Act 2: A Portrait and a Secret

(Continued flashback)

Rosette looked, well, shocked Oh great. He thought. With speaking abilities like that, you should be in politics.

Rosette finally recovered from her shock. "So, does that mean that you just turned me into a vampire?" She asked him with a look of extreme worry.

Chrono all but frowned, there was another way he had effected her wrongly. She was always so strong, and now... "No Rosette, I'm only half vampire, so you're only half too. The other half of you is still human."

Relief flooded through Rosette, although she didn't know why. She only seemed to have been worried simply about the thought of being a vampire, nothing else. It troubled her since Chrono was half of one and he seemed okay. Then she asked him something that had been nagging her for a while. "Chrono, where are we?"

Chrono smiled. "Sorry I forgot you don't know about this place. You see, every vampire and partial vampire has a place in his or her mind where they take the spirits of people they transform; it puts the changing person's body into a coma, so that person won't die in the proses. It has been known to happen."

Another shocked look came on Rosette's face. Man this makes me wonder just how much about Chrono I actually know. "So what is this place anyway? It looks like the inside if a castle.

Chrono's smile widened. I seem to be enjoying this night a lot more than I thought I would. "Actually it is. This is a mental model of my room, from when I first lived on Earth's surface.

Well that was another shock for Rosette. "What! You mean you lived on Earth's surface before you were a sinner?"

Chrono gave her a guilty smile before saying, "Actually, I was born here."

"What?" was all Rosette could say before dropping her jaw. Chrono was born here? Then why did he go to Pandemonium? This night just keeps leading to new surprises. Rosette decided to change the subject. "So, Chrono, who are the people in those pictures?" Bad choice for a way to ease the tension.

"Those people are my family," he whispered softly. "Here, let me show them to you," he said before taking here hand and leading here to the large one across from them.

Great, Rosette thought, I just made him feel even worse.

When they were up close, Chrono pointed to a young man on the right who looked like him in his true form without the inhuman parts. "Me," he said. He pointed to a woman standing opposite him on the left. She had long purple hair, yellow eyes, and pointed ears "My mother: Chaos." He pointed to the other people standing next to him on the right. One was a tall man with long, dark brown hair and pale skin. Next were two girls who looked like they were twins; the only differences were that one had hair down to her waist while the other had cropped hers off at her shoulders. Also, the one with shorter hair had purple eyes instead of blue . Both had pale skin and black hair. The third was a boy slightly shorter than Chrono with short, reddish-brown hair and red eyes. The last one was a girl who looked younger than Azmaria. She had pale skin, black hair, and dark red eyes. Chrono pointed to each one and identified him or her. "Vlad, my younger brother, Sahra and Victoria, my older twin sisters, Adrian, my brother (He was about 15 months younger than Vlad.), and my youngest sibling: Cornelia." The he pointed to the man in the center of the painting. He had a small mustache, a beard and long, wild, black hair. He wore black armor and a deep, dark, red cape. "My father."

Rosette heard the sadness in his voice when he said each one and looked at the portrait. He must really miss his family. Why didn't he ever talk about them before, besides the whole "vampire thing?" "Hey Chrono," Rosette said turning back to the portrait, "who are these women standing next to your mom? Your aunts or something."

Chrono blushed, big time. This would probably lead to a painful moment. "Well Rosette, there's something I need to tell you."

"Hmm?" Rosette had seen the blush, so she was naturally suspicious about what he was going to say.

Chrono explained to her the whole "vampire bride/queen thing."

Rosette flipped out (big surprise). "You mean all vampires are a bunch of perverts?"

Chrono cringed, "Well, I guess you could say that, though I wish you wouldn't."

Then, Chrono identified each of them to Rosette. "Vhlad's mother: Elizabeth," He said, pointing to a woman with brown hair and blue eyes to left of his mother, right across from her son.

"Maria: Sahra's mother," she looked just like her daughter, except with red eyes and longer hair. "Her twin sister: Hermione: mother of Victoria," She looked almost identical to her twin, except for a mole across from her right eye. "Their younger sister: Adrian's mother: Alexandra," she looked nothing like her sister's: red hair and green eyes. "And Cornelia's mother: Camula," she was a tall woman with brown eyes and long green hair. Green?

"Ah, Chrono?"

"Yes Rosette," he said turning to her.

"Why is her hair green?"

Chrono was thoughtful for a moment. "Now that I think about it, we never did figure that out."

"WHAT?"

Chrono wisely chose to back up from his anger-management-challenged contractor. "Sorry," was all he managed to get out.

Rosette calmed down. "I'm sorry, Chrono. It's just the whole vampire thing has kind of... scared me, but only a little," being Rosette, she had to add in that last bit or risk a blow to her image. Rosette absent-mindedly brought her left hand up to her neck and began fiddling with the collar.

Chrono cringed, he knew this would probably lead to another hit on the head. "Why are you messing with your collar?" It was really a stupid question to ask, he already knew the answer.

"Oh well," Rosette began to blush nervously. "This whole vampire thing reminds me of a dream I had after we first met Joshua after he'd been brain-washed by Aion." Chrono winced a little. "I dreamed that Joshua was about to shoot me, and then you came and told me to grab your hand. I was going to, but then your hand turned into a claw, and the last thing I remember before waking up... was you biting my neck!" Rosette lookedlittle embarrassed after admitting it. Then she looked over at Chrono. "Ah, Chrono, why are looking so nervous...over there," She said noticing for the first time that he had backed up all the way to the wall.

"Well, Rosette, you see, part of that dream was real." Chrono was now fidgeting like crazy.

"What?"What Chrono said would have worried most people, but Rosette was just annoyed.

"Well, while I was crazy I attacked you. I'm sorry Rosette. I would never hurt you willingly. Well except for the contract, but I didn't want to make it, you did. And when I tried to talk you out of it-"

Rosette had been worried when Chrono said he had attacked her, but after hearing him ramble on with his apology, sh realized he was still the same demon she loved. "It's okay, Chrono," she said, going over and hugging him.

"It is? But I attacked you, heck I could have killed you and its okay?" Chrono cried, partially from guilt, and partially because he had really been expecting something more along the lines of getting hit on the head.

"Yes I'm sure, like you said: you would never hurt me willingly, well except for the contract," Rosette answered with a sweet smile. Yeah, sweet. She can be like that when she wants to be; she just never wants to be. "Now," Rosette was back in business mode, "How the heck do we get out of hear anyway?"

Chrono thought a while before answering. "Um, I'm not really sure."

"WHAT!" That got Chrono the punch he wanted.