What the Ground Keep Quiet 

DAMIEN’S POV I woke up to a silence that did not look real. The room was too clean.  A quietness that had grown to become the very symbol of life in Verona: measured and intentional. The kind that always watched you back. But aside from the silence, something else, far more obvious, was lingering in the air. It was Lilith, it was her scent. It was faint, almost gone, but it attached me to the sheets like a memory that refused to be dismissed. It carried a warm soft quality…not meant for a place like this.  I turned my head and saw a strand of her hair on the pillow beside me, pale against the grey fabric. My chest rose before I thought about it, and soon after that I inhaled. “Mistake,” It was the memories of her breath that came back first. Warm against my neck, then her hands….which had been uncertain at first, then sure.  And the way she had said Marco….instead of the usual Damien. That name still unsettled me. I sat up and dragged a hand down my face, thumb pressing briefly into m