A/N: See, I told you I'd update much faster than I did last time, didn't I?
So, here it is, chapter six! I'd like to thank GABINCUBUS, Explodium, SpeedDemon315, keili77, and chase young's daughter for their reviews! Thanks for not giving up on me, guys!
Oh, and just before we start, I will warn you, this chapter is not for virgin ears. Pierce and Taylor don't exactly have the nicest mouths, and sometimes, Selene isn't any better...
Disclaimer: Still don't own Underworld, just borrowing and having fun with it...
"Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can't you understand
Oh, my little girl
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm."
-"Enjoy the Silence" by Lacuna Coil
Chapter Six: Blind Belief
Taylor scowled, thoroughly bored with guard duty. Particularly because he wasn't assigned to the front gate-that was where the action was. At the very least, he could chatter idly with some of his fellows while he watched the hate. Maybe eve sneak away for a quick, furtive tryst with one of the den's rather robust females.
But no. For their failure to bring back so much as a blood sample from Michael Corvin the first time they had been asked, Lucian had sentenced both him and Pierce to guard the sewer grate that led to the tunnels leading to the den. The very outskirts of the lycans' little underground civilization.
"This is such bullshit," he complained to Pierce, who was leaning against the wall, paying more attention to the barrel of his submachine gun than to the entrance he was supposed to be guarding. "We brought him back here, didn't we? I don't get why we're being punished for, technically, doing our job."
"Kid, you haven't been here long enough," Pierce replied, his tone flat and bored. "Lucian runs a tight ship-and I do mean tight. If you don't do something that's asked of you right the first time, there's consequences, and your pissing and moaning isn't going to do jack shit."
The younger werewolf sighed, running a hand through his red-brown hair. "This still sucks."
"Hey, be glad it's Lucian dishing out the punishments, and not that Viktor fellow," his lanky companion replied. "I once heard that he threatened to have Lucian fed in pieces to the other lycans."
"Damn, that's gross." Taylor wrinkled his nose. "Who told you that?"
"Sabas, back before he took that silver bullet through the brain."
"Sabas? Sure you can trust him? He always was a little…off."
"Yeah, but he was also there with Lucian during all that. I would think he was telling the truth. Besides, Xristo and Raze backed him up on the story."
"Still…that's just nasty." The younger lycan shuddered. "Suddenly, this doesn't seem so bad."
"Thought so."
From up above their heads, there came the sounds of soft footsteps on the concrete. Both lycans looked up, brows furrowing.
"Rats?" Taylor suggested.
"Those are some big damn rats. Probably just one of the tunnel inspectors."
"Do they come down this far?"
"Sometimes."
With a swish of clothing whisking through the air, a dark, lithe figure dropped through the entrance, landing with ease on the rocky ground. Pierce and Taylor quickly, yet clumsily, shouldered their weapons and commenced firing, but the figure fluidly avoided their bullets, moving so fast they were little more than a black blur. Suddenly, something seized Taylor by his throat and slammed him against him against the wall of the tunnel so hard that he blacked out for a few short minutes. But in that brief moment, Pierce had been disarmed and given a nasty blow across the face to keep him occupied. Whoever had originally grabbed Taylor, they had picked him back up again, holding him so his feet dangled pitifully off the floor. A pair of electric blue eyes flared angrily at him, while an alabaster hand pressed the muzzle of a pistol against his temple.
"You're going to take me to Lucian. And you're going to do it now if you wish to keep your brains inside your skull."
For once, it was quiet in Lucian's office-that was something that didn't happen often.
He leaned back in his chair, tipping it onto its hind legs, his dark eyes surveying his semblance of an office. Usually, unless he was asleep or had set up strict orders not to be disturbed-and sometimes, even during those times-there was always at least one other lycan in his office, and, more often than not, they were whining or arguing about something.
Lucian had not foreseen this nuisance when he had led the lycans to break away from the yoke of the vampires. It was true, at first, he expected the lycans to question the orders he gave-he'd held a high rank, but even the head slave was still a slave, as it were. Of course they would doubt his orders. What he hadn't anticipated was the number of petty complaints and squabbles he would have to listen to and try to smooth over.
It seems I'll have to work on improving their self-sufficiency, he mused, lowering the chair legs back to the floor. But for now-a moment of peace. I best enjoy it.
As soon as that thought had crossed his mind, from outside of his office door, confused shouts could be heard, as well as angry footsteps approaching the door. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Spoke too soon.
The door banged against the wall as someone thrust it open, and it slammed firmly as it was closed. Before he could move, he felt the cold of a pistol's muzzle placed expertly right behind his left ear. A loud, metallic click signaled that a new round had been chambered and was ready to be fired.
"Where's Michael?"
To his immense surprise, it was one of the last people he expected to be skulking around the lycans' den-at least, in light of recent events. After a moment's astonishment, a small, cocky smirk worked its way onto his lips.
"You know, I'd be more likely to answer your question if you didn't make yourself seem so eager to splatter my brains all over the wall."
With a huff, Selene lowered her Beretta, eyes glued-and glaring-at the legendary lycan master. She continued to watch as he slid out of his chair, got to his feet, and turned around to face her.
"Well?"
"Patience, Selene," he replied, the smarmy smirk still glued to his face. "Almost as bad as Kraven. I'm starting to see why he thinks you two should be in a relationship together."
This time, Selene's pistol was jammed up under his chin. Her face was no more than two or three inches away, cerulean eyes flashing with rage, her finger hovering precariously on the trigger.
"Not funny," she hissed dangerously. "Now, answer my question."
His grin fading, he pushed the pistol aside, gray eyes smoldering. "If you continue to behave in such a fashion, I'll tell you nothing," he warned. "Need I remind you that not only are you now on my territory, but you barged in here uninvited? It is my domain, and I will not kowtow to the demands of one over strung, upstart vampire-particularly not when they continue to point a gun, presumably loaded with silver bullets, at my head."
Without the slightest change of expression, the vampiress lowered the gun and took a step back. Lucian tugged on his coat, adjusting it slightly, eyeing her with stony satisfaction.
"Much better."
"Now will you tell me where Michael is?"
"He's out the door, across the common area, through the double doors, and down the hallway," he instructed precisely. "He rooms with Brenner, another new recruit, in room 13B."
She nodded firmly, before turning her back on him and heading for the door. Just as her hand closed around the doorknob, Lucian spoke again.
"What do you intend to do with Michael when you find him, Selene?"
"Get him out of here," she replied coldly. "Far from you and your ilk."
He gave a low chuckle, smirking at her back. "Go ahead-take him. He's already served his purpose here."
Her hand tightened on the doorknob, until the molded metal gave way and crumpled under her fingers. "You used him for some sick experiment, didn't you?"
"And you and your kind wouldn't have used him in the same way? Found out what made him so valuable to my kind?" he countered. When he garnered no response from the veteran Death Dealer, he smirked again. "Yes, I thought so. To answer your question, Selene, yes, I did use him for an experiment. And he yielded exactly the desired results."
"And what exactly did you do to him?"
"Nothing major-your precious Michael is just fine. I merely took what I needed from him and told him to go find an empty room and make himself comfortable."
"So you used him to benefit yourself, am I to know?" she accused hotly.
"Of course," he replied, a bit of a mocking tone in his voice. "Because I'm terribly selfish, just like everyone else in this miserable, forsaken world. However, 'benefitting myself' meant putting an end to a war that's been raging for nearly a millennium, to finally bring some peace to our underground, concealed worlds." A not-so-subtle dose of sarcasm made its way into his voice. "Oh, yes, I'm so wickedly selfish."
"You are selfish," she hissed. "You started this fucking war, in case you'd forgotten. You didn't end it for any noble cause; you ended this war to keep yourself and your miserable species from obliteration."
Lucian raised a brow. "I'm sorry, I started this war? Is that what Viktor has been telling all his little fledglings?" He shook his head, tsking. "I pity all of you-he's been letting you all walk around as an ignorant bunch, blind to the real reason why you've been fighting."
Now at the end of her quickly-fraying tether, Selene gave the doorknob a vicious twist, opening the door and starting to storm out.
"I'll bet my immortality that you didn't know you're fighting to avenge the death of Viktor's daughter, whom-and I'll bet my life in addition to my immortality that he also didn't tell you this-he put to death himself."
She froze, arm still outstretched from thrusting the door open. It fell back against her hand, but was disturbed once more as she turned around, fixing her gaze on Lucian.
"What?"
"So I was right," he mused, meeting her gaze with his own, never wavering. "Viktor's been letting his precious Death Dealers walk into battle blind for over half a millennium, hasn't he? Sad, really."
"He wouldn't do such a thing," she insisted quickly, unable to believe her own ears. Viktor, the man who had shown her such tender, fatherly affection these past six centuries, kill his own daughter? It simply couldn't be true! "You lie."
Lucian's lips curled into a devious smile. "Would you like to put money on that statement?" When she said nothing, he motioned to another chair in the same room. "Please, have a seat. Time to correct six centuries of misinformation."
