The crowd in the Blood Hall had somewhat thinned down as most of the main family members moved out either to their respective allocated cities or back to the Crimson Mountains. There were still a lot of prominent figures hanging around the Blood Hall but Damon did not bother to talk to any of them.

The first thing he did after coming back was head straight to Kate's room and check her condition. He opened the door, feeling extremely nervous and anxious when he all of a sudden froze on the spot.

Beads of sweat started pouring down on his face.

His brain was thinking of many worst case scenarios as he opened the door but staring right at him was a new worst case scenario that he failed to even imagine.

Kate was sitting up on the bed. Her cheeks had a lot more color and her body did not seem as fragile anymore. Damon could even sense a decent amount of mana flow in her body. She was by no means back to normal but her condition right now was a lot better than he had hoped for.

Seeing her like this, with her warm smile and her gentle face, all he wanted to do was rush in and hug her but instead he stood constipated as his gaze fell on the other woman who was sitting beside her.

Aurora also had a warm and gentle smile on her face. She was definitely doing a lot better than Kate and her condition had already reverted back to her prime, perhaps even stronger than before. It was as if the stress on her soul only ended up strengthening her. The angelic race was truly a scary one.

Aurora looked up at Damon with the same serene smile on her face, the one that Kate was wearing.

The two women infact looked at him with their eyes full of warmth and affection but Damon's brain was going crazy at the moment. He had told all sorts of things to each of them individually and now to find them both together? He gulped.

What was he supposed to do? It was truly not his fault. He was a good man. He just had to say some white lies because of the situation. They shouldn't possibly hold him accountable for that, right?

Kate had always been important to him and now Aurora had clawed her way into his life, becoming equally important. How was he supposed to make the two women understand? He had a feeling that the both of them would beat him up if he even remotely broached the topic.

He was in real shit, wasn't he?

His eyes darted around the room when he finally noticed Mark who was sitting silently on the side. Wordlessly, he pleaded with his best friend but Mark only gave a small smile. The bastard clearly did not care about his plight. He was in some deep thought all on his own.

Fine. Even if you don't want to help me, I will still drag you into this! Damon smiled as he took out the Crimson Heartstone. "Mark, I finally found you! I have been looking everywhere for you!"

Huh? Mark gave him a suspicious stare.

"Here take this. Catch!"

Damon threw the Crimson Heartstone and Mark instinctively caught it but once he did, his face changed. He looked utterly shocked.

"Dude, what the hell? Why would you throw something like this? Forget that. Why are you giving this to me? Shouldn't you use it?"

Kate and Aurura both immediately became curious. "What is it, brother?" Kate asked.

Damon walked over to Kate and hugged her lightly with a friendly hug. "It's something to give him a little boost."

Mark bitterly smiled. He looked at the crystal again and again and carried it over and handed it to Kate as if it were a priceless treasure. "It's not a little boost. This will help me awaken my bloodline!"

Kate blinked in surprise, staring at the glowing crimson crystal now resting in her palm. Its surface pulsed softly, as though alive, echoing with a heartbeat that wasn't hers. "This… this is really that powerful?" she whispered.

Aurora leaned closer, her black-golden eyes narrowing slightly as she examined the crystal too.

Damon coughed lightly and looked away. "It's really not much."

Mark looked at the guy speechlessly. "You're seriously giving it to me?"

"Don't think too much about it, idiot. It won't work on me. That's why I am giving it to you. Otherwise, I would have used it myself. I am not some saint, you know."

Mark stared at him, his lips parting, words failing to come out for a moment. And then he chuckled. "Damn you. Always dropping stuff like this casually. Fine, I'll take it. But don't regret it when I get stronger than you."

"Dream on," Damon grinned.

"And thank you for taking care of my sister. I heard from Hinata that you sacrificed a lot to get her the healing potion."

Damon once again shook his head. "Dude, stop giving me these good guy titles. You do remember that both Kate and Aurora got hurt in the first place because of me, right? If not me, then who would help them? Also, I didn't lose anything. It was my plan all along to give Hinata what I gave her."

Mark stared at Damon for a moment and then a small wicked smile appeared on his face. "So you don't deserve any thanks, right? You did everything just because…"

"Of course." Damon nodded.

"Alright, then. I will leave you three alone. My friend has given me a good opportunity and I have to use it right away. Besides, I am sure you three need your privacy and what not." Mark laughed and started walking out of the room, patting Damon's back on the way. "Enjoy, bro!"

Mark's laughter echoed down the hallway as the door clicked shut behind him, leaving Damon standing there, surrounded by silence and two very unreadable women.

For a moment, he contemplated sprinting after his best friend, dragging him back in, and forcing him to take the heat. But it was too late now.

Damon cleared his throat. "So… great weather outside today, huh?" Sweat dripped from his face as he could clearly see the obvious questions on the two women's faces.

"Damon," Aurora said calmly, "we had a long conversation before you arrived. About you and what is going on here."

More sweat started pouring from his face. "Oh, lovely." He nervously took a step back.

"You told me that I was special. That I was the only one whom you cared about." Kate said. Her face became small.

"You told me I was irreplaceable," Aurora added. "You told me that you liked my kind of crazy."

"And you both are!" Damon threw up his hands.

"I wasn't lying. Listen, you know how a father loves all of his children. It doesn't matter if he has two kids or four kids or eight kids. He loves them all just the same. One kid would never become more important to him than the other. All his kids are the same." He started blabbering the one weird explanation he had thought about a while ago.

Kate blinked. "What?" Her expression hovered somewhere between confusion and offense. "Did you just… compare us to your children?"

Damon immediately realized his mistake and raised both hands like a guilty puppy. "Wait! No! That came out wrong. I just meant… I care about you both equally!"

Kate's mouth fell open. "You're digging your own grave."

Aurora folded her arms, eyebrow twitching, and looked at him with an unsettling intensity.

Damon backed up another step, nearly tripping on the edge of the rug. "Okay, okay! Let's reset. New metaphor. Scrap the family thing. Just... think of me as a guy caught in a dungeon raid. There were traps. And bad choices. And some loot I didn't deserve, but I took it anyway. Does that make sense? Damn it, I'm trying!"

"No, you are not. You are not even making sense anymore. You are just lying to us!" Kate's face became angry. Aurora had a similar expression on her face. The two of them stared at him as if he were the worst being in the entire world, and Damon full well knew that he deserved it.

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