Damon sets a small device on the table and says, "I guess I'll start with my mother. You know my father liked to buy slaves. My father was a pig that way. He saw my mother when she was the same age I first met you. He bought her and did his usual, you heard what happened to Gemma. She became his personal slave, and unlike Gemma she wasn't ever allowed to be with others. By the time she was fourteen she was pregnant with me. Once he found she was pregnant he stopped forcing her. He wanted me, I suppose. But -"

The waitress comes setting their food before them. They break off their talking and thank her. Damon takes up his narrative once she is far enough away.

"There was a problem when she went into labor. She gave birth, but she bled to death. I never even knew her name. Calum's mother is the one that took over the raising of me, it was her that told me what little I knew of my mother.

"When she died my father had her body dumped. Calum's mother found out where and she made sure that I knew where it was if I wanted to visit it. As I grew up I honestly thought Calum was my brother. And he is, actually. His mother was married to my father's second and when he was killed six years before my birth he took her in and gave her a job.

"He preferred young girls, but sometimes he would visit her. He got her pregnant about the same time as he got my mother pregnant. He never claimed Calum though, even though he should have. Technically, since I'm the child of a slave and he's a child of a servant he should have been in charge of the Phoenix Group." Damon stops talking and gets lost in his thoughts.

"I've never questioned his loyalty to me though. If there was anyone that backed me then it was Calum." Damon takes a break thinking about the past and Ana interjects her question. Having found out that Calum is his brother both startled her and didn't. Those two always acted like brothers to her way of thinking.

"Why have you never doubted Calum? Even brothers turn against brothers and from what I've heard they are the bloodiest and most hateful of all when that happens."

Damon hesitates, then begins, "Calum is my brother, but he has his mother's gentle side. Even when I was young I had a dark side and when it burst free it was almost out of control. When we were young Calum would be bullied at school. I didn't like that and so I took out the bullies. Some of them were seniors in high school and we were still in elementary. After that incident my father pulled us both out of pubic school and had us home schooled.

"Calum made me his idol or something like that, for saving him from the bullies. It took me some time but I finally convinced him that he didn't need to treat me like that. 

"My father would also sometimes beat him and I'd stop that as well. By that time my father had started to become afraid of me as well. Too bad he hadn't remembered that the night he decided to kill your parents."

What Damon told her explained a lot to Ana, but not everything. "Damon," Ana waits until she has Damon's eyes on her. "Thank you, but that doesn't explain why you saved me and put up with all my bull shit for all these years. Or why you did what you did when I was ordered into foster care. Or why you stayed in my room trying to bring me back after Scott raped me."

Damon looks down, unable to meet her eyes. "Do you remember when you first came into the room the night your parents died?"

After Damon had told her what happened her memories did come back so Ana nods.

"For the first time in my life the pull of the darkness inside me lessened when you looked into my eyes. Even if my father had accepted you as a slave and brought you to the house I would have taken you as my personal slave and freed you. I would have killed my father for touching you if he even tried."

Ana looks at him confused and shakes her head, "I still don't understand Damon, I'm sorry."

Damon smiles weakly, "Nothing for you to be sorry about. You are a control for my darkness. Since you've come into my life I've been able to keep a rein on my darker tendencies." Damon smiles with a little more warmth. "You've saved a lot of lives by being in mine. I can guarantee that my men are thankful that you've come into my life. I'd say about half of them would be dead by now if you hadn't." Damon's eyes turn dark and his smile takes a decided evil twist.

"They've forgotten what I truly am like. When I told you when you woke up after the fire, I am not a good man I meant it. The good in me is only allowed out because of you. When you decide to leave me, that's when my men will remember what I'm truly like."

Ana shakes her head once more. "When I first looked into your eyes that night. I saw someone in pain. That was doing something they didn't like doing. You hate this life Damon, that's why you have so much darkness in you."

Damon shrugs as they finish their meal in silence. Before they leave Damon asks, "Do you have any more questions for me?"

Ana shakes her head, "Not at this time. I just have something to say to you though."

Damon stops to pay for their meal and they leave. He thought that Ana would tell him what she was going to say.

It's not until they are back in the car that Ana finally tells him what she was going to say, "You don't need me as a control Damon. You need me as someone to love. You're lonely. If you'd stop wasting your time with the bints and look for someone worthwhile you wouldn't need me at all."

By then Damon had pulled into traffic and they are on their way home. Her words make him almost lose control of the car. Once he has himself under control he turns to her. "Don't say things like that while I'm driving Ana. Not unless you're trying to get us both killed."

Ana just shrugs once more. "Not my fault if you can't keep control of the car just because something you aren't expecting is said."