A/N: So still on a roll I see. I've like updated four stories today. My hands are like totally cramping and this is my last one of the day! So I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 4: A Virtuous Love

We pulled apart our bodies heaving from the emotions that were flowing through us. His eyes were nearly black and gave off a heated look. I shuddered again under that gaze, a gaze that offered me so much more than what I could offer.

"We can't…," he said to me unable to finish the sentence. But I already knew what he was going to say to me. We can't start this, we can't be together. It's all wrong, so very wrong.

I am a human and he's a gargoyle. I am supposed to hate him, think that he is nothing more than my guard dog. To him I am nothing more than an innocent, pathetic human. I shouldn't be worth the time of day to him. But as we stand here, bodies pressed against one another, I don't see a difference. All that I see are two people, two people from two different worlds pulled together under terrible circumstances. And all I want to do is feel his lips on mine again.

"I am not afraid of you," I say this time with more confidence than I had before. I look him straight in the eye as I tell him so. He looks away from me. "And I don't want to leave."

"You're a human," he says to me as if this will somehow solve everything. I shake my head, my curls falling down around me as I do so.

"And you're a gargoyle."

He pushes my body away from him, keeping me at arm's length. I feel the regret and hurt as his hands release me, leaving me to stand alone by the fire side. I can immediately feel the loss of heat from his body and can't seem to find it in the warmth of the fire.

"I am sorry," I say to him feeling as if this is something I should say. I feel like I should apologize for kissing him. Yet I don't feel sorry for doing it.

"It's…I can't…you're human," he says again shaking his long mane of hair. I look at him not completely understanding what he's trying to tell me with his half answered words. But deep down I know. I know exactly what he's trying to tell me.

"It won't happen again," I say raising my head up in that proud way my Mother had taught me years ago. "I was foolish to press such a thing on you. It's not your duty to fulfill my childish fantasies. Your duty is to protect me. You can't protect me if I am being imprudent around you. I promise it won't happen again."

I let my words sink in around me. I am doing all that I can to make sure that my body remembers those words, recites them over and over again, making sure that I don't let myself fall prey to my feelings. I can't let those feelings rule me. If I do I might never recover from it.

"No," he says in a barely hearable voice. "No."

"Yes, you're right it was wrong and I won't let it happen again," I say again not understanding what he's trying to tell me. He shakes that long mane of hair of his again in exasperation.

"I don't want you to regret anything you do within my presence," he says still keeping the distance between us. I made no move towards him. "If you did I would never know how to protect you."

Still I say nothing and do not move towards him. I am afraid that if I do, when I do that we'll both see how seriously unintelligent this whole thing really is. We're not supposed to even want to be together. We shouldn't even be attracted to one another. Its blasphemy and I know that by falling into these feelings of mine I've damned myself straight into hell.

"I want to kiss you again," he tells me and I am already waiting for the "but" in that sentence. "But I can't because it's not what's expected of us. It's just not right."

I cringe at those words because that's exactly what I am thinking. We can't do this, it's wrong on so many different levels.

"I know. Maybe we should pretend like it never happened. Just you know, go on like before," I suggested hoping he wouldn't agree. Because I think deep down I know I wouldn't be able to just go on. Not when I am feeling the way that I am.

"You're right maybe we should," he agreed and I felt like my whole world just went tumbling down around me. I want to stop him and tell him how ridiculous this whole thing is. It doesn't matter to me and it shouldn't matter to anyone else either. But then just like that he walked away from me and leapt out of my balcony and into the fridge night air. I watched him go until I couldn't see him anymore. Then I turned towards the fire that blazed to the left of me and cried silently as I tried to remember the heat of him against my skin.

I barely saw him for almost another three weeks. Three weeks of us just living like nothing happened. Yet every time we look at one another, say something to one another the memory of what happened…what could have happened resurfaces.

"My Father wrote me," I say with a sigh as we sit once again in my room. I am sitting on one side on a chaise lounge while he leans, brooding, against one of the stone walls. There is so much more between us now than just this empty space of my room.

"What did he want?" He asks me, not in a rude way, but not in a way that meant he might actually care.

"He's informing me that I have a suitor now," I saw with all of the nonchalance I can muster. I don't look over at him.

"What does that mean?" He questions me and I finally turn to actually look at him. It's probably the first time I have in three weeks. He isn't looking at me; he's looking at the fire that blazes in the fireplace. I wonder if he sees and feels the same thing I do every time I look into it. Does he feel my skin on his like I do mine?

I let the question die there.

"It means someone has requested of my father to see me on a romantic basis," I say flippantly. "It's someone who plans to see if we would make a good match."

"Oh."

The silence stretches between us. I search his features hoping to see any sign of pain. I am hoping to see if I can see any sign of remorse for deciding against us. I am hoping I can see my feelings etched across his red face.

"Do you know who it is?" He further inquires and I feel the strings of my heart pull for just a fraction of a second.

"No," I reply quietly. "He doesn't say."

I don't see anything.

Two nights later I walk about the castle's edge. The water crashes angrily against the seascape daring anyone who might try to ride its waves. I breathe in deeply smelling the crispness of the air, revealing in it. I hadn't had a change to be outside for some days now. This year's winter has come down hard upon its land, leaving a dreary place in its wake. The sun is setting fast against the grey back drop of the land. Breukelen will be waking soon. He'll not find me in my room and somehow I just can't find it in my heart to care anymore. The indifference is almost too unbearable to stand.

"I don't understand," a voice yells at me against the whipping winds created by the cold, wet sea. I turn to see Princess Finella wrapped in dark furs, her long blonde locks whipping against her face. I look at her in confusion as she approaches me. "I don't understand what he sees in you!" My heart stops at what she might be thinking. There is only one person that might possibly see anything in me and she would never even consider thinking of him. No, no one knew about us. No one knows about that night.

"Finella I don't know what you're talking about!" I yell back against the winds, willing it to die down.

"He wants to be your suitor! After everything I've done for him, after everything he knows I would do for him," she tells me and still I have no idea what she's talking about. I shake my head at her, the bewilderment of the conversation not making any sense to me. "But I'll make him see, I'll make him understand that I am the only woman who'll ever truly love him."

She started at me her arms raised as if to strike me. "Finella stop!" I yell at her pulling my own arms up to block her, but it seems as if my words fall on deaf ears.

I feel the edge of the castle with the heel of my foot; rocks come loose and tumble down below me as I back away from her. But Princess Finella I can tell has no desire to stop her advances on me. I turn my head seeing the sun completely set over the darkening horizon. I barely have time to turn back around before Finella shoves me off the cliff.

I let a scream rip the night air as I fall backwards. My arms and legs reach out around me searching for anything to grab on to. But I feel nothing but air as I fall helplessly into the nothingness around me. I feel nothing as I fall to my death.

**

A/N: I know, I know super short but I already have the next chapter in the works. You're going to love it. It's from Breukelen's point of view…