I love Marcus S. Lazarus's stories, and The Vampire Leader's no exception. It was so well thought out and so well written, but best of all it focused on the female Elder Amelia, who I feel hasn't been portrayed very well.
It's always the background characters who are interesting. Anyway, I asked Marcus S. Lazarus' permission to add a oneshot to his story, and here it is.
I don't own Underworld.
Underworld - A Talk between the Leaders.
It was daylight and yet in Ordoghaz the inhabitants were resting in their rooms, protected from the sun. For Michael Corwin it was still a new experience knowing his - girlfriend, if that was the best term to describe Selene - couldn't enjoy the experience of being in the sunlight because if she exposed any part of her soft, white, silken skin she'd burn to a crisp. At least that part of the vampire mythos was true, just like werewolves, or lycans as they were called, were allergic to silver. The thought of being poisoned by silver made him sick to his stomach.
Michael was a Lycan, recently turned, and despite experiencing the transformation firsthand - Michael had never felt so...liberated, as strong in his entire life as he had when he'd transformed into a lycan for the first time - the young American medical intern still found it hard to believe he was descended from a man whose sons would go on to become the first werewolf and the first vampire respectively. He also found it strange that a woman who was the spitting image of his badass girlfriend was trying to combine vampire and werewolf bloodlines together to create a hybrid, that the war was started simply because the father of a woman who had tried to make a new life with someone he'd considered inferior and a filthy beast that hadn't only just started loving his daughter but had made her pregnant.
Michael's heart went out to not just the lycans whom he now had a connection to, but to Sonja and Selene who had both suffered for Viktor's madness and blind bigotry.
Sonja had lost her child and the man she'd loved because of her father, and yet the lycans had respected her courage and determination to keep him safe that they'd practically let her become their leader, but Selene had lost her entire family because Viktor had broken his own rules and saw the innocent family as a snack before turning Selene simply for her resemblance to Sonja, and then lied to her about who had killed her family.
Michael did his best not to smile at the thought of Selene and Sonja; the pair of them had become almost as thick as thieves. They were now seen together regularly even though they'd only met two days before, and now they were getting to know each other. For the time being Raze and Michael had been given free reign to other parts of the manor, though some of the vampires, well all of them hadn't liked it. Despite Amelia's vouching for them and the subsequent council meeting where she showed the blood memories of Marcus' attack on them as the second male Elder had just gone for them before Amelia had killed him, many of the vampires had been wary of him and Raze. Michael couldn't blame them since he felt wary about them with a few exceptions; he'd almost been killed by different vampires ever since he'd first laid eyes on Selene at the subway station. Kraven, Viktor, the Death Dealers, they'd all seen him as a threat and they'd unthinkingly gone for their weapons.
At that moment he was walking through the mansion, his 'sire' was presently enjoying some time in the gymnasium and taking advantage of the exercise equipment as far as he knew. Amelia had granted him permission so long as he didn't go anywhere near the armoury. Surprisingly none of the vampires had voiced their displeasure, but it seemed to defy an Elder was a really bad move. Michael tried not to imagine what Viktor and Amelia could have done to Selene if things had gone differently; Sonja had told him that waking up an Elder from the Chain was a crime, but since Michael was absorbing vampire culture slowly so then he wouldn't be overwhelmed he hadn't reached the bit about the Chain, though he had heard a bit about it. Apparently it was where the Elders rested. One would be awake, two would be asleep and take it in turns to rule. It was, to Michael, a very good power organisation system, one mortal politicians should practice.
It was so strange for Michael that he'd learnt more about his family history in just a few nights than he ever had in his lifetime, and on that topic he couldn't help but think about Marcus. Amelia hadn't gone into a lot of detail, but she'd mentioned a brother who was apparently a monstrous werewolf, one worse than the others he'd seen so far. Well, that kind of explained the lengths the vampires went into exterminating lycans, but there had to be more to it than that.
Though he did worry he might be overstepping his bounds Michael did want to know more about that history since it would give a bit more perspective about the murkier parts of his family's history. But he hesitated, though he wanted to he was a bit wary of speaking to the Elder because he didn't know that much about her personality. Michael's lycan senses had warned him of how predatory Amelia was, and the fact she was older than Sonja and Selene made her even more dangerous though so far she had been very accommodating to him and Raze, and he didn't want to get on the wrong side of her. For some reason he quite liked Amelia, and he didn't want to anger her.
She had been willing to give the lycans a chance whereas her fellow Elders had either wanted them dead or drained of blood. Michael had already seen how powerful an Elder was, one fully revived, and the second almost emaciated and lacking in terms of strength, and he wasn't in a hurry to see it happen again. Michael frowned in thought when his mind turned to Marcus; it was so weird that he was in this mess because of his family, no matter how distant it was. It was beyond bizarre to know he still had family members who had been born millennia before.
Finally he decided to explore the mansion close to the Elder's quarters before looking for either Selene or Sonja for some light conversation. Even in that there was a flaw in Michael's idea since there were Death Dealers in the mansion who were still awake, and they wouldn't take too kindly to the notion of a lycan near an Elder.
Still he could always say he was just exploring or looking for Selene or one of the council members who were more open to peace; there were actually quite a few of them, but they had been scared when they had seen the lengths Viktor had been prepared to go through to keep his precious power. The idea of tangling with a vampire Elder of considerable power and strength who was willing to kill his only daughter because she'd gotten pregnant by a lycan and was prepared to change everything in the immortal world to maintain the status quo wasn't a nice prospect.
Michael had even spoken privately with a few of these high ranking vampires, and though some of their views were open they were still wary of him for being a lycan, but Michael held out a little hope they wouldn't become clones of the now deceased and unlamented Viktor who was more feared than liked, and try to kill him and Selene if they had a child.
Somehow the idea of having a child really appealed to Michael; he supposed it was the lycan within him, but the idea of children with Selene was really appealing though he still needed to know her better before reaching that stage.
Michael was so caught up in his thoughts he didn't notice someone approaching until the last moment when he bumped into someone who dropped a few somethings that sounded more like a splatter than a solid thump; he registered a brief cry of surprise from a familiar female, and a glimpse of black hair.
"Oh I'm so sorry," Michael said as he helped the woman up. "I wasn't looking where I was going."
"That's obvious," Sonja said with a smirk. "Don't worry about it, Michael," she added before bending down to pick up...packets of blood? Michael frowned at the sight; as a doctor he'd worked with blood bags, but this was completely different. At least normal human patients didn't need to drink the blood.
Michael bent down and picked up two of the bags. All in all, Sonja had at least six of the bags altogether.
"Where are you taking these?" Michael asked curiously as he handed Sonja the bags he held.
Sonja took them gratefully and together the pair of them walked slowly down the corridor; Michael was glad of the company, he'd caught more than a few suspicious and hostile glares from several vampires recently whenever he and Selene weren't together but he hadn't seen her for a while. With Sonja he felt safe because she wasn't hostile towards him.
"To Amelia's rooms. She wanted to spend some time with me and Selene," the woman who was so much like Selene in an eerie way replied. "She also hoped to speak to you. Raze is already there."
Michael was instantly nervous and more than a little curious. The last remaining Elder had been incredibly busy for the last two days and nights, though the few times where she had been free she hadn't been in the mood to speak to anybody, it was hard for Michael to believe an Immortal could be fatigued, but he could see it in Amelia's eyes and posture though the Elder's traditional haughty and proud exterior remained the same.
It was a surprise to hear she wanted to talk now, but since the vampires did most of their business during the night and rested during the day it made sense the Elder, despite her strength and power, would want to speak to him and the others now.
"I don't really know Amelia," Michael commented as the two of them walked through the corridors; Michael's eyes occasionally flickering to the different pictures and ancient tapestries depicting moments in vampire history, but art wasn't really his area of expertise but even he could admire the work that had gone into them, then he saw the look on Sonja's face. She wanted him to finish what he'd started to say. "I mean, how do I talk around her?"
Sonja smiled as they approached a pair of double doors with two very, very, very paranoid Death Dealers standing guard. Michael had come close to the Elder's quarters on earlier explorations of the mansion, and fortunately he'd been protected by Selene who'd warned him not to come close to them again.
At the sight of Michael the two vampire's reaction was pathetically predictable; they both took out their weapons and got into a ready stance to use them. Michael had a hard time fighting against the urge to transform into his lycan form, but if he did that he'd give the Death Dealers the perfect opportunity to kill him.
But it was hard. When Raze had bitten him and Michael had inherited the memories of his life, Michael had seen in his own brain how the vampire's treated lycans, how they systematically slaughtered them without a qualm. It had become almost instinctual for a lycan to want to transform and pay the vampires back for all they had done. But now there was a kind of truce, it was hard for the Lycan within Michael to accept, but still it was early days. He only hoped these instincts to transform whenever he saw a vampire, or bloods as the other lycans called them, faded with time.
Sonja, noting the tension in Michael's shoulders, and knowing what it meant stepped between the lycan doctor and the Death Dealers. "We were invited to speak to the Lady Amelia," she said quickly before a disaster happened. "You," she pointed to one of the Death Dealers, "go inside and ask her if Michael Corwin was invited or not."
The vampire looked startled at the suggestion of even speaking to an Elder. Sonja sighed when she saw his indecision and slight fear at the thought; that was the problem with vampire's these days, they were so happy to let others do the leg work that they were too lazy and complacent about doing something for themselves. Sonja remembered how not so long ago she had banked on the prospect of using that complacency to end the coven once and for all, when the Elders were at their weakest. It had helped they had had Kraven as an ally, albeit one who wasn't trusted. When Kraven had been approached by Raze and herself with the deal, the treacherous vampire had instantly jumped to it, and over time she had given him, through Raze, the instructions he'd need to fulfill so his part in the agreement was met.
Sonja had seen over the last century how few Death Dealer patrols were sent out into the city to deal with the lycans, but that had been part of her plan anyway. Kraven had had few problems ensuring the coven was weak; he'd been trusted by the Elders, though to a point, but his 'killing' of Raze had given him a position of power Sonja had needed for her plans to work.
When Viktor's last reign had ended and Amelia had travelled to America to establish the New World Coven, Kraven had been the obvious choice to lead the coven until Marcus' Awakening since the other members of the Vampire Council had travelled with Amelia to help her found the new coven; a bit redundant since several small covens had already been established in America over the centuries, but Amelia's presence only brought those tiny covens together, whilst all along the female Elder and the council in the belief that Kraven, using Viktor's authority, would be a responsible leader. It had been too easy for Kraven to use the absence of the Elders, even if Amelia was awake at the time, to the advantage of the plan.
It struck Sonja as more than a little ironic the now dead Kraven had even harboured any kind of ambition to lead the coven since he had been more of an opportunist. That had made him more than perfect in her eyes, and with the invested authority of two Elders, Kraven's power had almost been unlimited, except he had worked for her.
Technically. But Sonja had known for a long time Kraven wasn't to be trusted; leadership and action weren't his forte and had simply encouraged it. He was more interested in the good life, being waited on hand and foot, gorging on random vampire women to sate his own carnal desires rather than do anything for himself. Kraven had disgusted her. Sonja had met lycans who wallowed in the dark, the dank and the filthy, but were more cleaner minded than Kraven, but he had been useful to her though she wasn't naive and stupid enough to believe he could be trusted.
Still, even Sonja had to admit, judging from the scared look on one of the Death Dealer's faces - her father was probably turning in his grave at the thought of a frightened member of his elite force - Kraven had done a good job in bringing the coven to this level, though truthfully it wasn't completely down to him. The decadence that now hung over the coven even with Amelia's continued presence now had been gathering strength over the years since she'd escaped her father and she and Raze had made that deal with Kraven since she had stopped the lycans from launching attacks against the vampires, though it had been tricky getting them to do that. She had reasoned, with Raze's help, that the vampire's would think lycan numbers had been dropping, and that the lycan race would be wiped out, only for the Vampire's to be wiped out.
Sonja shook her head out of her thoughts when the Death Dealer returned, and nodded almost reluctantly. "You can both go in," he said shortly.
Sonja sensed rather than saw Michael's trepidation, not that she could blame him; he was still wary of the Death Dealers, and now he was about to meet the oldest female vampire in the world, but still he followed her lead and they both entered the room.
The Elders each had a separate suite in whichever new fortress or mansion they occupied, each one tailored to the specific tastes of the occupant, though the rooms were locked whenever the Elder was in hibernation whilst the other was used. Out of all the Elders, Sonja was glad Aunt Amelia was still alive. Viktor's suite was usually the same no matter how many places of living the Coven continuously moved to in the early days; depressingly dark and gothic, even for a vampire, with cold stone walls and even fewer decorations, just a desk, bed, chair with a wall rack of axes and swords with solid silver finish to better kill any lycan. Marcus, despite being a creep as Michael had described him, had a bit more taste, though his taste was more on the extravagant side.
Marcus had been an avid collector of artworks and he had decorated his suite, but some of them had been gaudy and distasteful to the eye. He had also furnished his room with too large a bed to better savour everything he had despite Viktor taking most of it from him.
Amelia was different to her now deceased Elder colleagues. Oh, like Viktor, she had one or two weapons but she didn't have a vast collection Viktor had had, and she preferred her artwork to have a sense of meaning. Amelia's weapons were displayed like antiques, but Sonja knew the Elder would use one of them without hesitation if she felt threatened. Amelia was old enough to know hundreds of fighting moves, and would not hesitate to fight if it needed it. Most of the artwork were statues and sculptures Amelia had saved since becoming an Elder. Sonja smiled as she saw familiar tapestries and vases on the beautifully but simply carved shelves. Amelia wasn't as cold as her father; she hated the dark and gothic look, and preferred something a bit more serene. The walls of her quarters were a rich and soothing purple, though there were areas that were a forest green color.
Sonja remembered how her father hadn't really liked the decor, but then that had been her father. Viktor had never really appreciated tastes unless it was something he could translate into his own.
Amelia was sitting with Selene and Raze, just chatting when she and Michael walked into the room. The Elder's eyes lit up at the sight of the blood bags as Sonja dropped them onto the table. Everyone was silent as they watched the last remaining Elder pick up one of the bags.
"It's funny," she said quietly, looking inscrutably at the bag and its contents. "I've spent the last month fasting to prepare for when I could finally have a rest after the last century, and now there is so much I need to do, I need to drink the blood in this bag."
"I'm...sorry," Selene said quietly, repeating the same words she'd said to Amelia after Marcus had been killed. Amelia turned to the Death Dealer, that same inscrutable look in her eyes before she shook her head. "It's not your fault, I'm glad when I heard the full story you bothered to investigate the deeper goings on in the city rather than doing nothing before it was too late," the Elder said generously as she opened the bag and poured the blood in a glass jug before she reached for another and repeated the job, doing it again and again with the bags Sonja had brought in with Michael before she was finished.
Amelia found a small splatter of blood on her thumb and she licked it. She picked up the glasses next to the jug and passed them around to her guests, something Selene didn't like. The Vampire still had the mindset of a servant, bodyguard, protector.
"I should be doing that-" she tried to say, but a glare from Amelia silenced her. Michael had to hold back the chuckle, and he glanced to his left and right and saw Raze and Sonja were just as amused; Selene had proven she had a glare and a temper, but Amelia's glare was icy and more scary. It reminded Michael of times his mother had looked when he'd been naughty as a kid.
"Nonsense. You are my guests, and besides I never did like the idea of being waited on hand and foot not when I knew I could do things for myself," Amelia replied, cowering Selene into silence, passing the two lycans their glasses, Michael took his a bit hesitantly.
Soon Amelia was pouring the blood into the glasses. Michael looked at the red liquid in his glass with the air of a little kid being forced to eat vegetables.
Sonja and Selene saw his hesitance and they understood it; Selene remembered her own turning, and how repulsed she had been at the need to drink blood just to survive. Sometimes she had dreams of her mother's cooking, but thanks to Viktor and fate that had taken her family away from her, those days were now long since gone.
"Michael, if you don't drink that you could die," Selene cursed her poor choice of words; Michael may have brought out her softer side, suppressed by decades of blood, violence and misdirected hated, but it was still buried within her, but luckily Sonja and Raze added their own encouragements.
"She's right," Raze said.
"It's uncomfortable at first, but you'll need to get used to it," Sonja said more gently than her adoptive sister, much to Selene's jealousy, "just take a small sip first."
Michael still looked at the blood, still too much of a mortal doctor to want to drink it. Encouragement came from an unexpected source.
"I know how you feel, Mr Corwin," Amelia said mildly, her lips bloody with her own sip of the cloned blood. "When Marcus first turned me, I was repulsed with the idea of drinking blood, so much so I nearly died when I disobeyed his and Viktor's advice to forgo food and drink. Believe me, I'd never felt so ill over food before in my life. When I drank my first share of blood, I felt more energised. Over the years it got better, but I never forget the hesitance."
Selene frowned as the female Elder spoke a little of her past, and it occurred to her she knew very little about the Elder's past. Hell, she didn't even know much about Marcus and Viktor, and she wondered why Marcus had been so pleased by Viktor's death and how it related to his brother. She was so caught up in her thoughts about the murky histories of the three Elders she almost missed Michael drinking the blood tentatively.
Michael was so overwhelmed by being disgusted by the thought of tasting and drinking blood, he had to force himself to drink some of it. But the moment he did he felt stronger, he had been feeling a little weak, a feeling similar to dehydration and hunger.
"Better?" Raze asked in his deep voice.
Michael nodded.
"You'll be alright," Raze declared before he drank the blood in his glass in one fierce go with gusto.
"I thought lycans ate meat?" Michael asked.
"Bloody meat," Raze pointed out.
"Fair enough."
Sonja chuckled as she drank her own glass.
Selene was about to take a sip herself to renew her expended resources, so much had happened these last few nights, so many truths had been overturned she wasn't sure which way was up. Then she decided to ask Amelia something that had been on her mind. "My Lady-"
"Please, Selene," Amelia said generously, "for now don't call me that. Please call me Amelia. Besides I never did like that title unless it was strictly for formalities."
"Alright, Amelia," Selene tested the name on her tongue, though really she like everybody else did occasionally call the Elders by their names. "I was just thinking about Marcus," the Elder tensed, "and what you meant about his brother being an animal."
Selene kicked herself for her poor choice of words since Amelia had gone silent, idly sipping her blood with the same elegant patience as an English lady.
Amelia decided it was time to set the record straight with everyone about the past. Truthfully she had never particularly agreed with Viktor's bury history policy, and since he was dead and so many things had come to the surface she didn't have the heart to continue to maintain that policy. She'd only gone along with it because some of it had made logical sense, but during her reigning periods she had been more concerned with the present time than worrying about Viktor's methods. She had seen the sense in keeping the truth of Marcus and what he'd done in the past a secret to simply stop the past repeating itself, but Viktor had taken it too far.
The fact he was willing to kill his own grandchild and daughter was something Amelia couldn't stomach, to her it didn't matter if the father of the baby was a lycan or not. Amelia didn't really understand how her honoury daughter had gotten together with a lycan, but she would have been willing to give Lucian a chance. She may not like werewolves due to the memories of the nightmarish hunts for William, but she had only recently found herself enjoying Raze's company. It was rare to meet someone thoughtful.
"I was wondering when one of you would ask me that. You obviously know about the history behind the Corvinus family," she began with the decision to start with the basics, "but what do you know about them precisely?" She pointed her stare directly at Sonja and Selene, telling the listening lycans the question was directed to the Vampires alone.
Selene blinked at the question, but Sonja answered directly. "After faking my death I did more research in how to create a hybrid, and I realised a pure source of the Corvinus strain was the answer. I'd already heard the legend of the three brothers; one bitten by a bat, one by a wolf, and the third to walk the path of mortality as a human. Sometimes I ask myself who had the better deal."
Selene turned to the woman who had recently become her adoptive sister, surprised she would even ask herself if mortality was better than immortality though she could get the point, and she couldn't help but ask how Sonja would have been around Selene's biological and long dead sister who had been killed by Viktor or one of his followers that night.
Amelia nodded. She didn't say anything about Sonja's opinion about immortality, mostly because it was her opinion and it wasn't really relevant now. "Correct, Marcus was bitten by a bat shortly after William Corvinus was bitten by a rabid wolf he'd protected Marcus from, and I do mean rabid. Marcus and William had gone riding one day, confident in their immortality when the wolf attacked, it took them by surprise. William defended his twin brother, only he got bitten and he suffered a fever for the first time in his life before the sound of howling roused the family, and they entered his room to find William transforming into a werewolf for the first time. That was the last time any of the family would see William in human form again."
"He never regained it?"
Amelia shook her head grimly, and somewhat sadly. "No. He remains in that form to this day, and he has become so animalistic I doubt he has any of his former self locked inside. It's different for later werewolves and lycans, especially lycans who can shift between their forms with practice. William can't and neither could the unfortunates he bit over the years.
"Anyway, Marcus was bitten by a bat and became the first vampire. His turning was more stable, if a bit strange at first. Marcus never described his feelings about it, but I can imagine. Once able to walk during the day, only to be burnt in the glare of the sun, drinking blood... It scared me, but I can't imagine how Marcus felt no matter how hard I tried. Viktor would later say he was the first of our kind simply because it was a good means of keeping Marcus's power curtailed."
"But why?" Selene asked, lost. Sonja couldn't blame her; she'd always known the Elders didn't always agree with each other, but they had always kept their disagreements hidden from the others in the covens to prevent coups.
Amelia sighed. "When William escaped, the Corvinus family tried to find him, but at the time they had no idea what had been unleashed. But when they did, and their lands were drowning in werewolves turned from ordinary peasants unlucky enough to cross William, and just as savage as he was, it was too late. I don't know the full story and the only ones who do know aren't likely to tell us, but in the end Marcus realised his attempts to stop William were futile. It took him...160 years to work it out, somewhere around that figure at least."
Raze sipped his blood thoughtfully. "So, Marcus turned you and Viktor to help him stop William?" he asked, but it made sense.
"Essentially, but Marcus turned to Viktor first before he turned me," Amelia replied. It was odd for her to reveal so much of her past after spending centuries living mysteriously, but she felt she needed to. Too long had Vampire history been perverted, it was now time to set it straight. "Viktor went to a lot of trouble in later years after his turning to hide his history with only the Elders knowing about his past, but prior to becoming a vampire himself he was a powerful warlord, who ruled these lands with an iron fist. He had something Marcus didn't have; proper military expertise and a highly experienced and an equally highly trained and professional army."
Sonja frowned, "Why would my father want to help Marcus? In fact, what would Marcus have to offer him?"
"Immortality," Amelia's one word reply was simple. "Viktor was dying, a combination of old age and a mortal ailment. It's a classic enticement, and the ailment that was killing him at the time is easily curable now to humans, but back then it was a killer."
An unbidden image appeared in the minds of each of Amelia's guests; of a dying Viktor lying on his death bed while Marcus was kneeling next to him, whispering promises into his ear.
"So Marcus turned my father, and then they started turning his army into Vampires, and then they hunted William?" Sonja clarified with the only picture that made sense.
Amelia, who'd taken a rather large gulp of blood, nodded with a mumble before she swallowed. "Yes. Viktor turned his army personally; he was more powerful than other vampires, and he didn't want a vampire as powerful as he at the time."
"So why were you turned?" Selene asked bluntly before remembering who she was speaking to. "I'm sorry," she added apologetically, "I'm just trying to understand."
Amelia looked unblinkingly at Selene, and the tension in the room rose dramatically. Selene's breath hitched, thinking she was going to be in trouble. Sonja, the only one who knew Amelia better than most, had to hold back the smile that threatened to split her lips. Amelia shrugged her shoulders, not a mannerism you'd have expected from her, but it seemed to fit her. "It's alright, I remember when I was blunt with my own father and mother growing up," she said, and the sudden melancholy at the memory of her long deceased family made her look away for a moment. But she shook off her sadness and looked at her guests. "Viktor and Marcus had been hunting William down for at least four-five years or so by the time I met them. I was actually on my way to meet them."
"What?" This didn't make any sense to Selene; why would Amelia want to meet Marcus and Viktor?
"When I was a mortal, I lived in fear of a mortal ailment. It was hereditary; I had watched my father die from it, my elder brother, and two of my cousins. It frightened me, but it was more scarier when you consider that it struck you down without any warning or pattern. I then heard rumors about Viktor, whose impending demise wasn't being hidden, had been healed. It was an off chance but one I had to take, so I took some of my men and travelled to Viktor's castle. Only I didn't run into vampire's immediately."
A thought entered Micheal's mind, a thought that had entered everyone else's mind. "You met William, didn't you?"
Amelia's nod confirmed it. "Yes," she replied solemnly as she remembered the attack. "I was escorted by a platoon; Viktor had a reputation for brutality, and none of my soldiers wanted me to pay for my impetuousness. There were rumours that reached even human ears at the time, of a large, white monster running around killing people. I was glad they did come, otherwise I'd probably be dead right now. William came out of nowhere, frightened the horses, and before my soldiers even knew what had happened half of them found their shoulder armour ripped off and their flesh bitten and torn by William. Viktor and Marcus rescued me as half my escort were turned into lycans, and William was forced to flee. I told them I'd been on my way to see them, and I gave my reasons. Both of them saw my presence since they were aware of my family and what we did as an advantage.
"Marcus and Viktor conferred, and then Marcus bit me." Amelia finished, "and then I became the third vampire Elder."
Michael was trying to understand something. "So, whenever Marcus bites somebody they're more powerful than other vampires, but does the same apply to you and Viktor? I mean, why aren't there more Elders?"
Amelia smiled at Michael, enjoying the debate. "Whenever an Elder bites a human and they turn, they are powerful, just not as powerful; when Selene was turned," she directed her attention to the Death Dealer, "she was more powerful than vampires who had been turned by vampires who had been turned by Elders. But when Marcus bit someone, Viktor and myself for example, we were more powerful than other vampires, but less than he was."
Michael nodded in understanding.
"My father wanted to make me an Elder, but I wouldn't be except in name," Sonja piped up, "but I didn't want anything to do with it. I didn't want to spend time underground."
"Yes, I think I remember your father passing the blood memories of those ambitions, but I know something about you Sonja," Amelia smirked. "You hate politics. You're a natural leader, but you hate others getting on your nerves. Smart move," Amelia said, not surprised by Viktor's decision, though it had been more for his benefit than Sonja's. It was a purely political move to funnel more power to Viktor.
"So, you had been turned and became the third Elder," Raze said, "and you went hunting William?"
The older lycan wasn't forgetting the past feelings he felt towards the vampires, he doubted he ever would. It was hard to erase the memories of pain and blood in a short time, but Raze would try for the sake of peace. Besides, he remembered the original werewolves; they had been savage, unthinking, rabid monsters. It wasn't until Lucian that things changed, though not very much. By the time lycans appeared and could shift effortlessly between forms, the werewolf was almost extinct due to the numerous hunts the vampires had organised.
Raze knew Amelia wasn't exaggerating when she'd told a shorter version of her turning- he knew there was more to the tale, they all did - about William's ferocity. Amelia didn't strike Raze as the type to exaggerate.
"Not right away," Amelia's reply brought the lycan back to the present. "I needed to adapt to my new life, and I had to bring others into the Coven. Also, Viktor and Marcus needed my family's connections. We were very influential, and with the contacts we managed to learn more about William's movements, and discover new silver veins to fight the werewolves."
Michael and Raze shifted nervously at the mention of silver, though Michael's move was instinctual. Selene noted her lover's discomfort, and she offered him a smile to try to reassure him; she wasn't good at reassurance, but she was trying her best. Michael saw the smile for what it was, and smiled back.
Amelia chuckled without humour, though she had noticed Michael's discomfort and Selene trying to make it right. "I'm making it sound easy, but believe me it wasn't. Hunting William was a nightmare and one I wouldn't wish on even my worst enemy. For every person we turned and trained to help fight and hunt the werewolves, 6 more of the werewolves would take the places of the ones we hunted. I lost count of the number of times Viktor and I prayed William would pause to give us a chance to find him, then we find out he was in a different part of the country, and there were whole packs of werewolves in the way. Many of them survived, that's why a few of them survived to the time Lucian was born.
"It was an unanimous decision between we Elders; we felt William was the more important threat to contain, but it was a decision we would come to regret since the werewolves could change others into werewolves like vampires can turn humans into vampires. William was hard to find; only Marcus could truly find him, and eventually Viktor allowed him to travel on for days to find his brother."
"Viktor allowed him?" Selene repeated. "But Marcus was the First Elder; shouldn't he be the one who decided-"
"Marcus was never a leader except in name," Amelia interrupted, "I know what you're thinking, Selene, but you have to realise Marcus turned Viktor and I for our leadership abilities, his job was to help us find William. At first Marcus did command us, but as the years passed he turned more and more of his power over to Viktor and I as he concentrated on William. It was a mistake he learnt to regret since he never got it back. But realistically it was his own fault. As the centuries passed by on the hunts, it became clear to even the Death Dealers that Marcus had no idea how to lead a Coven. No, Marcus went out to seek William more than he ever spent time with us as we made plans."
"But why did you and my father take Marcus's power?" Sonja cocked her head as she gazed at her 'aunt' curiously. She wasn't condemning Amelia, she was just curious.
"Didn't you hear what I said to Marcus before I killed him? Marcus was delusional, he never could accept the reality his brother was a monster and couldn't be controlled. Even now after I revived him he still couldn't see the kind of nightmare he'd unleash. When he found out about the hybrids he saw an opportunity, and believe me William's too far gone to be controlled. I was there when he was caught."
"What do you mean, what happened?" Selene and Sonja asked in stereo which made everyone laugh, even the usually haughty Amelia, but her humour disappeared when she said, "Two years before his capture, Marcus tried to show the Death Dealers and Viktor and I that William was harmless when we'd finally cornered him after centuries of blood though he'd spent years already preaching about it," she spat the word preaching like it was a curse, "and he tried to tame his brother. At first it seemed to work but then when the first vampire was foolish enough to believe it had worked, William killed him. The blow literally tore the Death Dealers right arm off, and before any of us could stop him William had already torn three other Vampires to pieces. By the time we got back on our feet and had gotten everything under control, 15 Death Dealers were killed. Understandably Marcus's standing was tarnished and almost destroyed that night. He wasn't very popular with the troops anyway, he kept insisting we take William alive when the general thought was he should be killed, but after that night only his status as an Elder enforced his orders. But no one respected him."
"I bet my father was angry about that night," Sonja observed dryly.
Amelia nodded. "We both were. We'd spent years hunting William and our casualties were high enough as it was only for him to escape due to his brother's blindness in just a single night, and when Marcus was forced to go hunting for William the following day, Viktor and I conferred. We'd grown increasingly annoyed as the hunt for William continued, and with that latest blunder Viktor was nearing the end of his patience with Marcus. Don't get me wrong; there were plenty of occasions where I never agreed with Viktor, but at that moment I was right behind him since I hated William, and I wanted to see him either put away or killed without Marcus getting in the way and without the cost of more lives, both human and vampire.
"That's when Viktor said he was going to ensure William was imprisoned, far from his brother's influence. I didn't like that idea, I wanted to see William dead and buried. He was too dangerous, no matter what his brother naively thought. Two years later and I believed like Viktor did that Marcus didn't have the right mindset to become a leader in the coven. With my help, we finally cornered and captured William. Marcus was enraged when we 'betrayed' him by capturing William, but realistically what did he expect? Did he expect us to put manacles on Williams' paws and hope not to get torn to pieces?
Amelia calmed down slightly, taking note of the shocked stares from Selene and Michael. She knew they considered her to always be in control of her emotions, and she was, but the memory of those dark, terrible years never failed to get to her.
"Marcus made the mistake of threatening Viktor, not keeping in mind that, technically, we hadn't brutally harmed William aside from firing arrows linked to chains into his arms to restrain him," Amelia said once she'd calmed down, "Viktor had actually been willing to allow Marcus visiting rights to William provided the other Elder didn't try to release him, Viktor had only decided to do this after he'd calmed down, he'd been feeling generous, but Marcus pushed Viktor too far, so he'd decided to stick with his original plan and simply locking William up somewhere where Marcus couldn't find him and throwing away the key. Well," she looked between Selene and Sonja, "you know Viktor. He can lose his temper, be harsh, but once he'd calmed down, then he would feel generous and listen to you, but you have to be careful to choose your words, point things out in a way that will make him realise you're right. Push him at your own peril."
"And the coven stood back and agreed with you and Viktor in bypassing an Elder?" Selene asked in astonishment, though her tone told Amelia and the others she was shocked by how far they'd have gone.
Amelia wasn't Marcus or Viktor, she took the annoyance from the other Vampire in her stride. "Marcus had made many unpopular decisions leading to the deaths of many Death Dealers, decisions that many of the council are unwilling to forget, getting their support was far from difficult. I actually wanted to protect our members and make sure William wasn't a threat, which meant killing him. I didn't agree with Viktor about imprisoning William, he was too wild and unpredictable. He was too powerful. Suppose he escaped again? The hunts would begin once more, and more people would die. I just wanted him dead."
Raze frowned curiously. "So how did you imprison William without Marcus knowing where he was?"
"That's actually a good question," Sonja observed.
Amelia smiled. "Did neither of you," she looked at Sonja and Selene, "ever wonder why the Chain was established in the first place? There was a practical reason beyond not getting on our fellow Elder's nerves by ruling side by side and disagreeing on everything. After William's capture, Viktor and I had to organise places where he could be locked away without his brother knowing. We stopped him at every turn, and we had the help of the council, but even without that kind of support for his leadership, Marcus was still an Elder, and he had grown up in a family ruled by politics, so he knew how to read between the lines. Most of the council were originally Death Dealers themselves who'd earned the right to make some of the big decisions of our species and rule jointly alongside myself, Viktor, and Marcus," she added grudgingly, "and some of them were vampires who'd encountered William and the results of the carnage he'd waged on the lands. Many of the council, the elder members at least, remember how Marcus was determined to safeguard William's life above those of his own kind, and they agreed with Viktor and I he was a threat. They helped us keep Marcus occupied with politics in the coven whilst we made arrangements for William to be properly imprisoned.
"Unfortunately, despite appearances, Viktor and I both knew Marcus was trying to learn where his brother was. But he was completely alone, none of the others wanted anything to do with it. Eventually we discovered that if we fast we enter a dormant state and can be revived by blood, and we experimented with blood to develop our skills and knowledge in processing blood memories; Marcus taught us the basics since whenever he'd bitten someone and drained them that he could see their memories. It took some work, but we became proficient in organising and storing our memories."
"And Marcus agreed with that?" Michael asked surprised. "He didn't say or do anything?"
"Marcus didn't see a lot of things, but there I think he did; he'd told us about the memories once long ago, but it wasn't until Viktor and I saw the power ourselves and how we can enter a dormancy period that we decided to create the Chain. I knew that if we just revealed our idea then Marcus would take steps to prevent it, so we worked to make the idea as attractive as we could. It took less time than we expected, but Marcus was tired of all the political wrangling he had been forced to do. He agreed to the Chain, and when we decided on the order you could see the annoyance in his eyes when Viktor announced he would go first as the reigning Elder.
"Before Marcus and I descended for the first time, Viktor told me he would find a place for William to be imprisoned far from Marcus's prying eyes. We'd done the best we could between us to keep Marcus and William apart, but Marcus came close once or twice to finding out where he was. Yes, I think Marcus guessed then when Viktor announced he would try to hide William, but there was nothing he could do about it; Viktor and I had the support of the whole council, and the ensuing politics made in preparation for the establishment for the Chain took up much of our time so by the end of it Marcus and I were exhausted, and we entered our hibernation willingly.
"When I was revived by Viktor, most of his blood memories were, at the time, unsettled; it was the first time we'd done it, but with practice we became more skilled at sorting and arranging the memories. I spoke to him about what he'd done with William. We both agreed to take turns moving him from one place to another until a more permanent arrangement could be made."
"Why didn't you simply kill William?" Raze asked curiously. "Many of the older lycans have inherited memories of what he did, and wouldn't want him appearing again anytime soon."
It was rare for Amelia to appear surprised. "I didn't know that," she stuttered, looking at the large lycan in surprise.
Raze sighed. "Why do you think none of the werewolves tried to find him or any of the lycans when we first appeared? We had plenty of time to look, but we didn't. The werewolves might not have had their intelligence after they'd been turned, but they knew what William had done to them, and they hated them. They passed that knowledge on to the first lycans. Even if things had been different and Lucian had escaped and Sonja had died, Lucian would never have gone after William. The memories alone would tell him enough to let him know William was unstable."
Amelia silently pondered over this. Viktor had hunted the lycans viciously after that terrible night where Sonja had been believed to have been eaten, Amelia had thought her fellow Elder's efforts had been to avenge his daughter, but when he'd tampered with vampire history - again - she had wondered if there was more to it than met the eye, but unfortunately Viktor had entered hibernation at the time so she couldn't ask him without bringing him back up again.
But hearing this from Raze had her suspecting Viktor had hunted the newly escaped lycans down so brutally to prevent William from coming back. That made sense. The female Elder pondered for a moment longer before she returned to the conversation at hand before remembering what Raze had just asked.
"Answering your question, Raze," she said carefully to put the topic of William's return when Sonja had been "eaten" at the back of her mind for further study. "Viktor had gotten it into his head that if anything killed either Marcus or William, then those in their bloodline would die with them. Including us," the Elder gestured between herself, Sonja and Selene.
Sonja shook her head, amazed by her father's gullibility. "Hearing that makes me wonder if Viktor's IQ dropped sharply when he was turned. How can anyone die if Marcus or William died at the time? There were dozens of werewolves and vampires at the time. The only way both species would've died out is if Marcus and William had both been killed before anyone had a chance to turn anyone."
Amelia shrugged since she herself had been disbelieving of the concept. "You have to keep in mind that Viktor and I were born in an age of superstition. We didn't view our immortality as a virus at the time, but as magic. When you have that type of view, you'd believe anything, especially if that means our lives were tied to someone like Marcus or William. It took centuries before we knew any better, but by then it was too late," she said looking disgruntled at the end. "We still had William and Marcus around when we could have still killed them, but right now I wanted to know what we should do. I could plan a course of action by myself, but I didn't want to."
What followed was a three hour long discussion. Michael and Raze dropped in a few suggestions to help with the tentative truce. Amelia listened calmly, pointing out one or two issues. The problem with the lycans and vampires were there was so much prejudice and bad blood between them, but they had to start somewhere. One of the first things Sonja wanted to do was bring the truth out with history, and there was only one person she and Amelia knew who was qualified to do that.
Andreas Tanis had no reason to help, but Amelia decided she would go to speak with the historian to sound him out. Selene told the Elder during that phase of the discussion Viktor had had the historian exiled for "malicious lies." Sonja and the others had read between the lines, and decided Tanis knew more than Viktor would've wanted. Amelia had told them she would handle Tanis, but only if she took them with her to show him how genuine peace was now. Selene was a little bit guilty; Tanis may have been cowardly, but there had been moments when he had looked at her pityingly, but Viktor had kept the two of them apart. Now Selene wondered if he knew the truth of her family. She wouldn't be surprised if he did know, but Selene wondered if she even wanted to know what Tanis knew.
Sonja had then told them that Tanis had been the supplier of the UV weapons, something which had horrified Selene and Amelia, but the Elder's thoughts weren't spoken.
Selene mostly kept her mouth shut as the others spoke. She had spent the last 6 centuries hunting and killing lycans, hating them for the deaths of her family. But she had seen the carnage they'd caused over the years, the colleagues she'd seen killed... But truthfully if anyone had more reason to be hateful or angry, it was Sonja. The hybrid was presently adding a few suggestions herself, but she seemed more willing to sit back and think about the list of things she wanted to put into place. Sonja had hinted that she had planned to destroy the Coven out of revenge against Viktor, under the guise of working with Kraven to promote peace.
Now things had changed by recent events, Sonja's stance had changed as well. She had already suggested Michael and Selene get married or something to show the others such relationships could work. At first both Michael and Selene had been shy like blushing teenagers, but they hadn't denied how tempting the idea was. It just sounded too political, like an arranged marriage to them. Neither Sonja or Amelia had said anything to them to pressure them, Sonja because she wasn't going to manipulate her 'sister,' and Amelia because she felt the Death Dealer had been hurt by the machinations of an Elder enough without another one making it worse for her.
It certainly gave Selene and Michael time to learn about each other. With Michael, Selene showed her softer side (hard to believe), and for Michael, he could show her what it felt like to be properly loved. Selene hated to admit it, but she had no idea what love felt like. She had had a cold immortal existence and if Viktor had had his way, she would have spent her rest of her life hating an enemy who hadn't hurt her in the first place.
After debating numerous ideas to help with the peace, many of them practical and long term, the conversation became more casual. They relaxed and just enjoyed their time afterwards. It was tentative, but it would grow with time.