A/N- thanks for the reviews, those who have submitted them!

Elizabeth swore her heart had stopped beating in her chest and decided to start up in her stomach. 'W-who's there?" she managed to stammer. Her eyes darted around, trying to see into the shadows, but it was like the darkness was a wall. She didn't dare move.

"Do not fear me, Mademoiselle. I wish you no harm," the voice said soothingly.

"Who are you? Where are you!" Elizabeth wasn't frightened when Giles told her about the monster, wasn't frightened when she stepped into the gloomy castle, but now…

"Do not worry, Mademoiselle Ange. I'm here, but hidden. Who I am…" the voice trailed off, then started again, this time sounding more than a little bitter. "I believe you know who I am. But I will not harm you."

"Oh my God…" Elizabeth's eyes widened in terror. "You're the mon-" she broke off then started over. "-the …person whom Giles fought."

"I do not mind, Ange. I'm fully aware of what I am."

"W-wait…did you just call me 'Angel'?"

"Yes, I believe I did so twice." She pinpointed the direction where the voice seemed to be coming from, and decided it was on her left. She turned that way, staring into the shadows.

"Why?"

"I'm afraid, Mademoiselle, that I have never caught your name," the voice answered politely.

"Oh…it's Elizabeth." Automatically and out of habit, she added "My friends call me Liz."

"My pleasure to meet you, Mademoiselle Elizabeth." A pause. "I believe I have caused you enough revulsion for the time being. I will leave now."

"No! Wait!" she panicked. "I mean. I have really no idea where to go, and…"

"Oh! My apologies, Elizabeth. Your room will be in the East Wing of the castle."

"And how will I get there?" She felt more foolish by the second. Here she was, in a castle with a monster, and was talking to him like any other person she would meet!

But he certainly didn't act like a monster. And he was very well spoken…

"Look down at your feet," he instructed. Puzzled, she obeyed, then noticed that there were four vines leading in different directions away form it. Each vine had different colored thorns.

"White for north, red for east, blue for south, and green for west," he explained. "Follow the vine with red thorns to get to the East Wing. Your room will be the first one you come to on the left. I would show you the way myself, but…I don't wish to frighten you." His voice turned bitter once more, and Elizabeth was surprised to realize she felt pity.

No, she told herself. He will kill Giles if you don't remain here. You are his prisoner.

"Well, um, thank you. I guess I'll go now…"

"Don't thank me," he snapped. She blinked then heard him sigh. "Sorry. I'm not in the very best of moods today."

Elizabeth laughed nervously. "Join the club." She looked down at the rose vine with red thorns and then made to follow it, then curiosity stopped her. "What's you name?"

"Oh…my name…" he sounded confused. "I-I think it was…Gabriel. Yes, my name is Gabriel."

"Oh. Au revoir, then, Gabriel." She walked down the vine, following it out of the entrance room to a door at the end, going through it and shutting it carefully behind her.

The shadows were quite for a moment, then "Au revoir, Ange."

Gabriel stood stone-still in the shadows, long after the angel had left. After minutes passed, he shook himself as if awaking from a dream and went silently up the stairs. Red eyes glowing in the dark, he went down the marble hallway, until he reached the North Wing. White thorns guided him, but he didn't need them.

After all, he was the one that had spent years painting them.

He had chosen to live in the North Wing, because it was the darkest in the castle. He had covered the windows with thick black curtains. No light from the rising or setting sun here.

That was why he had sent the angel to the East Wing, so she could at least have the beautiful view of the sunrise through the window in her room.

At the end of the long hallway, he stumbled through the door on his right, closing it behind him, quietly as not to disturb her. The castle may have been very big, and that caused everything to echo.

Also, it was unnaturally quiet due to the lack of people.

All the servants had fled shortly after he had been cursed.

The castle had been deserted for thirteen years, save for him.

Gabriel scanned his room. A canopy bed, which was decorated completely in black, a wardrobe, which he had pain-stakingly painted with delicate roses, a vanity table with the mirror smashed to pieces, and mahogany doors thrown open at the end of his chambers o reveal a small balcony. Roses covered the railing.

Roses, roses, everywhere, he thought bitterly. Anything to remind me of the beauty I so enjoyed as a child.

A tall boy at the age of thirteen, he had now grown to the height of roughly eight feet tall. Unluckily for him, this meant he had to stoop whenever her entered or left a room.

Walking over to an armchair in the corner, he collapsed onto it and lowered his face into his hands. His shaggy mane of black hair fell forward, creating a curtain.

Oh why I do have to go and do this? he moaned silently. Why? There is no chance in hell of breaking to curse, none at all! Soon , no matter how careful I am, she will see me, then leave! Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could I trap such a beautiful angel in this castle with a monster!

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, to think logically. That man was so arrogant, so vain. He would have broken the angel's spirit, if she stayed there any longer.

The battle from only a few hours ago flashed into Gabriel's mind.

Gabriel was sitting in the music room, composing a new tune that had recently come into his mind. For the piano. It was dark and depressing, as all the music he had written for the past thirteen years had been, but still beautiful. He was so caught up in writing, that he almost didn't hear the castle's huge front doors swinging open.

A person! No-one had stepped foot in the castle for over a decade! The thought that maybe it was the demon, coming back to torment him more, drove him out of the music room and running into the entrance room.

There, was no the demon, but an elegantly dressed man. His sandy-brown hair was neatly combed, and his clothes expensive and stylish. Gabriel barely managed to skid to a halt, clawed, bare feet slipping on the marble. The intruder jerked backward, drawing a thin rapier from his hip. "Stay away!" he yelled at him. "You monster!"

Gabriel bared his fangs in a feral growl, the fur on the back of his neck raising. He knew what the demon had turned him into, but hearing that man yell it at him…

The man jabbed his sword at Gabriel, who dodged it easily. He has about as much experience with the sword as a child, he thought. But even a child could kill, given enough blind luck.

They continued like that for a while, the man slashing and jabbing his rapier, Gabriel dancing out of the way. Tiring of this and his temper rising, Gabriel ducked under the sword and slashed the man's chest. Not hard enough to do any real damage, of course. There were only very shallow scratches, thought the shirt fared much worse. Gabriel wasn't a murderer.

For the time being, anyways.

The man's eyes widened in shock and he swung the sword blindly. This time, it caught Gabriel diagonally across his torso, slashing from his right hip to his collarbone. Stunned more than in pain, he simply grabbed the thin sword and broke it easily in his huge hands.

That's when the man lost it. He fell onto his knees and started begging Gabriel not to kill him, that he would give him anything. Gabriel, kill? He may have looked like a monster, but that had not driven him to kill in cold blood, so far. The man was defenseless. Gabriel went to toss him the separate pieces of the rapier, but then the man said he would give him his wife. "Beautiful as an angel, she is!" he cried. "A face so perfect you'd think it was from Heaven! You may not really want her, though, because she is much too independent for a woman. Head like stone, wants to do everything herself, very mouthy."

Gabriel blinked. This man would be willing to give this girl to what he believed was a monster, in exchange for his own life? He would willingly trade another's life so that he could live?

"Bring her here, to me. Or you will regret it," he growled. The man scurried to his feet and left the way he came, making no attempt to close the doors behind him. Gabriel went to do so himself, and hissed as he noticed the pain for the first time, lancing across his chest like fire. His mood worsened. An actual girl, an angel, imprisoned in the castle…maybe she could, maybe, break his curse…no. Never. He only wanted her here so she could get away form that fop of a man. He wouldn't burden her with his horrid fate.

Gabriel straightened up and raked his hair away form his face. He had healed surprisingly quickly, the wound already scabbed over. He stood up and closed the doors that lead to the balcony, running the song he was currently working on through his mind. Anything to distract himself about the situation he had put himself and the angel Elizabeth in.

He would just keep out of sight, he decided. He would get her meals from some of the Fey he had hired for such purposes, and also ask them to give her the food themselves. He would only come out of his chambers at night, when she would be asleep. If necessary, he would talk to her, but remain hidden. She would have full access to the castle, so she would not be bored.

He collapsed onto his bed, wolf-like tail hanging over the side. He'd have to be very, very careful. It would all work out, as long as she did not see him.

With the image of her gentle face in his mind, he fell asleep, smiling the first time in so many years.