Hope you like this chapter...Thank you for the reviews, faves and follows!

I think I can post another any time this week. Our daily workload's going to be cut short by 2 hours. Wee! That'll be more writing time for me.. Hopefully I don't get sidetracked. :P

Disclaimer: I don't own Underworld nor any of its beautiful characters.

Chapter 6 - Losing and Finding

Selene fought her last war three years ago. She thought she would crave it not long after but she hadn't. That last fight cost her nothing but remorse. Eve didn't deserve that. Her daughter came running to her after her last kill, eyes full of tears. She hugged her then, with both of their arms still wet with fresh blood, she hadn't cared, only of putting everything into that fierce embrace. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, my love. I am so stupid. She had forgotten she had to think and care for someone else now, that her running away, no holds barred, to any opportunity of seeing Michael again meant she would also be putting their daughter's life at risk.

Many battles will be fought over her. Lena's words had rung in her head then, with such intensity that she couldn't let Eve go.

No more of that, Selene thought, kissing the side of her daughter's head. A silent promise.

And she's kept that promise since. David and the others went out now and then but she has remained in the coven for as long as she can remember.

She did what was expected of her as the highest of the Elders. With no place to rule, or reside in for that matter, David had given her reign over the Eastern Coven, a gift she didn't wish to take. But she accepted and endured, like she always had, and has been dutifully performing tasks. It was as exciting as polishing a pistol instead of actually using it. Everyday was the same. In the morning – meaning every twilight – the council welcomes an audience, and the vampires line up to voice out their concerns. Cassius will ask the members to vote on a decision, an act that was almost always useless because in the end, Selene had the final say no matter what.

Sometimes she goes against them on purpose just to see the look of horror on their faces. I win.

Fun as that may be, she was beginning to regret likening herself to Viktor in the first place. It had cemented her power over them all, power she didn't desire and even cared less for once it was fully given to her. So much for defending a murderer.

Selene's thoughts now naturally stray to Varga. She hadn't regretted her decision of giving the man pardon nor did she regret honoring him. Much to her surprise and dread, she has found the Death Dealer's presence…well, tolerable. He makes her laugh and Selene has never laughed all her immortal life. It also helps that he wasn't the least bit intimidated by her. He walked and talked to her without all the fussing the others often did, and for this she was beyond grateful. She could really use a friend in this whole royal ordeal.

Not that she and Varga were friends.

"Your Grace," the man currently occupying her thoughts presents himself at her side with a bow. She hears the smirk in the address. Selene was currently sitting on Viktor's chair, positioned above the rest of the council members'. He gives her a wink before turning to everyone else. "I'm sorry to cut this important...handling of matters short, but her highness, the Princess Eve, requires her mother. Urgently."

Finally.

"What took you so long?" Selene asks as she puts on her long, white overcoat once they're out of the Elders' Chamber. Her right hand man was now leading her to wherever her daughter was. Hopefully she's in the library. I could do with a really good book right now.

"Well…There was no Eve requiring you urgently for a start."

She stops. "What?"

Varga stops walking too and sighs. "It may have escaped your notice, my queen, but your daughter," he starts, hesitating. "She's about to turn 16."

"I know that."

"She's a teenager."

"Yes, I also know that. She has been for a while now, actually. Do you have a point after all of this fact checking?"

Varga doesn't answer but just stares at her, looking gobsmacked. "You astound me. Seriously." He waves his arms up in surrender as he continues to walk along the hall again. "Eve is growing up. One day, not so far from the present, she will stop wanting to hang out with her mother, meaning you. Now...do you see where I'm going with this?"

A rush of sudden emotion grips her with his words. Without needing to sink her teeth into her own pool of blood memories, a vivid image flashes in her mind's eye. It was the very first time she ever saw her daughter. She was so small, still catching her breath from all the running, and was cowering in the shadows. Selene remembered the relieving thrill of expecting to see Michael turn into open fear seeing a child – with his eyes – right where he was supposed to be. Selene was as terrified of finding her as Eve did.

"I expected warmth at least," her daughter finally confessed to her some time ago. "You looked at me with…so much sadness and…anger. You were supposed to feel familiar and...you were. That was what hurt the most. I felt you but you weren't really there. How could you anyway, when you didn't even know me."

Now she did knew Eve and that...she was everything wonderful in the world. Any mother would say that about her child but Selene doesn't care about being a cliche. Hell, her whole existence now was a cliche. She was proud of her daughter, happy that she had the chance to see her grow. And to grow with her. Selene wasn't throwing parties nor mingling with her fellow immortals and indulging in the pleasures of having an endless existence, but she was…less hateful now. And it was all because of Eve.

And now she was losing her.

The doors to her daughter's chamber burst open even before Varga could knock. Eve appears, wearing a dark leather cape poncho, which fails to hide her now prominent curves in her matching leather trousers. They were Selene's trousers. She has to stop herself from telling her to wear a longer cape to hide those legs. Immediately! I have to burn everything I own. She was also wearing…Is that makeup? God knows where she got it. Selene has never worn any. Not even back when she was a younger immortal, when Erika was always begging her to just please, Selene…You're going to ruin the whole night!

She was trying so hard not to catch Varga's eye. She doesn't need his I told you so right now.

"Mom!" She shouts and beams at her, then, noticing Varga, she curtsies before him.

He bows in return. "My princess."

Then...nothing. All three of them stood there in her doorway and…Eve doesn't move to give her mother a hug.

Selene distracts herself from being emotional about such a small matter by smiling back a little too late, and then pointing at the silver bow in Eve's hand. Varga gave it to her as a gift on her 14th birthday. "Arrows again today then? I thought you missed having to fence."

"I'd love to fence but you don't. So I'm being a good child and choosing the lesser evil." She grins at her. Even her father's grin she's got down perfectly.

"How very thoughtful of you."

They walked a couple of floors down into one of the training rooms. It was her favorite part of the day, playing with Eve. Although playing wasn't really the right term, not anymore. Selene had boundless knowledge of weapons, especially of her beloved guns, but her daughter was everything she wasn't, and so naturally Eve shot arrows (ones without silver nitrate) and fenced, the chosen hobbies of a proper lady.

But there's the fact that Eve loves to read. She reads just about everything she can get her hands on at the Eastern Coven's Grand Library – one of the largest parts of the whole castle. Selene wishes she could thank the person who had cared enough for an orphan child to teach her the wonders of the written word, especially as it seems it was the only thing she shares in common with her daughter.

I wonder if Michael was a bookworm as well…Maybe not. Selene hoped, feeling guilty. He looked too rugged, too bad boy…

Well, compared to me he was downright an angel.

"Cover!"

Another grenade was thrown just a few yards from where Michael was. Nobody got hurt. That wasn't what their opponents wanted, the blast was for them to stand down. And he wanted to stand down. He wanted to end this stupid back-and-forth which was going nowhere and accomplishing nothing. And the thing was, he could do it. He was in command for fuck's sake, Michael, but his team just wasn't cooperating.

"We need to surrender," he tells them firmly for the third time and now feeling courageous, or just mentally exhausted: "That's an order."

"But they're outnumbered!" Daniel, a young lycan barely in his mid-twenties, shouts back. "And look at the time…sir," he continues. "When the sun rises–"

"I know what happens when the sun rises!" Everyone was staring silently at him now. Michael has never raised his voice.

He doesn't want the sun to rise. What would be the point of surrendering to...ashes? And why are these vampires still holding their ground when they've got nowhere to go? Michael glances down at his watch. 4:47. With barely a quarter of time, how the hell are they going to win this fight? He moves up to steal yet another look at the opposing force.

She wasn't there.

What did he expect? A queen always has someone else fighting her wars for her. But then again, she was a Death Dealer. One of the best as their superiors told them again and again. Surely…

Michael sits back down heavily then sighs. His team was barely a battalion but the vampires still had lesser men. Do they have a tent somewhere behind those bushes they're in right now? This was getting ridiculous. Time to man up, Michael.

He removes the strap holding his M14 from his shoulder and stands up, now in plain view of everyone, much to his team's surprise and dread.

"Sir, please–"

He ignores them, even Katie, who he sees in his peripheral vision, looking so pale watching him walk over to somewhere in the middle of the open field that stands between the two sides. His hands are up in surrender. In doing so, he catches another glimpse of his watch.

4:53.

A tall man emerges from one of the large bushes, walking straight to him. He had blue eyes, his Selene's eyes, Michael thinks distractedly, and feels annoyed all of a sudden.

"Good decision to concede, soldier."

Michael lowers his hands. "Is it? I have twice the force you have and just seven minutes 'til sun up, we won't even have to do that much work." He wasn't sure why he was challenging him when the plan was to surrender. His plan.

"Then why didn't you wait?"

"I got impatient watching you hide like sitting ducks." Michael takes a pause, glances at his watch for the third time then turns to him. "It's more exciting to watch you burn." It wasn't him that's talking anymore. There's a newborn monster inside that suddenly hates everything about this man.

He was taller than Michael but he doesn't intimidate him. Looks don't kill but this man's eyebrows might. They were so thick and dark against his white skin. He doesn't answer his petty taunts but instead looks up at the sky, now a purplish hue, then smiles.

What the hell?

Did Selene really entrust her soldiers' lives with this man?

"Take us to your leader." Michael says at last.

That wiped the smile off his face. "And why would I do that?"

"I have information." Of what, he doesn't know. But he sure has some questions.

"Let me get this straight. You threaten me and my man, then you surrender...only you really didn't, because you'd rather watch me burn in the sunlight. And now you're asking me to take you to our coven. Is that correct?"

"Yes. You wouldn't want Selene to know you've turned down a polite request."

"A polite request?" There was some hint of anger in his voice now.

Good shot, Michael.

"There was no bloodshed, wasn't there? We surrendered. Not a single bullet was shot. I think that's polite enough."

He goes quiet again, contemplating his options, none of which was favorable. "Alright. Tell your men to leave their weapons behind."

He then moves away from Michael, eyes now squinting from the early daybreak rays.

Michael follows the vampire who did not burn in the sun.