Damien moves closer and wraps his arms around me. I don't know what he's trying to do but I'm in no shape to think about a hug right now. The feeling of my skin burning off my flesh is like no pain I've felt before. My throat is hurting from my skin but I don't care. The pain is so unbearable, I think I'm going to pass out any seconds from now. And that's when I hear his voice.

"Listen to me, Camille." His hands rub circles on my bare back as he continues, "I have a way for the pain to go away," he says softly.

I nod because I'll make a fucking deal with the devil if it means the pain will go away. "The Headmaster told you a saying to keep yourself in control. I need you to say it."

My eyes shoot to his and despite my tear stained face, I still manage to pull my eyebrows down, wrinkle my nose, pull up my upper lip and let my lip loose. The distaste is obvious on my face. If not for my unsettling state, I'll give him a peace of my mind.

"Are you out of your mind?" I shake my head. "I can't." I refuse due to obvious reasons. I am never saying those words again. 

He takes my face in his hands and gives it a shake. "You don't have to be afraid of the words, Camille. I know what happened the last time you said those words and I wouldn't be asking you to say them if it'll do any damage. They are just words and they are harmless, say the word and I'll be here to help you focus." He tells me.

Okay, how the hell does he know? It's like he knows everything about me.

I shake my head. If he knows what happened then he should know why I don't want to do it.

"You are in pain, and it's only going to get worse unless you do something about it. I want to help you but I can't if you don't say the words."

My body is hurting and I don't know what's going on. He says he wants to help but the words, I'm afraid of saying them. I don't want to hurt anyone especially him. But to think about it, he wants me to say it, so if I hurt him, it won't be on my conscience.

I stare at his blue eyes and nod. He nods and encourages me to say it as he pulls me closer, almost crushing me.

Here goes nothing.

I close my eyes and whisper the words. "Lurytendra Azra Bycom." I expect the pain to cease but it increases, becoming more painful and unbearable. I try to move out of his arms but he won't bulge. Keeping me trapped, I become to thrash in his arms.

"Ere eketa engji ya va Ulrik El Noe El, Camille Raven Stark," he whispers and tightens his arms around me.

Slowly the pain begins to subside, reducing until I feel nothing. I take a deep breath when it's done and open my eyes to see Damien's in pain. His eyes are shut and he's breathing normally but I know he's in pain from way he tightens his hold on me.

"Damien," I call out his name, and he doesn't answer.

I try to move but his hold is too strong and he doesn't seem to be moving. What's happening? I remember the spell because it's the same one the headmaster used to bring me back when I lost control at West High but he wasn't affected, at least not like this.

I look at his face again, my eyes catches the thick black lines on his neck. What the hell?

"Damien! What's going on with you?" I ask, my voice comes out muffled.

He takes a sharp breath and opens his eyes. He tilts his head to the side and the lines fades. He closes his eyes as he swallows before releasing me.

I shift slightly from him and he asks, "Are you okay, are you still feeling any pain?" Concern is written all over his face.

"No, I'm fine. I'm good. But you...what about you, are you okay? What's with the lines on your neck?" I ask.

He shrugs. "Nothing," he shuts off.

I shake my head and scoot closer. "It's not nothing. You were in pain, what happened?"

He sighs and looks at me. "I took your pain," he answers.

He took my pain?

My mouth drops open. "What? Why?"

"You were in so much pain, I had to do something," he answers.

I can't believe I'm hearing this. I don't say anything as I move closer to him and wrap my arms around him. I have never seen this man before in my life and he just did something no one has ever done before. Color me impressed, surprised and in love.

"Nobody has ever done anything like that for me, thank you very much." I say sincerely, and notice he's just staying still, not hugging me back.

Okay, maybe hugging was a little much.

He clears his throat and replies, "It's okay, it's nothing." He pull away from me and stands up.

Right.

My eyes dart away from him to my body. I notice the markings are still there, they are more clear now and they look meaningful. "Do you know what these are?" I ask him as I get up from the ground.

Damien turns to me and looks me from down to up. He begins to walk around me in circles, inspecting my body. "No, but I can make out some images from them. It's like the burn healed up to form a tattoo of some sort." He tells me.

"Do you think you can tell me how they are connected, the signs?" I ask, because I can't see my back.

He stops behind me and begins to list out the strange drawings on my body. "Okay, there's an image of a bird on your upper back, the wings spreads out to your shoulders. Three arrows can be seen from below the end of the wings and are pointing toward the four straight horizontal lines on your wrist. Each images have something written like a message but it's not in english, I can't read it." He stops before adding, "I don't know what they mean." He bends down to pick up my shirt and jacket. "Get dressed. Let me take you on a tour of this place." He offers, putting an end to the symbol identification on my body.

How is this not freaking him out? How is any of this no freaking him out? If I was him, I would be looking for a way to get the meaning, which is what I plan to do. Fuck! I can't believe I'm back to square one. It's like whenever I take half a step forward, my stupid existence just pull me back a thousand step backwards. Where do I do even begin to research this? Damien said it's nothing like he's ever seen. I have gotten answers to my previous question, it's like I'm just running in circles with no intention of stopping, which fucking sucks.

"Are you coming?" The sound Damien's voice pulls me out of my thought.

That's right, the place. I don't care about the stupid place but I'm curious.

I pull my shirt over my body and wrap my jacket around my waist before walking over to where he's standing.

"What is this place exactly?"

"It's a room in the mansion," he answers.

"The mansion?" I raise an eyebrow up. "It looks like an underground antique store?" Taking a look around the place, everything here is old.

"It's a room in the mansion where all the dark objects and spell books for black magic are kept," he explains not catching my poor attempt at cracking a joke.

"Not to be nosy, but how did you get in here?"

He shrugs. "You are always nosy. How did you think I got in here?"

I shrug. "You saw the spell in Professor Holmes' romance novel, duh."

"What did you just say?"

"That's how I got here. I was at the library and I saw the romance novel. I opened it and saw the spell."

"A spell, hmm interesting."

"Trust me, there's nothing interesting about my fall down here. How did it happen anyway?"

"This room isn't at The Vale Academy. It's in the mansion, which means a portal brought you here." He says.

"A what?"

"Someone or something wanted you here," he tells me and looks around in alarm. "What happened to you today, has it ever happened before?" He demands.

"Any time I use magic, I always see a bird and an unknown symbol but today is the first I'm only seeing the symbol and the images."

"What do you do to reduce the pain?"

"Today is the first day I felt pain."

He nods. "Come on, stay close and don't touch anything."

I follow behind him like a lost puppy as we tour the place. Each object and book are kept behind a safe glass, which Damien tells me is to protect people that come in even though I'm the first person beside him that has been here in years.

Each exhibit has it's own thing and Damien explain it to me like a dagger that doesn't need to touch the skin before it pierces through, all it needs is a shadow. A sculpture that traps souls. A pen that has the power to destroy someone or thing only by writing the person's name.

We've been walking and talking for some time but nothing catches my eyes until I see something. I stop at a particular exhibit, it's a book, a very big book with the title that reads; Ulrik, The World Destroyer.

"What's wrong?" Damien must have noticed my change of mood, I went from commenting on each object to moody.

"I don't know, I just..." I trail off, not knowing what to say just can't keep my eyes off the book. "Is there a story behind this?" I ask, raising my chin to the book.

"Ulrik is an alien prince that came to earth after his mother, the queen rejected him. He came from a family of powerful people and he had no one to teach him how to control his power. When they started to manifest, he couldn't control them and ended up destroying lives. It's why they call him The World Destroyer. He disappeared after that but not after some people found out who he was."

"Hmm." I don't comment. And move on to the next object.

I stop to look at it again. "That sword..." I whisper. "I have seen it before but I can't remember where." Let me think where I saw it from. I don't watch movies much and I never remember the details whenever I do, maybe in a movie, a comic or somewhere but it's this sword I am positive.

I notice Damien tense and stand still beside me. "I guess we found what wanted you here after all."