much he hates everything including himself .

Damon had barely gotten out of the house before he stumbled across his best friend, Karma. Karma leapt gracefully from a tree in front of the palace and matched Damon's quick strides, ruffling his yellow hair of leaves.

"How long do we have.", Karma asked quietly.

" Enough ".

Karma nodded, he barely said a word as they walked out of the gates. Damon drew out a folded piece of parchment from the pocket of his sliver coat. It was blank, he pulled out a bottle of vinegar he had managed to grab from his father's room and poured the contents on the parchment, and there it was, it read;

SEWERS AT END OF KARMINSKI

SAFE WORD IS COTTON CANDY.

"Cotton candy", Damon snorted, "what are they ,five?".

Karma smirked.

As they walked ,the wealthy and luxurious buildings gave way to the capital slums . They marched quickly across the rowdy,rat infested streets.Damon staring intensely, grimacing at the number of people who snuggled across the cobbled streets looking underfed, the filth of the narrow street putrid.

Both men went rigid as an exorcist walked past them, his silk red robe swaying slightly in the wind. He was hooded and a black metal mask concealed his features . He walked past them ,the wind stilling itself even at his path, there was a clear symbol on the back of his robe, a Phoenix.

"Bounty hunters",Damon breathed.

Those were one of the most dangerous set of exorcists, the ones who hunt down criminals, usually sorcerers who couldn't be caught by usual exorcists.

"What the fuck is he doing in the capital", Karma whispered as they quickened their steps, they were already so close to karminski .

Just about then,a young boy, about eight, wandered across the path of the hunter to pick up his rubber ball which had strayed into the road.

Damon gasped as the child bent.

The exorcist glanced down at the child , his face contorted in fury ,raised his foot high and slammed it across the child's skull, splinters flying apart in a gory mess.

There were screams as people skittered hurriedly from the streets, the brutality of the exorcist striking fear into their hearts.

Damon burned with anger, but karma dragged him away hurriedly.

"Don't look, you know what exorcists do to sorcerers like you, you are a challenge to their order".

" Screw them", Damon breathed," I didn't ask to be born this way, my demon hasn't even said a word to me even though I have felt it since childhood ".

" Maybe he's shy", Karma laughed despite the tension.

" Or arrogant ", Damon retorted coldly.

They reached the sewers , a vaulted tunnel with damp walls, they covered their noses at the smell. Damon pulled out the parchment again.

"Cotton candy!" he yelled.

There it was, briefly, a door handle glittered at the far end of the wall, they pulled and got in quickly before it disappeared.

"They couldn't have chosen somewhere cozier", Damon grumbled.

The room was dark , dimly lit by flickering lanterns, the room bristled with urgency, both of them were handed a skull-like mask by someone at the entrance . Hundreds of faces exchanged fervent whispers as a masked thin man stood on the platform. He cleared his throat.

"Brethren", the man's voice boomed across the large room, his voice amplified by some weird ability.

"The exorcists have begun to get worried, they fear we might have began to expand in covered territories ,which they are probably right about",he shrugged, "therefore hunters are getting more desperate and frustrated in their attempts to hunt us down.

"We must grow more vigilant, especially here in the capital", the man raised a large map which he pinned on the wall behind him, his hands pointed at the capital, center of Ua, the human realm.

His hands traced north, "our brothers in Xerbes are getting more frightened, there are rumors of a spy amongst them".

The crowd exchanged hushed whispers, the tension in the room rising.

" You think we have spies? ", Karma whispered.

" We take enough care not to ", Damon whispered," but you never can tell, that's the essence of being a spy ".

After about an hour of reminding the crowd on the brutality of the exorcists, how the 'chosen few', had considered humans beneath them even though they were humans themselves, how they acted as gods and forced humanity to their whims which they claimed was order, how they hunted down sorcerers, humans who dare host demons in the human realm.

The crowd dispersed, each leaving through different portals from which they came from, Damon and Karma were about to leave when the man who spoke at the platform rushed towards them.

"Damon", he nodded towards him. Damon sighed, the man, Gao ming had tried to convince Damon to use his connections as the third prince of Ua to gain information for the rebellion but he underestimated how much Damon's father hated him enough that he would be a useless spy for the rebellion.

"Any progress?", Gao asked.

"My father still hates me, probably more after today's argument", Damon mumbled.

" I would keep trying anyway, but since he hasn't forgotten how I accidentally killed my mother,I hardly think anything would change ", Damon muttered.

What child could his father hate more than one who hosts a demon, and forced him to slaughter dozens to cover up the fact that his son is a sorcerer.

Sometimes Damon wondered why his father didn't just kill him when he had plenty of chances,who knows maybe it was his mother's dying wish.

" A word with you, karma ", Gao turned to Damon," if it's alright? ".

" Sure", Damon said," I would wait at the pummel." Karma nodded.

Damon muttered the safe word as he walked through the portal door,he was scrunching his nose at the smell but what he saw as soon as he landed on the sewers floor made his stomach churn.

He was right in the middle of a bloody fight.

The middle of a battle between a sorcerer and an exorcist, the exorcist he saw earlier who had crushed the child's head.

" Well, well, well",the exorcist silky voice drawled", see who decided to join in".

There were scorch marks all across the sewer walls, and floors. Damon thought, probably fire or lightening, he glanced at the sorcerer, he looked beat but was still on his feet, the sorcerer nodded" I'm Mark,you don't mind helping,do you ?".

Damon grimaced as he thought of the huge probability that Mark wasn't going to survive this.

"Heard you thrash were starting to pile up in the capital", the exorcist crooned pulling out a large parchment with Mark's portrait on it, "twenty million drachmas".

He then stared at Damon, "but you , a prince is one hell of a catch", he laughed putting down his hood. His red eyes glimmed with malice.

Damon fell into a fight stance, he was about to observe the exorcist's movements when he suddenly vanished from his sight.

The fuck

He felt it before he saw it, a huge blow latched onto his stomach, raising his feet from the ground itself as he fell hard on the ground, sewage water spattering his dark hair

He's fast, Damon thought as he stood up quickly, he caught a brief glimpse of the exorcist who had moved again, suddenly hundreds of needles skidded across the sewer towards the exorcist forcing him to dive backwards.

Mark

"You are one pesky one, you know", the exorcist muttered, slightly bouncing on his toes,his eyes narrowing.

Since Damon's demon had refused to share any kind of power or path as it was usually called ,with him, he had been forced into unconventional means to survive, martial arts at it's extreme, weapons training, honing every sense of his into human peak, so he wasn't completely defenceless against exorcists.

With Mark's long ranged attacks limiting the exorcist's movements, Damon rushed forward, launching a barrage of punches at the exorcist, but his inhumanly speed enabling him to dodge them all, but that's what Damon was counting on, the exorcist didn't see the dagger that fell from Damon's coat.

Just as Mark jumped from the top, needles flying towards the exorcist, so did Damon kicked forward the knife at an insane speed, not even the exorcist would be able dodge the projectiles at such insane spe...

Crack!!

Lightening forked , illuminating the entire sewer as Damon found himself on the ground.

He had been lucky, a fork of lightening barely grazed him but it was enough to nearly kill him. Mark on the other hand wasn't so lucky. Damon grimaced as he glimpsed Mark's fried up skin , his mouth still open in frozen shock as the exorcist kicked his body away in disgust.

He grabbed Damon by the scruff of his neck ,snarling angrily.

"Forcing me to use my path in a sewer?.. pretty ballsy of you", he grimaced , several needles still jutting from his skin. "I'm going to flay you so badly, you would.....".

Damon's ear rang shrilly as a very loud sound cracked across the sewer, the exorcist dropped dead, eyes rolled backwards as Damon fell hard across the water, groaning as he glimpsed someone leaning nonchalantly against the sewer wall, lighting a cigarette.