Christine's POV

"A life for a life, Christine," my angel said as he headed towards the kitchen. I watched as he gracefully moved from the counter to the small hearth. The man had just told me that I was to be his prisoner for life, and yet, I couldn't stop thinking about ways to escape him. He heated up a cup of water and brought it to me, the cup steaming and letting me know that it was piping hot. He took a seat on the side of my bed and reached under me to help me sit up.

"Here you are," he said, holding the cup up to my lips. "This will make you feel better."

I was his prisoner, and yet, here he was trying to smooth things over by making me a cup of tea. No… I couldn't live like this, as if everything was all right. I didn't love him back in Paris, and I wasn't about to pretend that I did now.

"I can hold the cup on my own," I growled, knowing what I was getting into if I continued through with this plan to get away from him.

"Well then," he snapped. "Forgive me for helping you."

"I don't need your help. I can do things on my own."

Knowing that he would get angry and hand the cup to me, I waited. He did just that, handing the cup to me and standing there with his arms crossed over his chest like a child that hadn't got his way. I had the steaming cup in my hand and knew what I had to do in order to get away. I pretended to take a sip of the hot drink and quickly pulled away.

"What?" he questioned. "What's wrong?"

"What did you put in this?"

"Nothing…I know how you like your tea, Christine."

I pointed to the liquid that was inside of the cup. "What's that?"

My angel of music bent down to have a look in the cup, and as soon as his face was right above it, I put my plan into action.

"What? I don't see anything."

As soon as he said those exact words, I splashed the burning liquid into his face, causing him to scream and stumble backwards. His back legs hit the coffee table that was in the small sitting area and his body went backwards, hitting the table right before he plummeted to the floor. I acted quickly and threw on my long coat before heading out the door and not looking back. It was pitch black except for a few torches that were lit in the distance from the freak show that was going on. I ran…Oh, I never ran so quickly in all my life. I wasn't sure where I was headed because it was so dark, but anything was better than being stuck with him. Suddenly, I felt my body being flung up into the air and realized that I was now dangling upside down from a tree and that my right leg was caught in a snare. I tried to lift myself upwards to release my leg, but it was no use. I had been caught in some kind of trap….

A few seconds later, I began to hear galloping hooves coming from a short distance away. Soon, the darkness faded and I could see torches coming towards me, and then, a few horses.

"There she is," I heard the familiar voice of my angel and spotted him sitting atop of his horse pressing a cloth tightly against his unmasked cheek. "Cut her down."

"No! Let me go….I'm not a prisoner! Do you hear me!"

Next thing I knew, I was on the ground and Nadir was standing over me.

"Christine, stay still…"

"No! Let me go! I won't go back…"

"Oh, you'll go back all right." My angel snapped. "You're going back and I'm going to make sure you don't get the chance to run away again. You've hurt me for the last time…"

When Nadir tried to help me to my feet, I fought him. I didn't want to fight with the man for he had been kind to me in the past. Nadir immediately backed off, but my angel demanded that he continue.

"You throw that viper over your back like a sack of potatoes if you must, but get her on your horse. I don't want to linger here much longer…Whoever set that trap will be here soon and I don't want to be around when he shows up."

"I'm sorry about this, Christine." Nadir said. And right afterwards he tossed me over his back as I kicked and screamed. I wasn't sure what Erik was going to do to me once we arrived back at the camp, but I knew he wouldn't be merciful.

Erik's POV

Never in a million years did I think that Christine of all people would ever physically hurt me. But she did just that when she tossed her steaming cup of tea in my face. It hurt and immediately blinded me. I wasn't sure where I had gone, or how I got there, but I found myself on the floor grasping my bleeding face. My mask had protected my deformity from being burned, but my left cheek and eye socket had taken the worst of it. Nadir had heard me scream and within seconds, he was at the caravan door telling me that Christine had run off. We chased her, and found her caught in a gypsy trap. I knew the traps all too well and knew that the gypsy that set it would be around sooner than later to collect his prize. I thought I could trust Christine to obey my wishes, but I had been wrong.

"Erik, I'll make sure that she doesn't leave tonight." Nadir said once we arrived back at the camp. "I'll keep an eye on her in my caravan."

"No," I snapped, pressing a damp cloth against my face. "You will do no such thing. I'm not leaving you in charge of her. For all I know, you'll let her go in the middle of the night."

"Then what, Erik? What would you like me to do with her?"

"Chain her up in the storage caravan. A night in the dark will teach her a lesson."

"Erik, it's going to be mighty cold tonight. Without warmth the poor girl will freeze to death in there. And with her just getting over being ill, I wouldn't advise it."

"Well, Persian, what do you suggest? Please, enlighten me."

"If you don't want Christine in my caravan, then I suggest letting her stay in here with you."

"Absolutely not! I enjoy my privacy too much."

"What? You have a spare room in the back. Put her in there…At least she will be warm."

Knowing that the fool was right I nodded and the man left to fetch Christine. Oh, but I wasn't going to let her get off easy. No, I was going to make sure her punishment prevailed. I had warned her what would happen if she tried to run, and now, I would go through with it. Nadir brought the girl in a few moments later and I was ready with a chain and shackle in hand.

"What are you doing?" Christine cried. "I'm not an animal that you can just chain up."

Oh, but she was. I shoved her into the spare bedroom and locked the shackle around her left ankle. I gave the girl just enough slack to get from her bedroom into the kitchen…She was my prisoner now.

"Erik, maybe you…"

"Maybe I should what?" I growled. "You don't give orders, Persian. Now what I want you to do is get the camp moving to the next town before the gypsies find out that we freed what was in their trap. We will take off tomorrow to sleep and get back on schedule the following day. I'm going to rest my wounds tonight and would appreciate it if you took control of the journey."

Nadir didn't say another word and left Christine and I alone. The girl was sitting on the makeshift bed that was in the room and attempting to slip her ankle out of the shackle.

"You'll break your foot before getting it out of that contraption, girl." I said. "You have no place else to go. I warned you what would happen if you ran, and you did it anyway."

"Go to hell!" she cried. "I hope that tea scarred you for life. I hope that you remember it every time you look at your hideous self in the mirror."

Oh, this girl knew how to hurt me! I held in the pain of what she had just said to me by yanking on her chain, causing the girl to slip out of bed.

"Your trust shall have to be earned, vixen! This is your home now, so you best get used to it. It can be a lovely place to call home or a living hell… You choose, but choose wisely. I am not a kind man, you should know this… I'm not afraid to do what I wish anymore. Who knows, perhaps one evening I will find myself wanting you in the middle of the night. I wouldn't think twice about having my way with you if I truly wanted it."

"I'd rather die than be taken advantage of by the likes of you!"

Once more she had hurt me to the core. I clenched my fists together and pulled down the privacy drape that closed off her room from the other parts of my caravan.

"I'd offer you something to eat or drink, Christine, but you've been a bad guest tonight. Therefore, I'm going to have to send you to bed without any dessert. Goodnight…"

I was surprised that the girl was quiet at first, and I spent the next few hours sitting at my desk nursing my wounded face. I soaked Brandy into my flesh, hoping that it took away all the pain I was in. When I began to feel drowsy, I crawled into bed and closed my eyes, letting the swaying of the moving caravan lull me to sleep. That's when the screaming began… The girl was yanking on her chain like a madman and screaming at the top of her lungs. At first, I placed a pillow over my head to drown out the sound, but as it continued, I knew I needed to do something or else my eardrums were going to explode.

"You either stop that racket or I'm going to gag you!"

"Let me go!" she cried. "You can't keep me in here like an animal!"

"You did this to yourself!"

For three more hours the horrible noise of her yanking on her chain filled my ears. I guess eventually she got tired and fell asleep, for the sound finally stopped. It was nearly daybreak by then and we were still traveling. Knowing that this was my chance to get some sleep, I closed my eyes and drifted away…

Christine's POV

That first night chained in the caravan had been the worst night of my life. I screamed at the top of my lungs in an attempt to annoy Erik, but it didn't work. I fell asleep that night, waking the next morning to find that we were still traveling. After rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I stood and headed into the kitchen with the chain traveling behind me. I could only go as far as the kitchen, and as I stood there looking into the next room, I spotted Erik lying fast asleep in his bed with his clothes from the night before still on. His face was stricken with pain and from that look of agony, I knew that I had succeeded in causing him pain. I wanted to escape this camp and I knew doing so was going to take much more than trust, it was going to take time… I would gain this man's trust, and then, only after he unchained me, I would kill him and only when he was dead would I take my leave from the camp…