Rose hesitated a moment more before sending a reply.

Meet me at the park. We'll talk.

Damien nearly cheered when he actually got a reply. Okay. I'm leaving now. He shut his phone and put it away. "Wish me luck, Taylor. And good luck with Sera."

Rose read the reply, and grabbed her keys.

"I'm going to go talk to him," she said to Sera. She didn't need to specify who 'him' was. "Try to step back from homocide while I'm gone."

"Yeah, I'm going to need it," Taylor muttered. "Good luck, hope she doesn't kill you."

Sera nodded and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down and stop her pacing.

"Thanks." Damien headed out to his car to go to his car, and then the park. He waited there for her.

Rose took her time getting to the park, which probably wasn't the best idea. Her heart was racing in her anxiety, and her hands were trembling a bit. She parked a little ways away from Damien's car and got out.

Damien was sitting quietly on a bench in the park, looking up at the sky quietly. He didn't say anything to her, waiting for her to come to him instead.

Rose hesitated for a moment before making her way over to the bench.

"Is it true?" she asked softly.

"Yes," Damien said quietly. "It's true. Please, try to understand. I didn't tell you because not may people know. Besides, I had no idea how you'd react to the knowledge. Most humans don't react very well."

"You lied to me," Rose replied quietly. She was still a fair distance away from him, just close enough to hear what he said. She would admit she was a little afraid.

"What would you have preferred, Rose? That I tell you exactly what I was the from the beginning? You would have thought I was a psycopath, or something." Damien smiled bitterly. "Although you probably already think I am."

Rose flinched at the bitterness in his tone, but she couldn't bring herself to reply. She looked away. She'd trusted him, and he'd lied to her.

Damien sighed and got up. "I know this isn't easy for you, so I think you should have some time to think this over. I'll be around, in case you want to talk again after this."

"I..." Rose trailed off. There was really nothing she could say. He was right, she needed time to think.

Damien hesitated, wanting to touch her shoulder, but he didn't. "Feel free to call me or text me." He watched her for a moment longer before heading back to his car.

Rose didn't watch him leave. She was already about to start crying and she bit her lip, trying to hold it off. She just felt so... betrayed.

Damien headed back to his house, calling Taylor as he drove. He didn't expect to hear from Rose for a while, and he figured that Sera was still just short of homocidal.

Taylor picked up immediately.

"How did it go?" he asked cautiously.

"Not well," Damien replied. "She's still upset with me. How about on your end? Anything new?"

"Other than Sera threatening to castrate me, no," Taylor replied. He sighed. "I don't know what to do."

"I do," Damien said. "Tonight, we get plastered and give them time to calm down and think. Tomorrow we deal with the hangover and give them some room."

"Wonderful idea," Taylor replied. "Maybe if we're drunk we can figure out exactly where we screwed up."

"We lied," Damien said glumly. "I'll get the alcohol and you can head over to my place."

"Meet you there in half an hour," Taylor replied.

Rose spent a while sitting at the park before she finally got into her car and went back home. Curling up in her bed and ignoring the world for a while sounded like a fine idea.

Damien hung up and drove to the nearest market, getting several bottles of alcohol. Since he had a faster metabolism, he had to drink more to get drunk.

Sera was sitting on the couch, glaring at the TV. She preferred anger to pain, but she knew the anger wouldn't last forever.

Rose went right past Sera. She knew better than to try to interact with her. Instead, she went straight up to her room, where she could cry in peace without anyone seeing.

Taylor got to Damien's place a little after Damien himself got back.

"I brought a spare change of clothes," he said. "I'm really sure I won't be in any shape to drive back home tonight."