-------Chapter Note----------- Ok so for this chapter the song to listen to is "In Joy and Sorrow" by HIM...again as always, you can find the song and the music video on youtube . com

-------------------------------------Chapter Three---------------------------------------------

"It is" Ameriese replied.

A light snow began to fall around her, Encircling their thaumaturgic ritual like an otherworldly snow globe. Ammon leaned his mouth in close to her eyes, then gave a soft blow from his amiable lips...lips that seemed eagerly willing to accept the wishes and desires of others. At least that is what Ameriese percieved them to be, as he gently removed a tiny flake that had been delicately kissing her eyelashes. Ammeriese shivered. Whether it be from the frore air nipping at her limbs or from Ammon's amative touch she didn't know. Her shivering did not go unnoticed. Ammon pulled her closer to him, inside his large velvet coat and wrapped it around her. Her slender arms gripped around his torso, his strong arms overlapping hers to circle around her torso. He could feel her blood, flowing through her veins, carrying her life force throughout her svelte body. Her beauty seemed almost to bewitch Ammon and he did not know why. However he could not forget the last time he was involved with a mortal woman, for that part of his past was laced with tragedy. Tragedy that kept him bound to his seclusion, bound to a promise he made one night so very long ago.

"Funny, how the past still lingers in the depths of the soul, even after all these isolated years." Ammon thought to himself as he fought back a crimson tear that wished to stain his green eyes.

Yet despite how hard Ammon tried to pull away from this girl, he could not, something was pulling him towards her and he knew nothing of this kind of magic she possessed. He was desperately trying to refrain from his old ways. In his younger days, she would have been just his type, to feast upon that is. He would not succumb to his old habit of greedily draining this beautiful body of hers, however, he could not resist the old temptation to toy with her beforehand.

"You're arms are cold" Ameriese said, although she could easily tolerate his cold contact, simply for that fact that he was touching her.

"Perhaps you can warm them up." Ammon replied, enjoying the feeling of her warm skin pressed against his naturally cold body.

Ameriese blushed and Ammon noticed how young...and innocent she was. Yet despite her young heart, Ammon could feel that it was slowly dying, being shattered by something in her recent past. Her heart should have been frivolous and full of life, yet what resided in it was anguish and sorrow. He did find a little bit of hope that flickered in her heart like the last embers of a dying fire. He found that to be so beautiful.

Ammon leaned down and placed his chin on her shoulder then spoke softly into her ear. "So tell me, what is a beautiful young girl like you doing out here all on her own?"

His voice in her ear sent tingles traveling down her spine. Ameriese let the side of her cheek rest on the lapel of his jacket as she stared out through the spectacle before her. The dancers seeming to stir up her memories with every step, every turn. Perhaps she was lost in the sight in front of her, perhaps it was simply time to get it off her chest, whatever the reason, Ameriese felt perfectly comfortable with this handsome stranger, and she let her story flow from her lips like a sweet summer wine.

"My mother died not four months ago. She was all I had left in this cruel world." A tear glittered in the corner of her fiery brown eyes, threatening to race down her face.

"Before she died, she wanted to make sure that I would have a roof over my head and meals everyday. So she arranged a husband for me. I desperately wanted to please her before she departed, so I agreed. I had never met the man before but I knew he had money, as well as a fondness for young girls. My mother died two days after I had sold my happiness to a man I barely knew. The morning of my wedding I stood there in my mother's beautiful dress, looking into my bedroom mirror. What I saw frightened me. The girl staring back at me was not this happy carefree girl I once knew. Her heart was saddened, and her face showed it. At that very moment I decided I couldn't go through with the marriage, I couldn't decieve my heart into being happy with or loving that man. I just was not strong enough." Tears were now making their gentle descent down her soft cheeks.

"He was decades older than me!" Ameriese stated, her tearful eyes pleading with him to understand.

"Darling, I am centuries older than you." Ammon thought to himself as a devilish grin spread across his face.

"So I ran away that very morning, just before the sun came up. Leaving everything behind me, my home, my betrothed, my comfortable lifestyle. I was able to barter a ride for Remi and I among a gypsy boat named the Fortunato, fortunate, it was not." Her eyes widened as the frightful memory seeped into her mind like a poison, a ghostly reminder of how close to death she had come, playing before her eyes.

"We encountered a great storm, I...I...barely remember what happened...I could hear Remi screaming...or was it people screaming? Voices, crying out against the shrill wind and thundering skies... The water stung our eyes.. as we dived into the threatening sea...I remember clinging on to Remi's strong neck...then everything went dark. Next thing I knew, I could feel... sand in between my fingers and toes, and I could hear waves breaking against the shore." Ameriese could not continue, she struggled immensely to hold back her emotions.

"Sweetheart you did nothing wrong. You allowed your heart to guide you. Most of us only wish we could be that strong." Ammon said as he pulled her chin up to his face to look into her beautiful eyes as they glistened from her tears.

Ameriese smiled as she looked into his captivating eyes, then buried her face into his chest as she could no longer fight back her emotions. Ammon held her head in his hands, his fingers running through her silky brown hair as she cried into his heart. His velvet coat catching her tears as they escaped from her eyes. It was at this moment that Ammon felt something he had not felt in ages. Something was stirring deep down in his chest. He felt it again, a thud against his ribcage. "What is this?!?! A heartbeat?!?" Ammon asked himself as the strangely familiar feeling drummed throughout his body. "But how can this be?"

-----------------------------------------------woo! sorry it took long to update but I am quite busy with school and work and soccer and art and horseback riding...and art...hehe I plan to do a drawing of both Ammon and Ameriese so that you can see what they look like ; )