A/N: To My Dearest Readers,

Thank you all for reading and reviewing our story. We hope that we are living up the expectations that you have set for the sequel. We promise you that this will be worth your time. Please continue to read and review. We appreciate all comments.

With Much Love,

Erik

Chapter 3 – The Other Student

The smell of freshly baked rolls hung high on the air about the kitchen. Angelina took in the scent and smiled. It was a becoming a daily ritual for her, but as long as she did it she could never tire of the smell.

She began to brush melted butter on the top of them when something stuck her in her side. Angelina screamed and turned to see a young man with a large smile on his face. She swatted him with the dish towel that was sitting on the table.

"Nicholas Thurston, how many times to do I have to remind you not to scare me like that?" she asked him through ragged breaths. Angelina quickly tried to regain her composure.

Nicholas laughed and sat down at the small kitchen table. He brushed his hair out of his face before grabbing an apple out of the fruit basket sitting in the middle of the table. Shinning the apple on his striped blue shirt, Nicholas smiled up at Angelina and quickly bit into the apple.

"How are you today, Madame Alcott?" he asked with a full mouth.

"Do not call me Madame Alcott. You know how I detest the name. And we are no longer in France." She shooed Nicholas's hand away from the rolls. "Call me Angelina, Nicholas…please."

"I know how Master Erik does not like me calling you that."

Angelina sighed. "And he knows how I dislike the name 'Alcott'. You know of the reason why we have it."

The young man nodded. "Of that I do." He looked around the room and leaned on the table to be closer to Angelina. "May I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Do you believe Master Erik truly enjoys teaching me?"

She looked at him with wide eyes. "How could you even ask me that? He is constantly talking about his talented pupil."

Nicholas rolled his eyes. "He is more than likely talking about your daughter. I am not a great pupil, Angelina. I am far from it."

Nicholas looked down at his hands – worker's hands. It had been years since his fingers glided over the keys of a piano. His youth had brought him many different tutors, including that of a music tutor. She was an old bat that was nothing like who he had now. Since he had left home, he had been working at the textile factory down the street. It was a way to make ends meet without having to ask his parents for money.

"You are fond of music because of what Erik told you so long ago." Angelina smiled at him and sat down. "You tell me all the time that if it was not for him that you would not love it as much as you do now."

He nodded. "This is true." It had been almost 20 years since Angelina and Erik had saved him from what he thought was his fate. The steel cage had been his home, his face covered by a burlap sack with two holes that was the only way to see the world around him. The scar that marked his face had grown as he had. It had now seemed to slice from his forehead to the top of his lip – passing over his right sky blue eye. The scar was his downfall but also the thing that saved him.

"You were raised by a wealthy family with all that life had to offer."

"There are days when I still wish that you and Master Erik bore me up." He watched Angelina look at him curiously. "Please, do not think that the Thurstons treated me unkindly. They were wonderful parents, but you were the two that saved me from my horrible fate. Without you, I might not be alive."

"If you continue your lessons at the pace you are, you might regret that I saved you," she said as she smiled at him.

"I fear the wrath of your husband, Angelina."

"As well you should," Erik said from the doorway.

Angelina and Nicholas both looked and saw Erik standing there reading a newspaper. His eyes averted their gazes and continued to look at the words sitting on the page. The white mask, that had become his trademark, sat upon his face.

"Master Erik!" Nicholas quickly stood – knocking over the wooden chair he had been sitting on. "I did not know…"

"As you never do." He glanced up to see Angelina smiling. "I suppose you are here for a lesson and to not be harassing my beautiful wife?"

"He is not harassing me, Erik. You know as much."

"I was going to come to find you…," Nicholas stuttered. "Then I saw Madame Alcott…"

Angelina rolled her eyes at the mention of the name. Erik laughed behind the paper and folded it to put under his arm. He stepped toward Nicholas as the young man trembled in fear.

"Why do you still fear me after all of this time?"

"I do not fear you!" He stood taller as Erik shook his head. "Well, I suppose I do a little." He smiled as he looked down at his feet. "I fear your daughter more."

Erik roared with laughter as Angelina looked at Nicholas in shock. "Why on earth would you fear Elizabeth?" Angelina asked with curiosity. "She does not even hurt a fly."

"That you know of, Madame. Your daughter is the devil."

"That she is." Erik held up his hands as Angelina glared at him. "My dearest, you above all people know that Elizabeth keeps to the darkness."

"I wonder where she gets it from…," Angelina said with a raised eye brow.

Erik pushed Nicholas out of the room and shook his head as he quickly left behind him.

Angelina smiled as she went back to her daily ritual.

Nicholas stood near the large bay window that occupied the study. Shelves filled with books lined the walls. First editions of almost every piece of literature could be seen within the confines of the room. The sounds of the city could be heard even through the closed window. He gently pressed his hand to the pane as music filled his ears.

"Something seems to be bothering you," Erik said as he continued to play the melody. "Do you wish to tell me or wish to keep it bottled up?"

"It is nothing, Master Erik. I am just…preoccupied."

Erik smiled – knowing how Angelina had 'preoccupied' him. "Is it a woman?"

"If you wish to call her that…," Nicholas mumbled.

"Does she have a name?"

"I have given her several."

Erik laughed at the statement and continued to play. His fingers glided over the keys as he watched Nicholas look out of the window.

"You do not wish to tell me who she is?" he questioned.

"She is Aphrodite. She is the Goddess that invades my dreams – my very soul." Nicholas pounded his fist against the glass. "And I damn her every day for it."

"You cannot damn a Goddess, Nicholas. She controls the very fiber of your being. She is the one that has you rise each morning at the crack of dawn."

Nicholas smiled and looked back at Erik. "You are referring to Angelina?"

"Very much so. She stole the very essence of my being. She became something that haunted me – even when I slept. So do not think for one second that you are the only one who has been affected by this illness."

The door burst open as both men jumped. "Father, I…" Elizabeth stopped her statement as she saw Nicholas near the window. "I am sorry, Father. I did not know you had…company."

Nicholas sneered at the snide tone in her voice. "I can leave if you wish, Mademoiselle."

"Do not leave on my account." Elizabeth turned to Erik. "I will speak with you later."

"As you wish." Erik turned back to concentrating on his music.

Nicholas and Elizabeth stared at each other for several moments. Elizabeth received the upper hand and stuck her tongue out at him before quickly fleeing the room.

"She is the devil, Master Erik."

"Or at least the devil's daughter." Erik laughed as Nicholas went back to staring out the window.