Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews. Sorry that I haven't been updating as much as I should. I've been working like crazy and now I have Christmas shopping to do on my time off. Anyway here's the next chapter so keep reading and don't forget to R&R….

Erik had lost track of how long he had been drug because after hitting his head on a large rock he had passed out. When he awoke, he was in such dyer pain and still attached to the reigns of his horse. As the blurriness cleared from his eyes, Erik noticed that his horse had stopped walking and was eating the grass. Erik moaned, and tried to sit up to un hook his leg from the reign. As he sat up, his horse began to walk again causing his leg to be pulled on.

"Would you stop moving for five minutes you retched beast!"

His horse stopped once more and began to eat the grass giving Erik the chance to sit himself up and unhook his leg from the reign. When he was free, he lied back on the cold ground taking deep breaths to calm himself down. His head was pounding, and his leg was in agony. His wife and child had been taken, and he was going to find out from who and when he did may God have mercy on their souls. After crawling over to the edge of the river, Erik looked down to see his reflection as nothing more than a bloody scratched up mesh. After placing his hands into the water and cupping a handful he splashed it on his flesh to wipe away the blood. When he looked back down into the water he saw scabs and a gash on his skull deep enough to be an ant sized grand canyon. Erik ran his fingers over it only to feel more pain at the touch of it.

"For the love of God and all that is good."

Erik knew that he was going to need a few stitches placed in it if not more. He quickly ripped his white shirt and tied a piece of it tightly over the gash in his head to stop the bleeding in it. He then tore another piece of it and tied it tightly over his ribs to stop the pain from being kicked in them so many hours ago. There was an arrow sticking out of his arm, and he knew that he couldn't go on without pulling it out. After biting down on his shirt, Erik pulled the arrow out of his flesh, causing him to yell in agony. He now looked like a living hell but wasn't stopping his journey. After struggling to his feet, Erik walked back over to his horse and took the reins in his hands.

"Your holiday is over you retched beast. You drug me half across the damn Italian border to eat a patch of measly grass and now you'll take me back to where we need to go."

Erik climbed up onto it's back, and forced his horse to come back from where they came. It was still dark outside, and the only sound was from the crickets chirping in the moon light. Once they were back at the rock where Erik hit his head, he looked ahead and remembered Christine being taken away through the woods ahead of him.

"Let's go." he replied giving his horse a kick to get going. As he began to trek into the darks woods, Erik kept his eye out for anything that would tell him where Christine was taken. He kept his eyes to the ground, following any foot prints that were from a horse possibly even Christine's horse. It was defiantly going to be a long journey and when he found Christine's kidnappers he was going to have them pay.

Christine kept looking back behind her, thinking that maybe Erik was right behind them. It seemed as if she had been riding on her horse for hours, and her hopes of Erik being alright slowly slimmed. Clorinda who was sitting beside her, snuggled her head into Christine's cloak as she looked up at her.

"Do you think Papa's ok?"

"I hope so sweetie, I sure do hope so."

"Where are we going mother?"

"If I knew I'd tell you."

Once the woods cleared, a large palace stood in front of them just as the sun rose over it's horizon making it glow as if a large candle were behind it. Both hers and Clorinda's eyes widened as they got closer and closer to it's beauty. The palace was all sculpted in pure white sand stone with red trim and a wall to protect it from any intruders. Christine didn't know where they were, but she was sure going to find out. As they got closer, she watched as one of the men flung his arm up and the large doors around the wall to open to let them in. Once Christine could see the inside of it, she noticed a large garden of grape vines surround the premises. Surely who ever lived there loved wine or grape jelly. Once the doors closed, the men helped Clorinda and Christine down off of the horse, and ordered them to follow into the palace. Neither Christine or Clorinda spoke, and just did as they were told and entered with the men.

The hallway was long and dark but beautiful with it's stained glass windows. Clorinda tried to touch one of them, but Christine stopped her and kept walking forward. When they arrived at a large closed door, they stopped, and one of the men opened it and motioned Christine to go in with Clorinda. Christine did as she was told, and walked in hand and hand with Clorinda. When the men stayed back, she looked at them in confusion.

"You're not coming?"

"The countess prefers to see you alone." Replied one of the men.

Christine and Clorinda walked forward and that's when they saw the throne with an older woman sitting in it. She was an old beautiful woman with perm gray hair and dressed in an elegant blue gown. It took Christine a few moments to recognize her and when she realized who she was in front of she gasped.

"Mrs. DeChangy!"

"That's Countess to you Ms. Daae."

Christine looked away from her, and shook her head.

"No, I'm known as Mrs. Kire now."

The old woman got to the edge of her throne and looked down upon her in confusion.

"Mrs. Kire? Where is your husband? My men only found you and killed the monster."

Christine didn't want to bring any more attention to Erik so decided to lie to her.

"He died in the war. It's just me and my daughter now."

"You mean my Granddaughter."

It was Raoul's mother who stood before her, and Christine realized that she must have seen the birth certificate with Raoul's name on it.

"Did you hear me Ms. Daae?"

Christine faced the old woman who she never really liked even when she was child and wanted nothing more than for Erik to come through the doors and save her.

"Yes, I did hear you. What do you want with me and my daughter?"

"Seeing that you did marry my son right before he died it makes you the Countess and now you and my granddaughter will live here with me and be treated like the royalty that you are."

"Please I appreciate your offer, but you must understand that I can't live here."

"And why on earth not?"

"Because I did already have a life where I was. I have friends and family where I was and I wouldn't want to be in any other place."

"Ah but you don't understand, the girl is my grandchild and next in line to be countess. She is Raoul's daughter and now she will live here with me weather you stay or not."

Christine squeezed her fists in anger, and shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Raoul is not her father! My husband is her father!"

The countess stepped down from her throne, and looked Christine in the face as if she were going to punish her.

"You would swear on that to God?"

"Yes I would. Raoul and I never slept together and then when he died your other monster of a son raped me. My husband killed him and he killed that evil demon Colum. Your sons were all nothing but a pack of vicious monsters and you're the queen of them all. I will not be staying here and neither will Clorinda. She is going home with me and there's nothing you can do about it."

Seconds later, the countess snapped her fingers and her guards came into the room. She looked at them with evil eyes and pointed to Christine and Clorinda.

"Lock the song bird up in the dungeon and as for the child make sure she stays where no one can save her."

The guards then hauled Christine and Clorinda away as they screamed and tried to get loose.

It seemed that Erik had been riding for hours before he came upon the palace. Guards were guarding every corner of the building along with a large wall that was blocking the entrance. Erik knew that if he approached the palace walls looking as he did the guards would surly shoot him before even letting him enter. As he was thinking of a way to get into the palace, Erik noticed a guard riding away from the palace giving him a great idea. Quickly Erik galloped behind the trees keeping up with the guard. When they were out of the Palace's site, Erik rode out of the trees and in front of the guards horse causing the guard's horse to be scared and stand up on his hind legs and falling on his back automatically crushing the guard. Erik immediately jumped off his horse, and undressed the guard and then undressed himself. After dressing the guard in his bloody clothes Erik placed on the blue guard jacket and hat. He still looked like a mess, but at least he looked like a guard now. Before getting up onto the guard's horse, Erik drug the body over to the bushes to hide him. Erik then jumped up onto the horse, and began to ride back to the palace. Once he was there, the guards must have spotted him, because the gates of the wall opened and he rode in. inside was gardens of grapes and flowers. Erik jumped down off of the horse, and walked inside the palace to find Christine.

Erik had to get cleaned up before he went any further. If someone spotted his deformity, the guards would surly kill him. After walking down the hallway, he slipped into the first door that was open and locked the door behind him. After walking over to the wardrobe that was in the room, Erik rummaged through the clothes that were in it and took out a crisp white shirt and a pair of fresh black trousers. As he searched for a cummerbund he found a black jacket to place over the white shirt and then found the cummerbund he was looking for. It was just his size and the color of blood red. Once he lied all the clothes out on a chair that was in the room, Erik stripped all of his clothes off and walked over to a dresser that had a basin of water sitting on top of it and began to wash the dirt off of his skin. He hadn't had a bath in days, and the tone of his skin was showing it. After running the water over his dirty flesh, the once dark color turned into his regular pale tone once more making him clean. His cuts on his chest and arm were visible but not a problem, he could cover them with the shirt and jacket. The problem was the gash on the top of his head because it stuck out like a sore thumb. After dressing himself, Erik began to open the drawers of the dresser, and noticed a small container sitting in one of them so picked it up to see what it was. As Erik held the small container in front of his eyes, he noticed that it was flesh colored makeup. It was then that Erik got the great idea of putting it over his gash so that who ever saw him wouldn't notice. After rubbing the cold cream over his gash, Erik smiled at himself in the mirror when the gash was no more. The gash was no longer visible, but his deformity was which was no good. Curious, Erik took some more of the cream, and rubbed it onto his deformed flesh, making that disappear as well.

Erik stood there looking at himself in the mirror and smiled at what he saw. For once in his life he looked handsome and like a normal man. It was then that their was a knock at the door, and Erik opened it to see a guard standing there in front of him. The guard looked at Erik with such confusion before speaking to him.

"Can I help you with something monsieur?"

"Sorry, I'm a guest here and became lost."

"Are you here to see the Countess?"

"Yes I am. If you wouldn't mind directing me to her it would be appreciated."

The guard nodded, and led Erik down the hall. How differently he was treated when he didn't look like a monster.

Once he came to a room with a throne, that is when he first saw the countess.

"What do you want?" she asked.

Erik stepped forward, and knelt before her.

"Madam, my name is Monsieur Erik and I'm the prince of Persia."

This had interested the Countess who smiled at him as soon as the words came out of his mouth.

"Prince you say?"

"Yes Madam. I am the prince and I have come here in hopes of spending time with you."

"What for?"

"My father thinks that it would be good to watch some one of your status and learn how to treat a lady. In return I can play the piano for you and write a composure just for you."

The countess shooed the guard away, and patted the seat beside her.

"You have a deal young Erik."

Erik sat down next to the countess, and tried not to stare at her.

"You're quit handsome young Erik. Do you have a special princess in your life?"

"No Madam Countess I do not."

The countess touched his leg, and smiled at him.

"Maybe after learning what it's like to treat a lady you will return the kindness to me. I would love to be your queen."

Erik just sat there and knew that it was going to be a long night but lying was his best way to find Christine…..

More to come! Happy Thanksgiving