Ok I know I said no romance on that little note thingy—I was wrong. I was going to post this yesterday but for 1) I was dead tired from the awful, awful week of school (that's why you didn't get a chapter sooner) and 2) it was lightening badly. I really, really hope this is good (this probably is one of my favorite chapters for now), I did a lot of research on Alex's history (I hope it doesn't feel weird—after you read it then tell me) and it helps the history class I have, too. The next chapter will probably be a little more information about Alex but not too much and then we get into the drama of falling in love with a non vegetarian vampire….(it will be a while but…) changing…and then meeting Edward along with his human fiancé and then a lost love returns! Yay! Keep reading please! --Snowy

Chapter 7

My heart began to pound in my chest, as fear embraced my body. The eyes reminded me of the blood thirsty eyes of the female vampire that had been so close to Alexander. I cringed back against my bed, as the red eyed monster approached. Was Alex dead? Was my dream real? It had to be. Now whoever had won the fight was coming after me.

"Ella?" When I heard the familiar bell like whisper, I nearly burst in tears again. I was so relieved, for a moment I forgot about everything.

Before I could blink, Alex was crouched in front of me. His eyes filled with worry and frustration. Very gently he brushed back a few stray locks of my hair that had fallen in front of my face.

"Ella? Are you alright?" He whispered anxiously. I scanned his perfect face; once again the relief fell on me—knocking me breathless.

"You're ok!" I said through the rush of emotion that was overpowering me. His beautiful face became confused. "Why did you do it Alexander? That male and… female" I shuddered at the memory "You could have been hurt!"

"How did you know about that?" he growled, I was suddenly taken back by his livid expression—not human at all.

"I—I dreamed about it." I stuttered, his expression smoothed into speculative one.

"You dreamed about it?" He asked skepticism thick in his voice. "What did you see?"

"I saw you fighting male and female…vampires. You killed the female and the male was furious and he attacked and for some reason you looked toward me as if noticing I was there. Then the male slammed into you and he was on top of you and he went for your throat…" I trailed off, unable to finish. "I couldn't do anything."

"Even if it wasn't a dream you wouldn't have been able to do anything. You're a human after all," Even though his words were soft and reassuring—his words cut me. "Besides, I was saved by Nicholas."

"Nicholas?" I asked confused.

"My brother," He said with a small smile.

"Vampires have brothers?" I asked curiously. He laughed which sent my heart sputtering.

"Usually no, not blood related at least." He said standing gracefully, he stretched out his cold hand to me. I grabbed it and he pulled me to my feet.

"At least?" I asked, titling my head slightly to the side. He laughed, this time it had a sharp edge to it. "I suppose I should tell you the whole story," He mused, staring at my widow—that he had no doubt come through. I sat down on my bed…worries of Edward and Beulah disappeared into thin air. Alex continued his musing. "I have no idea what it is about you that make me spill my guts, or why I can't seem to get you out of my head. It was quite a pain trying to hunt, and having your face popping in front my eyes every second."

"I'm sorry," I said sincerely, though I wasn't to sure I wanted to know the exact kind of hunting that his kind did. He blinked, glancing back at me, and then he began to pace back and forth—my eyes followed his every step.

"What do you want to know?" He muttered, staring at the floor. I didn't even have to think about my answer.

"You and I want to know more about vampires"

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Positive." I answered strongly. I thought I heard him chuckle, but it was too soft to catch.

"Alright, I'll start out with me," He said his pace was quickening almost too where he was blurring. "I was born in a small village in England in the spring of 1539. I grew up in constant battle between Catholicism and protestant…. My foolish father joined a rebellion against the Catholic Queen Mary. He was—of course—killed and left me and Nicholas to support our mother and little sister." He slowed his pace, becoming more thoughtful. I didn't dare breath, afraid that I would distract him of his story. "That is when things went down hill. My mother remarried to man by the name of James Carpenter. He treated my mother with love and respect, but he resented me and my siblings. I once caught him slapping Claire—I nearly killed him, then..."

"What happened then?" I whispered. He had suddenly stopped pacing, and his hands were balled up into fists at his sides.

"As if punishing us for my confronting him, he forced Claire into a marriage with a sleazebag. I too along, with my brother was forced into a marriage. He threatened to hurt our mother—she didn't have any idea what was going on—if we didn't agree to it." I watched him closely as a slow smile came upon his face. I didn't understand the nausea feeling that settled deep in my stomach. "I was seventeen and was against the wedding wholeheartedly—who would blame me?—until I set my eyes on Catherine Brookes. It wasn't her outside appearance that caught my attention—it was her inside beauty. We were married a few days later—for once in my short life everything seemed to be going perfectly." He paused staring down at the floor his face expressionless. "Two years later Catherine gave birth to a girl. We called her Alexandria Eden Hansom—the most beautiful child I had ever seen in my life. Like I said everything was going perfect until…" His voice trailed off, as he looked up and captured my gaze with his red eyes.

"Until?" I encouraged, he smiled.

"Catherine became depressed... One fog covered morning I awoke and she wasn't there beside me—her side of the bed was neatly made up. I looked for her everywhere, I asked everyone in the village if they had seen her, but no one ever did." He looked away from me, staring at the window again. "The soldiers came that night, it turns out that James betrayed me and my brother by turning in our names as Protestants—which we were. They captured me, Alexandria, and my brother along with his wife and two little boys. Nicholas and I were condemned to death; Nicholas's wife was given a choice to convert to Catholicism and be saved along, with her sons and my daughter, or not convert and be killed alongside her husband and two sons. Of course, she choose to save her own life, saving also my daughter's life—for that I'm will always be grateful to Sarah—"

"Sarah? Isn't that name of the vampire that I met the other night?" 'Met' was an understatement; those milky colored eyes had hungered for my blood.

"The very one," He said with a full out grin, guessing what I was thinking. I was going to ask how that had happened when he raised his hand "Let me finish the story, and you'll understand," I felt strangely rigid, and my mouth wouldn't move to speak. "Now, where was I…Oh yes, Sarah took the children and fled. Leaving me and Nicholas to face our fate, because we never converted we were tortured every night until our execution. One night though, it seemed our luck had changed, one of the guards had fallen asleep right by our cell. Though almost all the bones in are hands were crushed and are legs and backs were slashed opened by a cat o' nine tails (its' a type of whip), we managed to grab the key from the sleeping guard. He slashed the guards throat grabbed his sword and his hand knife, and we snuck out of that jail." He snorted, breaking me from my trance. "It was so easy; I can't even believe we made it out. We escaped into the woods, running as fast as our beaten bodies would take us."

"We hid under a huge oak, the life slowly leaving us. It was kind of ironic, after getting out of that hell hole and then we ended up in a forest… dieing" He looked up at me, his eyes filled with some emotion I didn't understand. "That is when I first saw Daniel. I was so delirious I thought he was an angel! A red eyed angel that was going to take me to the place of fire and brimstone."

"'Who are you?' He had asked me, but my lips were so dry I couldn't even speak"

"'Nicholas… and my brother, Alexander,' Nicholas had answered him."

"Daniel studied us very closely, and then he seemed to make a decision. He came at us..." Alex shuddered slightly, but he walked toward me and sat by me on the bed. "That's how we were changed." He studied me closely, his eyes held mine. "I suppose you want to know about Sarah?"

I nodded, for some reason unable to speak, he chuckled lightly.

"We spent eight years becoming more experience and…self controlled. Nicholas had a strong desire to see Sarah and his boys. I wanted to see my Alexandria. So we left Daniel to go in search of Sarah, for a year we searched until we finally found her on the outskirts of a village. It was distressing to find, that she had come down with an illness and Nicholas's boys were working day and night; while my little Alexandria did the house work. We made sure we didn't come around when the boys were around— they were very suspicious of us." There was a strange spark in Alex's eyes as he explained the rest. "It turned out Sarah had already made her boys promise that they would go to the village when she passed away and made them promise to take care of themselves and Alexandria. Nicholas decision to change Sarah to what we where was a quick one. We had limited time, so the one day when both the boys were away, Nicholas snuck inside. Alexandria was outside playing with a doll, paying no attention to anything.

"I watched her, her black locks shone as the sunlight hit it and her mothers blue eyes sparkled as she asked her doll petty questions. From the shadows of the forest, I yearned go to her, but I knew it would be a mistake. If I had hugged her that one time I would have never let her go. So I watched her and studied her every movements, things I will always remember."

Before I knew it, tears had begun to slip down my cheeks. I wiped them away quickly. Quicker than lightening, Alex grabbed my hand that I was wiping my tears with, and gently pulled it away from my face. With his other hand, he gently brushed his fingers underneath my eyes.

"How odd you humans are," He murmured, he watched as he let his fingers brush down my cheek and down my neck. I shivered, as my breath became short gasps. His sweet breath fanned across my face as his face began to inch closer. I really didn't know what to do—I was frozen. He was coming closer and closer as if he was going to kiss me.

Then abruptly he pulled back blinking. "You and your eyes,." He accused, narrowing his eyes.

"What?" I asked, breathless. He shook his head angrily and stood up, starting his pacing again. My heart was pounding in my ears, which seemed to make him seem even more aggravated.

"Tell me something, why were you crying?" He asked roughly, but I could hear the real concern in his voice.

"I don't want to." I murmured childishly, I did not want to feel the pain that had crushed me. He froze in place, his eyes instantly on me, furious.

"What do you mean you don't want too?" He snapped.

"Because it is none of your business," I snapped back. He snapped his eyes closed and took several deep breaths. When he opened them they were calmer but still they held frustration.

"Never in my existence has a human irritated me so!" He growled, baring his teeth at me. I stared into his blazing eyes, and slowly his face smoothed—his eyes dulled. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?" I asked, dazed.

"Hold me. Every time I look into your eyes, they freeze me in place. I can't think, can't breath, can't feel…" He murmured, breaking his gaze from mine. Then, he was kneeling in front of me, his red eyes held some kind of determination I didn't understand. "Ella, please tell me why you were crying?"

The way his velvet voice murmured broke my resistance. Still, the pain that came rushing back was unbearable. I began to gasp at the air; Alex placed his hands on either side of my face forcing me to stare into his eyes.

"Beulah…Edward…" I gasped between the sobs.

"Edward? What about Edward?" Alex asked urgently.

"He'll end up just like Beulah." I mouthed pathetically.

"Ella, you are going to have to calm down," Alex whispered, brushing at my face with cold fingers. I took in a long deep breath, trying to calm myself. When my sobs turned into shuddering breaths Alex released my face and grabbed my hands. "Now, tell me calmly what you are talking about."

"My best friend is going to die," My voice broke on the last word. "She caught the Spanish Flu. Today the doctor came and checked her over he only gave her a day to live. This morning Edward was showing the symptoms of the same illness."

I broke down; the heart jerking sobs shook my body violently. Then something happened I didn't expect would, I was suddenly enveloped into his cold embrace.