Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Wish I could own Lucian...*sighs dreamily*
I have created Lucian's underground flop. It's not the same as the one in the first movie.
Author's note: - One of my reviewers on ff told me to extend my previous story, 'He's Alive!' and so...here it is, folks. A few years have passed, and it's time for a...you guessed it, visit.
VISIT
"There's too much freaking garbage in here," Selene muttered as she clawed through said garbage in the attic of her house.
"When did we start buying Arabian carpets?" Michael asked, astonished, as he saw the carpet slung carelessly over a drawer full of old visiting cards. He was quite sure they hadn't bought any since their marriage eight years ago.
He shrugged at the mysterious carpet, then went on and started looking carefully through the visiting cards and contact information in the open drawer sitting behind the carpet. A slightly crumpled piece of paper napkin caught his eye.
"Holy shit!"
"What?" Selene was next to him in an instant. "What's wrong?"
"It's Lucian's address and phone number. Remember? We wouldn't let him go unless he told us."
Selene cussed worse than Michael.
"What do we do with it now?" he asked.
"I think," said Selene, grinning ferociously. "It's time for a visit."
"Mummy, where are we going?" Lucy, the Corwins' seven-year-old daughter asked for the tenth time in the forty minute ride.
"We're gonna go see what Lucian has been all these years," Selene answered, not taking her eyes off the road. "And this time, we don't loose touch." She looked over at her husband, silently daring him to contradict.
Michael wanted to live. Hence, he sat silently as Selene manoeuvred into the gates of a pretty little cottage and went up the driveway.
Honeysuckle climbed up one wall like a lattice, winding all the way up and over the thick wooden shingles. Late summer roses bloomed in a handkerchief-sized garden under the dark, deep-set windows. There was a little path of flat stones that led up to the quaint arched wooden door.
"If Lucian lives in this fairy-tale cottage, I'm going to run naked through Lucy's school and kiss the janitor."
"Really, daddy?"
Selene glared daggers at her husband, silently reminding him he was talking foul in her daughter's presence. He cringed. "Duh...just pretend you didn't hear that, baby."
"I'm seven! I'm not a baby!"
Selene sushed them both as she knocked, certain that Lucian did not live here anymore. When the door was opened by an old, wrinkled human woman, she almost turned to go.
"May I help you?"
"We're here to see Lucian!" chirped Lucy, before any of them could stop her.
A snow-white eyebrow quirked. "And who may I say is calling?"
"Huh?"
"He lives here!"
"Me! Lucy Corwin!"
"The Corwins it is," with that, the old lady disappeared.
"Huh?" Selene repeated. Then she stiffened as three men—clearly lycans—walked towards them. She was still wary of the species, a training ingrained in her too strongly. Her body moved automatically to shield her family as the leering lycans approached. Michael shifted so both of them were a united front to Lucy.
"Michael Corwin?"
Michael looked at the one who had spoken. He looked young, barely twenty. "Yes?"
"What did Sonja say last to Lucian?"
"What, is this a code thing? Er... 'As I love you'?"
"Correct. Is this your family?" His obsidian eyes never left Michael. It was a little unnerving.
"Yes."
"Do you have any object made of pure silver?"
"Um...no."
"Then please follow me, and forgive the security measures. There aren't many left as it is."
"Aren't you being a bit paranoid with unnecessary security?" Selene asked as they passed the old lady, who was sitting on the kitchen table, sewing.
One of the other lycans snorted as he led the way to the basement. "Don't think so."
The third lycan opened a trapdoor in the basement floor, and ushered them all in.
"Oh, mommy, look!"
The entire place was utterly littered. That was Selene's first impression of the place. Computer desks, chairs, and floor alike were strewn over with tons and tons of paper. There were yellowing newspaper clippings tacked to the wall with pins, tape, or chewing gum, whatever was handy.
Lycans, all in the similar costume of trousers and an open-fronted jacket milled around in various stages of dress and undress. Some were talking into satellite phones, while others were hunched over computers.
"Where's Lucian, Daddy?"
"Right here."
They turned abruptly, and saw him, his hair pulled back through a band, his black eyes twinkling as he saw the three of them. He knelt, so that he was on the same level as Lucy, and said, "Hello, I'm Lucian. And you must be Miss Lucinda Corwin."
Lucy wrinkled her nose at the use of her full name. Then she brightened as Lucian extended a hand to her. Excited to be treated as an adult, she pumped the hand enthusiastically. "I have heard a lot about you. From Mum and Dad, you know! Daddy told me about Sonja—not your daughter, the other one—and he said you loved her so much. And Mum told me about Sonjai and Sonja—Jai's sister! It's a bit confusing, don't you think? Mum says you fight awfully well, and you're the biggest lycan wolf form she's ever seen, and—"
"Lucy!"
"Sorry Mom."
Michael placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "I'm sorry for her word Diarrhea. We are asking about for medication. It's worsened by the fact that she has a long-distance crush on you. Sorry again."
Lucian laughed at Lucy's pout. "Don't be. I like Lucy. Speak your mind, Lucy. It's more fun than keeping it locked up inside. Either way, today is not a very good day for a visit. I'm afraid you'll have to leave soon."
"How?"
It took Lucian a second to realize that Selene had spoken, and he turned politely towards her. "Pardon me?"
"How did you know my daughter's name was Lucinda? She told old wrinkle-face up there her name was Lucy."
"Err...actually..."
"Hey!"
Lucian turned, his stance suddenly urgent, to a young boy moving towards him. The boy did not look old enough to command such urgent attention; he was hardly fifteen, with raven hair pulled back in a knot similar to Lucian's, and piercing blue eyes. He wore only a pair of comfortable-looking trousers.
"We have a visual of Gerald's men on premises."
As Lucian hurried after the lad deeper into the den, Selene asked, "Who's Gerald?"
"A vampire," came the reply. "Who has taken it unto himself to purge the world from hybrids." Lucian almost spat out a words as he stopped in front of a band of computer monitors.
Selene's next words were lost in her throat as she finally concentrated on the visuals. She had expected the 'premises' to be the old lady's cottage, but the images on-screen were wrong. The garden was longer, bigger. There were two floors in the house...
"It's...our house?" Michael sounded confused.
"You have freaking SURVEILLANCE on my house? What the—?"
"Shh," Lucian admonished lightly, then turned to the man sitting on the console. "Expand sector 45 of camera feed G, will ya?"
The other feeds disappeared, and the feed from a single camera took the front. There were three masked men moving around the shadows of the outhouse.
"Mummy, look! Thieves!"
"Jai!" Lucian's eyes never left the screen.
"What?" the boy who had alerted Lucian said. So the young raven-head was actually Sonjai.
"Who's on duty?"
"Charlotte and Jacob."
"Tell them to scare these fuckers off. Gerald will never send three vampires with substandard weapons if he plans a siege. He knows we're watching. These are just some idiotic minions trying to please their Lord. Don't kill them, break a few bones if you have to."
"Right." And Sonjai moved away.
"Now do you care to explain—" Michael began, but was cut across by his daughter.
"Lucian, what's a f—fucker?"
"Uh..." Lucian looked decidedly uncomfortable. "Why don't you ask your Daddy?"
Michael aimed a kick at him.
"I want you to tell me."
"It's quite late..." Did Lucian know how desperate his voice was sounding? "Tonight's a full moon, and most of these new ones change. Trust me, you don't want to be near by when we begin lock-down."
"Lock-down?" echoed Selene, already taking her daughter in her arms and moving to the trap-door.
"See that door?" Lucian nodded towards the end of the busy...beehive. "There are hooks on the walls there. We chain the new ones to them with silver shackles."
"Bet they hate it," said Lucy, her pout prominent.
Lucian shrugged. "It's kind of routine."
Sonjai returned. "It's all taken care of, Luc—Dad."
"You call me by my name once again, I'm gonna castrate you with a rusty spoon and then make you eat it."
Both Michael and Sonjai winced.
Selene frowned. There was too much bad language here. "So we should—?"
Lucian's reply was interrupted by the shrill tones of a kind of blow horn that blew over the PA system, then stilled after a minute.
"What the—?"
There was anew flurry of movement, and a few lycans left their assigned seats to move to the door at the end of the corridor. Lucian moved away from the torrent, and tapped a lycan on the shoulder. He was around Lucian's age, at least technically, and was hunched over his computer.
"You hear the gong, Peter? Thirty minutes to moon-rise, and it's time for lock-down."
"Aw, man. Come on, I almost got it. No one's ever come this near Jai's high score before."
"Save and end, or I yank out the picture tube when I return. Tell Jai I'm going to pick Sonja from school while you're still coherent." So saying, Lucian turned to the others. "So, have you seen enough for one visit?"
Author's note: - Do you like it? I'm sorry Sonja couldn't feature extensively in this one, but I couldn't put my little angel in such a gothic setting. Yes, I know I'm being a girl. Please tell me if you like it, it's gonna take a minute and I'll be really, really happy and inspired.
