The Whispered Word, Lenore Chapter 33, a phantom of the opera fanfic

Props to you, Mominator! The only reader to mention Erik can't really keep demons and archangels out of his house if they want to drop in. I never pointed this out (and perhaps I should have), but Michael, being the archangel that he is, won't go anywhere he's not welcome unless he's there on official business. Therefore, Michael won't go down there, and Satan knows that if he goes down to try and tempt her, Michael will be sent in again. Needless to say, Michael would not be pleased, and Satan knows better than to piss off Michael.

I'm sure you all know the spiel by now, I don't own Phantom, fic takes place about twenty years into the present, blah blah blah, REVIEW…

"Erik, this is really weird," Lenore commented.

"What is?" Erik inquired. Being two people? I can imagine it would be…

"My legs…they're perfect," she whispered. Erik smiled; he remembered what it was like trying to adjust to having a good portion of his face perfect, to having a nose. "And my chest is larger. And I have an hourglass sort of figure that I didn't before. And my ass is bigger. And my face is amazingly clear of any acne. I…I'm prettier now, aren't I? You like it, right? That I'm more beautiful now?"

"You were beautiful before," Erik informed her, "and you are still beautiful now. You once told me that beauty is a light in the heart, and though your body may have changed, that light in your heart has not."

"And that's why we're marrying him, Wolfe," Lenore said proudly. "Yes, it seems there's more to him than his money and the fact that…never mind. Oh, go on and tell him Wolfe. If you won't, I will. Suit yourself. We were suffering severe floods of hot desire in the restaurant that night every time we looked at you, Erik. There was even an occasion when we just pictured you in our mind and- That's quite enough! These aren't proper things to discuss with the man."

"Why ever not, mademoiselle? We're going to be married, after all," Erik responded.

"Because it's simply not done in high society, that's why. Well, high society can go screw itself. Why are you so vulgar, Parker? Because I'm common middle class."

"Are the two of you going to keep at this for eternity?" Erik asked, not sure how much longer he could take this.

"Well, if she wasn't stubborn, I could take over and resume my life. Oh, I'm stubborn? At least I'm not selfish and want to take over someone else's life."

She bickered with herself for the rest of the journey back to the house on the lake. Erik almost wished Satan and Michael would pop up just so she'd be quiet. When they finally set foot in the house, Lenore turned and looked at Erik.

"Where's my engagement ring?" It was both sides of Lenore that asked, surprisingly enough.

"I took it off while you were in bed; I didn't want it catching on the sheets," he explained.

"Well, I want it now," she demanded.

"It's in the bedroom," Erik informed her. He wasn't going to go running off just because she wanted something. She could get it herself, there was nothing wrong with her legs in this life.

The moment she returned from fetching her ring, she had another question for him. "Erik…do you still have my necklace from before? The one with the black pearl?"

Erik took a deep breath. "Yes, though I'm afraid it will be very difficult to retrieve," he said.

"I'd really like it. Where is it?" she asked.

"On your…on your…" He couldn't finish that sentence.

"Oh," she mumbled.

"But I can get it if you really wish," Erik assured her.

"No, leave it there. It…it belongs there." He could hear that she was on the verge of tears. "You know, I was always afraid that if I opened my heart to someone that…it would break." A slight chuckle that was more of a sob than a laugh issued from her throat. "I was right."

Erik cupped her face in his hands, tilting it up so that she had to look at him. "It wasn't opening your heart to someone that broke it. And if it somehow did cause your death, take comfort in the fact that you are truly loved."

"Then that's why you're doing this?" the new Lenore said. "Is it because I look like her, because a part of her is in me, that you want to marry me?"

"Yes," Erik answered truthfully.

"It's okay," she said softly, though he knew it was anything but okay. "I wouldn't have gotten to marry for love anyway." She pulled away from him, heading for the bedroom. "I haven't had any lessons for two days. Shouldn't we work on getting my voice back in shape?"

Erik sighed and stood there for a few minutes while she went in without him. Why did you have to choose Second Life? Now I'll end up hurting half of you. That half will die, and I don't want to be the cause of that. At some point, one side of her was going to win this war, and stay in her body permanently, while the other part faded into nothingness.

The melody started just as he walked into his room; Hiroshi had mentioned that Lenore had had piano lessons.

I've been looking in the mirror for so long
That I've come to believe my soul's on the other side.
Oh, the little pieces falling, shatter.
Shards of me,
Too sharp to put back together.
Too small to matter,
But big enough to cut me into so many little pieces.
If I try to touch her,
And I bleed,
I bleed,
And I breathe,
I breathe no more.

Take a breath and I try to draw from my spirit's well.
Yet again you refuse to drink like a stubborn child.
Lie to me,
Convince me that I've been sick forever.
And all of this,
Will make sense when I get better.
I know the difference,
Between myself and my reflection.
I just can't help but to wonder,
Which of us do you love?
So I bleed,
I bleed,
And I breathe,
I breathe now...
Bleed,
I bleed,
And I breathe,
I breathe,
I breathe-
I breathe no more.

That voice he had trained to hold perfect pitch and clarity also knew how to deliver a piece so that it devastated the soul. Turning away, he walked back out into the drawing room. Lenore would spend the afternoon singing songs of utter depression and despair, and he didn't think he could listen to it. He knew those feelings too well.

After finishing with Breathe No More, Lenore moved into Boulevard of Broken Dreams. That was followed with Numb, which was proceeded by Wish I Had An Angel. Somewhere I Belong, Losing My Religion, When I'm Gone, Tears of Pearls, Watch Me Bleed, December, Behind Blue Eyes, Vindicated, the list went on and on.

Finishing One Last Breath, she decided she should try to lighten things up a bit. So she sang There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place). Not good enough, let's try something else.

Every now and then I get a
little bit lonely and you're never coming around.
Every now and then I get a
little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears.
Every now and then I get a
little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by.
Every now and then I get a
little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes.

Every now and then I fall apart
Every now and then I fall apart

Every now and then I get a
little bit restless and I dream of something wild.
Every now and then I get a
little bit helpless and I'm lying like a child in your arms.
Every now and then I get a
little bit angry and I know I've got to get out and cry.
Every now and then I get a
little bit terrified but then I see the look in your eyes.
Every now and then I fall apart.
Every now and then I fall apart.

And I need you now tonight.
And I need you more than ever.
And if you'll only hold me tight,
We'll be holding on forever.
And we'll only be making it right
Cause we'll never be wrong together
We can take it to the end of the line.
Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time.
I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark.
We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks.
I really need you tonight.
Forever's gonna start tonight.
Forever's gonna start tonight.

Once upon a time I was falling in love
But now I'm only falling apart.
There's nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart.
Once upon a time there was light in my life
But now there's only love in the dark.
Nothing I can say
A total eclipse of the heart.

Every now and then I know
you'll never be the boy you always you wanted to be.
But every now and then I know
you'll always be the only boy who wanted me the way that I am.
Every now and then I know
there's no one in the universe as magical and wondrous as you.
Every now and then I know
there's nothing any better, there's nothing that I just wouldn't do.
Every now and then I fall apart.
Every now and then I fall apart.

And I need you now tonight
And I need you more than ever.
And if you'll only hold me tight
We'll be holding on forever.
And we'll only be making it right
Cause we'll never be wrong together
We can take it to the end of the line.
Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time.
I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark.
We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks.
I really need you tonight.
Forever's gonna start tonight.
Forever's gonna start tonight.

Why did I sing that? Every now and then I get a little bit lonely…Do I really need him tonight? Let's give this song thing another go.

Night time sharpens, heightens each sensation.

Darkness stirs and wakes imagination.

Silently the senses abandon their defenses,

helpless to resist the notes you write;

for you compose the music of the night.

Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendor.

Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender.

Hearing is believing, music is deceiving,

hard as lightning, soft as candlelight.

Dare I trust the music of the night?

I close my eyes, for my eyes will only tell the truth

and the truth isn't what I want to see.

In the dark it is easy to pretend

that the truth is what it ought to be.

Softly, deftly, music shall caress you.

Hear it, feel it, secretly possess you.

I open up my mind as my fantasies unwind

in this darkness which I know I cannot fight;

the darkness of the music of the night.

I close my eyes, start a journey to a strange new world

leave all thoughts of the world I knew before.

I close my eyes and let music set me free.

Only then is my soul where it longs to be.

Floating, falling, sweet intoxication.

Touch me, trust me, savor each sensation.

Let the dream begin, as my darker side gives in

to the power of the music that you write;

the power of the music of the night.

You alone can make my voice take flight.

Let me sing the music of the night.

Her hands clenched into fists and she pounded the ivory keys in her frustration. Why can't I have a normal life like everyone else? Why do I have to be down here, falling in love with a man that my other half loved in a previous life? How can I trust that these are my feelings and not hers?

"Beneath the Opera House, I know he's there," she began to whisper to herself. "He's with me on the stage; he's everywhere. And when my song begins, I always find the Phantom of the Opera is there inside my mind. I sing again with you, our strange duet. Your power over me grows stronger yet. I'll give my love to you, for love is blind. The Phantom of the Opera is now my mastermind."

If I tell him how I feel, I'll have to acknowledge the feelings myself. And then there's no going back. What if he only wants her? What if he doesn't want any part of me? But if that was the case, then why didn't he help her take control? Why didn't he try to get rid of me?

What is that damn annoying feeling?

Looking down to where said feeling was issuing from, which happened to be her left leg, she saw something move. Inching every so slowly up her leg was a rather large wolf spider. "Oh dear," she breathed softly. Closing her eyes tightly, she concentrated on Erik as hard as she could. ERIK! Erik failed to appear and the spider kept up its trek. It seemed to be quite content to finally settle itself on her upper left thigh, rather close to a very private area.

"Are you done practicing now?" Erik inquired after the spider had been resting on her thigh for a good ten minutes or more.

"Spider," she squeaked in a voice pitched so high that the word was completely unintelligible and probably would've made dogs howl had they been anywhere near her.

"Beg your pardon?" Erik said, coming over to the organ. Then he saw the spider "Oh. He's a rather large one, isn't he? A good four inches at least."

"Get it off," she hissed through gritted teeth.

Erik stood behind her and reached his right hand around her. "Whatever you do, try not to scream," Erik instructed. "Or curse at me if and most likely when my hand brushes certain areas."

Slowly, Erik began to slide his hand toward the spider. Seeing the movement, the spider skittered around a bit, moving up onto her lower abdomen. "The situation has gotten worse," Lenore informed Erik.

"Just hold still and keep quiet."

Lenore closed her eyes and tried to envision herself sitting down and having a wonderful conversation with Michael and Satan about theology, coming up with various questions that would greatly benefit her book. But her concentration slipped when she felt the spider move once again, coming to a stop on her right breast.

"Erik," she whimpered.

"I'm doing my best, but wolf spiders are known for their speed and sensitivity to movement," he replied. "Now keep quiet."

Erik employed both hands in the effort to catch the spider, coming at it from above and below at the same time. "HOLY HELL!" Lenore yelled when a sharp pain shot through her breast. The offending spider was successfully caged in Erik's right hand. Grabbing her with his left, he picked her up and used his inhuman strength to throw her over onto the bed.

"Don't move other than to breathe!" he commanded, his voice taking on that strange power of forcing her to do his bidding. Moments later, he returned with a glass in hand. "I'm afraid the next half hour is going to be very long, ma chérie."

Ripping open the white dress shirt, sending buttons flying, Erik positioned himself over her right breast. He latched onto the wound and began to suck out the venom. It hurt, but she couldn't twitch at all; his command still held her. The next half hour was compromised of Erik sucking on the wound, then spitting out the blood he'd extracted into the glass he'd brought in.

"Am I going to die?" she asked when he was finished.

"No," he answered confidently. "It was a defensive bite more than anything else, so it was most likely dry or if it had any venom, it was a rather small amount. I merely sucked out your blood for the prescribed half hour in case you were unlucky enough to have a full shot of venom."

"Or maybe you just like sucking on my breast," Lenore retorted playfully.

"I suppose there's always that," Erik grinned.

"Are you gonna let me move now?"

"No, I'm afraid you'll have to stay like this for the next twenty four hours. After that, I'll release you, but you're on strict bed rest until the end of the week."

"I'm not allowed to do anything more than lay here and breathe for a whole day?"

"You catch on rather quick, don't you?"

"This wouldn't have happened if you'd come in when I called," Lenore complained.

"You didn't call for me," Erik argued.

"Yes, I did! I called with my mind. Screamed frantically with my mind, actually, but still. You didn't come."

"It doesn't work like that, ma petite. I have to be in your mind to hear you, surely you know or remember that," Erik replied.

"Well what good are you, then?" she grumbled.

Erik raised an eyebrow. "Surely you don't need me to remind you of the multiple ways I can please you."

"It's been so long, you've probably forgotten how," Lenore returned.

"Perhaps a refresher course is necessary then. We'll have a lesson this time tomorrow," Erik stated.

"What if I'm a poor teacher?"

"Whoever said you were the teacher?"

"What if I don't learn the lesson?" Lenore challenged.

Erik smirked. "Then I'll have to teach it again. I have an infinite amount of time on my hands that could use preoccupations such as giving lessons."

Erik was starting to feel worried for Lenore. Her two halves weren't bickering anymore; they were taking turns. Which would lead to one half eventually dominating and the other fading away. Though it seemed both sides of Lenore shared the fear of spiders.

He was currently in the process of searching the room for the spider's mate, as the mate was always somewhere close by. Finding it hiding underneath the desk, he scooped it up and took it outside the house. When he returned, Lenore asked the question he didn't want to hear.

"Is it dead?"

"Would it make you feel better if I lie and say 'yes'?"

"Of course that would make me feel better, knowing that it can come back at any moment and get a taste of my other breast while I'm blindly believing the thing's dead," she replied sarcastically. "I suppose you didn't kill the one that bit me either."

"Really, Lenore, it's not that bad," Erik defended the poor thing. "You'll live."

"Go have a breast implant, have a spider bite one of them, and then tell me it's not that bad."

Erik stared at her. What man in his right mind would want to have surgery to look like a woman? That was a disturbing thought. That's my Lenore…

"So…I'm already bored and I've only got twenty three hours and forty five minutes before I can do anything," Lenore mentioned. Erik said nothing, merely went about the room making sure there were no other spiders to prey on his precious chouchoute. "Wow, the level of boredom has increased. I'll probably die of boredom…"

"I do not entertain for free," Erik said.

"Wouldn't the smile you could bring to my face be sufficient payment?"

"I do not entertain for amusement," Erik informed her, wishing she would stop asking.

"Oh, come on. What else am I going to do for the next twenty four hours?"

"So I'm an amusement for you, mademoiselle? I was an amusement for another woman once, you know. The sultana loved watching me employ my talents in the art of murder. Perhaps I should borrow a member of the Opera cast to amuse you. Would you like that?" he snarled.

"I don't want you to kill anyone"-

"Oh? Then perhaps you wish to gawk at my face. Perhaps you'd prefer to see me as the chief exhibit of a traveling show?" Erik snapped. He would never let himself be reduced to someone else's source of amusement again! Never!

"Erik, stop it. I didn't mean to upset you, okay?"

"Well maybe you should stop to think before you make such stupid requests," he hissed.

"Stop it! I don't understand why you're reacting like this but"-

"No, you wouldn't understand. You've never spent three years of your life in a cage, having people pay to press around the bars and stare at your face."

There was a heavy silence between the two of them as they stared at one other, icy blue eyes filled with angry madness and brilliant blue eyes filled with pity. "I'm sorry," Lenore finally broke the silence. "I didn't know."

But it wasn't her fault at all. He'd never told her anything about his life except how he'd become immortal. He couldn't expect her to know, shouldn't have gotten so angry with her. She was like an ill child, asking for something to take her mind off her sickness.

"What will you have then? Sleights of hand? Music? Ventriloquism?" Erik inquired.

Lenore stared at him for a moment, baffled. Not that he blamed her. "Would you read to me?" she finally requested.

Erik nodded, going out into the drawing room to the bookshelves. His hand was halfway through pulling out the Rubaiyat when his eyes fell upon a book he felt she would be interested in. Pushing the Rubaiyat back into place, he removed the other book from the shelf and returned to her.

Though the book was more than twenty years old, the spine showed very little evidence of wear, as he had never been able to bring himself to read this book, or any of its companions.

"The Eye of the World," she noted with a smile. "You kept my books. From the looks of it, you took good care of them too."

Lenore had spent the last twenty four hours listening to Erik's voice read to her from the Wheel of Time series and slipping in and out of sleep. She had her eyes closed when she heard the book snap shut. She jumped a mile, her eyes flying open; she wasn't expecting such an abrupt end, considering they were in the middle the third book and where he left off didn't sound like the end of a chapter.

Wait a minute, I moved! How did I miss the moment he released me?

"I believe it's time for your lesson, ma petite," Erik said as he set the book aside.

"But…we didn't finish the chapter," Lenore said, slightly disappointed. She liked how beautiful he made the words sound. His voice made everything easy to visualize in her mind, and the battles no longer seemed jumbled bloody messes. Battles were intricate dances in his voice.

"You are"- he began, pausing to place a kiss on her forehead, "the strangest woman," another kiss, this time on the tip of her nose, "I've ever met." The third kiss landed on her lips, a very light touch that left her wanting more. "A man stops reading to you so that he may steal a few kisses and you complain that the chapter isn't finished."

"Because you can't just stop in the middle of a chapter, everyone knows that," Lenore said in her defense.

"If I'm reading to you, I may stop whenever I wish," Erik pointed out. "Even if I happen to be in the middle of a word." To keep her from replying, Erik pressed his lips to hers, drowning her in the deep well of passion that he'd contained for twenty two years.

When they finally came up for air, Lenore did what she did best; complain. "You should be on top of me, not sitting next to me."

"That's for tomorrow's lesson, provided you learn today's of course," Erik replied. He returned his lips to hers, slipping his tongue into her mouth.

I remember this. It was so long ago…but it feels like it was just yesterday. Erik, why do I feel like you rip my soul out of my body every time you kiss me? Is that what love is? Losing your soul to another? Stop playing around with me, let's take this 'lesson' up a notch.

Erik pulled away from her. "How long has it been since Lenore Wolfe spoke?" he asked her.

"I haven't heard her for hours now," Lenore admitted.

"Call her, see if she responds."

Lenore didn't understand his concern, but did as he requested nonetheless. "Nothing," Lenore told him. "Well…not nothing exactly…just…memories. Shaving a cat, a governess called Miss Nancy, Hiroshi acting as my father, classes at Harvard and how the other Harvard girls were…cruel to me. I didn't have any friends…" She paused a moment. "No, I had friends. Jamie, Kathleen, Brad and Lily. But at the same time, I distinctly remember having no friends whatsoever. I remember public school, but I know I had private tutors."

Erik took a deep breath. Lenore Wolfe was, as far as could be discerned, gone. Those memories were from the mind, not her soul. Lenore would retain all the knowledge Wolfe had accumulated, of course, but that proper lady of a wealthy family was gone.

I should feel remorse that Wolfe has faded. But somehow, the only thing I can think of is how pleased I am that Lenore Parker won control. That poor girl…she shouldn't have had to disappear. Why didn't she put up more of a fight?

Then he realized that she hadn't simply lost the fight; she'd surrendered completely. The last song she had sung before she began to fade had been entitled One Last Breath. Her voice rang in his ears, the last few lines of the song. "I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking, maybe six feet ain't so far down. Please come now, I think I'm falling holding on to all I think is safe." If he'd only listened to that plea, at the moment she realized what she was giving up and wanted to turn back, he might have been able to help her somehow. If you'd known, would you have helped her? Or would you have simply let her slip away, knowing you'd get the half you wanted back because of it?

"Erik…I'll have to have my family at the wedding. How will they handle me suddenly being back from the dead and looking like this?" she said worriedly.

Erik merely shrugged. He had no idea how her family would take it. Probably not very well though. Hell, her brother Mark and his wife Tori had a daughter, Olivia, who was only a few weeks younger than Lenore.

"I should call my mom, she's probably…well, maybe she's not really grief-stricken anymore, it's been about twenty two years for her," Lenore remarked. "I…I would like to go visit them though. I wonder if Mom and Dad moved like they always talked about? What's happened to John since I've been gone? I've missed so much…"

"John married your friend Kathleen Devlin," Erik informed her.

"How do you know that?" Lenore inquired. "And I doubt he married Kathleen, she's about nine years younger than him."

How to tell her…I suppose the honest truth is best. "Your immediate family moved to Paris and the surrounding areas after your…" he paused; he had to say the word, it was absurd to be unable to say it," after your death. Mark and his family live in Puteaux, John and Kathleen are in Ville-d'Avray. Your mother lives in Saint Queen."

"…what about Dad?" she whispered after a moment.

"He…passed on three years ago," Erik responded.

"You…you're lying," she accused, tears in her eyes. "Dad can't be dead, and they wouldn't have all moved here."

"They came for a memorial service, and lingered to help Ember through her grief. They come here every August, to…to visit your…" He stopped there. It was hard for him to talk to her about her own death, about the tomb he had given her. "They wanted to be close to you and I would not allow them to take you and have you buried in your native country. Your mother spent a half a year down here, and would have starved herself to death had I not forced her eat. At first, it was only your parents that came to France. When your father died, your brothers moved into the surrounding areas to be near your mother. Your brothers and sister are the only reason she goes on living."

"I should go see her, then," Lenore said. "I know I'm supposed to be on strict bed rest, but couldn't I just"-

"No. Do you have any idea what an unexpected visit from her dead daughter could do to her?"

"But she's my mother, and she misses me!" Lenore argued.

"You're not to see her unless I accompany you," Erik said firmly. "When I feel the time is appropriate, then we'll go for a visit."

"I'm quite capable of visiting my mother on my own."

"Do you have the ability to hold together the threads that keep her grip on sanity when you explain what happened?" Erik asked. "Unless you've become immortal without telling me, I seriously doubt you can keep her sane."

"What about my brothers? Can I see them?"

"When the time is right. Thankfully enough, Ember hasn't spoken about you to any of them, and they don't often attend Carmen, so there's very little chance they've seen you. It would be a horrible shock to just drop in on them."

There was a long silence that stretched between them. "I suppose Hiroshi will have to give me away, then," she finally said. "But…all my friends are so much older now. And they think I'm dead. I can't exactly just drop them a line saying "yeah, I'm alive and I'm getting married. Let me know if you're coming." That'd be a horrible way to break it to them."

"I wasn't expecting a large wedding," Erik informed her. "Just the required number of witnesses to have it legalized."

"But…I want all my friends and family there," Lenore protested. "And I want lots of pictures, and a reception afterwards."

"We'll discuss this later, when I decide upon a date," Erik said dismissively.

"Excuse me, you mean we. When we decide on a date."

I forgot that she has the exact opposite of my own opinion on every issue. "I will decide the date, you need not concern yourself with that," Erik replied. "I believe a night service in the Madeleine would be best. Perhaps they'll be willing to light it by candle that evening for us."

"I'd prefer an afternoon wedding; that way the reception can serve as dinner and the night would be spent dancing," Lenore stated.

"We don't need a reception; we're not having many guests," Erik declared.

"What's the point of getting married in a place as big as the Madeleine if nobody's coming to our wedding?" Lenore snapped.

"Everyone who's anyone is married in the Madeleine, you silly girl," Erik explained.

"Since when do you care whether or not society thinks of you as an important, high class gentleman?"

Erik was silent for a few minutes. He didn't really care about society of course. "It is where I wish to be married. Do I need any other reason?" Erik responded.

"Why do you want to be married there? I could understand if we had thousands attending the ceremony, but you say we won't. So what's the point? Why not just get married in a little church or go to a Justice of the Peace, or whoever it is French couples go to when they elope?"

"Erik will have a proper Catholic wedding and the world will know it! Even God won't be able to ignore it if we're wed in the Madeleine! Then they'll all have to acknowledge that I am loved for myself, that I didn't force you or threaten you! And our nuptial mass will be the most divine music mortals have ever heard," Erik told her.

"Erik…I'm not Catholic. And I don't think the world really cares. God'll just be pissed that you stepped foot into one of his churches and then proceeded to defile the church and the whole matrimony thing by being a condemned ex-catholic immortal taking a saved Methodist human wife," Lenore tried to reason with him. "Let's think about getting married elsewhere…we could have the ceremony in the Opera House, wouldn't you like that?"

"We'll be married in the Madeleine, even if I have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you kicking and screaming all the way," Erik snapped.

"Whatever happened to the whole not forcing or threatening idea?" she muttered.

"That's not forcing you into marriage. It's merely forcing you to marry me at the location of my choosing."

"You're annoying. And stubborn. And I'm not getting married in the Madeleine unless I can invite as many people as I want," she snarled. "Thank God we'll never have to have any discussions about naming children."

"This marriage will go according to my wishes," Erik proclaimed. "I've waited far too long to have it any other way."

"Fine! Have your precious wedding! Though I think it'll be a bit difficult without the bride in attendance!"

"What do you intend to do? Run away? I'll hunt you down and drag you back," Erik said calmly. "I might even give you a few slaps in an attempt to knock some sense into that silly head of yours."

"BLOODY MAN!" Lenore yelled. "Why does everything have to be your way? Are you going to pick out my gown while you're at it?"

"I've already selected the final design," Erik informed her.

"NO! If there's one thing about this wedding that I have a say in, it's my dress," she shouted.

Erik simply went to the desk and opened the drawer containing the sketches he'd made during the month when he gave her music lessons. Pulling out the design he'd decided upon for her wedding gown, he returned to the bed and handed it to her.

"I hate you," she mumbled. His design was everything she wanted in a wedding gown. The snug bodice, the full skirt, the transparent bell sleeves that would reach mid calf, and a train that would trail ten feet behind the gown. The intricate beadwork and elaborate embroidery.

"I'd hoped you'd like it," Erik said with a smile. "Consider it as though you told me precisely what you wanted, look at it as if you'd designed the gown yourself."

"You suck."

"I'm afraid that's not in my cache of options, what with your wound and all," Erik replied.

"You know exactly what I meant," she muttered darkly. "So, what's the fabric going to be, oh master of making every decision by himself?"

"Italian satin," he answered. "And do not sass me."

Lenore looked at him with reproachful eyes, making sure it appeared as if she felt properly ashamed and wouldn't dare do such a thing again. "Sass," she blurted out. "Sass, sass, sass. I am sassing you, sir! Sass!"

"I suppose I'll have to silence that sassy mouth of yours," Erik smirked, leaning in and giving her a deep, passionate kiss.

"Thus from my lips, by yours, my sass is purged," Lenore said, slightly altering Shakespeare's words.

"Then have my lips the sass that they have took?" Erik played along.

"Sass from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sass again," Lenore pleaded.

Hiroshi read the last few lines and gave the authoress a sexy smirk. "Would you like to purge your lips of your profanity, cupcake?"

"No thank you, I rather like my profanity on my lips," the authoress replied, smiling happily at the immortal she had sitting next to her on a leash.

"Well you're no fun," Hiroshi grumbled.

"If you were Erik, I would gladly take you up on the offer," the authoress assured him.

There was a rather loud 'thunk' as the authoress slumped over in her chair unconscious.

"Erik's mine," Lenore hissed, brandishing a dented frying pan.

"Good job, kitten," Hiroshi commended the girl. "Now why don't you get me off this strange leash she acquired from Michael?"

"…dude, I'm not that fond of you. Jack the Ripper, masquerading as my father in my Second Life thing…"

"You can't just leave me to the mercies of the authoress!" Hiroshi protested.

"Well, if the reviewers seem to think I should free you, then I suppose I could help you," Lenore consented. "So, do you all want me to help this fiendish imp? Remember, we accept anonymous reviews."