Predator

06.

The front door opened and the couple quickly scrambled away from each other. The twins were the first ones in the house, they were holding bags that contained groceries and a few of Neela's presents. The two smirked but said nothing on their ways to the kitchen and upstairs. Damien walked in empty-handed, "did we..interrupt something?" Ryan leaned his head back with his hands over his eyes and groaned loudly, "sorry!" Damien yelled as he scurried upstairs to help Evan with the gift wrapping.

"I swear, my family." Ryan opened his arms for Neela to settle in them once again. "Were you going to do what I think you were?" Despite Neela's mouth being covered by her own hands and clothes, Ryan still heard her loud and clear. "If you think I was going to kiss you, then yes." He muttered, hoping his brothers wouldn't hear him, but Ryan knew all too better.

~~

Neela was being forced to dress fancy for the party. Damien felt as if they needed as many polarizing details as possible to make the dream not become reality. "And see? It covers up the scarring on your back while still letting it breathe," Neela dreaded dressing up, she always had to do it when there would be a father daughter dance for Andrew's police force.

Damien tried to make it all sound better, but the scarring on Neela's face was impossible to hide. "I'll make you a deal. If you have a good time, I'll take off the suit to have my scars on full display as well. I'll do it when we're thanking guests for coming." Damien loved making his daughter laugh, he felt like it brought them closer together.

~~

Damien forced all of his children into one car. 8 people plus their decorations and presents took up a lot of space, they figured out. "Dad, we all mostly have our own cars," Sean begun, "why do we have to squeeze into this one car?" He then jerked his body as his shoulder was being crushed with Caleb's own.

"I'm trying to take as many precautions to make today be a lot different than Neela's and Gigi's dreams." The boys and Neela all felt envy towards Damien as he could speak and sit comfortably due to him having his own seat. "Wearing three-piece suits and a dress is uncomfortable in a crammed car!" Landon had to raise his voice as wrapped boxes were very close to covering his face, "this is also illegal!"

Damien wore a perplexed face as he turned to look at his visible children, "since when have any of you cared about doing illegal things?"

~~

It took about an hour to get the whole party set up. There were pink and grey decorations all around in the big ball room. The time guests begun to arrive was around 1 p.m in earth time.

Damien had a good amount of siblings, he had about 6. A lot of aunts and uncles means a lot more cousins, there would be at least 50 children there, and they were only the teenagers.

Gigi and her husband went over to Neela and her group right when she spotted Damien. "Hello, Neela, I'm Ryan's Aunt. You can call me Gigi," Neela instantly recognized Gigi's powerful presence. It wasn't something that was intimidating, but more comforting, like a mother figure.

Gigi was a very beautiful woman, she had very dark eyes with specs of red around her pupils. Her height was slightly above Neela's. She had long, silky black hair that went to her waist. The dress she wore was black as well that was tight only around the expanse of her arms while the rest of it flowed freely down her body. Anyone could tell that Gigi was confident by her orotund voice. Gigi reminded Neela of Morticia Addams.

Her husband was named Gerald, he was born in England during the 1400s. He had claimed to be the original Jack the Ripper from how unhinged he was when he first changed into a demon. Gerald was tall and slender but still had an aura that said he could kill you with no trouble. His voice was gruff and hard to hear over the immense amount of people talking and the music playing.

When Gerald introduced himself to Neela, he grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes as if he was concentrating deeply. Neela stared back blankly but that didn't stop him from seeing the horrors she had endured. He saw quick flashes of Neela jumping out of a window, getting slashed, being branded. His conscience told him to go further, but he had to let go of Neela's hand and back away. "Pardon me for intruding like that, I just felt the curiosity building within you," Gerald tried to play it off but he couldn't, "I'm sorry but if you could all excuse me," he tried to walk away with Gigi, but she snatched her hand back with her arms crossed.

Once she was sure that Gerald was gone, Gigi spoke up. "I'm sorry about my husband. His powers are too strong for his own good sometimes. He has the specialty of tactile telepathy." Neela's mouth formed an 'o,' shape, even though she really didn't know a lot about powers. "Do you think he saw something bad?" Neela asked.

"I don't want to say that he did but all signs point to that he did," Gigi placed a comforting hand on Neela's shoulder that wasn't scarred, "maybe a bad memory from childhood...maybe how this happened," she traced a scar that was over the curve of Neela's shoulder.

"Genevieve," Damien spoke seriously and held out an arm for his sister, "let's walk, shall we?"

~~

"He remembers none of it?" Damien told Gigi everything! Yes, she and the rest of the family knew of the curse but they didn't think it was that brutal to the point he's attacking his mate. "I thought that maybe getting a mate would ease it away."

"I thought the same thing as well! They want to be together, they want to be a couple. They just...can't."