Julia lay on her double bed holding her pink fluffy pillow, sniffling. She'd taken all the hushed comments, looks of pity, and the insults from everyone in Havenswood in stride. Over the years Julia had built a wall around her, she could hide behind. But hearing her own mother say those things, and seeing the look of utter pity etched on Rosalie's face made that wall crumble into dust, leaving Julia utterly heartbroken.

She started to pick at her wounds by running though the events again and heard a tapping on her window. Thinking it was Ren she groaned. "Ren, go away."

She rolled onto her side so she wasn't facing the window, hoping that if she couldn't see Ren he would go away. There was another couple of taps and Julia couldn't believe he hadn't got the hint.

"For the love of the gods, Ren, just leave me alone," she shouted, throwing a pillow at the window and pulling her thick blanket over her head.

The tapping only got harder. Pissed, Julia threw back her blanket, stormed over to the window ready to give Ren a real piece of her mind. Pushing the window up with more force than necessary she stuck out her head.

"Gods why can't you use the damn door like a regular person." Julia froze when Damien grinned at her instead of Ren. Then she jerked back into her room, tripping over the padding on the window seat and landing on her butt.

Damien poked his head into her room and gave her a warm smile as he stepped through. "Sorry for the intrusion."

She scrambled backwards still unsure of him, because the last time he gave her that smile he made her black out.

He raised both hands as he stepped closer to her. "I come in peace."

Julia couldn't help giggling at the cheesy line. "You've been watching way too much sci-fi."

"You got me there." He crouched and reached out, gently wiping the moisture from her cheek with his thumb. "Are you all right? I heard the fight you had with your mom and I have to say she was out of line."

His touch sent warmth rippling through Julia, which shocked her. She pulled her face away from his touch and groaned, "Great, now I have another stalker."

Damien raised his eyebrows. "Hey, I wasn't stalking you."

Julia was still ratty from dealing with her mom and sarcastically replied, "Oh yeah, and what would you call lurking in the bushes outside my house listening to everything? I bet that's a camera in your pocket."

He chuckled, "Cute," and brushed a few stray locks out of her face causing her breath to catch and her cheeks to flush.

Julia couldn't tell if he was commenting on what she just said or if he was talking about her.

Damien took Julia's hand and stood up, pulling her up with him. "I wasn't stalking you. Alex told me what happened, and I wanted to check on you."

The image of Alex and Véronique rolling on the floor laughing about her reared its ugly head again. "Wonderful. That's just the icing on this particularly crappy weekend."

Reaching into his jacket pocket he said, "See, it's not a camera; I brought you some pomegranate juice," and handed her a small crystal vile with blood red liquid inside.

Julia took it and looked at it suspiciously. "Umm, thanks?"

"I promise I haven't done anything funny to it. Pomegranate juice is great for you and it will help when the effects of Alex's blood wears off. You may find that you'll feel a little down in the dumps for a day or two."

Intrigued by this titbit of information she perked up wanting to know more. "Really, why? Alex told me that dark fae blood doesn't affect supernaturals."

Damien turned and looked out the window for a moment. Julia thought she caught him grinning, but it happened in a flash; when he turned back his solemn expression made her think she was mistaken.

He reached out, took her hand leading her over to the window seat and sat. "Not in the way it affects humans. I can assure you, you won't become his slave. Our blood helps heal supernaturals faster, and it also gives you an immense feeling of euphoria. The downside is when that wears off you're left feeling somewhat depressed. That's why I brought you the juice. It will help so drink up."

Julia knew she should be more suspicious of him after what he pulled in Paris. However still upset over what had happened with her mom therefore all her better judgment went right out the window.

She shrugged her shoulders, opened the bottle and raised it to her lip. "Bottoms up," she said. The thick blood red liquid, hit her tongue and her eyes widened in shock. It was delicious, sweet like candy, and she gulped it down with appreciative sounds. Julia tipped the bottle upside down to get the last drops and licked her lips. "That was spectacular." She smirked at him. "That so was not pomegranate juice."

He let out a magnificent laugh that had Julia insides melting. "You got me. There were raspberries, strawberries, and brosiaberries in it."

"Where did you get brosiaberries?" Julia asked surprised. "They only grow in Arcadia."

She had only ever had brosiaberries twice before; on her tenth and sixteenth birthdays. They were said to be the real ambrosia, and it was extremely hard to get outside of Arcadia. Brosiaberries were one of the few things the light fae didn't allow to leave Arcadia. Ren was the one who got the berries for her and he had to pull in some huge favours to get them smuggled out.

Damien tapped his nose. "I have my connections. I'm glad you liked it."

"I loved it, too bad you didn't bring more." Her insides were humming, she felt like she could conquer the world. The argument with her mother completely forgotten.

Damien's gaze darted toward the window again, before he reached out and caressed her cheek. "You look better already," Damien remarked still looking out at the forest. Julia tilted her head and wondered why he kept looking out the window but she was too jittery to ask about it and her tapping feet distracted her. "So, umm..." He turned back to her and smiled. "How about we go for a walk and burn off some of that extra energy?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," she happily replied grinning from ear to ear. "Could you give me a minute while I change?"

He nodded and opened the window, "Sure, I'll wait for you outside," and then hopped out.

Julia closed the window, shaking her head with a smile, wondering why boys couldn't use the front door. She grabbed a pair of jeans, a purple and grey sweater that were lying next to the window seat and threw them on. Then bounced down the stairs, grabbed her high tops and jacket, put them on and walked out the front door.

Damien was waiting on the front porch and offered her his arm. A grin spread across her face at the chivalrous gesture and she linked her arm in his. They walked around the back of the house into the woods.

It was pitch-black yet Julia's eyesight was better than it ever had been. Julia looked around and everything was crystal clear and she even thought she spotted someone ducking behind one of the huge redwood trees fifty feet away from them. Julia shrugged it off figuring it was either her mind playing tricks on her or an animal.

"Why did you guys come to Havenswood? You must've known dark faeries weren't welcome." The question had been nipping at the back of her mind since they walked into class on the first day of school.

Damien's lips quirked up. "Would you believe me if I told you it was because of you?"

Julia snorted with laughter. "Now that's a great line. How many girls have fallen for that one over the... how old are you anyway?"

He gave her a sly grin and answered, "Not as many as I would've liked, and I am three hundred and twenty-six years old."

She whistled. "Wow, and yet you don't look older than eighteen maybe nineteen. We must seem like toddlers to you. Even my mom is only one hundred and sixty-five years old. And I will probably only live a normal human lifespan."

He tilted his head to the side and slowed his pace. "What makes you say that? You are half witch."

Julia had given the subject a lot of thought over the years. She knew there were Halflings out there that had little or no supernatural powers like her. They ended up living normal lives in human society. Their life spans were somewhat extended, but nothing like their counterparts that possessed supernatural abilities.

From the very little she'd dug up about those poor souls ̶ like her ̶ it seemed they lived to be maybe a hundred twenty or thirty. It had hurt her deeply when she found out that her own life span would be cut immensely short. Not because she wanted to live for millennia, but because she knew how much her death would affect her friends who would still live long after she was dead.

"That's debatable. Sure I am a witch-human cross blood but I barely have any witch traits. I'm pretty much human and the disgrace of the Malphas family line."

"You're way too hard on yourself. I'm sure your mother doesn't think that about you," Damien's kind voice made her feel as though he really cared about what she was going through.

She looked into his soft silver eyes searching their familiarity. She felt a spectre of a memory surface in the recess of her mind and then fade. "You heard the pity in my mom's voice. I'm a direct descendant of Lilith. She was a queen among demons for gods' sake. But here I am, I can't do any magic or even stop myself from falling and breaking my ankle. I'm a disgrace and no amount of sugar coating will change that."

He sighed looking off into the distance yet again. This time Julia turned to follow his line of sight but saw nothing other than woods. When she looked back Damien's conflicted expression puzzled her. Julia was about to question him when Damien pulled her into his arms and hugged her. "So what if you can't do magic. You're still you and I like you," he whispered against the top of her head.

His embrace was warm; giving Julia a sense of everything being right in the world. She felt a strong connection between them; even though it seemed crazy, because they didn't know each other. Yet the connection didn't feel romantic. It felt the same way it did when Ren hugged her and she couldn't understand why.

He was super good looking and definitely her type. His rich brown hair fell over his eyes in the style that she loved, and his muscular body ticked all her boxes. Julia knew she should melt into his arms tilting back her head; giving him the subtle signals to let him know she wanted him to kiss her. However, for some annoying reason, Alex's face clawed at the edges of her mind holding her back.

She looked at her feet and scowled as she booted Alex's sexy yet unwanted image out of her mind and said, "Thanks." A quiver ran through her body, she recognised the feeling immediately because it was the third time she'd experienced it since Friday at the dinner. Someone was watching them Julia was sure of it, but who. It wasn't Ren's style to spy he would've just come up to them and she didn't think Alex had any interest in watching her and Damien.

Damien hooked his finger under Julia's chin, tilted it up, giving her a bright smile that derailed her train of thought completely. "So, tell me about your parents. I'd like to know more about you and your family," he asked his voice was as smooth as velvet.

"I'll tell you but only if you tell me about you and your family." Julia shuddered, the feeling was back only stronger, as if someone had dumped a bucket of freezing water over her, and it set her teeth chattering. "I've been dying to know more about you guys."

He let her chin go and rubbed her arms. "I'm sorry, you're freezing aren't you? I don't feel the cold and I forget that non-dark fae feel the cold. Why don't we go back to your house?"

Julia looked into the woods trying to spot what was making her feel so uneasy, but she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Sure. My mom's out on patrol all night anyway," she replied happy to get away from there.

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

Yet another guy for her to figure out.