A/N: Someone has been begging me, RayneKristi, to update. I will do so, because of your begging. Katana's POV.

Chapter 9

Findings

"Gabriel, fuck off!" I screamed at the door. He has been following me around, making snide remarks all day. I am fuming right now. He just insists on making me feel like shit. I have already felt like shit for the past several days, I don't need his help at all. I am quite good at it. Thinking about my life before all of this happened always makes my spirits fall. I don't need to have Gabriel following me around, ever vigilant, and making comments about how I had already been married and how he really didn't see me as the married type. I had kindly corrected him by telling him that Crinnen had been my fiance. He then asked me if my fiance had gotten "any" and I had told him to leave me the hell alone. He had taken that as a yes, prompting me to slam the door in his face.

"Have a nice night, Katana. You will probably stay in there all night, will you not? Sweet dreams," Gabriel stated calmly, false concern and love in his cool voice. I hate him. Why does he torture me so? I do not want to live with him, but I do anyway, against my will. Why can't he just make my eternal stay here enjoyable. Enjoyable or civil, either way.

"Go to Hell! Get away from my door! Go bother Ravyn or something!" I could hear Gabriel laugh evilly on the other side of my door, but he left the spot either way. Preferably to go bother someone else, besides me. As I went to grab a pencil and a sketch pad, I saw something moving in the corner of my vision. I froze, wondering who the hell was in my room and why the hell they were in my room.

"Hello?" I asked, uncertainty laced into my voice. I saw the shadow move a little, so I know that something is actually there. It isn't just my imagination. Not my mind playing dirty tricks on me.

"Rhea..." I heard the shadowed figure say in a harsh whisper. Only one person knows that name... besides my father and brother...

"Who is that?!" I yelled, alarm spredding through me. It couldn't be...

"You don't remember me?" the shadowed figure said, his voice so familiar. He stepped out of the darkness, revealing himself. I felt my eyes widen slightly at the all too familiar figure. I can still trace every line of his face. Crinnen, my love.

"How could I forget?! Crinnen! What are you doing here... ALIVE?!" I yelled at him, again my voice uncertain and alarmed. My eyes are still widened, unable to force themselves back into their normal state. How can this be? How can he still be here? Is he... damned... too?

"I'm glad to see that you are happy to see me," Crinnen said somberly. He made an effort to move towards me, which only resulted in me flinching backwards into my desk. I didn't want him to touch me if he is one of the damned. I don't really want any of the damned to touch me. Even if I had been almost married to him.

"What the fuck are you doing alive?" I spat harshly at him. I want to know how he has stayed alive. He can't just be alive still. No human lives for two hundred years. That really is just common sense.

"I have my ways, Rhea. I am a Triste. Why is he calling you Katana? Why does he own you at all?" My head spun with this newly gained knowledge. And with the many requests that he has placed. Why does he want to know so much? My brain is barely able to respond to him naturally.

"You... you are a Triste? That's my name now. I am not referred to as Rhea. So stop calling me that. And get away from here. You just endanger yourself needlessly by being here." I saw the pain in Crinnen's eyes, the hurt I am causing. I don't want to hurt him, but he needs to leave me alone or he will be killed. Surely, he would be.

"I would gladly endanger myself for you, Rhe- I mean, Katana. I have searched so long for you. I will never leave you again. Never." I closed my eyes, to stop the newly formed tears in my eyes from falling. I can't take all of this. It's hurting me to hear his gentle, kind words. To hear the innocence in his words.

"Stop being foolish. The world is not all happiness and smiling faces. There is no brighter future for me, Crinnen." I am sure that he knows all of this, but I don't think that he has gotten the knowledge fully through his brain. He seems to think that we will end up together, happily ever after. And this will never happen.

"But there is. I can get you out of-" I cut him off, bluntly. I will not make him dillusional.

"I assure you, it's a nice thought, but you can't. Gabriel will kill you in a heartbeat if he finds you here. So get out of here, while you are still capable of doing so." I saw the defeat in the boy's eyes. Now I call him a boy, even though he is about four years older than me. Mentally, he is much younger than me, however.

"Are you just afraid of leaving? Are you afraid that we can't be together now? Everything is exactly the way it was before." No, I thought to myself, I want nothing more than to be with Crinnen. I would give anything to kiss him again, to feel his warm touch.

"No, it's not. Everything has changed. I'm not a happy go lucky girl with hopes and dreams for the future. I am dark and dreary and brutally honest. You Crinnen, have changed too, whether you acknowledge it or not. You aren't prey like the rest of human civilization. You can fight for yourself. You aren't supposed to be prey, Crinnen. But, you know what, you still act like prey. Maybe you haven't changed after all. Maybe it's just me." Crinnen looked stung by the comment, although I could still see the faint flicker of hope in his eyes.

"When I see that face, I forget all of the changes you've been through. All of the pain you have suffered through. I want to plant a blade in Gabriel's heart. But, that would hurt you, and I would never cause any pain on you, the one I care for the most. I may be like prey, but you still are. I still love you as much as I did when I pledged my love to you. I just want you to accept me. Accept me again, the way I have accepted you again." How can he make such a commitment, when I am stuck in this prison? I can't be commited to him at all. I can't stop Gabriel's attempts to kiss me passionately at all.

"You don't even know me anymore, how could you accept my changes?" I asked, in frustration.

"I can see those changes in your eyes, which are shadowed, with the death and decay that the world has become." I heard the sadness in his voice, the pain. Maybe I am not the only one that has changed, after all.

"I- get out of here! He's coming!" I whispered harshly at Crinnen. He nodded, kissed my cheek softly, and disappeared. I looked longingly at the space which he had occupied, wishing that I hadn't shot down all of his attempts at freeing me so easily. It made my heart sink, knowing that he had been desperate. He had genuinely wanted to get me back. To get me to love him again. I sighed and attempted to turn my thoughts to other topics. I vaguely wondered if all supernatural creatures could disappear at will. Now I am thinking of him again. Damn my one-sided thoughts.

Gabriel opened the door, his eyes were narrowed suspisciously. He looked at me, as if I were the worst person in the world, and shook his head. I felt like toying with him. For helping to ruin my life. Again, he is ruining my life. I smiled, ever so slightly, and walked towards him, my catlike gait catching his attention. He raised an eyebrow suggestively and I laughed. He is so easy to fool. I pulled him towards me, kissing his lips gently. I closed my eyes in pleasure as Gabriel deepened my kiss. I was rudely awakened, however, when he yanked my head back, by pulling my hair. He looked into my eyes and growled, "Who have you been talking to?"

"I think you are hearing voices," I stated calmly, wondering if I would be punished for my bold comment. His eyes darkened, but he did not make a move to strike me. He simply stated what he thought to be true. It was laced in harshness and brutality, which terrified me.

"I think that you had a visitor. And I think that I will kill that little visitor if he decides to show his face in my manor again. Don't give me kisses, Katana, if you are still in love with another. I may kill him just so I can have full kisses, not just half kisses and half truths."

A/N: Is that good enough for you? Please review.