To stateofmind7337: If you left Erik and Kevin in a room for twelve hours, they'd probably both end up dead. Which would ruin the story. It'd be interesting to watch, though. And, Kevin wants me to tell you, "Voj wolnis frosp tenoso leisen kine, e hikesen vi."

To everyone: once again, I'm sorry about the wait. I was killed again by my pet vampire, Jack.

-

Amme ran through the trees down an almost completely hidden path to the vampire city in the northwest corner of Ahsela. She remembered taking this road many times before as a child, and then as a teenager. But when she had grown up, she had stopped going there so much. Maybe it was because she saw Kevin so often, they couldn't stand each other many more times. But now that had changed.

"Do you really think it's wise to leave your human friend alone in the city?"

Amme halted. Looking up, she saw Kevin perched on a tree branch, smirking down at her.

"I was just going to see you!" She smiled.

He jumped down lightly. "Really? But you left your…friend behind."

"So? He can take care of himself."

"I've noticed." Kevin yawned, showing his long, white fangs. "Just out of curiosity, is it true he lives under that opera theatre you worked?"

"Yes, he does," Amme confirmed. "And I do actually still work there. I'm just taking some—what do they call it?—personal days."

"So, what you're saying is, you'll have to go back?"

"Eventually, yes."

He made a face. "And I thought you'd be staying for good, selise. Shows you how much I know."

"I'm sorry, Kevin. But he is going to want to go back sometime, and I have to go with him. I promised I would."

"Unless he's dead."

"Don't, please. It's not really that bad."
"Selise, he wants you to stay with him for the rest of his life. So the only way for you to be free is if he's dead. And he probably won't die for some more years."

"I'll manage." Amme sighed. "He's really not as horrible as some people make him out to be."

"I thought he was some murdering, kidnapping, stalking man. At least, that's what I heard."

"Stop it, Kevin," Amme pleaded. "He's been very kind to me."

Kevin looked her straight in the eye. "Selise, you don't know anything good about him. You don't know who he is, where he came from, or even what his real name is. You don't why he wears a mask, or what's underneath it. And you know he's killed people, stalked people, kidnapped people, tortured people, and…"

"I get the idea!" Amme snapped. "And you've tortured and killed people, too!"

"That's different. I'm a vampire, he's a human!"

"I don't care. Kevin, really, accusing him of these things you yourself have done…well, it's not going to convince me."

Kevin exhaled. "We're never going to agree on this, are we, selise?"

Amme smiled crookedly. "I'm afraid not. I know you just worry about me, Kevin. So if you won't be angry with me, I won't be angry with you, and we can forget this conversation ever happened."

"I can deal with that."

"In that case, I should probably go back. I'll see you tomorrow?"

He grinned. "I'll be there!"

Walking home was almost more fun than running to see Kevin. Almost, mind you, almost. Amme did love running, but it had turned extremely dark and she preferred to walk in the dark. Anyways, she wasn't in any hurry.

She was just about to regret that decision.

"Hello, Amme."

Amme swore and jerked around, scanning the darkness. Her eyes fell upon a young man. His wavy chestnut hair had grown longer since the last time she saw him; it nearly covered his wide hazel eyes. His thin mouth was twisted up into a horrible smirk.

"I thought you were banished from this country, Erland." Amme said coldly.

"Well, it isn't actually my home country, so I thought it didn't matter." His eyes grew bright. "Anyways, I missed seeing you."

"Go to hell!"

"Now, now, Amme, what would your dear, dead sister think if she heard you talking like that?" Erland grinned.

"She would agree with me!"

He snickered. "I don't doubt that. She never liked me, did she?"

"She was smart."

"Oh, compared to you, certainly."

Amme felt around for a weapon of some kind to use. Erland noticed this.

"Don't tell me you're unarmed! This must be a first for you, Amme Eledhwen!"

Instead of answering, the elf sent a mental plea to Starlight for help. She waited for a reply, but nothing came. She had the strangest feeling the message had gotten intercepted somehow.

"What is it, Amme?" Erland taunted, drawing his sword. "Did you send a little message to your friend, Starlight? Are you afraid of me, afraid of me killing you? That's really pathetic, you know."

"Shut up, Erland, you stupid bastard!"

"Definitely not nice." He pressed his sword against her neck. "Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners? Oh, right, she can't, because she dead! Like your stupid sister!"

Amme hissed catlike.

"Are you ready to die now, Amme, dear?" Erland whispered. "Just like them?"

Amme was fully prepared to start kicking him when a whistling sound caught both their attentions. Another sword whipped through the air and clanged against Erland's.

Amme took advantage of his momentary lapse in attention by kicking him in the groin and punching him on the nose.

"Oof!" Erland fell to the ground.

The Phantom pointed his blade at Erland's heart. Then he asked Amme: "Would you be unhappy if I killed him right now?"

She snorted. "Why should I be?"

"You'll have to try harder than that to kill me!" Erland snarled. He hit away the Phantom's sword with his own and stood up again. Shrieking like a demon, he lunged forward. The Phantom barely managed to step back.

Erik lashed out his blade, connecting with Erland's. Erland growled, and thrust back, nearly knocking the Phantom to the ground. Regaining his balance, Erik whipped his sword around again, and this time caught Erland on his shoulder. Erland stumbled backwards before recovering himself and attacking with new vim.

And so it went on. One moment, Erik was winning; then next, Erland had the upper hand. The two of them were fairly equal swordsmen; Erland had had much more training and experience, but Erik was smarter, quicker, and a faster learner.

Amme, who was standing off to the side, watched the duel nervously. She couldn't get involved, for fear of hurting the Phantom. But she hated feeling so helpless and weak and, to use Erland's word, pathetic.

Erland finally managed to gasp, "Your new lover is much more impressive in action than appearance, Amme. I must say, though, you have some strange tastes."

Both Amme and Erik refused to be goaded into answering. Instead, Erik lunged in, his blade aimed straight for Erland's heart.

Erland quickly blocked him before continuing. "Really, Amme, a man in a mask? I thought you didn't like masks!"

Amme started hunting for a rock to throw, while Erik's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Do you really know anything about him?" Erland panted.

The elf finally found a good sized rock, and was ready to hurl it at the man when Erik twisted his sword around, catching the hilt of Erland's. A quick jerk, and Erland was disarmed.

Desperately, Erland backed up. "Do you know anything about her?" He rasped to the Phantom. "Do you know how easy it was to make her fall in love with me? Do you know how fickle she can be?"

Erik paused, curious despite himself. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't know her, then," Erland wheezed, clearly relieved the Phantom had stopped coming closer. "Let me tell you something, one man to another. If she gets bored of you first, she'll leave you without a second's consideration. If you are the first to tire, and you try to leave her, she'll call you, evil, a traitor, the spawn of Satan."

"You were a traitor!" Amme yelled. "You used me to spy on Ahsela! On my father! You pretended to be in love with me so I would be willing to give you information!"

"I never said I was in love with you," Erland denied, smirking.

"What? You little…" Amme turned to the Phantom. "Don't listen to him! He did! He said he loved him! He promised we'd get married…"

Erik had heard enough. He strolled over to Erland.

"No, wait!" Erland begged, but Erik plunged his sword into the other's stomach. Then he looked back at Amme.

"I want to hear the whole story, Amme. Don't cut out anything; I want to know everything."

Amme sighed. "There's not much to tell. We met, I fell in love, I told him so, he said he loved me back. Much later, Papa found out what he really wanted, and he banished him. It nearly killed me, too," she added in a whisper.

"And I suppose I should be thanking you, human, for killing him." Sidhion said from behind them.

Erik smiled. "Does this mean you won't hate me so much anymore?"

"If that will count as my thanks, then yes, I won't hate you anymore."

"But the selise hasn't told you the whole story yet," Kevin said, coming from behind the elf man.

"He doesn't need to know that part of it, Kevin," Amme replied hastily.

"Amme," Erik said. "I told you, I want to hear to whole story. Don't edit, please."

Amme flushed and glared at the vampire. "Papa had…interrupted us. We were…going to…well…"

"You didn't!" Erik snarled.

"No, we didn't!" She shot back before becoming embarrassed. "I did have my shirt off, though."

"Great…" Erik muttered.

"It wasn't that bad," Amme said, moving closer. "He's dead now. And…I need to thank you doing that."

Erik frowned. "And how are you—" he was cut off by Amme's lips pressing against his.

Time seemed to pass slowly as they kissed. Kevin watched looking amused, while Sidhion twitched and coughed several times. He did that more frequently as the kiss became more passionate.

Finally, he said moodily, "Are you two quite done yet?"

They broke apart. The Phantom turned bright red while Amme laughed happily. She twisted her fingers around his. Leaning forward, she whispered in Erik's ear, "Do you want to go home soon?"

"To Ahsela, or Paris?"

"Paris, of course," She smiled. "I made a promise to you, remember?"

"So," Erik said cautiously. "About marriage…"

Amme glared at him. "My gratitude only goes so far, human. Don't go there if you know what's good for you. I made that mistake once before, and I'm never, never, ever doing that again!"

-

No, Amme does not love Erik. Please, don't even think it. She likes him quite a lot, though. That's something.

If you want the reason why you should hate Erland so much, first, refer to chapter seven, "Background Check" near the bottom of the chapter, and then to this chapter, right before Erik kills him. Then, I want to tell you that if it weren't for Erland, Erik would have things much, much easier with Amme.
Think about that.