Christine took a deep breath to keep from crying out when the back of his hand connected with her cheek. Erik growled and began to struggle against the bonds that held him.
"Are you like them, Monsieur? Do you have trouble when it comes to self-control? Your sons were animals; they had to learn it from someone!"
Once more he hit her but Christine was beyond pain. She glanced at Erik, hoping he knew what she was doing. It was no longer about distracting them for Nadir; it was because she wanted Michael to turn away from Erik. The blood on his face had run down his neck and was staining his shirt and she no longer could stand what was being done to him. So she would make Michael angry at her and he would leave Erik alone.
"You are worse than your mother ever was, and it is just too bad that my son did not do to you what Isaac did to Emma," Michael growled.
"That just shows what a weakling your sons really were," she whispered. Michael said nothing. He raised the dagger covered with Erik's blood and ran it down Christine's cheek, smearing it with her husband's blood. Christine closed her eyes, not liking the smell that filled her nose. Michael was looking at her silently, as if thinking about something that she reminded him of.
"Why Desslar?"
Christine's eyes found Delauney's. What was he talking about? He had asked the question so softly she almost did not hear him.
"What?"
"How is it you managed to fall in love with that?" he demanded. Christine said nothing for a moment, studying the man who had caused her husband and her mother so much torment in their lives. She knew why he was doing this. Erik had found the love of a woman when he had never really known such a thing, neither had his sons. The man that he considered a demon, and who looked like one, had found the one thing that none of the Delauney men had ever been able to find in someone else. What did Desslar do to deserve this when his own sons were rotting in the ground, having never known what it was like to truly be happy?
"He is not the demon in this room, and no matter what happens here tonight he will always be a better man than you and your sons. No matter what you do that will not change. I have learned to see beyond outer appearances to the heart within. His is passionate and gold, yours is black and wilting..."
Erik closed his eyes at the sincerity that he heard in her voice. He had done many things in his life that he regretted, but marrying this woman would never be one of them. Of course it had been wrong in the beginning; he should have never forced a young woman to marry a masked man she knew absolutely nothing about. He admitted he never believed she would fall in love with him or him with her but it seemed that they were truly meant to be together, and Erik cursed Delauney for wanting to try and ruin that.
Michael turned away from Christine for a moment, as if contemplating this before turning back to her. The look in his eyes frightened her. His mood had changed dramatically and she knew that she would pay for the things she had said about his sons.
"Hold her still," he demanded of the man with the pistol. When the man did as said Michael's hands grasped her cloak and roughly tore it from her body, dropping it to the floor, forgotten. Erik began struggling again. Christine was kneeling there in nothing but her chemise, which really did not hide the stunning curves of her body and the slight swell of her stomach. Michael ran the blade of the dagger over the swell of Christine's stomach and she took a shuddering sob. Not her baby, anything but her baby! Erik, too, cried out softly.
"Delauney, not my child...anything but that," Erik pleaded. Michael had a distant look in his eyes, as if he were not really there and Christine worried that he was slowly going mad.
"You killed my oldest child, Desslar, do you not believe that I should return the favor?" he murmured, pressing a little harder with the tip of the knife. Christine whimpered.
"Please, Monsieur...not my baby," Christine pleaded softly, her eyes finding Erik's. She would never forget the look of total pain on his face and knowing that she was the reason that all of this had happened. He had died a little bit inside when Michael had struck her and now that he was threatening their child and she would not blame him if he never forgave her...she did not deserve him.