Disclaimer: Everything you recognise from the film series isn't mine.

Feedback: Always appreciated.

AN: In advance, a couple of changes have been made to chapter 6 and 10 to accommodate some new details; feel free to check them out before reading this update.

The Lone Wolf

As far as hunts went, Selene wasn't sure if she should classify the last mission as a success or a failure. Tracking Trix had been comparatively straightforward once she got into the tunnels, considering that his injuries stopped the lycan from transforming him before she could corner him and deliver the final blow. However, when she'd been intercepted by Raze while checking Trix's body for clues, she'd been forced to drive the larger lycan back with her silver shuriken and escape without following up on those voices she'd heard in another, deeper tunnel.

She had reported back to the mansion as protocol demanded, which had at least allowed her to show Kahn the new bullets the lycans had used to kill Rigel, but Kraven's lack of reaction had been as frustrating to her as always. She could understand why Kraven may not want to believe the theory that there was a large pack of lycans in the tunnels, but the idea that the man who was meant to lead the coven in Viktor's absence would be so dismissive of even a potential threat was just another mark against him as far as she was concerned.

Under normal circumstances, she might have tried to talk to Kahn about her concerns, but right now she had a very personal lead that she wanted to follow up as swiftly as possible. With Kraven focused on preparing for the arrival of Amelia's envoy, it was easy enough for Selene to slip out of the mansion and depart for the safehouse without even Kahn aware that she had left. To make sure she stayed under the radar until it was necessary, she chose not to take her car for the moment, sacrificing comfort and speed for practicality as she left her Jaguar behind and departed the mansion via her window.

After all, she knew where she was going and knew that she would be reasonably safe there. In the event of a worst-case scenario, she had even arranged for a car to be left in a nearby public car park just in case she had to go anywhere else quickly, either back to the mansion or get to Michael's apartment.

The only thing she couldn't guarantee was that Michael would at the safehouse to meet with her when she go there. She'd obviously confirm if he was either still at the hospital or had gone home, but if he chose not to meet with her…

As much as she wanted to say that she would respect his decision, the idea of never seeing Michael Corvin again hurt in a place she hadn't felt since the death of her family.

The more time he spent sitting in the safehouse, the more Michael had to resist the temptation to just go back to his own apartment and hide out somewhere familiar. He knew that he'd need to come back here in a day or so once the full moon started, but after everything he'd seen in the train station…

He wasn't sure if he could honestly say that Selene had lied to him, but the way she'd aimed those guns so easily had made it clear that she was a warrior in a way she'd never truly demonstrated before. On top of that, the way she'd thrown that guy off when the other man had tried to attack him…

He recognised that she'd been acting to keep him safe, so it wasn't that he'd suddenly stopped trusting her, but it was hard to shake the fact that she definitely couldn't be completely normal if she was able to do some of… what he'd seen…

"Hello Michael."

"Hi," Michael replied, standing up as he turned to face the door, Selene standing in the hall with a cautiousness about her he'd never seen before.

"How are you?"

"Fine," Michael nodded, trying not to wonder how things with him and his mysterious friend had suddenly regressed to such pointless small talk. "The girl's going to be all right, by the way; I kept her stable until we could get her to the hospital and give her a transfusion."

"Good," Selene smiled at him. "That's… well-"

"How's that guy you were after?"

"…Dealt with," Selene replied, a brief expression of shame on her face before she focused her attention on him once again. "But his partner… got away…"

"They were lycans, right?"

"…Yes," Selene said, her hesitation even more obvious as she looked at Michael, clearly anticipating what he was about to say.

"Which means they're stronger than humans even when they're not big wolves."

"Which means that I'm stronger than humans and haven't told you about it before now."

"Yeah," Michael nodded, giving her a brief smile of appreciation that she was willing to acknowledge that detail before his expression became focused once more. "So what haven't you been telling me about yourself?"

"Everything I told you about my life before now has been true," Selene said, and Michael noticed that she at least looked apologetic about the lie. "I just… didn't mention a few details."

"Like?"

"Like… as an example, that agent I mentioned was on the Titanic?"

"Yeah…?"

"I work with him in the field on a regular basis."

Michael could only blink at that news.

That sounds like… she can't mean…

"When you say you… work with the guy who was on the Titanic…" he began tentatively.

"I mean that Nathaniel was one of the men helping me track those lycans we confronted last night," Selene finished with a brief smile before her expression became grim once again. "Unfortunately, it's likely he was killed shortly after we parted company at the station; he was chasing after Raze the last time I saw him, and I've had a confrontation with Raze since then and Nathaniel is still missing-"

"Back up- I- OK, I'm sorry if this is insensitive, but this guy was alive on the Titanic and he was… one of the guys running around with you yesterday?" Michael yelled, waving his arms incredulously as his mind raced over the faces he'd seen last night. "How the Hell is that even possible?"

"That… ties into what I haven't told you yet," Selene said, looking at him with an apprehensive look on her face that he couldn't recall ever seeing on the woman he was so used to seeing as calm and controlled. "My conflict with lycans isn't just the matter of a corporation tracking lycans to protect innocent humans; it's a blood feud that's been going on for centuries."

"A… blood feud?"

"Between lycans…" Selene began, pausing to look at Michael directly before she finished. "And vampires."

"…Vampires," Michael repeated after a brief pause, not sure how he should feel about this as he looked at Selene, trying to reconcile this revelation with what he'd known about Selene so far.

The thing that shocked him most was that he wasn't actually that surprised by it. He'd never really thought of 'vampire' as an option, but once he started thinking about it, he'd literally never seen Selene in the sunlight, she had always struck him as unusually pale, the way she'd always seemed just a bit 'off', the generic details she'd provided about her past when the topic came up in conversation…

"So… your family?"

"They were killed by lycans almost six centuries ago, and I was taken in by the eldest and strongest of our leaders after he drove them off and saved my life," Selene answered, her arms folded and her expression neutral despite a pained edge to her voice as she spoke. "He turned me and trained me to fight the lycans, and I spent centuries eliminating every one I could find… until I met you."

"Me?"

"Like I told you when we met, you defy everything I thought I knew about lycans," Selene affirmed, looking at him with a subtle sense of urgency as though she truly needed him to believe her words. "I've spent centuries thinking of them as rampaging monsters who literally can't control themselves and freely indulge their feral sides, and then I met you, and you were so determined to contain yourself…"

"And… how about you?"

"Me?"

"I mean…" Michael began cautiously, not sure if this was the right thing to say but unable to stop himself. "If you're a vampire… I mean, what I've read…"

"About our diet?" Selene shook her head even as she gave him a tentatively understanding smile. "My coven and I have been drinking animal blood for centuries, and in recent years we have been working on cloned blood as a substitute."

"Right…" Michael nodded, carefully taking those details into account. . "And… that's where Ziodex fits into the picture? It helps you… feed yourselves?"

"Among other things," Selene nodded. "According to our tales, early vampires included nobles who owned various livestock that we were able to use as a food source and a means of income, but over the centuries we branched out into other fields. Certain humans act as our agents in cases where we cannot appear in public ourselves, and companies like Ziodex provide us with legitimate income and contacts in the event that we have any… legal issues that need circumventing."

"…Right," Michael said once again, wishing that he could think of something better to say. "That… makes sense…"

For a few moments, the two simply sat in awkward silence, before Michael nodded in resolution and looked at her again. "So if those were lycans at the station last night… were they after me?"

"I think so," Selene nodded. "My associates had been tracking them for the last few days as they entered Budapest, but it was only last night that I realised they were actively stalking you."

"OK… why?"

"That… is a trickier question," Selene admitted, once again looking strangely lost at her admission. "Like I said, you defy most things I have come to expect of traditional lycans; we still don't know why the lycan that infected you just vanished like it did, and your ability to resist your more feral urges…"

The sound of a sudden sharp blare that could only be an alarm cut Selene off as she stood up and ran for the television of all things. Michael was spared from asking what the alarm was about when Selene turned the television on and tapped a couple of buttons on the remote, revealing-

"Is that… my apartment block?" Michael looked at Selene with a new sense of hostility that surprised even him. "Were you spying on me?"

"Not in that sense; the camera was just a precaution in case of… that."

When Michael followed Selene's finger to see a large form that could only be a transformed lycan climbing down the outside of the building, he was suddenly inclined to forgive everything she'd done. It might have been a violation of his privacy, but if something like that had attacked him…

"They know where I live?"

"But they don't know that you're not there now," Selene observed, before she turned and headed for the nearest armoury cupboard. "Which means that I might have a chance to take them by surprise-"

"You're going to try and fight that thing?"

"I'm trained for this and I know what to expect," Selene affirmed, as she opened the cupboard and took out a gun that put Michael in mind of something he'd seen in The Matrix (and why did he have to start picturing Selene in Trinity's leathers?). "These people are after you already, Michael; the sooner we can work out what they want you for, the better for both of us."

"…Good point, well made," Michael nodded as Selene began to gather her weapons together.

He had no idea how he was meant to deal with the news that the woman he'd… been spending time with… was an actual vampire, but as long as she wasn't actively hurting people, he supposed that he couldn't criticise her for keeping a secret when he could understand exactly why she had kept it quiet until now anyway.

Add in the fact that he was apparently being hunted by actual werewolves (he couldn't stop himself looking in anxiety at the TV currently displaying his apartment), and he didn't exactly have a lot of choice but to stick with her…

Be honest, he told himself as Selene strapped a couple of weapons to her sides. You'd be staying with her even if there wasn't a lycan invasion going on right now…

He might not know why he had become a target, but he knew that Selene would help him find out why he was suddenly of interest to the other side in this conflict.