Sadly, I don't own Underworld nor any of its beautiful characters.
Chapter 1 - Prologue
It wasn't reasonable to ask them to sit and wait, Marius thought. Not anymore. Not when they've tasted victory after victory following his reign.
What he had given his lycan brethren was something that their kind was not used to having. Nonetheless the restlessness weighing down the horde lately has also plagued him. There have been more combat fighting for the sake of wanting to feel like they're in an actual battlefield.
Yes, Marius thought, rolling his eyes. Because you are all suddenly the world's greatest warriors.
The young ones are a special kind of headache for him. Impatient buffoons. Not more than half a hundred years old, some even younger! Why, there's at least three packs who just recently turned... Imbeciles—the lot of them! In fact this sparring bout he's been forced to watch since early afternoon was started by Odian, one of the newly turned lycans. Lucian would have never allowed such unnecessary, boisterous display had he been still alive—even if it's only for a little entertainment. "You are not slaves anymore. Stop acting like one," the lycan leader used to remind them.
But Lucian died along with his dignified leadership. He had always been too soft, too narrow-minded. Too much like his masters. With their tasteful lifestyles and elaborately styled garbs for warfare, it was no surprise Lucian had inherited the self-absorbed ways of living just like them. He had lived both the lives of a lycan slave and that of a vampire—his masters. But he was no leader.
I am, Marius thought with conviction.
Movement from the backdrop of the roars of combat that filled the makeshift arena cut his thoughts short.
She's here… Finally.
Marius was on her back faster than a normal lycan. Alexia almost shrieks as he pulls her to him from behind.
"You need to be more careful," he whispers to his lover's cheek. He then pins her to one of their weaponry cargos. "Have you found Selene?"
Forced to wait for her until twilight for news of Selene's whereabouts, he was even more disappointed of what she had come to deliver.
"Yes. She is heading for the Nordic coven."
After Alexia leaves, Marius then retreats to his private quarters. If one can call it that. The vampires' lairs, he was sure, were much more grand and elegant, befitting the important titles they had made for themselves. The view from where he's sitting is neither grand nor elegant. But he's never felt more in command and powerful in his life.
There was something riveting—almost comforting—watching a man hanged upside down.
He found Michael too precious to him to just lie around on some place. One can say he's become obsessed, having him here in his quarters where he eats and drinks, and shits. But to hell with them all. Obsessed or not one cannot deny how extraordinary Michael, or how his life more particularly, turned out to be. He was the only known survivor of both species' lethal bites. He was the first of his kind, making him the most powerful over both and yet…he was just a mortal.
That was what Marius hated more than anything.
Michael was just a fucking mortal. Legend or not, a distant descendant of Alexander Corvinus had no right to be…more. Not when others like him and Lucian had lived longer lives, were stronger not because of blood ties but because life gave them shit and they fought back, over and over…and now they welcome war like an old friend.
Oh dear Lucian, Marius thought. If only you can see me now.
I am about to do something you have ever only dreamed about. I'm going to get that one victory you promised our kind so long ago, the dissolution of our enemies…one you weren't able to deliver. No matter…You did enough, brother.
Marius smiles as he watches Lucian's greatest achievement. Yes, Michael was too precious to him. He was his brother as much as Lucian was.
Half brother, a voice inside his head argues. He was also marked by our enemy. Don't you dare forget that.
"Everything's set, Marius," Odian announces as he enters—a youthful, almost innocent grin plastered on his face. There was even no proper door nor a servant to knock on it, to introduce someone before the master of the house.
"Good," he replies dryly as he dismisses the boy with a wave of his hand. He turns his attention back to Michael.
The slit part of his neck is still dripping with the last drops of his blood. The once great hybrid was good as dead.
It's a pity you don't even get to see your daughter, Marius thought without feeling sympathetic at all. That is...if you even know about her.
I heard she looked so much like Selene. He bends down to Michael's face. Isn't that nice? Two precious, beautiful people in your life sharing the same face…It's every man's dream. Too bad you cannot dream once you're already dead.
"I have to go now," he whispers. "Yes, I wish you could come and see her too." He says, faking dismay—mocking the corpse dangling in front of him. I wish you can come and see how I kill your precious vampire lover. With my bare hands—your very own blood flowing through my veins.
"Then I will drink your daughter's blood dry as I did yours." Marius smiles, a wider one this time. His elongated fangs are now visible and his eyes become the yellow hue they turn into when he's in his lycan form.
"Don't worry, Selene misses you just as much I'm sure." Lifting his hand, he caresses Michael's cheek tenderly, an action so in contrast to what he was feeling; devoid of emotion. Except maybe bitterness. "I promise I'll come back…with her body."
He stands up but kept his gaze down Michael's head. "It's just a rightful gift in return for yours."
Only then will I burn your bodies together. See? I have manners and know the tragedy of forbidden love only too well. You'll be reunited soon and then...you shall thank me.
And with that thought, Marius leaves with over a hundred, almost a thousand lycans—armed and ready to kill.
The Nordic coven…Of all the places on earth…
It was going to be a long, cold night.