I'm sorry for more than a month of waiting. I've actually had this chapter written for a long time, but I've been terrified of posting it. I don't want to give away why because of course I don't want to give away the chapter. I just hope you enjoy it anyway. Thanks to everyone who is reading the story. Please don't be angry with me.

Chapter 21-Together

Erik wanted to squirm under her light but piercing gaze. His hands began to shake from her quietness. Finally, he had to stop looking at her it was just too hard. He just knew she wouldn't forgive him, he just knew that she would be far too freaked out. "Erik can you leave us please?" Christine asked in a hoarse whisper.

Erik smiled sadly. He knew this would happen, but he just hadn't expected it to hurt so much. "Sure," he said before leaving the hospital room.

"How are you feeling Christine?" asked Raoul once the door had closed.

Christine held the bandage around her neck as she coughed, and Raoul quickly grabbed some water and helped her drink it. " I'm feeling like I want the blinds closed," she gasped.

Immediately, Raoul closed the blinds and turned the lamp on the bedside table on. "Is that better?"

Christine nodded. "I wanted to talk to you," Christine explained.

"Are you sure you don't want to rest first?"

Christine shook her head and sat up slowly in the bed. "Christine no, you need your rest!" Raoul protested.

"Raoul, I appreciate your concern but please shut up," Christine told him.

"Well what to you want to talk about?" Raoul inquired, surprised.

"What you said," she replied.

"What are you talking about, Christine?"

"You know what I mean."

Raoul looked at her confused.

Erik sat in a chair in the hallway. He had covered his face once more with the bandages. Mainly to protect himself from the sun that was shining through a window down the hallway than to cover his face for others not to see. "Is she awake?" Erik glanced up to Dr. Smith standing there with a clipboard in his hands. Erik nodded. "How is she doing?"

"I don't know, she told me leave so she's at least able to talk," Erik explained to him.

"She's no happy about what you are?" Smith asked.

"Can you really blame her?" Sighing Erik put his bandaged faced in hands and massaged his temples.

"I suppose not, but after this incident she may be able to relate to you a little more," the doctor said.

Confused, Erik looked up. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Smith took the seat beside him and handed Erik a folder that had Christine's name on the front. Erik read as the doctor explained to him what had happened. "After some tests of her blood from a few hours ago I found out that although the poison didn't turn her completely, it still left some marks. Nothing serious I would consider it safe to assume. Maybe a disliking of light, but it would not be lethal to her. She'll probably live a bit longer than most humans, and I imagine that she'll be a great deal stronger," explained Smith.

"What about blood? Will she have to drink it?" questioned Erik with worry.

"Well she probably could drink it, but I don't even think she'll need it as you apparently used to," the doctor answered. "Which brings me to a question that I've been thinking about over the past few hours. Tests show you haven't had a drop of blood in months, and I believe the tests because there's no way it could go wrong. But how is it that you're not dead?" he asked.

Erik looked at him for a second. He couldn't really give a good answer for that question because he himself did not know the answer. "I don't know. Usually when I don't eat I get this sharp pain in my stomach, but for some reason I haven't gotten it," Erik told him.

"That's odd," the doctor remarked.

"You wanna know something even weirder?" He moved around his shirt to reveal the cross necklace he had found the night Christine had removed his mask. It was clearly touching his skin, but there was no mark of any kind on his body. "I've been wearing it forever, but it never does anything to me," Erik said.

The doctor reached for the cross. "My God," he muttered as he held it in his hands. "Well it's real, it's even silver," he said.

"The silver thing is just a legend, doctor," Erik told him.

"I know, I was just saying." Dr. Smith's eyes than went from the cross necklace around Erik's neck to Erik's revealed hand which was resting on his knee. "What the?"

"What?" Erik turned to his hand. "Ahhh!" he yelled as he scrammed out of the way, but there was surprisingly no pain. "What the fck?"

"It's not hurting you," Smith said rising from the chair.

"No sht!" Erik, who was now on the ground in surprise, crawled into the sunlight cautiously. It was no part of his imagination. The sun really was not hurting him. A smile crept onto his covered face, as he got closer to the window, and it was no ghost of smile; a full grin was on his face. Such a grin that he had to rip off the bandages, and he began to laugh when he did. He had not seen the sun in 200 years, and now it was staring him in the face. He could feel the warmth through the window, and it felt so good to him to have warmth but no pain. It was a miracle.

The doctor walked up behind him. "Are you sure you're a vampire?" he asked.

Smiling, Erik turned around. He wanted to run outside just to make sure it was really happening, but Raoul came out of the door, and his mind immediately went back to Christine. "Is she ok?" asked Erik.

"She's fine," Raoul simply answered. He wasn't even looking at Erik. He seemed hurt about something. "I even think she's be able to be released as soon as tomorrow morning," Raoul put in his voice was cold as ice. "Don't go in though, she needs to be able to rest." With that he walked off.

"I despise him," Erik remarked.

Dr. Smith laughed.

A few days had past now. Christine was released from the hospital a day after she woke up. Remarkably, she was in the best shape she'd ever been in. Raoul hadn't talked to her or Erik since the day she came out of her coma, and he actually hadn't talked to anybody in those few days. Now, he was sitting on his bed. The room was a mess with clothes everywhere and the sheets anywhere but the bed. There were a few smashed lamps and a chair that looked like it had gotten in a bad fight with the table, and the door to the room had a whole from Raoul punching it the size of a grapefruit.

Ever since that day he'd spoken with Christine alone he hadn't slept, he hadn't taken a shower, and he hadn't even changed his clothes. The only reason he'd even left the bed was to use the bathroom, he hadn't even eaten in those few days. He was just so consumed with hate, sadness, and anger. "Why does that Godless monster have to get the only woman I loved?" He stood up in anger and paced the room cursing him. "AHHH!!" he screamed in fury. He punched the wall and fell to the floor in tears of anger. "Christine, Christine," he muttered. It just wasn't fair, and now he had to work with the thing to catch a vampire he knew nothing about. The worse part was that he honestly didn't know if he could do it.

His chest heaving, Raoul sat up and leaned against the wall. "How am I going to do this? How am I going to work with the creature that killed my parents? How?" He put his head into his hands and began to sob, but then a loud sound outside his window caught his attention.

"Get away from me!" He heard a woman scream. Raoul looked out the window to see a woman fighting away a crazed looking man. A large crowd had gathered around them trying to help her, but if Raoul was right about what that man was they couldn't help that woman at all. So he grabbed his coat and was out the door in a moment.

Luckily, he always kept to stakes inside his coat pockets at all times so he was prepared when he walked outside the door into the sunless day and into the crowd. A drop of rain hit his head as he walked toward the woman and the creature. There were to unconscious humans lying near them obviously from trying to help. Everyone else must have been trying to keep their distance when they saw what happened to the two men. "Get the hell away from her!" Raoul yelled to the creature that already had his fangs near the beautiful woman's neck.

With a wide grin, the creature looked up and hissed upon seeing the stake. The woman cried in the monster's arms. "Let her go now!" Raoul ordered without a single ounce of fear in his voice.

"Make me," the creature replied in a frightening voice before going back to the woman. Angry, Raoul ran toward the creature and pushed it to the ground.

It hissed and growled revealing it's long fangs. Mutters emerged from the crowd as they all took a step back. Then, three more of the monsters emerged with anger in their red eyes.

"Oh great," Raoul remarked. He didn't have much time to think before they all attacked him. Raoul punched and kicked as hard as he could but they felt no pain, and he could only get a stake into the heart of one before he was fought to the ground.

Raoul closed his eyes as they argued over him about who would get the first bite. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be one of them; they had no real heart so maybe their hearts couldn't be broken. Maybe becoming one of the living dead wouldn't be so bad. So as the first vampire opened it's mouth preparing to bite Raoul sat prepared and embraced what was about to come. He waited for the pain that Erik had spoke of, but to his surprise it didn't come. Confused, he opened his eyes to see all of the vampires had diverted their attention to a tall man dressed in all black ahead. Raoul knew exactly that Erik had come.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the creatures hissed at Erik. Erik's answer was him kicking the monster in the head so hard it's spine broke in half, killing it for good.

The other two only go angrier and attacked him at the same time. Erik didn't even look like he was trying as he grabbed one by the hair and pulled its head from the spine. With a look of fear on its face, the other one looked at its dead comrade. "You wanna go next?" Erik asked with no emotion on his white face.

The thing shook its head. "Too bad," Erik whispered before jumping on it and biting it in the neck just like he used to do to humans. The creature squirmed and squirmed as it was being sucked dry, but finally it stopped and went limp. Erik lifted his head and looked at Raoul who was in shock on the ground.

The only part of Erik's face that wasn't hidden by the mask had blood all over it, and Raoul couldn't blame half the crowd for running away from Erik. Emotionless, Erik stood up and wiped the blood off of his mouth. He glanced at Raoul for only a second before walking off, and leaving Raoul shaking on the ground.

Erik was standing in the middle of an empty space. There were so many voices whispering in his ears. There were so many memories, so many nightmares. Among the voices he heard Christine's. Her voice sounded so sweet between the screaming and yelling. "Christine?" he murmured. He began to walk in the direction of her voice. Suddenly, he saw her figure standing up head. "Christine!" he screamed. She didn't turn around though. "Christine!" he finally reached her, and she had yet to turn around. Her clothes were now rags and her beautiful chocolate curls had turned into a matted mess. "Christine?" he whispered. He put his hand on her shoulder and shivered from how cold it was.

She turned around and looked up. Erik gasped. Her face looked like that of a dead body's. It was blood covered, pale, and worst off all those blank eyes. Those blank eyes that made a body so horrible to look at. "Because of you Erik," the thing whispered before falling into his arms.

"Christine?" He shook her body to wake her but she didn't stir. "Christine?" Again there was no sign of life. "Christine! Christine!"

Erik shot up in his bed to come face to face with Christine, a live Christine. "Christine?" he exclaimed.

She smiled. "Bad dream?"

"Dreadful," he muttered.

"Obviously it was about me," she remarked. "What happened?"

"I don't…I don't wanna talk about it," Erik told her. His body was still shaking from it.

"Are you sure? Sometimes it helps," she put in.

Erik sighed. "You were dead but alive at the same time, and before you fainted and died for sure you said 'Because of you Erik' like it was my fault you were dead," Erik explained.

"Well Erik, I'm not dead," she reassured him, "well at least I don't think so," she laughed.

"I know, it just seemed so real." He looked up at her. She had a smile on her face and her big eyes were glowing, and he knew she could see in the dark. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Why do you want me to go?" she asked.

"No, definitely not," Erik answered, "it's just well…well I thought you hated me because of what I was," he explained.

"Well of course I was petrified at first. I didn't even know creatures like you existed. It scared the crap out of me Erik. I was more scared of you than angry at you but…"

"But what?" Erik wanted her to finish.

She smiled and got closer to him. In fact, so close Erik had to lie back down to make room for her. "Well you know about that rumor that people can hear others while they're in a coma?" She removed his mask. "It's true," she whispered before leaning down to kiss him in the most passionate kiss the couple had ever had.

Barely even stopping the kiss, Christine crawled over and straddled his body. Her hands caressed down his shirtless torso and all the way down to his hips and when she got a little too low Erik finally said something. "Christine what are you doing?" he gasped through her kisses.

"Oh just shut up Erik." Erik didn't have any problems with obeying. He had a feeling this night was going to be filled with a lot of things he wasn't quite used to.

Christine's eyes fluttered open. They were still in bed after a long, long night, and the room was pitch black, but ever since the attack she had no problem with seeing in the dark. Smiling, her attention turned to Erik's hand around her waist. She picked it up and kissed it. Erik stirred on the other side of her in the bed. "I love you Erik," she whispered. She turned around to find his eyes open staring at her.

"I love you too Christine," he replied with the biggest smile Christine had ever seen on his face.

Christine laughed. "I see smiling has become a regular thing for you Mr. Erik," Christine played as she stroked the rough features of his face without a care.

Erik laughed. "Yeah, I figure it's not too bad as long as I'm around you," he explained.

She smiled and pushed a lock of hair out of his face. "I'm flattered." Still smiling, she put her hand around his body and snuggled her head under his chin. His body was so cold yet so warm at the same time.

Erik put his hands on her bare shoulders and listened to the slowing of her heartbeat as she went back to sleep. She seemed so carefree in his arms; she seemed to trust him without a single doubt, and the craziest thing was that this beautiful woman, this angel that was sleeping in his arms loved him. That was the most comfort he could ever have. So with a smile on his face, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Well, there you go. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you didn't thanks for reading anyway.