Athens: Two Weeks Later

She listened to him. "They were blinded," she responded wondering if he had thought of this.

"I know," he responded with a sigh. Then he found himself back in the present, reminiscing on long past events. "What has Leo told you of me?" he asked suddenly.

Her heart might have skipped a beat. She always reacted when Leo's name was said. "He said you two were like brothers," she sighed. "He said that I was to come to you if I was ever lost. Other then that he didn't talk much."

He gave an unfeeling laugh. "I would have said the same for him, though I must confess, I did not expect him to say such things after our last encounter. I was less than grateful to him for helping me, even though I realize now how ignorant and stubborn I was."

She didn't know what to say. Leo had said very little about Sodom. He talked mostly about hr family or he was teaching her. He avoided talking about Alexander the great so she knew very little about him. That and the age or the Russian Czars. "In truth I don't know much about him. I don't know much about my past either come to think of it. I just know he took me as his own after he killed the two things I loved in front of me." She closed her eyes and swallowed. "I still have nightmares about that night."

He nodded simply, running his fingers over the glass again, his cold, hard eyes unfocused. "The only way to solve that, dear, is to never sleep."

"I did that for three years," she sighed. Her eyes still closed looking back on it. Her breath seemed to leave her. It was shortly after leaving Leo that she dind't sleep for three years. Being a vampire had its perks. She opened her eyes and slid down the wall she was close to. She pulled her knees up to her chest and put her head on them.

Sodom left the desk and squatted in front of her. "I know it has been difficult for you, my child," he said softly. "But you must persevere. You can't allow your past to overshadow you."

She looked into Sodom's eyes. "I know," she sighed. "It just scares me so badly to remember that night. I was six and no six year old should watch the light drain out of their mother's eyes."

"Do not try to forget it. That is impossible. But do not dwell on the bad. It does nothing but turn you bitter."

Speak from experience? She wondered that about him. "It is the only thing I remember about them," she shrugged. "But I do get what you are saying."

Sodom nodded, his eyes turning to the ground. He stood and went back to the scroll, which he returned to the display case. He sighed.

Monica stood and leaned against the wall. She smiled at him. She still hurt on the inside but she would have to move on. She did after all have Will.

It was very rare that Sodom was smiled at. He wasn't sure what he was expected to do in response, so he pulled out a letter from the display case and scrutinized it, running his fingertips over the parchment gently. The words were written in Greek and in the handwriting of a woman. He had many of these letters stored elsewhere, for it pained him to look at them. His head snapped up. "I am sorry. I keep getting distracted."

She kept smiling at him. He had just given her advice that he wasn't talking himself. "Sodom have you looked at what you are doing to yourself," she sighed. "I can see the pain running across your face. You just gave me advice but have you taken it yourself?"

"Excuse me?" His eyes hardened. "I don't think I understand what you mean."

Damn she didn't mean for that to happen. But she could see what he was doing and she could see the pain on his face. Very calmly she looked at him and then spoke, "Sir you're hurting yourself. Dwelling in the past." She paused. "It isn't my business."

"You're right," he replied harshly. "It isn't." The words that came from his mouth seemed to be directed at himself, as well.

The harshness in his voice wasn't missed but she had no reaction. The harshness was the same tactic Leo, Angelo, Scorp, and others used. But she picked up on that his words weren't only to her. She made no movement but stayed in her relaxed state. She would go if he said so, but not until.

"You may leave, if you wish, child. I won't keep you here any longer if you wish to be elsewhere." This time he did not look up from the parchment.

She pushed herself off the wall. "What time is it," she didn't really know. It was dark when she came down and that was about all she knew. "Depends on what time it is to see if I'm doing anything."

"Half-past two," he replied.

"I think I'm gonna go back to sleep," she yawned then started for the hall. She stopped and looked at him. "Promise not to break anything else? You don't mind if I pull something on the boys do you?"

"Have at it," he muttered. "It doesn't bother me."

She nodded and went back up the stairs. She was going to turn into Will's room but at that moment she didn't feel like it. She went back to hers, turned off the light, and crawled in bed. It was soft and warm. Soon sleep over took her.

Monica's dream

"Monica," the voice of the person in front of the room called. She knew who it was because he was the only person in the room besides herself. He had finally noticed she wasn't paying any attention to his lecture on the history of humans. "Monica." His voice was going to get annoying fast. She turned my head back to him but she wanted to watch the older men fight. Much more entertaining. "Why aren't you paying attention?"
She was ten and was learning at the normal lever for a ten year old. She knew this already and was bored with it. She had stopped listing to him about a hour ago and he hadn't been all the wiser. When he finally looked over she was looking at some of his older students fight. He could tell that she was more interested in how they were doing that then she was to him talking.

She played with my pencil on my desk. "Dad your boring me to death," she let out a sighed, "Why can't you talk about something that isn't at a third grade level?"

"Monica you need to learn this," he came over and sat on the desk. He took the pencil away so she was forced to look at him and pay attention. "If you don't what am I going to do with you?"

"Teach something at me interesting," She tried reaching for the pencil again but he moved it further. The desk got in the way. "You could teach me something I like and then I could but it to use. When will I ever need to know that man came from dust and that woman came from a man's ribcage?"

"So you were listening," he kissed her forehead and then walked away, taking the pencil. He smiled and turned around. "So what do you want to learn?"

She thought about it fora minuet. There were a few things she had been dying to know. She wanted to know what he was and who she was. She knew she wasn't his daughter and knew that she was different. "Dad what am I and what are you?"

He smiled a bit. "I knew you would ask one day," he closed his eyes the sun coming in through the window hit them. "I'm sure by now you know your different." He op end his eys and looked at her. His little girl. He knew she would ask and it wouldn't be long till she asked why he killed her family. Greed but also safety. His reason that night had changed since then but one still stood. She was his and always would be. "Monica you're a hybrid. Half human half vampire. I myself am what you would call a vampire."

He watched her jaw drop and her eys widen. "What?"

"You are in a world of vampire Monica and you are part of one. You can't say you aren't becasue I have seen it. The restless nights, the blood lust, the slight speed you have." She was down right confused now. "Monica you aren't normal and never have been. But one thing is the same. You are still who you think you are. You are my daughter."

"You are lying on the last part," she glared at him. "I'm not your daughter and never was. I was Emily's and Jacob's daughter not yours. James was my brother." He knew this would happen. She was just as hard headed as he knew she would be. He sighed and let her talk. "How can you say that?"

"Monica on that I can't answer," he moved back to her. "That answer is one I'm not allowed to share and for good reason."

The dream solway morphed into her worst nightmare. The room changed and her age changed. She was six and in the arms of a stranger. Her mother was killed in front of her while she tried together to her brother. Arms kept her back. Tears were starting to fall down her eyes. Soon she watched her brother fall. She stood frozen in fear as his blood pooled around her feet, soaking through the socks. The tears stopped as she stared blankly at the bodies. She seemed mindless and dead on her feet.