I returned to the hotel, drained from my time with Dante. Good and bad memories mingled as I walked up the steps as the Rolls Royce drove away. The blanket of Nick's power folded over me once again as I entered the hotel. A sigh of relief and irritation flowed through me. Why had I gotten myself caught up in this? Why hadn't I tried to escape when I had the chance? My life had been so much simpler before this.

Unlocking my door, I step in only to see Nick standing by the window, sipping on a glass of wine. My guard goes up as I look at him asking, 'Did you get a key from the maid?'

He looks over at me, the difference between him and Dante obvious, his wolfish dark features and blue eyes pinning me to the wall as he says, 'The manager, but why does it matter. I would have gotten in one way or another.'

The tone was threatening, but I try just shake it off despite my fear. He asks, swirling the win in its glass casing, 'How did it go? Learn anything that the Night Hunter's haven't already?'

'Yes, in fact, I have.'

The wine glass still in his hand and his eyes snap to me, again pinning me to where I stand. It seemed he hadn't expected me to glean anything. Slowly he pulls himself from the wall and sets the glass down on a small table in the room asking, 'What did you learn?'

'The Phantasma is run by one person, not a group.'

Nick only nods, as if giving me the go ahead to continue, 'It is a Pureblood... an ancient Pureblood.'

'Like the Won?'

I shake my head and murmur, 'Dante said he was not of this time, meaning that according to records he would have been deemed dead.'

Nick frowns and says dully, 'There are thousands of dead ancient Purebloods.'

I shake my head and murmur, 'Not that far back. He said before my time and mentioned you, so even before you, but no further.'

Nick didn't say a word, letting me think and talk it through. Slowly I pace saying, 'Dante loves to create riddles among his words. He was always good at leaving me puzzled, but at least tonight he gave me a piece of this puzzle.'

'What is that?' Nick finalky asks, slowly stepping towards me.

I stop pacing, looking at him as I murmur, 'He told me I could find the name of the leader in the oldest library in the world.'

Silence reigned as I thought further on it before finally looking up at Nick, startled at how close he suddenly was and my not even noticing it say, 'Alexandria.'

Nick's pheremones were heavy on me and I try to step back, to pull away from them, but Nick grabs my wrist, his eyes narrowing, 'What history do you have with Dante?'

'Wh-why?' I stammer, his power all engulfing.

'Because I find it odd that Dante would tell a Clanless Bitten like you more about the Silent Phantasma than even the peace keeping Night Hunters.'

My eyes only widen as I look up at him, feeling my throat close once again as he asks, his pupils turning to slits as he growls out, 'It seems far to convenient, and makes me suspicious that you might be the leader of the Phantasma.'

My eyes widen in surprise, fear gripping me, my muscles shaking as I croak out, 'I'm not!'

'Then why was Dante so forthcoming?' He asks with a hum, his eyes dangerous with warnings not to lie to him.

'I-I was to be his mate!' I cry out, tears suddenly springing to my eyes, leaking down my face.

Shock transformed Nick's features and suddenly his pheremones were gone, his power lessened as he drops my hand and steps back. I cough, catching my breath, taking in the sweet air no longer heavy from his scent of acred hatred and smokey anger. Placing my hand on a chair to steady myself, I can't seem to stop the tears. Nick had been stunned silent, simply staring down at my sobbing form. It was as if I couldn't control it, as if I had betrayed my maker, my first love for a man who was in all human thinking Death. Slowly I'm able to catch my breath, the guilt and pain slowly ebbing from me until I could meet his eyes. He was calm, simply watching me as if anaylizing me. Brushing the tears from my eyes, I say firmly, 'Fifty years ago, I walked away from him.'

'You are mates?'

'No,' I shake my head, then look at him again, feeling pale and exhausted mentally from all this as I murmur, 'I left him quite literally at the alter, and my bridesmaid handed him a letter with my reasons for leaving.'

Slowly Nick's eyebrows rise as he says, 'You rejected an A rank vampire.'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

Slowly I look down, and say softly, 'I need to sit down to expain this.'

Nick nods, not trying to pressure me as he sits across from me on a couch as I sink into a chair, feeling as if this Dracul Pureblood was my therapist. For a moment, I let the silence stretch as my mind gathered what I would have to say. Finally I open my mouth and explain, 'About sixty years ago I came to Paris to...find myself, I believe the term is. I had become bitter, angry, and disillusioned by my plight as a vampire. I hated what I was... and planned on letting myself be killed by the one everyone feared in Paris. I didn't know at the time he was no longer called Hades, so it hadn't occurred to me to ask him. We met and he was...charming. For years we spent time together, I learned he no longer called himself Hades and had been trying to turn a new leaf. As the years past, I felt relief and comfort...dare I say even love for him. He had lit the fire inside me once again, to feel... human. For years I had felt like a robot going through the motions, but he made me feel alive.

'One day he confessed his feels for me and I accepted them. Another few years past and we grew inseperable to the point I felt like I could tell him anything...'

I stop there remembering how I had planned to tell him after the ceremony about my ability to walk in the sunlight, but I feel myself pale as I continue on, 'However one of his generals, Thermes, he told me what Dante really was...'

'He told you about how all his wives die?' Nick asks, his eyebrow lifting with curiousity, the first words he has spoken since I started telling him this story.

I nod, feeling the tremor start in my hand at the darker memories as I continue, 'I didn't want to believe him, but I... I had to know if Dante had lied to me about changing his ways. So one day I snuck into the catacombs and saw things I wish I never had, torture, pain, dispare. It was all too much until I saw Dante leave one room, his usual pristine white clothes splattered in blood, his mouth dripping and I knew what he was, and it shattered any feelings I thought I had for him. His eyes were black with the fury of his deep seeded pyscopathy.

'I remember finding Thermes again and he told me about Dante. Every hundred years or so he finds a bride. He enjoys his time with her until he grows tired of her and...'

Nick finishes, 'Eats her.'

I shutter to think how close I came to death and murmur, 'Yes.'

Nick nods, seeming sobered by this even though the blanket of his power had never quite left me. Strangely, I found it comforting at the moment. Slowly I whisper out, 'In that instance I realized I didn't belong to the Phantom world or the human world. I was a ghost shifting between them and left. I wanted to live and to find simple joys in life. I was a day away from making a mistake that would have lead to my death... but I vowed from then on to remain seperated from the vampire way of life, to remain anonymous.'

Nick simply stared at me, but finally asks, 'You loved him.'

'At the time... until the stark realization came crashing down on me.'

'And that was?'

'No vampire is trustworthy, myself included,' I say, staring right at the vampire who had changed me, his eyes calm and unchanging.

For a time, we stared at each other. Finally his eyes break from mine and he stands. The scent of betrail heavy in the air, my pheremones unchecked and I quickly pull back as he takes up his glass and opened the French doors onto the balcony. He turns and says, the corner of his mouth twitching, 'You need to be more cautious, Bitten, your pheremones betray you. No wonder Dante was so enthralled with you, you have no poker face.'

I'm stunned for a moment as I stare at this man, this Pureblood. He sips at his wine as the fresh air cleanses the room, leaving only a faint hint of the bitter betrayal. Slowly I stand, and look out at the moonlit night. Strangely, I felt calm and light. A weight had been lifted even if the fear of Dante's retribution might lay ahead, I was okay. Nick looks down at me, a smirk coming to his face as he says, 'I find myself almost jealous of the man.'

Blinking, my mind doesn't seem to process his words until he has left the room. I stare at my hotel rooms door, stunned by his parting words.