By the time Erza had finished dressing into some warm clothes, Ivan had returned to the house. When he saw her he looked very surprised and irritated. As if he wasn't expecting to see her again.

"Hello Ivan." She said feeling very upset. "Surprised to see me?"

"No." He lied. "I'm relieved. Relieved that you're safe. I would be most horrified if something terrible had befallen you."

"Really? Then why didn't you help me when I fell through the ice?"

"That's what happened to you?"

"You didn't know? You didn't see me fall in? You didn't hear me call out for you?"

"No I...I left the lake because I thought a bear was near by. I wanted to chase it away or shoot it so it wouldn't harm us...When I came back to the lake you were gone. I...I couldn't find you...I was worried you had wandered off and become lost in the woods."

"So you came home? You didn't look for me?"

"I did. When I couldn't find you I decided to come back and call for help. You can't imagine how worried I was."

"I bet I can." She said convinced that it wasn't much worry at all. "So you really had no idea I had fallen into the ice? You didn't see me when it happened?"

"No I didn't. You didn't see me standing there when it happened did you?"

Erza thought back to when she was in the lake. The water had gotten into her eyes and it distorted her vision. She couldn't really see anything, even Ivan. Maybe he wasn't there. Maybe he had left and did not see her fall. But she was almost certain that she got a glimpse of him once as she was trying to pull herself out.

"No...I don't think I did see you there." She admitted.

"Then you must understand why I didn't come. I had no idea what had happened but thankfully you're alright. I must ask though, how did you get out?"

"Why do you want to know that?"

"Well if someone saved you I would like to express my gratitude. After all my dear, you're a treasure to my father. Heaven only knows how devastated he'd be should anything happen to you."

Now Erza was a child and like most children she could be naive but she wasn't naive enough to fall for that. Not completely anyway. She decided to with hold the truth about how she survived her near drowning experience. Just to test his reaction.

"No one saved me." She lied. "I saved myself."

"Is that so?" He said. "I didn't think anyone could save themselves from a incident like that on their own."

"I guess I was just determined not to die today."

It was no secret that Ivan did not like Erza. He had objected to Makarov adopting her and often accused the man of favoring her over himself and Laxus but that couldn't be farther from the truth. He had often tried to talk Makarov into sending her to an orphanage or worse the workhouse but the kind old man just couldn't be swayed. However in all the years Erza had known Ivan, she never suspected that he disliked her to such a degree that he would try to harm her. At least until now.

"Is it safe to presume that you're in good health?" Ivan asked her.

"Yes."

"Are you certain? You did not sustain any injury from the fall? Or contract an illness from the cold?"

"I'm perfectly healthy."

"Then I may leave with no worries."

"Leave?"

"Forgive me but I must leave for a day or two to deal with an emergency regarding my father's business."

"You're not supposed to leave me alone, you know?"

"I won't be long and you're a resourceful young lady. You'll be fine by yourself for a day or two."

Now Erza had no qualms about being left alone by herself. She was indeed a resourceful girl but if Ivan truly had been fearful for her safety and well being wouldn't he feel uneasy about leaving her by herself? He was up to something. She could just tell by his eyes but she would play dumb so he wouldn't know she was on to him.

"Very well Ivan. Do as you wish."

She acted none the wiser but once he had gone she locked every door and window in the house and orderd Gray and Natsu not to leave the estate until Makarov returned. Gray did not complain at all for he too suspected Ivan of foul play. His vision had not been distorted, he saw that Ivan had witnessed Erza's accident and that the man had purposely made no attempt to save her. And as annoying as Erza could be, Gray was not one to allow any harm to come to anyone innocent. Especially a child.

Natsu was a different story. Granted he didn't know or understand the reasons for her order but he didn't even try to understand it. He was too angry and irritated with the fact that he was being restricted like this. He had spent centuries restricted and then he was released only to be restricted again. This must've been what the hindus called karma. Nevertheless he so very much wanted to leave the estate so he could hunt the forest for blood. Not human blood as he had been forbidden by Erza's word from drinking it through force but he would be searching for animal blood.
It wouldn't completely satisfy his thirst but it would hold it off for some time.

When night fell and all in the house were asleep, he rose from his coffin and sniffed for the ice box where the meats were kept. He broke off the door handle and started draining the raw meat of it's bloody drippings before then swallowing the flesh. He found this to be very pathetic and again the bloody meat of cows and pig didn't satisfy him all the way but it would keep him from losing his mind. Order or no order he had to get some of that carmine liquid into his system.

When he finished drinking and eating his fill he tried to think of how he could pass the time before dawn. Like Gray, he considered killing his friend turned enemy while he and his young mistress were asleep but there were two problems with that. Number one also like Gray his body lost all the will to move as soon as he made an approach to the sleeping devil and number two he wasn't sure how to go about killing him.

Devils were probably the hardest creatures in this world to kill. Why? Because very few people knew how to kill one. Devils in general were typically already dead and in a lot of cases they were more like a force than a creature. Gray however was a rare case. He was alive so he could be killed but he descended from humans and unlike Natsu, did not barter away his immortal soul to become this creature so holy defenses probably wouldn't work on him. It was a very tricky situation.

He walked down the corridor as he did his thinking but was eventually snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a noise coming from behind one of the doors. It was faint but he could hear anything with his bat-like hearing. It was crying. He found the room where it was coming from and opened the door to find Erza in bed, still asleep but tossing and turning while screaming and crying.

"I want my mommy! I want my mommy! I want my mommy!" She kept screaming over and over again.

Natsu moved toward the bed and gently shook the little girl until she woke up. In that moment the color of her skin had become no different from a vampire's and her body was trembling. When she saw him, she flinched away from him in fear.

"Easy. I'm not going to hurt you." He said holding his hands up.

"Why are you here?" Trying and yet failing to hide her tears.

"You were crying in your sleep. I heard you and decided to wake you up."

"I was not crying!" She denied.

"Uh-huh sure." He said in disbelief. "What happened? Did you have a bad dream?"

"It's none of your business! Go away!" She demanded.

"Okay fine. I was only trying to be nice but hey the next time I hear ya, I'll let you squall until you pass out."

He headed for the door and was halfway out when she said:

"Wait." Her voice had become meek. "I can order you to tell me the truth, right?"

"Yes."

"Then tell me the truth. Did you really come in here because I was crying? Or because you wanted to kill me or something?"

"I came in here because you were crying and I was worried." He walked back to the bed. "I know you think I'm a monster Erza and in a way you're right I am. But I swear to you that despite all my faults and sins I would never hurt a child for any reason."

"Really? Is that right?" She said not entirely convinced. "You've killed hundreds of innocents for their blood. Why should I believe that you would spare a child?"

"Because in my opinion no one in this world is truly innocent save for children." He said. "Unlike adults, children don't feel the need to hurt others or gain power and control They don't have any evil thoughts or wants. They only want to live and be happy. Therefore they don't deserve to be massacred."

Erza looked at him skeptically, still not sure he was telling the truth. But then again she had ordered him to be honest so eventually she came around to believing his words.

"Now that we have that settled, would you mind telling me what got you so upset?" He asked her.

"I don't know if I should tell you. I don't think you'd understand."

"Try me." He said. "I'm a vampire who kills for blood but that's pretty much all you know about me. You don't know anything else so how do you know that I wouldn't understand?"

"Fair enough." She admitted. "I had a nightmare about my mother."

"That would explain why you were crying out 'I want my mommy.' Speaking of which where are your parents anyway? I've been wondering that for quite sometime."

"They're both dead." Erza answered. "The nightmare was about how my mother died. I was seven years old when she was killed by my father."

Natsu looked at her in stunned horror and sympathy.

"The knife was supposed to stab me but my mother got in the way. She let him stab her to death to protect me. Makarov heard her screaming and just before my father could stab me, Makarov put a bullet through his head to save my life. That's how I ended up becoming his ward."

She wiped away her tears but more just kept falling.

"It was five years ago but I'll still have nightmares about it. About how I just stood there and did nothing but let my mother hold me and shield me from the knife. I...I didn't...I didn't help her."

She broke down after that. Natsu gently moved her into his lap and held her as she cried. On instinct she latched on to his neck and sobbed.

"I know what you're feeling." He told her. "You hoped and prayed for it to stop. You wanted so badly to make it stop but you just couldn't because you're just a kid and a good kid just doesn't stand a chance against an evil adult."

"How do you know what that feels like?"

"Because Erza as cruel and unfair as it is, you're not the first child who was forced to watch a parent that they love be murdered. I've seen it happen plenty of times over the years."

Back then she did not understand that he could relate to her situation because he had suffered through it himself but she did understand that Natsu was not as unfeeling and incapable of compassion as she thought.

But Natsu couldn't one hundred percent relate to her tragedy. He had watched his mother be slowly and painfully killed but not by his own father nor had his father tried to kill him. He couldn't understand how any parent could even think of killing their child. Their own flesh and blood. Something they created and brought into this world. Having been someone who experienced torture, he often could understand most evil acts but harming and or murdering a child especially when it was your own, was one evil he just couldn't understand at all.