Jack: see what you did. You scared them away.

Me? It was likely you.

Jack: No…it was you.

Ok, fine. What's wrong people? Did I offend you all? If you don't like it just tell me and I'll stop posting the story.

Warning blood and death.

Chapter 9: The Past

It was some hours later when Araceli woke up. Erik was gone, and with the link she still had, she knew he had gone hunting. It would be like that for a while, him having to hunt every night until he could learn to control his hunger. She herself wasn't the least bit hungry, but for one of the lessons she was planning on teaching him, she need at least some blood. Getting out of the bed, she dressed her self in a simple gray velvet dress with an outer black corset. She brushed her tangled hair and set it into a braid tied with a black ribbon. She walked down the stairs to the kitchen. Taking the wine bottle out from its place, she uncorked it and just drank from the bottle, her fang teeth clanking against the glass bottle. She drank on and was swallowing the last drop when she opened her eyes. There standing front of her was Erik. She choked and sputtered.

He grinned at the sight of her choking. He had just come back from testing his new abilities. He was finding that so far he enjoyed being a true monster now. So when he learned all he needed, he was going to pay the Viscount and Christine a little visit.

"Erik! That was not good. You can't slip up on one like that! If I hadn't had this bottle to my lips you would have been attacked." Araceli snarled.

"My apologies Mille. Now, Araceli, I know you know about me. But I don't know about you. I want you to tell me about you, who made you, and what they teach you, everything." Erik told her bluntly.

"You are not to demand things of me! I made you, you are my fledgling." Araceli said hotly, frustrated. How dare he! He was only a day and half old vampire. But, a small voice told her, he is already stronger then you and you are centuries older. Araceli huffed, and turned to stomp out of the room. Her arm was suddenly caught. She turned to see Erik glaring at her.

"You will not walk away. I see that you had humans under your thumb for years now, but I'm not a human any more. True, you have changed me, but I belong to no one. You are only useful to me for now. I do know there is more to be taught. You are going to do that and then I will leave. You will not stop me or look for me. Now tell me all I need to know. Starting with you!" Erik squeezed her arm tight.

Crying out, Araceli tried to get away but Erik held on tight. She comaplated on turning in to a wolf, but it was too large. A bat would work but he could just snap her neck. So instead she turned to the one other animal she could turn into. Her body shifted and Erik found himself looking down at a sly-looking sliver and black fox. Araceli snarled up at him and then turned to run. Her long thin fox legs carried her as far as the window. Just as she as ready to slip out the crack in the pane, she felt the skin of her neck being pulled back. Araceli found herself being held disgracefully held up by the scruff of her neck. She snarled then yelped.

"You try that again and you will find yourself in a lot of trouble." Erik told her holding her small fox body up to his eye level.

Araceli sighed, and then sifted back to her original form. Erik let go of her, but watched her closely. Tears were in her eyes. "You want to know?" she said, "Then I'll tell you." She walked over to a chair and sat down. Erik leaned against the wall and watched her.

"I was born in Rome in 1652. I was the only child of my parents, so I was very loved. They allowed me to learn how to read and write. Since I was a girl I wasn't allowed to go to school, but they taught me at home. I was also told I could chose my own husband. I did. A rich painter named Cornelius Ricotta. I was thirteen, he was twenty-six. He was a friend of the family and I had always enjoyed his company. He didn't treat me like a child or a girl. He talked to like we were equals. When I came of age before I could let my parents know my wish to marry him, he went to then with the request. I, of course wanted to marry him. So in the summer of the next year, we were married. It was a marriage filled with passion and love. My son was born soon after. Anthony was a beautiful baby. We couldn't have loved him more.

Life was perfect, but one summer's night in 1671, it changed. We were having a feast. It was the middle of the feast when this people came barging in. There were twenty of them. They rounded us into the middle of the room. The screaming from the guests woke of my tiny son. He came running into my arms, he was five at the time. Cornelius gathered us into his arms, comforting our son and me. The people kept us in the loose circle in the middle of the room. Suddenly this tall long blonde haired man walked in. he was wearing black robes and an evil look on his face. All the people looked at him and he gave a slight nod. Then the horror began. They closed in on us and the blood bath began. You can only imagine the horror, the screams of agony. Cornelius tried to run with us but we were caught and I was spun away from Cornelius. Anthony was ripped out of my arms. I found that arms were wrapped around me, thinking that they were Cornelius's I looked up. I looked up into the yellow eyes of the blonde haired man. I tried to fight, to get away, but he held me tight. I screamed out for my husband and son. The man laughed. I can still remember wheat he said."

"So you love you son and husband?" he sneered down at me.

"Yes! With all my heart!" I looked around for them. I finally found them. My son was being held by one of this monsters, my husband by another. "Per favore, please let them go." I tried not to look at the mass murder and blood everywhere.

"Release them?"

"Yes! Please release them!" I screamed and begged.

"Fine." He nodded to the two men holding them. They began to rip into them. The pained screams from my husband and baby had me bucking in his arms. I tied to get to them but he held me tight and made me watch as my son and husband were ripped to shreds. Finally, the screams stopped. They were dead. I began to cry and he held me almost tenderly. "Shh, la Bella, I'm here."

I almost didn't register what he said or was doing until he had his teeth in my neck and was drying me dry. I struggled but he was much stronger. Soon I felt weak and he let go, allowing me fall to the floor. I saw him stare down at me as if considering. He then knelled and ripped his wrist open and pressed it to my mouth.

"And you can very well guess at what happen then. I transformed and then he grabbed me and fled. He kept me prisoner and as a toy for fifty years before I gathered courage and ran away."

Erik stood there shocked. His earlier threats forgotten, he walked and took her into his arms as she suddenly began to cry. He rocked her, hating himself for making her tell him. It must have been horrible watching her husband and son killed in that horrible way. "What was this vampire's name?"

Araceli shuddered, and whispered the name into his shoulder, "Gabriel."