The Ancient Coven

by L.M. Frick

After Kraven's betrayal, Lucian lay dying as liquefied silver seeped through his body. Saved by a creature thought to be of legends, he must now travel north as a darkness threatens not only his world, but the mortal realm as well. Contains adult themes.

10. Confessions and Consequences

AN: I had a hell of a time thinking up a chapter name for this one…. Ugh.

Things start to jump around a little with some time-overlap about halfway through. I hope it does not get too confusing. It should be fairly easy to follow, I think.

Chapter Ten: Confessions and Consequences

"Yes, thank you. We will be there. Yes. Yes. Good-bye." Lina hung up the phone with a click then looked up from her desk to the man standing at another phone across the room. He had been eavesdropping on the line and dropped the receiver onto the body of the telephone. "Well, what do you think?" Lina voiced when Vlad had yet to say anything.

"If I were them, I would request only the two of you as well. As much as I do not like the idea of you two being un-chaperoned, especially Aislyn, there is not much else we can do. They won't meet us here with so many lycans around and I'm not exactly inclined to let them know where we live in the first place." Vlad toyed with a strand of black that had escaped the tight horse-tail tied at the nape of his neck. Twirling the lock around his fingers, he wandered to the window of the study, gazing out at the moon in the clear winter sky.

"Then we go," Lina confirmed. She pulled a small, black book from the drawer of her desk – a day planner - and flipped it open to a page two days from the present. She made a brief note: December 31th – 10pm, Saint Grace's – McMurray. Then she snapped the book shut and tucked it back away in its proper place. She glanced up at her oddly distracted husband when he had not spoken for some time. "What's bothering you?" she finally asked. "You're not yourself lately."

Vlad cast a brief look in her direction before going back to his observations of the moon. "I'm fine," he said. Lina rolled her eyes and stood from the desk, moving to his side. She leaned against the window frame and slowly slipped along its length to place herself between him and the outside. He looked down at her with a raised brow as she settled herself on the edge of the window and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Talk to me, Vlad," she murmured. "This is about Aislyn, isn't it?"

The man shrugged and attempted to avoid her eyes, looking over her head at the world beyond the window. "I assure you I have no idea what you're talking about."

Lina snorted in the back of her throat and reached up to snag both his ears in her hands. She tugged down hard, forcing him to look at her. Wincing, Vlad covered her hands with his own and tried to pull her free. She wasn't going to relent, however, and gave her husband a very hard glare. "You have been in here brooding ever since the Wake, refusing to come out and join the house. You haven't even come out to meet Selene, yet, and that's terribly rude of you. Especially since she may be the key to releasing you from another eternity of living in the dark. You, of all people, have never been so disinterested in what occurs under your own roof."

Vlad finally managed to yank her fingers off his ears and rubbed the tender lobes with both palms. "Was that really necessary?" he snapped, glaring back at his wife. Lina folded her arms across her middle and nodded. "I'm just not feeling very sociable at the moment."

"Bull-malarkey," Lina retorted. "It's Aislyn that's been bothering you. You don't want to come out into public for fear you'll see them together."

Vlad didn't respond and Lina sighed, leaning forward to press her forehead to the center of his chest. Absently, the tall man wrapped his arms around her and rubbed the length of her back. "I have nothing to be upset about," he finally ground out between his teeth. "Absolutely nothing to be upset about. He's only almost my age. Why would that bother me? What conceivable reason do I have for disagreeing with this whole affair?"

"I truly hope my Sarcasm-Detector is working properly because it just went haywire at that entire proclamation," Lina murmured dryly.

"Of course I'm upset!" Vlad exploded, holding her tighter than was probably appropriate. A lesser species might have complained about the sudden, bone crunching strength Vlad was using. Lina ignored it; she could still breathe. "Damn it, Lina, he's not even vampiric!"

"Neither was I," the woman said evenly.

"Yes, but you could be turned." Vlad pressed his cheek to the top of his wife's head.

"He is an immortal," Lina reminded Vlad. "Plus, he's intelligent, good-hearted, dedicated, Aislyn finds him attractive-"

"You would think with what you are, you would be even angrier than I am," Vlad cut her off harshly. "He's a Wolf, Lina. Your kind is supposed to live to kill them."

"Things can change, Vlad." Lina pushed back slightly to look up into his sharp face. "I've welcomed them into our home for the sake of the war. I've learned a lot more about them as people since then. Makes me sort of regret how many lycans I've slaughtered over the years. I mean, haven't you found them to be opposite of what we had expected?"

"Yes, of course. Most of them are just like us, I get it." Vlad shook his head slightly then tilted it back to stare at the ceiling. "He's too old for her, regardless," he tried again. "She should realize that."

At that, Lina gave him a very level stare. "Oh, because you and I are so close in age that we make the best example for her?" Lina laughed sardonically and shook her own head. She stood and moved away from him back toward her desk. "Damnation, Vlad! I'm, what…" she ticked off a few fingers, thinking. "Have I even turned sixty yet?"

"I'm not sure," he admitted, frowning. "Your birthday is next month sometime. What year were you born?"

Lina waved her hands between them a few times. "No, we are not getting distracted with exact numbers right now. What I'm getting at is that there is more of an age difference between you and I than there is between Lucian and our daughter. This isn't about his age, or even about his species, and I'll be damned if you'll convince me it is. You're just upset because your little girl has grown up."

"She's been an adult for many years-"

"Don't start with that." Lina slammed her palm down on the table. "I want our child to be happy and I've seen them together. This isn't another Justin, Vlad. You won't have to rush in to defend your daughter's honor."

"Justin had it coming," the lord growled. "He wasn't a very good asset to the coven, anyway."

"Beside the point," Lina reminded him. "Lucian is good for her. He may be a lycan but at least a lycan won't dump her for the first piece of ass that walks by. I think she'd do well with this sort of stable relationship. Look at us, Vlad. We're her example and we've been in same type of monogamous, stable marriage for nearly forty years. That's forty years longer than most members of this coven. "

Vlad fell silent again and went back to his window. After a moment, he felt Lina's arms snake around him from behind. Her cheek pressed against his shoulder blade and she sighed deeply.

"Can you at least promise to play nice?" Lina murmured into the silken material of his shirt. "You were downright giddy when Nagire came back from god-knows-where with Tekala. At least try to pretend to be happy with your daughter's choice."

He sighed as well, covering her linked hands with his own. "She is still my little girl," he murmured softly. "I know he is a good man, I know she's happy. Damn it, I know I should be happy. But I'm not, Nightingale. This just seems too fast and too soon. Aren't girls supposed to date around and play the field? I was expecting there to be a line of boys I was supposed to be scaring away, not one man who is about as intimidating as I am."

Lina chuckled and let him go, pulling him around to face her. "Are you telling me you find Lucian a bit scary?"

"No." Vlad snorted in the back of his throat. "I mean that I cannot stare him down. I've tried; he does not relent like others do."

"That's because you're both leaders. You should probably befriend him instead of ghosting around the manor pretending not to exist. Maybe if you actually get to know your future son-in-law, you'll like him better."

Vlad frowned down at his wife. "I don't dislike him. And don't use that term, it makes me uncomfortable."

"Son-in-law? Oh come on!" Lina's forehead smacked against the center of his chest. "Can you at least try to be an adult about this? It's going to happen whether you like it or not so you might as well find a happy medium and make friends with the man!"

"I cannot believe you're not even the least bit upset about this. This future 'son-in-law' is how much older than you, even? That doesn't bother you?"

"No." Lina shook her head. "Not in the slightest. I've said before that I think he's a good match for her."

He met her eyes for a very long moment, struggling to verbalize how much this was not what he was expecting for his daughter but couldn't really find any excuse that didn't sound weak and selfish. He loved his daughter and did want to see her happy. He often wondered if or when she would find another boyfriend after the whole fiasco with that Justin jackass. It had been nearly twenty years since she had shown any interest in the opposite sex and Vlad was starting to think she would chose to remain unattached. She had never seemed unhappy with her single status and Vlad was pleased that she was content. Finally, he dropped his chin onto Lina's head.

"Her happiness is what is important," he finally ground out. "I will try to be more accepting."

"Good. I need you to tell her what the plan is, then. I promised to go deal with a domestic dispute at Harrison's home… unless you want to do the rounds?" Lina smirked into his chest as he stiffened. As the heads of the coven, they were often asked to make rulings regarding problems with their coven members. Vlad hated having to play referee to in-fighting and often deflected issues to Lina as she tended to be good at smoothing over ruffled feathers and finding the compromise that made everyone at least moderately happy. Lina knew well his hatred of dealing with the trivialities of coven life and was using it against him to force him to confront Aislyn.

He grunted an affirmative and let his wife slip from his arms. "I have a few things that need addressing first then I will let her know," he said resignedly. Lina seemed satisfied with that. She stood on her tip toes, kissed him soundly, then whisked from the room to attend to her business.

---

Vlad stood outside Aislyn's door and checked his watch. It was nearly midnight. He brought his fist up to rap upon the door but paused in uncertainty. Would she even be up? With any other member of the coven, he would not have considered the possibility that they would not have been awake this early in the night. But since the day they had discovered Aislyn had inherited her mother's ability to Daywalk, his daughter had been living between the two worlds of day and night. Often she would actually sleep through the darkness and be awake in the light. Since they needed as many sunlight operatives as possible, it made sense that she would keep the unusual hours.

Lips pursed, Vlad pressed his ear to the door and tried to listen for any sounds that might indicate his daughter was awake. Nothing obvious came to his sharp senses so, with a sigh, he pulled back from the door and knocked as lightly as he could and still make a sound. If she were awake, she would hear it. If she was not, the sound would probably be too soft to wake her.

His ears picked up the soft sound of feet on the hardwood floors beyond the door. Apparently she was still awake after all. The lock on the door clicked and slowly the wood slab pulled back to reveal Aislyn standing there in her lounge-wear: the usual pajama bottoms and tank top she seemed to favor. Her hair was wet and slicked back from her head and Vlad could smell her shampoo strongly. She must have just gotten out of the shower.

"Daddy," she said with some surprise. "Something wrong?"

"No. Your mother sent me to inform you that your meeting date has been set with the Hunter clans. She had other pressing issues this evening." He made a vague gesture that indicated the areas outside the manor's walls. Aislyn nodded absently in understanding.

"Well, that's good news at least. When?"

Vlad stood there for a moment, gazing down at his daughter. "Two nights from now, ten p.m." He briefly wondered why she did not seem inclined to invite him in to discuss this. He felt a bit rudely put-off being forced to stand in the corridor. His silent inquiry was quickly answered though, as another figure moved into his line of vision from the left side of the room: the direction of Aislyn's bedroom and bathroom.

"Did you say something, Ais?" Lucian started, having heard her voice from the other room. He was vigorously toweling his hair dry and did not see Vlad at first. At the sound of both the master of the house and Aislyn clearing their throats, Lucian's head snapped up to stare at the man in the doorway. "Good evening," he said evenly to Vlad.

The vampire nodded curtly back. Although his eyes were glued to the lycan's face, Vlad would have been blind not to notice that the wolf was wearing absolutely nothing except for the towel draped over his shoulders. Vlad's eyes flicked to Aislyn's recently wet hair, then back to Lucian, and finally forcefully settled themselves on his daughter's face.

"Ah. Ten p.m.," he repeated, feeling an odd mixture of angry and uncomfortable. He wanted to say something about the inappropriateness of the whole situation but knew better than to open his mouth. He would only be forced to stick his foot in it if he said anything brash to his daughter. She had her mother's temper and he was not sure he wanted to deal with that at the moment.

He saw from the corner of his eye that Lucian had vanished back into the bedroom, probably – hopefully – to get dressed. The sight of a naked man did not bother Vlad. He was too old and world-worn to care about nudity. The sight of a naked man in his daughter's living quarters, however, was an entirely different affair.

"You okay, Daddy?" Aislyn's voice broke into his revere and he blinked down at her a couple times. She was giving him a very serious look. He noticed there was a warning there as well. With a great deal of patience, he reminded himself of the promise he had made to Lina only an hour or so ago. He was supposed to be playing nice with the other kids.

"Yes," he responded shortly. "Perfectly fine."

Aislyn did not hide the roll of her eyes. "Dad," she murmured carefully. "If you need to say something, say it."

He shook himself and forced a smile at the woman. He knew she would see through its fakeness but he had to try. He opened his mouth to say something, snapped it shut, and placed both his hands onto her upper arms. He squeezed them lightly, turned, and vanished.

Aislyn stood there for a long moment after he did his little disappearing act, wondering if he had really gone or if he was still there. Finally, with a furtive look down both directions of the hallway, she swept her arm out in front of her. When it did not come into contact with anything, she heaved a sigh and shut her door, locking it firmly. He had agreed many years ago, when she had hit puberty and became all girlishly secretive, that he would not come into her room without her permission. He had not broken that promise in nearly twenty-five years. She doubted he would do it now.

Entering her bedroom, she leaned sideways against the doorframe and crossed her arms. "Really?" she asked, arching a brow. Lucian was sitting on the side of the bed, still completely unclothed, brushing his hair out.

"What?" he murmured innocently, not looking up at her.

"You knew damn well he was at the door," she retorted, moving across the room to kneel on the bed behind him. She took the brush from him and started carefully working out some snarls he had missed.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied in the same naive tone.

Aislyn snorted and tugged none-too-gently on a knot, yanking his head backwards so he was looking up at her. "He's having a hard enough time with this without you parading your junk around in front of him." Her tone was hostile but the corners of her mouth were tugging dangerously higher, threatening to break her stern demeanor.

He smirked in reply before grabbing either side of her head and pulling her close for an upside-down kiss. She didn't resist but eventually pulled away and moved to put the hairbrush back in the bathroom. Returning to the bedroom, she sighed at him and shook her head.

"Seriously, though. Can you please not goad him on? This isn't something your dominance games are going to help."

Lucian's brows raised a fraction. "I'm not playing dominance games," he defended.

"Then what was that?" She motioned toward the central room.

Lucian gazed up at her from the side of the bed, taking a few breaths of her scent. It was somewhat distracting and the effect was starting to become obvious. "I'm not going to hide anything from anyone in this house," he said after a moment in which she moved to stand between his legs. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he leaned forward to rest his head on her chest, his arms slipping around her waist. He took a deep breath and nuzzled his face into the fabric between her breasts. "And you're not naked," he noted.

She chuckled. "After that stunt you just pulled I'm not sure I should be."

He nipped at her through the cotton top. "If I apologize for my bad behavior, will I get a reward?" She smacked him lightly on the arm and pulled back a bit. He looked up at her and exhaled deeply.

"He is going to have to get used to this," he said seriously, hands running up and down her back, feeling the bumps of her spine with gentle fingers. "Perhaps I was being a bit forthright, though. I will try to be more subtle if that makes you happy."

"I would appreciate that," she told him honestly, half closing her eyes at the feel of his hands on her back. "He can be overbearing and overprotective. It might be easier if you, you know, got to know him better or something." Her mind was starting to wander as his hands continued their massage, moving to include her sides, thighs, and buttocks. "It's very difficult to concentrate when you do that," she admitted. His hands paused and she smacked his arm again. "I didn't say stop."

Lucian laughed and started his motions again. "I will try my best not to shove this in your father's face," he promised as she climbed onto the edge of the bed, straddling him. "I'm sorry for my dominance act. It is a part of my nature that sometimes gets to better of me."

She dipped her head down to capture his mouth again. "Forgiven," she murmured into his lips. "Now, less talk."

---

"I'm going with you."

Aislyn looked up from the gun-covered desk she was standing at, clip half pushed into the barrel of one of her weapons. She gazed at Lucian incredulously, one brow arched. "Don't be an idiot. Mother and I are going alone."

The lycan frowned deeply from where he stood near her bedroom door. He leaned back against the frame, folding his arms across his chest. "I'm going," he said again. "It's too dangerous."

Aislyn shoved the clip fully in and slammed the gun down onto the desk top in frustration. "We've been over this a thousand times," she retorted darkly. "You walking into this meeting would be suicidal. We're dealing with Hunters, Lucian, not some pathetic Viral aristocrats easily manipulated like Kraven."

"You think I can't handle myself in a group of Hunters?" the lycan spat, anger starting to rise for the umpteenth time that day.

"You've been playing dead for six hundred years," Aislyn scoffed. "It isn't like you've had much of a chance to deal first hand with them. I'm about as close as you've really come and I'm not exactly the kind to kill you. Although with how you're behaving right now, I'm getting tempted."

"Two of you against multiple clans," Lucian growled. "Oh, that seems like fair odds to me."

"They're not going to attack us!" Aislyn threw her arms up in exasperation. "We have a truce with these people! Now if you come waltzing in with us what do you think will happen? I'm not going to have you put yourself in useless danger just because you have this obsession with trying to shelter me! I'm not a child, Lucian. I don't need your constant care."

"Really? You're doing a very poor job of proving that," he snipped. "As far as I've seen, you've done some pretty juvenile things since I've come here."

"You know what? Fuck you." Aislyn snagged her gun and stormed from the room, slamming the door behind her. The force caused a picture frame to crash to the floor and Lucian dug both his palms into his eyes before going to collect the artwork. He tossed it onto a couch to inspect later before sinking into an armchair with a groan.

They had been fighting for the better part of the entire day. The night of the meeting was upon them. The only stipulation made by the Hunters was that only Lina and Aislyn could attend, being that they were Hunter-blooded. No other vampires and definitely no lycans. Lucian found that immediately suspicious and had been insisting that he should accompany them. He even promised to stay in the car unless something happened. Aislyn, obviously, had taken offense to his ideas and was not being cooperative.

Lucian was at a loss. They hadn't fought before, not seriously. There were times in the past that he had been frustrated with her, and she with him, but nothing to this extent. He knew she was a very passionate woman and he had lost his temper. Things were said that probably should not have been said and now where were they?

Lucian kicked the coffee table across the room with a heavy boot, snarling. There was a crack as the wood hit the opposite wall and one of the legs splintered. A door slammed from somewhere downstairs and the lycan knew Aislyn and Lina had left for their meeting. He was tempted to get up and follow them but that would end very badly given his current sour mood. He needed to go do something to take his mind off of her and vent his anger.

He left the room and tromped down the stairs, pointedly ignoring anyone that tried to greet him. Even Raze avoided the alpha when he noticed the simmering fury radiated from the smaller man. Only a fool would bother Lucian when he was in this funk. Those in the living room were well aware that something bad had happened between lycan and vampress. Aislyn's expression was the mirror of Lucian's, and one would've been deaf to miss the door slamming.

Lucian left the manor and walked toward the back of the complex, crunching through little piles of old snow. Most of it had melted away but there was still a little bit left. None of the human meteorologists had been able to agree on whether or not it was supposed to snow again but Lucian doubted it. It didn't smell like snow, it smelt like rain. Great, that would put him in an even worse mood than before.

He made for what constituted as the vampires' training complex, a renovated house near the back side of the complex full of exercise equipment and mats for whatever was needed. Lucian figured maybe some exercise would help clear his mind and calm him down. If all failed, he would at least destroy a couple of punching bags and that would help him vent.

Upon entering the building, he wasn't surprised to see Selene and Michael there in one corner, stretching out on a mat. The hybrid had told him earlier that week that Selene was trying to teach him the finer details of combative arts. Michael's fighting was more the instinctual hack and slash of an untrained lycan, not the fine-honed skills of an actual martial artist. Lucian just did not figure they would be there at the same time he was intending to be there. Other occupants of the building – vampires - had given the hybrid a wide berth out of respect and a little unease.

He considered turning around and leaving but thought better of it and sat back to watch the lesson with only half his attention. After a minute of watching them go through kata together, the lycan removed his jacket and tossed it to one side, then pulled off his boots and socks and moved onto their mat. He grabbed one of Michael's legs and pulled it further out.

"Lock that leg," he said sternly, kicking the back of Michael's other kneecap, sending the taller man down onto one knee. "I should be able to stand on it without you falling down."

Michael readjusted his stance and, true to his word, Lucian put the full force of his weight onto the hybrid's back leg. The lycan nodded and slapped Michael on the shoulder. He stood back as the two of them continued. He knew from experience that it was difficult to watch someone else's performance when doing the same movements simultaneously. It helped to have an extra set of eyes to correct mistakes. Selene accepted his presence and kept the count going, moving through the forms with Michael. Where she was seamless, however, the hybrid was awkward.

"Too narrow," Lucian commented, shoving Michael lightly from one side. The hybrid wobbled and fell to a knee again. The younger man growled under his breath, stood, and corrected himself.

"Too narrow," Lucian said again, pushing the hybrid over once more.

"Will you knock that off?" Michael demanded.

"Not until you learn your lesson. Do it again." Lucian stood back and let them continue. They repeated the form a few more times before Lucian felt that Michael was perhaps getting it down. He was sloppy but he was just learning. No one looked good doing it at first, anyway.

"We were thinking of sparing next," Selene informed the lycan-king quietly as she did a few more stretches.

Lucian nodded and stepped off the mat. He pulled a chair over to the edge and sat, leaning back with half-closed eyes. This would be interesting.

---

Lucian left the training center about an hour later feeling a great deal better. He was still upset at Aislyn but he didn't feel murderous anymore. Despite his change in mood, he didn't pause in the commons or respond to any greetings from his men. Instead he moved upstairs and back into Aislyn's rooms. He needed a shower and he needed to think clearly about the events of the day.

Since their decision to become a pair, a good deal of his things had migrated over into her quarters. He wasn't sure how exactly they had come to the decision that they were going to occupy her space but it just seemed to happen that way. He still retained his rooms, though, should he feel he needed to occupy them.

Stripping down in the bathroom, he left his clothing in a jumbled heap on the floor before switching on the shower. As it warmed up, he inspected himself in the mirror. The faint bruises he had received from Michael were quickly fading and he was pleased with how well things had gone. The hybrid learned quickly. Next time they may try his fighting transformed, once he gained better control of his human-form fighting.

Lucian rubbed at his chin slightly. It was about time he trimmed again. His hair seemed to grow incredibly fast and he hated looking too scruffy, too much like an animal. He started forming some vague thought about how much Aislyn liked him when he was all neat and tidy but thinking of her made his stomach curl unpleasantly right then. She was probably still mad at him and he did not like that thought at all.

It wasn't like he hadn't expected them to get into arguments occasionally. Even mated couples fought. That was nature and life. People disagreed. He just hoped she would get over it soon and they could continue on with their lives. He couldn't help if he felt protective of her. He had lost his last mate horribly and, although they were not actually mated yet, he could not bear the thought of losing Aislyn, too, after just having found her. It actually physically hurt to think about so he shoved it far into the back of his mind and slipped into the shower stall.

Soaping himself up, Lucian took a deep, calming breath and let his anger finally go. He would be lying if he claimed this fight was worth holding onto. He loved her, regardless of how her behavior did not meld well with self-preservation. Deep down, he knew she felt the same. He was probably just being paranoid about the meeting, anyway, and that had led him to smother her with overbearing protectiveness. If the roles had been reversed he truly doubted he would have reacted any differently than she had. Although, he probably would not have used such profane language to express his upset.

He leaned his head back into the spray, slicking the dark locks back as he rinsed shampoo from his hair and soap from his body. The quick shower revived him somewhat and he felt a lot more like his usual self.

As he vigorously toweled his hair dry he thought he heard his cell ring from the pocket of the pants on the floor. After some rummaging, he found it and looked at the screen. It was Aislyn. Maybe she had calmed down? The time displayed on the LCD screen read 10:30pm; was the meeting already over? Pulse thudding, he flipped it open and put it to his ear. The greeting he had prepared died on his lips, though, as he listened intently to the sound of muffled voices coming from the receiver. Had she accidently pocket-dialed him?

---

Saint Grace's Church was still and silent, the doors and windows boarded up as they had been for years. The outer stone wall was covered in trellises of ivy so thick one would have to part them to tell the walls were, indeed, stone. No one came around anymore to the dilapidated little building and the vast, overgrown grounds it housed. That was what made it ideal for secret gatherings. The Hunter clan of McMurray actually held the deed to the place and it was there that Lina and Aislyn were supposed to meet the head of the McMurray clan and a couple others.

In the spring and summer, the grounds were filled with lush, green vegetation gone feral from years of neglect. Now the trees were leafless, the grass tall and brown and soggy from the melted snow. It was dismal and dank but still held that note of overgrown abundance present in the warmer months. Non-deciduous shrubs dotted the bleak landscape of the garden and a few hedges stood higher than either woman's heads to mark boundaries throughout the property.

As mother and daughter tromped through the wild, winter-dead gardens, peaking behind bushes and through weeds, they both frowned nearly identically. Where was everyone? Aislyn checked her watch. They were at least fifteen minutes late due to an unforeseen road closure. Given the number of people supposed to be present, statistics showed at least one or two would have arrived early and more would have been on time. It was disturbingly quiet and the two vampires went on high alert, ears pricked and eyes dilated to catch any movement. Lina had her mouth open slightly, tasting the air in the same fashion a cat did to find prey.

With silent motions, Lina indicated they should split up and search the grounds. Perhaps they were just in the wrong place and everyone else was waiting elsewhere. She went one way, Aislyn went the other.

Aislyn was about halfway through her circle of the old church yards when she heard a sharp twang, a dull thunk, and a sharp hiss from somewhere nearby. Quickly, she wove through the tall grass and between trees to find the source of the sound, her heart leaping into her throat. She had a pretty good idea what she was going to find already but didn't want to dwell on it.

Breaking through an over-exuberant hedge, Aislyn's eyes fell on the form of her mother. Lina was doubled over on a clear patch of ground, a sharp, tapered length of wood protruding from her middle. "Mom!" Aislyn dashed forward to crouch by Lina's side. Lina unfolded herself and sat back on her heels with a groan. The younger vampress took a firm hold of the thicker end and started to pull it free but Lina's hand clutched hers suddenly. She shook her head warningly and glanced toward a grove of apple trees nearby. They were not alone.

"You!" Aislyn snarled, gaining her feet and standing over her mother as the older vampire attempted to pull the wooden bolt from her own body.

"What? You were expecting Hunters, maybe?" Helena emerged from the tree-line and took a few extra steps toward them. Her crossbow was already reloaded and trained on Lina's head. There was a rustling and more van Hellsings slipped out of their positions, moving to encircle the pair of immortals. Aislyn wondered briefly how they had managed to sneak past both her and her mother's superior senses. She had more pressing issues though as the point of a wooden bolt scraped the back of her head, a Slayer's finger on the trigger.

Aislyn felt a cold sweat start to break out on her forehead. A second bolt joined the first and she dared not move lest the two Slayers had itchy trigger fingers. A wooden stake to the brain would be instant death. The vampress' hands slowly slipped into the pockets of her jacket, a half formed idea in her mind. Her fingers came in contact with something small and hard. She flipped it open and pressed a button.

"Hands where I can see them. Take her gloves," Helena snapped to one of the Slayers standing nearby. Aislyn obediently pulled her hands from her pockets, praying Lucian was not still angry enough at her to not answer his phone as the crossbow bolt bit at the skin of her scalp. The addressed Slayer moved quickly and tugged both of Aislyn's pentagram engraved gloves from her hands, then took them to the blond leader. Helena gazed down at them with her lips curled up in a very disturbing grin. "Wonderful," she purred before pocketing them and readjusting her aim. "And the armband on the older one. I want that, too."

Lina yanked the bolt out with a grunt and clutched the Animus brace closer to her body. Lina glanced up at Aislyn, eyes hard. Both women's minds were racing. Getting out of this one was going to prove tricky.

"Give it to me, Gates, or I'll kill your precious little girl." Helena held one hand out, the other moving her crossbow to aim it at Aislyn's head.

"It doesn't work like that," Lina retorted darkly. "Taking it from me, even from my dead body, won't grant you the use of the blade."

The corner of Helena's eye twitched fractionally. "You're stalling," the Slayer said without much conviction.

"I am not." Lina's eyes had narrowed as she regarded Helena. The human was not injured but she was still human. Plus, Lina was not as bad off as Aislyn had been when she was facing this tyrant. And Lina had Animus. "The Animus blade will not just work for anyone, Helena. It's useless to kill me or my daughter over it when it won't do you a lick of good. Even if I gave it to you willingly, it would not work."

"We shall see…" Helena dropped the aim of her crossbow and loosed. Lina threw herself to one side, rolled, and popped to her feet faster than the arrow. It thudded into the ground between Aislyn's legs where her mother had been crouched only seconds before.

"You want this?" Lina lofted the sword that had appeared in her hand the moment she stood, "You'll have to fight for it."

"Gladly," Helena returned. She tossed her crossbow to one side and drew the Blessed blade she had used on Aislyn. "It'll be most satisfying to pry it from your cold fingers."

Lina did not respond and in a flash, she was before Helena. She swept her sword around in crescent and it was by sheer luck that Helena moved her sword in time to block. Fueled by adrenaline and sheer hatred of the nefarious Slayer, Lina drove forward, the Animus slicing through the air, its outline blurred from the speed with which the Hunter swung.

One of the Slayers guarding Aislyn started forward but another grabbed the man by the elbow and shook his head warningly. "Our orders are to guard the girl. Unless she calls for it, we do not interfere," he hissed under his breath. Aislyn was pretty sure he had intended his volume for the man alone but he must have forgotten just how keen a vampire's hearing was. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. He must be new. She just hoped that would work to her advantage. If these oafs became engrossed enough in this fight, perhaps they would let their guard down and she could do something about this sticky situation.

There was a grunt as a splash of blood on the overgrown weeds sticking out between cobblestones as Lina's sword made contact with Helena's flesh. It was superficial, but it was still a hit. There was a bit of apprehension in the Slayer's eyes now as she sized up her opponent. She was completely on the defense by that point and it was only through sheer muscle memory that her body moved the Holy blade in time to block. She was on autopilot while she tried to find a way to get back on top of this battle.

Lina took a few deep breaths, trying to maintain the speed at which she fought but was rapidly losing power as her wound seeped down her body and dripped onto the flagstones. She feared that she would not be able to keep this up much longer, making the fight a lot more evenly matched. Helena might have been nearly half Lina's years – she was estimated to be more around Aislyn's age – but she had been studying swordplay for enough of them to be a competent opponent. Certainly she was more skilled than Lina's daughter and Lina rarely squared off with anyone else. She had a bad feeling that soon she would have to start playing really dirty if she expected to best this particular van Hellsing.

---

Lucian did not hesitate the moment he caught the gist of what was happening on the other end of the line. At first he had thought that perhaps the Hunters had really turned against them. Then he heard that voice, her voice. He had only met Helena once and already that voice was burned into his brain. Lina naming her cemented what he already knew.

He didn't think he had ever dressed so quickly in his life, throwing on the first articles of clothing he grabbed from the dresser he had claimed: a black t-shirt and pants. He did not bother with his jacket. He grabbed the guns Aislyn had left on the table, shoving them, along with his hidden blade attachments, into the duffle the guns had come from and shouldered it. He yanked on his boots and did not pause to even tie them before racing from the room and jumping the banister. He landed with a crack on top of a coffee table. It shattered under his weight and nearby vampires dove for cover from flying splinters. He ignored them. Instead he filled his lungs and yelled a single word: Vlad.

The tall man appeared nearly instantly from the studies under the walkway. He looked more than a trifle upset about the broken coffee table Lucian was stepping off and was about to demand what the lycan thought he was doing when the wolf shoved the phone in Vlad's face and pressed the speaker-phone button.

The room went silent. The muffled sound of swords clashing met the straining ears of those gathered and they shot each other confused and concerned looks behind the backs of the two elders.

"It's Helena," Lucian spat.

Vlad stared hard at the phone, his teeth starting to bare themselves. "Let's go," he said grimly, meeting the determined green eyes of the lycan-king. He turned and motioned to a nearby vampire, one of the commanders. "Organize a second party to follow," he barked before disappearing back into the study. He returned almost instantly, clicking clips into a couple guns he had apparently gone to get.

Lucian ordered Raze to gather men to go with the vampire commander – only specifying that Trina should not be one of the chosen - then nodded his readiness to the master of the house. The two men turned and walked briskly from the house and to the right side where some of the cars were usually parked. One was missing: the one Lina and Aislyn had taken.

Vlad did not hesitate and climbed into the driver's seat of the same Bentley Aislyn had stolen a few months previous. Lucian occupied the passenger seat as the car roared to life. Vlad stepped on the gas before the lycan had fully closed his door. Within seconds they were tearing out of the complex and down the residential lane at speeds that could not even tentatively be called legal.

As Lucian propped a boot up on the glove box to fasten it, Vlad started pressing a few buttons on what had appeared to be the stereo system. The whole of the radio suddenly pushed itself out and flipped over to show a screen. A grid appeared on the monitor – a map of the city streets – and a blip started flashing a distance away from the icon that served as their own location.

"Fancy," Lucian commented idly as he switched feet to do his other boot.

"It comes in handy," Vlad replied honestly. "Each car the coven owns, even those that are not used for the war, are equipped with homing beacons connected to our mainframe."

Lucian started to nod then frowned. "And yet no one knew where Aislyn went in October when she stole this car?" His tone was incredulous but Vlad did not mind. It was a frank observation and the Lord cleared his throat in what Lucian could have sworn was a bit of embarrassment.

"Aislyn knows how to disarm them," he muttered. "She helped install the systems so she knows them well."

"Why does that not surprise me," Lucian said dryly. Boots secured, he started rummaging through the duffle for his blades. He worked to attach them properly while Vlad weaved around the few other late-night motorists on the road.

Vlad's eyes flicked to the bag then back to the road. "Did you bring the entire armory?" he asked with a bit of a smirk.

Lucian's eyes darted to the vampire before returning to the straps of his arm-mounted blades. "I don't have your voodoo. I did not want to come unprepared."

"This from a man whose entire body is a weapon."

Lucian sighed and sat back in the chair, flexing his fingers slightly to make sure the blades were not so tightly triggered that normal motions would set them off. Satisfied with the placement, he stared resolutely out the windshield. "I do not change unless I find it necessary."

"You did at the last battle," Vlad commented, taking a sharp left. Although now was probably not the most opportune time to have a heart-to-heart with the man who was, for all intents and purposes, engaged to his daughter, Lina's words kept echoing in Vlad's mind. 'It's going to happen whether you like it or not so you might as well find a happy medium and make friends with the man.' He did not realize Aislyn had said something very similar to Lucian and the lycan was trying his best to do likewise.

Lucian could not detect any negativity in Vlad's tone and decided to take the vampire at face value. "I did it to protect Aislyn," he said candidly. "I am stronger as a beast but that does not mean I favor that form. If I had a choice, I would kill that side of me."

Vlad was silent for a moment, contemplating that. "Tell me," he started with a spark of curiosity. "When you are transformed, do you find it particularly distracting?"

The question caught Lucian off-guard and he blinked a few times. "In what way?"

"Are your senses distorted?"

"I suppose that could be said," Lucian replied slowly. "I would say that it is more of a massive influx of sight, sound, and smell."

"Jumbled together for a moment until your head clears?"

Lucian eyed Vlad carefully. "I suppose, yes," he said again. "Then most of what happens is distorted, as though I'm watching from far away. I have control but I do not necessarily feel as though I am there."

"Curious," Vlad murmured. "I believe I understand better now." There was a degree of respect in his voice that Lucian pondered for a moment.

"May I ask why you're asking me this?" the werewolf finally voiced.

"When I changed into a bat, I felt much the same sense of odd detachment and muddled thoughts. I am sure you have noticed I have yet to take such a form since your arrival. I have not used that form in many hundreds of years, in fact. It leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, metaphorically speaking." Vlad checked the computer screen, his lips thin. They were almost to the blinking dot.

Lucian contemplated what Vlad had said while they lapsed back into silence. So they did have a bit of common ground after all. Hadn't Aislyn said it was Vlad in bat-form that bit Marcus those centuries ago? That brought another question to the lycan's lips. Since they were currently being open, for whatever odd reason, Lucian had the urge to ask something that had been bothering him for awhile, something Aislyn would probably not have had an answer to. "While we are in the habit of asking somewhat personal things, I do have a question for you." Lucian waited briefly until Vlad motioned for him to continue. "How is it," he said at length, "that if you are not viral-based, you transmitted a viral strain of vampirism to Marcus and his descendants?"

Vlad's expression took on a very thoughtful look at Lucian's question, as if he were pondering what exactly to tell the other man. Finally, he sighed, lips thinning. "You have lived through some of the largest scientific break-through's in the history of mankind. From what I've heard of your attempt to mix the bloodlines of your kind and the Virals, you have some basis of knowledge of the biological?"

"Ah, I would say so, yes." He had read many text books on the topic and probably could have graduated with a doctorate by this point if he was so inclined to try for one. As it was, getting a piece of paper that told everyone he knew as much as he did was not appealing to the lycan. What use was that to someone not human? It wasn't as though he needed to get a good paying job.

"Viral vampirism, and lycanism for that matter, is passed through saliva into the blood stream, as you well know." Vlad glanced over at Lucian and the smaller man nodded absently. "How much did Aislyn tell you about how we are created?"

Lucian thought back to the first time he and Aislyn had sat down to answer each other's questions, back in his chambers at the Budapest den. "She likened it to magic although she wasn't really happy about using that terminology."

"Hm. Yes, I suppose she would probably call it that. Aislyn was never one to study science and as she was born into this species and not turned, she has always had very little interest in the specifics of our kind." Vlad took another turn faster than was probably safe and both men glanced at the beacon to check their position. Five minutes, maybe more, and they would be there. Vlad frowned as he regarded the screen. "I think we will need to take a rain check on this conversation."

Lucian bent double to gather a couple guns from the bag at his feet, grunting an agreement to the vampire. "I will pick this back up, though. You have piqued my curiosity and I tend to pursue my questions until they are answered."

"I would not expect any less," Vlad admitted. "When we get there-"

His words were cut off, however, as a new sound was emitted from Lucian's phone. There was a sharp twang and a cry that drained the blood from Vlad's face.

"Mother!" Aislyn's voice shrieked from the cell. There followed a series of plunks from crossbows releasing, mingled shouts and cries, and then the line went dead. Lucian's eyes met Vlad's and both men swallowed heavily.

---

Lina was slowing down, trying her best not to gasp for breath as Helena was doing. They had paused in their clash to circle for a moment in a silent truce to allow both to catch their wind. The wound in her belly still had yet to seal over completely and the vampire could feel a warm, oozing liquid seeping out. Her shirt was probably soaked by now but she did not dare take her eyes off the human to check. Gauging her opponent, Lina felt she had rested enough while Helena probably could have used longer. Smirking, Lina moved back in rapidly to pick up where she left off, intent not to let Helena fully recover.

Helena, however, was not about to give Lina an easy go at her. As the vampress approached, Helena dropped under the swing of the Animus, landing onto the overgrown cobbles with a dull thunk. At first Lina looked perplexed, then her eyes widened and she let out an involuntary cry as another wooden bolt ripped through her middle, clearing her body completely to imbed itself in a tree some distance behind her. She stared blankly at where Helena sat, mouth open in shock. The Slayer was holding her previously discarded crossbow in one hand, having circled purposefully toward it in hopes of getting her hands on it.

"Mother!" Aislyn's voice cut through the sudden silence. Faster than a human could track and fueled by adrenaline, she dropped to one knee. Simultaneously, both hands shot up to grasp the crossbows of the men who had been holding her at stake-point. The movement startled them into squeezing their triggers and the wooden bolts shot off into the surrounding shrubbery. Chaos broke out as she released their weapons, snagged two hidden pistols from under her coat, and without even turning her body, shot both men through the groin. They dropped, screaming in pain. She stood, spun and dispatched them with a single shot from each gun. Something else – her cell by the size of the object - flew from her pocket with the twirling motion to smash into a tree trunk, but she disregarded it.

Aislyn darted toward her mother, barely registering the sting of wooden bolts as the other Slayers loosed their ammo at the uninjured woman. Only one managed to do more than scratch her as it sunk into her arm. She hardly noticed it, however, as she reached her mother. Lina had slumped to the ground and in the seconds it had taken the younger vampire to kill the two men, Helena had vanished.

Aislyn swore and stood over her mother's prone form. She kept her back toward the stone wall, both guns out and trained on the remaining Slayers. She did not hesitate to fire on them as they dodged behind trees and shrubs to reload or draw guns. She felt a bullet rip through her boot and into her calf and spun to dispatch the man who had fired it. She could not tell exactly how many Slayers were still there but she guessed at least five. That would not have been a big deal, except she was not going to leave Lina for anything and the woman had managed to collapse in a place that was rather open and vulnerable to attack. As it turned out, Aislyn did not have to worry about that for long.

There was a snarl from somewhere above and a dark form leapt from the top of the wall behind her. It fell from the sky like a stone to land on top of one of the Slayers that had just stood to fire a bolt. There was a sickening crunch as Lucian's boot drove the Slayer's head into the flagstones. Aislyn could have cried with relief as a second figure appeared next to her, guns moving to the locations of the hidden Slayers as if guided by magnets.

A bolt sprouted from below Lucian's left peck and he rolled his eyes at the hapless Slayer that had tried to off him with wood. What would have been a simple punch turned the Slayer into a kabob as Lucian flexed his forearm at the last second, the blade spearing the man between the eyes. The lycan yanked his blade free to one side, effectively slicing the man's face in half in the process. A few bullets whizzed by and the werewolf could hear the recipients gasp in surprise before their bodies hit the stone ground.

The garden fell silent. Lucian grunted slightly as he yanked the bolt from his chest and tossed it idly to one side. He turned and barely caught Aislyn in time as she launched herself at him.

"You came!" she exclaimed, her sudden fight-or-flight energy leaving her in a rush. Lucian held her tightly as she buried her face in his shoulder. His eyes fell on the forms of Vlad and Lina a short distance away. Vlad was muttering something to himself as he was pulling Lina's shredded shirt from her body. The vampire glanced up to met Lucian's eyes and nodded grimly.

Aislyn pulled herself away and wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve, attempting to hide the fact that she had been crying at all. If Lucian noticed, he did not mention it and she was grateful for that. She was not typically the crying type.

Taking stock of herself, she blinked in surprise at the stake sticking out of her arm before pulling it from her flesh with gritted teeth. She vaguely remembered that there was also a bullet in her leg she needed to dig out but that could wait for later. Whoever shot it had apparently forgotten to bless his bullets first and the pain was negligible. There were more important things to deal with at that moment and she looked over at her parents.

"She took my gloves," she said dully as she and Lucian moved toward her father and mother. "Bitch wanted Animus, too."

"What would a Slayer want with Hunter gloves?" Lucian asked quietly as he and Aislyn knelt on the other side of Lina's body. The matron's chest was rising and falling steadily enough to reassure everyone that she was not in any immediate danger.

"I will have to make you new ones when we return home," Vlad commented as he started to scrawl pentagrams over Lina's stomach and chest, his finger leaving a faint blue line in its wake. "I've set the seals if you can do the rest," he added when Aislyn had finished checking her mother's pulse. She nodded and placed both hands over as much skin as she could. It seemed like a laboriously slow process – especially considering the ease Aislyn usually did such things - but eventually the bleeding stopped and the skin started to knit back together. When the punctures had been reduced to angry, red sores, the younger woman closed the seals and sat back on her heels.

Lucian had watched with some curiosity. "You don't need those gloves to do that, then," he murmured. Every time he had seen her do anything magical, she had always pulled her gloves on first.

"They're just amplifiers," she replied wearily, wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of one bloody hand. "And short-cuts. I can do any spell without them that I can with them… but I would have to re-draw the pentagrams and sealing symbols each time."

"That would take an inordinate amount of time," Lucian noted to which both Aislyn and Vlad nodded knowingly.

"Most take extra pentagrams and seals anyway, but the base to open the channels is always the same, even between Hunter magic and the healing witchcraft I use, since they have the same ancestry," Aislyn elaborated. "The gloves give me a pre-set base to save time and energy. I have to agree with your question, though. What the hell does Helena want with them? She can't possibly use them herself. There is no Hunter blood in the van Hellsing line."

"What about witch-blood?" Lucian asked next. He was met with silence. He glanced between Aislyn and Vlad's faces, wondering at their sudden lack of words.

"We don't know," Lina's weak voice supplied when no one else seemed inclined to do so. Her eyes fluttered open and she forced a rather pathetic looking smile. "We don't think so but perhaps she got them for someone else? She's turned the McMurray against us, after all. Perhaps one of the clans that actually contain original Hunter magic is on her side, too."

Aislyn instantly shushed her mother, but not because of the information. Lucian had every right to know anything they had to talk about, but she was concerned about her mother over-doing it. "You need to rest."

"I think I hear the pot calling the kettle black," Lina murmured but obeyed and closed her eyes again.

Lucian bit back a laugh, hiding his smirk behind his hand, pretending to look thoughtful instead. Aislyn rolled her eyes at everyone before looking around the area they occupied. There was a faint sound of car engines nearby that was progressively getting louder. Tilting her head to one side, she listened intently as the vehicles stopped and the sounds of boots met their ears.

"Probably the back-up," Vlad whispered, standing and drawing his guns again. Aislyn and Lucian followed suit and kept their eyes peeled as the sounds of people moving through the brush became louder.

A moment later, a large black figure emerged from behind a nearby tree and the party relaxed. Guns were re-holstered as more familiar faces came into the small courtyard.

"It looks like you did not need us," Raze said by way of greeting. He kicked lightly at the body of a Slayer near the tree he stood by.

"Thankfully," Lucian agreed. "This could have turned into another Christmas."

"My Lord," a vampire's voice added, addressing Vlad. "What are our orders now?"

It was Aislyn that answered as Vlad stooped to gather Lina into his arms. "We need to get Mother back to the complex to recuperate." She glanced over the grounds and at the dark shape of the roof of the derelict building somewhere beyond the tops of the barren fruit trees. "Loot the corpses then torch it."

"My Lady?" the vampire looked around at the grounds in some confusion.

"McMurray needs to be left a message that we are not to be fucked with. Burn it to the ground." Aislyn gave the man a baleful look that was not to be questioned. He nodded briskly, knowing better than to argue with her, especially since Vlad had not moved to contradict his daughter's orders.

"It will be done," the vampire turned to spread the orders to the others.

Lucian looked over at Raze and jerked his head toward the vampires to indicate that he wanted his men to stay and help. His lieutenant nodded his understanding and barked to the others to gather around for instructions. The lycan-king did not bother to stick around to see if his orders were followed through, he knew they would be. Instead, he turned to follow Aislyn from the gardens.

---

"Hold still," Lucian ordered, his patience starting to wane as he dug the elongated forceps into Aislyn's calf.

"Perhaps if you stopped being so damn gentle and just did it already I wouldn't wiggle so much," she shot back hotly.

They sat in Aislyn's bathroom. A medical kit sat open on the marble ledge surrounding the tub next to where Aislyn was perched. Lucian knelt on the floor next to the tub, fingers red from her blood while he tried to yank a bullet out of a hole that was already mostly healed. It had not been a pleasant experience for either of them and their tempers were starting to run short. Given the circumstances, it was understandable and it was that knowledge that kept them from completely biting each others' heads off. That, and they were both very tired of fighting.

Aislyn had apologized upon arrival back at their rooms for her behavior earlier that day. Lucian readily dismissed the whole thing, saying he was happy to just have her back in one piece. Once they were back on even terms, she sprung the impromptu surgery on him. Her father was too busy tending her mother and Aislyn told Lucian bluntly that she'd rather have him perform meatball surgery on her leg than let any of the other vampire-medics touch her. When he asked her why she gave him some vague excuse about some bad past experience she really did not want to expand on. With the medics counted out and no healing witches on the premise – they had not been called as neither Aislyn nor her mother were considered critical cases – that left only one person she trusted to pull out the foreign object.

Therefore, ten minutes later, the tub was splattered in red and Lucian still had not managed to get the bullet out. He was being rather tentative about the whole process, however, as he was not inclined to be digging blunt objects into her flesh.

"You probably should have just gone to the medics," he commented over the sounds of her growling as he pushed the metal further into her muscles. "This would be done by now."

"Doubtful," she replied.

"Singe usually did this task on the men," he continued in a conversational tone. "I think he liked to watch them suffer. He had a brilliant mind but a rather twisted personality." The forceps bumped something hard and his eyebrows shot up in hope. He spread the tongs slightly and tried to snag the bullet without causing her too much discomfort. Carefully so as not to lose the pesky bullet, Lucian pulled the forceps out and held his treasure aloft for her to inspect.

"Ah, wonderful." She took the bullet from him and turned it slightly in the light. While she examined it, Lucian stood and moved to the sink to rinse the blood from his hands. When he turned back she had dropped the bullet into the now-dirty medical kit, along with the forceps, and was closing the case. He quickly wet a washcloth and moved back to her side. Gently, he wiped down the wound and removed any blood left on her smooth calf before tossing the cloth onto the ledge. The damage he had done to get the bullet out was already healing over and soon nothing would be left but a faint pink scar that would, in time, fade away as well.

"Thank you," she murmured, running fingers over the healing wound.

"Of course. Any time you need someone to jam a blunt metal object into you, I suppose I could oblige." He smirked at her as he sat on the edge of the tub and she faintly smiled back.

"Not for this," she reiterated, motioning to the bloody tub and the medical kit. "Although I do really appreciate you digging that out, I meant thank you for coming to get me tonight, especially after how badly I had behaved earlier."

He met her eyes solidly for a long moment, expression turning somber. "Aislyn, I will always come for you, through any danger or adversity."

"I basically told you to fuck off," she reminded him quietly.

"And yet I was the first one you thought of when you needed help. You could have just as easily dialed your father." Reaching out a hand, Lucian rang his fingers through the hair at her temple, pushing it behind her ear. He trailed those fingers back along her jaw then let the hand drop to her shoulder. "It doesn't matter how angry I am at you or you at I. I will come because I love you."

Aislyn blinked at him for a long, silent moment, studying his face intensely. She wasn't quite sure what to say. Naturally she already knew he felt that way. He wanted to mate her which, in wolf terms, meant he loved her. Until two seconds ago, though, he hadn't actually said it aloud and it was odd to hear it. Her stomach fluttered pleasantly and she couldn't keep herself from smiling even if she had wanted to.

"I love you, too," she told him earnestly, covering his hand with her own. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you earlier. This may have all been avoided."

"I forgave you before you even called," he murmured, his own insides tingling at hearing her say the words back. Sliding closer, he pulled her along the edge until he could easily wrap his arms around her. There they sat for a long moment, enjoying the comfortable embrace.

"What are we waiting for, again?" she asked quietly into the stillness of the bathroom. She entwined her fingers with his, gazing down at the difference between her pale digits and his tan ones.

"I'm sorry?" Lucian's eyed the side of her face carefully. He had a very good feeling he knew what she was talking about but he rather wanted to hear the words from her mouth and not assume. Assumptions tended to lead to a lot more problems than necessary.

With a sigh, she tore her eyes away from their hands and met his green orbs. She could see a small sparkle of hope hiding in there that she was pretty sure he wasn't aware of. "I'm not going to leave you, or tire of you, or do any of that ridiculous crap humans – and many vampires – are so prone to. I do have a temper and I may storm out if I lose it, but that doesn't mean I won't still love you after I've calmed down." Raising a hand, she touched his jaw lightly, feeling the rough texture of his beard.

"What are you getting at?" he hedged carefully. His pulse was thudding in his chest and he was having a very difficult time controlling it. He knew she could probably hear it and tried his best to will his heart rate to slow to normal.

She blinked at him skeptically. "Do I need to get down on one knee here for you to catch on? I don't exactly have a ring." she said with a good deal of snark, a small smirk creeping onto her face.

"I just want to hear you say it clearly," he replied seriously. "No guessing at meanings or misinterpretations."

Aislyn leaned forward and planted a series of tiny kisses along his jaw until she reached his ear. Breathing softly against his skin, she brushed the lobe with her lips before whispering into it, "Make love to me."

Both of Lucian's hands gripped her upper arms tightly, inhaling her scent deeply as she latched onto his earlobe. He felt his groin tighten at her words and at her actions. "Are you certain this is what you want?" he managed to force out, keeping his control by a hair's breadth.

She pulled away from him a fraction and caught his eyes with her own, her expression set and serious. "I swear upon whatever you want that should I ever – and I mean ever – do anything to desecrate this partnership, I will stake myself through the heart."

He took in her grave expression, the ferventness of her voice, and believed that she meant every word she had just uttered. His mouth went dry and his heart leapt into his throat. Then, he smiled at her and leant forward to capture her mouth with his.

---

Aislyn opened her eyes and frowned with a deep sense of confusion and disorientation. Was that her bathroom cabinet? Slowly, she sat up and looked around as the sleep-fog wore off. Gradually, a smile came to her lips as the silliness of the moment hit her. With a side-long glance, she noted that Lucian was still asleep.

They were sprawled out on her fuzzy, soft bathroom rug. It wasn't the most romantic place to have consummated the relationship but they had been far too eager to bother moving to the bedroom when there had been a perfectly serviceable sheep-skin rug two feet away. They must have both dozed off after the bouts of coitus. Just thinking about it gave her a warm, tingly feeling in her chest and she thought briefly of snuggling back up to him. She wasn't really tired, though.

Standing, Aislyn crept out of the bathroom and into her bedroom to find some clothing. She vaguely noted she should take a shower soon to wash away the residue dried onto her inner thighs but she could kill for a hot mug of coffee at that very moment. Once dressed, she glanced back in on Lucian; he was still sleeping and looked comfortable enough. She would only be gone for five minutes, anyway.

She put her watch on, noting that it was just after sun-up, before leaving her room and heading down the stairs and into the kitchen. The living room was deserted, as was the kitchen, and that suited her just fine. She and Lucian had not exactly discussed how they intended to break the news to his pack or her coven and the less questioning looks from lycans, the better.

As she brewed a pot of coffee, she put on a kettle and gathered together herbs to concoct some tea for Lucian. She was well aware he preferred something minty in the morning as opposed to coffee. Once she had two mugs steaming with hot beverage, she grasped the handles and turned. The almost inane smile that had been plastered on her face since waking up in the bathroom suddenly vanished as she gazed at a pair of shocked, widened, green eyes.

Trina squealed and threw her hands up, the empty mug she had been bringing back to the kitchen flying from her fingers to smash on the ground behind her. Her hands covered her mouth and, with a suddenly frightened look, the she-wolf scurried from the room as if someone had lit her rear-end on fire.

"Crap." Aislyn hurried after the young woman. "Trina!" Aislyn hollered as she burst out of the kitchen and into the living room. The girl had been halfway up the stairway but stopped dead in her tracks at the vampire's voice. She glanced down over the railing at Aislyn as the older woman walked to the base of the steps.

"Come down here." Aislyn motioned for Trina to descend back into the living room and the young lycan obeyed as if moved by a force she could not control. Although her expression was reluctant, her feet still moved until she stood next to the vampress. Aislyn looked her over carefully, remembering what she had been told about lycans and their ability to smell mated couples. "I would appreciate it," the vampire said slowly, "If you kept this to yourself for now."

Trina nodded solemnly. "Yes, My Lady," she murmured.

Aislyn sighed. "You've called me Aislyn since we met. I'd prefer if that does not change."

"Okay." Trina swallowed a little awkwardly.

"Now, please clean up your mug. I'm going back up to bed for a bit." Aislyn moved past Trina and up the stairs before she could see the lycan bob in a half-curtsey. She was a little disturbed at how easily Trina had obeyed her just then. The girl was usually rather accommodating when asked to do something, but she had never acted quite so formal with Aislyn before. She would have to speak with Lucian about that when he awoke.

---

Trina hung the dustpan up on the wall where she had found it then glanced at the kitchen door as it swung open. Raze walked in looking wide awake and she smiled a greeting at him. She started to open her mouth to blurt out her newest discovery when Aislyn's orders caused her to clap her lips tightly down. Disobeying the queen could be just as bad as disobeying Lucian.

Raze noticed her suddenly clam up and raised his eyebrows at her. "Good morning," he greeted before moving to one of the refrigerators to search for breakfast. "Did you have a good night?"

"Yes," she replied, perhaps a bit too tersely for her usual self. She perched on a stool at one of the tables and fingered a napkin ring that had been left there from who-knew-when. She could feel Raze's eyes on her but did not look up, trying to engross herself in the odd, bat-shaped napkin ring.

Raze slid into the seat opposite her and leaned forward across the table. With fingers surprisingly deft for their large size, he plucked the ring from her hands and tossed it unceremoniously over his shoulder. Trina instantly found her thumbnail to be the most fascinating thing ever.

"Trina," Raze rasped. His tone carried an edge to it that was not easy to disregard. She lifted her eyes up to meet his dark brown irises.

"Yes?" she asked with as much innocence as she could muster.

"You're hiding something," he continued.

"I'm telling you nothing," Trina replied stubbornly.

"You are the most likely to tell anyone anything and a larger gossip than Lina. Yet you refuse to tell me something? This is not like you." He settled a hard stare at her but Trina refused to open her mouth and let out the information that begged to be spread. Raze finally sat back but his expression was concerned.

"Is there something wrong? Did someone say or do something to you?" The large man's features somehow got darker at the thought. "If there is someone who needs dealing with, I am more than happy to speak with them-"

"I can't tell you because I promised not to," Trina explained plaintively. "Trust me, if I could tell you, I would."

"Has someone threatened you?" he demanded again with about as much expression in his voice as he could manage. The idea of anyone in this house upsetting Trina to the point where she wouldn't talk was unsettling to the lieutenant.

"No, it's not that." She looked down again. "I've got some things to do," she said evasively and started to slip off her stool. Raze's hand on her shoulder waylaid her however and she was forced to look back into his face. She knew he was genuinely concerned for her and was touched that he thought perhaps her honor needed defending. She really wanted to tell him but she had promised Aislyn she wouldn't. She struggled for a moment, indecisive. Technically Aislyn outranked them both now and she could get in a lot of trouble. But Raze was not the sort to rush off and tell everyone and their cousin a secret he was privy to. She could trust him to keep quiet, right? There had to be a way of telling him without directly telling him. Then, she thought logically, she couldn't get in trouble.

"Listen," she hissed in an undertone. "I can't tell you because I was ordered not to tell anyone." She gave him a very wide-eyed stare as if trying to telepathically send him the information.

"Ordered?" Raze frowned. "By whom?"

"I can't say," she replied but kept looking at him keenly.

"What if I order you to tell me?" Raze studied her for a minute. He had the distinct feeling she was actually trying to tell him something without telling him a damn thing at all. Maybe if he just asked the right questions, he could figure it out. "I'm second in command. My orders out-rank everyone except Lucian."

"I still can't say." Trina chewed on her bottom lip, eyes not leaving his.

"So it was Lucian that ordered you to keep quiet?" This confused the larger lycan considerably. Raze had been Lucian's confidant for centuries, keeping his secrets and managing vital information. What could Lucian possibly have entrusted to the care of an exuberant, talkative girl that he would not tell Raze?

"No," she answered much to his bemusement.

"No one out-ranks me besides him," Raze repeated. "You are not making sense."

"I'm not telling you anything," Trina said exasperated. She threw her hands up into the air then let her forehead thunk down onto the countertop. She dug her fingers into her short-cropped locks and groaned. She mentally willed him to put the information together before she was forced to go against a direct order.

"So I've noticed," he ground out. If he wasn't so normally stoic he would have mimicked her and dropped his head to the table as well. This was probably the most frustrating chat he'd had with her to date.

"I can't say," she said weakly, voice muffled by the tabletop.

"And you can't break an order by someone who isn't Lucian?" Raze looked skyward and ran his hands over his bare head. "No one out-ranks him."

"That's what you keep saying." Trina lifted her head and gave him another long, willful look. He returned it with a frustrated one of his own, brows furrowed to the point where multiple lines stood out on his forehead. "Oh, come on!" she finally burst out, slamming both palms down onto the table. "Think, Raze!"

He was inwardly startled by her sudden exclamation, although he did not show it, and pondered what she said more deeply. She had been ordered not to tell anyone and the way she said it indicated it was not an order she could easily break. He could not order her to tell him, even though he was second-ranked, but it was not Lucian who ordered her to clam up. What did that tell him about the mystery person that somehow out-ranked him? He shot her a searching look.

"The only person who could feasibly out-rank me would be someone actually mated to the alpha," he murmured, a light bulb in his mind starting to flicker on. "Trina, is that what you're refusing to tell me?"

"I can't say," she said again, although her eyes were shining. He was getting it!

"Aislyn." Raze graveled, blinking a few times at the woman to gauge her reaction. She squirmed slightly. "It has happened then and she told you not to spread the word around."

"This conversation has been very entertaining. I'm a bit disappointed in you, though, Raze. You took your time piecing that together."

Trina shrieked and fell off her stool. Raze managed to keep himself from starting at the voice but felt a prickle along the back of his neck. Both he and Trina had been too engrossed in their puzzling discussion to notice they had not been alone in the kitchen for a long while.

Moving away from the door she had been leaning against, Lina shot both wolves a questioning look before stooping to help Trina off the floor and back onto her stool. The woman slid onto another of the three-legged seats and propped her chin on her hand, elbow on the countertop.

"So?" she asked at length when neither lycan spoke. "Do I understand correctly that I have a new son?" Her eyebrows arched, her red eyes boring into Trina's. The girl fidgeted in response.

"I can't say," the she-wolf whispered, trying to look anywhere but at Lina. The elder woman laughed lightly under her breath and smiled mischievously at the lycans.

"They didn't wait long now, did they?" she murmured conversationally.

"No," Raze said shortly. "Our kind does not usually need to dally on such decisions."

"So may I ask how you are party to this information?" Lina turned her head to Trina. The girl was shaking her own head adamantly from side to side.

"I don't know what either of you are talking about," she snapped hotly. "I know nothing and I'm not saying a damn thing about anything!"

Slightly startled, Lina looked askance at Raze.

"If she utters anything obvious about this to anyone, she goes against a direct order so she's pretending not to know anything to stay out of trouble," Raze informed the vampire

"You do realize that my daughter isn't a werewolf, right?" Lina smirked slightly. "I doubt telling the two of us will land you in a whole lot of trouble with her. She's not exactly used to having her orders followed unquestioned."

"She'll have to get used to it," Trina grumbled then slapped her hand over her mouth and started humming some off-tune song, surprised at her own slip.

"Listen, Trina," Lina tried again gently, "I won't go and tell the whole house and I doubt Raze will, either. I'll even promise to pretend not to know until Aislyn chooses to tell me if it makes you feel safer."

Trina suddenly became very interested in the marble pattern on the countertop, tracing the swirling pattern with her finger. Her head moved in what could possibly be called a slight nod and Lina took it as an affirmative. It was probably the best she was going to get from the stubborn young woman.

"Actually, I'm glad I ran into you two down here," Lina said cheerfully, her entire demeanor changing as though they had not just had the previous conversation. "Firstly, Happy New Year. Secondly, I need to get into contact with the lycan packs regarding local Hunter activity. If anyone is going to know what's going on with them, it'll be the local werewolves. Can you get me some phone numbers so I speak with a couple of the alphas that are friendlier with us?"

"We could talk to them tomorrow," Trina offered, her own up-beat attitude returning as she took her cue from Lina and pushed the frustrating exchange out of her mind. At Lina's raised brows, Trina expanded her comment. "The full moon, remember? All the packs gather every full moon."

"That's right." Lina nodded thoughtfully. "If you're willing to bring this up then go for it. I'll entrust you guys to run it by Lucian. I think I'm going to have to make myself scarce for a while so I don't go and blow the fact that I know nothing."

Raze sighed and rubbed his forehead with a thick hand. Trina readily agreed, however, and Lina stood from her seat.

"If anyone comes looking for me, I'll be on the roof." Lina headed for the door.

"The roof?" Trina called after her.

"To inspect the tiles. Vlad mentioned that one of the attic rooms had some water damage." Without turning, Lina raised a hand in farewell then left.

"Now what?" Trina asked Raze.

"Now we go and disturb our king." The tall man stood and sighed again. He cast a glance at a suddenly nervous Trina. "This way I can 'find out' without you coming under suspicion of disobeying," he said reassuringly. "Come along. We have a day to figure out how to approach the others about Hunters and we will need Lucian's permission to even bring it up."

Swallowing heavily, Trina trailed behind the larger wolf, wringing her hands together. She took a deep, calming breath and squared her shoulders. At least if she stood behind Raze she wouldn't bring nearly as much attention to herself.

---

"Ignore it," Aislyn pleaded as Lucian paused to look toward the main room of their quarters. There had been a distinct rapping upon the door and he waivered between disregarding it and going to answer it. He settled on the former idea and returned his mouth to Aislyn's neck.

The sharp staccato repeated on the wooden door, louder this time as if the knocker perhaps thought they had not heard it the first time. Groaning, Lucian dropped his weight down on top of Aislyn. "We should probably check that," he mumbled into the pillow.

Sighing, Aislyn nodded and he rolled off. At least they hadn't actually gotten to anything, yet. After finishing their hot drinks – Lucian had awoken in her absence to the kitchen – they had moved to the bed to get more comfortable. Aislyn hadn't even managed to undress yet before whoever it was at the door came a-knocking.

Lucian pulled on a pair of previously discarded pants and went to check on their morning visitor. He waved Aislyn to stay where she was with the promise that he'd make them go away quickly so they could get back to more important matters. Throwing the door open, he glared at the tall, black man standing there and the little blond shadow that fidgeted behind him.

"Yes?" Lucian asked impatiently when neither pack-member spoke at first.

"Ah," Raze started in a tone he had calculated to be slightly awkward. He let his eyes roam over his alpha and did his best to seem as though something had surprised him. "Sir…"

"Spit it out," Lucian growled, folding his arms. "I'm rather busy this morning."

"Congratulations!" Trina chirruped from behind Raze then clamped her mouth shut as if it had a mind of its own. She had successfully saved Raze the trouble of trying to come up with a good way to indicate he could sense that Lucian was no longer unmated.

At first Lucian looked perplexed at her sudden outburst. Then he cast a quick peek down both directions of the hallway and waved them inside. Shutting the door firmly, he surveyed both his underlings then peered over his shoulder at the bedroom door, lips thin. He had been distracted initially when he answered the door but realized they would have known at such close proximity.

He chose not to acknowledge Trina's words, however. This was his business, not theirs. "What do you two want?" he asked instead.

"Oh, ah, Lina wanted us to talk to the other packs about recent Hunter activity," Trina explained, face turning slightly pink under the careful scrutiny of the king. "With the gathering tomorrow we figured that we should probably talk to you now about it so we can figure out what to say… if it's okay with you and Aislyn…" she let her words fade off and stared at the tops of her feet.

Lucian was about to ask why it would matter what Aislyn thought about it then let his own words die on his tongue. "Full moon tomorrow, already?" He had been so preoccupied with everything lately he had completely forgotten to check the phases. They no longer held sway over him so he rarely needed to know when the moon would be full. Now that he was leader of the entire lycan clan, and they expected full-moon gatherings, he was supposed to be keeping track of this information.

Raze nodded confirmation to his alpha's question. "The first since before Christmas. Daniel's pack will have decided on their new alpha and will want your approval," the large man reminded the elder.

"A full moon tomorrow," Lucian repeated with a vague sort of tone. He heard but did not acknowledge the words regarding Daniel's pack and kept his mind on his own now pressing issues. "Well, that complicates things a bit," he muttered, putting a hand to his forehead and smoothing back his hair. "Ais!" he called over his shoulder.

"What?" She poked her head out of the bedroom, raised her eyebrows at the two intruders, then sighed and emerged to stand next to her mate.

"There's a full moon tomorrow," Lucian informed her, baring his teeth slightly.

"And?" She blinked a couple times, not fully understanding how that had anything to do with her. "I'm not a lycan."

"You're Queen," Trina pointed out then tried to disappear behind Raze at the sharp look from Lucian.

"She's right," Raze rasped in the young woman's defense.

Aislyn paled slightly. She hadn't thought clearly about that part of this whole relationship. It had occurred to her, of course, that she would be taking on the pack responsibility of being Lucian's mate, but she hadn't thought about the first time she would have to stand up before the entirety of the London packs as their female alpha and defend her right to be there. And she would have to do it uncomfortably soon after their union.

"I don't suppose I can sit this one out?" she asked hopefully, although she knew before the words passed her lips that it was a pointless question.

"It will create more havoc if you do not come," Lucian explained gently, touching her cheek with the backs of his fingertips in an unconsciously tender way. The other lycans politely ignored the open display of affection. Their king was newly mated and such public demonstrations would become less frequent once he had settled into his marriage. This behavior could be expected for anywhere from a few days to many months depending on the individual. Lucian was a passionate, if private, man who had been forced to hide his first mate from the world. Now that he could be open about his lover, however, it had hard to know if he would be one for showing it off.

"Most of the elder lycans, the alphas, and some of the younger ones with keen senses," Raze sent a flattering look at Trina who blossomed under the compliment, "will know that Lucian is no longer unmated. Those who have met you," he turned his gaze to Aislyn, "or have worked in close enough quarters with you to recognize your scent, will know it is you specifically. Those who have not will still know that Lucian's mate is not a lycan."

"And if I don't show up then I'm basically telling them all to go swivel on it," the vampress muttered with a deep sigh. "Well, I've never been one to back out of a challenge. How do we do this without causing too much rift in the ranks?"

The lycans exchanged looks, lips thin and faces grim. "We march ourselves in there as if nothing is wrong," Lucian finally said firmly. "If anyone dares to challenge my choice, we will deal with them according to the laws of the pack." He cast a gloomy glace at Aislyn. "It may be a good idea to bring your sword."

She nodded back, understanding the implications in his tone and expression. She may have to fight her way to the top to prove she could handle the responsibility laid upon her. "This wouldn't happen if I were lycan, would it," she stated darkly.

"Probably not," Lucian replied. "But as I have never had to bring a lycan-mate to a pack meeting, I cannot vouch for that." The elder lycan turned to Trina. "Any thoughts?"

The blond chewed on her thumbnail for a moment while she considered the issue. "Usually matings are not questioned by the entirety of the pack. The most stink is caused by parents of the daughter if they do not think the man is good enough but what is done is done. There's no reneging on a mating. It just comes down to an issue of rank if the others are not happy with the pairing. That's where the alpha comes into play. He or she decides the new standing of the couple but cannot make them un-mated. No one can."

Aislyn tilted her head as she took in the information. Trina had grown up in a fully functioning male-female society and had a lot more insight on the happenings of day-to-day lycan life. Lucian and Raze, however, knew only on instinct the things she spoke of. Their lack of female companionship for six hundred years tended to keep them out of this particular aspect of pack life.

"That does not mean they will be supportive of this," Lucian added, tugging the hair on the end of his chin in thought. "We will just have to go and deal with what happens when it happens." He exhaled and looked up at the ceiling. "Raze, gather the men and tell them we have much to discuss before tomorrow morning."

Aislyn caught his eyes and bit her bottom lip. "Well, if this cat is getting out of the bag, I will have some explaining to do to my family before they find out from the wolves. If I'm not needed for this particular meeting, I'll see if I can find my mother and ignite another fiasco."

Lucian chuckled at her tone and nodded. "Go on. I will see you back here later, then."

The other two lycans again found themselves preoccupied with their own fingernails as their king and queen exchanged a parting kiss before Aislyn disappeared out the door of the chambers. Lucian motioned to the door when Raze looked up. "Wake them if you have to. I want everyone gathered in one of the conference rooms within the half-hour. I'm going to get something to eat and be there shortly."

The dark man grunted a confirmation then gave Trina a slight push toward the door. They exited quickly to get to their task. There was a lot of work to do before they left for Adrian's and the gathering of packs.

---

AN: Alright, that's chapter 10! I hope you enjoyed it. I did not want to write their first night together as I do not usually do such scenes (as mentioned last chapter when I decided to go full out with the drunken-groping scene). I did not want to ruin the moment :P Anyway, next chapter should be a lot of fun to write.