Chapter 3

Christine looked around at the darkness that enclosed her. She didn't know where she was going. She had found Adrian's home on accident, she didn't know how to find her way back to the ferry. Her skin was cold from the night, she noticed a bench that was sitting at the edge of the paved road; she pulled her legs onto the old decayed wooden bench. The looming trees around her, reminded her of guardians that had circled around her, almost like she was those guardians were hunting. Christine felt like she was waiting to be hunted…waiting to be prey.

A shiver of cold air crawled down her back that made her teeth shatter slightly. She wrapped her jacket even tighter around her body but the cold wouldn't seem to leave her. She wind blew fiercely around, yet when she looked over head at the trees they weren't moving. They were still as statues which confused Christine. She shook her head before standing up and walking deeper into the guard of trees around her.

Christine…She could hear her name being whispered like a snakes hiss to an unknown ear. "Hello?" She asked looking around. "Adrian is that you? Please come out…" She whispered desperately hoping that it was Adrian. She kept looking around at the cluster of trees on either side of her along with the darkness that engulfed her. There was no moon to light her way now and she felt frightened.

A hand came down upon her shoulder and it took everything that she had not to scream. "Why are you running Christine?" His voice held that hissed tone of a snake, just like before. "Did he hurt you, or did you happen to like what he did to you?" He fingered a curl that laid across her shoulder.

His touch was cold, just as how Adrian's had been. His arm went around her waist and turned her body so that she was facing him. His eyes were pulsing, that same red color that Adrian had. His skin was lighter then Adrian's, and he had light blue eyes that Christine could just barely see through the bright red of his eyes. His light brown locks were scattered over his eyes, which gave him the lock of mystery, almost like you didn't know what was happening behind those eyes. "Who are you?" She asked as she tried to pry her way out of his arms.

"My name is Tristan, but my name will not matter. What I have come for will not require my name." He smiled and lightly brushed her hair away from her neck, eyeing the slight bruise on her neck that he knew had come from Adrian. "I take it that he has already taken your body's virginity." He said smiling and rubbing his thumb across the bruised skin, where the blood rushing through her veins was coursing against his thumb.

Christine furrowed her eyebrows when she heard him speak. She shook her head as the words fell from her lips. "I'm not a virgin. He didn't take my virginity." She whispered and chewed on her lip. She shivered as his thumb rubbed across her throat and didn't know what he was doing. Tristan took her arm and kissed her inner wrist that made her lower lip quiver. He smiled when he smelled the blood through her skin. How could you let this little beauty go Adrian...how could you be so stupid... He looked up at Christine as his thoughts trailed off.

"I wasn't talking about you body's virginity, love. I was talking about your bloods virginity. He's already had a taste of you and I'm surprised that he hasn't come and found you yet, seeing as how your heart is beating so loud that it's like drums in my ears. He can hear your heat beat pounding in his thoughts even though he's not with you now." He pulled on her arm and pressed her body up against his. "Now that I know that he's had a part of you, I'm going to enjoy the fact that I'm going to get a piece of you too." Tristan had a smile on his face as he leaned down towards Christine's neck, his teeth aching just to have a taste of her.

Christine cringed and felt his tongue tracing Adrian's bite marks, she tried pushing on his shoulders but pushing against Tristan was like pushing against a tree. She felt his hot breath and closed her eyes, waiting until it happened. She was petrified, just as she was with Adrian but Adrian had started out making Christine feel good. All Tristan was doing was terrifying her even more with a world that she didn't know anything about. His teeth rubbed against her throat and Tristan could feel her whole body tightening and trembling, his lips formed into a smirk before his daggers plunged into the newly made marks that Adrian had left on her skin. Christine let out a small whimper and felt the tears behind her eyes. "Let me go!" She screamed out and tried to pull away from him. No my sweet. I'm not done with you yet…His words in her mind made her body go ridged. Who are you people…? Christine asked herself as she dug her fingernails into Tristan's shoulder.

"I think you are done, Tristan." Adrian's voice carried through the night air with ease and Christine looked around, seeing him just out of the corner of her eye. "Let her go, Tristan, she has no value to you." He said walking closer and grabbing the back of Tristan's neck, pulling him off of her throat before throwing him into a tree so effortlessly that he looked like he was just throwing a ball. Adrian took Christine into his arms and sat her down on the bench that she was sitting on before.

"You think that you're the only one who can have her, Adrian. I've marked her just as you have. Only I marked her because I wanted to, you marked her because you got ahead of yourself. Why would you have her now? She's been used by me, Adrian. This means that you're not going to be the only one that will be able to hear her heartbeat." Tristan walked up behind Adrian and turned him around. "You forget your place, fledgling. Don't forget who gave you your gift." Tristan said grabbing Adrian's throat.

"You want it back so bad then take it. I certainly don't want it." Adrian said with a look in his eyes that could have made hell freeze over.

"She won't change you Adrian. She isn't strong enough to break the curse…especially if you keep taking tastes of her." Tristan said, whispering so that Christine could hear him. "There was only one woman that was able to take you away from your curse…and that woman is dead." Tristan muttered smiling as he backed away and watched as Adrian's eyes went brown for a little while. Tristan's smile widened and he looked behind Adrian at Christine. Throat! He pressed into her mind and Christine's hand instinctively went to her throat.

Christine felt like something was crushing her wind pipe. She couldn't see anything but she gripped the back of Adrian's coat while her gasps were getting shorter and shorter. She couldn't help but feel a slight dizzy feeling floating through her head. "Adrian…" She whispered. Adrian looked behind him and noticed Christine. He took her in his arms and picked her up, still hearing her gasping for air.

"Stop this, Tristan. If you kill her then neither you nor I will have her." Adrian said and watched as Tristan's eyes hardened. "Tristan if there is one shred of humanity in you, you will leave her alone." Tristan stood there and walked closer to Christine. He took her wrist in his hand and kissed her throat. When Tristan's lips had touched her skin, Christine's gasps had stopped and she was able to breathe again.

"Just because she's not dead now, don't think that I won't be able to finish her later." Tristan said, not looking at Adrian as he ran his fingers through Christine's hair. Tristan looked up at Adrian, smiling, before backing away and walking off into the dark guardian of trees around him.

Adrian's eyes had gone back to their original red color as he looked at Christine. He held her close to his body as he walked back to the house. Her face was relaxed, just as it had been last night when he had watched her sleep. Her lips were parted as she took each deep breath slowly; her head tilted back, the bite marks on her neck clearly visible. Adrian closed his eyes and he pulled her body closer, kissing the bite marks around her neck and licking away the excess blood. "I should never have kept you." He whispered while ascending up the stairs to his front door. He walked up to the second floor bedroom, setting her down on the bed. He unzipped her jacket and her jeans, trying to make it so that she was comfortable while she slept.

As he was pulling the covers down to put them across her, her couldn't help but look at the body that was presented in front of him. A body that had curves and wasn't perfect, but his eyes had seen a woman's body in centuries, but Christine's little imperfections made her perfect. Adrian shook his head and placed the covers around her body. Don't think about her. She doesn't trust you as it is… He rested his hand against her cheek before he turned and went to walk out of the bedroom.

"Who was the woman in the portrait?" Christine's voice held the pain that Tristan had inflicted. He could hear how she struggled to build up her strength for every word. "You said that she wasn't still alive but it seems that she still is, at least in you." She looked up at him and noticed how his hand held onto the door while his head hung down.

Adrian took a deep breath before turning around towards his hostage in her bed. She walked towards the bed and sat on the edge, his head in his heads as he did so. "Ella…Ella was the woman that your saw in the portrait. She was what you would call my lover. I'm guessing that you can guess what I am…" He said trailing off and looked up at Christine as she nodded. "Yes well before I was made I was told that I would be in pain for the rest of my life, and that my pain wouldn't be helped by my death. Basically because I was going to live so long, my pain would be with me every second of every day, torturing me as it happened. When I was made they killed Ella, that was almost six centuries ago, and I was forced to watch as they ripped her poor little body apart. Tristan drained every drop of blood from her body that he could." His eyes had gone back to brown as he looked at Christine. She shook her head and touched his cheek delicately. She gave him a small smile and hung her head.

"Can I ask you something?" She whispered and saw him nod through the corner of her eye. "Why do your eyes change to brown when you talk to me?" She asked looking up again and staring into his eyes.

Adrian smirked and shook his head. "I don't know. I've never noticed it before. I guess it's because that when I look at you…it's because you remind me of Ella. You have a very similar personality to hers." He put his head in his hands as Christine touched the pair of marks on her neck. Adrian shook his head and looked up at her angelic face. He licked his lower lip and touched her face with the softest touch that she had ever felt, almost like she had imagined that he had touched her. "I never should have kept you. I think that you should go home. I can only put you in danger here." He whispered and looked away from her pain stricken eyes. He could sense that she didn't want to go back, just like he had sense that something had made her runaway.

"I don't want to go back. There is nothing to go back to..." Her words trailed off and she was the one to look away this time. She chewed on her bottom lip, wondering how she would explain why she had run away in the first place. "I had a lover too...up until recently. I thought that he was everything that I could have asked for but after I..." She hung her head and sighed. "It doesn't matter. Nothing does anymore." Christine whispered and felt something wet going down her cheek. She ran her finger across her cheek and stared at the tear on her fingertip.

"It does matter if it's making you cry..." He wiped the remaining tears from her eyes while putting a finger underneath her chin to lift her face up to him. She stared into his eyes while his eyes took in every aspect of her face. His eyes finally landed on her lips, parting in response as he did so. Christine shuddered as he stared at her and rested her hand against his cheek. She was cluthing the wrist that was attached to the hand that was propping up her chin. She subconciously ran her lip across her lip.

As she stared into his eyes she could see a thousands secrets revealing themselves to her as his eyes looked as if they had turned permanantly brown. She moved slightly closer to him and watched as his eyes look undecided. Adrian didn't want this. She was still vulnearable and she still didn't trust her, but all the same he moved closer to her, his eyes constantly on her lips. She could feel her blood beginning to race and his passion consuming her body. "It's alright..." She whispered and felt him brush her lips with his. He only kept his lips on hers for a moment before he pulled away shaking his head and not looking at her. Christine furrowed her brow as she watched him pull away. "Adrian...it's okay." She whispered and rested her hand against his hand that now layed against the bed.

Adrian looked at her with his secrets back in the safe haven of his soul. "Go back to sleep Christine. Forget everything that you know here." He whispered before standing and walking out of the door. He shut the door behind him before leaning against the frame. He put his hand to his forhead and grit his teeth. You weren't supposed to do that. His mind whispered to him as he asended up the stairs. he came to the fourth floor bedroom and stared at the portrait of Ella again. The portrait that he had painted himself. "I can't do this..." He whispered.

Christine stared at the door for five minutes before she realized that he wasn't coming back. She trembled and put her hand against her cheek. "No one wants me..." She whispered and grabbed her clothes. She got dressed and walked out of the door slowly this time. She treaded down the stairs, looking behind her as she went. "Adrian..." She whispered before reaching for the door knob.

"People would be lucky to have a woman like you..." A voice sounded at the top of the stairs. Christine turned around quickly and noticed him standing at the top. She breathed a sigh of relief as she walked up the stairs to meet him. "Go to sleep, Christine. The world will seem more understanding after you've slept." He ran his fingers across the few wisps of hair that were transcending across her face.

Christine hung her head and licked her lower lip. "You could have kissed me if you wanted to." She whispered, sounding like she was back in grade school.

"No I couldn't...because you weren't comfortable with me yet. You haven't shown me that you trust me. Until you that I'll be waiting as patiently as I can." He touched her face before leading her back to her room. He closed the door behind her but not before smiling as he watched her sit against the edge of the bed. He walked back up the stairs to his own bed and smiled as he laid down against the mattress.

I've only got a month before I've reached the sixth century mark. I won't be able to make her trust me in such a short amount of time. Adrian thought of his curse as he laid there thinking of Christine. If a vampire could find a woman that loved him then he would return back to a human and live as a human should. The only woman that Adrian had ever loved was gone and he had a certainty in his mind that no other woman would love him, especially after finding out what he was. Christine was afraid, he knew that she was, no matter how much she told herself that she wasn't. I can never make her love a beast like me. I wish she would just go home and leave me to my misery...His thoughts trailed off as his eyes closed into sleep. A sleep that wasn't filled with it's usual thoughts of death and decay. But of love and that beaty that was sleeping only a few floors below him.