A mere fifteen minutes later, silence had returned to this small alleyway. Four corpses now littered the ground, their blood slowly filling the cracks in the pavement. Their deaths had all been quick and clean, but it did not make them any less permanent.
As for the fifth ganger, he was slowly being pulled across the ground, away from the corpses of his companions. His eyes were closed, and his head was lolling to the side, yet breath still left his lips. For now, this one remained alive…
Damian looked at the body he was dragging along, and noticed the blood trail he was leaving behind. Sighing, he pulled the unconscious man up and hoisted him over his shoulder.
"Let's go, buddy," Damian muttered calmly despite the quadruple murder he'd just committed. "I need you for an experiment."
As soon as Damian had departed with his prize, several tens of people started cautiously leaving the shadows of the surrounding buildings. Some of them had been there since the five gangers came, hiding for fear of being targeted. Others came looking for the sounds of battle, perhaps hoping for an opportunity to loot.
"What do you think happened…?" one man asked another, cautiously looking around for any dangers. He didn't seem particularly bothered by the corpses.
"Just more gang violence, who cares?" his companion snorted dismissively. "Let's just see if they left behind anything we can sell and then quickly leave. Best we just forget we ever saw anything…"
***
Some thirty minutes later, an inconspicuous car flew down a hole in the ground and parked in an isolated, subterranean parking place. Above him, the hidden entrance closed again.
After setting the car down, the driver door opened, and a gently smiling Damian stepped out.
"I do enjoy when a plan goes off without a hitch," he muttered to himself with a sense of self-satisfaction. At the same time, he took off the hood and white mask he'd been wearing, dropping them both in the storage space of his catalyst.
"Hmpf, I wouldn't be so sure about that…" a voice suddenly echoed behind him. Damian first flinched, then froze… before slowly turning around with a sheepish grin.
"Oh… Hey, Mom…" he chuckled awkwardly, scratching his head. "What, uh, what are you doing here?"
Lavinia narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't give me that shit, you reckless brat! I told you to stay in the house!"
Damian sighed and deflated his body helplessly. "I know! But I had to—"
"Pah, I'm sure I can guess what you were doing!" Lavinia interrupted her with a resolute wave of her hand.
She closed the distance between them and grabbed his collar angrily, easily lifting him to his toes. "But that changes nothing!" she growled, her tone more concerned than furious. "It was unnecessary, and now we'll never know if you were spotted or recognized! Not until it's too late!"
"Unnecesary?!" Damian exclaimed, his eyes downcast to still look into his mother's crimson gaze. "This is the mother of my child! A woman I love! Of course, it's necessary!" He truly had expected her to be a little more agreeable to the necessity of what he did, at least.
"Hmpf," Lavinia snorted dismissively, but still releasing his collar and causing him to sag back down a little. "You should have just trusted my work. Your awakening is completely stable! I have no doubt things will go off without a hitch!"
"I'm sorry, Mom." Damian sighed, shaking his head. "In this case, nothing is good enough for me, apart from first-hand experience."
They ended up in a staring contest of stubbornness, neither willing to budge on their opinion. But eventually, Lavinia proved the wiser party, as her more advanced age demanded.
"Pah! Whatever!" she growled, turning her head away and snapping her hand in the air with annoyance. "What's done is done. We'll just deal with the aftermath if you were discovered."
She looked back at him, now sporting a small smile, her previous annoyance having melted like snow in the sun. "Just so you know, I do approve of your devotion to the people you love."
A large grin appeared on Damian's lips as he parted them to respond… when Lavinia suddenly appeared two centimetres from his face and harshly slapped the top of his head. "But don't you dare risk your life for me, you hear?! I'm the mother! I'm the one who risks their life!"
Damian blinked in surprise… but quickly recovered. Chuckling, he leaned a little closer to his mother's face and smiled charmingly. "Don't worry, Mom… I love being protected by you. At least… right up until the moment you become my woman."
Lavinia grinned and leaned her face closer as well, their lips now inches apart. "Big words from a weak man. You'd best work hard to make them a reality!"
Damian tried to close the distance between them, but his lips touched only air. "Anyway, let me know how it goes…" her voice echoed in his ears, and the small, underground parking space had become empty again.
Chuckling, Damian turned around to open the trunk of the car. He didn't mind being called weak by his mother because he knew it to be true. If anything, it only increased his determination to work hard.
"Hmpf! hmmm! Hmhmhmhm!" Luca exclaimed through his gag as soon as the trunk opened, his eyes wide in panic.
Infering what he wanted, Erik chuckled. "Don't worry about it, buddy. You'll find out soon enough."
Knocking the man unconscious again, he hoisted him on his shoulder and started walking towards the exit.
***
After finding his way through a maze of underground passageways, he ended up back in Ylva's workshop, where he gave her an aggrieved stare.
"Don't look at me like that!" the Amberkin immediately defended herself with a chuckle. "You took more than two hours!"
"Only a few minutes…" Damian sighed but then shook his head. "Well, I guess it turned out fine. I appreciate you kept it a secret this long."
"Good boy," Ylva chuckled before holding out her hand, completely ignoring the unconscious man on Damian's shoulder. "Now, remember! Your ass is mine after today! For the rest of the week!""Hehe, I look forward to it," Damian grinned, winking charmingly as he left the room.
Ylva rolled her eyes, but a small smile still appeared on her lips.
***
After leaving Ylva, Damian and his unconscious guest made their way to the awakening chamber of his family. Technically, the chamber and altar were just traditions, as it wasn't actually necessary for the awakening. But, it was as good a place as any for him to do this.
Dumping Luca's body on the stone altar placed in the middle of an ornate stone room, Damian then forced open the boy's mouth and hovered his hand above it.
Suddenly, he halted as a certain thought entered his mind. "Huh… How the tables have turned…" he muttered as he remembered his own very similar situation a little while ago.
But then, he shrugged uncaringly and created a cut on his hand. "Oh well. Let's do this."
In the end, hypocrisy and morals were just words in the face of Damian's ambition, desires, and intense love.