Conquer (Control) (19 page)

“I told you I was going to help you learn to control those emotions of yours, so this actually works out perfectly.   I accept your challenge yet again, Paige.”

“Uh…what?”  My brain couldn’t come up with a better question than that.  I know…it’s pathetic.

“I’ve noticed that you are weak when it comes to resisting me.  Although I take it as a compliment, it will be fun to watch you attempt to deny my advances.  So that’s the game, Paige.  I attempt to seduce you, and you resist me.”

My eyebrow arched.  “I’ve resisted you before.”

His eyebrow arched.

“Okay, maybe not.”

He chuckled.  “In part, the test will be resisting me, but also, I want you to keep from letting me know how difficult it is.  Control your emotions and physical reactions as well, Paige.  Don’t let me know my effect on you.  Your three biggest problems are your fear, your anger and your lust.  Okay, well, that last one isn’t so much of a problem, at least when I’m around. Regardless, if you can gain control over those three, there should be no problem controlling everything else.  Part of defending yourself, Paige, is keeping your opponent guessing when it comes to your thoughts and feelings.”  He winked as his arms crossed over his chest, pushing out his biceps.  I think I may have drooled at the sight.  “So far, you’re not doing so well.  I don’t think you’ll be able to do it, Damsel.”

I pulled myself from my admiration of his body.   Fuck him.  I could control my reactions.  No problem.  He is an arrogant bastard and I was going to prove him wrong.

“Okay, Daemon.  I’ll play along.”

He nodded.  “Good.  Now get dressed so we can get going.  I need to take a quick shower and I’ll meet you in the living room momentarily.”  He sauntered in the bathroom as I began pulling on some clothes.

~

The ride to The Center was uneventful.  Daemon and David were mostly quiet during the trip.   My mind raced the entire way as I bounced between excitement for Annie and trepidation at having to face my parents.  As soon as the large building came into view, my heart sped up as panic ensued.  It was strange to feel this way.  Never before had I ever felt anything but peace and tranquility upon arriving here.

The truck lurched to a stop and my parents stepped out through the front doors waiting for us to approach.  Daemon threw the truck into park but sat back with his head turned in my direction.  “You ready for this?”

“No.”

“Paige…”  Just as Daemon started to speak, David’s hand came slapping down on my shoulder.  My head whipped around to look at him.

“Paige, you’re going to forgive your parents.  They love you, you love them.  That’s all that matters.  All the other bullshit is in the past and, quite frankly, I won’t allow you to continue in your stubbornness.”  Having said that, David scooted himself to the side of the truck, opened his door, came to my side and pulled me from the vehicle.  I tumbled out, barely keeping myself from falling to the ground.  David closed my door behind me and I turned to see that Daemon had also exited the vehicle.  They walked on either side of me as we approached my parents.  I wasn’t sure if they were trying to provide me strength, or if they were escorting me to make sure I didn’t cut and run.

Momma’s face looked tired when we reached her.  I know that she’d been upset for the past couple of days and I felt slightly guilty for not having dealt with this earlier.  Daddy also looked exhausted, but threw on a brave smile as I neared them.

“Baby Girl!”  His arms opened up, welcoming me into his embrace.  David and Daemon’s hands came up to my back, pushing me in the direction of my father.   I took hesitant steps at first, but the huffed out a breath and walked over to allow my dad to wrap himself around me.  “We’ve missed you, Baby Girl.”

My anger at my parents began to dissolve as I recognized the pain and defeat in my father’s voice.  “It’s only been a couple of days, Daddy.”

He sighed.  “I know, Paige; but it’s been a long couple of days.  Too long.”

Daddy squeezed me tightly before handing me off to Momma.  Just like the last time I’d seen her, her hands twisted over themselves. I reached out and placed my hands over hers.  “We have a lot to talk about, Momma; but you don’t need to worry.  I love you.  Nothing will change that.”

A single tear escaped her eye as she smiled weakly and pulled me into a hug.   I choked up from the contact, but pulled myself together not wanting to let her see my reaction.

“Has Annie arrived?”

Momma let me go to hug David and Daemon.  “Not yet, Paige.  She should be here within the hour.  Doctor Carter is driving her over as we speak.”

Momma and Daddy led us into the back recreation area.  David moved over to the children’s area taking his usual place as jungle gym.  While David was distracted, Momma and Daddy requested that Daemon and I follow them out to the back veranda.

I gasped at the beauty of the back yard as we exited the building.  The sun was an hour or two from setting and had just begun pouring faint streaks of red and gold over the horizon.  It was during this time that every detail of the yard and the wetlands beyond were shown in such magnificent clarity.   Dragonflies buzzed about getting in their last activities prior to settling in for the night.  Birds sang and the cicadas and frogs battled it out with their songs.  A warm breeze floated along, picking my hair up and blowing it back.

Momma and Daddy sat down on one of the outdoor loveseats and Daemon and I took our place in the chairs facing them.

Daddy spoke first.  “Paige, your Momma and I have been worried sick, and quite frankly, hurting over the past few days.   I want you to know that we know what we did was wrong.  We should have been honest with you when you were old enough to understand.  It was our fault and we deserved your anger.  Baby, please forgive us.  We were only trying to protect you.  That’s not to say that if we had to, we wouldn’t make the same choice.  We were right about keeping you from Daemon; where we screwed up was continuing to lie to you about it.”

I was silent for a moment as I gathered my thoughts.  Daddy was wrong.  They hadn’t made the right choice.  They had the wrong opinion of Daemon as a child.  He was a misunderstood kid who was only trying to protect me, but was made to believe he was bad because of it.  I didn’t want to hurt them further, but it was best that we all lay it all out on the table.  The truth needed to come out.

“Of course, I’ll forgive you.  I understand why you did what you did.   It just upsets me to know that you two thought I was so fragile, I wouldn’t have been able to handle knowing about this when I was older.”  I took a deep breath before revealing the rest.  “What also kills me about the whole situation is that both of you were so wrong in what you believed about Daemon.”

Both sets of their eyes widened as I continued. 

“Momma, I know that you saw Daemon pushing me around when we were kids, and I get your hesitancy to keep him around after his parents died; but you misunderstood what you were seeing.”

Momma looked from me to Daemon and back again.  “What are you talking about, Paige?”

Daemon’s hand came to rest on my knee, gently squeezing upon contact.  “When you saw him pushing me around, he was only trying to teach me not to be like his mom who would cry when she was hurt and not get away or fight back...”

“But…”

“…And when you saw him fight other kids around the Center, he was doing so because they were making fun of me.  He was
defending
me mom, not just being a bully or an emotionally troubled kid.”

Momma gasped and folded her hands together.  Daddy’s eyes locked to Daemon.  “Is that true, Daemon?”

Daemon nodded.

Daddy’s face fell.  “But…you kept fighting son.  We followed your progress while you were in foster care.  That was the biggest complaint of all of your foster parents.”

Daemon cleared his throat.  His eyes traveled to the ground before looking back up at Daddy.  “Uh, yeah.  I did keep fighting, but most of the time, it was because I was being picked on by the other boys.  I never fought any girls.  The other boys, well, they enjoyed making fun of the fact that I wore a girl’s necklace.  The one Paige gave me.”

My eyes shot to him as my jaw dropped. He’d never told me that part.

Daemon continued.  “I put it on almost immediately after she gave it to me.  I didn’t take it off again until I was about thirteen or so.”  His head and shoulder dropped as he remembered back.

Momma and Daddy were quiet momentarily, before Momma finally asked, “Daemon, honey, why didn’t you tell anybody what was really going on?”

Daemon shrugged his shoulders and looked back up into Momma’s eyes.  “I don’t know.  I guess when you’re as young as I was, and enough people tell you that you are bad, you start to believe it.  I stayed that way until you two sent me to live with Frank.”  He chuckled.  “I think you both already know his opinion on the matter.  It didn’t take him long to straighten my head up.”

Daddy smiled.  “Yeah, rest his soul, Frank was one hell of a man.  It’s a damn shame he couldn’t have stuck around with us a little longer.  The world lost a great person the day he died.”

“How did you know Frank, Daddy?  Why did you send Daemon there?”  I couldn’t help my curiosity about the man my parents chose for Daemon.

Daddy sat back in his chair, sighing loudly as he did so.  “I knew Frank from high school.  When I was a sophomore, he moved to Florida with his mother.  His father was apparently just as abusive as Daemon’s dad, but Frank had endured it longer.  Frank’s mother eventually left his father and moved here to be closer to her family, bringing Frank with her.  He was very much a loner when I met him, but we got to know each other when I tutored him in math.  Eventually, he admitted to me the things his father had done to him over the years.  He had a lot of anger inside of him, but kept it together so that he could help support his mother.   We remained friends through high school and he joined the Marines the day after we graduated.”  Daddy looked serious as he said, “Frank is one of the reasons I wanted to start The Center.  We kept contact over the years through letters and he eventually returned to Florida after ten years in the military.  He was a changed man when he returned.”

Daddy turned to look at Daemon.  “I’m sure you know most of that already, Daemon.  I chose Frank because I knew he was strong enough to deal with your rage, but I also knew he would understand what you’d gone through growing up.  From the looks of you, it appears I made at least one right decision.”

Daemon nodded.  “Yeah, Frank told me about his childhood.”  He chuckled before continuing. “He never would hear my excuses for being angry.  He said it didn’t matter what happened in my past.  The only thing that did matter was what I did with the rest of my life.”

Daddy smiled.  “Like I said, I knew he’d be the right choice for you, son.”

We grew quiet again.  Daddy finally broke the silence when he asked, “So what happened at the club, Daemon?   They’ve reported that they suspect Chris of arson because of what happened.”

Daemon launched into the story, explaining about the fire at Tomb and also the information we discovered about Chris’ youth. Daddy cursed quietly when Daemon told him about Bill’s unfortunate ending.

Momma remained abnormally reserved as we discussed the details of the past few days.  I finally looked over at her and asked, “Momma?  Is everything okay?”

She looked up at me and the redness of her eyes gave away that she had been silently crying.  Wiping at her face to remove the evidence of her tears, she said, “My heart is broken, Paige.  I didn’t know any of those things about Daemon.”  She choked back a sob.  “And then to hear about Chris’ history…I mean, nobody helped that poor boy.  I’m so angry that nobody stepped up to stop his mother from her abuse, but then I just grow angry with myself because I’m no better than they were.  Daemon needed help and I failed him.  Oh, god, Daemon, you could have turned out just like Chris.”  She lost the battle to keep herself composed as tears flowed down her face.  Her chest and back heaved with her sobs as she attempted to hide her face in her hands.  Tears sprung from my eyes and I started to stand up to go and comfort her.  Daemon’s hand fell on my leg and I looked over as he stood up to walk over to Momma.

He knelt down in front of her, gently pulling her face up so he could look at her.  When her bloodshot eyes finally locked with his, he said, “You didn’t fail me.  You made a mistake, yes, but don’t
ever
think that you failed me.  If it hadn’t been for you and Mr. Stone, I would have been lost and forgotten in the system.   If it hadn’t been for you, I would have never found Frank, I may never had straightened up.  It was
your
actions that did that.  Sure, they weren’t the most informed decisions, but they were the best ones that could have been made at the time.  You did save me.”  He his eyes flicked to Daddy’s before returning to Momma’s.  “You both did.”

Momma’s arms were suddenly around him and I started crying as a result.  It was way too much emotion for me to handle, but I threw myself over to them, taking them both into a hug.  Daddy eventually joined in while we hugged and cried and forgave…together.  

We were still wrapped around each other when the back door slammed open and David was heard crying out.  “What the hell?!  There’s a family hugfest going on out here and I wasn’t invited!”  He sniffed. “I feel so unloved.  Momma?  Daddy?  I thought I was the favorite.”

We let go of each other and our heads turned to look at David in unison.

Crossing his arms over his chest he squared his shoulders and look down his nose at us.  “I’m sorry, Daemon, but I can’t allow this.  Paige, we need to sleep together so that I can be the favorite again.  Daemon has an unfair advantage.”

My jaw dropped as my cheeks heated.  I looked over to find a pained expression of Daddy’s face.  I know that the man would believe I was a virgin until the day I got married.  Momma and Daemon’s faces weren’t much better.

My eyes shot back to David. “Shut up, David!  My parents don’t want to hear that!”  I screeched.