Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Underworld or it's characters, so don't sue. The other characters and subsequent storylines are mine, so don't infringe. Many Thanks.
Author's Note: As this is a Work In Progress, I couldn't decide which rating would be most appropriate due to language and sexual content, so I've erred on the side of caution and gone with R, though I think PG-13 would probably suffice.
Chapter 1 - Waking The Dead
He was safe. He could rest now. The weeks of mindless running, hiding; keeping one step ahead under the cover of darkness were finally over. No one knew of this place. It was his secret; his ancestral home on the shores of Ireland. With his mind's eye he could easily recall the rolling, emerald hills that led off towards the rocky, towering cliffs. Memories assailed him; of the past, his time of humanity...of the child. What was the little one's name? It took him a moment to remember. It had been centuries since he'd allowed himself to think of Liam and a plaintive sigh escaped him before he could stop it.
The child had wandered too close to the crumbling edge of the cliff, against all his father's warnings, and fallen to the tumultuous sea below. They never had found the body. The sea rarely gave back what she took and the loss of the tiny, fragile, dark-haired child had driven the boy's mother mad with grief. Maira, that raven haired beauty that had captured his heart with one shy glance, had flown from the same spot as her only child, desperate to be reunited with him. She had not cared that the loss wasn't hers alone to bear. He had loved the child as well. The one and only son his loins would ever create and the pain of that loss consumed him now, even as he fought against it. Grief was a human emotion and emotion's made a man weak. He could not afford to be weak now.
He stood at the cliff's edge, letting the roaring wind carry the ocean's mist over him. The half moon shone down, gilding the waves with silver light as thunder crashed in his ears. His nostrils flared, picking up the taint of humanity in the otherwise pristine air. He had never thought to come back to this place, though he supposed the desire had always lurked somewhere deep inside him. He thought he'd left this all behind him when he'd been changed. When the sorrow of his family's loss had laid claim to his soul, leaving him unable to resist when the devil had come calling. Now, here he was. In the land of his birth...and re-birth...
How had this happened? What had gone wrong?
The questions screamed through his mind like a banshee. He grimaced, a hiss escaping through his clenched jaws. The plan should not have failed. It's simplicity had been perfect, beautiful even. He should not have ended up here! He should be back at Ordoghaz, ruling the coven with his Queen at his side, being praised like royalty. Instead, he found himself hunted like an animal, like a...lycan. His mind spat the word at him. Lycan's; Filthy, belly crawling animals. Servants to his kind. And he was being tracked as though he were no better than they.
It was her fault.
He knew now that her looks had deceived him. She reminded him of Maira, with her dark, soulful eyes, but she was not his dead wife. She was stronger than his Maira. She'd never needed him the way he'd wanted her to. The memory of her sickened him now, twisting in his gut like an ever-hungry worm, devouring him from the inside out. It was her fault. Her and that...that...human!
Human? No, not any longer. Now the human was nothing more than an aberration, an insult. Why would she choose that creature over him? He shuddered with repulsion, biting his lower lip, piercing his own flesh with his elongated fangs as fury churned through him. At last, he knew where he had failed. He had let his lust and jealousy blind him to the truth. He had become what he hated most, letting emotion rule him, and it had turned him into nothing more than a lowly human, costing him everything in the process.
She would pay for her sins; Selene and her hybrid beast. They would both burn in Hell for what they'd done. Then he would go home, to the coven, where he belonged.
Earth suddenly crumbled beneath him and, with a graceful movement, he leapt back, hearing the forlorn cry of that long ago child and his chest tightened painfully. With a will of iron that had been built throughout the centuries, Kraven forced his mind away from the memories of his long dead wife and son. He turned and headed towards the towering stone edifice of his past, there to come up with a plan to destroy the traitorous bitch and her pet.