12. Weird stranger and hanging out in SNR

“Lilith, Lilith! Are you okay?” Damen shook my shoulders.

I blinked a few times to come to my senses. Clario, Clario, Clario…

“Damen,” I whispered in a daze, “Clario.”

Damen released a sharp breath, while his father shook his head.

“I don’t understand, why did my son have to be mated to this…this human trash?” the old man grumbled.

There we go again. Did they like using the word ‘human’ as a swear word?

I narrowed my eyes at the old man, despite knowing that I had other important issues to handle now. This guy was not getting away with insulting the human race.

“How will you feel if I call you super nincompoop trash?” I asked, crossing my arms across my chest.

Anger and humiliation immediately flitted across his features, “watch your mouth, human!”

I scoffed, “why? Are you the only one who has the right to insult others?”

“Can you two stop?” Damen growled, glaring at the both of us.

“Damen, I am telling you-” the old man stated but, Damen cut him off.

“Father, please,” he began slowly, “I want to talk to Lilith. Can you leave us alone? I will visit you later in the palace.”

The old man gave me a murderous look, then, turned to Damen with a sigh, “the prince of the day court is going to arrive soon. I want you to be present for his welcome.”

Damen rolled his eyes, “Father, you know him, and you know me. He won’t stop haunting me if I go to formally welcome him. It would be better if I wait for him to barge into my house and ‘surprise’ me.”

His father frowned, "Are you two still kids? You are going to be the rulers soon. Atleast, pretend to act like it."

Damen shrugged, "Not my fault that his mental age is five. It will frustrate you even more if you try to act mature with him."

"Seriously, the two of you give me a headache when you are together," the old man muttered as he walked away, "why couldn't the supernatural realm get normal rulers. One never listens to me and the other is busy being a troublemaker." 

I listened to the whole exchange in confusion. Whatever they were talking about flew over my head. Or maybe, it was just my mind which was still buzzing with one deadly word.

As soon as Damen’s father left, Damen turned to me with a concerned look, “Are you okay?”

I threw back my head and laughed, “Of course, I am okay. I did not just fucking get to know that an ancient dude who caused a war and then, ended it with his death, is supposedly alive. Oh and, not to mention he had some sort of grudge with me, and wants to burn my mind down to ashes. Yup, I am totally okay.”

Damen hung his head, “Lilith, I told you this, so that you will be on your defense when he tries something again. I know that you are in shock right now-”

I cut him off with another laugh, “okay, Damen, that’s enough. It’s time to call off your joke. It’s not funny anymore. You know, I am not stupid. I read it in the history book. Clario was dead. He is dead. Poor guy is probably rolling in his grave right now. why do you have to get so carried away just to scare me?”

Damen walked towards me and placed both his hands on my shoulders, capturing my gaze with his.

“Lilith, stop,” he said seriously, but gently, “that’s enough. First of all, I don’t want you to be scared. I am not going to let anything happen to you.”

“H-How,” my voice broke, “you are p-powerless against h-him.”

“But, you are not,” he said firmly, “I meant it when I said that you can defend yourself. The reason why I even told you about Clario was so that you would be ready when he strikes again. And, you are not alone in this, Lilith. There’s nothing to get scared about.”

I gulped, “Damen, but, how do you know that Clario is still alive? And, why is he doing this? What does he want from me? Heck, how does he even know me?”

Damen turned his gaze away from me, “I don’t have answers to those questions. I really don’t. All I care about right now is that I have to keep you safe and prepare you for any future mind attacks.”

He was hiding something from me. The way he had suddenly avoided eye contact, spoke volumes. Why was he dodging my questions? There could be n reason to do so…unless, the answers were something that I wouldn’t be able to bear or something dangerous in themselves.

I wanted to prod him further but, he didn’t give me a chance to. He suddenly smiled and pointed towards the closet.

“Get ready, we are going out,” he said.

“Where?”

He shrugged, “Places. We will hang out, I guess.”

I narrowed my eyes, “why?”

“Because you deserve a break after everything that has happened,” he said almost guiltily as if it was all his fault, “I want you to spend a normal day today.”

“What about my training and those tests thingy?” I asked in genuine curiosity.

“You are injured right now, so I talked my father into postponing those things for a few days,”

“What?! Really?” I exclaimed in excitement.

He rolled his eyes, “The tests are postponed, not the training. I am giving you a free reign only for today. So, go and get changed. You are wasting time.”

My spirits deflated a bit but, something was better than nothing, right? I couldn’t wait to see where Damen was going to take me today. I mean, come on, I was human who was going to see the supernatural world. Can you imagine the level of my excitement?

But, wait a second…was I forgetting something important?

I glanced at Damen who was watching me with amusement twinkling in his stormy blue eyes.

“Are you trying to distract me from the topic of Clario?”

He nodded shamelessly, “Is it working?”

I made a face, before giving him an honest, bright smile. “It is!” I exclaimed, and dashed towards the closet.

***

“Whoa!” I gasped as I stared ahead at the shopping mall in front of me, “SNR has shopping malls?”

“Yeah, of course,” Damen replied from beside me, “why is that so shocking?”

“I thought it was a human thing,” I replied, turning to look at him.

He shook his head, “we are not living in ancient ages, Lilith. We have made as much advance as the humans, if not more. You will find many such ‘human’ things here.”

“Amazing, then, let’s go to the food court,” I started walking forward, but, Damen grabbed my hand, pulling me back.

“Food court? Don’t you want to shop for anything? Clothes? Accessories? Footwear? Anything?”

I frowned, “what? Why would I need those? There’s already enough clothes for me at your house.”

“I remember only two pairs of jeans and three pairs of pajamas,” Damen replied.

I nodded, “Yup, that’s enough for me. I am a jeans girl, you know? And, like one pair lasts two days without washing. And, you don’t have to worry, I love pajamas. I can survive on-”

Damen pressed my hand, stopping me mid-speech, “Lilith, what I am talking about is, now, that you are my mate, you need-”

“What you need darling is sexy black, lacy lingerie,” someone breathed in my ear before Damen could complete his sentence.

I turned around in surprise at the same time that Damen raised his fist to hit this stranger.

What was more shocking was that this stranger dodged Damen’s punch, sending me a wink and then, gave Damen a full-blown smile, “It’s been a while, friend.”

Damen rubbed his temple, releasing an irritated breath, “Great! Worst timing ever. It would have been better if I came to welcome you formally.”