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Damian tilted an ear as the cheetah stormed out of the locker room and through the lobby. The way the men he passed sniffed the air in his wake put context to the matting in his fur. The tiger pulled what he'd kept in his back pocket and let the old style handcuffs dangle from a finger as Denton stopped before him.

"The way you smell definitely puts these in a different context." Damian grinned as the anger ratcheted up in the cheetah's eyes. That's it, be nice and angry. Let's keep that mind of your somewhat muddled.

"What are you doing here?" Denton asked, almost snarling.

"Why, I'm turning myself in for questioning, of course." He shook the handcuffs. "Or did these lead you to think one of us was going to be under the other?"

Denton snorted. "The day I let one of you tigers fuck me, is the day I willingly work for Raphael. Are you telling me you're behind the attack?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Denton. You know I was nowhere near Denver when it happened."

"Maybe you weren't here, but you could have arranged it before you left."

"While that's true, I didn't. I would be an idiot make you the gift I did, just to destroy it days later. And I certainly am not an idiot.

Denton narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth, but Damian leaned in, causing the cheetah to take a step back.

Damian lowered his voice. "Do you really want to have this conversation in public? I think you can imagine it will lead to a discussion of things you might not want these fine people to overhear."

The cheetah glared at him, looked around, then grabbed his arm and pulled him through the hall to the same interrogation room as the previous time. Damian sat as Denton glared in the camera, making a slicing motion across his neck. The red light above the lens turned off.

"Where were you when the attack happened?" Denton asked, visibly working at calming himself.

"Don't you know?" Damian smirked.

The cheetah slammed a hand on the table. "I wouldn't waste my time asking if I knew. Now where the fuck were you?"

"I was traveling through the City of Brotherly Love." Damian broadened his smile. "And they do know how to love there."

"How did you fly there?"

"Really? Do you need me to explain how airports works, or are you looking for an engineering lecture on planes?"

"Don't try to be funny, you aren't. I want to know how you got access to a private jet."

Damian nodded. "It might be difficult for you to accept this, Denton, but I do have friends." He ignored the snort. "And one of those friends lent me his jet when I asked."

"What were you doing in Philadelphia?"

"Really, Denton, I go to the extent of calling it the city of 'brotherly love' and you have to ask what I was doing there?"

The cheetah's eyes narrowed. "You were meeting with your brothers?"

"No," Damian stated, then took a second to compose himself. "If I had met up with them, you would have known about it, the whole hemisphere would know."

"Fine. How did you find out about the attack? The news?"

Damian shook his head. "I knew it while the attack was underway. I felt the use of energy close to my blood."

"You couldn't feel it, the phrases around it did more than keep people from reaching it. It kept anyone from magically affecting it of even scrying for it."

"Denton, let me remind you that energy I felt came from the destruction of those phrases, as you call them, so their effectiveness had to be compromised." Damian watched the annoyance on the cheetah's face and kept himself from smiling. He'd expected that, but he'd wanted it to be something else. Denton's anger toward Damian wasn't wholly rational, with good reason. So Damian decided to give he what he wanted. "Not that they would have stopped me, or have you forgotten how the power works? If I have a direct connection to someone, no amount of shielding will keep me from reaching them. That's how it worked when I followed your god. It's the same for mine, and Denton, there is nothing I am connected more closely than to my own blood."

The look on Denton's face told Damian the cheetah had forgotten that.

"You said you destroyed your blood. If you didn't have the attack to cover that up, why bother?"

"You cannot be that much of an idiot Denton," Damian replied in exasperation.

"Try me," Denton said, entirely serious.

Damian almost pointed up what Denton as implied, but he wasn't here for that. "I couldn't let my brothers get their hands on my blood."

"So they knew it was here? That's the reason for the attack?"

"Unless you advertised you had my blood, they couldn't know. But the moment their agent had it over to them, they would know. Our god--" Damian couldn't keep from hating that they followed the same god again-- "has a deep connection with blood, as you should have realized by now. It isn't enough to recognize the blood of a stranger, but I am not a stranger to them. I can't have them know I'm... free."

"Why tell me? You could have let me think you learned about it on the news or that your blood had been destroyed as part of the backlash when the phrases were overloaded. Why tell me you did it?"

"Because I am you ally in this. I'd like to say I am your friend, but I don't think you can let go of the past to allow that to happen." The glare Denton gave him made him smile. No, friend was not a possibility.

"Then if they weren't after your blood, why the fuck did they attack me?"

Damian shrugged. "I don't know. As much as it galls me to admit this, I have no idea what they are doing. If their plan was to kill you, they weren't ready. The fact you survive is the indication of that. My brothers are not stupid, or at least they weren't when we were younger. Maybe they've grown careless in time, but I doubt that. A factor I am not aware of came into play and made a hasty attack a viable option to them. Maybe you care to shed light on that?"

"How the fuck would I know how your brothers think? As far as I know the only thing the lot of you care about is showing the rest of us just how superior you are."

Damian smiled. "Well, it's good for you to know who your betters are." Denton glared at him again. "Now that I've explained I couldn't be involved. Do you mind if I go? I have business to attend to." He kept his face neutral, Denton was calming down and Damian couldn't risk him realizing this was the feint.

"What? You expect me to just let you leave? Maybe you didn't have anything to do with the attack, and that's one hell of a maybe, considering you're the only one I can see who got anything out of it. But that doesn't mean you aren't a danger to everyone out there."

"Denton, be reasonable. You aren't the police. You can't just lock me up for no reason."

The cheetah leaned on the table, an evil grin on his face. "Oh, I have ample reasons to lock you up. A whole family's worth of it, or have you forgotten about my parents? The ones you burned alive? And just in case you happen to have forgotten, there is no statute of limitation on murder."

Damian's fastidiousness demanded he correct the cheetah, there was no proof it had been anything but an accident, but this was going in the direction he needed.

"I am sorry, Denton." Damian made his tone not quite serious to keep the cheetah from being certain of how sincere he was. "I was young and power-hungry. If I could go back I--"

"Bullshit. If you could go back, you'd do it all over again, only better this time, you'd make sure I died too." The cheetah studied him. "In fact I know this is what it is. You're waiting for the right time to stab me in the back. Or maybe just help your brothers kill me."

Damian was up, hands slamming on the table. "Burning blood Denton, how dense van you be. I don't want you dead. I don't want anyone dead. How can you even think I'd do something like that to anyone after it was done to me!"

In the instant of stunned silence that followed Damian made his face a mask of horror and worry before forcing it neutral, then mouthing a silent curse.

"What did you just say?" Denton asked.

"Nothing." Damian sat. "Just forget about it."

"You just implied you died and you want me to forget? Not going to happen."

Damian sighed and kept the success off his face. Now he could plant the little lie that would ensure that no matter what came, Denton wouldn't consider removing Damian from the board permanently.

"Did you think you were the only one chosen by his god? Trust me, I know about that. Anytime Denton's named is mentioned within the Society it's 'how could a Rasia be chosen'. Or something to that effect."

"I'm not chosen," Denton replied through clenched teeth.

Damian shrugged. "Well, I am. My god made sure I knew it by bringing me back from the dead."

"They can do that?"

"They're gods Denton, you think there's anything they can't do? I'm his champion, he won't let me stay dead. And before you say how I should be happy with knowing I can't die, I didn't ask for it. I didn't ask to be some god's lackey. You have no idea how much it rank to be taking orders from anyone, even a god."

"So," Denton hesitated, "If I were to shot you, you wouldn't stay dead?"

Damian shrugged. "Not until I've done what he wants me to."

"And what is that?"

Damian smiled sadly. "I'll be sure to let you know the instant I'm told. This god is no more forthcoming with its plans than yours his."

"He doesn't--"

"Don't be naïve, Denton. They all have plans. It's the only reason we exist, to be pawns for them."

Denton nodded and sighed. "Okay, so you're here, one an unknown mission, even from you, chosen by a god who knows the kind of murderer you are, and you really expect me to let you walk out of here?"

"Denton, you can't imprison me, you don't have the authority. Or any kind of evidence I did anything, not that I have."

Denton smiled. "Even if I was still with the police, I could hold you for forty-eight hours, even without any kind of evidence. But I'm not, which means I can do anything I fill is justified. I somehow doubt the Gray Church is going to come banging down my door for me to release one of the infamous Orrs. Unless it's to hand him over to their custody."

"I'd rather you not do that. I mean, I doubt they'd even ask, they don't know about me either."

"I figured as much, since you said you were dead." The way the cheetah said it indicated he wasn't entirely sure he believed it anymore, which was fine. Damian only needed him to wonder if death was permanent for him.

"I could fight you," Damian said. "I'm strong enough I could knock you aside, break down that door, leave and lose myself in the city."

"I know, but you're my ally, right? My friend?" Denton couldn't keep the distaste out of the word. "A friend wouldn't do that would he?"

Damian sighed in defeat. The cheetah had so cleverly maneuvered him into this trap. "Alright, but I'll point out that a friend wouldn't treat his friend this way. He wouldn't put him in a cell."

"I'm not the one claiming to be friends," Denton replied. "Come on. Let me lead you to where you're going to be staying. And you'll find that my cells are way more comfortable than any precinct's." Denton to Damian's arm and led him out of the interrogation room.

Damian's face was starting to hurt with how much smiling he had to keep himself from doing. Denton was providing him with his alibi should what was coming ever be thrown at his feet, and it was all Denton's idea. And Damian would be easily available for when Denton realized he needed his help, and that would come, Denton had no choice but realize that if he followed the clues and hints Damian had given him.